Chapter Eight
Trevithick slid to the floor, his eyes darting to and fro as he willed them to become accustomed to the darkness. He could make out only indistinct shapes illuminated by the glow of the monastery. Something bobbed into view by him and he gasped, startled. 'Are you all right, sir?' It was Medway.
Trevithick nodded and then realised he'd have to vocalise his assent. 'Yes. Yes, thank you.'
Around them, the machinery was once again winding down. Vijay stumbled across the room and found Holly. He pressed his cheek to hers and called, 'Doctor?'
The Doctor moved to stand by the window, his figure silhouetted against the glow of the monastery like that of a child watching a bonfire.
'Please excuse me,' he said quietly. 'I must return to the monastery. Ace may need me.'
He dashed across the room without knocking over a single stick of furniture.
'I'll be back,' he called over his shoulder. 'Try and stay together. Things are getting serious.' The double doors clattered and he was gone.
Holly jumped as Medway flicked the flint of his lighter, his face looming into view close by. 'I suggest we find some illumination,' he said, standing up.
'There are some candles in my room,' said Vijay.
'No,' said Holly quickly. 'I don't want you to go back there.'
'It's all right. I'll be careful.' He laid a hand on her arm. 'Listen out for Cooper, I don't like the thought of her on her own out there.'
Medway swore as the flame scorched his thumb. 'I'll come with you.'
'What about Hawthorne?' cried Holly. 'I'd forgotten all about him.'
'He can do what he likes just as long as he stays out of my way.' Vijay's voice was strained and angry. Medway flicked the lighter again and they set off into the interior.
Trevithick stumbled towards Holly. 'Hello, my dear. I'm Edmund.'
'Holly. Hi.' She looked about in the darkness, evidently unnerved.
'Reminds me of the War,' said Trevithick, struggling to make conversation. Holly smiled and nodded.
'Perhaps,' began Trevithick, 'perhaps you'd like to fill me in on what's been going on here?'
Holly shrugged. 'I don't know. Strange things. It's like a dream ..." There was a shriek from somewhere in the corridor. Holly stiffened. 'Vijay?' she shouted.
Trevithick backed against the console as running footsteps echoed around the room.
'Wait!' It was Vijay's voice. Holly sighed with relief. Two candle flames bobbed across the room like will o' the wisp. Dark figures flashed by. Trevithick frowned in confusion.
Vijay tripped over Holly. 'Wait!' he called. She grasped his hand. 'What is it?'
The double doors opened again and Medway ran through into the night.
'We found Hawthorne. In his room,' whispered Vijay.
'Dead?' said Trevithick.
'Yes. All rotten. Decayed.'
Trevithick sighed. 'Just like Mrs Yeadon.'
Vijay looked at the old man's candle-lit features. 'Mrs Yeadon too? God help us...'
They could hear Medway's car stuttering into life and reversing out of the compound.
'Well, that's my interview gone for a burton,' said Trevithick.
Medway spun the wheel, prickles of sweat shimmering over his back and shoulders. He was breathing hard, panic coursing through him.
They had pushed open the door of Hawthorne's room on their way back from getting the candles. He was lying on the bed with his back to them and the Asian bloke had shaken his shoulder to wake him. But Hawthorne wasn't asleep. He was withered and dry like an unwrapped mummy. And the strench...
Medway shivered, did a three-point turn and careered on to the moor road. He was getting out.
The tower was dark and silent. For some time, Ace had been aware of a deep, resonant throbbing sound from the monastery below but now that, and the accompanying light, seemed to have subsided.
They had staggered up the final flight of spiral stairs and emerged through a trap door into a long, empty room, its corners sheathed in dusty shadow. A solitary window was blank and open on to the night outside.
In a voice cracked by emotion Robin had told Ace about his stepmother. She'd pulled him close to her, letting hot, salty tears flood over her shoulder. Unable to think of the adequate words, she had simply kissed him, feeling him relax into her arms. Desire swept over her and she ran her hand through his hair, pressing her lips to his quaking face. He tasted like sugar.
