'Then drive faster, Captain,' the Doctor said.

They tore along deserted streets, pa.s.sing only a few robot-driven vehicles with their dummy drivers. Presumably they would continue their meaningless travels until the end came, Ian thought morbidly.

As they approached a junction Lant braked suddenly, throwing them against their seat belts and almost causing Curton to run into them.

A mixed column of cars and goods vehicles was speeding across the road ahead of them. They were packed with shabbily dressed people, a few clinging desperately to the sides of their transports.

'NC2s!' Lant said angrily. 'They must have broken out of the camp.' He punched a number into his phone. 'Launch Security, this is Lant. There are about a hundred escaped NC2s heading in your direction parallel with Fourteenth Avenue.

They may be trying to board the Ship.' He rang off and immediately entered another number, but there was no response. 'The camp doesn't answer,' he said. 'Sorry, but I'll have to check it out. I promise this won't take longer than necessary.'

He pulled away and turned in the direction from which the NC2s had come.

As Draad got out of his car he saw Pardek with the Watch guards at the base of the gantry, checking the queues of people lining up before the elevators. Good, the commander was making his presence public. Draad stepped forward, a.s.sessing the mood as he went. A few children were crying, more from confusion than genuine fear, and every face was drawn to some degree, but in the circ.u.mstances people were remarkably calm. Perhaps the premature alert had prevented antic.i.p.atory panic building up among the ordinary citizens.

As long as they didn't start wondering why there were so few of them. No, they only had eyes for those remaining between them and the doors of the elevators. The ground was level so they couldn't see far enough to judge total numbers, or know how many had gone before them. Once they were in the subdivided compartments in the Ship they would be in no position to make a count.

Draad waved to them rea.s.suringly as he pa.s.sed.

'Just checking my seat's been reserved,' he called out lightly. 'Remember, I'll be wanting your votes in the first elections we hold on Mirath.'

There were a few nervous laughs and scattered applause.

'Lant just called in,' Pardek said in a low voice as Draad reached his side. 'Some NC2s have escaped and are heading this way.'

Still smiling broadly for his audience Draad said: 'd.a.m.n.

Breen must have made a mistake. Where is he?'

'He hasn't arrived yet.'

'I wanted the NC2s taken full care of. They mustn't interrupt the boarding procedure.'

'We know the direction they're coming from. I'll send a squad straight out from the Ship to intercept them. I doubt the NC2s will have any weapons.'

Draad sighed. 'All right, do it.'

There was a commotion from the direction of the gates and a rising babble of voices.

Zeckler appeared, marching slowly up between the waiting columns of citizens at the head of some sort of procession.

Behind him came acolytes holding church banners. Following them were four priests carrying something shoulder-high between them. As they pa.s.sed many of those in the crowd bowed their heads.

The procession reached the base of the gantry and Zeckler directed them to set their burden down. It was a litter bearing the body of Bishop Fostel, dressed in gold and white robes and with his staff of office beside him. The bright red stain soaking through the fabric over his heart was even more prominent than it had been on the broadcast. Zeckler turned to the people and raised his hands.

'We have brought the mortal remains of Bishop Fostel here so you may pay your last respects as you board the Ship, knowing that he is with you in spirit. His killers must also pa.s.s by him and know they will not escape divine justice.'

He stepped over to Draad and Pardek and said quietly: 'I want the aliens and Captain Lant.'

'Well, you can't have them,' said Pardek. 'They're still out in the city.'

'When they arrive you will hand them over. Unless you want to be denounced in front of the bishop's body.'

'This is not the time or place for playing games, Zeckler,'

Draad said angrily.

'Exactly, Mayor. I'm sure you'll see reason. Let the aliens take the blame if you want to save Lant... that's my only concession. But they must he revealed for what they are.'

Aloud he announced: 'In the Maker's name I will bless this ship. If you have faith we shall have a safe voyage to the new world.

