Dancing the Code Part 36

'Who is this?' The Minister's voice.

'Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Minister. We've got an emergency here - '

'I know we've got an emergency! Where on Earth have you been for the last twelve hours?'

'I'm sorry, Minister, I've been - '

'Well, it doesn't matter now,' interrupted the Minister. There was a pause: a phone rang, someone spoke, too quietly for the Brigadier to hear the words. Then the Minister's voice, m.u.f.fled, 'Have the Russians been informed? And the Chinese?' A moment later he came back full volume: 'You'll have to get off the line, I'm afraid. We're about to go for a full strategic nuclear strike against these Xarax things. Wipe them out.'

'But Minister, with all due respect, that's not advisable! I've been told that - '

'I'm sorry, Brigadier, it's been agreed at the highest level. It's out of your hands now.'

The line went dead.

Jo couldn't believe the way the thing was dodging her defenders. It seemed to stop in mid-air, drop, or reverse direction with impossible speed. Once it disappeared altogether and reappeared in a completely different part of the sky.

It seemed to be playing with the Xarax.

It was then that she began to think it just might possibly be - - but keep the thought to yourself or else but keep the thought to yourself or else - - The intruder was now too near the ground to be visible on radar, but Xarax all over the city saw it as it skimmed over the rooftops, swerving and dodging all the way, before finally skidding to a landing along the main boulevard outside the People's Palace.

A door opened in the side, and a familiar figure got out.

- Doctor! But what am I going to tell them how can I keep them Doctor! But what am I going to tell them how can I keep them from from - - He was a Xarax copy. He had to be. The original Doctor was dead.

Jo bit her lip.

Watched as the eyes of the Xarax defenders showed the figure of the Doctor running across the lawns, into the Palace, put his hands on his hips and stare around him - - down, Doctor, down here down, Doctor, down here - - - the Doctor was heading for the hole in the ground which led to the honey chamber, but then he stopped, made as if to turn back - - no Doctor DOWN HERE no Doctor DOWN HERE - - One of the nest defenders pushed its head through the hole: Jo saw the Doctor jump back, turn to run - - down the ventway down the ventway - - - and she could hear his footsteps ringing on the stone, and then his voice - 'Jo!'

She wrenched at the sticky tongue attached to her neck, felt it flick back in pain. She tried to stand, couldn't.

The Doctor reached her, put his arms around her.

'Doctor! I've been so scared I didn't know whether I was doing the right thing and Catriona's dead and Vincent's dead and I don't know what's happened to Mike and - '

'Steady on, Jo,' said the Doctor. 'First of all I've got to - '

There was a clatter of chitin on stone. The Doctor let her go, and Jo saw that several nest defenders were closing in on them, jaws wide.

Of course, she thought. Now I'm no longer in control they know the Doctor's not Xarax. They'll - But the Doctor took a test-tube full of honey from his pocket and flung it into the queen's mouth. Almost immediately, her tongue flicked out and wrapped itself around the Doctor's neck.

'Doctor, be careful!' she shouted. 'They'll take you over!'

'Not now, Jo. That test-tube contained Xarax antipheromones. I've changed the programming of the queen, and she'll change the programming of the nest. Everything's under - ' There was a pause.

'Oh. That might be a problem.' There was a longer pause. Jo saw the nest defenders crouch down, their mandibles twitching. They formed a ring around the queen.

'Doctor, what's the matter?'

'The fools!' exclaimed the Doctor. 'The absolute fools!' He rammed a fist into his palm.

'Doctor, what is it?' asked Jo.

The Doctor looked up, slowly shook his head. 'There's a missile strike coming in - this entire city will be destroyed in less than five minutes. And us with it, I'm afraid.'

'But Doctor, you can use the nest defences! I did it!'

The Doctor unravelled the black cable of the queen's tongue from his neck, shook his head slowly.

'No I can't, Jo.' He indicated the defenders, which were rocking to and fro on the floor, drooling honey. 'I've just immobilized them.

Permanently.'

Thirty-Two.

RADIO MESSAGE - GENERAL DISTRIBUTION ALL FIELD UNITS US ARMY/NAVY/AIR FORCE IN.

VICINITY KEBIRIA.

**URGENT**

THE PRESIDENT HAS AUTHORIZED FULL STRATEGIC.

NUCLEAR STRIKE REPEAT FULL STRATEGIC NUCLEAR.

STRIKE ON UNITS KNOWN AS XARAX. AIRBURSTS IN THE.

RANGE ONE TO FIVE MEGATONS EXPECTED KEBIR CITY.

