Contents

Title Page

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Copyright

The Sontaran Games

Jacqueline Rayner

Chapter One

THE ROOM WAS briefly lit up as the Doctor left the TARDIS. Then he shut the doors of his time machine behind him, and the room became dark again.

The Doctor started to walk forward, but stumbled. He pulled a torch out of his pocket and switched it on. Pointing the beam at his feet, he looked to see what had tripped him up. There on the ground was a pair of thick rubber boots and what looked like a toolbox.

He raised the torch, and a pale face screamed out of the blackness at him.

The Doctor barked in surprise, sounding like a startled seal. The torch beam wobbled for a moment as he stepped backwards. Then he laughed in relief, as he saw that this was no deadly alien – it was just a young woman. She was wearing a swimming costume, which seemed strange to the Doctor, as it was obviously the middle of the night. But then perhaps on this planet his blue suit, brown coat and trainers would look odd.

‘Where did you come from?’ he asked the young woman. ‘There was no one here a minute ago!’ Then he remembered his manners, and added, ‘I’m sorry I scared you.’

She didn’t answer, just asked him the same question. ‘Where did you come from?’

‘Just now? Oh, the planet Pootle,’ the Doctor replied. He waved his hand in the air to indicate somewhere a long way off. The light from the torch bounced around the room as he did so. ‘Ever been there?’

She stared at him for a moment and finally said, ‘No.’

‘Lovely beaches, but the sharks are deadly. As in, three metres tall with guns. So I made a quick getaway and ended up here, in your lovely, er, house.’

‘You mean BASE,’ the girl said.

‘Base? Like an army base? Base camp?’

‘No, this is BASE. The British Academy of Sporting Excellence.’

The Doctor screwed up his face. ‘British? So, I’m on Earth?’

‘Yes,’ she replied, earning a giant grin from the Doctor.

‘Great! I love Earth!’

‘Mm. Me too,’ said the young woman. She was giving the Doctor an odd look. There again, he thought, it might just be an effect of the torchlight.

From somewhere to the left of the Doctor came the sound of a door opening. He swung the torch round, making the young man who’d entered fling up a hand to shield his eyes. The youth blinked a few times, then squinted ahead. ‘Oh, it’s you, Emma,’ he said, sounding annoyed. ‘What was all that yelling and screaming about? After what happened to Laura and the others . . .’

‘I can look after myself, Sid,’ the girl replied. ‘Nothing’s going to happen to me.’

‘I don’t expect Laura thought anything was going to happen to her either,’ the young man began. He stopped speaking when, with a pop, a light came on. A soft yellow glow from an overhead bulb suddenly bathed the room.

‘Oh, well done,’ said Sid, turning to the Doctor. ‘You’ve sorted it!’

The Doctor glanced over his shoulder, just in case the young man was speaking to someone else. He shrugged as he put the torch back in his pocket. ‘It wasn’t me,’ he said.

‘You’re not an electrician?’ Sid looked at the toolbox by the Doctor’s feet.

‘Nope.’ The Doctor grinned. ‘I’m the Doctor, you’re Sid and I take it this is Emma.’ He turned to the girl. ‘And I would really like to know what happened to Laura and the others . . .’

Sid led the way out of the room. The Doctor had dodged questions about the large blue box that was now standing there. He didn’t want to waste time trying to explain that the box was really his spaceship. He just wanted to hear Sid and Emma’s tale.

BASE, he discovered, was a training ground for gifted athletes. All of the young people who lived there were hoping to be chosen for the Globe Games. This was a huge new sporting contest. Teams from every continent in the world would compete in track and field events, swimming, gymnastics, weightlifting and more. It seemed that anything that allowed one human being to prove himself best in a contest of speed, strength or skill was included.

Sid was a javelin thrower and Emma, as the Doctor guessed, was a swimmer. Laura had been a swimmer too.

‘We’re only supposed to train during the day,’ Sid told the Doctor. ‘A lot of people do some sneaky practice after the coaches have gone home, though. Anything to get an edge on the others. Only a few of us will be chosen to go to the Games, so there’s a lot of rivalry. We think that’s why Laura had gone to the pool that night.’ A sad look crossed his face. ‘It was only a week ago. It seems like for ever. She was found there the next morning, in the water. Dead.’ He bit his lip. ‘That’s why I was worried when I heard Emma scream tonight.’

The Doctor looked from one to the other. ‘Why? Is someone bumping off all the swimmers?’

Emma shook her head. ‘He means because of the power cut. The first one was that night, the night Laura died. And since then, every time the power’s gone out—’

‘Someone has died,’ Sid finished.

‘Three people so far,’ added Emma. ‘Laura, a sprinter called Joe, and Andy, a discus thrower.’

The Doctor stared at them, amazed. ‘You’re telling me that athletes are dropping like flies whenever the lights go out? Why isn’t the place crawling with police? Come to that, why haven’t you all gone home?’

Sid wouldn’t meet the Doctor’s eyes. ‘Well, there’s a lot at stake here, you know,’ he mumbled. ‘They’re going to be picking the teams soon.’

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. ‘You’re worried that an inquiry might stop you being chosen for some big egg-and-spoon race. So you’re hushing up three fishy deaths?’

Sid and Emma both looked at the floor.

The Doctor grinned. ‘Well, at least there won’t be anyone getting in my way while I look into it, then, will there?’

Chapter Two

THE COACHES DIDN’T live at BASE. Only the students stayed there full time, and they weren’t supposed to leave the complex. Contact with family and friends was forbidden. The training was tough, and it wasn’t unknown for athletes to drop out without warning. That was how the rest of the students had kept anyone from finding out about the deaths.

‘Did you really think you’d get away with it?’ the Doctor asked in disgust. He looked down at the three lifeless bodies. They had been locked in a disused changing room, laid out on wooden benches. ‘These were people, real people. People who loved them are going to come looking, in the end.’

Sid gritted his teeth. ‘Their families would understand,’ he said. ‘They know what a big deal the Games are.’

The Doctor opened his mouth, but the words stopped when he saw Emma’s face.

‘I . . . I didn’t think,’ she said. ‘I just went along with it. I hadn’t . . . I hadn’t seen any of them.’ She pointed towards one of the benches, turning her face away, so she wasn’t looking at the body. It was still dressed in a red swimming costume. ‘That’s Laura.’ She gave a half-smile. ‘My biggest rival. I think I miss her. Maybe she wasn’t such a bad person after all.’