Part 26 (1/2)

'This is the way,' Tovel said.

The pa.s.sage wound on, getting brighter the further they got. The fleas skipped and scuttled over their faces and hands. Ben brushed them away furiously. Then he realised Roba and the others had stopped - and, a moment later, saw why.

'Stone me,' Ben said, staring out into a star-filled night.

'They put a window in here.'

'Why would they do such a thing?' Creben wondered.

'I wonder, yes,' said the Doctor, making a big show of contemplating the mystery. Ben supposed he was grateful for the extra rest. 'Why one window, and why here?'

'Well, it's not a bad view, is it?' Ben said. The stars were solid points of light, glaring out from the most absolute blackness Ben had ever seen.

'Nothing out there,' Roba remarked.

'Not yet,' Joiks added.

Roba led them onwards 'Can't get no further,' said Roba. 'Rockfall. Time to get busy.'

'All right. Polly said she ran straight down this tunnel from the blue area.' The heavy crack of boulders impacting against floor and wall punctuated Tovel's speech as Roba got his hands dirty. 'If we can clear that lot, we'll be on the way to getting clear ourselves.'

Ben wished he could believe it.

As Tovel helped Roba dislodge the really big stones, Joiks and Creben both began work themselves. While Creben sized up different rocks, looking for those that might bring a number more tumbling down without further effort, Joiks tore at the landslide. He was probably imagining each one was Frog's head. She'd given the berk a right b.l.o.o.d.y nose; if it hadn't been flattened a dozen times before she'd probably have broken it. Still, it had knocked some of the c.o.c.kiness out of him and no mistake. He was good as gold and keeping his lip b.u.t.toned. Ben almost liked him that way.

Poor old Frog. If there was even a chance they could stop what was happening to her...

'Come on, Ben,' Roba called, as he heaved at a huge boulder. 'You can maybe s.h.i.+ft the pebbles, OK?'

'Yeah, yeah.' Ben was glad to see the big man back on side, but a little wary of him too since his acting up back in the control room. He grappled with a chunk of slate too big for him to tackle easily alone, just to show willing. But the thought of Frog had suggested something to him. ''Ere, Roba.

That cut of yours. How come your suit's not digging in, staunching the blood or whatever?'

'It ain't working,' Roba grumbled, not looking up from the rockpile. 'Cheap c.r.a.p they give us.'

They worked on. Just as he was beginning to think that any second now the noise of cras.h.i.+ng rock would bring the stone angels flapping back in sympathy, Ben saw a wisp of wraith-like blue light ahead.

'Look!' he called. 'We're almost through!'

V.

Haunt stirred, her eyes opened almost involuntarily. The control room snapped back into sharp focus. The fever had broken, and her thoughts had suddenly an awful, fragile clarity. She felt not just the dreadful empty pain in her side and the warm throb of the shot in her arm, but the full weight of her responsibility for the safety and success of the mission. All those lives that depended on her.

She was so tired. Too tired. Didn't they realise that?

Her eyes closed. Just for a moment Haunt thought of Ashman again and wished she could go back there, back then, to that time on Toronto.

VI.

Shade had been sleeping silently for some time now; or so Polly had thought. She stopped as she approached him. He was lying facing away from her, curled up.

Lindey's palm-sized computer was gone from his pocket.

Polly stealthily advanced. Now she was close enough to see he was actually using the computer, holding it up to his eyes, entirely caught up in whatever it was showing him.

Polly reached in and grabbed the computer from him.

Shade spun round in surprise. Polly stifled a gasp, felt her stomach churn, and the flesh at the back of her thighs go tight at the sight of him.

His face was a mess of half-formed scabs, and streaked with bright red blood. Guilt was written gorily all over him.

'Guess I'm always going to have the same effect on people, aren't I,' he said. 'One look and they scream.'

'This isn't about your face,' Polly snapped. 'Except in as much as you seem to have two of them. Oh, yes, you were so sad to have lost poor old Lindey one minute... didn't stop you stealing her computer thing and keeping whatever it might tell you to yourself!'

She wanted him to deny it. He didn't. She looked at the screen, focussed on the green capitals cl.u.s.tered there.

PRESS OK TO KILL FILES ++.

'What's going on, Shade?' she breathed.

'Nothing,' he said, his hoa.r.s.e voice sounding more choked than usual. 'Give me that palmscreen.'

'I'll get Haunt to show me how it works,' she said defiantly.

Shade stared helplessly at her, his face twisted in pain. For an awful moment she thought he was going to start crying too.

'But if you tell me, I won't tell anyone else,' she added.

Shade laid his head back down on the firm mattress. 'I don't suppose it matters much, since we're going to die anyway.'

'What do you mean, we're going to die?' Polly demanded.