Doctor Who_ City At World's End Part 16

'I don't see anything. She's not there.'

For a moment he was nonplussed. Had Barbara fallen out of the cage as the tower collapsed? In which case she was still lying under the rubble that still had to be removed and there was no chance she had survived.

While he contemplated this bitter possibility the robot camera had been scanning the scene from all angles. As it pa.s.sed over the mangled outflung remains of the lift door Ian suddenly pointed.

'What's that?'

Curton brought the camera in for an extreme close-up.

A snag of wool was hanging from a broken strand of door-panel mesh.

'That's the same colour as Barbara's jumper,' Ian said slowly.

'Well, we know she was in the cage,' Curton said.

'Yes, but don't you see... it could only have been torn like that after the damage had been done to the cage! Which means she must have got out before it was completely crushed.'

'Then we keep digging,' said Curton.

Ben wasn't certain why he stopped at the hospital. Perhaps because he wanted somebody outside the Watch to talk to.

Even in the brief time he had known her he had found Nyra a good listener and, well, pleasant company. He could always say he was checking on Susan Foreman's progress if he wanted an excuse. The diversion would not interfere with his duty. He knew where the Doctor and Ian were and would be notified at once if they wanted anything.

But as he got out of his car he saw a distinctive black limousine in the spa.r.s.ely occupied parking zone. As he pa.s.sed by it he noted the coat of arms of the bishop's office emblazoned on the side. Now what did he he want here? A sudden thought made Ben quicken his stride. want here? A sudden thought made Ben quicken his stride.

He heard the raised voices as he entered the recovery ward.

In the side room, two attendants and Nyra Shardri were facing down Fostel and Archdeacon Zeckler. Susan Foreman was awake and huddled in the bed between them looking confused and not a little frightened.

'What's going on here?' Ben demanded sternly.

'The bishop wants to question Miss Foreman about her religious beliefs,' Nyra explained. 'I said she's only just woken up and is still too weak.'

'I see,' said Ben. 'Gentlemen, I must ask you to leave.'

'You cannot order the bishop about as though he was a Common Citizen,' Zeckler snapped. 'This is Church business and no concern of yours.'

Ben realised then how much he disliked Zeckler. He was a mean little man who had risen in the Church through the deaths of better people in the war.

'It is the concern of every citizen, however common,' Ben said. 'We do not bully young girls in their hospital beds, especially when they are guests of the mayor.'

Fostel interjected, sounding oleaginously reasonable.

'I appreciate you are only following orders, Captain. But surely the mayor's instructions only apply to the alien men.

This girl is clearly not performing any useful purpose at present, therefore it can do no harm to question her.'

Ben looked at Susan Foreman. Alien or not, to him she simply looked like a frightened young woman, hardly more than a girl. He smiled rea.s.suringly. 'h.e.l.lo. My name's Ben Lant. I'm a friend of your grandfather and Ian Chesterton.'

She managed to smile back. 'h.e.l.lo,' she said.

'These men want to talk to you about where you come from and what sort of religion you practise, because they think you might try to subvert our city with dangerous alien beliefs.

But I think you'd rather I call your grandfather to let him know you're awake at last.'

Susan regarded the two churchmen with very dark intense eyes and some spirit seemed to flow back into her.

'Do they think I'm going to cause all that trouble from here?' she asked drily, making Ben revise her age upwards a couple of years. 'If it's all the same, I'd rather you called my grandfather, please.'

'There you have it, gentlemen,' Ben said. 'Perhaps you can talk to the young lady when she has fully recovered... and with her grandfather present. But for the time being I'd like you to leave her alone.'

He saw the appalled and disbelieving expressions on their faces and had to admit he secretly found them very satisfying.

Zeckler would have argued further but Fostel silenced him, and with bad grace the two departed. Ben knew he was making powerful enemies, but oddly the thought didn't trouble him. The mayor had shown the way and he was glad to follow.

'Now,' he said, turning back to Susan, 'let's put a call through to your grandfather.'

