Part 31 (2/2)

The radio buzzed with a random electronic jamming pattern. It pulsed in time with the beams of light shooting up from the New World buildings.

The sky overhead was cut off. The web canopy was extending in all directions out towards the horizon, throwing out fingers like frost flowers through the atmosphere. Web strands were drizzling down, catching in the trees like spanish moss. Increasingly frustrated, Crichton decided to take the bull by the horns.

'Sergeant Beagles. Six-man escort now. I'm going up to knock on the front door.'

His entourage set off across the lawns, heading towards the gla.s.s-fronted reception area. As he reached the concourse, a door in one of the side buildings opened. A figure in frill uniform lurched out.

'Not that way, Brigadier,' rasped Captain Cavendish. His voice was a tortured parody of itself. His face had become a mask behind which his cold-blooded eyes darted like a reptile's.

Not that way, Brigadier... Brigadier... Brigadier... echoed the campus PA system. echoed the campus PA system.

Crichton ignored the mockery from all around him. He already had the young man in his sights. 'You are under arrest, Cavendish. Where's that file you stole?'

The PA system roared with cold laughter, throwing its voice from one speaker to another across the campus. Finally the laugh settled in Cavendish's throat. He moved like a puppet, his uncoordinated limbs jerking to the reflexes of an outside force.

The voice said, 'Your Captain is no longer answerable to you.'

'Who are you?' called Brigadier Crichton.

'I am many!'

Many! Many! Many!

Cavendish's arm rose and indicated the door leading into the building. 'Come inside and see for yourself.'

Crichton glanced briefly round at his men. 'No thanks. I prefer to talk out here.'

'Sir,' whispered the corporal next to Crichton. He nodded with his eyes to the parkland beyond the administration block.

Several objects were moving through the trees large shapes striding out of the shrubbery about to cut off Crichton's group from the rest of the squad.

'Yeti!' shouted Crichton.

Three more of the bearlike creatures ducked out through the doorway behind Cavendish.

Crichton's practised eye took in their situation. Cavendish, or whatever was controlling Cavendish, had hoped to get them surrounded where they stood. Lawns by their nature afforded little cover. 'Pull back and re-form!' he yelled and brought up the rear as the group withdrew to the 'safe' position of a nearby herbaceous border.

Captain Cavendish stood back as the Yeti started to advance.

Brigadier Crichton crouched in the flowerbed, his boots sinking into the muddy topsoil. The men round him were tense, fingering the triggers of their automatic rifles.

'Call this a rapid-reaction force?' he muttered. 'Where the h.e.l.l's Bambera with that back-up?'

Sarah had left her Spitfire further along the road, out of sight of the convoy. Its windscreen wipers were clogged with web.

She had watched Crichton's confrontation with the young officer from a safe distance behind a laurel bush.

Twigs cracked. She ducked into the foliage. Two furry shapes as big as grizzly bears lumbered past no more than twelve feet from her. They walked upright with a rolling gait, their forepaws clawing the air.

Yeti, she thought, and tried not to think too much of Charlie Bryce. Somehow these hulking creatures didn't look like the shy, endangered species that the doc.u.mentaries always made them out to be. Or like fluffy bundles that bit prime ministers.

They also emitted a persistent high-pitched bleeping signal.

She saw Crichton's group start to retreat. More of the huge brutes were emerging from the trees on the far side of the lawns. And still more from the building.

Blue UN berets were visible ranged across the parkland.

Battle lines were being drawn up. Sarah ran through the layout of the campus in her mind. She heard the first rapid gunshots as she skirted the bushes and headed for the administration block.

There was web on the inside of the reception windows. She cautiously pushed open the door and went inside. The squeaky-clean place she had visited only yesterday had changed beyond belief. The air was stale and clogged.

Something unearthly was in residence here. She had sensed it on her first visit, but it was no longer just an uncomfortable gut feeling. It had erupted into visible form, filling the place with an evil nebulous gossamer. She immediately thought of spiders and parlours and giant versions of things that kept eating her roses in the garden at home.

In the gloom, Sarah was suddenly aware of a figure seated behind the curve of the desk, a young woman with long blonde hair and her head buried in her hands. She slowly looked up, plainly exhausted. Sarah knew her ident.i.ty immediately.

'It's Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, isn't it?' she said enthusiastically. 'Your father said it might be a family affair.'

She reached across the desk and heartily shook the perplexed woman's hand. 'Sarah Jane Smith. h.e.l.lo. This place is like a beacon.'

In truth, she also recognized Kate from a photo of a little girl that the Brigadier had always carried in his wallet. The family resemblance was striking.

Sarah flapped her hands in a busy sort of way. 'So show me where to find your dad. I used to work with him sometimes.'

There was a pause. Kate hardly reacted.

'Are you all right?' asked Sarah.

Kate was rubbing her fingers. They looked raw. 'I don't know,' she said. 'I feel used, dirty. A computergeist computergeist.'

A clanking sound came from further inside the gloomy building. They heard a high-pitched bleeping signal approaching. Sarah darted through the open side of the reception desk beside Kate. They ducked below the counter as a Yeti emerged through the veils of hanging web.

It pa.s.sed the desk and stopped in the centre of the foyer, facing the main doors. It seemed to be waiting. The signal died. The ma.s.sive shape did not move. Sarah and Kate crouched close to the floor, too terrified to breathe.

Above them, there was a slight burr as the computer terminal on the desk activated. The screen started to glow with an empty pallor. It began to turn slowly back and forth like a cyclopean eye searching for them.

Sarah pulled Kate down tight under the desktop until they were practically chewing carpet. The screen continued to cast to and fro, searching in frustration.

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