Part 6 (1/2)

'Jamie!' Haydon was shouting, grabbing his arm and shaking the Scot-but Jamie didn't seem to hear him. Jamie's whole attention was fixed on the endless whirling circles. They were more than circles; spheres, vortices, that ran into each other and trapped Jamie's mind with them, endlessly round and round.in a riot of colour, glittering with crimson, rose colour, scarlet, vermilion, orange, yellow, green, blue, royal blue, ultramarine, violet, purple, deep purple and back to dark, dark red.

'Jamie!' Haydon, shaken himself by the unearthly psychedelic beauty, roughly shoved his hands in front of Jamie's face to s.h.i.+eld his eyes from the shapes.

'Don't watch them! Jamie! Don't watch them!'

'I must. I must,' murmured Jamie. 'I canna take my eyes away-I dinna want to take my... to take my eyes away. I. must look...' He shook himself free of the older man's restraining arm and moved slowly, step by step, towards the glowing wall. With every step he took, the shapes seemed to melt, open, glow deeper, bigger, welcoming him into their power. Haydon followed him and tried once more to stop him.

But it was as if Jamie was obeying an order and the archaeologist was no match for the tough Highlander.

'Aye, I can see it well, now,' he murmured, as he stepped first with one foot and then with the other, unable to stop himself, towards the lure of the wall.

Haydon let go of Jamie's arm. In desperation he ran to the control console and with no time to think, pressed the first b.u.t.ton his fingers met.

The loud hum changed key, the shapes changed suddenly-but smoothly, without losing their dream power-into green bubbles, great turquoise bubbles of something a thousand times cooler and more soothing than water, bubbles that whirled and circled and glowed, pulling Jamie in like a whirlpool.

'Yes,' said Jamie. 'Yes.'

Sweating, Haydon pressed another b.u.t.ton. The shapes fluttered for a moment, then remained unaltered. He tried another control b.u.t.ton, again nothing seemed to happen.

He wiped his face with his sleeve, Jamie had only three steps more to go, the Scot's body was already turning green with the s.h.i.+ne from the wall-he pushed forward the remaining control of the board, a small T-shaped lever. The lights died. The hum groaned down to nothing. The colours fell into grey and the wall turned blank again.

Jamie stood as if transfixed by the wall, as still as a statue- then he bowed his head, rubbed his eyes and turned away.

'Are you all right?' asked Haydon, anxiously. 'Hey! Jamie boy?' He snapped his fingers in front of Jamie's face.

'Where have I been?'

'Under some form of hypnosis.'

'Hyp-What would that be?' asked Jamie, too bemused to keep up his pretence of understanding everything.

'It's when someone gets power over you by getting your mind hooked on something-a flickering light, like that one. You can't stop looking and your mind goes to sleep. You fall under someone else's control.'

'You mean... like being bewitched?' asked the boy, awed.

'You could call it that.'

'Aye,' said Jamie, beginning to comprehend. 'Enchantrnent, that's what it felt like.'

They leaned against the console, resting from the strangeness of the experience.

'But that's ridiculous,' said Jamie, some of his old spirit coming back. 'What would a Cyberman want with enchanting? They're no flesh and blood creatures like us. They've no feelings.'

'Yes. You're right,' mused Haydon. 'What would the Cybermen want with a hypnotising machine? It must be for something else.' He thought for a while. 'Some kind of target. I remember reading about this-they used to use something like it on earth years ago.'

'How does it work? Which bit do you aim at?' said Jamie, recovering fast and pulling out a small wicked-looking dirk from his sock.

'For Heaven's sake, man, what's that?'

'D'ye not know a dirk when you see one?' laughed Jamie, and striking a mock fighting pose, he held it poised as if to throw it at the wall. 'Now, watch this.'

'Hold on. I see what you mean, but I don't think it was quite that kind of weapon. Put it away, there's a good lad,' said Haydon, half alarmed and half amused. 'No, it wasn't quite like a target on a tree, it was something more sophisticated.'

'Aye, it would be,' said Jamie, putting back the dirk in disgust.

'Those Cybermen would never do a thing for the fun of it.'

'Yes,' went on Haydon, trying to work it out in his own mind, 'there is a subliminal centre in those targets which you are trained to see.'

'What's that?'

But Haydon didn't wait to explain.

'Come on!' he shouted. 'Let's run it again and see what happens-but Jamie boy, keep your eyes off the wall, will you! You work the controls this time and I'll watch.'

'Right.'

'This is the one you press,' said Haydon, 'and for Pete's sake, don't press any other one or anything might happen.'

Jamie walked over to the controls, his hand ready over the b.u.t.ton. Haydon stood opposite the wall of images, but as far away as he could, with one hand holding the console rail to keep himself in touch with reality and prevent being drawn towards it.

'O.K.,' said Haydon. 'Now, press the first b.u.t.ton.'

'I can't understand it,' said Professor Parry, irritably. Professor Parry and Klieg were still trying to work out the symbolic logic that would tell them the key secret of Telos: where the tombs of the Cybermen were located; where, in this great complex of metal going down to who-knew-what depths, and how many miles of subterranean catacombs, were the bodies of the Cybermen themselves?

'I can't understand why when this whole building is alive that hatch stays firmly closed.' Parry pointed over to the central conning-tower-like hatch.

'It's only a matter of time.' Klieg carefully began another sequence of b.u.t.tons.

'You've said that before, Mr Klieg,' said the Professor, now definitely ratty. 'Where are your mathematics, Mr Klieg? You gave me to understand this sort of thing was right up your line of country, when you asked to join this expedition.'

Klieg ignored him. He finished his selection of the coloured b.u.t.tons and again nothing happened The hatch remained closed.

'I suggest you use deduction or even induction, rather than simple trial and error, Mr Klieg,' snapped the Professor.

Klieg did not reply-checking his notes for the next sequence of numbers.

'The tombs of the Cybermen must must be below ground,' said the Professor. 'And their records must be there, too. If we can't get down there, then all our work here and-the sacrifice of that unfortunate fellow's life-will go in vain.' be below ground,' said the Professor. 'And their records must be there, too. If we can't get down there, then all our work here and-the sacrifice of that unfortunate fellow's life-will go in vain.'