Part 20 (1/2)

Nepath continued: 'But what it does, as you have seen, Doctor, is to mimic. It can take on the characteristics and att.i.tudes of whatever it chooses. It conforms to the expectations of others in order to survive. Perhaps in order to try to define itself.' He smiled again, teeth glinting in the gaslight. 'Does that ring any bells, Doctor?' He gave a short, sharp laugh. 'Am I getting warm warm?'

'Not even tepid,' the Doctor replied. But his voice was quiet, hard*edged. s...o...b..ld could tell he was unsettled, thrown off balance by Nepath's observations.

'Why do you need the Doctor?' s...o...b..ld demanded. 'If you and this thing are so friendly, surely you don't need anyone else.'

'No,' Nepath admitted easily. 'But the more help I have we have the simpler things become. It needs to expand, to feed in order to live. It has consumed all the earth and rock and stone that it can find beneath the moorland. It has been starved for too long now. It needs an outlet, a new feeding ground.' He nodded, as if to emphasise the accuracy of his statement. 'It won't be satisfied with Middletown. Or even Ambleton, not for long. Not now it has a taste for the matter above the earth. I will need to seed other areas for it, hence my rather theatrical demonstrations. And in the wake of the fire trail it leaves, I will help re*establish order.'

'Seed other areas?' the Doctor echoed. 'So you can take over the world one village at a time with your amazing re*forming artefacts?' He gave a derisory snort.

'I think we shall progress rather more quickly and efficiently than you suggest,' Nepath said. He seemed unperturbed by the Doctor's att.i.tude. 'I shall need amba.s.sadors, salesmen. people to take the artefacts all over the world.'

'So that this thing can erupt from anywhere and feed itself!' the Doctor asked. His voice was getting louder, angry. 'Until it consumes the whole of the Earth?' he demanded.

'Oh I don't think it will come to that.'

'You don't?' The Doctor was visibly shaking with anger now. 'How do you know?' he shouted at Nepath. 'How can you possibly know?'

Nepath returned the Doctor's stare. He too was getting angry now. 'I can see that I am wasting my time attempting to save you, Doctor, attempting to enlighten you.' He turned to s...o...b..ld. 'But what about you, Reverend?'

'Me?'

'Why not?' He smiled thinly 'One of the thieves was saved, you know. But of course you do. You are a man of learning, after all.' He shot a glance at the Doctor before going on: 'Like me, I think you have searched for many years for truth and enlightenment. But your choice is easier than the Doctor's,' he said, his voice quiet, compulsive. 'The Doctor's problem is that he doesn't know what he is searching for. And neither did you. Until now.'

'I I don't understand,' s...o...b..ld said. But at the back of his mind an idea was forming, an idea he scarcely dared contemplate.

'I can have whatever I want,' Nepath said. 'Whatever my heart desires. And there is one thing. One thing that has spurred my search across the world, one thing that drove me on, compelled me to travel to the most G.o.d*forsaken of places.' He smiled suddenly. 'I use the term advisedly.'

'And have you found it?' The Doctor asked. His voice was a sneer, but underneath was an undercurrent of genuine interest.

'Yes,' whispered Nepath. 'I believe I have. Here. Thanks to the creature, I have back what I have sought all my life to recover.' he turned back to s...o...b..ld. 'And what would you seek to recover? More than anything else in the world? What, Reverend, would you ask for if you could have your heart's desire? We do not ask for much in return just a little co*operation, a little help.'

s...o...b..ld said nothing. Felt nothing.

'So little to ask,' Nepath breathed, leaning close to him. 'Considering that you would sell your very soul for the safe return of your daughter.'

Colonel Wilson found Captain Brookes outside the Pig and Trumpet Pig and Trumpet, telling Arthur Melstead that he could open up as soon as he liked.

'No you can't,' Wilson gasped, overhearing the tail end of the conversation.

'Sir?' Brookes reached out to support him. Wilson was exhausted from running. 'Are you all right, sir?'

'I'm fine,' he managed to say between rasps of sulphurous air. 'But he's not opening up, he's getting out. Get everyone out, do you understand?'

