Doctor Who: Lungbarrow (18 page)

'Hurry up, K9!' she shouted.

To her surprise, a second pinpoint appeared and started to cut up and over to meet the first. It only made the smoke worse.

Gasping for breath, Leela sank to the cold floor.

***

The impregnable fortress was powerless. Open as it had never been in a hundred aeons. The secure systems had faltered and collapsed. All dimension locks and force barriers were disabled. Intruders were making their way down to the cells in the Keep. The confinement squads were already reduced to a minimum, requisitioned by order of the President. How convenient! She must maintain her personal safety in the face of a terrorist outrage that she herself provoked.

The Time Lord left the chamber and made his way through the empty corridors towards the concealed Barbican entrance.

He had no doubt that the President was behind this. It was a misguided attempt to assert her dwindling authority over the Agency of which she was the nominal head. Well, let her win back her alien guests if it so pleased her.

Romana's sudden appearance at the Presidential suite had almost been convincing. Even so, the nature of her mission away from Gallifrey, the latest of several such ventures, eluded him. Of al the threats to Gallifrey's allegiance, Romanadvoratrelundar posed the second greatest of all.

The President and her Chancellor knew a handful of Agency names, but even they were bound to secrecy. The Agency would outlast any President, let alone this flibbertigibbet. Its command cells were safe; faceless. This breach of security had been rehearsed a thousand times. Nothing incriminating remained.

He reached the deserted Barbican gate-tower. Its doors were open wide. While he waited, he watched the intruders in the Keep on a plasma feed.

Suddenly, there was a squad of guards before him, splendid in the ceremonial scarlet of the President's chapter-colours.

The Time Lord smiled to himself. The gates were open, yet they transducted in.

'This building is now under Chancellery control,' announced the guard leader. He seemed disappointed to find so small an opposing force. 'Where is the Director of Allegiance?'

The faceless Time Lord in black spread his hands. 'Why ask me?' he said. 'I'm only the gatekeeper.'

The burnt arch in the wall fell in with a crash.

K9 rolled in through the smoke. 'Apologies, Mistress,' he said. 'The Agency security system is disabled. Please follow.'

Leela had covered her mouth with her robe. Her streaming eyes widened as a second K9 rol ed in from the outside.

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'I am K9 Mark II,' it announced.

'I can see that,' said Leela. She tried to laugh, her nausea forgotten, and almost choked instead.

K9 Mark I trained his gun on the opening and shot a fine bolt of ruby light into the dark outside. There was a yel from a col apsing guard. The yel turned into a scream that diminished like that of a man falling from a cliff.

'This way, Mistress.'

'But K9...'

'Follow, Mistress,' they chanted.

They trundled out on to the walkway and she obeyed.

The alarm that had been whooping like a tree-ghost in the pairing season cut off.

Outside, a dimly lit walkway sloped away from them, running straight with a dark drop on either side. Leela leant on the rusty rail, staring into the chasm as she gasped to clear her lungs. The bottom was lost to sight. The confinement cel was raised on a buttressed metal column in the cavernous black space. It was part of a wide circle of such columns, each topped by another sealed cell. Walkways led down from each cell to converge at a central hub like spokes in a tortuous wheel. The dank wind moaned through the spidery structure.

Apart from the unconscious grey-uniformed guards on the walkway, there was no sign of resistance. Leela crouched to pick up a gun. As she hefted it in her hand, she heard Andred's rebuke. 'No more weapons, Leela.

Not in the Capitol.'

'They have their place,' she muttered. But the look of derision in the serpent Time Lord's eyes came back to her.

'How barbaric,' he gloated.

She threw the gun over the side with a look of regret. She didn't feel a more proper person for it.

'Mistress!' urged one of the K9s.

She turned and followed them as they headed towards the central hub. She felt the walkway sway a little in the wind.

'Where are all the guards?' she called.

