Part 16 (1/2)

The man cut him off. 'I'm Devlin, I am foreman. I would know.'

'Communications breakdown?' the Doctor hazarded. But Dobbs could tell from his tone that he knew the game was up.

'Why are you here?' Devlin asked again. Behind him the other miners were fanning out, blocking any hope of getting into the tunnel.

The Doctor sighed. The sound of the machine behind seemed to have faded into the background as he spoke, addressing all the men and not just Devlin. 'I am here because I believe you are in great danger.'

The miners exchanged glances. They looked to Devlin.

'I don't know what danger exactly,' the Doctor admitted. 'But there is something terribly wrong here. Surely you see that?'

'See what?' shouted one of the miners. He was a shorter man, but almost as broad as Devlin. 'What are you talking about? We got our jobs back, our livelihood.'

'But at what cost? And for how long?'

'What do you mean?'

'This machinery' The Doctor waved a hand at the engine behind him. 'All the other machinery Nepath and Lord Urton have brought in. And there will be more and more, until you until people are no longer needed. Don't you see that? Whatever he is after down there, whatever it is, people are not a part of his equation. As soon as he can, he'll be rid of you. If I'm right, he'll be rid of us all.'

There was a hubbub of general muttering amongst the men as the Doctor spoke.

'Most of the work's being done by machine now,' the short man conceded. 'But he still needs us. Machines can't do it all. And he needs people to work the machines.'

The Doctor was almost hopping from one foot to the other. Devlin stood impa.s.sive and silent between him and the miners. 'But don't you see, Nepath shouldn't be mining at all. There's nothing here, nothing good!'

'Not mining at all?' the man asked incredulously. 'Not mining at all?!' The miners looked at each other again.

'He wants to stop the mining,' one of them blurted out angrily. 'Lock us out.'

'Well,' the Doctor admitted, 'yes, but '

'But nothing,' Devlin interrupted sharply. 'You have no business here. You want to take away these men's jobs, their lives when they have only just got them back.' He leaned forwards, his voice loud and angry. 'You are not welcome here.'

As he leaned forwards, Devlin's face fell into shadow. And as it did, Dobbs could see the faint flicker of firelight dancing within his eyes, floating behind the irises. Devlin let the shovel drop to the ground, and pulled the glove from his right hand. That too fell to the ground, and he reached out towards the Doctor. Dobbs could hear the hiss of cold air seared by the heat from the hand, could see the hazy hot air swirling round it.

The Doctor leaned back, arcing his body away from the hand as it neared him. As he moved close to Dobbs, he suddenly reached out and grabbed the Professor, pus.h.i.+ng him behind as together they circled away from Devlin. Before long, Devlin had his back to the steam pump and was facing the tunnel. Only the ring of miners now stood between the Doctor and Dobbs and the mine itself. They watched intrigued as Devlin took a step towards the Doctor. They evidently did not realise the danger, had no inkling of the power that Devlin could unleash from his hand.

And they were not expecting the Doctor's sudden shout any more than Dobbs was. It took a hefty push as well as the cry of 'Run!' for him to realise what the Doctor intended. Then they were both running, pus.h.i.+ng through the surprised ring of men, plunging headlong into the murky tunnel and still running.

'No!' Devlin's order was like a pistol shot behind them. 'Leave them to me.'

Dobbs kept running, his breath ragged and sc.r.a.ping as he followed the Doctor. They pa.s.sed several side pa.s.sages, knocked aside a couple of surprised miners who made half*hearted attempts to stop them. They kept running.

'Where are we going?' Dobbs managed to call out. Behind him he could hear the heavy slap of Devlin's feet as he ran after them.

'Deeper,' the Doctor called back. He seemed scarcely out of breath. 'Whatever it is must be deep in the ground for them to need the air pump.'

'To... breathe?' Dobbs a.s.sumed, catching at his own breaths.

'To fan the fire,' the Doctor's reply echoed back.

The race into the depths was a blur. There were men who tried to hold them, machines jammed into the narrow pa.s.sages and tunnels that they negotiated, and always the heavy sound of Devlin's pursuit. The one time Dobbs risked slowing enough to look behind, he could see the man's eyes blazing after them in the near darkness.

At last, after what seemed forever, the Doctor pulled up, catching Dobbs as he stumbled into him. They stood for several moments, the Doctor alert and listening, Dobbs hunched over, gasping for air.

'I think we lost him,' the Doctor said. 'We're quite deep now.' He nodded at the wall of the tunnel. 'This is new work. They haven't even bothered to sh.o.r.e it up you see. Solid rock which is why they needed mechanical help. It would take an age to dig this manually.'

'So have they already excavated what they were after, do you think?' Dobbs asked as soon as he had enough breath.

'I don't think so,' the Doctor said. 'They're still working, after all. Uncovering another section further round, perhaps.'

'Another section of what?'

The Doctor was examining the wall. 'Of whatever it is,' he said helpfully. He ran his hand over the ragged wall. 'Feel that.' He stood aside, looking round as Dobbs stepped up to the wall.

The Professor reached out a tentative hand and placed it flat against the rock, wondering what the Doctor expected him to deduce. He knew at once. 'It's warm,' he said in amazement. 'It should be damp and cold, surely, at this depth?'

'Indeed it should.' The Doctor peered at him through the gloom, his eyes wide. He knelt down and patted the ground. 'The floor is warm too,' he said quietly. 'And what's more, it should be dark.'

'Good Lord, so it should.' Dobbs looked all round. 'So where is the light coming from. There is no sign of phosph.o.r.escence...'

When he turned back, the Doctor was gone.

'Doctor?' Dobbs could feel his stomach churning, his face flushed with sudden fear. 'Doctor?!'

'Through here.' The Doctor's voice was calm, echoing slightly as it emerged from a crack in the rock wall.

Dobbs scrambled through the rock with some difficulty. He could see at once that this was where the light was coming from. A glow, an orange glow that suffused the air with a smoky texture. There was a smell too, he realised as he emerged into the cavern beyond sulphurous and heady. Hot.

The cavern was vast, a huge open area within the mine. The ceiling was perhaps twenty feet high, vaulted over them. Dobbs could barely see the far wall as he stepped cautiously after the Doctor.

The light came from everywhere. Everything seemed to glow with inner heat. The floor was a pale orange while stalact.i.tes and stalagmites were a dull yellow. The walls smoked and s.h.i.+mmered, their fiery innards crusted over here and there with carbon*black shadows.

'Is this what we were looking for?' Dobbs asked, his voice an awed whisper. 'What Nepath and Lord Urton are looking for?'

The Doctor had stopped about ten feet in front on him and was crouching down beside a pool of molten fire. It bubbled viscously, occasional bursts sending fiery trails through the smoky air. 'This is it,' the Doctor agreed. 'Or rather, a very small part of it.'

'Small?' Dobbs turned completely round as he reached the Doctor, peering into the far extremities of the cavern.

'Very small,' the Doctor said.

'And what is this... stuff?' Dobbs indicated the bubbling ma.s.s before them. Across the cavern he could see many pools of the liquid. Hundreds perhaps, all presumably fed by the same reservoir of material below the floor. He had a sudden frightening realisation that at any moment the floor might crack open and allow them to fall screaming into the boiling ma.s.s below.

'The fissure...' he realised.

The Doctor stood up, expression grave as he continued to stare down at the pool. 'Yes, the fissure. And Nepath's material.'