The gun-runners had set up camp in a hollow of the sand duties, just outside the caves. Now they were waiting, and the inactivity was getting on their nerves. They stood in a little group, muttering uneasily.
Only Stotz, the leader, seemed calm and relaxed. He was dozing peacefully a little apart from his men, head pillowed on his back-pack.
Krelper detached himself from the group and walked over to him. He stopped, staring down at his leader"s p.r.o.ne body.
"Stotzy, the guys aren"t taking no more of this."
Stotz didn"t even open his eyes. "No more of what?"
"This hanging about, waiting to make contact. We want paying, and we want out."
Stotz got slowly to his feet. He yawned and stretched.
"Do you now?"
Krelper nodded. "According to contract, Stotzy."
"According to contract, eh? Contract says you get paid back on Major."
"A two-day job, you said."
Krelper broke off choking, as Stotz"s hand grabbed him suddenly by the windpipe.
"A two-day job, I said if we were lucky. But we weren"t lucky were we, Krelper."" Suddenly there was a long bayonet-like knife in Stotz"s other hand. "And your luck runs out right now!"
Krelper wrenched himself free, and backed nervously away. "Take it easy. Stotzy," he gasped. "Take it easy!"
Stotz stalked towards him. "You guys have only got one option. You can either stick with me, or you can stay here forever!" He brandished the knife.
Krelper backed nervously towards the ravine. "Come on, now, cut it out, Stotzy..."
"The only thing I"m cutting out is your black heart."
Stotz sprang forward, bearing Krelper to the ground, so that his head jutted out over the edge of the ravine, holding him there with the knife at his throat.
"No, no," pleaded Krelper. "For pity"s sake," Stotz groped in a pocket with his free hand and produced a small black capsule. "The Boss gave me this. Death in ten seconds, he said. Let"s see if he"s right!"
"No," screamed Krelper. "No, no..."
Suddenly Stotz thrust the capsule into Krelper"s open mouth, and then jammed the mouth shut with a hand under the jaw.
"Come on, Krelper, bite! Bite! Bite! Bite!"
Krelper struggled furiously, twisting his head away, trying desperately not to crush the capsule.
Stotz held him a moment longer, and then released him Krelper scrambled to his feet, retching, spitting the capsule out into the sand.
"Next time it"ll be for real," said Stotz. He went back to his back-pack, stretched out and began to doze.
The gleaming eye in the blank white face of the android guard followed Peri to and fro as she stamped awkwardly about the workshop.
The Doctor, who had been dozing uneasily on one of the benches, opened his eyes. "What"s the matter, Peri?"
"Cramp," said Peri briefly, and went on stamping.
"Try touching your toes."
Peri obeyed.
""That"s it," encouraged the Doctor. "And again!"
Sharaz Jek appeared in the doorway. "Working up an appet.i.te? Salateen will be bringing your food shortly."
Pert stared at him. "Major Salateen? Have you captured him too?"
"Quite some time ago, my dear."
"But we saw him he was at HQ."
"I imagine the Salateen we saw was an android," said the Doctor gently. "The real Salateen is a prisoner here, like us." He turned to Sharaz Jek. "We haven"t met him yet.
Where is he chained up?"
Sharaz Jek smiled or at least, the lips beneath the mouth-slit seemed to twitch. "Chains are unnecessary here, Doctor, as you will discover!"
Sharaz Jek seemed fascinated by Peri. He moved towards her, as if drawn by sonic magnetic attraction, and stood gazing down at her.
Peri stared defiantly up at him. "Why are you keeping us here?"
"Oh, my exquisite child," whispered Sharaz Jek. "How could I ever let you go? The sight of beauty is so important to me." He glanced hricll at the Doctor. "Not to mention the stimulus of a mind nearly equal to my own."
The Doctor gave him an indignant look. "Thank you!"
The hoa.r.s.e voice went on, whispering in Peri"s ear. "I have missed so much of life, these last lonely years. Now your arrival has changed all that. We shall become the best of friends."
The Doctor raised his voice challengingly. "What do you say, Peri? We can go on nature walks in the caves, have picnics and jolly evenings round the camp fire."
Sharaz Jek swung round menacingly. "Do not mock me, Doctor. Beauty I must have but you are dispensable."
The Doctor bowed mockingly. "Thank you," he said again.
Sharaz Jek stalked towards him, staring down into the Doctor"s face. The Doctor met his gaze unflinchingly.