AND DESERT AREAS TO SOUTH AND WEST WITHIN FIVE.

MINUTES OF THIS TRANSMISSION. ALL PERSONNEL ARE.

ADVISED TO TAKE APPROPRIATE PRECAUTIONS.

GOOD LUCK AND MAY G.o.d BE WITH YOU.

C-IN-C.

'We've got to do something something,' said Jo, struggling to her feet.

The Doctor was pacing to and fro in front of the immobilized defenders. At last he stopped, turned to Jo. 'Where are the radio units in the nest?' he asked.

'Radio units? What radio units?'

The Doctor stepped up to her. 'Jo, I'm not getting any information from the queen any longer. The antipheromones have broken the chain of command. I need you to tell me.'

'But Doctor, I don't know what you're talking about!' Jo felt her face flush with blood, felt pins and needles in her hands and feet.

'Think, Jo! Think! It must be somewhere - how else were you communicating with all those units in flight?' Jo closed her eyes, struggled to think.

Radio.

Honey honey radio.

She opened her eyes, shook her head. 'It's gone, Doctor. I don't hear it any more.'

The Doctor took her shoulders, shook her gently. 'Yes, Jo. I know.

The antipheromones will have worked on you too. But you can remember, can't you? You've got to try and remember.'

Jo blinked.

'Up,' she said suddenly, without quite knowing why. 'In the Palace.'

The Doctor let her go, turned and ran towards the tunnel that led to the surface. Jo ran after him. Their footsteps echoed on the stone.

When they reached the mud-walled chamber where the honey-globes were stored, Jo suddenly remembered Catriona. Catriona who'd given her life so that Jo could get away. She realized that she hadn't even thought of the woman since it had happened. Too much had been going on. She remembered Catriona in Vincent's truck, saying 'how is it possible to forget?'

'Don't worry, Catriona,' muttered Jo. 'Everyone does it.' She stopped, looked around at the broken faces of the honey-globes.

Jo!' called the Doctor from the steps. 'Come on, we've got less than three minutes left!'

Jo sprinted after him, gazed around her.

'Which way, Jo?' asked the Doctor.

Jo saw a staircase, leading up to a landing. Gilded bannisters decorated its sides. 'Up there,' she said, then frowned. 'I think. Doctor, where are we?' But the Doctor was already sprinting up the stairs.

Jo hesitated at the bottom of the steps, tried to think. Radio.

Where?

A room shaped like an egg, she thought suddenly. She could almost see it, and the signals pulsing out from it. But it was like the memory of a dream: it faded as soon as she tried to get a grip on it.

She shouted up after the Doctor: 'Like an egg! A room shaped like an egg!'

The Doctor looked down at her, smiled. 'Well done, Jo. I think I know where to go now.'

He set off at a run to the right. Jo sprinted up the stairs, followed him down a darkened corridor. At the end the Doctor had stopped short in front of a white-and-gilt door, with a human figure standing outside it.

'Excuse me,' said the Doctor, and pushed at the figure. It toppled to the floor, twitched its head once, then lay still.

The Doctor opened the door.

The room was was egg-shaped - at least, it was oval, with a domed ceiling. A single, huge window with broken shutters let in a stripe of afternoon sunlight. The ceiling was broken open in places, revealing the bare ribs of curved joists; the floor was covered in pieces of fallen plaster and broken wood. In the middle of the room, on the crushed remnants of a bed, sat the strangest living thing that Jo had ever seen. egg-shaped - at least, it was oval, with a domed ceiling. A single, huge window with broken shutters let in a stripe of afternoon sunlight. The ceiling was broken open in places, revealing the bare ribs of curved joists; the floor was covered in pieces of fallen plaster and broken wood. In the middle of the room, on the crushed remnants of a bed, sat the strangest living thing that Jo had ever seen.

It was black, s.h.i.+ny, and resembled nothing so much as a huge, hexagonal nut. Where the bolt should have been a spindly cable rose through the broken ceiling and presumably out through the roof.

Other cables sprouted from other sections and trailed around the room. Jo only knew the creature was alive at all because of a tiny shuttered eye, and a slightly larger pair of jaws, at the top of each section.

'Doctor, what is it?' she asked.

But the Doctor was already bending down over the nearest section.

'Copied the design from the Sontarans, by the look of it,' he muttered.

'They've been around, this lot.' He caught hold of the nearest chitinous face and pulled.

It came away with a sucking sound, revealed a tangle of coloured cables and pieces of what appeared to be metal. The Doctor reached in, started pulling at the wires. There was an electrical spitting sound.