Doctor Who: Target - Novelisations [024] - The Enemy of the World by Ian Marter

Author:Ian Marter
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426201267
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1981-02-14T23:00:00+00:00

6

The Secret Empire

Upstairs Giles Kent was crouched down by the window and was peering intently over the sill. ‘Come and look at this little lot,’ he muttered.

The others joined him. Below them the security forces were closing in on the building.

‘Benik’s bully boys. We were followed,’ Giles snapped.

He turned to the Doctor, but the Doctor had already read Kent’s thoughts. He shook his head vehemently. ‘No, Kent. I haven’t time to prepare myself. We must find a way out of here,’ he cried, furious at his own helplessness.

‘Quick. The fire escape,’ Astrid cried. But craning her head to look along the outside wall, she saw three or four guards already perched on the iron staircase. ‘Too late. They’ve cornered us.’

At that moment the thud of boots came from the lobby.

Giles rushed across and locked the outer door. For a second or two nobody moved.

‘What can we do now?’ Fariah murmured.

Suddenly the Doctor strode to the inner office door and yanked it open. ‘Kent, I remember there’s a kind of service panel in here.’

Giles struck himself on the forehead with his fist. ‘Main air-conditioning duct. Of course. But it’s three floors.

Quite a drop,’ he warned, hurrying over.

Just then there was a violent hammering on the outer office door. ‘Kent, you’re completely surrounded,’ Benik’s voice shouted from the lobby. ‘Let us in. It will save so much unpleasantness.’

The Doctor had found the jewelled clasp from his Salamander disguise in one of his pockets and was frantically using it to try and unscrew the large metal panel set into the wall of the inner office. As he worked, the onslaught on the outer door increased as Benik’s guards started laying into it with their rifle butts. ‘We’ll just have to hope for a soft landing, my friends,’ he muttered, grimacing with the effort of turning the tightly secured fixings, while the others watched anxiously over his shoulder.

‘You cannot possibly escape!’ Benik screamed at them.

‘This is your last chance to give yourselves up.’

At last the Doctor managed to pull the panel free. ‘Use your arms and legs against the sides of the duct and it should break your fall,’ he whispered, motioning Fariah to go first.

‘The file!’ she gasped, diving back into the office to retrieve the precious papers.

Astrid urged the Doctor and Giles to go first. ‘You are both more important,’ she insisted, taking out her pistol.

The Doctor squeezed her hand encouragingly and clambered into the duct. He disappeared from sight, his hands and boots squeaking against the metal sides as he slid rapidly downwards. Taking a deep breath, Kent followed, then Fariah with the rolled up papers gripped between her teeth.

Astrid ran back into the main office and trained her gun on the door into the lobby. ‘Get away from that door, Benik!’ she shouted. Another barrage of rifle butts thundered against the thick hardwood. Astrid fired a short burst high up near the frame, and the attack on the door immediately stopped amid shouts of warning as the guards took cover.

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