"You have the mouth of a prattling. jackanapes," said Sharaz Jek thoughtfully. "Yet your eyes tell a different story." He turned indifferently away. "No matter. I shall break you to my will and if I cannot break you, then I shall kill you." He turned kick to Peri. "But you, my child, will live forever Peri stared at him. "n.o.body lives forever."
"He means it will seem like forever," said the Doctor irrepressibly.
"Spectrox is the key to eternal life, holding at bay the ravages of time," whispered Sharaz Jek huskily. "The flower of your beauty will be as permanent as a precious jewel untarnished by the pa.s.sing years."
"Well, well, well," said the Doctor. "Now we know why spectrox is the most valuable substance in the universe "
"It is indeed," croaked Sharar Jek. "And it is mine - all of it!"
"Until the Army take it away from you," said the Doctor matter-of-facty.
"That possibility does not exist, Doctor. I know every move they make"
Peri did her best to support the Doctor. "Knowing what the Army"s doing and stopping them from doing it, are two different things."
"Exactly," said the Doctor, "General Ch.e.l.lak is working to a plan. I"ve seen his operations board."
"Have you, Doctor."" sneered Sharez Jek. "Then see mine" He strcxle over to a console and stabbed at controls.
Immediately a computer neap lit up, showing a cross-section of the labyrinthine cave systems, shaded in different colours.
The Doctor studied the map eagerly, committing it to memory as he did so. "What"s this green area here?"
"That is the area held by the Army"
"So, they"ve already sealed you off to the north?"
"Already?" Sharaz Jek laughed mockingly. "To get that far has taken Ch.e.l.lak six months, and it has cost him hundreds of casualties. Computing that same rate of advance as standard, it will be another five years before I am seriously threatened!"
"Perhaps so. But what"s five years when you"re having a good war?"
Sharaz Jek"s voice was shaking with anger. "The people of Androzani Major will not wait five years for their spectrox, Doctor. Long before that, they will rise in protest, and the Praesidium will be forced to agree to my terms."
"And what are your terms?" asked Peri.
The weirdly masked face stared into her own. "They can have the spectrox they want when I have the head of Morgus, here at my feet." The voice rose to a screech. "I want the head of that perfidious, treacherous degenerate brought to me here, congealed in its own evil blood..."
Shaking with rage, Sharaz Jek swung round and lurched from the workshop.
5.
The Escape Morgus looked up as Krau Timmin came into his office.
"What is it?"
"The Northcawl copper mine, sir. There"s been a disaster. I thought you should know."
"What kind of disaster?"
"An explosion, Trau Morgus, early this morning. The mine has been completely destroyed."
Morgus shook his head regretfully. "Tut, tut, how sad."
There was only the most perfunctory concern in the flat voice. "However, the loss of Northcawl eliminates our little problem of over-production. The news should also raise the market price of copper."
"Undoubtedly, sir," said Krau Timmin deferentially.
Morgus smiled thinly. "As they used to say on Earth, every cloud has a strontium lining, eh, Krau Timmin?"
"Yes, sir. Yes, indeed."
"As a mark of respect to our late executives, I want every employee to leave his place of work and stand in silence for one minute."
Timmin made a rapid note on her hand terminal. "I"ll network that immediately."
Morgus made a rapid calculation of how much a minute"s loss of production across the board could cost the Conglomerate and said hurriedly. "No, on second thoughts, better make that half a minute."
Krau Timmin amended her note. "Half a minute, sir."
Proper sentiment was all very well, thought Morgus, as he returned to work, but business was business. The affair had been concluded with satisfactory despatch however; he made a mental note to reward the saboteur he had sent to Northcawl with a handsome bonus.
"He"s mad, Doctor," said Peri despairingly. "Utterly mad!"
The Doctor nodded. "And a raving egotist as well. He said my mind was nearly the equal of his. What incredible conceit!"
"Why do you think he hates this Morgus so much?"
"From the little I"ve seen of Morgus, I imagine Sharaz Jek"s just one among many " The Doctor broke off as Salateen, the real Salateen, came into the workshop carrying two steaming plastic bowls on a tray. "Ah, Salateen, I"d have known you anywhere! I"m the Doctor and this is Peri "
"I know who you are," interrupted Salateen.
"Yes, well," said the Doctor cheerfully. "I"ve been looking forward to this meeting."
"Why?"