Doctor Who: Fury From the Deep (14 page)

Victoria went to the edge of the shaft and looked down at the approaching lift. 'What's happened to him?'

The Doctor was clearly expecting the worst. 'We don't know, Victoria.'

The lift finally reached the surface, and came to a stop with a dull thud. Everyone gathered round to look inside. It was empty.

'He's still down there,' said the Chief in despair. Mr Oak and Mr Quill exchanged a brief smile.

'Well, we can't just leave him there!' The Doctor was irritated with the Chief's casual acceptance of the emergency.

'What are we going to do, Doctor?' asked Jamie.

The Doctor's reply was firm and decisive. 'We're going down there!'

Jamie mouth dropped open wide in horror. 'You may be, but I'm no'!'

'Jamie!' The Doctor turned to Jamie with one of those cumning smiles that he usually reserved for gentle persuasion. 'You surely wouldn't let me go down that shaft on my own - would you?'

Jamie was adamant. 'Look, Doctor, if you think I'm going to - '

He stopped, hesitated, then sighed deeply. 'Och! Come on then!'

The Doctor grinned, patted Jamie on the back affectionately, then got into the lift. Jamie followed him.

'Doctor, you can't do this,' said Victoria anxiously. 'You don't know what's down there. You can't go!'

The Doctor closed the safety rail. 'Don't worry, Victoria. We'll be back. That's a promise.'

Mr Oak pressed the operating button, and the lift rumbled down the shaft.

Harris entered the Communications Hall. After searching all night for Maggie, he looked tired, drawn, unshaven, and numb from the cold.

Price turned from the Control Cone. 'Mr Harris! We've been looking all night for you.' He was shocked by Harris's appearance.

'Are you all right, sir?'

Harris didn't reply, but asked wearily, 'Is there any news of my wife?'

'I'm afraid not, sir. You mean, you didn't find her?'

Harris shook his head.

Price was genuinely shocked. He knew how much Harris and his wife adored each other. Theirs was one of the few truly successful and devoted married relationships on the Compound. 'I'm very sorry, sir.'

Harris rubbed his tired eyes, and squinted at the TV monitor.

'What's happening?'

Price frowned. 'Megan Jones, sir.'

'What about her?'

'She's just arrived from Headquarters in London. She and her secretary have just passed through the outer perimeter gate. They'll be here any minute.'

Harris suddenly came to life. 'Let me know the moment she gets here!' he snapped brusquely. 'Where's Mr van Lutyens?'

'I believe he's in the Impeller Area, sir. Something terrible seems to have happened.'

'What's going on here?' All the impeller engineers turned to look at Harris, who was yelling from the doorway.

'Mr Harris!' There was a clear note of relief in the Chief Engineer's voice. 'Thank goodness you're back, sir.'

Harris came striding across to meet the Chief at the shaft.

'Where's Mr van Lutyens?'

'He went down the shaft, sir.'

'He
what
?'

'He wanted to find out what's blocking the pipeline.'

Harris glared at the Chief with incredulity. 'Where is he now?'

The Chief rubbed his mouth nervously with the back of his hand. 'He hasn't come back, sir. The Doctor and the boy have gone down after him...'

Harris exploded with anger as he had never done before. 'You fool! You stupid fool! Don't you know what you've done?' He quickly turned from the Chief, and yelled at Mr Oak and Mr Quill, who were waiting by the lift shaft controls. 'Get them up at once!' Mr Oak and Mr Quill were bewildered by Harris's outburst. 'Did you hear what I said?' Harris yelled again. 'Stop that lift!'

Mr Oak was galvanised into action. But as he turned to push the lift operating button, the humming sound of the lift's descent came to an abrupt halt. Mr Oak hesitated, then after exchanging a faint, wry smile with Mr Quill, turned to Harris and said apologetically, 'I'm sorry, sir. It's too late.'

At the bottom of the impeller shaft, the Doctor and Jamie found themselves plunged into darkness - and silence. For a moment they remained in the lift, without moving, without saying a word. All they could do was to listen.

Jamie was first to speak. It was no more than a whisper. 'Why do I let you talk me into these things? We canna see a hand in front of us.'

The Doctor tried hard to sound confident. 'Nothing to worry about, Jamie. Just follow me.' He opened the safety rail and stepped out. Jamie followed close behind.

Like the Dutchman before them, their feet echoed on a metallic surface. The air was thick and clammy.

