"What a planet! Very well. Set a party to work checking the mud barriers."
"These were the remote-controlled barriers capable of blocking selected tunnels. Their purpose was to channel the mud burst and provide an escape route for those unfortunate enough to be in the cave system when a mud burst erupted.
Salateen said, "I took the liberty of ordering that to be done, sir. They"re checking the barriers now." He saluted again and withdrew.
Ch.e.l.lak smiled wryly. Sometimes he thought that Salateen was too perfect almost inhuman...
When Sharaz Jek re-entered the workshop he was wearing a cross-belt packed with ammunition pouches, and carrying a machine-pistol.
The Doctor surveyed him. "Off to battle? What happens now?"
"I have to negotiate with my arms suppliers. They want full payment in spectrox for a shipment which I did not receive or no more arms. I shall offer them half."
"Well, if you have to go to arbitration," said the Doctor helpfully, "I have some experience "
Sharaz Jek interrupted him. "Your sense of humour will be the death of you, Doctor, probably quite soon."
He moved away.
The Doctor shrugged. "Emotional sort of fellow."
"Why does he always wear that mask?" asked Peri.
Still in the doorway of the workshop, Sharaz Jek overheard her words and whirled round. He. stalked towards Peri, seizing her by the arm. "You want to know why? With your fair skin and beautiful features, you want to sec the face under here do you?"
Terrified, Peri shook her head.
Sharaz Jek released her. "You are wise," he whispered hoa.r.s.ely. "Even I cannot bear to see or touch myself. I who was once considered comely, who was always a lover of beauty." His voice faltered, shaking with anguish. "Now I have to live here in exile, live amongst androids, because androids do not see as we see."
"What happened?" asked the Doctor quietly.
Sharaz Jek sent equipment crashing from a workbench with a sweeping gesture of rage and despair. "Morgus!" he snarled. "Why I ever trusted that Fescennine bag of slime."
His voice became calmer. "We were partners, you sec.
Together we controlled the entire spectrox industry.
Morgus"s conglomerate owned the planet, and provided the financial backing. I designed and built an android work-force to collect and refine the spectrox. We had an agreement to share the profits equally but once the operation was running smoothly, Morgus wanted everything for himself. He had already planned my death...
The mud burst caught me without warning. How he must have gloated. But I tricked him I reached one of the baking chambers and I survived survived."
"You were burned?" whispered Peri.
"Scalded near to death," hissed Sharaz Jek. "The flesh boiled, and hanging from the bones. But I lived lived so that one day I could revenge myself upon that inhuman monster. And so I shall And so I shall!" Abruptly Sharaz Jek turned and stalked away.
There was a moment of silence.
"Temperamental!" said the Doctor. "More of a tennis player than a cricketer."
"He didn"t say why he blames Morgus," said Peri. "Just because he was caught in a mud burst..."
Any sympathy Salateen might have felt for Sharaz Jek had long since disappeared. "I"ve heard that story a hundred times. Morgus supplied him with faulty detection instruments, so the mud burst caught Sharaz Jek by surprise. He didn"t have time to get the mud-barriers down."
"I see," said the Doctor. He yawned and stretched. "Well, I think it"s time to be toddling along. Coming, Peri?"
"How can we leave with an android guard outside?"
"Let"s take a look," suggested the Doctor calmly. He headed for the door, and opened it, just far enough to peep through.
The door led to what looked like an armoury, a small chamber with its walls lined with weapon racks. At the other end of the little room, guarding the door, stood an android, covering the doorway to the workshop with a machine-pistol.
Peri joined the Doctor at the door. "Satisfied?"
"The androids are programmed to kill humans, Peri. My physiology is quite different. The question is, will the android realise that?"
He went to the door.
Peri put a hand on his arm. "Don"t try it, Doctor."
"Sorry, Peri, there"s no alternative."
The Doctor opened the door and stepped through into the armoury.
Salateen came to Peri"s side. "What does he mean? He isn"t human?"
"Sssh!"
In the armoury the Doctor stood looking at the android.
The single eye in the android"s gleaming white head surveyed him in turn.
The Doctor took a step forward. The android levelled its weapon... and hesitated. The android was puzzled.
The creature before it presented the outward features of a human being, but some of the incoming data did not scan. The body temperature was wrong, and the internal construction was different. Humans did not have two hearts. But this creature did...
