第 21 页

Chukk looked down at his feet for a moment, and then straightened up. 'I think we should go to his laboratory, Doctor. Quickly.'

The Doctor followed Chukk as they raced down some corridors, and through areas the Doctor had not seen before. Past more walls of art and holograms. Through a more open area, with benches and chairs and a fountain which sprayed a fine mist over them. They rounded blind corners, almost crashing into Reptiles going about their business, and nearly knocked one off a ladder as he repaired a burnt-out lighting circuit.

As they went round another bend, Chukk nearly sent Sula flying.

'What is the hurry, Chukk?'

Chukk was breathless by now. 'Baal. Has he experimented upon the Ape hatchling?'

Sula nodded. 'Yes. But sadly he won't know the results of-'

She stopped as the Doctor thundered past her, shouting Baal's name. As be entered Baal's laboratory, he was able to see everything. The holograms, the charts on the screens (the ones he could understand at least), the particle disseminator in the corner.

'Baal!' he shouted. 'Baal, what have you done?'

Baal swung around, angrily. 'Who let this Ape in here? Sula? Sula, where are you?' Sula and Chukk scurried in. Baal was livid. 'How dare you let this... this thing into my workplace, Chukk! What were you thinking of? Think of the contamination!'

'Balderdash and rot,' snapped the Doctor. 'Where is Marc Marshall?'

'Who? Oh, the Ape hatchling.' Baal suddenly stopped and sat in a chair in front of a hologram. 'Do you know what this is, Ape? Has your puny science achieved this yet?'

'Yes, of course it has. If you'd stop being so blind about mankind, you'd understand their science is on a par with yours in many respects.'

Sula hissed. 'Nonsense. If the Apes are so advanced, why do they have diseases? Why could they not build a Shelter like this? Why do they not live on the moon yet? We have all that technology; they have nothing.'

The Doctor looked at her. 'My dear young lady, you are so very wrong. Mankind has that ability, it just has not made use of it yet. Or doesn't realize it has it. But the ability is there.'

Baal coughed. 'But to my question, Ape.'

'He is called the Doctor, Baal,' murmured Chukk. 'He is a scientist also.'

'My apologies, Doctor. As one scientist to another, do you recognize this?'

'It is the double helix. The basic structure of genetics and all life.'

'Very good.' Baal wiped a hand over a nearby screen, and the helix was replaced by a wire frame model of a Silurian, like Chukk. 'This is one of my people. As is this.' A variation appeared, looking like the Reptiles the Doctor had seen on the screen when talking to the Triad. A further eight or nine variations appeared in the room, each one twisting slightly on its holographic axis, making the room appear to be full of dancing Reptile People.

'We, on the other band, are different.' All the images vanished, to be replaced by a wire frame model of a Reptile which looked more like Baal or Sula. 'We are hybrids. The byproduct of genetic interbreeding. Two genetic strains which are too different to breed true when crossed. Maybe Chukk has explained that our aquatic caste and all 'land castes are forbidden to mate. The genetic structure is too impure. Well, the mating happened, shortly before the Great Hibernation. And we are the result.'

The Doctor frowned. 'You're alive. I presume you're healthy. What is the problem?'

'Correct, we are alive,' said Sula. 'But we are sterile. We are the end of our line. And you are most certainly wrong about our health. Most of our people live to be two hundred, maybe two hundred and fifty years old. Our research into our sterility has proven we only have another eight or nine years before our cellular structure collapses and we die.'

'I'm truly sorry. But how does that involve Marc?'

Baal got up. 'Ah, that's my great discovery, Doctor. The Ape chromosomes, vile as they are, contain the genes we need to survive, to correct the imbalance and give us longer to develop a cure for our sterility.'

'I imagine your mother does not approve.'

Chukk agreed: 'Auggi would be horrified if she knew you were actually implanting Ape material into your own bodies.'

'Then she must not know,' said Tahni, emerging from a side room, closing the door behind her. 'And if she finds out, Chukk, our revenge will be very swift indeed.'

