Doctor Who: The Sea-Devils (11 page)

The guard came to take the Master away—and to a surprise that was lying in store for him.

Jo was not far away when Prison Officer Snellgrove turned and saw the naval jeep empty. She had calculated that the nearest place to hide—the bushes and foliage running along the main outside wall—was too far for her to sprint in the time that Snellgrove was facing Prison Officer Crawley. So she had got out of the Jeep, crawled beneath it and lain flat. From there she heard the two prison officers shouting angrily at each other. She could see Crawley’s feet as he hurried back inside the gatehouse to raise the alarm, and Snellgrove’s feet as he wandered about aimlessly in circles presumably looking for her in all directions. Then she saw the wheels of the Minimoke come from the direction of the gatehouse.

Crawley’s voice called, ‘Come on, we’ll drive around and find her.’

Snellgrove’s voice, close to the Jeep, called back, ‘What about this thing?’ He must have meant the Jeep, which was standing across the main driveway.

‘Leave it,’ called Crawley.

Snellgrove’s feet ran towards the Minimoke. He got in and the two prison officers drove away. Jo waited a full minute, then crawled out from under the Jeep and raced towards the foliage. Her first thought was to get back to the Naval Base, and she ran along the inside of the electrified fence that ran parallel with the wall. It soon became clear there was no escape this way. She stopped to catch her breath. If there was no way
out
of the grounds, was there some way
into
the château? Once in there she might find a telephone without a lock on it, or she might be able to break a lock. By a series of quick sprints from one tree or bush to another, she covered the distance from the perimeter to the walls of the château. Suddenly she heard voices of approaching men. She found a little outhouse to hide in and from her hiding place she saw Crawley and Snellgrove and six other prison officers, all carrying shotguns.

‘She’ll try for the wall,’ Crawley was shouting.

One of the other officers asked, ‘What if she runs for it?’

Crawley patted his shotgun. ‘The governor says she’s got to be stopped.’

The men went on their way, towards the outer walls. Jo waited, then emerged from the outhouse. She started to walk round the wails of the château itself. Soon she came to a window with bars across it. This, surely, was the Master’s room. Curious, she looked in. Instead of seeing the Master, she saw the Doctor, alone, manacled to a chair, unsuccessfully struggling to free his hands. As soon as she had recovered from her surprise Jo decided that it wasn’t fair to raise the Doctor’s hopes at this stage, so she crept further along the wall of the huge building. Then she found a little door, no doubt left open by the prison officers who had come out to hunt for her. She quickly ran back to the barred window and tapped on it. The Doctor turned and smiled and at the same time shrugged to show that he was helpless.

Jo had already decided on her plan. First, she pointed to the closed door, put on an angry face and pretended to shout without making a sound. Then she pointed to the Doctor, and then pointed to her own mouth. The Doctor seemed puzzled by this, then got the idea and nodded his head. Finally, Jo pointed to her own wrist watch and held up five fingers—five minutes.

From the moment Jo vanished from the window, the Doctor started to count the seconds. Each time he got to sixty, he held out straight one of his fingers. When all four fingers and the thumb of one hand were fully extended, he started to shout very loudly.

‘Is anyone out there? Can you hear me? I said is there anyone out there?’

The door opened and a prison officer looked in. ‘What’s all the noise about?’

‘The way I’m being kept here is disgraceful,’ protested the Doctor. ‘You could at least feed me. I’m starving.’

‘You’ll be fed when the time comes,’ said the prison officer, ‘so belt up!’

‘Please do something about these handcuffs,’ said the Doctor, ‘they’re cutting my wrists.’

The prison officer came across to the chair and looked at the Doctor’s wrists. It was at this moment that Jo slipped in from the corridor and hid behind the door.

‘There’s nothing wrong with them,’ said the prison officer.

‘You’re not wearing them!’ retorted the Doctor.

‘If you don’t stop giving trouble,’ said the prison officer, ‘you’ll be wearing leg irons as well.’ He went out, slammed the door and locked it.

‘Over there,’ the Doctor whispered to Jo, indicating the direction by nodding his head, ‘the Master’s tool-box.’

On the floor by the table was a box of tools that the Master had been using to construct his black box calling device. Jo found a little file, and after ten minutes of hard work she had filed through one of the links of the handcuffs. The Doctor stood up.

‘How do we get out of here?’ she asked.

