第 28 页

Tahni slowly looked at the Doctor. 'Surely your science can repair him?'

'Repair him? I don't even know what Baal did to him. I assume it was some kind of DNA splitting but this planet hasn't developed sufficiently advanced methods to restore him.'

Tahm looked back at Marc. 'We only want to survive.'

The Doctor looked straight ahead. 'No one on Earth would criticize you for that. It's just your methods that need some restraint.'

The rest of the journey was made in silence.

The pale young man was in his office. Opposite him was Sir Marmaduke Harrington-Smythe. Near the door were Cellian and Ciara. There was a knock on the door.

'Come in.'

The door opened and Cellian stood slightly aside as a dark-haired woman walked in. Sir Marmaduke frowned. 'Wildeman? Cathryn Wildeman? What are you doing here?'

The American zoologist walked over to the pale young man, and stood slightly behind him. 'I work here, Sir Marmaduke. I have done for about three years. Even before I went to Cambridge.'

'I convinced Sir John to select her for your Glasshouse project, you see,' said the pale young man. 'Ms Wildeman has been exceptionally useful in feeding me tit-bits of information.' He smiled. 'Actually, that's not true. To be honest, she's given me every security code, every Top-Secret, D-Classifled, UNIT initialled piece of paper that she could lay her hands on. It was Cath who passed Ciara and Cellian much of the information that I required.'

Sir Marmaduke glared at the American woman. 'You betrayed me. What about the others?' Cathryn Wildeman smiled an insincere smile, all teeth, with no honesty in her eyes.

'Oh, I betrayed them too.' She produced a small notepad from her pocket. 'Sir. You may be pleased to know that our agent following up the leaks from Whitehall has arrived on L'Ithe - a small Channel Island. The documentation provided by the leak led her and Doctor Shaw there a few hours ago. Her last report stated that if it was a Silurian base, she was going to seek entry, capture a specimen and return with it to the mainland. She suggested a rendezvous at Smallmarshes since it's in a direct line with the island and too isolated to draw too much attention. We've not heard from her since.'

The pale young man nodded. 'Fine. Send a squad down to Sussex. They ought to be there in three hours or so. Use the stealth fighter - that ought to stop UNIT or anyone else tracking us.'

'One other thing, sir,' said Wildeman. 'The Glasshouse has been dealt with. We have the WPC here, along with Doctor Morley.'

'Any others?' he asked.

'Alas, sir, Griffin and Atkinson didn't survive the visit.'

The pale young man frowned momentarily. 'Did our man leave any evidence?'

Wildeman paused before speaking. 'A few bodies. Including Atkinson and Griffin, I'm afraid. Did he make a mistake?'

'Another one, yes.' The pale young man smiled. 'Still, killing people is what he's good at. For the most part.' He turned to Wildeman. 'I think we'll dispense with his services for a while. Contact him, pay him, thank him and say we'll be in touch next time he's in the country.'

'Yes, sir.'

Sir Marmaduke was appalled. They were discussing deaths, contract killers and future murders as if ordering a Chinese take-away. 'Do you people have any consciences at all?'

The pale young man looked at Wildeman in mock confusion. 'Do you understand what he's talking about? The man who set up the Glasshouse, the man who has gone to great lengths to lie, steal and cheat his way through life asks us if we have consciences?' He suddenly leant over his desk, staring straight into Sir Marmaduke's face. 'No, Sir Marmaduke. We don't possess a conscience of any type because we don't need one.'

Wildeman made her farewells and left. Ciara and Cellian followed, leaving the pale young man and Sir Marmaduke alone.

'The few things I still need, Sir Marmaduke, are UNIT's requisition codes, their secret military wavelengths and their communications passwords. You see, I have C19 where I want it, I now own and run the Glasshouse and so all I need for total control of this country's military espionage departments are those little things. And you are going to tell me.'

Sir Marmaduke started to sweat. 'I don't know anything about UNIT'

'You are lying, Sir Marmaduke.' The pale young man crossed to stand beside his seated prisoner. He bent over, took Sir Marmaduke's left hand in his, and tapped gently on his little finger. Sir Marmaduke howled in pain.

'That's right. One little tap and I've broken it in two places. That's the kind of man I am. Or was. Or will be, even.' He tapped Sir Marmaduke's index finger, shattering the bone.

