Part 30 (1/2)

' You You are in the computer?' are in the computer?'

The head gave a disembodied nod. 'But I'm still me. Kate, please just follow my commands. I can find my way round in here, but I can't control it.'

She sighed. 'I don't know. I'm not even used to this system.'

'But I I am,' said the boy's ghost. 'Ever heard of automatic writing? Put your fingers on the keys.' am,' said the boy's ghost. 'Ever heard of automatic writing? Put your fingers on the keys.'

She obeyed and watched, startled, as her fingers started to move independently of her own will.

The screen darkened and started to scroll with a rush of data.

Harrods stood back from the lift doors, his fingers aching from trying to force them apart.

'It's no good, sir. I reckon something's jamming them.'

The indicator above the door was lit only on the number three.

'Typical,' complained the Brigadier. 'Blasted boy always disappears when you want him.'

As if in answer, the lift doors clanked and ground slowly open. The two pa.s.sengers stepped out into the hallway relieved to be out of the cage.

The corridor outside was equally unwelcoming. With all the gloom, they might have been in a bas.e.m.e.nt or crypt. The air was muggy. The web-shrouded walls creaked and rumbled like sleepy beasts s.h.i.+fting restlessly in their stalls.

The Brigadier hefted a fire-extinguisher from its place on the wall. 'Better than nothing,' he said and set off slowly along the pa.s.sage.

A worrying thought had just occurred to him: if Daniel Hinton now existed only in the systems of the New World computer, what would happen to the boy if the computer was switched off?

He wondered if he was going mad.

'Sir?' called Harrods. 'Where are we going, sir?'

'Don't worry, Sergeant. I have someone working on it.'

The Brigadier eyed a security camera on the ceiling. 'As long as he doesn't lead us on too long a dance.'

Harrods was having to scuttle to keep up with him. He was grinning to himself 'Ever see Wilson, Kepple and Betty, sir?'

Lethbridge-Stewart wondered if they were both going mad.

'The variety act? Two funny little men in Egyptian clobber doing sand dances? And a girl doing a sort of exotic belly dance?'

'Oh yes, sir. My favourites, they were.'

'Really,' the Brigadier said, trying to sound interested.

They had turned left, left and left and were in severe danger of turning left again and ending up where they had started.

If Hinton was acting as their spirit guide, where was he when they needed him?

'Three times I saw them, sir. And every time the Betty was a different person.'

'Three different, Bettys.' The Brigadier laughed appreciatively. But he doubted that Time Lords toured the universe performing novelty acts on the variety circuit.

On the other hand...

'Sir!'

Harrods was crouched by a doorway marked 'NW FM'.

There was a shape inside. The figure of a man dressed in a Hawaiian s.h.i.+rt with headphones draped round his neck. He was slumped against the gla.s.s, covered in swathes of web and his dead eyes were staring wide open.

The door was jammed tight.

'Gets worse, doesn't it, sir?'

'It does indeed, Sergeant. Let's keep moving.'

Faced with the opportunity of going left again, the Brigadier opted for right. The way was closed.

Since there was no promised clue from Hinton, he settled on left instead.

A deep chanting noise was emanating from the gloom.

Before they reached the lift, they came to another viewing window in the wall. It looked into a large room resembling a language lab. In the dim light they could make out row upon row of computer terminals with a Chilly seated in an att.i.tude of contemplation at each. The same web was draped over the students and the machines. It caught the light of the terminals, glittering malevolently as the Chillys kept up their chanted dirge.

'Like a morgue,' whispered Harrods.

'Like a trap,' corrected the Brigadier. He could see that several of the Chillys held silvered spheres on their laps. Some of them were starting to rise from their places.

Where the h.e.l.l is Hinton? he thought.

'Come on,' he said. 'Back to the lift!'

It had been a struggle to get the lift as far as Floor Three.

Almost as soon as the Brigadier had left the confines of the lift, Danny had felt a new command in the system.

The lift was being summoned to Floor Eight, the top level.

Danny put a countermand option through Kate's fingers, but his momentary lapse in concentration had let things slip.

The doors closed and the lift went up unhindered.