'Summoned away,' said a K9, but she could not tell which. 'Requisitioned by Presidential order to quadruple security at the Capitol after the insurrectionist outrage.'

'What?'

'The bombing, Mistress,' translated the other K9 whom Leela guessed to be hers.

'What bomb?' she said. 'Is Andred safe?'

'Affirmative, Mistress.' The K9s had reached the hub and halted.

'Then we must hurry to join him,' said Leela. 'How do we get out?'

'Negative, Mistress.'

'We can't stay here. They must be watching us.' She stared around the vast darkness for observation points.

'All security systems disabled, Mistress.'

K9 Mark II added, 'I have instructions from the Mistress.'

79

'
My
Mistress is the Mistress,' said Mark I. 'Not your Mistress.'

'Negative,' said Mark II. 'The Mistress is
my
Mistress.
My
: adjective or genitive of pronoun
I
. The Mistress Romana.'

'Romana sent you,' exclaimed Leela with relief. 'But I thought she wasn't... Does she have a K9 too? She never told me.'

'Pay attention, Mistress Leela,' said K9 Mark I.

'Don't butt in, K9,' said Leela. 'The other K9 has a message.'

'Affirmative,' said K9 Mark II. 'The mission is fifty per cent complete. You are not the only prisoner here.'

'Another prisoner?' she said, scanning the routes to the other cells.

'Affirmative.'

In the facing wall of one cell, there was a torn gaping mouth. Leela slowly climbed up the walkway towards it.

She heard a scuffle of movement. Something launched over the side of the rail at her. An arm snaked round her neck from behind, catching her throat in its crook. 'Too right!' said a woman's voice.

Leela instinctively pincered back her elbows and kicked.

Kicked on nothing. The full weight of her attacker landed high on her back.

'Now get me out of here!' demanded the voice.

Leela swung herself wildly to one side and then the other, trying to dislodge the woman. The robe that Andred made her wear hindered her movement. Her opponent clung on like a leech.

Leela spun on one foot and was face to face with the guns of the two K9s, both jostling to get a clear shot at her attacker.

'No guns,' she shouted at them. She froze where she stood. Something metal pricked at the skin of her throat.

'Get me out of here,' said the fierce little voice.

'Dorothée McShane,' cal ed K9 Mark II.

'Skip the cal ing cards. Get me out.'

The whole walkway jolted.

Leela stumbled and deliberately lost her balance. She twisted sideways as she fell, hoping to crush her opponent's arm.

The woman called Dorothée yel ed in pain and rolled away. Something metal jangled away from her hand. It was a key, not a knife.

'Mistress! Emergency! Withdraw! Abandon the walkway!'

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Leela heard the K9s' urgent warnings, but she was too busy to listen.

In a moment, Dorothée was up and facing Leela. She was short with long, tangled brown hair and was wearing black. Her eyes were cold with rage. Leela recognized a warrior when she saw one. But this woman's hunting instinct was out of control.

Dorothée launched herself again, but Leela ducked low, catching and cartwheeling the woman over her head. As she disappeared over the edge of the rail, Leela grabbed round at a flailing arm. Their fingers locked. The jolt of the sudden weight nearly dislocated Leela's shoulder and dragged her half over the rail as well.

She felt the walkway trembling and heard the distant cal ing of the K9s.

Black nothingness gaped under the swinging shape of her opponent. She started to pul . With both arms yelling mutinous protests, she slowly dragged the woman called Dorothée up on to the walkway. They lay side by side trying to gasp back their thoughts.

The walkway juddered again.

'Mistress! Mistress Leela!'

Leela sat up. The walkway was moving. One end had disengaged from the central hub. It was sliding back, open-ended across the chasm, carrying them with it as it retracted into the column under the isolated prison cell. The side rails were folding down to the floor as the walkway was steadily consumed.

Leela reached the open edge and stared across the widening gap. It was already too far to jump. The K9s were stranded on the hub, staring back at her.

'You said al security systems were disabled,' she called.

