Part 30 (2/2)

'How rea.s.suring.'

Bernice grabbed the hand and pulled. Christine clambered on to the table and slid across it on her knees. They stared at each other for a moment or two.

'Well, what now?' Christine said.

'Let's rock and roll.' Bernice reached under the table and tilted one of the null*gray units away from the door. The graviton field interacted with the far wall and the table began to move, slowly at first, but gathering speed quickly until it was hurtling towards the door, too fast for Christine to do anything but hang on and pray.

The door exploded outwards in a shower of splinters; by the time they hit the floor, Bernice, Christine and the table were half*way down the corridor.

Chapter Seventeen.

Having examined the files on Alex Bannen's unmanned workstations near the door to the Mushroom Farm, the Doctor and Bishop moved deeper into the forest of glimmering silver pillars.

The Doctor said quietly, 'Somewhere in here are the last pieces of the puzzle of Lucifer.' He poked into the shadows with his umbrella, skipping backwards with an embarra.s.sed smile when a hundred columns began to glow in s.h.i.+fting colours. 'We have to solve the puzzle if we're to protect it.'

'From IMC?'

'From anyone who wants to exploit it.'

Bishop frowned. 'Why should you want to protect it?'

'How much do you know of Amerindian history, Trau Bishop?'

'I fail to see what relevance the science of social anthropology has at this juncture.'

The Doctor shook his head sadly. 'Put it like this: you do still believe in the concept of justice for the innocent, I presume?'

'Would I be here if I didn't?'

'A moot point.' The Doctor dismissed the counter*question out of hand. 'But I'll take it as a ”yes”.'

'And?'

'And... that's all.' The Doctor strode off into the forest of glimmering stalks. Bishop suppressed an angry glare as he hurried after him.

Behind them both came a third set of footsteps. Quiet, military footsteps.

It seemed to Teal Green that he and Cheryl Russell had wasted all their time since escaping from Miles's office ducking and weaving. IMC troopers were everywhere: guarding the rooms where the remnants of the Project Eden team were being held, escorting IMC scientists and economic a.n.a.lysts around the Base, and lounging around watching p.o.r.nographic simularities in the refectory. The two of them had scuttled from closet to ventilation duct, from generating room to kitchen, always one step ahead of capture, always one step away from finding an unguarded way of getting to the Mushroom Farm and the Doctor. No time to think; just enough time to react.

Teal slumped to the ground as the bulkhead behind him swung shut. 'Where to now, boss?'

Cheryl, crouching on the grilled flooring like a cornered animal, just snarled.

'Fine,' he said with a panicky nonchalance. 'Just asking.'

There was a soft hiss.

The wall beside his head blistered and ran.

'Down!' Cheryl shoved Teal away and fell in the opposite direction as another bolt sped between them, smas.h.i.+ng into the wall with a hiss of vaporizing metal.

She began to crawl along the corridor as a trooper moved towards her. She wasn't sure, but she thought she recognized him from the corporate takeover. Three metres away, Teal had clambered to his feet and was beginning to run.

Immediately, the trooper swung the barrel of his gun to cover the power technician. 'n.o.body move!'

'Give me a break,' Teal muttered as he ducked into a side corridor and vanished from sight.

Cursing, Cheryl was left alone facing the trooper.

He moved closer.

He was smiling.

'Allow me to introduce myself,' he said, the smile widening. Cheryl began to get to her feet.

'Not so fast! Stay on your knees. That's better. Now then, as I was saying, Jay Ardamal... at your service service.'

Cheryl gazed upwards into the barrel of Ardamal's gun. She looked beyond it to his smile and his even white teeth and the blank desire in his eyes.

She shuddered. 'All right, you've got me; I surrender. I want to see Legion. Take me to him it now.'

'Oh, I'll take you to see Legion all right. But first, I think a little interrogation interrogation is in ' is in '

Teal Green burst out of the side corridor holding a solid plastic casing prised from a length of the cable conduit. Screaming wildly, he swung the cover in a short, vicious arc, which connected with the side of Ardamal's helmet. The IMC man dropped without a sound.

Cheryl scrambled to her feet. 'Thanks, Teal. You can stop screaming now.'

'Oh. Er... right.' Teal gazed stupidly at the plastic conduit cover, and the large dent it had sustained. 'I don't reckon that's going to go back on the pipe without a bit of '

'Stop babbling, Teal.' Cheryl bent to retrieve Ardamal's gun. 'Let's get going and find the Doctor, before another one of these goons finds us.'

'Yeah. Right.' With shaky steps, Teal followed Cheryl down the corridor.

Leaning casually on his umbrella, the Doctor gazed down into the vast depression in the floor of the Mushroom Farm. With its metres*high layer of control units, the landscape looked like nothing so much as a small valley, complete with undergrowth and trees, sculpted entirely from glinting chrome.

'Obviously this is some kind of nexus, a meeting point...' the Doctor mused. 'But of what? A control point? A fuse box? Maybe...'

He shaded his eyes from the myriad reflections and looked further into the valley. About half a kilometre away was the slim, vertical column of the Pit. At that distance, it resembled the trunk of a huge tree, climbing ever upwards and vanis.h.i.+ng into the high bank of silver clouds that s.h.i.+elded the rock ceiling. Its surface rippled with intermittent tentacles of pale yellow flame which coloured the surrounding landscape a deep bronze.

<script>