"Before our visitors turn off the engines and come knocking on Mount Tarsus"s door," said the Doctor, striding from the room. "Whatever they"ve come for, it has to be inside that volcano. But have they come because it"s woken up or has it woken up because they"ve come?"
The billycan Basel had placed over the magma blob finally shook so much that it disturbed the canisters stacked on top of it. They tumbled to the ground in a clattering heap.
The magma form had long since tunnelled away. But the creatures it had transformed below ground had lingered, tiny lives frozen while alien proteins reworked their cells. Now they were ready to move again.
Hundreds of gleaming bodies swarmed up from the earth, their twisted legs clanging against the warm metal, huge, bent pincers opening and closing like scissors, puncturing the surface of the cans. Soon, thousands more were pouring out from behind the storehouse. They went on gathering in greater and greater numbers. 56 In life the driver ants had fought unthinkingly for queen and colony. But now they were working for a higher power.
The night was only a little cooler than the day, and just as dusty. The sky was a rich purple-black, like a new bruise, swelling over the crops, the volcano and the distant dunes and mountains.
Rose did her best to keep up with the others, rubbing grit from her eyes and determined not to let on how much her ankle hurt. The moon was broad and big above, comfortingly familiar in a strange place and time, its silvery light drowned by the lantern-posts set along the paths of the compound. Basel kept looking round nervously, as if he expected something nasty to come hurtling out of the crop field. But Adiel kept staring straight ahead, walking quickly. They reached a large metal door set into a rocky slope. Adiel keyed in a code and it opened on to darkness. She flicked a switch and red light seeped out from circular lamps in the tunnel walls.
"Can we leave the door unlocked?" Rose asked a little nervously.
"Yes," said Adiel, pa.s.sing them each a torch. "That"s a good idea. Come on. It"s this way."
Rose and Basel followed her, traipsing along through the cool, crimson gloom. The pa.s.sage widened and the slippery mess beneath Rose"s feet told her she was back in bat territory. Then the lights stopped, and they all flicked on their torches. The blood-red shadows grew thicker, shifting all around them. Rose"s eyes kept trying to make sense of the weird, twisted rock formations, finding monstrous faces and staring, misshapen eyes. It was horrible. But Adiel was not distracted. She didn"t waver once on her convoluted course.
"Knows her way around, doesn"t she?" Rose whispered.
"Yeah. How many times you been down here, Adiel?" Basel demanded. "There"s been no development work in this area for almost a year."
"That"s what we"re supposed to believe," said Adiel mysteriously. She stopped by a side tunnel. "It"s through here the golden panel I told you about. Go check it."
Wielding his torch like a weapon, Basel ducked under a set of toothy 57 stalact.i.tes and crept along the narrow pa.s.sage. Rose kept close behind him.
Solomon swung the pick-up round the b.u.mpy dirt track that skirted the volcano, trying to miss the largest potholes. The Doctor was balancing in the back, pointing his gadget at the steep slopes like it was an old film camera, laughing and shouting, "Bellissimo!" every few seconds. "Work with me, baby! Yes, come on, you know you want to!"
"Are you seeing inside?" Solomon called to him.
"Imaging very nicely, ta," the Doctor informed him.
"What"s there?"
"Not sure. So much data tons of the stuff! But mushrooms apart, I don"t think it"s organic."
"Huh?"
"Not living. Not alive."
Solomon felt a little happier. "So it"s dead, then?"
Suddenly the sky lit up as if lightning was striking striking again and again in quick succession. The world became bleached out bright and white. Dazzled, Solomon stamped on the brakes. The Doctor was thrown forwards on to his face. The engine coughed and died, and the light bled quickly from the night.
"What was that?" Solomon whispered, staring round, afraid. The night sky was silent and clear, no storm impending, no planes or choppers up there.
The Doctor picked himself up from the dusty floor of the pick-up.
"I don"t know," he said, peering at his little screen. "But it gave the volcano a fright."
Solomon turned to him angrily. "Could you be serious just for once?"
"The dataget picked up a ma.s.sive energy surge," he said over the noisy ticking of the engine as it started to cool. "Not only from that lightning-flash effect but from inside Mount Tarsus."
