Part 15 (1/2)

He raised his hand again, but this time she did not flinch away. 'You heard your boss,' she said meaningfully. 'You've got to take good care of me or else he's going to dump you.'

Fuming but impotent, he hauled her to her feet, led her along to an empty cabin, removed her wrist strap, pushed her inside, and locked the door.

This wasn't how he'd planned things at all. And what was worse, Qwaid was beginning to sound as bad as Alpha.

Out in the woods not far from the landing fields, an indistinct form glided through the growing shadows. Limbs that were neither arms nor tentacles reached out and touched the barks of trees, as though it was curious about their texture. There was a hesitancy about its movements, almost as though it was searching for something.

Then it sensed movement and reacted instinctively.

One of Dyne's patrolling DAVE units drifted past. And, though its sensitive camera eyes looked straight at it from no more than five metres away, they did not register anything unusual.

As soon as the drone was gone the form appeared once again and continued through the woods, moving with notably greater a.s.surance now It was rapidly relearning old skills.

CHAPTER 14.

THE LOST ONES.

The raft bobbed slowly against the rocky shelf at the base of the cliff.

Qwaid had made sure its mooring line was tied securely about a nub of rock, just in case they had to use it again. Now he, Drorgon, and the Doctor were inspecting the base of what appeared to be a stone slab staircase built into he sheer cliff face.

'How convenient,' the Doctor remarked, tapping the lowest projecting finger of rock thoughtfully. 'And how unlikely.'

'What d'you mean?' Qwaid asked.

'That we should find a ready-made means of ascent within such a short distance of our landing place. Either we were led here in some way, which is suspicious in itself, or else there are a number of these stairs along the length of the cliff Somebody is certainly keen that we use them,'

'You think it's a trap, then?'

'Qwaid, I think this entire treasure trail is some kind of trap or other, though you simply won't accept the fact. But as there seems no other way up, I suppose we'd better get started. There should just about be enough daylight left for us to make it to the top.'

'Right, you go first,'

'Certainly,' the Doctor said brightly. 'That's very kind of you.'

'Uhh, Qwaid, ' said Drorgon suspiciously, a frown creasing he sloping brow 'Why's he so keen to go first?'

'He's just trying a wind-up.' Qwaid said.

'Am I?' said the Doctor. Perhaps I simply think it's preferable to going last.'

'Hey,' said Drorgon again, 'who's going last then?'

'You are, clumphead,' Qwaid told him. 'Now move!'

They began the ascent. The identical steps drifted monotonously past them out of the mist.

'Keep your ears sharp so we don't run into Thorrin's lot,' Qwaid told the Doctor.

'In all probability they've either already made it to the top or are using a different stairway.'

'Well don't take any chances. I don't want any trouble up here in all this mist.'

They took a brief rest to ease their aching muscles, then pressed on. The Doctor began to peer ahead more intently, but the stairs did not end, nor did the mist thin. A gradual deepening of the grey suggested evening was drawing in. Eventually he stopped and exclaimed tersely, 'We seem to have a slight problem here.'

Drorgon swung his portable cannon around nervously with a grunt of alarm. 'What?' Qwaid demanded.

'Very simply, we should have run out of both cliff and stairs some time ago. I've been counting steps...' He explained his calculation with respect to the height of the cliff.

'Qwaid, what we going to do?' Drorgon growled unhappily.

Qwaid checked his own watch and began to feel uncomfortable.

'But that's crazy. You must have got it wrong.'

'You're welcome to continue, but you'll be wasting your time.'

Inside himself Qwaid knew the Doctor was right. There was an odd feeling about the stairway, but he just couldn't put his forger on exactly what. He tried not to show his alarm. 'But how's it done?'

'I'm not sure. It may be a mental illusion, or something mechanical...' Pulling a torch from his pack the Doctor bent down and examined the base of the steps carefully, s.h.i.+ning the light at a sharp angle to the rock face. he said at length. 'Look.'

Qwaid looked. There was a very fine groove cut into the smooth rock wall, running parallel to the line of the steps so that it just touched the leading edge of each. There were Also fine vertical grooves that divided the mounting of each step from the next.

' Now look below the steps,' the Doctor said.

Qwaid peered between the treads and could just make out another groove running under the line of steps. 'So what?'

The Doctor smiled at him. 'Have you ever tried walking up an escalator that's going down at exactly the same speed?'

They had been slumped exhausted and despairing on the stairs for perhaps some while before Brockwell stirred. He had lain back with his head close to the rock wall. Unconsciously he found himself staring at the step mounts. After a minute his excited cry had roused them all.

'The whole flight of steps moves while we stay still?' Jaharnus said, once Brockwell had explained his theory 'Someone has played a cruel trick on Old Jack,' Falstaff said angrily. 'The stones I must have shed upon this infernal device going nowhere. A plague upon them!'

'And they must have reversed as we descended,' Brockwell continued. 'The vertical grooves must be where the individual steps hinge to make the return leg along a channel somewhere inside the cliff.'

'A sliding stairway five hundred metres high?' Arnella said incredulously. Brockwell's gaze s.h.i.+ed away from hers.

'That seems to be the case,' he mumbled.

'The Doctor warned us this place had been refined over a long time,'

said Jaharnus.

'Well at least we know how it was done,' said the Marquis with relief. 'Of course, it wouldn't have worked except for the smoothness of the rock face and the mist. We had no points of reference to judge our true motion.'