Robin pulled away, adding little kisses to her cheeks and neck, breathing haltingly as his sobs died away.
'Thanks,' he said.
Ace smiled and stroked his forehead. 'No problem.'
She held him for several blissful minutes.
'Dorothy?'
She tensed, then laughed. 'The Doctor told you?'
Robin nodded, shifting to lay his head in her lap. He gazed up at her face, side-lit by the frosty blue night outside.
'Hello.'
She looked down at him and brushed the fringe from his eyes. 'Hello.'
There was a gentle bleep from Ace's watch. She touched the mechanism with her finger and silenced it. 'What's that?' said Robin, his brow creasing.
Ace shrugged. 'Some alarm call I forgot about.'
'You have an alarm on your watch?'
'Yeah.'
'Where did you get it?'
'Camden Market.'
Robin frowned again. 'What was it you said earlier on? When the Stones were on?'
Ace felt a little uneasy. 'Nothing. I didn't mean...'
'You said "You should see him now". What did you mean?' He smiled, no malice intended.
'I'm not from round here,' was all she managed to say.
'I gathered that much. Who is the Doctor anyway? Your dad?'
She laughed, a funny, snuffly laugh. 'Oh, that's a good one. He's worse than a dad sometimes. But mostly he's just my friend.'
Robin rested his head on one hand and looked thoughtfully into the corner. 'Ace, whatever's going on here, you seem... you seem to know more about it.' He shook his head hastily. 'No, I don't mean that. You just seem to take it all in your stride. Like you've seen it before.'
Ace sighed, wondering whether to make a clean breast of things there and then. She thought of something the Doctor had said and whispered, with as much gravitas as she could muster, 'I've seen some things in my time.'
'That's what the Doctor said.'
They both laughed.
The Doctor was halfway to the monastery when the illumination faded, the light bleeding from the monastery windows falling back like a retreating tide. There was a disquieting silence and then the low moan of the wind returned.
The looming monastery tower was now indistinguishable in the dark night.
The Doctor stopped and stared at the building, his breath shimmering in clouds. Gradually, he became aware of the sound of running feet slip-slapping across the moor. He peered into the night and made out Jill Mason, haring across the blasted landscape with mud belching underfoot. She ran straight into him and the Doctor held her arms firmly.
'Doctor!' she cried. 'Oh God, Doctor. They're all dead!'
The Doctor's face froze. 'Who? Who's dead?'
Jill bit her lip, her voice broken into hiccough-like sobs. 'My old folks. My responsibility...' she wailed.
'And Ace?'
'What?'
'My friend, Ace...'
'Oh, I don't - I don't know. She was OK. I don't know! The place is full of ghosts!'
The Doctor thought for a moment and then took Jill's hand kindly. 'Go back to the village and find that policeman friend of yours. Get as many people as you can and stay together. Somewhere safe. Everyone is at risk! Do you understand?'
Jill looked dazedly at him.
'Do you understand?' The Doctor shook her violently.
She nodded repeatedly and put an unsteady hand to her forehead.
'Very well,' said the Doctor determinedly. 'I'd better get up there.'
He strode off into the night.
'Good luck,' Jill called, her voice scarcely a whisper.
The Doctor didn't look back.
Vijay was sitting, eyes closed, in a ring of candles. He reminded himself of the icons and embroidered pictures his mother used to dot around the house back in Pakistan: angular, mystical faces full of wisdom and heavenly virtue. But there was no such atmosphere of stillness now.
Trevithick sat in a swivel chair, twiddling his thumbs anxiously. Holly stood by herself at the window, chewing her fingernails down to the quick. Vijay realised she would need some time to get over the shock of seeing James, or whatever it was that had appeared in her room. She was shuddering involuntarily, her eyes twitching as though pained.
Vijay rose from his position on the floor and stepped over the sputtering candles. He put out his arm to hold Holly, withdrew it uncertainly and then tried again. She shrugged him off at once.
'No.'
He sighed. 'Come on, Hol. You've got me.'