‘First,’ said the Doctor, going to the tool-box, ‘I want to pick these locks,’—this because the cuffs were still heavy on his wrists. He selected a nail, bent it with a pair of pliers, and used the bent nail to pick the mechanism of the bracelets. ‘Get behind the door again,’ he whispered, then sat back on the chair and put his hands behind it. ‘Help!’ he shouted, ‘I’m in agony.’ He groaned convincingly. ‘Will somebody please help me!’

The door was flung open. ‘What’s wrong now?’ said the prison officer aggressively.

‘The same as before,’ said the Doctor, his face contorted in pain. ‘These handcuffs are
so
tight... it’s stopping my circulation... I’ll get gangrene, lose both my hands...’ The Doctor slumped forward as though in a faint.

The prison officer crossed to the chair, got out his keys, and bent down to loosen the handcuffs. Suddenly, the Doctor’s hand whipped out from behind the chair and delivered a Venusian karate chop. He gently lowered the unconscious prison officer to the floor, then hurried from the room with Jo.

Ten minutes later the Master was brought back to his room by a prison officer. He had been contemplating all sorts of interesting ways to kill the Doctor, mainly slowly, after the Doctor had finished being of use to him. Instead, he found himself looking at an open door and an unconscious prison officer on the floor.

‘Get Trenchard down here immediately,’ he curtly ordered the prison officer who had brought him back to his room.

Trenchard arrived in thirty seconds and went pale when he realised what had happened.

‘Pull yourself together,’ said the Master. ‘They’ve got to be caught quickly! You must arm all your officers and give them orders to shoot to kill!’

‘I can’t give such an order,’ said Trenchard. ‘How could I explain it to my men?’

‘The Doctor and Miss Grant are enemy agents,’ said the Master. ‘Criminals!’

‘We don’t know that that is true,’ said Trenchard. ‘They have been interfering and a darned nuisance. But they aren’t necessarily criminal.’

‘If they get their story to the outside world,’ said the Master, ‘our plans will be ruined—and so will your career!’

‘That’s still no reason to shoot to kill,’ said Trenchard obstinately.

The Master found Trenchard just too exasperating. ‘Then shoot to maim, shoot to cripple!’

‘One of them,’ said Trenchard solemnly, ‘is a girl. One does not shoot ladies.’

‘Try to understand this, Mr. Trenchard,’ said the Master, holding down his desire to hit him for being a sentimental fool. ‘If they get away, our work will be stopped. So the enemies of Great Britain, of your Queen, will be able to continue their work of destruction. That means the Doctor and Miss Grant will have helped the enemies of your country. Logically, therefore, they are on the side of the enemy. Do you understand?’

Trenchard did not understand. It was all too complicated. But one thing he grasped: if the Doctor and Miss Grant got back to the Naval Base, or to UNIT, George Trenchard might be punished and disgraced.

‘I shall tell my men,’ said Trenchard, ‘to shoot to kill, but only if it is necessary.’

‘Excellent,’ said the Master. ‘Now issue the order, there’s a good man. And for goodness’ sake, let’s get moving!’

On leaving the château by the little open door, the Doctor and Jo raced towards the shore.

Jo asked, ‘What do we do when we get to the sea?’

The Doctor kept running. ‘There can’t be electrified fences there. Perhaps we can make our way along the beach.’

As they approached the sea the ground was more open, and rose up before them. Already they could smell the sea and hear the waves on a beach that they couldn’t yet see. There was a shout from somewhere behind them, and Jo looked over her shoulder. The Minimoke, carrying four prison officers, was pursuing them. One of the officers had a loud-hailer and called out to them.

‘Stop or we fire! We have orders to shoot to kill!’

‘All the more reason,’ said the Doctor, running harder, ‘to keep going.’

They scrambled up to the top of the rising ground, then found themselves at a cliff edge. Below was a small horse-shoe cove of sand and rocks. From behind, a warning shot was fired.

‘Quickly,’ said the Doctor, ‘over the edge!’

Another loud-hailer boomed at them from behind. ‘This is the governor,’ called Trenchard. ‘I order you to surrender now and you will not be harmed.’

Again Jo looked back. There was another Minimoke, containing Trenchard, the Master and two more armed prison officers. She turned back to face the sea, and started to scramble down the cliff after the Doctor. In a few seconds they were at the foot of the cliff.

