[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Everything seemed quiet. Travers began moving
towards the direction of the sound. The noise appeared to
come from the Operations Room. He walked along the
corridor and looked inside.
Private Weams lay sprawled on the ground. Travers ran
to him at once, and knelt by the body. Weams was quite dead,
his neck broken by a single savage blow. On the floor beside
him lay the model Yeti.
As Travers reached for it, a shadow fell over him. He
looked up. Moving towards him was the massive form of a
Yeti. Travers rose and backed away. The Yeti moved closer,
reaching out for him...
9
Kidnapped!
Travers’s first thought was for his daughter. He backed
towards the door, shouting as loudly as he could. ‘Anne! The
Yeti are here! Run and hide!’
The Yeti lunged.
In the laboratory, Anne Travers heard her father’s
voice. ‘Anne... the Yeti... hide—’ Suddenly the voice choked
off. She ran towards the door—and into a Yeti. The Yeti’s
arm flashed out in a casual sweep that sent Anne flying across
the room. She crashed into a bench, slid down and rolled
underneath it. The Yeti looked at her crumpled motionless
form. Methodically it began to wreck the laboratory. When
the place was a shambles, it turned and lumbered away.
As it moved along the corridor, another Yeti appeared
from the Common Room. It dragged the un-conscious
Travers behind it, as a child drags a teddy-bear by one arm.
The two Yeti and their captive moved towards the exit. The
door was standing open, the cobwebbed bodies of the sentries
sprawled beside it.
The Yeti, with their prisoner, disappeared into the
tunnels.
Jamie, the Doctor and Private Evans were racing along
the tunnels in the direction of Covent Garden. Jamie tried to
argue with the Doctor—never an easy thing to do, particularly
when running at full speed,
‘What does it matter if this Chorley does get to the
TARDIS? He canna operate it. He won’t even be able to get
in.’
‘Not if he’s a normal human being, Jamie. But suppose
he’s been taken over? The last thing we want is the TARDIS
in the hands of the Intelligence.’
‘Aye, you’re right there.’ Jamie shuddered at the
thought.
‘We’re nearly there,’ said the Doctor encouragingly. ‘If
we go down this tunnel here—’ He turned and stopped,
pointing. ‘Look!’ A glowing, pulsating mass filled the tunnel
before them. ‘The Web has beaten us to it.’
Victoria tugged at the Doctor’s sleeves. ‘So we can’t get
to the TARDIS after all?’
‘I’m afraid not, Victoria.’
Jamie looked at the glowing Web with distaste,
remembering how it had nearly trapped him. ‘What’s
happened to Chorley?’
‘Just what I was thinking, Jamie. I wonder if he reached
the TARDIS before the Web arrived.’ The Doctor started
walking towards the glowing mass.
Jamie tried to stop him. ‘Doctor, don’t be so daft!’
‘It’s all right, Jamie, it doesn’t seem to be on the move. I
just want a sample for analysis. Anyone got a container?’
Evans produced a worn and shiny tin. ‘There’s this —
but I’m very attached to it.’
The Doctor took the tin from him, opened it and tipped
out the contents; some rather dry tobacco and a packet of
cigarette papers.
‘Hey, that’s my baccy,’ protested Evans.
‘Smoking’s very bad for you,’ the Doctor reproved. He
walked up to the Web and fished a pair of tweezers from his
pocket, using them to tease a fragment of the Web away from
the main mass. Dropping the curious cotton-wool like
substance into the tin, he handed it back to Evans. ‘Here’s
your precious tin—you look after itl’
As if resenting the Doctor’s attack, the Web began to
glow and pulse with light, giving out its high electronic shriek.
Slowly it started to billow towards them. ‘You’ve set it off
again now,’ said Jamie.
The Doctor called out to his companions, ‘Come on
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]