Haldoran inclined his head slightly ‘It’s a shame you won’t live to see the rest of it. It’s going to be quite fun.’ His hand lashed out, clubbing the side of the Doctor’s head with his pistol. The Doctor gave a strangled cry, collapsing in pain to the floor. There was blood in his curly hair, and he reached up to touch the place where it hurt. Haldoran laughed at what he had done. He aimed the revolver at the Doctor and pulled back on the trigger.

11

Death – and Worse

Donna ignored the pain and taste of blood in her mouth. Seeing the Doctor in trouble, she threw off the handcuffs, and reached for the gun she’d secreted down the back of her tunic. Before she could get to it, the door to the war office opened again.

Haldoran glanced around, distracted for a moment, and he frowned, his finger loosening on the trigger. A dishevelled older man stormed in, his own gun drawn. It took Donna a moment to recognise Tomlin. Her ex‐husband’s favourite was wild‐eyed and furious.

‘Traitor!’ he screamed. ‘You betrayed me!’ The gun came up, but Haldoran was faster. He shot once, the sound echoing around the room loudly. Tomlin gasped, glanced down at the hole in his chest, and then crumpled to the floor, leaking blood.

‘If you’re going to shoot,’ Haldoran snarled at the corpse, ‘then shoot. Don’t talk.’

‘Good advice,’ Donna murmured. Coldly, she aimed her gun and fired.

The top of Haldoran’s head exploded, and his body was hurled back to collapse across his map table. Bloody detritus littered the floor and one wall. Two of the guards started to move, but Donna covered them swiftly.

‘I’m in a seriously bad mood,’ she growled. ‘Don’t tempt me.’

They didn’t. David collected their guns, and shoved them to one side. Now that it was over, Donna felt weakness wash over her, but she refused to give in to it. It was mixed with elation as she stared down at the body of her tormentor. ‘That was much too fast,’ she whispered. ‘He didn’t suffer enough.’

‘Really,’ the Doctor murmured, sadly. ‘He won’t hurt you or anyone else again.’

‘I know,’ Donna sighed. ‘But I owed him –’

‘I don’t want to listen to you,’ said the Doctor simply, turning from her. ‘Now…’ Immediately, his attention was somewhere else. He removed his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and aimed it at the cases lined by the wall. A small amount of fiddling with its controls brought a smile to his face. ‘That should do it. I’ve overloaded their power packs. The whole lot will explode in about thirty seconds.’ He looked at them all. ‘I think we’d better say our goodbyes quickly.’

David hurried to the door, gesturing to the two guards and the other three shocked men in the room. ‘Time to run for your lives,’ he advised them.

‘And get everyone else out, too,’ the Doctor advised. ‘It’s going to be quite spectacular.’

Donna grabbed his arm and almost dragged him through the door. Together they sprinted down the corridor, running for the courtyard.

‘Bomb!’ the Doctor screamed at the top of his lungs. ‘Everybody out!’

Panicked people followed the general rush for safety, and the place emptied quickly. Donna was gasping for breath as they halted in the courtyard. Refugees streamed about them and then the ground shook. Part of the roof erupted and the wall of sound slammed her to the ground. Sharp pieces of debris and stone rained down on her, drawing blood and bruising her. She forced her mind to ignore the pain, feeling only relief.

The weapons were destroyed, and Haldoran was dead. Her family had to be safe from his insane ambitions now. Relief flooded through her at the sudden sense of closure she felt.

Until there was the sound of weapons being levelled at her. She looked up from where she lay on the ground, beside the Doctor and David. They were surrounded by armed men, rifles pointed down at them. A youngish man she knew stepped forward and looked mildly down at them.

‘Well,’ Barlow said, ‘it looks like you held a party and forgot to invite me. How very rude of you.’

Susan sat alone in her cell, concentrating hard. The Daleks had finished their interrogation of her, and had transferred her to this solitary room. They might simply leave her here to die, or come for her with further questions. There was no way of knowing. She didn’t know whether or not they believed her story that the humans were on their way to destroy the installation, but it hardly mattered.

Her one advantage was that the Daleks had arrogantly assumed that she was merely human when they had thrown her into this room. It wasn’t really a cell, because the Daleks had little need for one in this facility. It was simply a room not being used for any other purpose right now. And that meant that there was a lock on both sides of the door. It was meant to be operated only by a Dalek, of course, and no human being would be able to subvert it.

But she wasn’t human.

Her mind having calmed again, Susan rose to her feet and crossed to the door The lock was about three and a half feet from the floor. It was a small panel, about eight inches on either side, with a depression for a Dalek pad. There was no way for her to manipulate that, since a Dalek would simply place its pad against the door, extend its sensor and make contact with the lock via its onboard computer. But there was a way around it. She took off her Peace Officer pin once again – it was amazing how useful something supposedly ornamental could be – and used it to take off the panel face.

Beneath the plate were the logic circuits. Examining them carefully, she used the point of the pin to tap them, getting them to register. They responded quickly, and she smiled. All that she had to do now was to work out the logic codes, and the door would open.

And, with luck, there wouldn’t be a Dalek guard on the other side…

Refusing to be pessimistic, she set to work.

The Master guided his TARDIS back to DA‐17 once more. What had gone wrong? Everything should have been working perfectly, and now it seemed as though there was a glitch in his carefully laid schemes. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear that the Doctor had done something to sabotage his plans. But the guards had been adamant that the Doctor had been taken as he’d tried to penetrate the complex, before even he could have attempted anything.

The Doctor… and with a new face. He’d used up another of his lives, obviously. Probably through some foolish good deed or other. Despite his best efforts, he had never been able to convince the Doctor of the pointlessness of attempting to do good in a chaotic universe. The only important thing was power, which he understood perfectly, and the Doctor refused to grasp. Survival of the fittest – the weak being led by the strong. That was the way of life, and the way things inevitably had to be. The Doctor struggled against the natural order of things, his foolish head filled with notions such as compassion, love and pity.

Idiot.

It was unlikely, though, that his appearance here was a coincidence. Even if he’d not managed to interfere yet, he was bound to do so before very much longer. And somehow, the Doctor always evaded his traps. It was frustrating in one way, and yet… what the Master wanted more than anything from his old friend‐turned‐foe was for the Doctor to see the Master win and admit for once which of them was superior. Killing him would prove it, but that way the Doctor couldn’t acknowledge his defeat. And he needed to have the Doctor do just that.

Well, let the fool do what he wanted – he couldn’t stop this plan that simply. The Doctor was in Castle Haldoran, without his TARDIS, and therefore an hour from DA‐17 by human transport. The Master was arriving now. If the entry codes had been broken, he could simply take what he’d come for and leave. If not, he still had at least an hour to break them, and it shouldn’t take that long. Either way, he’d have his weapon and be off this stinking planet before the Doctor could possibly arrive to interfere.