'Yes, sir. Of course, sir. We've been a.s.sembling some transport, best we can.' Brookes looked round. 'Where's the sergeant?'

'He's dead, Michael,' Wilson said, drawing the captain aside. 'Have the men organise the evacuation, best they can. And get the field guns set up at the end of the street.'

'Field guns? Are we expecting some action, sir?'

'Yes, Captain. G.o.d help us, yes we are.'

'Doctor?'

The Doctor did not return s...o...b..ld's look. He stared directly ahead, at Nepath. 'It is your decision,' he said. 'You must decide for yourself where your loyalties, where your priorities lie. n.o.body can do that for you.'

'Indeed they cannot,' Nepath agreed. He licked his bloodless lips. 'But perhaps I can help.' He stepped aside, allowing Lady Urton to move in front of s...o...b..ld.

As she did, she seemed to s.h.i.+mmer, as if in a heat haze. Her face blurred before his moist eyes. She became shorter, slimmer, younger. Her grey hair was dark now, lengthening. Her nose broadened slightly, a smattering of freckles appearing across her face.

'Betty?' He hardly dared to believe it. Yet here she was in front of him. Perfect. Exactly as she had been.

'Father?' Her voice trembled with emotion as she reached out towards him. 'Oh father,' she sobbed as she folded her arms around him.

He lifted his own arms, encircled her with them, desperate to hold her close. But he hesitated, a tear was.h.i.+ng down his dusty cheek as he murmured, close to her ear: 'O Jephthah. what a treasure hadst thou.' His voice became a sob.

He felt her stiffen at the words. She turned her face up to look at him. He could see the detail in every freckle as it blurred beneath his tears. So young. So very young.

'Who?' she asked, amused and intrigued.

And he stepped away as his world collapsed again, as once more he felt voided and empty.

'One fair daughter, and no more,' the Doctor said quietly. 'The which he loved pa.s.sing well.'

'Indeed I did.' s...o...b..ld wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, drawing himself upright, fighting back the emotion. He stepped away from the thing that looked like his daughter, and stood beside the Doctor. Together they faced Nepath.

'I think you have your answer,' the Doctor said. 'A shame your creature is not more widely read.' He leaned forward. 'Or is it simply that the thing doesn't appreciate the value of the individual's knowledge?'

'What do you mean?' Nepath demanded. His anger was barely controlled, his voice loud.

The Doctor shrugged. 'It does not distinguish between people, any more than the different parts of itself have any individuality. Everything is spread so thin that it disappears.' His voice hardened again. 'You are making people into parts of a single huge machine. Tiny flames dancing in one huge fire.'

'And that is a disadvantage?' Nepath seemed amused at the comment. 'We stand in the workshop of the world, Doctor, the country where mechanisation has been taken to its limits. The machinery and manpower that helped us to release the creature is proof positive of the power of mechanisation, of working together.'

'There is a difference,' the Doctor told him, 'between being a willing part of a group and losing your individuality. As you, I think, will learn.'

'Is that what you think?' Nepath's eyes narrowed. There was no humour in his tone now. 'Let me tell you what I think Doctor, before you die. I think that you fail to see the significance of what we shall achieve. You fail to appreciate the wonder and beauty of the firestorm that we shall unleash. I think you would do well to consider how Britain could have established her Empire if she did not have armed forces that act like a well*tuned machine. I think it is time you realised that the power of the many is far greater than the sum of the powers of its parts.' His voice grew louder as he spoke until he was almost shouting. 'I think it is time you realised just how out of date how anachronistic your very individual individual views really are.' He gave a short nod to punctuate his point. views really are.' He gave a short nod to punctuate his point.

'Perhaps,' the Doctor replied, his voice quiet by contrast with Nepath's, 'I am ahead of my time.'

Nepath gave a snort of derision.

'Zebras,' the Doctor retorted angrily.

Nepath was taken aback by the comment. He blinked convulsively.

s...o...b..ld had been staring at the frozen image of his daughter standing like a statue beside Nepath. 'What do you mean?' He turned to watch the Doctor explain.