It looked human but was it? Destroy or ignore? The android lowered its weapon, confused.
The Doctor gave a sigh of relief. "What a clever little android you are!" He slipped round behind it. "Now we"ll just cut out your solenoids. Don"t worry, it won"t hurt a bit." He reached up and operated the cut-out switch in the back of the android"s neck. It froze, motionless. "All right, you two, you can come out now!"
Peri hurried into the armoury. "Doctor, for a minute there I thought..." She shuddered.
The Doctor patted her shoulder. "Me too! Never mind, it"s all over now." He took something from a shelf on the wall. "What have we here?" It was a gold disc, bordered in red.
Salateen said eagerly, "It"s a spare belt-plate!"
The Doctor handed it to Peri. "It might come in useful if we run into any more androids!" He headed for the exit.
"Where are you going?" called Salateen.
"To find those queen bats. We need their milk to cure us, remember?"
"I told you, Doctor, they"re in the lower caves. There"s no air down there."
Peri looked worried, and the Doctor said, "We"ll collect some oxygenators from the TARDIS first. Come on."
The Doctor and Peri moved away.
s.n.a.t.c.hing a machine-pistol from a wall rack, Salateen followed them.
6.
The Magma Beast Sharaz Jek and his android guards were already waiting by the time Stotz and his weary gun-runners trudged up to shaft twenty-six.
For a moment Stotz failed to sec them. He started when the weirdly-masked figure appeared from the shadows.
"Jek!"
"Ah, there you are. I"m glad you were able to keep the rendezvous."
Stotz moved closer to him. "d.a.m.n you, Jek, this is the second time you"ve kept us waiting here three clays. Then you only give me an hour"s warning for a meet "
"I am a busy man," whispered Sharaz Jek. In fact, he made it a point of principle never to collect arms from the gun-runners until his Salateen android had confirmed that the chosen part of the cave system was completely clear of the constant Army patrols. If this policy resulted in the capture of the gun-runners, that would be most regrettable.
Sharaz Jek had no intention of putting himself at risk.
Stotz looked at Sharaz Jek"s two androids, who were carrying nothing except their machine-pistols. "Okay, where"s the spectrox?"
"In my store-room."
"Now you listen to me, Jek. Five kilos is the price we fixed and five kilos is what I"m taking back to Androzani Major."
"Why should I pay for weapons I never received? Why should I pay because you blundering idiots let the Army take them?"
"You"ll pay, Jek, because we took the risk to get here on time. You"ll pay because if you don"t, we won"t be doing business any more. Not so much as a single bullet. You"d be finished in a month without us. Wiped out. So you pay the full five kilosor else!"
Sharaz Jek had been listening impa.s.sively to this tirade.
"Two kilos, Stotz."
"Five."
"It seems we are unable to reach an agreement. You"ll have to try elsewhere for your spectrox."
This remark underlined the weakness of Stotz"s position. Sharaz Jek was the only source of spectrox, and Stotz knew it.
"Ah, come on, be reasonable, Jek."
"Two kilos is very reasonable."
"Everyone knows you cleared out the refinery stock-pile.
You must be sitting on tons of the stuff."
Stotz"s eyes glistened at the thought of the unimaginable wealth in Sharaz Jek"s h.o.a.rd.
"And I know what it fetches, Stotz per ounce. That"s why your threats carry no weight. I can obtain weapons elsewhere."
Stotz conceded defeat. "The Boss isn"t going to like this.
Jek."
"That is your problem."
"Okay. Where"s the two kilos?"
"I shall bring it to you in twenty minutes. Wait here."
Sharaz Jek melted into the shadows, and his androids followed him.
"You really screwed him down there, eh, Stotzy?"
sneered Krelper. "Two kilos what a deal!"
Stotz swung round angrily. "Don"t you try and get smart with me again, Krelper." Krelper backed away, and Stotz went on thoughtfully, "One thing we do know now. That spectrox is stored somewhere, within ten minutes from here. within ten minutes from here. " "
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, Krelper. Tons and tons of spectrox, just waiting for guys like us to help ourselves."
"We"d have to blow away Jck and his dummies first."
Stotz tapped the belt-plate at his waist. "We"ve got these, haven"t we? The androids won"t fire on us, not at first. I think Jek has fouled up in a big way this time. Come on!"