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welded into the hard metal, connecting it permanently to the stabiliser unit.
'Bravo, Doctor!' Briggs cried delightedly, her severe features breaking into a
radiant smile as she leapt to her feet.
Ringway crouched by the console, alert once more and quietly awaiting his
opportunity...
On the other side of the shutter the Cyberleader and the Deputy surveyed the result of
the Doctor's experiment with menacing calm.
'The Doctor is a formidable opponent,' rasped the Deputy, directing the sonic-
lance unit to disconnect themselves.
'I anticipated as much,' the Leader hissed, striding across to the second shutter
sealing the other entrance to the bridge. 'Attach diffusion charges,' he ordered,
indicating the heavy shield. The Deputy began supervising the attachment of small
magnetic discs in a circle round the centre of the second shield.
There was a sudden dragging sound and the Cyberman wounded by Scott and
his troopers on the stairway staggered slowly round the corner from the direction of
45
the main hold. Black smoke and steam poured out of its ventilator grille and a thick
gluey fluid was oozing from its joints. A desperate rattling and whining noise
emerged with each movement of its wildly jerking body.
'This unit has been damaged by laser fire!' the Deputy rasped.
'There is still resistance then,' the Leader boomed, watching the doomed
Cyberman collapse in a heap and fall silent.
'The Earthling informed us that the crew totalled twenty, Leader. They have
all been accounted for.'
'Then he has deceived us,' the Cyberleader hissed. 'Order the activation of
reinforcements.'
The Deputy hesitated. 'But the consequences of yet further power-drains could
be dangerous.'
'At once!' the Leader boomed.
The Deputy obediently tapped instructions into the communications panel on
his abdomen.
'Charges primed, Leader,' announced one of the Cybermen assigned to prepare
the ring of magnetic explosives.
'Activate!'
There was a rapid sequence of powerful blasts and the second shield burst
inward like a paper hoop. Immediately the Cybermen raised their weapons and
smashed their way onto the bridge.
Seizing his chance, Ringway knocked Briggs flying and grabbed the laser pistol.
A wry smile spread over the Doctor's face as the Cyberleader strode up to him.
'Well, at least you knocked first,' he joked, 'but I should have realised that you'd sneak
in the back way.' He shot a meaningful glance at Ringway who was levelling the
pistol at him, his thin face a mask of triumph.
'So we meet again, Doctor,' the Cyberleader boomed, signalling to the Deputy.
The Doctor's smile instantly faded and he swallowed hard as the Deputy raised his
blaster at point-blank range. Adric tried to protest, but his mouth had dried up and he
managed only a bizarre kind of croak. Desperately the Doctor racked his brain for
something to say to delay the awful fate only seconds away.
Slowly the Deputy turned and Ringway's victorious smile dissolved into a
look of abject terror as the deadly blaster was aimed at him instead. The laser slipped
from his bony hands and he started to whimper and make incoherent pleading sounds
as he glanced wildly round the semicircle of impassive silver masks surrounding him.
A sudden devastating bolt of energy sent him reeling against the console and his
broken body slid to the deck, his face fixed in horror.
'He deceived us,' the Cyberleader explained dispassionately.
The Cyberleader contemplated his arch-enemy in silence for a moment. 'Our
records state that you have a fondness for Earth and for Earthlings,' he rasped.
'Fondness!' exclaimed the Doctor. 'I'm surprised your emotionless brain
understands the word.'
'It is a word like any other, Doctor. Like "destruction". We intend to destroy
your planet.
The Doctor snorted with laughter. 'I've heard that before,' he said with a shrug.
The Cyberleader moved closer and the Doctor could not help recoiling slightly
from the sweet, oily vapour that came from the ventilator grille. 'This time we shall
succeed, Doctor. You will live just long enough to witness our success...'
46
Out of the corner of her eye, First Officer Berger had been watching disturbing
fluctuations on the ship's instruments. 'Another power loss,' she murmured, glancing
across at Briggs, who was still winded after Ringway's attack.
'Reactivation of second taskforce completed,' the Deputy announced, as a
curious bleeping code sounded from his communications unit.
'Excellent,' the Leader hissed. 'Now, Doctor, you will see our strength...'
One of the Cybermen had been working at the controls of the bank of
surveillance monitors and suddenly they flickered back into operation one after
another. The Doctor, Adric, Briggs and Berger watched helplessly as the screens
showed one of the silos bulging and shaking and finally tearing asunder in a twisted
mass of razor-sharp slivers, like an enormous steel egg.
Out of the wrecked shell emerged more and more monstrous figures, slashing
their way out of their wispy cocoons and gaining strength with each stride as they
formed into a nightmare cohort of silver warriors...
47
8. War of Nerves
Down in the hold, Lieutenant Scott, Tegan and the troopers shrank into the shadows
and held their breath as the shriek of slicing metal echoed around them.
'Whatever it is, it's between us and the TARDIS,' Tegan muttered, hoping that
this would persuade the Lieutenant to continue the search for the Doctor and Adric,
instead of retreating to the TARDIS without them.
At that moment the casing of the silo next to them started to shudder
mysteriously. They scattered in all directions and hid in the niches of the
neighbouring silos, watching in disbelief as the throbbing metal walls suddenly
shredded and were trampled flat by the emerging Cybermen. Tegan stuffed her fist
into her mouth to stifle a scream as a long wisp of plastic floated down and settled [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]