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

forlorn hope that the mine owner could offer an explanation.
    Before he had a chance to answer, the Doctor butted in.
    ‘When?’
    Neither woman replied; his lordship’s frown indicated his annoyance at the Doctor’s interjection.
    ‘Forgive me, Ravensworth. It is important.’ He elaborated his question. ‘When did they go missing?’
    The older woman replied. ‘Nowt’s been seen of them since they come off shift together.’
    ‘Perhaps they’ve joined those Luddites?’ Peri’s contribution distressed the women.
    ‘Joined that mob of lunatics,’ the older woman retorted.
    ‘Smashing and rampaging day and night! Frightening folks out of us beds!’
    The younger woman was equally vehement. ‘My Josh wouldn’t join them. My Josh wouldn’t harm anyone. He’s gentle as a lamb is my Josh.’
    If she could have seen her Josh at that moment, she would not have spoken with such certainty.
    Acting on the Rani’s instructions, he was in the bath chamber where, unceremoniously, he rolled the still unconscious miner onto his back.
    ‘You and the Doctor are a well matched pair of pests!
    Now I need a new assistant!’ Directed at the Master, the Rani’s ill-tempered remark confirmed that saving Josh’s life had nothing to do with kindness; she simply did not want to be inconvenienced. She unscrewed the ventilated lid of a small oval container. Inside, wriggling and glowing fluorescently, was a colony of sickly-green maggots.
    Selecting a plump specimen, she held it to the miner’s lips and forced his mouth open. The maggot, squirming, was popped onto his tongue.
    Even the Master shuddered as the miner, his Adam’s Apple bobbing, chewed, then swallowed the revolting morsel.
    His eyelids blinked wide.
    The pupils became suffused with a blue glow. Gradually the blue faded and the eyes stared fixedly into space. Just like Josh’s eyes.
    The Master’s admiration for the Rani soared. ‘I wasn’t wrong. I knew with you as controller it wouldn’t be hypnotism. Not from a chemist of your calibre! What are they? Parasites you’ve specially impregnated?’
    ‘There’s an easy way to find out. Try some.’ She offered the container with its slimy, squiggling grubs, not expecting him to accept.
    He didn’t. Make a selection, that is. He grabbed the lot!
    Furious, she tried to retrieve them. No chance. The Master was never going to surrender such a valuable acquisition.
    ‘Brilliant! Quite brilliant!’ The tribute was sincere.
    ‘When the Time Lords exiled you they made a cardinal error.’
    ‘Yes. They did. And they’ll learn to regret it!’ There was no doubting the Rani’s threat. ‘So will anyone else who interferes!’
     
    6

Miasimia Goria
    ‘Doctor, let’s get out of here! I don’t just mean this office.
    Away from Killingworth!’
    This earnest advice was not the result of thought transference; Peri had not plugged into the Rani’s wavelength. She had merely applied logic; a discipline acquired and honed during her studies to be a botanist.
    ‘You’re in danger! That attack wasn’t random! Those louts tried to kill you!’
    Disgruntled from the protracted and fruitless cross-examination of the two miners’ wives, the Doctor took the acrimonious logic a stage further. ‘True. But why? Aren’t you interested in why they should make me their target?’
    ‘Not in the least. I can’t think of a better reason for abandoning this visit.’
    The Doctor recognised a fallacy when he heard it. ‘You’re forgetting. We didn’t just stumble into this place. We were hijacked.’
    ‘I’m forgetting nothing. The Luddites are not our problem.’
    Maddeningly, he agreed.
    The penny dropped. ‘You don’t believe it is the Luddites.’ Not a question, an accusation.
    ‘Do you?’ he challenged.
    Her silence confirmed that she, too, had reached the same conclusion.
    ‘Until I know what’s going on, we stay.’ The curt declaration brooked no more argument. He prowled the office, caged by his own