Part 23 (1/2)

'What's up there?'

Her face remained deadpan and he thought she'd switched off. Then she said, 'We couldn't get through. There were barriers.'

Mike pondered for a moment. It seemed his initial theory that half the patients had been killed by the others had been wrong. Perhaps part of the Xaranti plan had been to keep those infected out of hospital - and indeed away from other environments and situations where their affliction may have been discovered - until a stranglehold had been established on the town. Which meant that the missing patients had been infected during, not before, the Xaranti attack.

'Tegan,' he said now, his voice quiet but intense, 'Tegan, can you hear me?'

She stared at him, a tiny frown appearing, her eyes swirling with confusion.

'You are Tegan Jovanka,' Mike said firmly. 'You are Tegan Jovanka and an alien force is trying to take over your mind.

But you're strong, Tegan. You can fight it. Fight it, Tegan.'

The frown became a wince of pain. Tegan s.n.a.t.c.hed her hands from the wheelchair grips as if they had become hot and rubbed at her forehead as though trying to erase a stain from her skin - or from beneath it.

'I am... we are... no, I I am Tegan,' she gasped. Her eyes crinkled into slits and her mouth stretched wide to reveal her clenched teeth. She gave a little scream and fell forward. am Tegan,' she gasped. Her eyes crinkled into slits and her mouth stretched wide to reveal her clenched teeth. She gave a little scream and fell forward.

Mike caught her smartly. She opened her eyes and looked at him, her face etched with fear and dismay.

'Are you all right?' he asked softly.

Her face crumpled and she began to sob, clutching at him.

'So scared,' she whimpered. 'I don't want... this to... happen to me again.'

'I know,' Mike said, 'I know.' He held her until her sobs had subsided. At last he said, 'Are you ready to go on?'

'Where?'

'To the top of the building. That's where everyone is.'

'How do you know?'

'You told me. When you were... when you had your funny turn. It's like you'd clicked in to their thinking again for a minute.'

She was silent, finding the information unpalatable. Finally she said, 'I'm still useful for something then, at least.'

He wasn't sure how to reply, so he gave her a squeeze instead. They wheeled the Doctor out of the ward and across to the lifts. The topmost b.u.t.ton was 12, which Mike pressed.

As the lift approached their destination he raised his gun, pointing it at the opening doors.

The corridor ahead was as featureless as the rest they had seen. It was silent and deserted, too. Mike stepped out first, checking around, then motioned for Tegan to follow with the Doctor. To their left, at the end of the corridor, were the stairs that led down to each of the lower floors. To their right, the corridor was foreshortened by a huge pair of vault-like doors. In large red stencilled letters on the doors were the words:

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT UNIT.

STRICTLY LIMITED ACCESS.

AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY.

Beside the door was a touch-b.u.t.ton panel, with numbers from 0 to 9.

'Pretty snazzy for the seventies,' Tegan said, back to her old self for the time being, although she sounded tired.

Mike moved forward and banged on the metal doors with the b.u.t.t of his gun. 'Hey!' he shouted. 'Hey, is anyone in there?'

There was no reply. Mike continued to thump the door and shout for the next half-minute. Tegan watched him anxiously and scratched at her arms. The Doctor slept on despite the noise.

At last a voice on the other side, sounding no more than the thickness of the doors away, said, 'Who are you?'

Mike raised his eyebrows at Tegan with an expression not quite of triumph and shouted, 'My name is Captain Michael Yates. I'm an army officer who has been called in to deal with the current crisis. I'm accompanied by two civilians, one of whom is severely injured and in need of medical attention.'

There was a pause, then the voice said fearfully, 'How did you know we were here?'

'We worked it out,' Mike replied slickly. 'After seeing the carnage on the first three floors we realised that the only way you could have gone to escape was up. It didn't need a genius to see that this was the only viable option.'

There was an even longer pause this time, then the voice said, 'Stand back. I want to see you on the cameras.'

Mike glanced up and saw two cameras affixed to the ceiling above his head. He stepped back so he was looking directly into their lenses and smiled.

'You don't look like a soldier,' the voice said suspiciously.

'I was employed as an advance guard, to check out the terrain. That's why I'm in civvies,' Mike explained.

'Have you got any proof?' the voice asked.

Mike reached into the back pocket of his cords and located his UNIT pa.s.s, which he held up to the right-hand camera.

'UNIT? What's that?'

'United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Special peace-keeping force. Affiliated to the British Army. All the information's there if you want to read it.'

The pause was so long this time that Mike thought his credentials had been rejected. Then the voice was back, and saying reluctantly, 'All right, you can come in.'

Turlough was not sure how long he had been sitting against the bedroom wall when he heard the sound outside in the corridor. He stiffened, clutching his coathanger to him, drawing his knees up tighter under his chin.