Part 16 (1/2)

'Look,' the Doctor said, 'whoever you are, we haven't got time for this.' Kari said nothing; she was staring at the burner, wondering what its loss might imply for Olvir.

'Just carry on down,' Valgard said, and he used the muzzle of the burner to usher them towards the descent.

'You're taking a very narrow view of this,' the Doctor told him as they reached the base level and moved over towards the main tunnel, but Valgard wasn't impressed.

'I want to stay alive,' he said. 'If that's a narrow view, then you're right.'

They moved down the broad walk with shadows all around. The overhead lights mapped out the way ahead, a series of isolated pools. The Doctor said, 'And you're happy to see things go on as they are?'

'Happy?' Valgard echoed bitterly. 'This is the Terminus. n.o.body's happy here. Staying alive is all that counts.'

'Things could change,' the Doctor suggested, but he wasn't too hopeful. All of Valgard's mind was concentrated on his own survival, and he wasn't open to any new ideas that didn't appear to fit in.

It was over in seconds. There was a shout from somewhere in the darkness, Valgard spun around to cover himself against a possible attack, and Olvir rammed him squarely between the shoulders from behind. Valgard toppled like a broken statue, and the burner skidded out of his hands to land almost at Kari's feet. She had it levelled in less than a second.

'Just freeze,' she told Valgard, and he abandoned any idea of resistance.

Olvir picked himself up, and Nyssa came forward out of the shadows. The Doctor's relief and delight at seeing her safe was evident.

'I'm fine,' she a.s.sured him, 'but listen. I've discovered something. They're using crude radiation to cure the Lazar disease.'

'I suspected something like it.'

'But the system they use is nearly as dangerous.

There's got to be some way of making the Terminus company understand.'

'You've thought of a better way?'

'Ask the Garm. He's used to handling radiation, but they just treat him like a slave. You know he can't do anything of his own free will?'

The Doctor was about to tell her that the Garm had been released from the influence of the subsonic generator, but Valgard beat him to it.

'She's sick,' he said. 'She doesn't know what she's talking about.'

Nyssa turned to him, making her point with such force that he flinched. 'With changes the Terminus could work,' she insisted. 'It could be a decent hospital.'

Valgard shook his head, wearied by what he considered to be her excessive optimism. 'The company isn't interested.'

'No? And what about you? What about the other Vanir?'

'That doesn't make any difference. We can't do anything without Hydromel, and the company controls the supply.'

'But if you could get it from somewhere else, you'd be free of their control, wouldn't you?'

Valgard stared, awe mixing with a tiny dash of hope. She means it! he thought.

Bor would swing from one extreme to the other. A moment ago he had been incoherent, but now he was lucid.

'Am I dead yet?' he said. He sounded puzzled.

Sigurd returned to his side, a half-filled cup of water in his hand in case Bor should need it. 'No,' he said.

'Funny. I could have sworn...' Whatever he was going to say, Bor put it from his mind and brightened up a little. 'Still, it's a relief. I'm hoping for something rather better on the other side.' He frowned. 'Sigurd?'

'Try to sleep.'

'Sleep! It's all I can do to... stay awake for more than a minute...'

Sigurd stood, and looked down at Bor with sad compa.s.sion. This will be the end of us all, he was thinking. Thank you, Terminus Incorporated. Thanks for nothing.

There was movement on the other side of the curtain, people entering the tank. Probably Eirak and the others taking a s.h.i.+ft break. Sigurd went through, and came face to face with Valgard.

He motioned to Sigurd to be quiet. He was slightly flushed and his eyes were like flinty points, certain signs of a Hydromel high. He said, 'I've got some people with me.'

Sigurd watched, bewildered, as a line of strangers came trooping into the converted tank. The Doctor was first in line, and he went straight to the Hydromel case. Nyssa, Kari and Olvir gathered around him. 'I a.s.sume this is it,' he said.

'Now, wait a minute,' Sigurd said, pus.h.i.+ng his way through the group, but Valgard's hand landed on his shoulder and held him back. The Doctor was already crouching for a closer look at the trembler alarms.

'They say they can free us from the company,'

Valgard told him.

'You believe that?'

'You know anybody harder to convince?'

The chains were already off, the alarms disabled.

'Burner, please,' the Doctor said, and Olvir,handed the weapon over.

Sigurd said. 'If this is just some madcap scheme for getting back at Eirak...'

The lock of the Hydromel case was vaporised in a moment, and the Doctor lifted the lid. He removed a phial and handed it to Nyssa.

'You're the expert,' he said. 'What do you think?'

She inspected it against the light, and then twisted off the gla.s.s seal and gave a cautious sniff. As she was doing this, the Doctor turned to Kari and said in a low voice, 'While we're sorting things out here, perhaps the two of you would like to go back and finish Bor's work on the control lines.'

Kari nodded, Olvir retrieved his burner, and the two of them left in silence. Nyssa, meanwhile, had completed her brief inspection of the Hydromel.

'It's crude stuff,' she said. 'Probably organic.'