She looked at him unsteadily, her eyes flicking about. Vijay touched her cheek. 'I don't want you to suffer this on your own. There's no need.'
Holly frowned. 'I'm sorry. I just can't.'
Vijay let his hands fall to his sides, helpless. He wandered out of the control room to the coffee machine which was still, miraculously, functioning. Then he fumbled through the darkness to Trevithick, holding two plastic cups in his hands.
The old man yawned and stretched, peering about as Vijay approached.
'Ah, tea. Smashing.'
'Coffee, I'm afraid. All we've got.'
Trevithick took the cup gratefully. 'Never mind. I love coffee, I love tea, I love the Java jive and it loves me, eh?'
Vijay smiled indulgently. 'You're Edmund Trevithick, aren't you? I heard you were in the village. Always meant to come down and see you. Big hero of mine, you were.'
Trevithick shrugged. 'Yes, it's been lovely having all this attention again, I can tell you.'
Vijay took a swig of his coffee. 'I remember all the kids at school used to want to be the monsters. But I wanted to be Professor Nightshade. I suppose it got me started on physics in a way. All that rocket stuff.'
Trevithick chuckled. 'Well, I'm very honoured.'
He gulped down his coffee in one go. It was black and bitter. 'Funny that life seems to be stranger than fiction now,' he continued. 'I gather you've had some experiences up here?'
Vijay nodded, stooping to relume a candle which had blown out. He briefly outlined Ace's discovery of the dead security guard and Holly's experience in his room. 'And you too?'
'Oh yes. Things I would never've believed possible. Those monsters you mentioned, for instance.'
'Monsters? What? From Nightshade you mean?'
Trevithick nodded heavily. 'I saw one. It attacked me. Really. A bloody monster.'
Vijay's mouth set in a grim line. 'I saw... a ghost, I suppose. That's all I can call it. It was as real as you are. It even threw me against the wall. And there was this stuff, like ectoplasm, condensing all over me.'
Trevithick put down his cup suddenly. 'Your young lady's late fiancé, you say?'
'Yes.'
'That's interesting.'
Vijay put his head on one hand. 'What is?'
'Miss Kidd saw her dead friend. I saw the creature from my old series. Mrs Yeadon believed that the ghost of her late brother appeared to her.'
Vijay's lip turned down in a grimace of puzzlement. Trevithick's eyes lit up. 'Well, don't you see? They're all elements from our past. Our memories. Things we probably haven't thought about in years, come alive!'
Vijay folded his arms. 'But what's behind it?'
He frowned and then glanced over at the dead consoles. 'We're being bombarded by data from space, maybe...'
'Invaders from Mars, eh? Well, that's your province, not mine. At least, in the real world.'
Trevithick hooked his thumbs into the pockets of his waistcoat. 'I need a drink. A proper one, I mean.'
Vijay looked across at Holly. 'I wish the Doctor would come back. He seems to know more than he's saying.'
'He knows more than we do, that's for sure,' muttered Trevithick.
Vijay sighed. 'I just wish my mind wasn't so closed. I mean, we're here to monitor radio signals from space. Why should I be surprised if something... something intelligent has turned up?'
There was a gentle whirring sound as one of the consoles flashed back to life. Holly was by it in an instant, her fingers tapping away at the keyboard. Vijay dashed across the room, knocking down a couple of candles.
'What is it?'
Holly scanned the screen. 'Power's coming back. Slowly. There's the same data from the Bellatrix nova. And something else. A sort of... pulse. Steady pulse in the background. Like interference. But with a pattern.'
'Getting stronger,' stated Vijay, flatly.
Medway changed gear and slammed his foot on the accelerator.
The car had spent several agonising minutes stuck in the marshy ground by the station's security fence before he'd persuaded it on to the road.
Ahead, the monastery seemed to burn like a Roman candle, but, when he looked again, the old building was invisible against the night sky.
He was getting out. Away from this strange place with its missing persons and stinking corpses. Back to London and safety, somewhere he knew well, where there were people to love him. No, even better, he would go home. Home for Christmas, just as he had been promising himself all these years.
