Doctor Who_ Ultimate Treasure Part 11

'Maybe, if we walked on the cracks to spread our weight, they wouldn't drop, and even if they did we'd only have to step to one side to get clear.'

'Now I was waiting to see which one of you would think of that,'

said Qwaid.

As they got closer, the straggling green line that marked the edge of the plain resolved itself into tall gra.s.ses, fern bushes, and the more distant tops of trees, rising from what was presumably a valley that lay beyond. The last few slabs were speckled by moss and lichen, then replaced by a carpet of thick lush gra.s.s. It felt like walking on foam rubber after the hours of hard stone underfoot. Peri, still slightly damp from their time in the well, dropped gratefully to her knees and sprawled full length upon it, luxuriating in its soft coolness.

'Oh, wow, this is good. I'll never forget to water a lawn again!'

The others shed their packs and joined her.

After a few minutes she sat up, removed her boots and began ma.s.saging her feet. Still a little way out on the plain and about half a mile to their right she saw Thorrin's party also making for the strip of greenery.

'Think we should say h.e.l.lo?' she wondered.

"Their manner was a little standoffish this morning,' the Doctor observed. 'Somehow I don't think we'd be that welcome. In a sense we are rivals, after all.'

From the valley ahead of them came, faint but clear, a low moaning roar, which reverberated through the still air for several seconds. This was followed by a series of rapid guttural yelps, as though produced by several animals.

They all sprang to their feet, Falstaff's hand resting nervously on the pommel of his sword, while Jaharnus had drawn her gun.

The sounds continued for some minutes, then faded away, although Peri now became aware of occasional muted chattering cries.

The Doctor looked at the lowering sun and made a decision. 'I propose we make camp here. I think we've had enough challenges for one day.'

They all agreed. As Falstaff succinctly put it: 'Tomorrow is sufficient unto the day thereof. In any case, we cannot face unknown perils on an empty stomach.'

Night had fallen by the time Qwaid, Gribbs, and Drorgon finally stumbled on to the green strip of land that fringed the far side of the plain. They had travelled the last part of the way by the light of hand torches. Some distance along to their right was the firefly glimmer of the camp lights of one of the other questing parties, and Qwaid stared at it with intense interest.

He had a plan.

As they had trudged across the plain he had realised he couldn't rely on Gribbs coming up with dodges like that again.

Besides, he had to show that it was Crelly Qwaid who was making the smart decisions if he ever wanted to truly be the boss. They also needed some sort of advance notice of what was ahead of them so as not to be caught by surprise. The solution to both problems, when it dawned on him, was wonderfully simple.

'Get a couple of hours' sleep, boys,' he said confidently. 'We've got a busy night ahead of us.'

CHAPTER 10.

NIGHT MOVES.

Myra Jaharnus woke with a start, trying to place the dull thump that had roused her.

Overhead the stars were being obscured by a grey cloud, and for a moment she thought a bank of mist was rolling across the camp. Then the first tendrils touched her and she smelled a distinctive chemical tang. Blackout gas! She drew her gun even as her nostrils pinched tight and she clamped her lips shut. She could hold her breath for twenty minutes if need be. But despite the protective nictating membranes that instantly closed over her eyes, the gas burnt and stung, setting them watering. She heard the others shouting and a torch sprang into life, no more than a blurred fuzz of light through the tears and smoky haze.

From somewhere Falstaff was yelling at the top of his voice, 'Cowards! Wh.o.r.eson caterpillars! Fight like men! Take that, and that!'The camp was being attacked, but even if her firing reflex had not been inhibited by the Gelsandorans, she dare not risk a shot in these conditions.

She had an impression of a menacing figure, bulkier even than Falstaff, looming out of the murk towards her. Instinctively she twisted about, letting her bone-fringed tail cut an arc through the air at knee height. There was a cry of pain, a heavy body crashed into her, sending her sprawling, then it was gone. She heard a yell that sounded like Peri's voice being stifled. The torchlight vanished and with it a scramble of footsteps that faded away into the night. The veil of blackout gas slowly dispersed, allowing the stars to illuminate the camp once more.

Wiping her eyes, Myra got to her feet, felt around for her own torch, and snapped it on. In the middle of a patch of trampled gra.s.s and scattered bedrolls was Falstaff, still coughing and yelling curses. He had a hand over his eyes and was blindly charging about, swinging his sword in great wild sweeps, turning and running away a few steps in another direction at a half-crouch, then futilely hacking the air again.

'They've gone,' she said sharply, 'so you can cut the act now.'

He paused in mid-swing. 'Is that you, my good Inspector?'

'Who else?'

Cautiously he removed his hand from over his eyes, red-rimmed and streaming, and peered about him into the darkness.

Seeing no danger, he straightened up. 'Hah! So, the horde dared not stand against me, the pie-faced cowards!'

