The Romance Of Crime Part 19

Concentrate.'

The masked face slumped. 'No,' said Margo's voice. 'She has nearly... destroyed me. But there is something I can do.'

She lurched over to the control panel and pressed a b.u.t.ton.

The bonds securing the Doctor to the chair snapped open.

The last of the large boulders blocking the way to the TARDIS was being chiselled away by the concentrated laser power of K9's nose ray. He reported to Spiggot. 'Instructions completed. TARDIS is now ready for entry.'

The rock dust settled in the pink afterglow of the laser beam and Spiggot saw the blue door of the TARDIS for the first time. His face fell. 'What the flamin' heck do you call that?'

'Vehicle known as TARDIS,' said K9. 'Time And Relative Dimensions In s.p.a.ce.'

Spiggot sighed. 'There's hardly room to swing a cat in there!'

'Negative,' said K9. 'TARDIS contains sufficient area for centrifugal tests on felines.' He darted forward and his sensors quivered with indecision. 'There is a conflict in my programming. Orders were to return to TARDIS, but the Doctor Master and Mistress Romana may be in danger and it is my function to a.s.sist.' He clicked and whirred. 'I will return to TARDIS and wait.'

'I wouldn't hold out much hope for them, K9,' said Spiggot. He looked back down the tunnel towards the main body of the station. 'If you tangle with the Nisbett boys head on, you can only get creamed, sooner or later. No, I've got a much better idea.' He started off.

K9 turned at the door of the TARDIS. 'Wait. What is the nature of your plan?'

Spiggot looked back. 'And why should it concern you, eh?'

K9 trundled forward. 'All information is useful.'

Spiggot laughed. The thing had emotions, or programmed responses that simulated them. 'I get it. You're curious, aren't you?'

'Negative. I am not programmed for curiosity. Your input is required.'

Spiggot was pleased that somebody was paying attention to him again, particularly now that he'd worked out a plan.

'Right. Well, you see, what everyone's forgotten about are the engines. Throw a spanner in the works down there and their business, whatever it is, will be well and truly scuppered.' He stood up and set off for the hole in the wall of the cavern.

K9 called, 'This plan is inadvisable. Your technical knowledge is limited. You will wait here with me.' Spiggot walked away. He heard the robot's motors whirring as it followed him.

The long stone corridor adjacent to the courtrooms of level nine was deserted. Romana led the panting Stokes at a brisk pace to the door that led to the judges' chambers and Pyerpoint's office. As soon as the door was closed safely behind them, Stokes collapsed into one of the big leather chairs.

'Finally. Now, may I suggest we hold on here, for a while, at least?'

Pyerpoint was standing by a covered figure of Liberty on the other side of the office. The top had swung open and he was fiddling with some concealed controls inside. The weapon he had taken was still gripped tightly in one hand. 'Please be silent. I have to concentrate. This sequence is complex.'

Stokes snorted. 'And I thought he was getting us a drink.'

He peered at the locked drinks cabinet opposite the desk. 'I say.'

Romana wandered over to the window and looked out. A small, dirty blue globe was appearing in the stars. 'We're nearing a planet.'

Pyerpoint finished his work and stepped back from the globe. The hatch swung shut. 'The signal has been sent,' he said evenly as he made for the door. 'You two, stay here.'

Romana turned. 'Where are you going?'

'That is not your concern,' Pyerpoint said. 'You are going to stay here.' He slipped out of the door and closed it. Bolts clicked over automatically.

'He's locked us in,' Stokes said unhelpfully.

'I know!' Romana shouted. She thumped on the thick wooden door with a gloved fist. 'What is he doing out there?'

Stokes sniffed. 'What does it matter, my dear? We are alone, but at least we are together. And,' he ran his fingers around the clear panel of the drinks cabinet, 'I can see some interesting things in there.' He pulled open a drawer of the desk and searched through the papers and files inside. 'The key has to be somewhere in here.'

Romana closed the drawer. 'That's very bad manners. And you'd never get it open.' She indicated a mechanism built into the top of the drinks cabinet. 'It's sealed by a personal recognition code, like the door. We're trapped. What is Pyerpoint doing?'

Stokes sank back into his chair. 'Well, my pet, we must look for positive aspects to our predicament. We are alone, and untroubled.' He patted his lap and raised an eyebrow. 'I suppose you think an older fellow like me is past his prime, don't you?'