'Watch your step now,' warned the Doctor. 'We're on the inspection ledge. The pipeline chamber should be somewhere directly beneath us.'

Within a few moments, they had succeeded in climbing down from the ledge. Step by precarious step, they edged their way towards the airlock in the middle of the floor.

'Aaaaah...!' Jamie suddenly leapt back with a gasp.

'Jamie! What is it?'

Jamie was shivering. 'I - I don't know. I've just kicked something... on the floor... ' Cautiously, he stooped clown and searched the floor blindly with his hand. Eventually, he found the object. 'It's a torch,' he said. 'Must be van Lutyens's.'

'Yes,' said the Doctor, his eyes desperately trying to pierce the darkness. 'But where is he?' He moved away a few steps, then called back. 'Over here, Jamie! Shine the torch!'

Jamie tried to switch on the torch. 'Och! It's no good. The stupid thing's broken.'

The Doctor was crawling about on his hands and knees in the dark. 'I think I've found the door to the pipeline chamber. It's wide open!'

Jamie didn't like this at all. The dark made him feel far too vulnerable. 'Doctor, let's get out of here,' he called nervously. 'I've got a feeling there's something evil down here.'

'It all seems quiet enough to me, Miss Jones.' This earth-shattering observation came from Ronald Perkins, secretary to Megan Jones, Chairperson of the Refinery Board. He was an effete young man, a devoted, ambitious civil servant, who would sooner die than contradict his superiors.

'Of course it's quiet, Perkins,' said the Chairperson, who, together with Perkins, was being accompanied by an armed Security Guard along a corridor, on the way to the Communications Hall.

'Robson's an efficient man. That's why I gave him control of this Refinery. He knows the job backwards.'

'Then why the sudden panic?'

'I don't know. Young Harris was rather vague about what's going on here.'

'Vague? He said he was taking over from Robson. I wouldn't call that vague!' The moment he finished speaking, Perkins wished he could have bitten his tongue. He had made a fatuous remark.

The Chairperson came to a halt immediately. Perkins did likewise. Also the Security Guard. Megan Jones was an attractive middle-aged woman. She was born in the Rhondda Valley, the daughter of a coal-miner, but for reasons best known to herself, had decided to disguise her appealing Welsh accent in favour of a more affected London boardroom brogue. 'Perkins,' she said quietly, gently arranging her vivid red hair, 'you haven't met Robson, have you?'

'No.'

The Chairperson smiled. 'No. Well, I think when you do you will realise that he isn't the sort of man one pushes around.'

Perkins did his best to look intelligent. It was a difficult task.

'Then what's all this about?'

'Probably nothing more than just an internal squabble. Harris is a bright boy. I sent him down here to Robson because I thought he might benefit from Robson's practical experience. Obviously they just haven't hit it off.'

Perkins straightened his carefully knotted tie. 'But what was all that panic about the Refinery being in danger?'

The Chairperson's smile became more fixed. She never liked being cross-examined by anyone, let alone Perkins. 'Don't get carried away by Harris's hysterics, Perkins.'

Perkins was beginning to blush. 'All I meant was, if there's no panic, why did we - I mean - why did
you
have to come rushing down here like this?'

The Chairperson took a deep, bored sigh. 'We came down here, Perkins, to referee a battle between two clever men, neither of whom the Company can afford to lose.'

'In other words, we're pouring oil? Politics?'

The Chairperson smiled condescendingly at her secretary.

'That's my guess, Perkins. Anyway, let's go and see shall we?'

Perkins smiled back weakly at his superior, then quickly followed her along the corridor.

In the impeller area, there was an atmosphere of quiet desperation. Victoria, Harris, the Chief Engineer and all his crewmen were staring down into the darkness of the lift shaft, anxiously awaiting a sign from the Doctor and Jamie that they were safe.

'Isn't there any way we can get them up?' asked Harris. His voice was echoing clown the shaft as he spoke.

The Chief shook his head. 'We daren't bring the lift up in case they want to get back in a hurry. Mind you, there's always the emergency ladder down the inside of the shaft.'

Victoria was becoming more and more despondent. 'I do wish they'd hurry,' she sighed.

'Mr Harris!' Price was calling from the doorway. 'Megan Jones and her secretary have just arrived.'

Harris turned. 'Blast!' he groaned, then sighed. 'Tell her I'll be right there.'

'Yes, sir!' Price left.

