Read Online Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace by Nigel Robinson - Free Book Online Page B

balance. But the wall behind them was as smooth as glass and sloped outwards at an alarming angle.
     
    Desperately they joined hands and moved along the ledge slowly. It was the wisest and also the most dangerous thing to do. One false step or slip from anyone could send all four of them plummeting into the chasm to their doom.
    After about five minutes the ledge finally widened out and the four men found themselves in another tunnel. This one was obviously man-made for the rough uneven ground abruptly gave way to a small flight of stone steps. About halfway down another tunnel branched out; but the men were far more interested in the bright light which flickered at the bottom of the flight of steps. Carefully, and as quietly as they could, they descended the stairs.
     
    They found themselves in a large chamber. Seated on a small bench and with her back to them was a blonde-haired girl. As she heard their footsteps behind her she jumped up and turned around in alarm. She opened her mouth to scream, and then stopped in amazement.
    ‘You! What are you doing here!’
    Ben was taken aback; this wasn’t exactly the sort of welcome he had expected.
    ‘Do you know her?’ asked Sean.
    ‘Course we do,’ said Ben. ‘She’s one of our lot.’
    ‘Don’t you ever sneak up on me like that again, Ben Jackson,’ Polly told the young sailor, furious for letting herself be taken unawares. ‘How did you get here?’
    ‘We found a tunnel in the mines that led straight here,’
    he explained. ‘What is this place? Some sort of hideout?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Polly. ‘It’s right behind that horrible idol we were nearly sacrificed to.’
    Jamie was looking curiously at the clothes Polly had been dressed in when she had been taken to Damon’s clinic. ‘What are the new clothes for, Polly?’
    ‘They were going to turn me into a fish!’ she said with all the indignation of a well brought-up young lady.
    Despite himself, Ben couldn’t resist a snigger. Before Polly could dart a suitable piece of invective in his direction Jamie hastily attempted to diffuse the potentially explosive situation.
    ‘Have you seen the Doctor?’ he asked.
    ‘The last I saw of him he was going off with Professor Zaroff,’ she said uncertainly. ‘Haven’t you seen him?’
    ‘No,’ said Ben. ‘We heard nothing of him in the mines either... Still, I’d love to know what he’s doing now...’
     
    At that very moment the Doctor was preening himself in front of a full-length mirror in the robing room of the priests of Atlantis – a small room just off the temple and adjoining the Council Chamber. Ramo had provided him with the traditional robes of a minor priest in the service of Amdo. The Doctor thought he cut a very dashing figure indeed in the saffron robes; he had drawn the line at wearing the elaborate head-dress however and held this underneath his arm.
    ‘With these robes you will pass unchallenged,’ explained Ramo. ‘Normally only those who are in the service of Amdo are allowed into the Council Chamber.’
    ‘Is the Council Chamber denied to Zaroff then?’ asked the Doctor.
    Ramo shook his head. ‘No doors are barred to Zaroff.
    He is a law unto himself.’
    ‘Yes, I rather thought he might be... Well, how do I look?’ The Doctor waited expectantly for Ramo’s vote of approval.
    ‘What?’
    The Doctor sighed, bemoaning the priest’s lack of sartorial appreciation. ‘I just thought that I looked rather...
    oh, never mind. Lead the way, Ramo.’
    Ramo took him out of the robing room and to the doors of the Council Chamber, beside which stood two guards dressed in the traditional style similar to that worn by the temple guards. Ramo was known to them and his request for an audience with King Thous was immediately granted. The double doors were opened for them and the Doctor and Ramo were ushered inside.
    The Council Chamber, the Doctor noted, seemed much more like a throne room. The walls were covered with splendid tapestries and