The President chose his words carefully. "Not immediately. However, if the military stalemate continues..." He shrugged. "The Praesidium wants its spectrox, Morgus."
The door opened and Krau Timmin appeared.
Morgus looked up impatiently at her. "Yes, what is it?"
"It is time for the executions, sir."
General Ch.e.l.lak stood watching grim-faced as the firing squad firmed a line before the execution stakes, and ordered arms. Nervously he fiddled with the ceremonial sword at his side. He nodded to Salateen who marched up to the cell.
The door was unlocked and Salateen went inside. The Doctor and Peri stood side by side, looking towards him, their faces unnaturally calm. They were already wearing the long hooded red cloaks that had been brought to them a short time before.
"Are you ready?" asked Salateen.
The Doctor and Peri nodded.
In his workshop, Sharaz Jek leaned forwards in fascination, watching as the Doctor and Peri were led to the execution stakes and strapped into place.
He threw back his weirdly-masked head and laughed.
Morgus, the President and Krau Timmin stood watching the scene on the screen that had appeared on the picture-window.
"The President snorted. "They wear the red cloth.
Disgraceful!"
"It is a military execution," Morgus said calmly.
The President snorted. "In my day we"d have given filthy little swine like that a bullet in the back of the head.
The red cloth was for soldiers!"
By now the Doctor and Peri were strapped firmly on the stakes.
General Ch.e.l.lak stepped forward. "Do you have any last declaration?"
"Nothing special," said the Doctor, still speaking with that sane unnatural calm. "We have had no trial. We have had no opportunity to defend ourselves. In short, this is a mockery of justice." So calm was the Doctor"s voice that he might have been discussing an abstract point of law, something that didn"t affect him personally at all.
Ch.e.l.lak moved on to Peri. "Do you have any last declaration?"
Peri was staring impa.s.sively ahead of her. "Just get on with it." Like the Doctor"s, her voice was flat and calm.
Ch.e.l.lak nodded to the sergeant in charge of the firing squad. He pulled the floppy hoods forward so that they covered the Doctor"s and Peri"s faces.
Ch.e.l.lak drew his sword, and held it high.
"Firing squad firing position!"
The squad raised the stubby machine-pistols. "Take aim!"
Three of the machine-pistols converged on the Doctor, the other three on Peri.
"Fire!"
The sword swept down.
The two bound and red-cloaked figures at the stakes jerked and twisted under the impact of a hail of bullets.
4.
Sharaz Jek Morgus looked thoughtfully at his vidscreen. It showed a close-up of two red-cloaked figures slumped forwards at the execution-posts, held upright only by the restraining straps.
He flicked off the screen and turned politely to the President. "Whatever his defects as a commander, one must admit that Ch.e.l.lak brings a certain style to these things, does he not?"
"Indeed," said the President, with equal formality.
"Though I feel the decision to execute may have been precipitate. Some useful information might have been extracted from them."
"They were merely p.a.w.ns, Excellency, ignorant handlers of smuggled goods. The slums of the city are full of such unemployed riff-raff."
"Most of them are unemployed, Trau Morgus, because you have closed so many of your manufacturing plants. It has caused great unrest."
"The matter is easily settled, Excellency. All those without valid employment cards should be sent off to the Eastern labour camps."
"Yes, that might be made to seem morally justifiable. I"ll put your interesting suggestion to the Praesidium tomorrow."
The President rose and began moving towards the door.
Morgus hurried to open it for him. "Naturally.
Excellency, should any special funding be required, my conglomerate would be happy to a.s.sist."
"Most generous." The President paused in the doorway as if struck by a sudden thought. "Of course, Trau Morgus, the irony is, that while you"ve been closing plants here in the West, you"ve been building them in the East. So, if the unemployed were to be sent to the Eastern labour camps, a great many of them would still be working for you, only this time without payment."
"You know, I hadn"t thought of that," said Morgus, with an air of mild surprise.
The President smiled. "Of course you hadn"t." With a nod of farewell, he strolled from the office.
Morgus returned to his desk, and resumed his brooding survey of the towers of Androzani City. He had much to consider.
The Doctor and Peri had been not unnaturally surprised when a panel in their cell wall had slid open, and two replicas of themselves had emerged. The replicas had been followed by two more androids, human in form but faceless. Instead of a human head there was only a gleaming white egg with one huge eye.
