Dancing the Code Part 24

But unlike her original, she used killing force.

'You want us to help you?' asked the Doctor. He gave a sidelong glance at Jo, raised his eyebrows. Jo grinned back.

Behind the wooden desk, Khalil Benari remained impa.s.sive. 'We were hoping you could. That is why we had you woken and brought here. I am sorry for your -' he hesitated '- your treatment at the hands of the Xarax. It seems we no longer fully control them.' He glanced at Zalloua, a flicker of anger in his eyes. 'You may be the only one who can stop what we have started,' he went on, 'or I should say, what Monsieur Zalloua has started.'

The Doctor looked from the Prime Minister to the man in the lab coat, who was standing beside the desk, twisting his hands together as if he were trying to tie knots in his fingers. 'Well,' said the Doctor.

'Perhaps Monsieur Zalloua had better explain what he's been doing.

Then I might be able to help.'

Benari gestured at the scientist, who jerked his hand to his mouth, bit at a finger. 'There was a legend,' he said. 'A legend about a place in the desert where there were all-powerful demons. Demons who could imitate anything made by men, who could raze a city with the beating of their wings -' He broke off, laughed nervously. 'Of course I didn't believe that, but I had made a study of such things. Many such legends in fact originate with visits by extraterrestrials. From my contacts in the scientific world, I knew that there had been several such visits recently.

'It was significant, I thought, that the legend made no mention of the destruction of these "demons". So I searched the area of desert which seemed to correspond to the place described in the legend, using infra-red detectors, until I found an anomaly. Then I went and had a look.

'I found an insect-like creature, living underground like a huge termite. I -' He hesitated, twisted his hands together again.

Benari interrupted, said briskly, 'He found a way of using these "Xarax", as he calls them, in the service of our Revolution. He gave them a set of instructions using something called pheromones.' He p.r.o.nounced the word slowly, carefully, glanced up at the Doctor as if for rea.s.surance.

The Doctor nodded. 'Chemicals emitted by one animal to control the behaviour of another. Yes.' He sat down on the edge of Benari's desk, steepled his hands under his chin. 'Go on.'

'He said we could instruct the Xarax to destroy all the Giltean terrorists. He said they could do it on their own if we gave them the right instructions - we wouldn't have to fight at all.'

'But that's impossible!' said the Doctor. He looked from Benari to Zalloua and back again; Jo could see from his face that he was seriously alarmed. 'Even the most sophisticated pheromonal control systems only work in general terms - how on Earth did you expect the Xarax to know the difference between one human being and another?'

Zalloua hesitated, then said, 'If you allow the Xarax queen to -' he hesitated again '- to taste your pheromones, by licking your skin for instance, then she can link with you directly. She can see what you see, feel what you feel - '

'That's incredibly dangerous!' interrupted the Doctor. 'She might pick up any idea that's in your head! You could have programmed the Xarax to do anything at all!'

There was a long pause. Eventually Zalloua said in a small voice, 'But surely the fact that I consciously intended to let them fight the terrorists would make her choose that course of action over any other.'

'Of course not,' said the Doctor. 'Think about it, man. The Xarax aren't intelligent in themselves. How can they tell the difference between a conscious intention and anything else that might be in your head? All they'll have picked up is a general idea of what you wanted to do.'

Zalloua looked up sharply: suddenly he seemed very excited. 'You mean if the idea had been sufficiently general, they might have been able to carry it out?'

The Doctor nodded. 'Yes. But the idea you've tried to communicate is too complex. We'll have to find a way of simplifying - '

He broke off suddenly as the floor lurched beneath their feet.

Benari jumped up, uttering a grunt of surprise and fear. Jo felt the floor lurch again, heard a hissing sound behind her. She spun round to make a run for the pa.s.sageway they had used to enter the chamber.

But as she watched, the entrance disappeared.

The Doctor ran across the rippling floor and pushed at the place where the entrance had been, but it wouldn't open. Benari ran across to him, stumbled, caught his elbow. 'What is happening?'

Behind him, Zalloua wailed, 'The control sequence is broken!' He dashed to the wall, began pulling at the complex tubing. 'If I can link - '

'Stop that!' shouted the Doctor. 'You haven't the first idea of what you're doing! If you let me - '

'Tell me, what is happening?' said Benari again.

The Doctor looked at him irritably. 'This room is reverting to its natural state - some kind of gland or digestive organ no doubt.'

The walls were starting to s.h.i.+ft, colours bleeding out of the pipes and running like melted wax.

'What do we do now, Doctor?' asked Jo.

'Well, first of all, we get the system back under control.' He fished in his pockets for a moment, produced his sonic screwdriver.

But as he did so Jo saw a movement on the ceiling above him. She looked up, saw a drop of honey-like fluid bulge out from the white surface.

'Doctor!'

He too looked up, just as the droplet fell. Then he dropped to the floor, covering his eyes and rolling in agony.

'Doctor!' shrieked Jo.

The Doctor sat up slowly and removed his hand from his eyes, revealing a deep red welt over the skin around his eyelids. His eyes were tight shut. He pulled at the skin around them for a moment, then winced and shook his head.

'It's no good, Jo,' he said. 'You're going to have to help me. I'm blind.'

Twenty.