'Correct, Mistress. This automatic system has been reactivated. Attempting to rectify damage.'

Two bolts of ruby light speared past Leela and hit a panel on the cel wall. It exploded, sending a cataract of sparks into the depths. The walkway kept retracting.

'Apologies, Mistress. Please wait.'

'Who are your pets?' said Dorothée.

'They're your rescue party,' said Leela.

'Who from?'

81

'They said the President sent them,' Leela confessed. 'But they may have sent themselves.'

'What President? France? The EC? The Galactic Federation?'

Another fierce judder forced them to their knees. 'K9! Fetch help!' yel ed Leela.

'Help already summoned, Mistress,' responded the dwindling K9s.

'Then tell it to hurry!'

Leela turned to look for another escape route and saw the gashed hole in the confinement cell. 'We could always go back in there.'

'No fear,' said Dorothée. 'You're not getting me back in there. I only just got out.'

'Then you must have a cutting device.'

'Hardly. Just a small supply of explosive I always keep about me for emergencies.'

'Is there enough to stop this thing?'

'Used it all up,' said Dorothée testily. She waited for Leela's reaction.

'So we have to go into the cel .'

Dorothée gave a grim smile. 'I'd rather jump.'

The walkway had already cranked over halfway back across the abyss. Leela could hear the grind of the mechanics inside the column. Black metal panels were sliding up over the outer wal s of the cell, blocking their last chance of refuge.

'
C'est la guerre
.' Dorothée leant over the rail and studied the buttresses of the approaching column.

'Leave it to the last second before we go. If you can cope with that.'

'I'd rather jump than fall,' said Leela.

'Good,' Dorothée said, apparently impressed. She pointed past Leela towards the hub. 'Hang on. Trouble.'

Three figures in guard uniforms had slid up out of the floor behind the K9s. One was carrying a heavy weapon.

'K9s! Behind you!' yel ed Leela.

As the robot dogs swivel ed towards the guards, one of the figures pulled off his scarlet helmet. 'Leela!' he shouted.

'Those uniforms,' said Dorothée. 'This is Gallifrey.'

'It is Andred,' declared Leela. 'He will save us.'

'Whoopee,' muttered Dorothée. The last lengths of side rail folded down beside them. The walkway was down to only a few spans. 'You'd better tell him to hurry.'

'He can see that,' said Leela trustingly.

On the hub, the guards had set the weapon up on a tripod. 'Get down!' yel ed Andred. A bolt like a spear shot across the chasm and embedded itself in the cell wall. It dragged a cable behind it which sang in the dank wind as it pulled taut.

82

'Like this,' said Dorothée. She pulled off her jacket and slung it in a loop over the cable.

The end of the walkway had almost reached them.

'After you,' said Leela coldly.

Dorothée gripped the jacket tight and kicked herself off. She hurtled down across the chasm and into Andred's arms.

With only digits to go, Leela pulled her leather belt out from inside her robe and flicked it over the cable. As she slid away, the air roared in her ears like the hungry snarl of the cheated abyss.

'Leela, I should arrest you,' said Andred as he caught her round the waist. 'Have they hurt you? Are you safe?'

She put her head against his. 'I missed the uniform,' she whispered. 'What happened?'

'We nearly didn't get here in time,' he said.

'Security shutdown was automatical y reimplemented as soon as the Chancellery force entered the constraint block,' interrupted the K9s.

Andred stepped back awkwardly in front of his guards and put on his helmet. 'The Agency constraint block is restricted under Chancellery law pending an inquiry,' he announced. 'I saw your predicament on the surveil ance screens.'

Leela nodded towards Dorothée, who was smirking as she waited.

'Madam, erm. . . McShane, Dorothy?'

'Dorothée McShane,' said Dorothée.

He bowed. 'President Romanadvoratrelundar presents her profound apologies for your treatment at the hands of her Agency. She invites you to join her in the Presidential quarters.'