Doctor Who: The Visitation (11 page)

As the miller returned to the house, the Terileptil picked up the reins, flicked them and the wagon moved off along the driveway.

Having locked and bolted the door, the miller then made his way along the dark corridor, through the cellar to the laboratory, where he operated the energy barrier switch and sealed himself in. His instructions were to wait, to guard the laboratory if necessary with his life, an order his controlled mind would not hesitate to obey.

The miller then crossed to the corner where his provisions were stored, picked up a flintlock pistol and started to prime it.

'How do you feel?' said the Doctor.

'Groggy, sore and bad-tempered,' moaned Tegan.

'Almost your old self!'

Tegan scowled at the Doctor. 'That's not funny,' she said. 'And why is he in such good spirits?'

Richard Mace was striding up and down the room as though he had just awakened from twelve hours' deep restful sleep. He turned and grinned his broadest cavalier grin and said, in his best, richest, plummiest voice, 'Madam! I am a man of iron.'

Seated next to Tegan on the floor, the Doctor looked up at the actor with tired eyes.

'More likely the electric charge I gave him from the powerpack. It's over-ridden the side effects of the bracelet.'

'Can't you do the same for me?'

'Too dangerous.' The Doctor scrambled to his feet. 'Exercise is much safer and just as effective.'

Tegan grasped the Doctor's offered hand and stood up. She felt dreadful, as though suffering from a bad dose of flu. 'Now what?' she groaned.

He rattled the chain connecting his handcuffs. 'First, I must lose these.'

'Never fear!' said Mace at his most theatrical. 'I am at hand.'

The Doctor and Tegan looked at each other, wondering what he meant. 'What can you do?' she said.

'Do you have some wire?' purred Mace. Suddenly he was in his element. He could do something positive. And when centre stage, he revelled in the enjoyment of his performance.

'Will this do?' said the Doctor, producing a safety-pin.

'Perfect!'

But never having seen a safety-pin before, he was surprised when it sprung open as he fiddled with it. As ever, his entrepreneurial mind instantly saw its potential. 'Interesting device,' he muttered as he turned towards the Doctor. 'Where did you get this?'

'I'll tell you later.' He held up his cuffs. 'Just release me from these.'

Mace straightened the pin, inserted it into one of the locks and started to work it around.

'Where did you learn to pick locks?' said Tegan.

Mace cleared his throat. 'I once knew a French acrobat. A charming man... although he couldn't tumble very well... Yet his skill with a piece of bent wire was phenomenal.' Steel rasped against steel as the actor continued to poke around inside the lock. 'Fortunately, he taught me his skill during the period of our acquaintanceship, which has enabled me to extricate my fee from the strongbox of more than one disreputable theatre owner.'

Suddenly there was a click and the cuff fell open.

'Voilà!'

'Wel done,' said the Doctor, relieved that Mace's skill, unlike his courage in adversity, wasn't all in his imagination.

Quickly Richard Mace freed the Doctor of the second cuff and then started on the lock of the door.

'Wouldn't it be quicker if you used your sonic screwdriver?' said Tegan.

The Doctor pointed at the twisted lump of metal.

'Then what about the pistol?' indicating Mace's flintlock.

'It would be heard,' said Mace, continuing to work on the lock.

'Can't you risk it?' Tegan was insistent.

'I'm nearly there!'

Tegan crossed to the door and peered over Mace's shoulder. 'It's impossible to pick a lock with a safety-pin.'

'I released the Doctor.'

Tegan was becoming annoyed that they were wasting time. 'Yes, but they were handcuffs. I'm talking about a door lock.'

Tegan picked up the pistol and handed it to the Doctor, who checked that it hadn't been damaged when dropped.

'For all we know, the Terileptil and the android have cleared off,' she appealed to the Doctor. 'We can't afford to give them any more time than is absolutely necessary.'

'You're right!'

The Doctor snapped closed the flash-pan cover. 'Stand back!' he said.

'Five seconds more,' demanded Mace.

The Doctor cocked the pistol as the actor continued to waggle the pin about in the lock.

'Stand back please.'

Reluctantly Mace moved away from the door as the Doctor took careful aim and fired.

The flintlock kicked hard against the Doctor's grip as it exploded loudly, its shot ripping through the planking of the door just above the lock.

'You missed!' screamed Mace. 'You wasted our only shot.'

The Doctor confidently blew down the barrel of the pistol Western-style. 'I never miss,'

he said calmly.

Mace rushed to the door and pointed. 'There is the lock,' he insisted. 'And there is your shot.' He fanned out his fingers and placed them so that they touched both the lock and the bullet-hole. 'A full span separates them!'

Concerned, Tegan looked at the Doctor. This time the actor wasn't exaggerating.

'Try the door.' The Doctor was still calm.

Richard Mace fell on the handle and turned it. To his amazement, the door opened.

'You see,' said the Doctor smugly.

Tegan looked relieved.

'Impossible.' Mace rubbed the stubble on his chin, unable to believe it.

'Let's go,' ordered the Doctor, as he and Tegan moved quickly out of the room. 'That shot might have been heard.'

Mace continued to stare at the door shaking his head. 'Impossible,' he muttered. 'I must have picked it. That's the only explanation.

Such was Mace's confused state of mind that for a while he blindly followed Tegan and the Doctor along the dark passageway, before realising they were heading in the wrong direction.

'Isn't this the way to the cellar?' he said.

'That's right,' said the Doctor.