Carlson Tower had been reduced to a few jutting broken pillars of concrete, like a ring of broken teeth. The machines were busy removing the last slabs of rubble from what had been its bas.e.m.e.nt levels. Ian and Curton stood in the middle of the rapidly clearing expanse of concrete floor. Nothing larger than fist-sized fragments remained.

There was no sign whatsoever of Barbara.

Ian looked at Curton in bewilderment. 'How can she have got out?'

'She can't. This building was cordoned off within minutes of the strike. n.o.body could have pa.s.sed through without being checked.'

Ian opened his arms wide in a hopeless gesture. 'Then where is she?'

He began walking about the inside of the enclosure, kicking at chips of concrete and shaking his head. Curton watched him, unable to think of anything to say at that moment.

Suddenly Ian halted. He stamped hard on the ground then went down on his hands and knees and began sc.r.a.ping aside the dust and grit.

'Come here!' he shouted.

'What is it?' Curton asked, running over to him.

'This slab moved. Look: it tilts then falls back into place again. There's a hollow underneath!'

'Let me get a digger over,' Curton said, tapping at the mobile control unit slung over his shoulder.

A large humanoid robot with heavy-duty claws for hands clumped over, grasped the slab and tossed it aside. Below was a rectangular pit half choked with fine rubble that had trickled down into it from above. At Curton's direction the robot began clearing it out. After a few scoops the detritus darkened and turned to heavy mud.

'Of course!' Curton exclaimed. 'It's a feeder to the city drainage system. A few of the older buildings were built right over them.'

'Big enough for Barbara to get through?'

'Yes, possibly.'

The channel pa.s.sing through the bottom of the pit was exposed and the digger stepped back, its job done.

Ian made ready to clamber down. Curton held him back.

'Wait a minute... it could be unsafe after the pounding it's taken. I'll send a pedacam down first.'

Ian fretted as a small eight-legged robot with a camera and lighting array for a head was brought over. Grasping with its sucker feet it clambered nimbly down the sides of the pit and turned into the drainage channel beneath. Ian peered over Curton's shoulder watching the image the robot relayed to his mobile screen. The machine scurried down and along the culvert until it opened out on to a larger tunnel. Carefully the robot climbed out on to the vertical wall, lifting and twisting its head to scan the whole of the interior.

Ian and Curton both saw the sign scratched into the wall by the robot's feet at the same time.

'She got down there safely,' Ian almost shouted. 'She's telling us which way she went.'

'Yes, but I wish she'd stayed put,' Curton said.

'Well, she must have thought she could get out sooner than we could dig down to her.'

Curton looked worried. 'As we've got closer to Zero Day we've been economising on the maintenance. What with storm damage and a few earth tremors many of the tunnels are pretty unstable. Several access points collapsed. So we sealed off the rest. Your friend won't be able to climb out just anywhere.'

'Then I'll follow her down this shaft. She can't have gone far.'

'Didn't you hear what I said?'

'Yes. I'll take the chance, you don't have to come. All I want is a torch and a map of the tunnels.'

Curton smiled at Ian's determination. 'Well, if you'll just be patient for a couple of minutes I think I can kit you out better than that.' He glanced up at the sky, which was filling with dark clouds. 'I won't be long,' he added, and hurried off.

Ian turned back to contemplate the shaft at his feet. At last the waiting was over. Now he could do something.

Chapter Seventeen.

So Close Barbara woke to find herself lying on the narrow walkway beside the gurgling tunnel stream.

She didn't remember falling asleep. She must have been utterly exhausted. Still, she felt much better for the rest. Her stomach was rumbling for want of food, but she felt unexpectedly alert. Her clothes had dried out completely so she must have slept for some time.

Time.

Suddenly it seemed very important that she should know the time. She snapped on the torch still clasped in her hand and checked her watch. Of course, it had stopped ages ago.

She rubbed its wristband and for a moment she felt there was something else she had forgotten. The suspicion of a curious dream flickered on the edge of her consciousness. Then it was gone.

Barbara took a deep breath. What should she do now?