'Horde? It was Qwaid, Gribbs, and Drorgon. It had to be.'

'Nay, 't'was a dozen or perhaps a score, no less. But they cared not to taste my steel.'

'Somebody did,' Myra pointed out. 'There's blood on the blade. I hope it doesn't belong to the Doctor or Peri Brown.'

Falstaff looked at the glistening dark streaks on his sword with apparent astonishment, and Myra wondered if, for all his boasting, he'd ever actually drawn blood in combat before. Then his normal expression of b.u.mptious self-confidence returned.

'There, what did I tell you? You have nought to fear with Falstaff here. Now, we must set about to rescue our comrades. Perhaps I should remain to hold the camp while you make a reconnaissance -'

'Maybe, but let's look around here first.'

A quick search of the camp revealed that both the Doctor's and Peri's packs, were missing. They had been using them as pillows, as they all had, so the packs wouldn't have been hard for their abductors to s.n.a.t.c.h up in the confusion. This in itself was suggestive.

'Either they think they're going to need extra help at some point along the way, or they've taken them as hostages to use against me when this is all over,' Myra speculated. "They'd probably have knocked us on the heads or slit our throats while they were at it if they'd had the chance, only we put up more of a fight than they were expecting.'

'But are we not going to attempt to rescue them?'

Myra did not comment on the 'we'. 'I doubt if blundering around in the dark would help, and I haven't got the right equipment anyway. They've had time to prepare this, and could be hiding anywhere along this boarder zone, or else already setting off down into the valley to get a head start. Besides, I don't think the Doctor and Peri are in any immediate danger.

Unless we can catch them unawares along the way, the best thing we can do is find this treasure first and let them come to us. Then we'll have something to bargain with. Otherwise, if they get there first, they won't need hostages any more.'

She realised that the DAVE drone that had been relentlessly trailing after them had moved closer as she had been speaking.

The cursed things were so easy to forget, and she wondered if the Gelsandoran influence would prevent her shooting it down. Wait a minute: surely it and its fellows must have seen everything.

'Dynes,' she said, addressing the flying camera 'I am making an official request for press cooperation, with the usual benefits for a successful outcome. Have you still got a drone with Qwaid's party? What have they done with the Doctor and Ms Brown?

Where have they taken them?'

Dynes's voice came back clearly from the device's speaker grille. 'Inspector, you know better than to ask that. You have no jurisdiction here, so any deal you offer is worthless. Besides I want my subjects to know they can act perfectly naturally without fear of any interference from me. The impartiality of the press is sacrosanct, you know.'

The drone fell silent again, leaving Myra swishing her tail angrily across the gra.s.s. Sometimes she felt the press valued its independence a little too highly. In ancient times it had been different, she understood. She turned back to Falstaff. 'It looks like we're going to have to do it the hard way after all.'

'Just the two of us?'

'Believe me, it's not my ideal partnership either, but there's no other choice. Why, are you scared?'

'Old Jack does not flinch from danger. It is only that the Doctor seemed to have a certain facility for overcoming the hazards of our journey. Without him we may not proceed fast enough to effect a rescue. Perhaps it would be better if I returned to -'

'Quiet! Listen...'

Footsteps were approaching along the edge of the plain. A dim figure came into view around one of the fern bushes, and a circle of torchlight danced across the ground towards them.

'h.e.l.lo? Are you all right? We heard the noise and I thought I'd better come over,' said Willis Brockwell.

Arnella sat on her bedroll with her chin on her knees and arms folded across her shins, awaiting Brockwell's return. Her uncle and Thorrin sat with their backs to the camp portafire, which they had switched on to drive the chill of the night away. They each held their guns ready.

She knew the camp had to be guarded, but Brockwell shouldn't have had to go on his own. Actually, when they had been roused by the distant commotion from the Doctor's camp, neither her uncle nor Thorrin had wanted any of them to risk investigating the cause. But to her surprise Brockwell had insisted he at least should go, claiming that, if it was the result of some indigenous danger, they had better be forewarned. She had not expected such defiance from him, and had to admit that he had more courage than she had previously given him credit for. But why couldn't he speak to her as forthrightly?

She was still brooding over this half an hour later when Brockwell returned with Falstaff and Jaharnus. The inspector explained what had happened and her theory of the criminal's motivations, then announced that she and her companion would be joining them. Her uncle and Thorrin looked unhappily at each other.

'Ah, I'm not so sure that will be a good idea,' said Thorrin slowly.

'We really cannot afford to be delayed,' the Marquis added.

'Besides, this is not our responsibility.' Thorrin continued. 'Better if we do not get involved.'

'What have you against cooperating with the police?' Jaharnus asked.

'Nothing at all, but, as Speaker Shalvis pointed out, you have no authority here.'

'Look, I don't care about any treasure. I just want to reach it before those sc.u.m, so we certainly won't delay you. My sole interest is catching a gang of killers and the safety of witnesses in my charge. Don't innocent lives count for anything?'