He started off towards the nearest landing nacelle, carrying a cup of holy water and an aspergillum, leaving a couple of priests standing vigil over Fostel's litter.

'Let him go,' Draad told Pardek. 'When the first tremors start arriving they'll get inside quickly enough. You deal with the NC2s, but don't take too long. I'll check inside.'

He rode the reserved elevator up to the first pa.s.senger deck and walked across the gantry bridge into the Ship. Inside people were being checked off and shown to their bunks.

Attendants were helping to strap them in and put on their breathing masks. In a few moments the pa.s.sengers were slipping away into a gentle sleep. The atmosphere was calm and surprisingly quiet, the growing ranks of somnambulists lending a sense of peace to the scene. For a moment Draad felt a little of the burden lift from his shoulders. Perhaps it wasn't going to be as bad as he had thought. Then he saw the small form of a sleeping child and had to turn away quickly.

Resolutely he began to make his way up to the Lander's control deck.

Lant pulled up beside the body lying on the rubble at the side of the road and the others scrambled out of the cars. Nyra knelt beside the man, unfolding her medical kit. The gravel under his head was stained dark with blood.

'It's Lord Vendam!' Lant exclaimed, staring at the pale bruised face. 'What's he doing out here?'

There was no answer, of course. Nyra checked Vendam over before they moved him, and diagnosed cracked ribs and possible concussion. Under her direction they lifted him carefully into the back of Curton's car, and she climbed in with him.

They saw more bodies, both NC2s and guards, in the camp's outer compound as they drove in through the open gates. The ground was littered with pieces of stone and brick.

Lant drew his side-arm before getting out. Ian and the Doctor followed him cautiously. The inner gates leading to the prisoners' compound were hanging open on twisted hinges.

Lant knelt beside one of the uniformed figures lying face down on the ground and turned its head.

'It's Breen,' he said simply. 'Looks like he was battered to death. What in h.e.l.l happened here?'

'Your prisoners simply wanted the same chance at life you had,' Ian said bitterly.

Lam looked sickened. 'I'd better report this over the secure channel. Curton,' he called out, 'stay in the car with Nyra. Keep your doors locked.'

Cautiously he led them into the guard block and through to Breen's office. A few drawers had been pulled open and their contents scattered on the floor, but otherwise it seemed largely untouched. The desk terminal had a spray of torn cables dangling from its socket. Lant was about to turn away when his eyes dropped to a sheet of paper lying on the desk. He picked it up and read it in silence, then looked at them despairingly.

'Before you ask, I didn't know about any of this. These are orders to Breen to add poison to the camp's water supply. He was meant to wait an hour for it to take effect before leaving.

The prisoners must have realised what he was doing and rioted.'

'Or he could not bring himself to carry out such an order,'

the Doctor said. 'He was under considerable strain and perhaps no longer had it in him to kill people in cold blood.'

'Obviously this was intended as the most humane solution,' Lant said.

'The NC2s might disagree with you there,' Ian said harshly. 'But for luck the Doctor and I might still have been with them.'

'I didn't say I approved,' Lant retorted.

Curton's car horn sounded. They dashed outside. There was a crowd of perhaps thirty NC2s shuffling uncertainly out of the huts in the inner compound and up to the broken gates.

A few were older people, the majority younger women and children.

Lant holstered his gun and walked towards them holding his hands up rea.s.suringly.

'It's all right,' he called out. 'We're not going to hurt you.

I just want to know what happened here.'

They shuffled anxiously, not wanting to meet his eye. Ian realised they had stopped short of the threshold to the gates as though frightened to cross over the invisible line. How long had they been prisoners, he wondered in disgust.

'I promise none of you will be blamed for anything,' Lant said. 'I just want to know the truth.'

Finally one of the younger women spoke up, her voice trembling.

'The men knew something was going on. They'd been planning to make a break when the evacuation sounded. Some of them had made a lever from sc.r.a.p metal and broke open the gates. Others threw rocks when the guards tried to stop them.

