Doctor Who: The Twin Dilemma Read Online Free PDF Page A

closed with a loud slam. Standing in the hall was Professor Archie Sylvest. He was very drunk. The Voxnic had flowed like a cascading waterfall, but it had not been in the company of computer programmer Vestal Smith. It had been with a less satisfying companion - her husband.
    In an attempt to placate him, Archie had persuaded Mr Smith to accompany him to his favourite Voxnic bar and discuss the reasons why he desired so much deep understanding from his wife. It had required what seemed like a lake of Voxnic to convince him that his relationship was platonic, innocent and perfectly reasonable.
    Archie had no idea whether Mr Smith had believed him, but with the additional comfort of a hundred thousand dollar World Federation currency note, the Neanderthal husband of Vestal Smith had seemed happy to stagger off into the night, his dignity and pride supposedly restored.
    Archie lurched along the top landing towards his hateful children's bedroom. It made him feel better when he realised that Nimo had yet to return home. At least she wouldn't see him drunk again or be able to ask him why he looked so pale and why the sleeve of his coat was torn.
    Swaying slightly, Archie stood before the door of the twin's room.
    He wasn't certain whether he should go in as he was far from well enough to cope with their antics.
     
    It was at that moment he noticed the smell.
    Cautiously he pushed open the bedroom door. He'd been right. He had smelt zanium. Archie entered the room and called for his children. There was no reply. He then checked their beds - they were empty and unslept in.
    Archie began to panic. He bent down and, like an Indian tracker, picked up a little zanium on the tips of his fingers and sniffed it.
    Any doubt as to what had happened faded from his mind. Zanium was caused by only one thing: the function of a matter transporter.
    When a solid body dematerialises, tiny trace elements in the atmosphere called nistron carbonise and fall like very fine, grey snow.
    The Voxnic-fuddled mind of Archie began to clear. How had the intruders got in? he thought. The house was protected.
    Archie staggered out of the bedroom and half-fell, half-stumbled down the stairs and into the sitting room. Standing like some ornament in a scrap yard was the babysitter android - it had been deactivated, something the manufacturers had maintained was impossible.
    He then staggered along to the cellar. As with the android, the house protection unit had also been deactivated.
    Sylvest sat on the steps of the cellar. In Archie's mind there was no doubt that the twins had been kidnapped. And such was the planning, effort and technology required, he was also convinced it was the work of an alien force. He would have to inform the authorities. Whereas the emotional ties with his hateful children were fragile, there were other considerations to bear in mind. He might not mourne their death, but he might live to regret their work on some scheme inspired by evil for he was convinced they had been kidnapped to this end.
    Slowly he shuffled to the nearest transmitter unit. A moment later he was talking to the head of the Intergalactic Task Force.
     
     
    In the console room aboard the TARDIS, things were again quiet.
    The Doctor stared at a dial on the control board in front of him. He wasn't certain why he was doing this, as he was none too certain what the dial was telling him. The one thing that was clear to him was that something unpleasant had occurred. The look of hate and mistrust on Peri's face told the whole universe that simple fact.
    The Time Lord smiled weakly at his companion. He was desperate for a response, some crumb of information that might help him remember what had occurred. For all that was in his mind was a void, a black impenetrable void. So the Doctor did the obvious thing: he asked.
    Peri's response was like a dam bursting. At first he couldn't believe what he was being told, but the passion, feeling and fear of the telling soon changed