Home.
He would make the tea tomorrow morning. Hold his parents tight and tell them how much he loved them.
Home.
Medway's stomach lurched as if he'd been punched, a wave of dizziness flooding through him. There was a dull, thumping ache at the back of his neck. Sickly pain shot across his temples and over his eyes. He took one hand off the wheel and rubbed his forehead which was prickled with icy sweat. His stomach heaved involuntarily and vomit trickled down his chin.
The car jerked as he took his foot off the accelerator. He couldn't stop now. He had to get out. Had to.
Then there was a wild, appalling sickness spinning through him and he cried out, almost losing control of the car as his hands twitched and shook. The road ahead was a dark black ribbon, shifting and blurring as he fought to keep a grip on his senses.
Suddenly there was someone in his headlights, looming into view like a spotlit statue, her hands flying to her mouth as she screamed and threw herself off the road.
Medway spun the wheel to avoid her but the road ahead had vanished in a mist of pain and nausea. There was just the moor now, somersaulting into his mind's eye as the car rolled and rolled.
Medway's last thoughts were of the old tinselly Christmas tree, now dazzlingly bright and beautiful. Then he screamed and rammed his head under the dashboard as the car erupted in flame.
Jill Mason ducked down as the explosion lit up the night, chunks of red-hot metal whooshing across the moor. She stood up, her legs almost buckling with exhaustion and fear, as the skeleton of Medway's car burned before her.
'Bloody hell!' Robin pulled Ace to the tower window and both their faces flashed orange as the car exploded out on the moor.
'We'd better try and find the Doctor,' said Ace, turning back. 'We're no use to anyone stuck up here.'
'No!' barked Robin. Ace looked at him.
'No,' he said more softly, 'I don't want you to. We still don't know what's down there, do we? Let's stay where we're safe, at least till it's light.'
Ace checked her watch. It was close to five in the morning. 'Yeah. I suppose you're right.' She looked at him steadily. 'I'm really sorry about your mum.'
Robin nodded. 'I was too old to think of her as my mother. Never really got to know her, I suppose. But we were good friends. I can't believe she's gone, I just can't.'
'Maybe that's good,' said Ace quietly.
'What d'you mean?'
'Maybe it's good that you can't take it in. You've got to keep your wits about you. I think the best thing you can do for her is to stay alive.' Ace took his hand and pulled him to her. They kissed again.
'Tell me about the Doctor,' said Robin at last, stroking her hair from her eyes with his delicate fingers.
Ace shrugged. 'We travel together. He's a sort of ... guru for me, I suppose.'
Robin laughed. 'You're not into all that hippy shit, are you?'
'No!' Ace grinned. "The Doctor's ...' She thought of a word she'd found in a little yellow-backed novel in one of the TARDIS's less dusty rooms. 'The Doctor's... my mentor. He teaches me things, shows me places. Helps me to grow up.'
'You don't seem like you need much help.'
'Oh, I did. Still do, I suppose. Sometimes I feel like he manipulates me. But it usually turns out for the best. Usually.'
'Cruel to be kind, eh?'
Ace nodded. 'Something like that.'
She stared into the darkness and smiled. 'He's shown me so many things, so much beauty...' Ace looked at Robin, suddenly embarrassed. 'Stuff like that.'
Robin could sense she was troubled. 'But?'
'I'd do anything for him,' said Ace. 'But now... now he's talking about jacking it all in.'
Robin squeezed her hand. 'All good things come to an end.'
Ace ruffled his hair. 'You're full of those clichés, aren't you?'
They laughed again, eyes shining.
Perhaps she would tell him everything soon. Tell him of the wonders and the horrors she'd seen. And who she and the Doctor really were. Perhaps...
The floorboards creaked loudly and Ace jumped in shock. She peered into the dusty corners.
'There's somebody there!'
'Can't be.' Robin began to advance towards the trap door.
'There is!' Ace grabbed his arm. 'Listen!'