Rose followed Basel through the tunnel, focusing on his crimson b.u.t.t bobbing in front of her. It wasn"t a brilliant view, but the best available. 58 The walls seemed to be closing in on them, distorted faces leering out from the dark rock.
Suddenly Basel stopped.
"What is it?" said Rose breathlessly, craning to see past him.
"Dead end." he reported. "There"s nothing!"
Rose spun round, started to make her way back. "Adiel, you"ve got the wrong "
Bang. She b.u.mped into something that wasn"t there, and Basel b.u.mped into the back of her.
A dark silhouette appeared in the muddy, b.l.o.o.d.y light.
"Adiel, what the h.e.l.l is this?" Basel stormed, striking his fist against the invisible barrier.
"Roof prop." she informed him. "A simple cushion of charged air between ground and "
"I know, it"s a construction tool," he snapped. "Now turn it off so we can get out."
"I can"t let you go yet, it"s too important." she said, the weird acoustics taking her whisper and making it something low, cold, almost inhuman. "Rose, you"d tell the Doctor, who would tell Fynn "
"He"s not like that!" Rose started.
"and Basel, you might try to interfere to keep Solomon out of the firing line."
"When that lot get here we"re all in the firing line!" he protested.
"I can"t take any chances."
"You"re taking one h.e.l.l of a chance." Basel hissed back, "and everyone"s lives are at risk. You"ll need the State Guards to take care of that lot."
"What lot?" Rose banged uselessly on the wall of air herself. "Will someone just tell me what"s going on?"
"The attack will come in the next few hours." Adiel continued.
"You"re well clear of the route they"ll take to reach the compound. In any case, they won"t be able to get through the barrier. It"s set to switch off in eight hours" time or at my override, whichever comes first."
"We might not have enough air for eight hours!" Basel argued. 59 "C"mon, Adiel," said Rose, trying to stay calm. "This is stupid, yeah? We"ll keep quiet if that"s what you "
"Yes." she said. "I think you should keep quiet and not draw attention to yourselves." Then she turned and walked quickly away. "I"m sorry."
she called back over her shoulder. "This will all be finished soon."
"Come back!" Basel kicked the invisible shield. "Let us out!"
"Pack it in," Rose told him. "You"ll use up our air faster."
"She can"t do this to us!" He kicked the rock wall instead then jumped about, holding his foot and swearing.
"I"m swooning at your manliness," said Rose drily. "Just calm down and tell me what is she on about? What attack? What"s going "
He rounded on her, trembling with anger or maybe fear. "Local villagers, right? Starving to death, and what little they"ve got is taken off them by bandits, robbers, murderers organised into rebel groups against central government. And the village is built right over some of these tunnels."
"And what, Solomon"s been using them to get food out to the villagers?" she asked. "Trying to help?"
"Right. But the wrong kind of help as far as Adiel and her welleducated mates are concerned. They want to get the rebels locked up, out the picture. Standing up to the government is fine, but not when you"re killing innocent people to do it."
Rose remembered the accusations levelled at her and the Doctor when they arrived. "So she"s an activist!"
"This is about more than just politics. She"s always had it in for Fynn. It"s like she blames him for something." He sighed and shook his head. "I dunno. She won"t let anyone close. . . "
"Sounds like whoever"s attacking"s gonna be too close to us," Rose prompted him. "What have we got to look forward to?"
"Adiel told the village leader Talib, his name is to make sure those robbers and bandits saw him coming down here, knowing they"d follow him. Knowing they"d find out about this place." He shook his head. "They"re starving too so why settle for stealing Solomon"s free handouts when they can get into the unit through these tunnels and take all the food they want by force?"
60.Rose understood. "Only she"ll have tipped off security, who"ll be ready for them."
"I"ve heard Solomon talking about those rebels. Some of them, after all that time on the run. . . they"re animals, Rose. Killers." He slammed his palm against the invisible barrier once again. "They ain"t about to come quietly."
"And that"s happening tonight?"
"According to Talib"s spies. Adiel came here to meet him like she"d arranged and that"s when she saw Solomon."
"Playing with his golden panel." Rose bit her lip. "At least, that"s her story."
Basel frowned. "What d"you mean?"