'I'm sure you're just doing your job, and your impartiality is beyond question, Inspector,' allowed the Marquis, 'but what about him?' He looked at Falstaff. 'He claims a knighthood, yet I am dubious as to his ent.i.tlement.'

The big man replied haughtily: 'Doubt me, do you sir? Why, I am as valiant as Hercules - a lion among men. Any expedition should be proud to number Falstaff amongst its muster. It is not thirty minutes past since I was disputing with cold steel against those villains, and making them pay dearly for their impudence.

Were it not for their rascally vapours that did half blind me I would have filleted them all there and then.'

Jaharnus sighed. 'I'll vouch for his conduct. Just remember: Qwaid's taken two hostages already. Do you want him to try for another?' Her gaze pa.s.sed meaningfully over Arnella. 'One of you, perhaps? You need as much help as you can get, and leave arguing over who gets what shares in the treasure until after you've found it, a.s.suming Qwaid's men don't get there first.'

'It would make sense,' Brockwell said. 'Safety in numbers, and so on.'

'Yes, let them come with us, Uncle.' Arnella said, trying not to sound too eager.

Thorrin and the Marquis looked thoughtful, then nodded.

'Good,' said the inspector. Now let's get some sleep. We'd better make an early start.'

Peri's gag and blindfold were not removed until she had been dragged for what seemed like miles through damp fern thickets and over ground studded with mounds of tussock gra.s.s. When at last she could see again through her smarting eyes, it was only to squint into the glare of a hand torch shone full in her face.

'Are you all right, Peri?' came the Doctor's voice, and her heart gave a little jump of relief. She had thought they had brought another prisoner with them, but hadn't been certain who. Most of the time she could only hear two of the thugs complaining about the minor injuries they'd received during their raid on the camp.

'Sure she's OK,' came a rough mocking voice, before she could answer for herself.

The torch beam swung away, and by its reflected light she began to make out dim forms. They were in a hollow surrounded on three sides by rounded boulders and roofed by overhanging branches of the heart-leaf tree she was becoming familiar with.

Various items of camping gear were piled in one corner. The Doctor stood at her side, while before them were the three crooks, two of whom were fumbling in their camping packs for a first-aid box. Unconsciously, she tugged at the strap that bound her hands behind her back, but it remained fast.

'Now the question is,' continued the speaker, the smallest and apparently uninjured one of the three, whom she now recognised as Qwaid, 'do you want her to stay that way?'

'Can we take the usual threats as read?' the Doctor said coolly.

'Just tell me what you want.'

'That's very sensible of you, Doctor,' said Qwaid. 'It's very simple. You'll help us keep up with the others, solving any more of these skewheaded tricks we run into, until we're ready to get ahead at the best moment.'

'Letting them break the ground for you, in case there are any more unpleasant surprises in store for us? So that's why your attack on our camp was so restrained.'

'Didn't I tell you he was the smartest one of the lot, boys?'

Qwaid asked his companions rhetorically as they treated their wounds. 'You got it right, Doc, that's just what we're going to do.'

'And what about Peri?'

'Your friend goes back to our ship with Gribbs, just in case you get any ideas about being a hero. He'll keep in touch with us over the comm link.' - he tapped a device like a bulky wrist.w.a.tch - 'and you'll be able to talk to your friend regular to see she's being looked after. But don't think of getting away from us or trying anything cleaver. If Gribbs gets the wrong word from me, or doesn't hear from me on time...' He gave Peri an unpleasant smile.'Well, we may not be able to use guns on each other here, but there must be plenty of other ways to make things unpleasant for someone. And if your friend the Doctor here steps out of line, I'll give Gribbs the go-ahead to start trying a few of them out on you.'

Peri shivered and tried not to let her fear show.

CHAPTER 11.

THE VALLEY OF MIST.

They were up with the dawn, as Inspector Jaharnus had suggested, striking camp and setting off through the strip of fern forest before the sun had cleared the horizon. Arnella was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes as they went.

She had not slept well after their interrupted night. The newly realised menace of the three criminals had been one reason, the behaviour of her uncle and Professor Thorrin another. She had been a little surprised by their initial reluctance to investigate the disturbance at the Doctor's camp, then to allow the inspector and Falstaff to accompany them. Thorrin, she had already decided, could be thoughtlessly inconsiderate at times, but her uncle normally never let circ.u.mstances prevent him from showing the proper sensibilities. As she had learnt from her youngest days, it was the duty of those in positions of power and responsibility to aid those less fortunate than themselves. That their own circ.u.mstances were temporarily reduced should be no excuse for ignoring such obligations. Could the prospect of what lay ahead be influencing their judgement? In fact only Brockwell had behaved well, and that was probably due to his apparent liking for that Brown girl. Still, at least he'd made the effort.