Part 9 (1/2)

'Please remain where you are,' said the Master. 'I have it in my power to bring Logopolis to a complete halt.'

And Tegan's blood froze to hear again the chuckle that had first terrified her in the TARDIS cloister room.

They were still some way away from the Central Register when Nyssa stopped suddenly. 'Listen!'

'I can't hear anything,' said Adric. And then he realised. Logopolis, the city that buzzed with numbers and the clacking of abacus beads . . . was now completely silent.

'Logopolis has stopped!' Nyssa exclaimed.

The Doctor peered into the nearest cel . As they had come to expect, a Logopolitan was sitting in his customary place at the entrance. But this one was completely motionless and silent, his abacus lying unused on his lap.

Adric saw the Doctor reach out to touch the still figure. To his horror the flesh crumbled away to dust as if it were a hollow, fragile sh.e.l.l.

The Doctor straightened up. 'It's started already,' he said grimly. 'The Master's attack. I was vain enough to believe it was me he was after. Logopolis is his target.'

There was nothing Tegan or the Monitor could do. The screen, with the Master's added silver device, was pointing into the aperture of the Monitor's console, pouring its lethal silence into the whole city.

The Monitor's distress was evident in his voice. 'Turn that machine off immediately. You fool! You have no idea what you are doing.'

The Master smiled. 'Merely emitting a sound-cancelling wave. Logopolis is now temporarily suspended, Monitor. The silence gives us an opportunity to discuss its future.'

'No!' The monosyllable was full of pain. 'It won't have a future, and nor will anything else unless you stop now.' The Monitor was pleading. 'You are eroding the structure and generating entropy.'

Tegan had no idea what was happening, but she could see from the Monitor's face that something had gone horribly wrong - something the Master had not antic.i.p.ated.

'An absurd a.s.sertion, Monitor,' said the Master, with an arrogant curl of his lip. 'I know the power of this device down to the last decibel.'

'But you don't know Logopolis!'

The Master stared back with cold, empty eyes. 'But I shal know it, shan't I, Monitor?

Before I allow the fascinating sounds of life here to resume you will have told me all there is to know. Of the secret work you are doing here perhaps . . . I heard rumours of your plagiarism of the Earthling's fruitless Pharos Project. Why have you created a copy here on Logopolis, Monitor? The time has come for you to share your secret with me.'

There was madness in the smooth control ed voice that made the Monitor move back instinctively, shaking his head. 'I cannot tell you. No one must know.

That has been our firm decision.'

So the Monitor had been concealing something! The thought flashed through Tegan's mind as she heard the Master say: 'Then we will wait until you change your decision.

Patience is a particular virtue of mine.'

'If you call killing the Logopolitans a virtue.' Tegan turned at the sound of the familiar voice. His scarf and coat flying, the Doctor strode into the room, followed by Adric and Nyssa.

The Master's laughter fell like a shower of acid rain on the white-walled room. 'Killing them, Doctor? You expect me to believe that?'

The Doctor certainly did. In a few terse sentences he gave an account of what they had seen in the street outside, and added, 'So you see, the Monitor's right, Master. Your spirit of free enterprise is more damaging than even you can imagine.'

'Father! What are you doing?'

There was a note of surprise in Nyssa's voice. She had been slowly walking towards the Master, and now she stood before him, reaching out, her round face a question.

'That's not your father, Nyssa.' The Doctor gently took her arm and drew her back.

'Tremas is dead. Killed by the Master here!'

'Dead!' She saw the truth in the Doctor's eyes, and turned to confront the object of his accusing finger. 'You've killed my father!'

Again the Master's laugh grated on the still air. 'But his body remains useful.'

Adric was astonished to see this small, aristocratic girl so br.i.m.m.i.n.g with icy anger. She tore herself from the Doctor's grasp and rushed at the Master. But as she was almost upon him a curious thing happened. The arm on which she wore her new gold armlet seemed suddenly to be suspended in the air, pulled up by some invisible hook. It jerked Nyssa back: she tugged at it, trying to reach the Master with the other hand. But the mocking face lay just beyond her flailing fingers.

'I'm grateful to Tremas,' the Master sneered. 'Without this body I could not have conquered Logopolis.'

'This isn't conquest - it's devastation,' the Doctor shouted.

'Yes, you will destroy everything.'

It must have been the note of terrible urgency in the Monitor's voice that made the Master hesitate fractionally before he said, 'You exaggerate, Monitor. Logopolis is not the universe.'

'But it is! Logopolis is the keystone.' The Monitor's face was ashen. 'If you destroy Logopolis, you unravel the whole causal nexus!'

'Causal nexus! You insult my intelligence, Monitor.' But the Master was less sure now.

He paused before the Monitor, glowering into those opaque grey eyes, trying to read the purpose behind this preposterous suggestion.

In the silence Tegan whispered to Adric, 'What's he talking about?'

'Something's interfering with the law of cause and effect,' the boy replied. His gaze was fixed on the Master, who seemed about to strike the Monitor. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Doctor rush forward.

'Listen to him! The Monitor's right! We've seen it!'

'Please step back, Doctor. Or . . .' The Master touched a b.u.t.ton on the silver box attached to the screen. Nyssa cried out in pain as her arm swung round threateningly towards the Doctor.

'Let her go,' said the Doctor between gritted teeth. But for safety's sake he took a step back.

Adric was rasher than the Doctor. His anger drove any thought of the consequences out of his mind, and he dived for the screen, sending it flying across the room. At that moment a hand closed around his throat. 'Nyssa! Let go.' Once again the small fingers dug deep into his neck. He screwed his head round to see blank astonishment in her eyes.

'I . . . can't . . .' she cried.

The Master voice was cool. 'That is a demonstration of the causal nexus, Monitor. The electro-muscular constrictor gives me complete control over that hand. Please replace the screen, Doctor. Or one of your young friends will eliminate the other.'

The Doctor had no choice. Seeing him forced to do as the Master demanded, Tegan's anger boiled over. 'You revolting man. I wouldn't take orders from you if you were the last man in the universe.'

'Which he may well be, if he carries on like this,' said the Doctor when the screen was in place again. 'Don't you see what the Monitor is telling us, Master? Logopolis isn't the academic backwater it seems, but somehow crucial to the structure of creation.'

'I have never been susceptible to argument based on abstract nouns, Doctor.' The Master touched the silver box and Nyssa released her grip.

The Doctor pointed to the door. 'Then come out into the streets and see what's happening.'