Sergeant Dave Greene heard the commotion from the direction of the mortuary and frowned. These medical types, always horsing around - what was it this time? Greene shook his head, struggled to return his attention to the Daily Mail Daily Mail crossword spread out on the polished wooden desk in front of him. crossword spread out on the polished wooden desk in front of him.

'Famous novelist, six and six,' he muttered.

Then he heard the scream.

A man's scream, ending in a gurgling sound. Then a crash of metal.

Whatever was going on, it wasn't a joke.

Greene got up, ran down the corridor from the duty desk to the mortuary area. When he turned the corner, he saw the Doctor standing by the door of the mortuary, blood spattering his s.h.i.+rt.

But hadn't they said the Doc was - 'Sergeant Greene? We need a hand in here.'

The Sergeant drew his gun, stepped cautiously forward. The Doctor gestured him through the door.

Inside - Inside was a scene from a nightmare. The corpses were on the floor - - on the floor for Christ's sake all tangled up and those insects on the floor for Christ's sake all tangled up and those insects what the h.e.l.l are those insects what the h.e.l.l are those insects - - He raised his gun, then saw Jo Grant. She was standing on the back of a chair, holding a steel tray. The tray arced down towards him.

He jumped back, brought his gun up and fired.

Jo tottered on the chair, then looked down at the hole in her stomach and grinned.

'Sorry, Dave,' she said. 'We've got used to that.'

The Doctor's hand went over his mouth, and Dave Greene smelled roses and cloves.

And started to dream.

The perfumed smoke of the fire gave an illusion of security inside the camel-wool tent, but Tahir knew it was only an illusion. He was used to the dangers of war; he was used to living with the thought that at any moment the tent might be blasted away, but this was worse. The story that Vincent Tayid had told him was like something out of an evil dream. It was hard to accept that it was real, that it had happened only yesterday.

But the look on the man's face was enough to a.s.sure him that this was the case.

'Didn't the guns have any effect on them?' he asked Vincent.

'Oh, the guns killed them all right, but we only had one battery left.

The jets had taken care of the others.'

Vincent had a gla.s.s of tea in his hand, but it had long since grown cold. Mohammad had ordered every lamp extinguished: only the faint glow of the fire lit their faces in the tent.

'The jets were sent to "soften up" our defences,' said Vincent.

'That's how I know Al Harwaz Al Harwaz and Benari are allies. It is too much to call it coincidence.' and Benari are allies. It is too much to call it coincidence.'

'I agree,' said Mohammad from the darkness on the other side of the fire. ' Al Harwaz Al Harwaz were allied with bandits before. That is probably how the Caliphs were overthrown.' were allied with bandits before. That is probably how the Caliphs were overthrown.'

'It doesn't say that in your legend,' said Tahir. 'It says they were allied with the Caliphs.'

'That's only because you persist in treating it as a legend, rather than as a record of something that really happened,' said his father irritably. 'If you think about it, what was that merchant Ibrahim up to?

Why didn't he give the Caliph's men direct access to the powers of Al Harwaz Al Harwaz? Or, if he was really a merchant, why didn't he lie about the cost and make a big profit, in the way merchants always do?'

Vincent's fist thumped softly on the thick wool rug.

'We are not here to discuss legends!' he said. 'We need to take action now!'

'You propose to attack Al Harwaz Al Harwaz?' said Tahir, letting the doubt show in his voice.

'What choice have we got? Should we sit here and wait for them to wipe us out? Or appeal to the United Nations, perhaps?'

'You are right,' said Mohammad. 'I think we should attack.'

Tahir glanced across at his father in surprise, but could see nothing except a shadow on the other side of the fire.

'How can we hope to succeed against these -' he nearly said, 'demons' '- alien beings, if they are invincible as you say?'

'I've told you, they're not invincible!' said Vincent. 'You have seen the base. It is only mud. Mud walls! And the creatures are only flesh.

With enough men and enough weapons - and with the advantage of surprise - we can defeat them.'

'You have a plan?' asked Tahir.

Vincent smiled. 'Yes. I am famous for them, you know.' He paused.

'These Al Harwaz Al Harwaz, they do not like fire, eh?'

'How did you know that?' asked the Sakir Sakir.

'By the way they burn.' Vincent was grinning now, enjoying the game. 'How many small canisters do you have, my friends? And how much petrol to put in them?'

Jo held the Doctor's hand, directing it and the sonic screwdriver it was holding along the maze of tubing on the wall. The screwdriver twittered softly, almost inaudible against the creaking, rumbling sound made by the undulating walls of the 'room'.

'We're looking for a resonance point,' said the Doctor.

'Quickly!' said Benari from behind them. 'It is burning me!'

'I'm going as quickly as I can, Prime Minister,' said the Doctor. Jo wondered how he could be so polite to the man: then remembered that he hadn't seen the wreckage of Vincent's camp after the government raid, hadn't seen the burning hospital, hadn't seen the little girl die.

She shook her head, forced herself to concentrate. 'Resonance point,' she said, repeating the Doctor's instruction.

'I don't know what that means - ' Zalloua's voice. Jo decided to ignore him.

The floor jolted suddenly as the screwdriver pa.s.sed over a point where two purple pipes crossed a single iridescent green one.

'That's it!' said the Doctor. 'Now find that spot again, Jo.'

Jo guided his hand back across the maze to what she hoped was the right point.