Part 18 (1/2)

'Woods are like that in the dark. Ignore it.'

'I don't mean just here. I mean everywhere. Ever since I came here.

Even when I'm quite alone, I know there's still someone watching.'

'Spies, you mean?'

'No...'

Who had been in the maze with himself and Drakefell? And how had whoever it was managed to lose him?

'Hold it,' O'Brien hissed.

There was a light ahead of them. It was moving.

Slowly,' the Doctor whispered. 'Quietly.'

The light bobbed and weaved, vanis.h.i.+ng behind trees, then reappearing, always further off. Occasionally it would dip sharply and vanish, as if whoever was holding it had fallen.

'He's going at a bit of a lick,' O'Brien whispered. 'Come on.'

He pushed forward, thrusting aside the branches of bushes and young trees.

'Reminds me of Korea,' he whispered.

The Doctor trotted after him.

The ground soon turned boggy. Water lapped around their ankles, then their knees, slowing their progress. The light was getting away from them. The land rose again and began to dry out, but they were soon pus.h.i.+ng though dense brambles that were taller than the Doctor, 93 and which snagged and coiled incessantly around their clothes.

'Got to hand it to them,' said O'Brien, 'they picked a d.a.m.ned good hiding place.'

'Mmm,' was the Doctor's only response. They had been walking for nearly an hour, and he suspected they were lost.

'Best foot forward,' said O'Brien.

The Doctor put his best foot forward and the next moment felt the ground crumbling away beneath it and the forest spring up to attack him. He fell, and landed hard on his ankle, which buckled in sudden agony under him.

'You OK?' O'Brien asked.

The Doctor was sprawled at the bottom of a shallow gully. Gingerly he picked himself up and tested his weight on the throbbing ankle* It would have to do.

'I think we're here,' said O'Brien as the Doctor scrambled out of his hole. 'Look'

Ahead of them the trees gave way to a clearing and a chain-link fence, easily ten feet tall and surmounted with barbed wire.

The moon was out, and as they approached the clearing, the Doctor began to make out some detail of the darkness behind the fence. A single large grey building a hangar dominated the clearing. Smaller brick outhouses cl.u.s.tered around its huge walls, as if frightened of the impenetrable wood.

A road had been cut through the trees on the far side. A wide road.

They began skirting the fence. The place seemed deserted.

'No guards,' said the Doctor. 'Odd'

'Perhaps he sent them away,' O'Brien replied. 'Look over there.'

Ahead of them Drakefell was standing at the gate, staring up at the hangar. The gate was open.

'He is still in charge here,' O'Brien replied. 'On paper, at least.'

Drakefell didn't look as if he was in charge of anything much. He was searing only his pyjamas and slippers, now sodden and caked with mud and grime.

'Poor man,' whispered the Doctor.

They limped up to the stricken scientist.

'There are no silver giants in there, I can promise you that,' said the Doctor gently.

'I'll tell you what's in there,' said Drakefell. 'Nightmares. Being too scared to go to sleep, keeping yourself awake for days... I can never get rid of it. No matter what I do, it finds me. It comes back to me and it all starts again.'

'This piece of equipment,' the Doctor said slowly, 'your... nightmare 94 machine... can you describe it?'

'It wasn't much to look at. A short silver cylinder, solid, which was quite badly charred... three thick, black tubes coming off it at the base, going into a sort of metal disk, about a foot and a half in diameter. Odd there was always frost on the disk. And the frost was always cold, but the disk never was. Even in the middle of summer frost.'

'Va.s.ser Dust,' said the Doctor.

'What?'

'A waste bi-product of time travel. It has telepathic qualities... Please go on.'

Drakefell was shaking his head slowly. 'It was nothing I recognised, and I thought I knew all the Augmentation Programme's junk inside out.'

'Nothing I recognise,' said O'Brien. 'Doc?'

'I'm afraid I do,' said the Doctor.

He fell into a thoughtful silence, staring up at the huge green hangar.

'So are you going to tell us what's going on, Doc?' asked O'Brien.

'Loose ends, Captain. I've been shockingly negligent.'

He turned to Drakefell. 'I'm going in,' he said. 'I think you should come with me.'

'You don't understand,' snarled Drakefell. 'No one else has seen it!'

Drakefell was growing agitated. He smoothed his pyjamas over and over to calm himself down.

'What have you seen, Dr Drakefell? What do you think is in that s.h.i.+p?' Drakefell stopped stroking and looked at the Doctor a long, curious, slightly skew-eyed stare. O'Brien took a step forward.

'It's all right,' said the Doctor calmly. 'Dr Drakefell...'