Doctor Who_ The Art Of Destruction Part 5

'Whatever's underneath the volcano, that thing in there's pretty keen to get back,' said Rose shakily.

'Director Fynn, I need to take a rest period,' Adiel said abruptly. Fynn nodded, distracted again by his souped-up dataget. 'Thirty minutes, no more. We need to start imaging that volcano.' He looked at the Doctor. 'This will be of untold value to the project. We can accurately survey the entire lava-tube network from the outside, increase user access and harvesting efficiency. . . '

'Yeah, h.e.l.lo, Director?' The Doctor made a pair of scissors with his fingers. 'Cut.'

Not meeting anyone's gaze, Adiel swept across the room to the far door.

47.The Doctor went over to Rose, put on a smile. 'Give her a few minutes,' he said under his breath so Fynn wouldn't hear, 'then go after her.'

'Worried I might be getting lonely?' said Rose.

The Doctor shook his head. 'Worried she might be getting up to something.'

In the pink-red glare of the setting sun, Solomon stood at the edge of the east fields and watched the guards talking at the main gate. The day shift would soon be drifting back to their homes in Condo City Three, or to the dive clubs, casinos and bars they preferred to kill time in.

In many ways, the new cities were every bit as dirty and dangerous as the camps and shanties they had been thrown up to replace. Solomon thought of the comfortless cement block he'd been a.s.signed when he'd first started working for the agri-units. The toilets backed up and the tap water was undrinkable. The whole district smelt of sewage and all residents were on a waiting list to move to better accommodation on the east edge. Three years later Solomon was still waiting.

'Hey, Solomon, man,' said Nadif, shuffling amiably along, raising small clouds of sand in his wake. 'You off duty too?'

'Nah,' he said mildly, still watching the chatting guards, carefree in their ignorance. 'Looks like I'm here to stay.'

'Bad luck, my friend. Reckon we could all use a drink after what we've seen today.' He paused, troubled. 'Fynn and his type will explain it all away, right?'

'Uh-huh. You wait.'

Apparently rea.s.sured, Nadif nodded and set off for the main gate.

'Be seeing you.'

Solomon nodded. 'Guess you will.'

Where else would he be? His father had said he could come home to the family home any time he wanted. But Dad had died the same way he had lived, in hardship and poverty, because he stayed true to the old traditions, the old ways. Solomon didn't want that 48 for his sons. He wanted them to have a shot at the chances in life that his ID pa.s.s had ruled out for him from birth. If you were born in an old-style village or Native Settlement (Primitive) in the newspeak then you had to fight tooth and nail and wait for ever for even the most basic urban upgrades. Solomon had taken thirteen years to work his way up from labour grade n.o.body to Chief Overseer, selling himself to the likes of Fynn for peanuts but it was worth every cent he never saw. Now his sons were graded urban sector, attended speed schools, would have their own bank accounts some day would stand a chance of getting out of the poverty trap and into a better life for themselves somewhere else.

So long as their daddy wasn't exposed as a thief. So long as he didn't wind up in a labour camp because he couldn't turn his back on his old birthplace and his father's ghost.

So long as the golden death didn't come for them all. Solomon spat on the floor and watched the sun slowly sinking behind Mount Tarsus.

'Please, G.o.d,' he murmured as the sky went on darkening, 'don't let others suffer for my sins.'

49.

[image]

Rose made her way to the common room. The broken windows had been boarded up with planks of wood. Only a little clear gla.s.s remained to hint at the beautiful African nightscape. Adiel and Basel were leaning forward on separate couches, talking in low voices. When Rose walked in they looked up guiltily, like they were whispering dirty secrets. 'Just fancied a fruit shot,' said Rose vaguely, crossing to the fridge. 'Everyone sent home who needs to be?' Basel nodded.'

'Cept me.'

'Everything OK?'

'Sure,' said Basel, in a tone that suggested it wasn't. She pointed to her bad foot. 'Mind if I drink the fruit shot here? Need to rest the ankle.'

Adiel looked meaningfully at Basel and shrugged. 'We can speak Kenga,' she said.

'That's nice for you,' said Rose blankly.

Basel's expression was apologetic. 'Conversation's sort of personal.'

'Yeah, well, don't mind me,' said Rose, turning to her drink. 'Pretend I'm not here.'

