Read Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace for Free Online Page A

life – her human life at least. She had been strapped to an operating table by two burly male nurses while Damon hovered over her. He was trying to inject her with a large syringe, but Polly’s struggles and refusal to remain still for even a second were making his task almost impossible.
    ‘Don’t be difficult, girl!’ he snapped and ordered the two nurses to try and hold her down. ‘It’s quite painless; you won’t feel a thing.’
    Polly remembered that that was exactly what the school doctor had said to her when she was seven and was being vaccinated against polio; he had been lying too. She responded to Damon just as she did to the school doctor: she screamed.
    Damon winced as Polly’s decibels threatened to pierce his eardrums. ‘One tiny jab and you’ll know no more about it until it’s all over,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘This will hurt me more than it will hurt you...’
    Polly screamed again and kicked savagely with her free legs at the two nurses at the foot of the operating table.
    Suddenly the overhead electric light flickered and then went out; the whole operating theatre was plunged into semi-darkness. Damon cursed under his breath.
    ‘Not again,’ he complained. These power failures were becoming more and more frequent and increasingly irksome. ‘How am I supposed to work in conditions like these?’ He threw down the syringe onto a nearby worktop in disgust, and angrily pulled off his surgical gloves and mask. ‘Look after the girl,’ he instructed the nurses. ‘I’ll go and speak to Zaroff myself. Perhaps he’ll listen to me.’
    And with that Damon stalked out of the clinic, leaving Polly and the two nurses alone in the darkness.
     
    ‘Do you like my laboratory, Doctor?’
    The Doctor spun round from the control panel he had been examining. There was a guilty expression on his face like that of a naughty schoolboy caught stealing apples.
    Zaroff eyed him suspiciously.
    ‘Er – I beg your pardon?’
    ‘My laboratory,’ repeated Zaroff. ‘You find it all very impressive, yes?’
    The Doctor shook his head. ‘No, not a bit.’
    Zaroff frowned. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked coldly.
    ‘I expected no less of the great Professor Zaroff,’ the Doctor said slyly.
    Zaroffs mouth widened into a large toothy grin as the Doctor’s flattery had its desired effect. ‘Yes, I have come a long way in my research,’ he boasted. ‘And luckily the riches of Atlantis and its ample mineral supplies have provided ample means... But enough of this talk. I would like you to meet a friend of mine. Come.’
    He led the Doctor across the floor of the laboratory.
    There at the far end of the room in a huge water-filled glass tank was the largest octopus the Doctor had seen in his life.
    He watched on in amazement as Zaroff tapped the glass, just as if he might have been patting a pet dog.
    ‘So you’re hungry today, Neptune?’ he said to his bizarre pet. ‘Did we forget to feed you?’ He turned back to the Doctor. ‘He is beautiful, isn’t he?’
    ‘Oh yes indeed,’ muttered the Doctor, hoping he sounded sincere. For his part he had always preferred cats.
    ‘Yes, and he will never betray me,’ Zaroff went on, almost talking to himself. ‘Not like those in the world above.’
    The Doctor was about to ask Zaroff to explain that last remark when Damon stormed into the room. ‘Professor –’
    he began.
    Zaroff waved him away. ‘Not now, Damon,’ he said wearily. ‘Can’t you see I’m talking to my friend here?’
    But Damon was not to be dissuaded now. ‘I cannot wait, Professor. If I’m to operate on the girl I must have light.’
    ‘One operation on one girl. You are making an unnecessary fuss, Damon.’
    ‘I know what’s going on,’ the surgeon claimed indignantly. ‘You’re using so much power on the Project that all civil use is being curtailed.’
    ‘Ridiculous!’ snapped Zaroff and for a moment Damon thought he had gone too far. ‘There’s nothing wrong