Part 46 (1/2)

'Yes, of course. I see it now.'

'What?' Haunt asked nervously. 'What is it?'

'He is holding back the paralysing pulse with his mind.' mind.'

Haunt stared at the old man. 'It's not possible.'

'Such power we shall have in this little creature when he is ours,' breathed DeCaster. 'But look at him now, he is so tired.'

The Schirr dropped the Doctor to the tunnel floor. He scrambled up, a pathetic figure, limping along towards the light, trying to get away.

'Let go, little creature,' DeCaster shouted after him. 'Let go, and the joining can be completed.'

Haunt saw two of the Spook constructs stride up out of the blue mist that swirled through the propulsion chamber. They towered over the Doctor.

'I asked for them to appear as angels, Doctor,' she called out to the old man, 'and they did. I could never understand G.o.d. But angels are different. They can be evil as well as good, can't they?'

The Doctor staggered back from the constructs. They caught him with ease.

Haunt watched him as he struggled to hold on. Watched the Spooks as they pushed and pulled at his feeble body. 'I wanted angels,' she told him, 'to guide us to our rest.'

III.

'We need a distraction,' whispered Ben, mindful of the oversized ears of their Schirr captors, and unsure the constructs were really so detached from all this as they seemed. 'Creben, Shade, if we can lead them away from here, through that secret pa.s.sageway, Polly and Tovel can have a go at fitting them crystals and getting us out of here.'

Polly glanced down at Tovel. She crossed her fingers, and nodded.

Creben and Shade looked more doubtful.

'It's the only chance we've got,' Ben insisted. 'Cheer up, this is the easy bit. Once we've done that, we've got to save the Doctor.'

Creben looked away. 'Forget it.'

'You just gonna wait till you turn into one of those things?'

Ben hissed furiously.

'You're only prolonging the inevitable,' Creben muttered, not turning round.

Ben nodded to himself. Polly glared at Creben, but he was too wrapped up in himself to even notice.

'Shadow?' Ben asked, eyebrows raised.

'Shade,' he corrected. 'All right. I'm in.'

Ben saw Polly's fattening face light up with a smile.

'Thank G.o.d for that,' said Ben gratefully. 'Next question.

Any ideas?'

He saw Shade staring at what looked like boiled sweets that had fallen from Roba's torn combat suit. His eyes met Polly's. She scooped a couple up discreetly, pretending to check on Tovel, still slumped on the floor beside them.

'Not hungry, ta,' said Ben, bewildered. But Shade reached into his own pocket and pressed one into the puffy, blistering flesh of Ben's hand.

'Follow my lead,' Shade said. 'Polly, can you act sick?

They'll be less bothered about guarding you if they think you're like Frog and Roba.'

Ben glanced at the two of them, spreadeagled on the floor, misshapen and twitching. Roba's milky eyes met his own. He turned away.

'All right, I'm ready when you are,' he said.

Polly gave a pitiful, sobbing cry, and collapsed to the floor, thras.h.i.+ng about beside Tovel like she was mental.

'Now,' yelled Shade. He threw the boiled sweet down at the floor between two Schirr. He's missed, He's missed, Ben thought for a sickening moment. Ben thought for a sickening moment. The silly sod's missed. The silly sod's missed. But a second later, with a bang like a cap popping, a long rectangular bubble appeared, one of those things Frog and the others were lying on. Three Schirr went tumbling backwards as the thing expanded and knocked them off their feet. But a second later, with a bang like a cap popping, a long rectangular bubble appeared, one of those things Frog and the others were lying on. Three Schirr went tumbling backwards as the thing expanded and knocked them off their feet.

Ben ran up screaming to two of the stone angels and threw down his own instant mattress. It sprang into full size. One of the creatures fell heavily to the ground, the other flapped away in surprise, like a dirty great startled pigeon.

Now every second counted. Ben sprinted for the door in the wall, raising a fist in triumph at Shade, who was matching him for speed across the control room. A big, pink, Schirr fist.

He halted in the doorway, looked back. One of the angels was already drifting across to catch them. The hunched-up Schirr lumbered after them like amateur Lon Chaneys. And behind them, unnoticed, Polly was helping Tovel into a kneeling position, helping him towards the navigational console.

'It worked,' Shade panted. From his tone, the gormless grin on his face, you'd think nothing he'd done had ever worked before.

'Yeah, like a charm,' said Ben wryly. 'Every ugly in the place'll be breathing down our neck.'

'Let's go.' Shade led the way down the pa.s.sageway like he was John Wayne all of a sudden.

'Terrific,' Ben muttered, and ran to catch him up.

The beating of stone wings echoed eerily down the tunnel behind him.