"She was acting sort of strange, wasn"t she? And that necklace. . . "
She forced an airy shrug and a smile. "Oh, well. Bandits and murderers, that"s not so bad, is it? It"s almost a relief. Thought she was possessed, but now we know she"s just bonkers."
"What are you on about?"
Rose shrugged. "Well, I was starting to think she came down here to meet. . . "
Her voice dried in her throat as a bizarre, misshapen silhouette stole into sight around the corner of the narrow pa.s.sage.
". . . aliens." Rose concluded, wishing she"d kept her big gob shut. The creature"s head was thin and spiked like a cactus. Its neck was fat like a giant toad"s, billowing out and then sucking back in. Two spindly arms stuck out on either side of the blobby body, each ending in a heavy-duty pincer like a crab"s. Its many legs were thin and clacked together like a bundle of dry sticks.
Rose was glad she couldn"t make out the finer details of the alien"s anatomy as it scuttled across the blood-red stone towards them. 61 [image]
Rose recoiled from the creature, but Basel just stood there, staring in shock.
"What the h.e.l.l is that thing?" he croaked.
"Dunno. But it"s all right, we"re safe," she told him, forcing a smile.
"There"s Adiel"s invisible wall thing, remember? We can"t get out, but that thing can"t get in."
The silent, shadowy creature produced a tubular object from somewhere, clamped carefully in one of its pincers. It pointed the tube at the roof prop generator and a green glow appeared. A worrying fizzing noise started up from ground level.
"Great," said Rose. " Lock-picking Lock-picking crab-cactus thing." She turned and started running back down the tunnel. "Come on." crab-cactus thing." She turned and started running back down the tunnel. "Come on."
Basel stared after her. "But it"s a dead end," he protested.
"It"s dead us if we don"t find a way through. Come on!"
The shadows blurred and shifted in the red glare of the torch as they pelted down the narrow pa.s.sage. Soon Rose was on her knees, shuffling along as the tunnel dwindled to a crawl-s.p.a.ce. It felt as if tons of rock were pressing in all around her, and behind, any moment now, that hideous thing would be looming up to do. . . what? She shuddered. It was a cactuscrab toad monster with about a gazillion 63 legs Rose doubted it wanted to start a nice conversation about the weather.
"See, the roof"s caved in," Basel hissed.
"Then we have to dig ourselves out," said Rose. "Or do you fancy letting pincer-features have a go?"
He pushed past her and started clawing at the packed pile of rubble, faster and faster.
"Yes!" Rose hissed as he pulled away a large chunk of rock, reaching in to help clear the pile of smaller stones it had dislodged. But suddenly she realised something had changed. It wasn"t that she could hear something her ears were adjusting to the absence of sound.
"Oh, G.o.d. That thing"s turned off the barrier. It"ll be coming."
Clack-clacketty-clack. . .
Rose felt her nails breaking, her fingers bleeding as she scratched at the rock pile, or at Basel"s hands when they got in the way. They worked in terrified silence, little whimpers building at the back of Basel"s throat. Another slab of stone came free.
"That"s enough for us to wriggle through," Rose declared. "Get going."
"You go first," said Basel. "Then if I get stuck, you can pull me through."
There was no time to argue. Rose dived into the narrow hole they had made, felt the rock dig into her shoulders and scuff the bare flesh at the top of her arms. But the thought of that bristling shadow falling over her pushed her on. She gritted her teeth, sucked in her stomach and hauled herself through, heart banging like a ba.s.s bin in a club. To her relief, there was actually somewhere to go; the tunnel seemed to open up a bit.
"Quick," Rose shouted, scouting ahead a little way. The tunnel curled round to the right. "Come on, Basel!" She turned to find his head pushed through the gap, and a few moments later his shoulders had cleared too. But then he stopped, gasped with pain. "Has it got you?"
"My wallet"s digging in," he croaked.
"Never mind that!"
"You don"t know where it"s digging in!"
64.She grabbed hold of his arms and heaved with all her strength. "I"ll do a lot worse to you if you don"t get on with it!"
He burst out through the crevice like a banana squeezed from its skin shrieking as he did so.
Rose crouched down beside him. "You OK? Did I hurt you?"
Basel got up painfully. Rose saw that his bare leg was cut and bleeding. "That thing got hold of me," he said shakily. "Almost took my ankle off. What the h.e.l.l is "