A heavy silence followed and then they heard the same creaking of boards followed by a deep moan.
'What the hell is it?' Robin whispered from between clenched teeth.
Ace shook her head. Something small and dark scuttled into view, starlight from the window picking out its bent contours.
Billy Coote walked slowly towards them, his arms stiff and his hair swept back from his head like a halo.
Ace gasped. 'Look at his eyes!'
The old man's black orbs jerked and twitched in their sockets. A voice, deep and rumbling, rose from the depths of his chest.
'I can see it! I can see it!'
Then, more powerfully, the timbre becoming almost musical: 'I can see it!'
Trevithick, Vijay and Holly shot to their feet. For an instant, the sky was like an upturned crucible, fire leaving a starburst after image on their eyes.
Holly gasped and jumped back from the window, shielding her eyes.
'Mr Medway, I presume,' said Trevithick hollowly, clasping his hands behind his back.
Vijay pulled a parka off the back of his chair. 'I'm going to find Cooper.'
He expected Holly to react, to ask him to stay with her as she had done before, but she just slid to the floor, gently rocking herself. Vijay didn't really want to go outside at all.
Trevithick came to his rescue. 'Are you sure about this, young fella? We don't want to risk any more of us, do we? It's rather like those Hammer horrors I used to do where people get bumped off one by one. You always end up saying "Why do they go off on their own? It's so obvious!" Maybe we should stick together.'
Vijay gave a relieved sigh. 'Well, if you think...'
Shattering cracks echoed through the room as the main window imploded. Vijay and Trevithick threw themselves to the floor as shards of glass streaked through the air. The floor was suddenly thick with glittering particles. Vijay crunched towards Holly and pulled at her shoulders. 'Hol! Come on, back this way. Come on!' He jerked her round but she continued to stare at the gaping window which opened like a burst eye on to the terrifying sight beyond.
Trevithick's Monsters
Standing in a staggered line, their black carapaces glinting in the moonlight, were half a dozen of Trevithick's monsters.
Holly felt her skin crawl as one cocked its huge head and glared at her with compound eyes, liquorice-black mucus spilling from its mouth.
One, a good foot taller than the rest, jerked its muscle-bunched legs forward, crushing glass beneath its feet. It reared up on its legs, mandibles clicking, and the others followed suit as though obeying a silent command.
Gradually, very gradually, the soft rustling sound whispered into the air, rising in volume like the sound of an expectant crowd.
'You see!' cried Trevithick. 'It's them! Remember!'
Vijay's gaze was forced away from them for a moment as more consoles blinked back to life. He grabbed Holly's hand but she resisted, pressing her feet against the floor tiles. Vijay gritted his teeth and picked her up bodily.
'Mr Trevithick. Into the interior. Quick!'
The row of insectoid creatures sprang through the window, gutteral screeches escaping their jaws.
Trevithick yelped in fright and pelted across the room towards the interior door. The creatures' huge, glistening bodies flashed green, then white in the glare of the consoles as they careered across the room.
Vijay hauled Holly through the door and pulled Trevithick by the hand till he too was through.
'Chairs! Anything! Quickly!' Vijay shrieked as he slammed the door on the creatures. A mandible caught in the jamb and there was a terrifying howl as it shattered into a bloody stump.
Lungs bursting, Holly and Trevithick reached the TV room in thirty seconds flat, and dragged three chairs and a table back down the corridor. Vijay slammed the table under the door knob as the woodwork began to splinter. A mass of spindly mandibles erupted through the frame. Trevithick hurled the wooden chairs at them.
'It's no good,' cried Holly.
'Listen,' said Vijay, grasping Trevithick by the shoulders. 'This is a big place. Lose yourself. We'll have to split up. If you can get outside, you might stand a chance.'
'But surely...'
'There's no other way.'
The door shattered and three massive insectoid heads punched through. Without another word, Holly, Vijay and Trevithick turned and ran into the darkness of the corridor. The old man skidded as he reached a corner and held on to the wall for support, spluttering for breath. His chest felt tight and painful. He was too old for this. Far too old.
