"We know what we have to do," he said, trying to keep his voice calm.
"Yes... " Zoe whispered back. "She"s coming nearer I can hear her footsteps... She"s going to make us look at her."
"There"s nothing to be frightened of you know that now. We have to say that the Medusa does not exist."
"But she does does listen!" listen!"
It was a horrible sound: the laboured, heavy shuffle of stone limbs, dragging across a stone floor.
"Zoe, the Medusa is an ancient legend... You must not believe in her you must not shake my disbelief or she can turn us both to stone... Say after me the Medusa does not exist "
Zoe cried out as if she were in torment: "She does, she does! She"s alive, she"s real!"
The marble creature was very close now: from the corner of his eye, the Doctor saw her stretch out a marble arm, the fingers of her hand spread out, reaching forward...
Touching Zoe"s cheek with ice-cold fingertips, tracing the line of her jaw, cupping her chin...
Zoe gave a stifled scream, as the gorgon began to turn her face towards her and the Doctor shouted: "Don"t look into her eyes don"t look don"t look!"
7.
"I Am The Karkus"
Somehow, Jamie knew this wasn"t just another story. He could feel with total inner conviction, that the words he read on the endless ribbon of tickertape were describing a life-and-death struggle taking place at this very moment.
And there was nothing he could do to help.
Nothing except to go on reading the tape.
"One glance from her eyes would turn them to stone... But all was not yet lost." was not yet lost."
(What was this? A ray of hope at last? He read on, impatiently.) "Suddenly the Doctor found a sword at his feet. He picked it up, and with one stroke he slew the monster... " up, and with one stroke he slew the monster... "
Zoe"s face was held as if in a vice, by the stone fingertips.
She kept her eyes tightly shut, clutching the Doctor"s hand and uttering a desperate cry: "I can feel her hands on me freezing cold, like ice "
"As cold as marble, Zoe a marble statue. Don"t look at her!" the Doctor repeated. "Remember she"s a legend, a fantasy."
"I can"t think any more. I must open my eyes, I"ve got to look at her I "ve got to! I "ve got to! " "
The Doctor took a step back, trying to pull Zoe away from the monstrous thing that held her in its power. As he moved, his foot struck against something, something metallic, that sc.r.a.ped across the rocky floor and threw up sparks.
He looked down, and saw that it was a sword, as sharp as a razor, lying at his feet.
"A sword!" He tried to remember how Perseus had slain the Gorgon in Greek mythology... Didn"t he cut her head off? "Should I use the sword?" he wondered.
He picked it up in one swift movement: the blade was like a rapier lithe and springy. It would be over in a moment, he thought: he had only to use his courage and strike deep...
"Yes, yes: use the sword! That"s what it"s there for!" Zoe begged him. "Please, Doctor do it quickly... Do it now!"
Suddenly the Doctor gave a great cry, and hurled the sword away with all his strength. It struck the walls of the cavern with a mighty clang, setting off a score of ringing echoes.
" No! No! " The Doctor thundered. "It"s another trap the most cunning of all these traps... How can I say that the Medusa does not exist, if I kill her? How can you kill something that doesn"t exist? There must be another way! " The Doctor thundered. "It"s another trap the most cunning of all these traps... How can I say that the Medusa does not exist, if I kill her? How can you kill something that doesn"t exist? There must be another way!
What did Perseus do exactly?"
Then the answer came to him: "Wait I have it now he looked at her reflection... We need a mirror, of course!"
With frantic haste, he pulled out a small mirror from his side pocket, and turned it until it was in front of the Medusa"s face the baleful glare of her eyes reflecting back directly at herself. Instantly, the merciless expression froze into immobility, and the Doctor exclaimed triumphantly: "Open your eyes; Zoe, you"re safe now!"
Zoe obeyed, and found herself staring with appalled fascination at the face of the Gorgon: the white marble features were harmless, the coiffure of writhing serpents stabbed and hissed no more: it was nothing but a lifeless piece of sculpture once again.
"She looked at her own reflection in the gla.s.s," the Doctor explained, "and so turned herself to stone."
Zoe"s head was swimming. She clung to the Doctor, hiding her face against his jacket.
"It"s all right, my dear," he told her gently. "You"ve got nothing to be afraid of. The statue is only a statue."
"Infernal d.a.m.nation take the man!"
The Master threw down his pen in a fit of rage; then he tore the page of ma.n.u.script into tiny sc.r.a.ps.
"The good Doctor is too clever by half! I must find another way to inveigle him. And this time, the trap must be foolproof with no possibility of escape."
At the same moment, the tickertape machine in the next room clattered out one final message and then fell silent: "Cancel cancel cancel...The Doctor test reports... failure. "
Jamie waited but there was nothing more forthcoming. It seemed that this time at least the Doctor had got the upper hand.
Still puzzled, but more than a little relieved, Jamie scratched his head.
So far, so good! Now to get out of this bewildering place... There was a door set below an archway at the far end of the room, and he set off towards it at a brisk pace.
What he did not notice and even if he had, he would certainly not have understood its purpose was a narrow beam of light, a few inches above the floor level, which shone on to a photo-electric cell.