Tears were streaming down Sir Marmaduke's face.

'Can't take a little pain, eh, Marmie? But you're a big army man. Former instructor in the noble art of survival of the fittest.' He broke another finger. 'Who's the fittest here, you lump of lard? Me or you?'

Sir Marmaduke tried to speak, but all that emerged through the pain was a sort of strangled squeak.

The pale young man frowned. 'Sorry, old boy, didn't quite catch that, what? Try again, old sport.' He broke his trapped foe's thumb. 'Next it'll be the other hand. Then your feet. Your genitals. Your neck. Enough to destroy you, cripple you for life. But not enough to kill you. So why not save yourself all that, and tell me what I need to know?'

A trickle of blood threaded its way down Sir Manrmaduke's chin as he bit through his tongue. The pain was excruciating, but he no longer cared. He would endure anything rather than tell his tormentor what he wanted to know. Seizing on his new-found resolve, reserves of strength he had never known he possessed, he glared into his captor's eyes until, for the first time, an expression of uncertainty crossed the pale young man's face.

'Where am I?' Even as she spoke, Liz knew it was a redundant question. She was in a Silurian Shelter, deep beneath a small island.

She had seen the Doctor and then something had hit her. The Doctor said ... no, the Doctor hadn't said anything. Yet she felt that they had talked. Impossible.

Something to do with stars... no, it must be in her imagination. So, what had hit her? 'A projectile, from this.' A Silurian faced her, wearing a mesh vest of some sort. It resembled the Silurians she had seen in Derbyshire, but there were subtle differences. Her scientific interest was piqued. Different genetic strains of the same species. As humans were black, white, yellow and so on; tall and short; fat and skinny, so the Reptiles must be equally varied. This one's eyes were far more fish-like, and instead of the wide ears, it had fins. The skin was a mottled green rather than the dark and olive hues she'd seen before.

And it was holding a pistol. Liz recognized its distinctive shape immediately. And then wondered why she hadn't before. 'That's a UNIT service pistol, supplied to C19-related personnel only. They tried to teach me to use one once, but I flunked out.' She looked straight at the Silurian. 'How did you get it?'

The Silurian put his (her? its?) head on one side, the flap over its mouth sucking in and out rhythmically. Liz realized it was wondering what to say. She decided to help out. 'It is Jana's. It was in her handbag, so how come you've got it?'

'Your companion had this. She used it on you. She is dead.' The Silurian turned away, dropping the pistol into a pocket in its stringy coverall.

'How? And why?'

'She killed our leader. The Council killed her, just after she shot you.' The Silurian looked back. 'Chukk was a good Earth Reptile. Even Baal thinks it sad that he died.'

'Who is Baal?'

'He saved your life. He is our scientist.'

Liz took this in. 'I am a scientist. Maybe we should talk. You are...?'

'Sula. Baal's sister. And he won't discuss science with you. Apes are not capable of being scientists. You do not have the brain capacity to learn enough. You have brains no bigger than ragga-nuts.'

'And that is very small indeed,' said a new voice.

'Baal I presume? My name is Liz Shaw and I'm a doctor. I gather I must thank you for saving my life.'

Baal shrugged. 'It was of no consequence. The Doctor wanted you to live, so you are now my hostage. It is of no relevance.'

'Nevertheless, I am grateful.' Liz pointed at the machine in the far corner. 'That's a particle disseminator. For breaking down DNA and other genetic structures. Why do you have one?'

A look passed between Baal and Sula but, unfamiliar with their faces, Liz could not tell exactly what it meant.

Baal looked back at Liz. 'You are a scientist, then?'

'I always thought so, but then again if my brain is only the size of a ragga-nut, I suppose I can't be.'

Baal stared at her, then back at Sula, who shrugged.

Baal continued. 'I believe that Apes ought to be eradicated. You have overrun our plant, destroyed many of our Shelters. You have tried to destroy us.'

Liz pulled herself into a more comfortable sitting position on the slab. 'That's not true,' she said, hoping that it wasn't and that Baal couldn't prove her wrong. 'The only Shelter we've come across was in Derbyshire.'

Baal looked back at Sula again. 'Shelter 873?'

'Apparently,' Sula replied.