The two replicas had taken the hooded red robes from the Doctor and Peri and put them on, while the other androids indicated that they should follow them back through the panel.
The Doctor and Peri had thought it wise to obey. For one thing the androids were armed with machine-pistols, much like those carried by the soldiers. More important, whatever alternative they were offering, it was surely better than summary execution.
The androids led them along a secret pa.s.sage that emerged into one of the cave galleries.
There had followed a longish journey, first through the narrows, and then down into caves several levels lower.
They had come at last to a concealed door in the rock-face.
The androids opened it, and urged them forwards.
They found themselves in an underground base, like a more primitive version of General Ch.e.l.lak"s HQ. Rooms and corridors were thrilled from the natural rock, though they showed signs of having been shaped and enlarged. It was a grim, gloomy place, like the underground lair of some savage beast.
The androids led them along the corridors and into a long, thin, irregularly-shaped room that appeared to be a combined laboratory, workshop and communications centre, with work benches and instrument consoles contrasting strangely with the grim rock walls.
An extraordinary figure swung round from a console to confront them. It was clad from head to foot in a skin-tight one-piece garment made from some shiny black material.
The head was completely covered by a close-fitting mask, with slits for eyes and mouth. The face-part of the mask was parti-coloured, black and white. The lower right half of the apparition"s face was black, the upper half white; on the other side of the face the pattern was more or less reversed. The total effect, thought the Doctor, was that of an evil and demented harlequin. He bowed. "Sharaz Jek, I presume?"
Glittering eyes surveyed them through the mask-slits.
"What remains of him." The voice was a hoa.r.s.e, rasping whisper. "Sit down, you must be tired."
Sharaz Jek glided librwards, staring at Peri with evident fascination. A black-gloved hand took her by the arm and guided her to a bench.
Terrified, Peri sat.
The Doctor sank clown beside her. "Thank you."
Sharaz Jek loomed over them, studying them through the mask-slits with glittering eyes.
General Ch.e.l.lak straightened up. "Androids!"
However human androids can be made to appear on the outside, their inner workings are drastically different.
When the bullet-shattered bodies revealed not blood but circuitry, Ensign Ca.s.s, the officer in charge of the disposal squad, had summoned Chcllak in some alarm.
Ch.e.l.lak studied the bodies unbelievingly. "Androids," he said again. "But so lifelike. I could have sworn they were human."
"Sharaz Jek is improving," said Salateen grimly.
"And these are his creatures. Is he using androids now for gun-running, do you think?"
"He must be, sir. And unlike his soldiers, the gun-runner androids would have to pa.s.s for human, so they could operate back on Major." Salateen gestured towards the two shattered android bodies. "Presumably that"s why he"s perfected them to this extent."
Ch.e.l.lak stroked his moustache. "Yes, of course... You know, the man must be a genius in his way."
"Shall you inform the Praesidium of what has happened?"
Ch.e.l.lak stared agitatedly at him. "How can I? If it ever got out that I"d solemnly executed two androids under the red cloth, I"d be the laughing stock of the Army, the b.u.t.t of a thousand jokes. I"d be finished. It mustn"t get out!"
Major Salateen"s face was impa.s.sive. "There is no reason why it should, sir. Apart from ourselves only Ensign Ca.s.s is aware of what has happened."
"Ca.s.s? Is he reliable?"
"He could he sent on a deep-penetration mission, sir.
Very few return."
Sharaz Jek was interrogating his captives.
"Then if you are not from Androzani Major, where are you from Earth?"
"Yes," said Peri.
"No," said the Doctor.
Peri corrected herself. "That is, not exactly."
"We travel a lot," explained the Doctor.
"Interesting. We shall have much to talk about. I was a doctor myself before the study of androids took over my life."
"Oh, really?" said the Doctor politely. "Well, it would he nice to stay and chat a bit longer, but we really must be going, now we"ve rested. If you"ll just point us towards the surface..."
The Doctor didn"t really expect this approach to work, and it didn"t.
"No, Doctor," whispered Sharaz Jek. "You must stay here now.
"Stay here? For how long?" asked Peri nervously.
Sharaz Jek moved closer, leaning over her. It was clear that his words were addressed to her alone. "I shall make you quite comfortable. After a few years, you will be quite content, living here with me."
A black-gloved hand caressed Peri"s shoulder. "Yes,"
whispered Sharaz Jek. "Quite content..."