Part 24 (1/2)

'Yes. Yes, I missed that one,' admitted Benny. 'But did I wonder why the walls that are lying flat the ones which really were were walls seemed to have been knocked down by a bulldozer.' walls seemed to have been knocked down by a bulldozer.'

'What?'

'And then there are the doc.u.ments that was what really got me worried.'

'What about them?'

'Well, it took me forever to work it out. I knew there was something wrong. Not with any particular doc.u.ment, you understand, but with all of them. As a collection. I think it was when I cracked that one that Braxiatel decided to tell me what was going on.'

'Braxiatel?' The Doctor's chin left the umbrella and his demeanour changed from brooding consideration to alert intelligence. 'You met Irving Braxiatel?'

'Oh yes. Nice guy.'

'Look, when you two have stopped name*dropping, could one of you please tell me what was so odd about those doc.u.ments?'.

'Sorry, Ace. Well, I saw it eventually, and of course it was obvious once I'd worked it out.'

'Worked what out?'

'The phraseology was odd. The doc.u.ments there are several hundred of them are centuries apart in terms of original dates. But the same pompous phrases and vocabulary keep turning up in them. Almost as if they were written by the same person.'

'But how can that be?' asked Ace.

'Well, it's obvious really. But I missed it. The reason the rubble seems never to have been part of any real structure is because it hasn't. The reason the theatre works better as a ruin than as a theatre is that it was built as a ruin. The reason the walls seem to have been knocked down by a bulldozer is because they were knocked down by a bulldozer.'

The Doctor continued the progression: 'And the reason that the doc.u.ments seem to have been written by the same person is '

'Is that they were were written by the same person. Yes.' written by the same person. Yes.'

'But why?' Ace was stuck for words for a moment. 'I mean well, yes why?'

'I think, Ace and Benny will know for sure because there never was any civilization on Menaxus. No people, no theatre, no machine and no ma.s.sacre.'

Benny nodded. 'That's right.' She laughed. 'We should have spotted it much earlier. The whole place made no sense. It was laid out as an archaeological dig, not as a place people actually lived or worked. The whole supposed history is based on precedents stolen from other people's real history. I think some of them are included as a sort of one*upmans.h.i.+p I mean, the supposed sketch of the theatre which Lannic worked from was apparently drawn by someone called De Witte, for goodness sake. Even the curse on the monolith was a kind of joke I gather from Braxiatel that they were never expected to find it.'

'Hang on, hang on.' Ace held her hands up for silence. 'So the whole thing was an invention, right?'

The Doctor nodded. 'Yes, Ace. An act.'

Benny smiled. 'In a way, Doctor, but there again everything turned out to be exactly what it seemed.'

'Fine. But I don't understand why.'

The Doctor looked at Benny, and she signalled for him to go ahead. 'Because I think that what Benny is telling us is that the catastrophe I thought finished Menaxus hasn't happened yet. The machine wasn't built centuries ago to destroy a planet now long*dead. That planet was never alive. And the machine was left there only a few years ago. It was built to enable the Rippeareans to invade and destroy Heletia here and now.'

'That's right,' confirmed Benny. 'The whole history and archaeology of Menaxus was devised just to get the Heletians to excavate and to find the machine. They knew that Lannic would take it back to the Exec, and they knew he wouldn't pa.s.s up an opportunity to stage The Good Soldiers The Good Soldiers.'

'But they're winning the war's all but over. Why go to all that trouble now?'

'Lannic's initial expedition was five years ago, remember Ace,' the Doctor pointed out. 'The situation in the war was very different then. Even now it could drag on for several very nasty years.'

'So what went wrong?'

'According to Braxiatel, who seems to have masterminded the whole thing, the machine was programmed to make conditions on the dig as unpleasant as possible so that Lannic and her team would pull out quickly. Otherwise they might spend forever excavating and never get the machine back here at all. It seems to have done its job too well on the first dig, and they left before they even found the machine.'

'I should have guessed,' mused the Doctor. 'Braxiatel was always a grand master of political chess. A formidable actor too, though a little melodramatic hence the extraneous tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, I suppose.'

Ace gaped as a thought struck her. 'The mud monster!'

The Doctor nodded. 'Yes, it would explain a lot if that were also part of the act part of the machine's repertoire. It certainly seems to owe more to the imagination than to science. I think the machine lifted elements from The Good Soldiers The Good Soldiers which includes some nasty executions in the play*within-a-play, and from which includes some nasty executions in the play*within-a-play, and from Death's Bane Death's Bane which involves homicidal statues, amongst other things. It used them to scare us off.' which involves homicidal statues, amongst other things. It used them to scare us off.'

'I don't know what monster or statues you're on about, but that would fit with what happened to me when I found the machine, and with what Braxiatel said.'

'And now the drama will be played out as written. Five years late.'

Ace looked from Bernice to the Doctor. 'And you're just going to sit back and let it happen?' she asked, appalled.

The Doctor got as close to a shrug as he could while leaning forward on his umbrella. 'I don't know, Ace. It might be best.'

'What?' She could not believe what she was hearing.

'Perhaps this will help you decide, Doctor.' Benny pulled the envelope Braxiatel had given her from a pocket. It was crumpled, and she tried unsuccessfully to smooth it out a bit before handing it to the Doctor.

'From Braxiatel?'

Benny nodded.

The Doctor slid his index finger inside the ungummed corner and ran it along the top to rip open the envelope. He pulled several sheets of paper from inside and unfolded them. He read them in an instant, refolded them and pushed them back inside the envelope. Then he put the envelope in his jacket transferring a large paisley handkerchief to the pocket on the other side to make room.

Ace and Bernice watched the Doctor closely. He stood up, dusted himself down and made for the door.

'At last,' said Ace. 'Action.'

'Action?'

'We're going to stop the performance yes?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'No.'

'No?'

'No. I was just thinking we ought to get there early to make sure we get good seats. It wouldn't do to be stuck at the back. Behind the woman with the beehive hair*do.'

'Or the man with the extremely wide head and stick*out ears,' Bernice offered.