As he crossed the beam, breaking the circuit, an alarm bell was set off piercingly loud, jangling a warning for all to hear.
Jamie stopped short, and retreated in dismay: which meant that he recrossed the beam of light and broke the circuit again. A second bell, with a deeper, more threatening tone, added its clangour to the first.
Looking about wildly for a way of escape, Jamie saw the open window through which he had climbed. There seemed to be no alternative he would have to take his chances on that perilous cliff face again.
He made for the window but as he reached it, a steel grille slid down like a shutter: he was caught.
To add to his discomfiture, a disembodied, metallic voice now made an announcement from all the loudspeakers in the room: " Attention, attention! There is a Attention, attention! There is a stranger in the building... Guard to search all areas stranger in the building... Guard to search all areas immediately! immediately! " "
Jamie thought fast: he couldn"t get out of the window, but he didn"t mean to stay here like a cornered rat the door was his only hope. At least he couldn"t make matters worse by setting off any more alarm bells.
He ran towards the archway and at the same instant, the door opened and the traveller in the three-cornered hat strolled in, smiling as if he had not a care in the world.
"Look out " Jamie began instinctively, seeing that he was about to cross the electric beam.
But Gulliver walked through the ray of light without breaking it: and then Jamie realised with a sickening pang that this eighteenth-century gentleman threw no shadow...
So he, too, was just another illusion.
But now Lemuel Gulliver strode up and shook him warmly by the hand, saying: "Ah! The young traveller I had wondered as much."
Jamie asked suspiciously: "Have you been sent to find me?"
Gulliver nodded: "His companions were in a state of some anxiety concerning his present whereabouts."
"Companions? You mean Zoe and the Doctor. Where are they?"
"Safe and in good health."
"That"s a relief... You"ve actually spoken to them?"
"The gentleman desired I would let him know what place I came from, and whither I was bound."
Jamie began to relax: illusion or no, this chap seemed to be friendly enough. But before he could question him further about the Doctor he became distracted by a sound, somewhere outside the room... An unearthly whirring noise: he seemed to recognise it he felt sure he had heard it before, but he couldn"t remember where...
"What"s that?" he asked straining his ears.
Gulliver listened, then shook his head: "I heard nothing."
"There can"t you hear it now? It"s getting louder... "
Suddenly Jamie knew why it seemed so horribly familiar: it was the eerie, electronic hum created by the White Robots the first creatures he had encountered in this hallucinatory place. He shuddered, and exclaimed: "So that"s the search party they"re sending out to look for me...
"By the laws of this kingdom, every chamber must be searched," Gulliver agreed, apologetically.
"Aye and if they find me, I"m done for."
"You should be put to death... " Gulliver frowned, unwilling to countenance such a fate for his young friend.
He looked about, and found a solution.
There was a central table in the room, covered with technological equipment and below the table was a long low storage cupboard, with sliding doors. Without wasting any words, Gulliver slid these doors open, and indicated to Jamie that he should take cover inside.
"But what about you?" Jamie asked.
"I should come to no harm," Gulliver rea.s.sured him, and urged him into the hiding-place.
"Well all right then but if you give me away this time, I"m finished!" muttered Jamie, scrambling into the cupboard.
"I was ready, with the hazard of my life, to defend his person," said Gulliver firmly.
Then he slid the door shut, and perched himself upon the edge of the table, with his legs swinging in front of the cupboard and he whistled a little tune as he waited.
The sounds of the electronic vibrations were very strong now: and a moment later the door opened, and three White Robots advanced into the room. They stood there, side by side, slowly turning their heads as they surveyed the scene.
They scrutinised Gulliver, then ignored him.
Gulliver"s reaction was eerie indeed for he could not see these intruders, but gazed through them as if they did not exist, which, for him, they did not.
The White Robots moved as one, and advanced down the length of the room. As they reached the far end, a warning red light began to flash, and a series of shrill
"bleeps" emerged from the loudspeakers. Then a section of the wall slid back, revealing a velvety darkness beyond.
The White Robots moved on, into the darkness, and the wall slid back into place once more.
Gulliver had been kicking his heels, staring into s.p.a.ce through all this, and seeing nothing. Silence fell.
After a cautious moment, the cupboard door opened steathily, and Jamie poked his head out. "Where have they gone? The White Robots?" he asked.
Gulliver laughed: "Young sir, I do a.s.sure you there were no such persons here."
Jamie scrambled to his feet, and stood shaking out his kilt: there was no point in starting an argument about it, that was quite clear. "Yes well Robots or no Robots how am I going to get out of this place?"
He walked moodily across to the grille, now firmly in place at the open window, and rattled the bars.
"You desire your liberty?" enquired Gulliver.
"You could say that," Jamie agreed bitterly. "I got in here easily enough the question now is: how do I get out?"
Gulliver appeared to be giving this question his earnest attention: he furrowed his brow, and remained deep in thought for several moments. At last he began: "After some consideration... " And then he paused.
"Yes what?" Jamie prompted him. "After some consideration... ?"
"I was of the opinion that... " Another, even longer, pause.
"Well, go on say it!" said Jamie, in a frenzy of impatience.