Baal waved his hand towards a screen in the wall next to the particle disseminator. It immediately glowed into life, showing a map which Liz recognized as Earth as it had been millions of years ago, one large land mass. Baal waved a claw over a stud and hundreds of red dots appeared.

'Your Shelters?'

Sula said they were, adding that many of them were known to have been destroyed when the great land masses separated. 'Some filled with water, drowning the non-aquatic Earth Reptiles. Others were crushed by tectonic movements. But many have been destroyed by the Apes testing their nuclear bombs in the oceans, or poisoned by you dumping your waste products into the seas or burying them in the deserts. One colony awoke about fifty years ago in the Antarctic regions. They left us communiqu閟 saying that they had awoken and requesting other Shelters to get in touch as soon as they awoke. Their last message was about invading Apes, destroying their city.' Baal looked hard at Liz. 'That city was probably the last surviving piece of our above-ground architecture, and the Apes destroyed it. Your Doctor associate has been pledging the Ape's support for a unified Earth, where we would all live together. He is a fool. You know it and I now it. Apes will never share their planet any more than ye will.'

Liz took a deep breath. 'No, you're right. Not yet they won't. But in the years to come they might. If you really want to work towards peace, then you need to plan ahead.'

Baal snorted. 'You mean stay hidden. Here. Until the apes have evolved enough to lose their egos and accept co-habitation?'

'Yes.'

'Why should we? We have the means to wipe you all out.'

'No you haven't,' said Liz. 'Otherwise, you'd have done it. In fact, you know too well that your plague doesn't work. We discovered an antidote. You're bluffing with an empty hand, Baal.' She stared back at him. 'What re you really so scared of? I don't think it's we Apes, or you wouldn't trust the Doctor, or use me as a hostage.' he looked at Sula.

'Where is he, by the way?'

'Back on the mainland. With Tahni. You are to remain here -'

'As a hostage, yes, your brother said.' Liz staggered off the slab, and Sula helped her stand. 'Thank you,' said Liz. Now, Baal, Sula, if I'm your prisoner, I'd better work for my keep. What are you really doing in this lab that needs a particle disseminator? Something's wrong with your genetics, isn't it?'

Baal actually looked surprised. In fact, Liz decided, that look probably meant he was completely taken aback.

Sula stepped between them. 'Yes, Doctor Shaw. Baal, Tahni, myself and all the other hatchlings here are dying-'

Baal pushed her aside. 'Sula, no!'

But Sula turned back, her third eye glowing for a brief second, and Baal winced. 'No, Baal, I have had enough of our mother's pride and your inability to have your own thoughts that aren't hers. I am as much in trouble as you or the others. I choose to survive by trusting this Ape with the information.'

'Yes, but what information?' asked Liz.

Sula told her everything.

Auggi was addressing her new Council. Some of Chukk's major supporters had been removed from power and were now sulking in their quarters or in the Great Chapel. Auggi's supporters hung on her every word, however.

'Chukk is gone. With him, his soft ideas of how to deal with the Apes. I say we eradicate them. Totally destroy them. And -'

An elderly Sea Devil Warrior limped into the chamber. 'Leader,' he hissed. 'Leader, I was on duty in the monitoring section, watching the screens when -'

Auggi was livid at the intrusion. 'This had better be good, Naalix. I don't like being interrupted.'

'A Cruiser has been stolen. Krugga was attacked again. He said it was the Ape and -'

'The Doctor! I should have had him slaughtered.' She pointed towards the doors. 'Naalix, find me Baal. I want him here, no arguments.'

Naalix limped out. Auggi smiled at her Council. 'At last,' she said. 'At last I have the excuse that was needed. Prepare to eradicate that cruiser. Blow it out of the water.'

'No, Mother, you cannot!' Baal was in the right-hand tunnel entrance, Naalix hobbling behind him.

Auggi ignored him. 'Naalix, blast that cruiser out of the water. Every long-range torpedo we have.'

'Yes, Leader.' Naalix vanished, and Baal hurried forward.

'The Doctor is not alone on that cruiser, Mother. Tahni is with him.' He expected her to countermand her order. Stop the attack. Instead she just smiled. 'My daughter, captured by the evil Ape, sacrificing her life so that we may all live. How noble.'