Doctor Who: The Mark of the Rani Read Online Free PDF Page A

invitations to the meeting. And your face is not one I recall!’ Nor was this bombast; his lordship was plainly not to be trifled with. ‘VIP’s indeed!’ A peremptory gesture. ‘My office!’
    Reaching the office, a chastened Doctor was apologetic.
    ‘We shouldn’t have deceived the guard. But how else could we have got into the mine?’
    ‘Spare me the dubious pragmatism. Came to see George Stephenson, you say?’
    ‘I’m a great admirer.’
    Ravensworth was sceptical. ‘Must be if you’re prepared to resort to trickery! How do I know you’re not in league with these machinery wreckers? These wretched Luddites?’
    ‘Luddites’ was the name given to groups of artisans who were rioting and smashing machinery throughout the industrial centres of England; workers who feared the new-fangled contraptions were going to deprive them of their livelihoods.
    ‘Really! Do I look like a man who would wreck machines?’
    Wincing, Peri offered up a silent prayer at this hostage to fortune!
    Sourly, Ravensworth eyed the Doctor’s flamboyant attire. Abruptly, he took the Doctor’s hands and inspected the palms. ‘Certainly you’ve never done a day’s labour in your life!’ Disregarding the Doctor’s affronted look, he continued. ‘It’s possible you may even be a gentleman.’
    Although sharing his employer’s doubts about the interloper’s status, the guard had other worries. ‘Shall us get searching for them two who attacked this – er –
    gentleman, m’lord?’
    ‘Leave them. They’ll have gone to ground.’
    ‘Leave them!’ Peri was indignant. ‘They wanted to kill the Doctor!’
    ‘I’m not disputing that, young woman. A brutal attack...
    Over thirty years Jack Ward’s worked for me. In all that while I’ve never seen him raise his fist to another man.’
    ‘Well, he’s undergone a change now!’
    The brittle exchange had been used by the Doctor to assess the mine owner. Could the tall, elegant aristocrat be a party to whatever was affecting this area? Were the paramilitary security arrangements there as a deterrent? Or were they protecting a secret?
    ‘The disruptions only started recently?’
    The fine-boned features framed in grey whiskers, puckered with concern. ‘Disruption’s a tardy description.’
    He lifted the tail of his brown frock-coat as he sat on the Windsor chair. ‘There’ve been Luddite riots all over the country. But here...’ He shrugged.
    ‘It’s been more extreme?’ The Doctor finished the sentence.
    ‘The violence has been atrocious!’
    ‘Murderous would be more apt!’
    ‘Peri!’ The Doctor’s reproval was sharp.
     
    ‘No, the young lady’s right. I don’t understand what’s going on. I’ve always had an excellent relationship with the men. Flattered myself I enjoyed their trust and respect.
    Now this nightmare...’
    ‘It’s just the men who are affected?’
    Lord Ravensworth nodded. ‘Yes. Just the men. They become savage. Go berserk. Seem to suffer an utter change of personality.’
    Even as he spoke, in the bath house, happy-go-lucky Tim Bass was undergoing the sinister process which would change him too...
     
    5

Enter the Rani
    A cleaved skull was illustrated on a computer screen.
    Encased in the skeleton’s ivory shell, the bisected brain was depicted in sickly shades of saffron. Like a pulsating caterpillar, a catheter tube snaked from the computer to Tim Bass.
    Comatose, he was lying full stretch on a trolley. The tube was clamped to the left side of his neck. A separate link led to a crystal flagon into which dripped miniscule globules of fluid. On an identical trolley, his brain already plundered, lay another miner.
    The muscular humans in their serpentine masks, had carried the victims through from the bath chamber after the crimson steam had rendered them unconscious. This sophisticated laboratory was the secret cavity beyond the mysterious wall.
    A note of incongruity in the clinical setting was the room divider-cum-mural. The