'You've been telling me that for several hours,' Romana said patiently.

He blew out his cheeks. 'Oh, don't listen to me.'

'I wasn't,' said Romana. She started to look around the office.

No,' said Stokes, 'I meant, that although I may not be suited to yomping up endless corridors and stairs, there are certain physical activities that I consider myself to excel in.'

'That planet is coming awfully close,' Romana said from the porthole. 'It must be Planet Eleven.'

'You are cruel,' Stokes accused. 'One could be forgiven for thinking you weren't human.'

She turned to regard him. 'That's the nicest thing you've said all day.'

In the silence that followed her rebuke, Stokes heard a hissing noise.

A thin trail of yellow vapour was pouring from a nozzle in the globe. The vapour collected in a thick yellow cloud and began to catch at their throats.

'The old scratcher,' gasped Stokes as he toppled from his chair. 'He's trying to poison us!' He fell to the carpet, his big nose b.u.mping the deep green pile.

Romana knew she had more time left. Her respiratory bypa.s.s would save her from the effects of the gas but would leave her as unconscious as Stokes. The moments she had would be best employed searching for a way to turn off the gas. She staggered into the gas cloud and stretched out her hands to the globe. The surface was smooth and unyielding. Her grip loosened as the vapour took its hold upon her. Her hearts pumped as if they were about to burst out of her chest.

She let herself fall to the floor of the office. The gas continued to seep from the globe over her body and that of Stokes.

The Doctor raised his hand. His muscles creaked with the pain of the torture. His fingers touched the edge of the Xais mask.

He pulled. The mask did not yield.

'It's somehow melded itself to your skin,' he told Margo.

He was unable to keep the horror he felt from his voice.

'I know,' she said. Her body trembled with the effort it took to keep Xais suppressed. 'Please, Doctor, go. I cannot... hold her.'

The Doctor glanced at the door of the chamber and ran his tongue over his top lip. 'There are things I must know,' he said. 'Try to concentrate. The more I know, the more I can do to help you.'

'There is nothing you can do,' said Margo from behind the mask. 'This is my face now. She has taken... complete control.'

He steered her gently towards the chair and pushed her into it. 'Tell me how she took control. Tell me about her plans, Margo.'

'I saw her executed,' Margo began. 'She sat in this chair, a shield about her head, screaming her defiance. Even then, I felt something. As if a part of myself was dying. I can see into her mind now, see how it was done. I know all that she knows.

'Many years ago she carried out tests, using the power she controls to estimate the resistance of certain substances. She realized that helicon, in its liquid state, reacted uniquely.' She moaned and writhed in the Doctor's grip. 'It can record her mind, Doctor. Exactly. Emotions, memories, personality. The small amount she had was not enough. She planned to mine a vast amount of helicon from Planet Eleven.'

The Doctor frowned. 'How was she to know it was there?'

Margo's hands gripped at the rests of the chair, the knuckles whitening. 'Her contact with the establishment told her. Pyerpoint.'

A bewildering flurry of thoughts flashed through the Doctor's mind. 'This is the point,' he said, 'where I feel I ought to say, "Goodness, I should have realized." '

'Xais worked with Pyerpoint. He arranged for her to destroy his enemies, or enterprises that threatened his own investments. He used her as a walking weapon. She used him to satisfy her own hatred of humanity. They were planning to mine the helicon together when she was arrested. And together they worked out how to use Stokes and his gallery to recreate her.'

'How does the process work?'

Margo struggled with the concepts in Xais's mind. 'The transfer process is achieved by Xais releasing a quant.i.ty of her power into a quant.i.ty of liquid helicon. The helicon is primed, it becomes almost alive. She can then fill it with her mind and her purpose. The more helicon, the quicker and easier the process. She was in contact with the small amount used to make the mask for only fifteen minutes. As a result, she estimated the transfer of her soul to the mask could take up to five years. I remember... she can remember lying back as Stokes took the mask. Then it lay dormant in the gallery, gathering strength, seeking a suitable host. It chose me. It amused her to select the woman who had put her to death.'

The Doctor sensed Margo's bitterness in her next words.

