Doctor Who: Ultimate Treasure Read Online Free PDF

He'd trade anything for a profit. Now you stated earlier that he spoke just before he died: a few garbled words and a string of figures. The combination for something, a set of coordinates or a code possibly? They must have been important for him to use literally his dying breath on them. Perhaps that's the motive.' She looked at the Doctor and Peri narrowly. 'I don't suppose you remember what the numbers were?'
    'We could hardly be expected to in the circumstances,' said the Doctor reasonably.
    'No, I suppose not. Nevertheless, we'll have to keep you here until we've completed our investigations. Meanwhile, Doctor, I understand you have a ship berthed here.'
    'Yes, well, sort of.'
    'Sort of?'
    'Its not a regular model,' Peri said helpfully.
    'Well, whatever it is, I'll have to look it over. Purely routine, you understand.' Her slitted pupils widened. 'Unless you've got something to hide.'
    'If I did, you'd have a job finding it on my ship,' the Doctor remarked idly.
    'He means it's surprisingly spacious for a compact,' Peri added quickly.
    'I'm sure they'll be room for one more.'
    'Oh there's plenty of room,' said Peri. 'That's what you've got to be prepared for.'
    Thorrin and Rosscarrino had been hunched over the navigation table and its inbuilt computer for an hour, calling up star charts and plotting complex curves in its pseudo-three-dimensional depths. Eventually the lines intersected at a particular glowing dot among the millions within the machine's memory. Thorrin read the short string of numbers and symbols that tagged the pinpoint and beamed at the Marquis, who nodded solemnly in return. Arnella, who had been unobtrusively watching from the back of the control room, felt the breath catch in her throat.
    'Will!' Thorrin called out loudly.
    His assistant appeared. 'Yes, Professor?'
    'Prepare to take us out of here. I'll give you a precise course once we've cleared local traffic space.'
    Brockwell took his seat at the flight controls and opened a communications channel. 'Tower control, this is the ESS Newton , bay 37.We request a departure vector and clearance for undocking.'
    The inner airlock doors of bay 37's docking tube closed automatically. Through the observation window the securing clamps could be seen retracting as the compact dumbbell form of the Newton edged away, impelled by short bursts of its manoeuvring thrusters. As it did so, the flying eye silently detached itself from its place of concealment and glided up the docking tower. At bay 53 it slipped into the open airlock of a compact grey ship, which closed immediately behind it.
    Two minutes later the grey ship departed from Astroville on a course almost identical to that taken by the Newton .
    Qwaid was waiting impatiently by the Falcon's secondary airlock as it cycled and filled. The inner door opened and Gribbs emerged, unsnapping his helmet.
    'OK? Nobody saw you?'
    'Kept to the shadows. Set it just like the boss wanted.'
    'It'd better be, unless you want him to give you the eye as well.
    We can't have another duff-up on this job.'
    'It's as good as done,' Gribbs insisted indignantly, as though his competence was being called into question.
    'OK, let's get going.'
    The Falcon's main airlock closed and the docking tube retracted. Shortly after, the Falcon , too, had left Astroville's traffic space.
    Casting many anxious looks about him, sword and sheath collapsed and coat reversed to display a sober black, Falstaff approached the docking-tower passenger tubes. He had made his way from the service passage at the back of Hok's shop by a circuitous route, just in case he was being followed. With a final apprehensive glance around he practically leapt into a clear slot in the tube traffic and let the paragravity fields waft him up the shaft. He disembarked at bay 86 and hurried for the lock of his own ship. Only once its hatch had closed solidly behind him did he draw in a deep shuddering breath and let it slowly out in relief.
    For a minute he rested