Holly and Vijay had gone in the general direction of their rooms. Trevithick glanced after them and headed right, catching sight of a lift at the end of a long corridor.
There was a tremendous clatter and disgusting twitter as the creatures burst through the door and flooded in. Trevithick threw himself down the corridor, banging into a fire extinguisher which thudded on to the floor. He stopped sharply and pounded his fists against his temples.
Think. Think.
A triumphant roar boomed down the corridor. Trevithick fell to his knees, hands clapping on the floor tiles, and scrambled about for the fire extinguisher. It would do as a weapon of sorts.
He cast a glance at the lift doors. If the power was off he was as good as dead. But some of the consoles had come back to life. There was just a chance...
Trevithick strained his old eyes, cursing himself for leaving his spectacles, and just made out a tiny winking red light by the lift buttons. He sighed with relief and paddled his arms across the floor.
Got it.
He grasped the fire extinguisher and hugged it to his chest, then sprinted as best he could towards the lift and pressed the summons button. There was a distant clunk.
Couldn't be far up, he thought. Perhaps most of the complex was underground? Or perhaps - he felt his heart sinking -the lift ran all the way to the telescope dish?
He turned and felt sick as the creatures scrabbled around the corner like monstrous crane flies, their clawed limbs skittering against the walls and floor. Trevithick hammered on the lift doors.
'Come on! Come on!'
The taller creature crouched low and began to bound down the corridor towards him. Once it had just been a man in a rubber suit. Now it was real, a flesh-and-blood killer.
There was a gentle ping and the lift doors sprang open. Trevithick fell inside and stabbed desperately at the buttons. The doors began to slide closed with agonizing slowness. The creature slammed into them, its massive head beating at the metal and its mandibles thrashing in fury.
Trevithick crashed the extinguisher to the floor of the lift and aimed the nozzle at the beast. A torrent of spray erupted into its maw and it howled in protest, head cracking against the doors as it fought to clear its vision.
Trevithick pushed his finger on to the button again and the doors began closing once more. Still the creature fought on, hooking its claws around the creaking metal doors. Trevithick bit his lip and caught hold of its eye with shaking hands. It was cold to the touch. With a great cry of effort, he brought down the extinguisher on to the compound lens and beat at it repeatedly as the creature wailed and chittered in pain. Again and again he struck till the eye fractured and exploded, splattering his coat in colourless fluid.
With one final heave, he pushed the great head back into the corridor and the doors clanged shut. A beautiful humming silence met his ears and he slid to the floor. The lift went up.
Something bulky was pressing into his side and he grabbed at his jacket to remove the obstruction. With a sigh of disbelief, he pulled out his service revolver. Curse his useless memory! All this time attacking the thing with a fire extinguisher when he could've...
There was a dull thud below. The lift shook slightly but continued its flight upwards. Trevithick looked at the floor indicator. He had been on Level 8, it appeared, so there were seven floors below ground. The indicator went up to 27. Right the way up to the dish. He swallowed nervously, never having been good with heights. In his agitation he had pressed randomly. Level 15 was his destination, but that was bound to be beyond the creatures' reach, wasn't it?
At Level 15, the lift shook again. Trevithick frowned, got to his feet and waited for the doors to open. Nothing happened. He placed the flat of his hands against the cool metal and tried to push the doors apart.
With a terrifying screech, the lift floor buckled as the creature attempted to punch its way through. Trevithick gave a little whimper and thrust his fingernails between the doors. He had been so desperate to get in, now...
Please, please, please...
The creature must have forced its way through the exterior set of doors and clung to the bottom of the lift as it ascended. Trevithick felt his pulse hammering in his temple. He looked down at the floor which had cracked right across. A harpoonlike claw was thrashing through the hole, attempting to gain purchase on the floor.
It's going to get through. It's going to get through.
Trevithick gave up on the door and looked around the lift. There was a knee-high tubular ashtray in one corner. In the ceiling was the familiar escape door he'd seen in countless films. He'd even crawled through one in some cheap American picture his wife had persuaded him to do in order to pay for a new fridge.