Which, to her amazement, was exactly what they did. 51 'I just can't believe you've done this,' Basel muttered. 'People are gonna get hurt.'

'Security will know, they'll be prepared.'

'That lot are animals! This situation could go belly up in a moment.'

He shook his head wearily. 'What I really can't get my head round is that you'd drop Solomon in it, just like that.'

'I have to,' Adiel said simply. 'It's for the greater good.'

'Act like an activist, talk like a scientist,' he sneered.

'I don't see why you're not happier. You told me yourself that you were after something that could get you publicity.'

'Yeah, the right kind of publicity like catching a solid-gold vulture,' Basel agreed, loud as you like. 'Something that'll draw attention to what places like this are doing to the environment. Something small enough to smuggle out of the unit before Fynn starts covering everything up.'

Rose stared at them, gobsmacked. So that was why Basel had been so keen to catch the golden vulture and quite happy to let her risk her life helping him. What she couldn't believe was the way they were chatting about all this like she didn't exist, like she wasn't even worth their secrecy.

'Exactly,' said Adiel. 'If this alien golem stuff is really true, the government will put this whole place under wraps, top secret, all of that.'

She looked at Basel. 'But a story like this, this is news. If I'm going to get Fynn investigated '

'Listen to yourself!' Basel shook his head like he was disgusted.

'Don't pretend you're doing this for Gouronkah. This is about you.'

Rose couldn't stay quiet any longer. 'What are you two on about?'

'Told you, Rose, it's personal.' Basel turned back to Adiel. 'Whatever happens, State Guards will end up searching the tunnels, find out what Solomon's been up to and pack him off to a labour camp.'

'If he's got secret links to this glowing stuff, then maybe he deserves it!'

' What What?' Rose said, more loudly.

'He'd never do something like that!' Basel insisted. 'He's straight. 52 You know d.a.m.n well that without him everyone in Gouronkah would have starved to death. He's risked his whole life for them '

'They don't need handouts,' Adiel insisted, more animated now than Rose had ever seen her. 'They need their independence.'

'Independence won't fill your belly,' said Basel wearily, 'whatever your student mates might say. And if you think I'm gonna stand by while you sell Solomon down the river '

'I hadn't realised you were so close.' Adiel's voice was growing colder. 'Well, I'm telling you, he went straight to this golden panel he knew it was there.'

'You what? what? ' said Rose, whose chin was almost sc.r.a.ping the floor by now. ' said Rose, whose chin was almost sc.r.a.ping the floor by now.

Adiel ignored the outburst. 'And then he tried to bring the roof down on it!'

'How come you were even there, spying on him, anyway?' Basel challenged. 'When we left you, you were sleeping.'

'My watch alarm went off I had to keep my meeting. I came to, saw those windows all broken.' She looked genuinely troubled. 'I got worried, wandered out. . . Then I saw Solomon going into the tunnels and I followed him.'

'What meeting's this? What've you been up to?' Rose demanded. Finally, they both took notice.

Adiel peered at Rose like she was something under one of Fynn's slides. 'You understood what we said?'

'Not exactly hard to get the gist, is it?' Rose folded her arms. 'Can't see Fynn making either of you employee of the month when he finds out.'

'She speaks Kenga,' said Basel disbelievingly.

'A teenage white girl is fluent in an African dialect barely spoken outside of northern Chad?' Adiel's gaze hardened further. 'Just who are you?'

'Erm. . . ' Rose realised the TARDIS translators had just st.i.tched her up good and proper. 'I'm, um, good at languages.'

'She's got to be press,' said Adiel, then corrected herself, looked meaningfully at Basel. 'No, not press. She's a bio-pirate, sent here by 53 another agri-unit, one of Fynn's rivals.' She put on a sarcastic tone of voice. 'Come to see what she can steal away from Africa for the good of Western society.'

Her words had the desired effect on Basel and his face twisted into a sneer. 'Is that true?' He took a menacing step towards her. 'Rose?'

'Come off it!' Rose wasn't about to be intimidated; she took a step towards him. 'If I was any sort of journalist or pirate or whatever, would I have given myself away as dumbly as that? Don't think so.'

'So who are you really, you and this Doctor? How come you know so much about all this weird stuff?'