Harris brushed his usual troublesome lock of hair from his eye.

'Chief, you'd better come with me. I'm going to need some support when I talk to Megan Jones.'

'Of course, sir,' said the Chief as he followed Harris to the door.

Victoria immediately started to panic. 'But what about the Doctor and Jamie? You can't just leave them down there.'

Harris stopped at the door. 'I'm sorry,' he said, shrugging his shoulders helplessly. 'There doesn't seem to be a great deal we can do at the moment.' Then he called to Mr Oak. 'As soon as they signal, bring them up. If there's any sign of trouble, come and get me.'

'Yes, sir!' replied Mr Oak firmly, and turning to his partner said, 'You can rely on us. Isn't that so, Mr Quill?' Mr Quill nodded back confidently.

As soon as Harris and the Chief had gone, Victoria swung an uneasy glance at Mr Oak and Mr Quill. They did not exactly fill her with confidence. 'Will they be all right down there?' she asked apprehensively. 'I mean, is it safe?'

'Oh yes, Miss,' assured Mr Oak. 'Now, don't you go worrying about a thing. We'll look after them.' And again he turned to his partner. 'Won't we, Mr Quill?'

Mr Oak and Mr Quill smiled benevolently.

'Creatures? Seaweed creatures?' The Chairperson of the Board was sitting regally in a chair near the Control Cone. She turned to her secretary, who was standing just behind her. 'What do you say to that, Perkins?'

Perkins didn't know what to say. In fact, he rarely did know what to say. He much preferred to agree with other people's comments, especially if those people happened to be his superiors.

On this occasion he merely shook his head with a wry smirk.

'It's true, Miss Jones,' insisted Harris, doing his best to avoid the Chairperson's penetrating look. He hated dealing with Megan Jones. She had the reputation in the business of always getting her own way.

'You can't be serious, Mr Harris?' The Chairperson's response was cool and mocking.

'These creatures have been seen in the Refinery itself.'

Now Perkins joined in. 'By some half-witted Doctor and a couple of teenagers?'

'And by me!' snapped Harris.

'You've seen them?' asked the Chairperson.

'Yes, Miss Jones,' Harris replied firmly. 'I've seen them.'

'Mr Harris. I understand your wife... has had some sort of accident. This has obviously been a considerable shock to you, and...'

Harris resented this. 'You think I'm lying. That I was seeing things? Believe me, there are things you don't know.'

The Chairperson sat up in her seat. 'Mr Harris, I know that throughout the Southern Region, receiving stations are working on emergency supplies. What are we going to do about it?'

'At present there is nothing we can do.' Harris pointed up to the illuminated panel at the top of the Cone. 'One by one we are losing contact with the rigs out at sea.'

The Chairperson rose quickly from her seat. 'Then I suggest you send someone out there to see what's going on.'

Harris stared her out, determined not to be riled again. 'Have I your permission to call out Air Defence?'

'No, you have not. This is not a National Emergency. Use the Company helicopters.'

Harris was dumbfounded by such intransigence. 'Miss Jones, you don't understand the situation...'

'Do as I say, Mr Harris!'

Harris glared at the Chairperson, doing everything he could to control his mounting temper. But Megan Jones was in charge, and that was definitely not open to discussion. After a moment of desperate frustration, Harris turned to Price at the Control monitor.

'Get me the Chopper Hangar,' he ordered. Price duly obeyed.

Now satisfied that she was getting her own way, the Chairperson built on her authority. 'Now then, Mr Harris, I think it's time I talked with Chief Robson.'

Harris's reply was guarded. 'I'm sorry. The Chief is... not very well.'

'Not well? In what way?'

Harris quickly looked around his crewmen for assurance.

'Something's... happened to him. That's all I can tell you.'

'What?' The Chairperson was losing her patience. '
What's
happened to him.'

Harris did not reply. He tried to avoid the question by looking up at the illuminated panel on top of the Cone.

The Chairperson took two infuriated steps towards Harris and stared him straight in the face. 'Mr Harris, I'll ask you again. What has happened to Chief Robson?'

Harris exchanged a quick, desperate look with Price. This was one question that he just could not answer.

At the bottom of the impeller shaft, the Doctor and Jamie were straining their eyes to see in the dark. The only light available was coming from the surface of the shaft, and to Jamie that seemed like a million miles away. 'Can you see anything, Doctor?' he whispered, determined not to move an inch unless he had to.