But this was now, this was real. Could he even squeeze through the hole? And what would he do when he got there?
Trevithick jumped as the creature ripped through the floor. The bristly head lolled back mockingly.
Trevithick gave it two bullets in its uninjured eye.
The creature bellowed in pain and fell back some way through the hole in the floor. Fist-sized lenses spattered against the walls.
Trevithick pulled at the ashtray which fell and spilled its contents. He picked it up and jammed it against the wall, pocketing his revolver and casting an anxious glance at the hole in the floor. The creature's claws were scrabbling about again, making a fresh attempt to pull itself into the lift.
Trevithick tore at the expensive lining of his jacket until it ripped across, then stuffed the fire extinguisher inside. It was bulky and heavy but, once he was out of bullets, it was the only weapon he had.
Without another moment's hesitation, he climbed on to the wobbling ashtray and reached towards the ceiling hatch. He pushed with his fingertips but the hatch resisted. Why was nothing going right for him?
With a roar, the creature hauled itself over the lip of the hole and clawed at the carpet, dragging its disgusting body inside. This was all the incentive Trevithick required. He punched the hatch out and gazed through at chilly darkness.
The creature had one leg through now, sliding through the hole like a monstrous dragonfly sloughing off its old skin.
Trevithick managed to get his arms through the hatch up to the elbows and howled with effort as he tried to pull himself through. The ashtray below him shook unsteadily as the beast fell inside the lift. Trevithick was through up to his waist, his old arms seared by pain. Cold sweat flooded down his face.
The creature stood upright, uncurling its enormous body and chittering in triumph. Trevithick thanked God he was wearing his steel-toed boots, and kicked it savagely in both wounded eyes. It lashed out instantly, ripping through his trousers to his bare flesh underneath. Trevithick cried out in pain and kicked again, struggling to retain his fragile grip on the top of the lift.
The creature's maw dripped with fluid as it thrust its head towards Trevithick's legs. With a titanic effort he pulled himself right through the hatch, curled around, pulled out his revolver and pumped two more bullets into the creature.
Again it fell, spraying the lift walls with black blood. Trevithick looked about him desperately. The lift shaft was totally dark. His only choice was to attempt a climb up to the next level and somehow prise open the doors which led to safety. But, in his heart, he knew this was impossible. He hadn't the strength left and his plans failed to include one thing. The creature.
It was roaring and slamming at the ceiling hatch now, determined to break through and find him. Trevithick shivered, half through fear and half through cold. He glanced at his old revolver. Two bullets left.
Then a wild idea lit up his brain. He scrabbled about inside his jacket and pulled out the fire extinguisher. The creature was half blind now anyway. All he needed to do was complete the process and then... It was too perfect! The extinguisher didn't spray foam; it was for electrical fires, obviously the main worry in a place like the tracking station. So it contained carbon dioxide. Compressed carbon dioxide!
Trevithick checked his gun again unnecessarily. Two bullets. He would need only one. He tore off his jacket and crouched by the hatch, holding his breath. The creature's head was through now, peering about in the gloom to locate him. Trevithick slid across the lift so he was behind it, holding his jacket in one hand and the extinguisher in the other. He said a silent prayer and then launched himself at the creature.
He delivered a kick to its eye and instantly sprayed its entire head with carbon dioxide, then cocooned the head with his jacket and flung himself and the creature back into the lift.
Trevithick's whole body screamed in pain but he wouldn't give up now. Whilst the creature thrashed about the confined space, utterly disorientated, he fired one more bullet into its head. It reeled and fell to the floor. Summoning all his strength, Trevithick fell to his knees and barged the creature through the hole it had ripped in the floor. Its claws clattered desperately for purchase. Trevithick looked at its knobbly back and at one hooked spine in particular. That would do very well, he thought.