'Sounds as if we don't, not yet.' She took another two steps towards him. 'So how about you tell me everything that's been going on? Maybe the Doctor can help.'

'This isn't your business,' said Adiel coldly.

'Sounds like it's everyone's business.' Rose gave her a challenging glare. 'So should I go tell Fynn the stuff I do know? Or do you want to take us straight to this golden panel?'

'Those tunnels aren't safe for anyone,' said Adiel. 'Not now.'

Rose looked at each of them in turn and then made to leave. 'The Doctor needs to know about this.'

'Wait,' said Adiel, catching hold of Rose's arm. 'I'm sorry. You're right. The golden thing could be important. But what if I did imagine it? I mean, I was suffering from shock and dosed up on p-pills when I saw it. We don't want to delay the Doctor's imaging the chambers in the volcano to come with us on a wild-goose chase.'

Basel raised his eyebrows. 'Changing your tune, aren't you?'

Or calling the tune, Rose thought to herself as Adiel attempted an innocent shrug. 'So what're you saying?'

'Maybe we should check it out by ourselves.' said Adiel. Not that anything sus is going on round here, of course Not that anything sus is going on round here, of course, thought Rose. But the idea of taking a quick shufti and finding out more did appeal. She could actually make herself useful while the Doctor took care of the science bit.

Rose put her weight on her bad ankle it hurt, but it held and gestured to the door. 'What're we waiting for?' she said. 'Let's go.'

54.

Fynn finished expanding the dataget's memory wafers just as the Doctor re-entered the lab, his sharp features tugged down in a frown.

'Funny. Well, not so much funny as peculiar. Funny peculiar.'

'What is?'

'No sign of Rose or Adiel.'

'I told Adiel no more than thirty minutes.' Fynn considered. 'It's not like her to disobey a directive.'

'She's been through a lot lately.' the Doctor reflected, picking up the girl's necklace from the workbench.

'Did you a.n.a.lyse that properly?'

'Yes.' he said simply. 'Traces of the creeping magma in some of the tekt.i.tes, so it definitely came from the same place as our golem-maker. But hopefully there's not enough in there to be a threat.'

'Adiel's been wearing it long enough.' said Fynn.

'So she has.' The Doctor shoved the necklace into his trouser pocket.

'You all set with the dataget?'

Fynn nodded and pa.s.sed it over. 'I've snapped in five googol wafers and set it to remote output so we can monitor the results on the viewer.' Then he cleared his throat. 'I. . . I am not used to asking for help, Doctor, or to giving thanks when it's offered.'

The Doctor beamed at him. 'That's all right, big fella. It's the planet I'm doing this for, not you and your mushrooms. . . ' He tailed off, as if distracted. 'Was that rude? Sorry if that was a bit rude.'

'We are both working for the sake of the planet, Doctor.' Fynn said quietly. 'I have to see my dream through. So please, tell me truthfully are you confident you can put right whatever's gone wrong here?'

'Modesty forbids that I answer that question oh, all right then, yes. Yes! Yes, of course I can!' He checked over his new imager.

'Given time. Time and s.p.a.ce to work, and a.s.suming no one else starts pushing their nose in. Oh, and that I'm not killed before I've finished.'

He looked at Fynn. 'Don't suppose you've launched any s.p.a.ceships or orbital probes round here lately, have you?'

's.p.a.ceships?' Fynn frowned. 'Of course not.'

55.'Afraid you'd say that. Means we've got visitors. Visitors who've parked outside and are waiting in the car.' He started pacing round in a small circle. 'And judging by the ion fumes up in the atmosphere, they've left the engines running. Why are they waiting? Waiting for someone to come out? Or for someone to return. . . ' He threw his head back and laughed suddenly, then shook his head. 'This is hopeless. Rubbish! Got to find out more. Director Fynn, do you have a flash car?'

'I have my own transport. Why?'

'I can see you're a driven man and I could do with some driving myself.' He grinned. 'Once around the volcano, that's what we need.'

Fynn bristled. 'I am not being your chauffeur, Doctor.'

'Then be my secretary,' the Doctor suggested. 'Call up Solomon so he can take me instead. Only do it fast, yeah? I don't know how much time we have left.'

'Before what?'