The portly actor slid to a halt as the Doctor arrived at the cellar door.

'I am not going down there!' he said in a loud, theatrical whisper. 'That way lies death!'

'Wherever we go is death. Have you forgotten already?'

The actor looked puzzled. 'What do you mean?'

'Do you recall what the Terileptil said before you were fitted with a control bracelet?'

He shook his head.

'The Terileptil is about to release thousands of highly infected rats, carrying a genetically re-engineered plague virus.'

Mace looked confused, but Tegan was stunned. 'Can he do that?' she said.

'He has the knowledge. And even if he lacks the skill, his android could do it for him.'

'You keep using words I do not understand,' said Mace. 'What is genetics?'

'The words don't matter at the moment, only the Terileptil's intention. He wants to rid the planet of its native species. And that includes you,' he said, pointing at Mace. 'That's why we must try and stop him.'

Without waiting for comment, the Doctor silently eased the cellar door open and peered inside. The room was deserted. Quickly he made his way down the steps and across to where the energy barrier was and started to examine the walls.

Tegan and Mace fol owed reluctantly.

'Where's the entrance to the Terileptil's laboratory?' said Tegan gazing around.

'It's here somewhere,' said the Doctor, starting to move the large, empty ampoule-carrying cases.

'What are you looking for?' asked Tegan.

'The opening mechanism for the energy barrier.'

'Is this it?' she said, removing a stiff, dusty sheepskin from a nail and revealing a small triangular box.

'Press it and see.'

She did, but all that happened was that a light flashed briefly.

'A master control is over-riding the switch.'

Tegan pressed the box again. 'Do you think you can find a way round it?'

'I can try.'

Borrowing the flintlock from Mace, the Doctor started to attack the box with the butt of the gun. 'While I'm doing this, stack some boxes either side of where the opening should be.'

'Now what?' said Tegan.

The Doctor hammered away at the casing. 'If the master over-ride is in operation, it means there is still somebody in the lab.'

The colour drained from Richard Mace's face. 'That is not good news,' he said.

Speedily Tegan and Mace stacked the empty ampoule boxes as instructed, while the Doctor, the casing round the switch now removed, started to fiddle with its internal circuitry.

Inside the laboratory, the miller sat in the Leader's chair oblivious of what was happening.

Although he was still under the influence of the control bracelet, this had in no way affected his appetite, as the feast spread out before him proved.

The miller belched as he refilled his tankard. Then the energy barrier suddenly disappeared. Startled, he slowly got to his feet and, with one eye on the opening the barrier had been concealing, pressed the energising switch. Nothing happened. He repeated his action, but still the opening remained.

Cautiously, he picked up his pistol, cocked it and moved towards the doorway. On seeing the boxes stacked either side of the opening, he paused.

'Who's there?' he called.

There was no reply.

He moved warily into the cel ar, forced to pass between the piles of boxes.

Suddenly Tegan bobbed up from behind the bench at the end of the cellar.

'Good day!' she said cheekily.

The miller levelled his pistol, but just before he fired, the boxes came cascading down on top of him. Stunned by the weight of them, he fell to the ground, his pistol discharging harmlessly as it hit the floor.

Instantly, the Doctor was amongst the boxes searching for the miller.

'Is he al right?' said Tegan, emerging from behind her bench.

The Doctor disconnected the powerpack and felt the miller's pulse. 'Just stunned,' he said.

Mace raised his arms in triumph. 'You were magnificent,' he said effusively to Tegan.

'You didn't do too badly yourself.'

Having checked the miller could breathe freely, the Doctor stood up. 'We should save the self-congratulations until later.'

'The house is ours! We are victorious!' chanted Mace.

The Doctor crossed to the opening and entered the laboratory. 'We haven't won anything yet.'

'What do you mean, Doctor?'

'The Terileptil and the android have gone. They're still free to carry out their plan!' The Doctor looked around the laboratory. 'And we don't have any idea where they are!'

With the light almost gone, the warm breeze had turned to a chilly wind.

Adric, who was feeling cold and dejected, slowly pushed his way through the thick foliage, unable to understand why the villagers had chosen such a tortuous route to wherever they were now taking him. As he paused to untwine himself from a particularly thorny bush, the villager ahead of him stumbled and fell.

'This is ridiculous,' shouted Adric. 'Why don't you use the path?'

'The path is dangerous,' grunted one of the masked men, 'especially at night.'

Adric watched as the man who had tripped over got to his feet and inspected his bruised knee. 'Can't you at least light a torch?' he protested. 'The next person who falls over may not be so lucky.'

'Walk on, lad!' snapped an impatient voice.

Adric obeyed, forcing his way through the undergrowth. 'I don't understand.

Why is the path so dangerous?'

'Things...' muttered one of the villagers cryptically.

'What sort of things?'

'Things that come out at night.'

Adric looked at the masked man. 'Creatures?'

'No, boy. Evil things.'

Adric was still puzzled. From listening to Tegan talk about Earth, he had gained the impression that the planet was relatively free of danger. And that even the larger, potentially more hostile animals, if left alone, were happy to go about their own business.

Although Adric continued to ask questions, the villagers were not very forthcoming about the nature of the 'things'.

Eventually the party emerged in a clearing where several paths met. Adric recognised the place, having passed it earlier that day - they were in fact but a few minutes' walk from the TARDIS, exactly where he had been caught al those hours ago. He looked at the tired villagers and considered, with it being so dark, whether he could make a break for it, and if he did, how much effort they would put into catching him.