'And somehow Pyerpoint knew. He could see it in my eyes as Xais took hold of me. But,' she chuckled, 'he didn't know what she was planning as she took control of me. She forced me to steal a transmitter from stores. This was to signal the accomplices she had already briefed, before her arrest.

Accomplices he knew nothing of.'

'What about the raid on the survey base?'

'Yes. Through my eyes, Xais saw reports of the survey on Planet Eleven. She was afraid that McConnochie Mining would commit themselves to mining the planet before her.

One night, she summoned up all her energy to take control of my mind. Using my body, she transmatted herself to the survey base, killed their engineer, and switched off the life support systems. Back at the Rock, she used her technical skills to falsify the transmat records and introduced a creeping virus into the security system, to prevent her signals to the Nisbetts being detected. Then, when she was ready, she took full control and led them in.'

Margo twisted and shook as Xais struggled to return.

'Please, Doctor, you must go... she will consume me... help me...'

The Doctor made for the door and turned as something occurred to him. 'I must know one more thing, Margo. Tell me, what does Xais intend to do with the helicon when she has it?'

'She wants to activate it using my mind as hers,' said Margo. The mask may soon be independent, her power over it is growing, but she still needs the mind of a living host to bring the helicon to life. When she has transferred herself, her power will be terrifying.'

'But what will she do with that power?'

The question triggered a series of spasms. Margo gasped as the voice of Xais choked at her throat. 'I will replicate myself a million times, Doctor!' she cried. 'I will be immortal, untouchable! An army of me will sweep through the universe.

I will destroy all Normals!' Her head jerked up and he saw the eyesockets of the mask start to glow with a deadly fire.

He threw himself through the door and keyed in the locking command on the panel beside it. Then he hurried through the cells as quickly as he could.

Xais rose from the chair, her host body quivering with anger.

She searched her thoughts for the mind of Margo, but it was gone finally, consumed in the pool of her consciousness. Still, what did it matter if she had freed the Doctor? He was one Normal and would perish soon enough.

No, she warned herself. As a police agent, the Doctor was dangerous. If he was able to escape from the Rock and reveal his findings to his superiors her plan could be in danger. A strike of planetary missiles could destroy Eleven and the prize it held for her.

The Doctor had to be found and killed as soon as possible.

The Nisbetts had detailed a couple of Ogrons to stand guard at the entrance to the huge cavern where the Rock's mighty engines were located. The ape beasts stood before the enormous metal door at the far end of level two, their weapons raised.

'We will soon be rich, masters say,' remarked one of the Ogrons.

'Yes. I will buy necklace for wife,' said his mate. 'And a big stone.'

The first Ogron grunted his encouragement. 'Yes, it is good to have a big stone.'

Spiggot watched them from the cover of a large container of spare parts on the other side of the hallway. On their journey through the corridors he and K9 had managed to dodge the Ogron patrols but this situation was different.

'How the heck are we going to get in there?' Spiggot looked across at the Ogrons' thick protective jerkins and then down at his blaster.

'Your concern is unnecessary. I will incapacitate these hostiles.' K9 extended his nose laser and moved from cover.

Spiggot caught his breath as the robot dog went into the open. He looked rather helpless and pathetic as his noisy motor carried him slowly toward the huge Ogron guards and their fearsome blaster rifles. Spiggot almost couldn't bear to look. K9 didn't stand a chance.

The first Ogron stepped forward suspiciously. 'What is this machine?'

The second scratched his head. 'Is it a robot?'

K9 fired a twin beam. The bright red stun rays sliced through the cold air with a high-pitched buzz. The Ogrons fell after a couple of seconds.

Spiggot emerged. 'Well done.' He looked down at K9.

'Who put you together, eh? The force could do with some like you.'

'Queries irrelevant.' K9 turned up the power of his ray and blasted the locking mechanism of the metal doors. They slid open. 'The engine room is now clear.' He went in.

Spiggot followed and found himself in a surprisingly small room that contained a dead engineer, a large and intricately labelled console, and a screen that displayed the Rock's present position in the system. Planet Eleven was now less than an hour away.

K9 was examining the console. It looked to Spiggot as if he was sniffing at it with his antennae. 'Engine system based on primitive fission reaction,' he said disapprovingly. 'Motor guidance uses hydraulics. Suggest disabling guidance unit.'