'Look, this is all very well, but your inter-Shelter politics are of no interest to me. Where is Marc?' The Doctor began to cross the laboratory, towards the other door through which Tahni had entered, but she stepped into his path.

'Our politics ought to interest you, Ape.' She placed a hand firmly onto his chest. 'Auggi, our mother, would prefer you dead. Chukk would prefer to let you go and tell the other Apes all about us. But the three of us - well, we'll see. And as you are here now, I rather think it will be our decision.' Tahni moved to one side. 'And if you want to see your Ape hatchling, it's in there. I remember how attached to each other you lot were. It's disgusting, all that groping and mauling each other. How primitive.' She went and stood to one side of Baal. Sula stood on the other.

Looking at them, the Doctor was suddenly reminded of the way Scibus and Tarpok had stood slightly behind and to each side of Icthar. He hoped that these three never got those particular reins of power.

He gave a last glance at Chukk who, once again, was examining his own shuffling feet upon the floor, presumably unwilling to catch the Doctor's eye. He, therefore, knew what the Doctor was going to see.

The Doctor looked across at the particle disseminator, and thought of the hologrammatic double helix. What had Baal done to the child in the name of science? If, indeed, Baal's experiments could be placed under that heading.

He pushed open the door, surprised at its weight, and decided Reptile females must be stronger than they looked. A point to remember, a point to file away for future -

He saw Marc Marshall, lying on the rough ground, curled up in a foetal ball. Even in that position, his bloated skin was obvious, hanging from his body in swollen folds.

Most of his hair had fallen out.

The Doctor was at his side in a second, his long legs crossing the room in three strides. He bent over him, checking for a pulse through the distended skin of his neck. He found one, but it was very slow.

Marc's mouth, nose and ears were caked in dried blood and his eyes were closed; he was unconscious. The Doctor tried moving some of the skin, feeling for the bones underneath. They seemed to be strong and unbroken. The Doctor concluded that the particle disseminator had somehow disrupted both Marc's hormonal and glandular state, causing the skin mutation.

He tried to lift Marc up, but couldn't get a firm enough grip on the horribly loosened skin. Instead, he stroked the boy's head. His caress dislodged the last few strands of hair.

'Oh, Marc,' he murmured.

The boy's eyes fluttered open and the Doctor could see he was holding back some immense pain. 'Doctor? Is that... you?'

'Yes, Marc. Just sleep. You've had an accident but you're going to be fine. I'll look after you.'

Marc swallowed gingerly as if he had a very bad sore throat, his eyes watering. 'The man Reptile said it would hurt. He... he was right. I want to go home.'

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck and tried to look apologetic. 'I don't think we can yet. But as soon as we can, I'll let you know. Now, just sleep. Sleep. Sleep.'

The Doctor stared hard directly into Marc's eyes, silently mouthing the word, until they rolled up and his eyelids closed.

The Doctor spent another couple of moments collecting his thoughts. Then he stood up, prepared to confront Baal.

Facing him in the doorway was Tahni.

The Doctor almost snarled at her as he pointed towards Marc. 'Was that necessary?'

'Yes. Remember, we are not savages or primitives. We do not experiment on vermin just for the fun of it. We do not kill, maim or fight for fun. We needed this sacrifice to try and find a cure.'

'And have you?'

'Baal will not know that for a while. That is why the hatchling is still alive.' Tahni stared down at Marc. 'We may need to study his DNA more closely.' She looked back at the Doctor. 'And you will stay here as well, for now.'

'Now just a minute -' the Doctor started, but was interrupted by Tahni's third eye glowing green. He suddenly felt pins and needles shooting up through his feet and legs. With a gasp of surprise, he dropped to the floor, unable to move the lower half of his body at all.

He rolled onto his back, trying to lever himself up, but his legs simply would not obey. It was as if the commands from his brain were encountering a brick wall as they reached his thighs.

As he stared at the damp ceiling, Tahni's face loomed upside down above him. 'It will pass,' she said. 'In time.'

'How... how long?' The Doctor found it hard to speak. The paralysis had already spread through his stomach and was reaching his chest.

