Doctor Who_ The Web Of Fear Part 9

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 ma.s.s 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 ma.s.s.

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 a.n.a.lysis. Anyone got a container?'

Evans produced a worn and s.h.i.+ny 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 ma.s.s. Dropping the curious cotton-wool like substance into the tin, he handed it back to Evans. 'Here's your precious tin- you you look after itl' 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 everybody, run for it.' They pelted off down the tunnel, leaving the angrily pulsating Web behind them.

Turning a corner they ran suddenly into a party of soldiers, who instinctively swung their rifles to cover them.

'All right, Sarge,' yelled Evans. 'Don't shoot, it's only us.'

Sergeant Arnold lowered his rifle. 'You'll pop up once too often some day, my lad.'

The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria caught up. 'Any luck with the explosives at Holborn?' asked the Doctor.

Arnold shook his head. 'The Web beat us to it. Blocked the tunnels just before we arrived.'

'Aye,' said Jamie, 'the same thing happened to us. Seems to know what we're planning every time. What are you lot doing here?'

'Waiting for the Colonel. He's taken a party on a recce to see if they can find a way through to Holborn by the Piccadilly Line. If they don't come back, we a.s.sume the way is open and follow. What are you doing?'

'Looking for Chorley,' explained the Doctor. 'He seems to have got himself lost'

Arnold grunted. 'That won't break anyone's heart. I'd like you all to go back to H.Q. at once, please, Doctor. These tunnels are no place for civvies.' It was obvious from Arnold's tone that this was an order rather than a request.

The Doctor accepted the instruction meekly. 'I expect you're right. I've got work to do anyway-and I've taken a sample of the Web. I want to show it to Professor Travers.'

Arnold nodded dismissively. 'Off you go, Doctor. I'll tell the Colonel about you when I see him. Right, lads, time we were on our way.'

The soldiers moved off, and the Doctor and his little group hurried back towards H.Q. The rest of the journey was quiet enough. But when they reached the Fortress door it was open wide, light streaming into the dimly-lit tunnel. They went inside, stopping horrified at the sight of the cobwebbed bodies. The Doctor led them quickly past. 'Come on, we most find out what's happened.'

They looked into the empty Common Room, then continued along the corridor. As they approached Travers's laboratory they heard a faint moaning sound. They hurried inside and saw Anne Travers struggling to her feet. The Doctor ran to help her. She looked at him fearfully. 'The Yeti... have they gone?'

The Doctor nodded. 'No sign of them now.'

'My father... what's happened to him?'

The Doctor led her to a seat. 'Don't worry, we'll find him. Look after her, Victoria, will you? Better go to the Common Room and bathe that cut.'

The Doctor, Jamie and Evans searched the Fortress for Travers, but found no trace of him, living or dead. As they were making their way to the Common Room, Jamie said, 'What do you reckon happened to him, Doctor?'

'The Yeti must have taken him.'

'Why would they do that?' Evans demanded. 'Why not just kill him?'

'I don't know-unless they had a use for him...'

They heard the clatter of booted feet. Lethbridge-Stewart, Knight, Arnold and a party of soldiers came running along the corridor. The Doctor greeted them with relief.

'Glad to see you're all right. You didn't make it to Holborn then?'

The Colonel shook his head. 'The Web was blocking the tunnels. Doctor, what the devil's been happening here?'

'Yeti broke in when we were hunting Chorley. We think they've taken Professor Travers.'

'How did they get in?'

'Presumably someone helped them again.'

The Colonel shook his head, baffled. 'Once they were inside they could have destroyed the entire Fortress. Or laid an ambush for the rest of us.'

'They came for Travers. And they took him.'

'Why would they do that?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'Who knows? Perhaps they had a use for him.'

They were interrupted by Corporal Blake. 'I think you'd better come and see the indicator board, sir-'

The Doctor went with Lethbridge-Stewart to the Operations Room and stood looking at the map. One by one the station indicator lights were flickering and going out.

Oxford Circus, Green Park, Trafalgar Square. There were only five lights still on the board -Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road, Goodge Street and Warren Street. 'This time the Web is really closing in,' said the Colonel grimly.

The Doctor nodded. 'We're the fly all right. But where's the spider?'

'Give the others a hand clearing up, will you, Corporal Blake?' said the Colonel. When Blake was gone he turned to the Doctor. 'This theory of yours -that someone amongst us is working with the Yeti. Could it have been Travers all along?'

'I doubt it. Why stage the attack? He could simply have gone off to join them. Now Chorley did just quietly disappear and I'd say he was a much more likely candidate. On the other hand, the person in league with the Intelligence could still be among us.'

'I am uncomfortably aware of that fact! Well, what now?'

'I must get on with Travers's work just as fast as I can.'

'Do you think you can succeed in time, Doctor?'

'To be honest I'm not sure,' the Doctor replied sadly.

'With the state the laboratory's in... Now if I could reach the TARDIS... I've got all kinds of equipment in there... But that's impossible.'

'Where is this TARDIS of yours?'

'Somewhere near Covent Garden.'

'And what does it look like?'

'Like a Police Box,' said the Doctor simply. 'But there's no chance of reaching it now. I have a feeling the Intelligence knows about it-and the Intelligence wants me trapped here.

The TARDIS will be well guarded by now. I'll see what I can do in the laboratory. Anne will help. I expect I can bodge something up.'

When the Doctor had gone, Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart stood staring at the map. The enemy was closing in-and he was powerless to fight back. The deaths of his men at the Fortress had left him in a state of helpless anger. Now he was condemned to wait, while the Doctor 'bodged something up'.

By the time Captain Knight came into the room, the Colonel had reached a decision. 'Pick me a squad of the fittest men and have them ready to move out. The Doctor has some important scientific equipment in a box near Covent Garden.

I'm going to fetch it for him.'

The Doctor, Jamie, Victoria and Anne Travers were clearing up the mess in the laboratory. As they straightened the benches and tried to get the equipment back into some kind of order, Anne Travers said, 'But why did they take him, Doctor?'

The Doctor lifted a broken piece of equipment.

'Presumably because he was a danger to them. He was working on a way to deal with the Yeti, wasn't he, and fairly near to success?'

'We were almost ready to test a kind of control unit I'd built-that thing you're holding. Father was trying to activate another sphere!' Anne produced it from her pocket. 'Luckily I was working on it myself when they attacked... I don't think it was damaged when I fell.'

The Doctor examined Anne's control unit. 'Oh yes, a splendid piece of work-and nearly complete. If we can repair this, and add a few improvements, it will certainly control the sphere. But will it actually over-ride commands transmitted by the Intelligence?'

' Can Can you repair it, Doctor?' you repair it, Doctor?'

The Doctor looked at the piles of shattered equipment.

'I can can-if we can find all the bits I need.'

Private Evans sidled into the room, shaking his head at the sight of the damage. 'Right old mess, innit? Sergeant Arnold said I'd better give you this, Doctor. It was found in the Ops Room, see?'

The Doctor said, 'You know what this is, don't you? A homing device to fetch the Yeti! And you're giving it to me!'

Hurriedly Evans handed the model over. The Doctor placed it carefully on a bench. 'I must get this dismantled. It's like walking around with a Time Bomb, having one of these.'

He clamped it in a vice and unscrewed the base. 'That should fix it.'

Evans took a tin from his pocket. 'Here's your sample of that Web stuff, Doctor. I'd like the tin back when you've finished with it.' Handing over the tin, Evans backed hurriedly out of the room.

The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair. 'So many things to do at once! I'd better have a quick look at this stuff.