Part 4 (2/2)

Had to leave the rest.'

Arnold nodded, looking down the tunnel. The two Yeti were lumbering slowly forward again.

'Pull hack and let them come on,' Knight whispered fiercely. 'Half this barricade's made of high explosive boxes.

When the Yeti reach the barricade, I'll fire into the boxes and blow the lot sky high. With any luck it'll bring the roof down on them.'

'Maybe down on us too, sir.'

'We'll have to risk that. Now start moving the men back.

I want you as far away as possible before I fire.' The small group of soldiers retreated back as the Yeti came steadily on.

By the time the Yeti reached the barricade, Knight and the others were almost out of sight round a curve in the tunnel.

The two Yeti pushed aside the undefended barricade with ease. Then they stopped again. 'Now's the time, sir,'

whispered Lane. 'They're standing right over the ammo boxes.' He peered down the tunnel. 'They seem to be using some kind of gun,' he sounded puzzled. 'It's spraying that cobwebby stuff over the boxes.'

'I'm going to blow them sky-high, cobwebs and all,'

Knight said grimly. 'Give me your machine-gun, Corporal.

The rest of you get down.' As the soldiers dropped to the ground, Knight stepped round the curve of the tunnel.

Steadying the gun, he fired a long raking burst, right into the ammunition crates, then threw himself to the ground. There was a m.u.f.fled thump and a blinding flash. Knight looked up.

The two Yeti, quite unharmed, were standing beside the shattered crates. There was no sign of any other damage.

Slowly the Yeti resumed their advance. Knight turned.

'Its no good,' he yelled. 'Run for it. We'll have to get back to the Fortress.'

To his surprise no one moved. 'Too late, sir,' Lane said hoa.r.s.ely. 'Look!' He pointed in the other direction. To his horror Knight saw two more Yeti coming up behind them.

They were surrounded.

Victoria wandered aimlessly round the Common Room, wondering what to do with herself. Jamie had rushed off with his usual impulsiveness, forgetting all about her. Anne Travers had been very kind, but now she'd disappeared to help her father with his work. Victoria decided to go and look for them. Perhaps they'd let her make tea or wash test-tubes or something. Anything would be better than waiting on her own. She left the Common Room and found herself in a long corridor painted a depressing War Office green. A soldier pa.s.sed by carrying a clipboard and Victoria stopped him.

'Can you tell me where to find Professor Travers's laboratory please-I'm one of his a.s.sistants.'

The soldier seemed unsurprised. 'Just down there, miss, it's on your right.'

Victoria walked along to the laboratory door. She opened it cautiously, fearing to disturb some vital experiment, and heard the voice of Anne Travers say, 'Did you ever see see this TARDIS, Father?' this TARDIS, Father?'

She peeped through the door to see father and daughter working side by side at an equipment-crowded bench. Travers grunted, 'No, not really. Caught a glimpse of it. Thing like a Police Box, perched up on a mountain ledge.

Then I got distracted. Saw a Yeti, a real one, not one of these blasted robots. Went chasing after it-lost it though. When I came back the Doctor and his friends and the Police Box had all vanished.'

Anne nodded. 'Its odd though, isn't it? Last time you saw the robot Yeti the Doctor turned up, and now here he is again.'

Travers grunted once more, not really listening. Anne developed her theory. 'Perhaps the Doctor is really at the back of all this trouble. Maybe he's he's the one who controls the Yeti I' the one who controls the Yeti I'

Victoria didn't wait to hear any more. She tiptoed away from the door as quietly as she'd come. There was only one thought in her mind. She must get away from the Fortress, find the Doctor and warn him that he was already under suspicion.

It was a pity Victoria didn't stay to hear the rest of the conversation. Travers, thoroughly exasperated, put down the control sphere he was working on. 'My dear Anne, you're talking the most absolute rubbish,' he growled. 'The Doctor risked his life and the lives of his friends to defeat the Yeti and save Det-sen Monastery. Do you think he'd have done that if he was in league with them?'

Rea.s.sured Anne smiled. 'No, I suppose not. I must be getting jumpy, suspecting everyone!'

Travers sighed. 'Small wonder in a place like this. I only wish the Doctor would turn up now. I could do with his help.'

Jamie too was wis.h.i.+ng that the Doctor would reappear.

Together with Captain Knight, Sergeant Arnold and the rest of the soldiers, he was trapped in a section of tunnel, Yeti on either side. But strangely the Yeti made no move to attack.

Instead they waited, occasionally exchanging the weird electronic bleeping sounds that served them as signals.

'This is getting on my nerves,' muttered Corporal Lane.

'Why don't they do something?'

Sergeant Arnold was imperturbable as ever. 'You just think yourself lucky, my lad. Good thing for us they are are quiet.' quiet.'

He turned to Captain Knight. 'What about that explosion, sir?

The explosives went off, but there was no blast.'

Knight said ruefully, 'Presumably that cobweb stuff absorbs the blast, dampens the whole thing down.'

'That'll be it, sir. Same thing must have happened at Charing Cross.'

'So I've blown up all our high explosive for nothing.'

Lane was still feeling the effect of the waiting. 'Can't we make a run for it, sir?' he appealed. 'Only two each end, we might get through.'

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