Dodging to evade its razor-sharp claws, Trevithick hooked the extinguisher on to the creature's back and then jumped on to the huge black head like a child on a trampoline, beating and beating till his boots sank into the brittle tissue. The creature screeched, twisting around in an effort to save itself. Trevithick gave one last kick and the thing slid through the hole into the shaft.
Immediately, it lashed one claw on to the cable and tried to haul itself back inside. Trevithick was prepared, however, and stabbed his finger decisively on to the Level 18 button. The lift began to ascend immediately, stranding the creature on the cable, its claws scraping and slipping on the metal.
Trevithick lay down by the hole and took out his revolver with careful deliberation. He gazed through the hole in the floor and watched the creature diminish in size.
At Level 18, the lift stopped and, to Trevithick's relief, the doors sprang open. Instantly, he slid the tubular ashtray on to the threshold to prevent the doors closing, then looked back down the hole.
The creature was struggling up the cable, the shiny extinguisher glinting on one of its hooked spines. He cocked his revolver and took aim.
The creature's head rolled back as it saw his face. It roared in fury and redoubled its efforts, wrapping its vicious claws around the cable.
Trevithick had been a crack shot during the War, had even won medals for it. But this shot had to count. Had to. He aimed for the extinguisher and pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit the compressed carbon dioxide and Trevithick was out of the lift in seconds, wrenching the ashtray away so the doors would shut.
The creature was instantly consumed by fire, guttural screams forcing their way through its dreadful gullet. It let go of the cable as flames tore through every fibre of its body, falling backwards and down, down into the shaft like a shooting star.
Trevithick watched the lift doors close and listened to the satisfying roar as the extinguisher exploded. He dragged himself to the wall and closed his eyes.
Did it. Did it.
He allowed himself a little smile.
It was almost dawn as the Doctor pulled open the doors of the monastery. The hinges had buckled and the wood itself seemed to have expanded against the stone frame.
The room beyond was unnaturally quiet, lit only by a couple of stubby candles. The smell hit the Doctor almost immediately and he thrust his coat sleeve across his face.
Over by the long-extinct fire, several indistinct shapes were huddled. The Doctor picked his way through the smashed furniture, steeling himself for what he knew he would find.
Three monks lay curled like embryos. The Doctor recognised them only by their scorched habits. All other features were ravaged and wasted, skeletal hands projecting from folds of grey material.
The Doctor looked across towards an old armchair in which a just-recognizable Mr Peel was sitting, his blotched, purple head thrust back against the antimacassar. The Doctor stepped over to the corpse and, almost without thinking, touched the bony head. It fell forward with a splintering crack, hit the floor and vanished like a mushroom spore in an explosion of dust.
The Doctor's gaze ranged around the room at the scores of lifeless figures, petrified in attitudes of horror like the residents of Pompeii.
'As if the life had been drawn out of them,' he muttered.
Without the fire, a creeping dampness had gripped the room. The Doctor wandered towards the cloister door, shivering in spite of himself.
'Ace?' he called, half-heartedly. Could she have escaped this carnage? Was she one of the unrecognisable corpses strewn about the room? 'Ace?'
The monastery had lost all the cheeriness of his earlier visits. Now it was a cold and lonely place. No wonder the Abbot had seemed so maudlin.
The Doctor looked down at the dusty flagstones, half-reminded of something. There was another smell in the air: a musty, neglected smell so common in old religious buildings.
There was a sudden, distinct plop as a rain drop fell to the floor. The Doctor gazed up at the darkened roof. Another drop fell and splashed coldly on his forehead.
Leaking roof.
All at once, he knew what it reminded him of. A forbidden place. A chamber with a secret door, the key to which he had once stolen. Such a long time ago...
There was a light scampering of feet in the darkness and the Doctor whirled round.
In the dim candle-glow, he could make out a small, dark-haired girl, though her face was lost in shadow.
His stomach turned as he recognised the neat grey pinafore with its red and gold embroidered badge.
'Grandfather?' said the girl, giggling. 'Where have you been?'
The Doctor's mouth went dry as dust. His shoulders fell and an exhausted gasp slipped from his lips.
'Susan!'
