Part 12 (1/2)

The Doctor and Fortalexa continued their descent. Lannic and the others joining them at the base of the stepped aisle.

'Sit down,' the Doctor told them. They sat in the front row, and he stood at the base of the stage. 'I have a theory. Not pleasant, not proven. But I think I know what is happening here.'

'You think you know?' Klasvik was on his feet, pointing past the Doctor. 'The statue has been removed and you think think you know what is happening?' you know what is happening?'

'What is the point you are trying to make, Klasvik?' Lannic's voice was weary, resigned.

'I'll tell you the point, although I would have thought it was obvious. Someone is playing games with us. The Rippeareans are here, picking us off one by one.'

'Not the Rippereans, I'm afraid. Something far worse.'

'Worse? You don't know what you're talking about.'

The Doctor leaped down from the stage, umbrella held out in front of him so that it pointed directly at Klasvik's chest, stopping just short of touching him. 'I know infinitely more than you ever will, Leontium Klasvik.'

Klasvik started. 'How did you know '

Out the Doctor ignored him. 'I have been to the Eye of Orion, have been caught in the clutches of the black hole of Tartarus, been hunted through the universe by the Daleks, and played backgammon with Kublai Khan. And you say I don't know what I'm talking about? Have you ever seen the skies above Metabelis Three, tried the experiential grid on Argolis, or watched the s.p.a.ce yachts of the Eternals race against the stars?' He turned away in contempt. 'Of course you haven't.'

After a moment the Doctor turned back to face them, tapping the handle of his umbrella thoughtfully against his chin. He opened his mouth to speak, and Klasvik screamed.

'I may have been a little harsh,' the Doctor seemed taken aback, 'but that does seem a somewhat extreme reaction.'

But Klasvik was not the only one to react. Lannic and Gilmanuk were already on their feet, as Fortalexa reached out to the Doctor. Tashman and Klasvik were backing away from the stage. The Doctor took a step backwards, but Fortalexa grabbed his sleeve and pulled him into the front row.

And the arms of the Doctor's statue closed on the empty s.p.a.ce where his throat had been. Its eyes snapped upwards to see where its quarry had gone, a tear of mud streaking down one cheek as the stone sh.e.l.l cracked with the movement. The Lannic statue joined the stone Doctor at the edge of the stage and together they watched their prey scurry away up the aisle.

'You're right,' the Doctor said breathlessly as he raced Fortalexa and Klasvik through the auditorium. 'I don't know what I'm talking about.'

Bernice leafed through the pile of doc.u.ments for a few seconds, then checked the optical sphere's index on the screen for the umpteenth time. 'Strange but true,' she muttered quietly. There was something odd about all the doc.u.ments. Some detail that was evading her.

She had noticed the obvious problem almost at once. All the doc.u.mentation was about the theatre. It had taken her a while to realize that this actually was a problem though. Since she was interested in the theatre she was initially overjoyed that so much material existed which related to it. Lannic must have had the same reaction, she thought.

But then Lannic had not drunk enough Chardonnay to get to the point where you suspect any euphoria, however mild, to be alcohol*induced. So Benny had looked for the down*side. And the down*side was that there was no material relating to any other aspect of life on Menaxus. None.

'That was when she had first called Elliniko. He must have understood her only to be interested in the theatre and not provided whatever other doc.u.ments there were. But no, this was it. A whole planet's history from (she leafed through a pile of half*sorted papers to check) universal calendar date 2176 to (she glanced at the index) UCD. 2542. And all of it related to a tiny geographical area significant only because someone called Pithess had built a theatre there. It was almost unbelievable. Almost she clung to the idea that maybe the eccentric Braxiatel was not interested in anything else about the planet: not interested in any other area or nation, not interested in medical or political or geographical information. Just theatre, And just this one theatre.

But that was not what worried Bernice. What worried her was whatever she was missing. She had almost had it as she again read through the fragment of an anonymous account of the opening performance of The Captain's Honour The Captain's Honour at the Pentillanian Theatre on Menaxus, but it had escaped. She had come even closer when she reread Georg Lichbergh's eyewitness account of Hagan's at the Pentillanian Theatre on Menaxus, but it had escaped. She had come even closer when she reread Georg Lichbergh's eyewitness account of Hagan's Hamlet Hamlet. But again it had eluded her. It was not something particular to those doc.u.ments, but they were somehow a part of it whatever it was.

