Doctor Who: The Invasion Read Online Free PDF

girls waited impatiently while the tape spools spun behind the armoured screen.
    'No information. Good day,' the robot eventually announced.
    Zoe flushed with irritation. 'Now listen to me, you boneheaded fruit machine, I asked a simple question and I want a simple answer.'
    The terminal repeated its terse message and fell silent. Isobel shrugged. 'You see, Zoe, it's hopeless.'
    Zoe's jaw set with determination. ' It may be, but I'm not,' she declared and started tapping away at the keyboard in front of her.
    Isobel looked scared and baffled. 'What are you up to, Zoe?'
    'Just setting it a little conundrum in Algol.'
    'What's Algol?' Isobel whispered, goggling at the complicated mass of symbols appearing on the screen above Zoe's flying fingers.
    'A sort of language for talking to computers, only this is a pidgin version,' Zoe giggled.
    Isobel noticed the tape spools whizzing back and forth with increasingly frantic speed as a cacophony of furious buzzing noises erupted from the terminal itself. 'It does seem to be getting a bit agitated,' she murmured.
    'You bet it is,' Zoe chuckled, typing madly away. 'This problem happens to be insoluble! Delete square... Print out Y to the minus X variable one... Integrate on inversine...'
    An unpleasant and sinister odour like melting plastic began to fill the foyer.
    'Continuous integration... There...' Zoe concluded triumphantly, sitting back with folded arms to observe the outcome of her attack. 'That should give it quite a headache!'
     
     
    Dozens of floors above them, Tobias Vaughn stood by the dark alcove listening to a harsh semi-human voice issuing from the glowing apparatus within.
    'The images of the two humans have been analysed,' it informed him. 'They are known to he hostile. They must be destroyed.'
    Startled, Vaughn glanced across at the figures of the Doctor and Jamie frozen on the video screens. 'Known to be hostile? But how can that be?' he whispered hoarsely.
    'They are recognised from Planet Sigma Gamma 14.'
    'Recognised from Planet...' Vaughn tailed into dumb astonishment.
    The weird machine buzzed impatiently. 'They must be eliminated,' it screeched.
    Vaughn pulled himself together and smiled cravenly at the eerily sparking structure. 'I shall deal with them,' he promised soothingly.
    The machine seemed to glare at him for several seconds. 'Our plans approach completion,' it grated menacingly. 'Nothing must he permitted to obstruct them.'
    'Nothing will,' Vaughn purred.
    At that moment a buzzer sounded on the desk. Vaughn quickly twisted the top of the fountain pen in his elegant fingers and the wall quietly glided hack into place across the alcove. Mopping his glistening brow with a silk handkerchief, Vaughn sank into his chair and composed himself.
    'Enter,' he called calmly.
    The door slid open to admit a tall, seedy individual dressed in a stained white laboratory coat. His greasy black hair was flecked with dandruff and he constantly chewed the ends of a bedraggled moustache.
    Vaughn gazed at him with profound distaste. 'What do you make of these, Gregory?' he snapped, pushing the Doctor's circuit panels across the desk at him.
    Gregory turned them over and over with his thin grimy fingers, peering through thick horn-rimmed glasses. Eventually he shook his large head and shrugged.
     
    Vaughn's good eye narrowed. 'From my Chief Researcher I expect a more intelligent response than that,' he said acidly.
    'I'm sorry Mr Vaughn but I've never seen anything.like them before. Given time I'm sure I could...' he babbled wretchedly.
    'Then take time, my dear fellow,' Vaughn interrupted kindly.
    Gregory nodded, evidently relieved to be let off the hook.
    'Take one hour,' Vaughn muttered threateningly with a contrastingly benign smile on his face.
    Gregory stared back at his Director like a frightened prey. 'One hour. Yes, Mr Vaughn, thank you,' he croaked, turning and slinking out of the office.
    As the door slid shut, a series of warning buzzers sounded and the stills