‘Which way?’ she asked.

This part of the beach was flat and sandy. The flat terrain continued to their right, but was closed off with barbed wire. A big notice read: WAR DEPARTMENT. DANGER. MINEFIELD. KEEP OUT. To their left the beach became rocky, but at least had no warning signs

‘This way,’ said the Doctor, propelling Jo towards the rocks. As they approached they saw the heads of some prison guards bobbing about amongst them. They had descended the cliff further along on the left side, and were now taking up firing positions among the rocks. The Doctor and Jo stopped.

‘It’s no good, Doctor.’ The voice of the Master boomed almost casually at them from a loud-hailer high above on top of the cliff. ‘You’ll have to give yourself up. You are now hemmed in on all sides. Look out to sea.’

On top of the cliff, Trenchard turned to the Master. ‘What do you mean? Look out to sea?’

The Master patted the little black box that he still carried with him. ‘I managed to finish this sooner than I expected,’ he said. ‘So some little time ago I transmitted a signal that will bring to us the people who are sinking the ships.’

Trenchard was confused. ‘Whatever are you talking about?’

‘Look,’ said the Master. He pointed to the waves coming in on the sandy beach.

At first Trenchard thought he was seeing things. Was it some kind of seaweed just under the surface, or fish? Then the heads of six Sea-Devils emerged from the water —huge lizards that walked upright like men as they came in from the sea. Each was armed with some strange gadget that resembled a gun.

Down on the beach the firing from the prison officers stopped. Jo saw that they had seen the monsters, and were themselves running—in panic. One, however, held his position, making it impossible for Jo and the Doctor to escape that way.

‘We’ve got to go through the minefield,’ called the Doctor.

The Doctor raced towards the barbed wire, Jo following. There were breaks in the strands, and they were soon through to the other side of the notice that warned them to keep away.

‘Doctor,’ called Jo, ‘we’ll get blown to pieces!’

The Doctor had already stopped and produced his sonic screwdriver. ‘Possibly not, Jo,’ he said, scanning the sand ahead of them with the screwdriver.

As a beam from the screwdriver hit an underground mine, the mine exploded. Jo was knocked off her feet, but otherwise unhurt. By the time she’d got up, the Doctor had advanced to a point beyond the crater caused by the explosion and was already scanning the, sand ahead with his screwdriver. Another huge explosion, but Jo was prepared for it this time. She looked back and saw that one of the Sea-Devils was slowly making its way towards the barbed wire.

On the cliff top the Master was watching the Sea-Devil advance toward the Doctor and Jo. ‘Kill them, you idiot,’ he shouted. ‘Fire your gun and kill them!’

‘Those terrible creatures,’ said Trenchard, ‘what are they?’

‘Enemy agents,’ said the Master, laughing. He called out once more to the Sea-Devil down below. ‘Exterminate them, you ugly-looking idiot.’ Fortunately, the Sea-Devil could not hear from this distance.

In the minefield the Doctor had by now exploded three mines, and the Sea-Devil was closing in. ‘We’ve got to take a terrible risk,’ he told Jo: ‘We’ve got to run a long way forward and hope that we don’t set off a mine with our feet, then set one off between us and that thing.’ He grabbed Jo’s hand and they ran forward together.

With every step Jo wondered if her life was about to end in one terrible explosion. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, and followed where the Doctor was pulling her. Then the Doctor stopped. They were now some distance from the approaching Sea-Devil.

‘Let’s just hope,’ said the Doctor, ‘that somewhere under the sand there’s a mine between us and it.’

He scanned the sand behind them with his sonic screwdriver. Suddenly, there was an enormous detonation, but a few yards in front of the Sea-Devil. It staggered, then retreated back a couple of paces.

‘If we’re lucky,’ said the Doctor, ‘it’ll think we threw some kind of bomb at it.’

The Sea-Devil had stopped and seemed now to be thinking. Then it turned and started to go back slowly towards the others, who were standing in a group on the beach.

Jo wanted to kiss the Doctor but restrained herself. ‘We’ve got away!’

‘We aren’t out of this minefield, yet,’ said the Doctor. He started to scan the route ahead, seeking a means of escape from the cove.

Lieutenant Ridgway wished that Captain Hart had given him a little more information about what he was supposed to be seeking on the sea-bed. He discussed it with his Second-in-Command, Sub-Lieutenant Tony Mitchell.