After a minute's thought she decided it might make sense to retrace her steps. She hadn't had any luck finding a way out for herself, but perhaps by now the others had managed to dig down to where she had entered the drains. It would be foolish to keep walking away from them if that were the case. If she got back to find the way was still blocked, she would continue on past that point and try her luck further up the tunnel.

Feeling purposeful once more, she got to her feet and set off.

Dressed in waterproof coveralls and stout boots, Ian strode along the tunnel swinging the beams of his helmet lamp from side to side to make sure he didn't miss any of Barbara's scratched signs. Every couple of minutes he paused and called out her name, then strained his ears over the rush of water for some response apart from echoes.

The pedacam scuttled along in front of him. It hadn't been possible to fit any larger robot down the access shaft, though a team was working on enlarging the hole in case one should be needed. Curton wasn't sure if the robots that were normally used to monitor and repair the drains were still working, but he was making inquiries.

At regular intervals Ian took from his shoulder pack small metal discs sprouting twin telescopic aerials. These devices, as instructed, he stuck to the wall. They were radio booster relays which allowed him to stay in touch with Curton via his helmet radio, despite the growing thickness of earth and rock that separated them. On the surface the engineer was following his progress with a gang of robots, ready to dig Ian out if an emergency arose. Ian hoped they wouldn't be needed but it was raining heavily up above. Sudden intense storms had apparently become more common since the falling moon had begun to alter Sarath's weather patterns. Curton wasn't entirely sure what effect the increased flow was likely to have on the weakened tunnels, but Ian could already see the level rising in the channel by his side. The smaller culverts that discharged into the main tunnel were also running faster, filling the s.p.a.ce with a continuous splash of water.

Ian worked his way around a mound of debris that formed a half dam where the roof had partially collapsed, after letting the pedacam scout the way first. The rising stream was already beginning to wash away the lighter material about the base of the fall, he noticed.

Once on the other side the water level was a little lower.

He checked the hand-held flat screen Curton had given him which displayed a map of the tunnel system in glowing outlines. Converting from the metric scale he found he had come almost two miles. He looked about him and saw the heartening sight of another of Barbara's signs. She'd certainly made a great effort to find her own way out of here, he thought with admiration. He set another radio relay, checked his position with Curton, then called out Barbara's name once again.

'Barbara... bara... ra!' it echoed away.

'An... an... nn!' came faintly back up the tunnel.

He froze, hardly daring to breathe. Had he imagined it?

The noise of the water made it so hard to tell. He called again and cupped his ears.

'Ian... an... an!' came more clearly. It was Barbara's voice!

'Yes! I'm here!' he shouted wildly, and began running along the narrow walkway. The pedacam scuttled on before him, its short legs whirring. In the far distance he saw a bobbing pinpoint of light. As it got closer Barbara's figure began to emerge from the shadows, backlit by scattered reflections from her torch. It was at that moment that he truly realised what it would have cost him never to see her again.

They were no more than twenty yards apart when he heard a sudden rumble behind him.

He spun about to see a wave rolling down the tunnel. The rubble dam had given way, releasing the pent-up water behind it.

'Watch out!' he shouted as he pressed himself flat against the side of the tunnel. The foaming crest rushed past him, washing over the walkway and breaking about his legs. He saw Barbara adopting the same stance. The wave surged past her and for a moment she slithered backwards under its impact. Then it was gone and she found her footing again. He heard her panting with exertion and saw she was trembling, but she managed to call out bravely: 'That was nasty. Too ironic if we got washed away now.'

He started towards her, skidding on the walkway which was still awash.

'Too ironic for words,' he agreed, almost laughing with relief. 'Barbara, you've no idea...'

Without any warning and curiously little noise, a three-yard length of the walkway between them crumbled and slid into the drainage channel.

Even as they both gaped incredulously there came a series of deafening cracks. The side of the tunnel exposed by the collapsed walkway seemed to bulge inwards. Fissures ran up the curving wall. Shards of concrete began to rain down from the roof and plunge into the water, sending up showers of spray.