Part 30 (2/2)

He fed Kate a command to stop the doors opening at the top, but was overruled again.

She was a good medium for his thoughts. She had let her mind loosen, allowing him open access to move her fingers over the keys. No longer confined to his human body, no longer genetically challenged, he found that his thoughts were freed up too. It was the flying he had always wanted. He was able to think so fast now that he was afraid of hurting Kate.

He fed her another instruction: a command to stop the lift in its tracks.

He sensed the doors closing on the eighth floor. He put in an override command to open again.

He felt the doors judder. The logic commands were counteracting each other. He wanted to keep this up for as long as possible, but he heard Kate gasp.

'I can't move my fingers,' she protested. 'What is it?'

'Hold it there!' he snapped. He had to stop whatever was in the lift from descending.

He knew what was in the lift. He still felt the tug of what had once been his body. The Intelligence's powers had widened. It no longer needed to construct robots to serve as its heavy brigade. The university had a whole section devoted to nanotechnology and atomic engineering. The Intelligence could overwhelm and trans.m.u.te any form into its instrument.

For a moment, Danny was stifled. A shrill repeating beat swamped his thoughts. His chest burned with an inner fire. His man's shape was thick with sinew and fur. He could only move clumsily in the confines of the imposition. Through red eyes, he saw the metal walls of the lift and the doors juddering back and forth in front of him as he struck at them.

With an animal roar, he broke free again. He was back at Kate's shoulder, forcing the claw shapes out of his head.

His concentration had slipped once more. In the computer systems, he felt the doors slam shut and the lift begin its descent.

'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' Kate was saying.

By now, the Intelligence would be hunting him too.

The Brigadier and Harrods reached the lift and saw the floor indicator descend from eight to seven. The mechanism was emitting confused electronic grindings.

'Brigadier! Get back!'

He saw a woman standing in the shadows at the far end of the corridor. He didn't know her voice, but her shape and demeanour were familiar. She had an intensity that had been plaguing his dreams.

Behind him, the lift mechanisms were snarling their protest.

The woman was hurrying towards him. 'Please get back from that lift. I was wrong. Now please get away from there!'

He turned to see the floor indicator sink to six.

Danny struggled to countermand the lift signal. Kate's, mind was clouding up with stressful thoughts, making it impossible to channel his own will clearly.

'It's fighting back!' she yelled.

Through her fingers, he could feel the pressure of the function keys forcing upwards against him. 'I must hold it down!' The keyboard was starting to get hot.

'People in gla.s.s houses...' he shouted aloud.

The Intelligence couldn't fight back too violently or it would destroy every delicate circuit in which it wreathed itself.

Through the security camera on Floor Five, Danny could see Lethbridge-Stewart arguing with someone right by the lift doors. It was Victoria Waterfield. Now she was in danger too.

Staying in the system any longer meant deletion for Danny, but he had to save the Brigadier.

Victoria was pulling at the Brigadier's arm.

'Come away please, Brigadier! You shouldn't have come here.'

He wrenched himself free. 'It's a bit late for apologies, madam!'

'Sir!' warned the little tramp and he pointed along the corridor.

A group of Chillys, covered in tatters of web, were advancing on them.

The lift screeched a protest as it finally reached their level.

The door mechanism whirred, but failed to open.

Victoria stepped forward to meet the Chillys. 'Go back to your studies,' she commanded. 'There's nothing here you want!'

Boom! Something began to beat repeatedly on the inside of the lift doors. Something began to beat repeatedly on the inside of the lift doors.

n.o.body moved. n.o.body dared.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

'Quickly!' Victoria urged the Brigadier and the tramp along the corridor away from the Chillys. She ushered them through a fire door towards the emergency stairwell. Glancing back, she saw that, instead of pursuing them, the Chillys were setting their hands to the lift doors, trying to claw them apart.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Victoria fled through the doorway. She found the Brigadier waiting on the stairway.

'This way,' she gasped, but the Brigadier pulled her back.

A tide of Chillys was descending the stairs. More of them blocked the way down. The students ignored Victoria's orders and advanced on the Brigadier. Too late, he raised the fire-extinguisher to defend himself. He vanished under an anemone of grasping hands.

Kate's fingers were burning. She could not take them off the keys. 'Please,' she was begging. 'Please. I can't hold them any longer.'

But the presence at her shoulder was remorseless. 'You must! You must! Think of your dad!'

She was crying. 'Let go! Let go of my mind.'

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