‘Cannot see!’ the Dalek howled, its gun blazing in all directions. ‘Intruder alert! Exterminate!’

Susan managed to get close enough to the Dalek to grapple with it. Blinded, it could do nothing but struggle and continue firing randomly. With luck, Susan thought, it might even damage its own equipment and save her the bother. But she couldn’t work with it firing constantly. Gritting her teeth, she rolled the Dalek towards the door, picking up speed, and then hurled it against the far wall. It crashed with a metallic splintering sound, and Susan hoped it had broken some vital systems. Then she keyed the door closed and shattered the lock. That wouldn’t keep the Daleks out for ever, but it might be long enough for her to disarm and destroy the device. After that, of course, they would undoubtedly kill her. But she’d worry about that when the time came. If she could save New London, dying might well be worth it.

It wasn’t hard to locate the weapon, since it was the only operational machine in the laboratory. It was smaller than she had expected, a tube about eighteen inches tall and six across. It was wired into a timing device that was counting down. It was shaped like a human clock, and marked off in increments. If she assumed that each mark represented one time unit, then there was about one quarter unit left.

How much time could she have?

The weapon was semi‐transparent, and she could see small lights pulsing within the device. It was connected to the timer through about a dozen links. Should she simply disconnect each of them? Or had the Daleks planned for that? The weapon was, after all, basically a trap for the unwary. On the other hand, the Daleks couldn’t have anticipated that any human would get quite this far into their complex.

After agonising for a few moments, she saw that the timer was crawling its way to zero rather too quickly. Perhaps the best thing would be to simply destroy the device. She considered the idea. But would gunfire do it any damage? Or would bullets simply ricochet off and injure her?

Finally, she simply acted on instinct. With the butt of the machine gun, she shattered the connections that held the device to the timer. Then she held her breath, waiting to see what would happen.

The timer continued to tick its way down, uninterrupted. But the lights in the weapon itself died out. Susan jerked the device free of the framework, and clutched it to her chest. All she had to do now was to destroy it…

There was a sound at the door as it hissed open. Susan was astonished that the Daleks had managed to break through so quickly. Her weapon wouldn’t be of much use against a Dalek if she couldn’t hit its lens, but she brought the gun up just in case. Maybe the Daleks would fire at her and destroy the device…

But it wasn’t a Dalek that stepped through the doorway, nor was it a Roboman. Instead, smiling cheerfully, it was the bearded man who had started all this. He held a gun of his own, and before Susan could pull the trigger, he fired first.

Pain lanced through her body as the bullet tore across her hand. She dropped the gun, unable to clench her fist any longer, and cried out in pain. Blood welled up, following the fire of agony.

‘My apologies,’ the man said politely, ‘but I do believe you were attempting to destroy the Daleks’ matter transmuter, and I simply can’t allow that.’ As Susan collapsed to the floor, he strode across the room and tore the Dalek device from her faltering fingers. ‘I am the Master. Thank you, my dear, you’ve been such a help.’

13

Zero Hour

Susan stared at the Master in pain and shock. ‘Do you have any idea what you’re doing?’ she asked him.

‘I have every idea of what I’m doing,’ he replied cheerfully. He raised the transmuter slightly. ‘With this device, I’m going to rule as many worlds as I care to.’

It was almost impossible to believe his self‐centredness. ‘You’ve set the Daleks loose on Earth again, all to steal that?’

The Master shrugged. ‘That, as you put it, is the key to my forthcoming control over the universe,’ he smiled.

‘How? What will you make it do?’ asked Susan, helplessly.

‘As you know, the Dalek war efforts extend over thousands of parsecs. And they need for their expansion more than anything…?’ He was acting as though this was school, and Susan some backward pupil.

‘Raw materials,’ Susan guessed. ‘Their efforts must use up so many metals, they need greater and greater sources. That’s the reason they came to Earth in the first place – they wanted the metal present at its molten core.’

‘Quite right,’ the Master agreed. ‘Well, at the same time, I have discovered they were working on a different approach to the problem.’

The Master’s earlier words sank in. ‘A matter transmuter… of course,’ breathed Susan.

‘Alter molecular structure on a very basic level,’ agreed the Master. ‘With such a device, they could simply continue to mine worlds that they owned and transmute whatever they had into whatever they needed.’

‘And that’s the device?’

‘It is.’ The Master chuckled to himself. ‘Couple their device with the power of a TARDIS and the navigational control systems I possess…’ He shrugged. ‘Then… whatever I wish will be mine.’

‘Or?’ Susan braced herself.

‘Well… I could change all of the hydrogen in a star’s core to iron, for example. If that happened, the star would go nova, taking with it any planets in its system.’

‘And you’ve unleashed the Daleks on Earth again just for that?’

‘Just for that, my dear?’ laughed the Master, heartily ‘Come now. What is the Earth to me? As far as I’m concerned the Daleks are welcome to it.’

Susan glared at him. She managed to stagger back to her feet, despite the pain. ‘Earth is my home,’ she said coldly. ‘The people the Daleks will kill are my friends.’

He shook his head slightly. ‘Then if I were you, I’d cultivate some new acquaintances elsewhere.’ Something clearly occurred to him. ‘But in the meantime, I think you’d better come along with me,’ the Master decided. ‘A hostage might well turn out to be helpful, especially if the Doctor manages to poke his nose in, as usual.’

‘The Doctor?’ Susan was stunned. ‘He’s here? On Earth?’

‘You know him?’ The Master’s eyes narrowed.

He didn’t suspect how much, then. Good. ‘I was with him in the TARDIS for a while,’ she said. ‘He always promised to come back and see me one day. I was starting to think he wouldn’t keep his word.’

The Master snorted. ‘He always keeps his promises, my dear. It’s one of his least likable traits.’

Susan grimaced. ‘And you, I take it, don’t?’

‘No.’ He gestured with the hand that held the gun. ‘So I won’t bother telling you that the only way for you to stay alive is to precede me. I wouldn’t want to give you false hope.’

The burning in her hand was starting to die down now. Susan realised she’d been very lucky. The bullet had only grazed her, and the wound was thickened with hardening blood. She concentrated on ignoring the pain and walked stiffly ahead of her captor. The Master slipped the gun into one of his pockets and took out a small rod instead.

‘That’s better,’ he said. ‘Now that we’re a little closer, I prefer to use this. It’s a Tissue Compression Eliminator.’

Susan glared into his face, and there was no fear in her eyes now. ‘The Doctor will get you,’ she promised.

‘He’ll try to, certainly,’ the Master agreed cheerfully. ‘And, you know, I’m rather counting on it. It will make taking the transmuter a lot more satisfying if he knows I’ve got it – and you.’ He gestured down the empty corridor. ‘Now, let’s go back to my TARDIS, shall we? Then we can go for a little journey…’