'A few hours. Maybe a day. By then, we may have retaken our world. That depends on Auggi. All I will say is that with you here, this time, no one can stop us.'

The last thing the Doctor was aware of was that he could not answer her. The paralysis was swamping his brain and everything was going dark. Like sinking into a pool of thick black ink, he was floating down, down, down...

Chapter Five

The tall, blonde woman, dressed in jeans and a red T-shirt watched as the police frogmen went under the water for a fourth time.

The lake was not particularly large and was almost completely surrounded by shrubbery and trees. Only the gravelled area on which she and the ageing and rather tubby Inspector stood provided a clear run up to the water. The car simply had to have been driven in at that particular spot.

Maya der Voort glanced around the countryside in an effort to stop watching the surface of the water, waiting for the tell-tale black-encased arm to point up and inchcate that the discovery she had so long expected had finally been made.

'Mrs der Voort, it has been eight months now.' Inspector Hoevem was doing his best to be sympathetic - as he had been ever since the investigation began - but Maya could tell he was beginning to lose his patience.

'I know, I know,' she said. 'And it is costing a small fortune in your time and resources.' She lit a cigarette, offering him one as well, which he declined. 'It's just that everything my husband and I have discovered leads us here.'

'With respect,' said Inspector Hoevern, lighting her cigarette, 'you and Mr der Voort are hardly experienced investigators.'

'Unlike my sister,' Maya said. 'Yes, I know. Hans has been at me to give this up already. But it's my sister - his friend - who we think is down there. I have to be sure we're right.'

'Do you know how many people deliberately vanish every year, Mrs der Voort?'

'Hundreds.'

'Thousands. Most of them turn up again, even if only to say they're all right, but sometimes not until months, even years, later. If your sister chose to vanish, she could do it with consummate ease. Especially with her background. How do we know this isn't some assignment she's on?'

'Because her editor would have told us. Oh, he might not say what she was doing exactly, but he would have put our minds at rest. According to him, she was taking a break after exposing that military cover-up.'

'I remember.' The Inspector scratched his head. 'And the awards she won were impressive. For the third year running, I think.'

Maya nodded. 'Each one meant something to her. She never quite believed she could really win one, let alone three. That's why I can't believe she'd run away. She loved life, her job, her family.' Maya sat on the bonnet of the Inspector's car. 'She hadn't argued with anyone, had no enemies -,'

'Ah, well, that's where you might be wrong, Mrs der Voort. In her line of work, she was bound to make enemies. And after her last case blew open that corruption ring in the army, well, she must have upset a lot of influential people.' He looked at his watch and then back at the crystal-clear water. 'I'll give you until six, and then I'm calling it off. I'm sorry.'

Maya gave a resigned shrug. 'Thank you. You've already done more than I expected.'

Inspector Hoevern joined her on the car bonnet. 'To be frank, I admired your sister. That's what keeps me going on this case. I'm as intrigued as you, but out of respect for her rather than family loyalty. I want her to be living it up in Spain or South America. The last thing I want is for you to be right. But if she is under this,' he pointed at the water, 'then rest assured, I'm going to find out why.'

A car suddenly slewed to a halt beside them, skidding on the gravel. After a second, the driver got out, cursing.

'Blasted roads. No sign to say it turned into gravel. Hit that at forty-five kph and you'd be under water in a moment. Brakes would just throw you in.' The newcomer stared at Maya. 'You must be Mrs der Voort. I met your husband a few months back at a charity do. The Art Gallery.'

Maya frowned, shooting a look at Inspector Hoevern.

'I do apologize,' he said. 'Mrs der Voort, allow me to introduce you to Doctor Moere.'

Maya raised an eyebrow. 'I remember my husband talking about you. You made a nice donation to his project. He was very grateful.'

'A police doctor's wages aren't high, Mrs der Voort, but I'd rather see young people's art on my walls than their drug-filled corpses at the mortuary.'

Maya was about to ask why he was there, when an arm suddenly shot up from under the water, sending spray everywhere. All three of them were at the water's edge in an instant. The diver was walking towards them, pulling off his mask.

'Well?' asked Doctor Moere.