Free Doctor Who: Fury From the Deep by Victor Pemberton Page A

quickly interceded. 'I promise you, sir, I did hear something... '
    Robson ignored the Chief, and directed his fury towards the Dutchman. 'Van Lutyens, I'm warning you! You're stirring up my men, and they're behaving like a bunch of hysterical schoolgirls!
    Now get out of here!'
    'Listen!' Van Lutyens was staring up at the pipeline tube.
    'There it is again!' said the Chief, almost too afraid to hear the sound of his own voice.
    Robson was ready to explode with anger at both men. 'Did you hear what I - '
    'Shut up!' yelled the Dutchman, swinging around suddenly on Robson. 'Now, listen! '
    Everyone gathered around the edge of the impeller shaft. As they listened, the thumping sound returned. Soon the pipeline tube was reverberating with the alien sound. Thumping. Pulsating.
    Bubbling. Closer and closer. Louder and louder.
    There was shock and fear on the faces of everyone who was peering down the huge shaft.
     
    It's down there,' said the Dutchman, his voice barely a whisper.
    'In that pipeline... in the darkness... waiting...'
    The massive heartbeat was pumping furiously.
     
    6

The Specimen
    'No, Jamie! Don't touch it!' The Doctor was determined not to take any chances with the clump of seaweed, which was still nestling on the floor of Harris's bedroom.
    'Och, why not?' said Jamie, his hand poised above the clump.
    'It's only an odd bit of seaweed.'
    'Maybe so. But if it did move, like Victoria said...'
    Jamie withdrew his hand, and straightened up. 'How can a bit of seaweed move? It's not a living thing - is it?'
    The Doctor twitched his eyebrows. 'Everything in the sea is living, Jamie.'
    'I'm quite sure it moved,' insisted Victoria. After all she had been through with the seaweed creature, she was keeping well clear of the alien clump. 'It gave me a terrible fright. It was like a giant spider.'
    'Well, we'd better not take any chances,' said the Doctor.
    Whilst he was talking, he took out of his inside jacket pocket a small polythene hag. 'Here, Jamie.' He shook out the bag, and gave it to Jamie. 'Hold this for me will you, please?'
    Jamie was puzzled, but took the bag and held it open. 'What's it for?'
    The Doctor stooped down to the seaweed clump. 'I think we'll take a closer look at this.' From another pocket, he took out a pencil, which he used to pick up the clump. 'Hold the bag down here, Jamie.
    Mind your fingers!'
    Jamie held the rim of the bag wide open, and the Doctor carefully dropped the clump into it. 'What are you going to do with it, Doctor?' he asked.
    The Doctor took the bag from Jamie. 'I'm going to find out if an ordinary piece of seaweed really can move.' He tied a knot in the bag, then held it up to take a closer look. The seaweed specimen did look a bit as Victoria had described it: like a huge spider curled up in a heap.
    'Doctor.' Frank Ilarris was sitting on the bed trying to revive Maggie, who was still lying unconscious there. He looked in abject despair. 'My wife - will she be all right?'
    The Doctor frowned before replying. 'I think so, Mr Harris. It's difficult to say. There's no immediate panic as far as I can see, but you'd better get her under medical supervision.'
    'Yes,' said Harris. He got up from the bed, kissed Maggie gently on the forehead, looked at her anxiously, then joined the Doctor. 'I'll go back to the Medicare Centre at the Compound and arrange for her to be taken in there.'
    The Doctor smiled reassuringly. 'Good idea.'
    Harris went to the door, stopped to take one last worried look at his wife, then left.
    'Poor man,' said Victoria, shaking her head with a sigh. 'Aye,'
    Jamie agreed, 'Hey! I thought we were supposed to be prisoners?'
    The Doctor's eyes suddenly glistened with hope. 'So did I, Jamie!' he chuckled. 'We'd better make the most of it. We've got work to do back at the TARDIS.'
    'What about Mrs Harris?' said Victoria.
    The Doctor hurried across to the bed to take one quick last look at Maggie. 'She seems to be sleeping peacefully. Come on, let's get out of here!'