'Stuff it,' Bernice said out loud, and went back to the simularity chamber. She might as well try a completely different approach.

The theatre was still there, waiting for her. The audience of Hamlets and Bennys still sat waiting for the Hamlet on stage to begin a random soliloquy.

'Cancel this lot,' said Bernice, and they disappeared, the whole theatre folding up and fading away in front of her. 'Reference Lannic's data measurements and holograms, Show me the admissions complex as it was when she saw it.'

'Done.' A set of ruined buildings swam into existence. The main building was largely intact apart from a side wall which lay where it had fallen across the sand. The wall opposite it no longer existed at all or maybe the entrance had been completely open. The roof still balanced across the top somehow, and Benny wondered briefly how it had managed to take the weight of the lander. The other buildings were in varying states of disrepair, many being little more than piles of stones laid out where walls had once been.

Benny walked down through the ruined stone buildings, picking her way needlessly round the walls and rubble. She had been to a thousand similar sites, yet they never ceased to amaze her. She could stand for hours and lap up the feelings of the past.

Except there were none.

She put it down to the simularity for a while. But then she began to notice consciously what her subconscious had seen all along. This site was different the lie of the stones and rubble; the way the wall of the main building had fallen away from its neighbours.

'Stand this wall up again,' she said on a whim. The computer obliged and stones rose of their own accord until the wall slotted neatly into place, completing the building like a jigsaw. Bernice walked up to the wall and looked at it, c.o.c.king her head to one side. It seemed odd that just a single wall had gone without apparently affecting the others. 'How did it fall?' she asked herself.

But the computer heard, and the wall crashed down at her. She yelped and jumped back, then immediately looked round to see if anyone had seen her leap out of the way of a non*existent wall. Her stomach settled and she turned back to the ruin. An idea was forming in her mind. She did not yet know what it was, but it was close.

'Show me again, half speed.' The wall slowly toppled forward and crashed into the sand, remaining largely intact on impact. 'And again.' Benny watched it through three more times at various speeds. After she was sure that the middle of the wall bowed outwards first, the top tearing away a moment later from where the roof had been. She thought about the problem, then said, 'State basis for calculation of the way the wall fell.'

'Simularity animation consistent with spatial arrangement of stones on site. Pressures applied to match dispersal on ground impact.'

'You mean you can tell how the wall fell from the way it was lying afterwards. Very clever.' She considered. 'Are you clever enough to run the animation again, at twenty five per cent speed, with the other three walls of the building removed?'

In answer the standing walls faded away, and the square of stones on the ground rose slowly into position. Bernice moved so she could watch from behind. 'Okay go.'

The wall fell impossibly slowly, curling away from her. She shook her head. It was still not quite right. 'Give me a light source, angled at ninety degrees to the wall and at forty*five degrees elevation.' The light appeared, and Benny stood so she was end*on to the wall, a short distance from it. 'And run it again.'

It was all too obvious this time. The shadows thrown onto the falling wall by the light source clearly illuminated the slight bulge in the middle of the wall just as it started to fall. But how could she find out what had caused it? The answer, when she reached it after pacing round the ruins for several minutes was equally obvious.

'Why is there a bulge in the middle of the wall just as it starts to fall?' she asked.

'Simularity animation consistent with spatial arrangement of stones on site. Pressures applied to match dispersal on ground impact. The bulge referred to is the main point of pressure.'

'The wall was pushed over?'

'Yes.'

'What by?'

In answer a rectangular surface of metal materialized in the air before Bernice. The wall rose to meet it, and the metal square fitted into the slight bulge as the wall reached a near*upright position. The animation froze.

'Put the other walls back.' They duly appeared in place. Benny walked round them, and looked in through the open end of the building at the newly erected far wall, the metal sheet still pressed against it.

She could not prove it, of course, but it looked to Benny as if someone had driven a bulldozer through the open front of the building and knocked down the back wall, leaving the rest of that area of the complex intact.

She walked over to one of the completely ruined building. It was just four piles of stones where the walls had been once. 'I wonder... Show me that wall intact.' She pointed to the nearest part of the ruin.

'Not possible.'

Oh well, everything must have limits, she supposed. 'Can you tell if this wall collapsed in the same way from similar exertion of pressure?'

'Impossible. That is not a wall.'

'I beg your pardon?'

'That is not a wall. None of the sections in close proximity are walls.'

'Then what are they?'