Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom by Philip Hinchcliffe Read Free Book Online Page A

tried the Doctor.
    â€˜Chase!’ shouted Miss Ducat triumphantly. ‘Harrison Chase the millionaire!’ A strange look came over her. ‘Good Lord,’ she said. ‘He never paid me!’
    Sarah glanced at the Doctor who suppressed a smile. ‘Give me his address, Miss Ducat,’ he said, ‘and I’ll see what I can do.’
    Twenty minutes later the large, black limousine was cruising effortlessly through the countryside, the Doctor at the wheel. He was dressed in the chauffeur’s dark blue raincoat.
    â€˜I hope this works,’ said Sarah doubtfully.
    â€˜A risk worth taking,’ replied the Doctor seriously. ‘We must find that pod.’
    The road now ran alongside the high wall of an estate, topped with barbed wire, and signs at intervals marked ‘DANGER—KEEP OUT’.
    The Doctor spotted the gateway ahead and pulled the car into the verge. ‘Ready?’ He smiled encouragingly at Sarah. She ducked down beneath the wind-screen out of sight. The Doctor doffed the chauffeur’s peaked cap, glanced appreciatively at himself in the mirror and eased the car forward.
    The heavy wooden gates were at least twenty feet high and studded with metal bolts like a prison entrance. From the look of things Mr Harrison Chase was a gentleman who valued his privacy. He was also a gentleman with friends in high places. On past evidence, their little contretemps with the chauffeur would soon be reported, and before then the Doctor knew he had to somehow penetrate Chase’s domain and retrieve the pod.
    He swung the car in front of the gates and beeped the horn. A uniformed guard poked his head through a small door set in the right-hand gate. He glanced at the car, nodded, then disappeared inside. Seconds later the gates parted and the Doctor accelerated through. The guard stood back as the car swept past, hardly giving it a look, then shut the gates again. The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. He had banked correctly on this being a routine procedure.
    They were now in the grounds of a large and imposing manor house, glimpses of which the Doctor caught through thick greenery bordering the approach road. He slowed down, searching for a fork which would lead round to the back of the property. Sure enough there was one. He steered the big car expertly down a narrow drive and pulled to a halt beneath a clump of trees.
    â€˜So far so good,’ he whispered, and tapped Sarah on the shoulder.
    She straightened up from her hiding position. ‘Ouch! I’m sure there are more comfortable ways of travelling.’ She rubbed her back painfully.
    â€˜We’ll leave the car here,’ said the Doctor, ignoring her complaint. He switched off the ignition and slid gently out of the car. Sarah did likewise.
    The nearest place of cover was a crumbling wall with a series of elegant arches set into it. The Doctor moved silently towards the wall, Sarah in tow. From there they could see the house clearly across a wild expanse of overgrown lawn.
    It was a magnificent Elizabethan manor house, large and rambling, with several courtyards and outbuildings running off it. The gardens immediately surrounding the house were a blaze of colour, a breath-taking profusion of flowers of every kind, but further from the house the vegetation grew thicker and more exotic, forming a jungle-like screen around the whole property.
    â€˜Lovely house,’ whispered Sarah. ‘What’s the best way in?’
    â€˜Not the front door, I’m afraid.’
    At that moment two uniformed guards appeared. They were no more than fifty yards away. Over their shoulders they carried vicious looking sten guns. It was obvious their course would bring them straight to where the Doctor and Sarah were hiding.
    â€˜We’ll have to bluff it,’ whispered the Doctor and stepped nonchalantly out into the open. Sarah’s