Doctor Who: The Dominators by Ian Marter Page B

here.’
    ‘He’d better be quick,’ Kully snapped testily, ‘because those Quarks will he after me any second now.’
    At that moment the Doctor was very close, keeping a sharp look-out for Jamie as he darted along the base of the cliffs towards the ruin and stopping every few metres to spy out the land. Suddenly he saw a straggling group of Dulcians approaching, escorted by two Quarks. Among them he recognised Zoe, looking dazed and unhappy in her borrowed attire. The Doctor shrank into a hollow and tried to think, but almost at once a familiar tramping sound behind him sent his spirits plunging even further. Before he could move, a sizzling bang brought down part of the sandstone overhang around him so that he was buried up to his waist and immobilised.
    ‘You were ordered to keep away from our operations,’
    Toba snarled, striding up followed by several Quarks.
    The Doctor twisted awkwardly round and grinned sheepishly. ‘I do try to, but everywhere I go I bump into Quarks and things, all over the Island. Where can I go?’ he whined pathetically, cowering before the mighty Dominator.
    Toba’s green eyes bore fiercely into him for several seconds and the Doctor began to fear that his pretence was about to be exposed. Just then the group from the drilling site stumbled up the slope on its way to the saucer. Zoe stared at the half-buried Doctor with a mixture of horror and relief, but she dared not call out or break rank. For his part, the Doctor was relieved to see that Jamie was not among the party, but Zoe’s plight filled him with anxiety.
    All at once Toba ordered the procession to stop. ‘One of the specimens is missing,’ he hissed.
    ‘Specimen Kully has escaped,’ bleated one of the Quarks.
    To the Doctor’s surprise, a smile of satisfaction cracked its way across Toba’s waxen features. The Dominator jabbed a creaking glove towards him. ‘Take this cretin with the other specimens to Dominator Rego,’ he commanded.
    In vain the Doctor attempted to heave himself out of the mound of sand. Leaning forward, Toba grasped his coat by the lapels and dragged him effortlessly clear. Meekly the Doctor scurried over and, with a crafty wink at Zoe, joined the procession. The two Quarks immediately whirred into motion again, driving their captives away across the dunes.
    Ordering his squad of Quarks to follow, Toba set off eagerly down the slope towards the ruin.
    Inside the museum, Jamie and Kully waited in gloomy silence – Jamie sprawling morosely on a fallen beam and Kully wandering aimlessly about lamenting his humiliating failure with the laser gun.
    Eventually Kully could bear the suspense no more. ‘We daren’t wait any longer. Something must have happened to the Doctor,’ he murmured.
    Before Jamie could reply they heard a movement outside the ruin.
    Kully turned expectantly to the window and was about to call out ‘Doctor’ when the sturdy Scot leaped on him, clamped a hand over his mouth and they both hit the floor like a couple of sandbags.
    ‘Kully... I know you are there!’ Toba’s voice thundered, making the showcases rattle around them.
    They lay listening to the crazed giggling of the Quarks’
    circuitry, their hearts pounding fit to burst.
    ‘Do... do you think he saw me...?’ asked Kully weakly.
    ‘Ah telt ye to keep away frae the windy,’ Jamie muttered savagely. ‘Gimme that thing...’ and he snatched the laser gun from the trembling Dulcian.
    Outside the ruin, flanked by his Quarks, Toba’s enormous frame was twitching with excitement. ‘Now you will learn the consequences when a Dominator is disobeyed,’ he screamed. Quarks! Destroy!’
    There was a sickening slamming noise and the doorway completely disintegrated leaving a gaping hole in the wall.
    Kully clutched Jamie’s arm, wide-eyed with terror.
    Shaking free, Jamie scrambled to his knees, crawled swiftly across to the window and leaped to his feet, flattening himself beside the edge of the frame. With deft, rapid