They kept hitting the guards until they eventually stopped moving. The first ones out took the guards' cars, the rest went on foot. They didn't hang around in case more soldiers came.

She looked at Lant fearfully. 'We hid... we didn't have anything to do with it.'

'I believe you,' Lant said.

The Doctor moved up to his side and said quietly: 'Find the keys to the camp stores. It will keep them occupied.'

Lant nodded, recovered a bunch of keys from Breen's body and held them out to the nervous crowd. 'Here, take what you want from the stores.'

They looked at him in disbelief as though suspecting some sort of trick. Unexpectedly the Susan android stepped forward and took the keys from Lant's hand.

'Do you know where the stores are?' she asked the women. 'Good, show me.'

She led the pitiful group away.

'We must do something for these people,' Ian said.

'There's nothing we can do,' Lant said bluntly. 'There's no room for them on the Ship, you know that: He checked his watch. 'We'll examine the place where we lost that thing the other night, but we haven't much time left. If we don't find any trace of your companions we'll have to get back.'

Nyra and Curton joined them.

'Vendam is as comfortable as I can make him,' Nyra said.

'I think he'll be all right when he wakes up, but we must get him back to the Ship quickly so that they can strap his ribs properly before launch.'

Ian looked at the Doctor and saw his lips pursed grimly.

They were running out of time. He must say something soon.

Lant's pocket phone beeped. He put it to his ear, but they could all hear the desperate words issuing from the tiny speaker.

'Emergency... all Watch personnel to the launch site immediately... the Ship is under attack!'

Chapter Thirty.

The Taking of the Ship Keldo tried not to allow himself to be overawed by the sheer towering ma.s.s of the Ship, but secretly he had to admit the Arkavians had built it well. It was magnificent; an inspiring symbol of hope that he would see served a n.o.ble purpose.

His men were concealed on the fourth floor of an otherwise deserted multi-level car park overlooking one side of the launch site. They had reached the location with surprising ease. The few vehicles they had pa.s.sed had paid them no attention. But then how could the Arkavians possibly suspect that their old enemy, long thought dead, was driving through their own city so openly?

Through binoculars, Keldo observed the ranks of abandoned vehicles surrounding the site, and the last snaking columns of people filing into the elevators at the base of the gantry. He and his men couldn't wait much longer, but the guards stationed about the base of the gantry could still cause them fatal delay. Without a team of conditioned agents inside the Ship, as he had planned, the a.s.sault would have to be timed exactly. There had been no further signal from the conditioned woman, so they could not count on her support during the attack. Still, she had served her primary purpose.

Then came a flurry of unexpected activity down on the launching site. Uniformed men were moving away from the gantry and climbing into half a dozen military vehicles. In moments the small column had driven out of the gates and sped away, leaving only a handful of guards behind.

Why had they sent out a squad now? Was it a trap? Had they somehow detected the presence of his force?

'Be alert,' Keldo warned his troops, 'the enemy may be trying to get behind us.'

For some minutes there was no change, except that the columns waiting to ascend the gantry elevators dwindled rapidly. They would have to move soon. Then came the sound of distant gunfire from the direction the convoy had taken. For a second Keldo could make no sense of it, then he grinned in fierce delight. The undisciplined rabble were fighting among themselves!

'Go!' he commanded, climbing into his car.

His little fleet rolled down the ramps and out on to the street. They drove up to the nearest gateway at moderate speed, doing nothing to arouse the suspicions of the guards.

Their caution was hardly necessary. The guards were only half watching them, their attention diverted by the sporadic echoes of gunfire.

Keldo's car slowed as it came alongside the gatehouse and the guard reluctantly tore his attention away from the distant conflict to his check-pad. Keldo lowered the side window. As their eyes met he saw the guard's frown turn to incredulity.

He shot him through the heart with a single round from his pistol, even as his driver did the same to a guard on the other side. The two shots were m.u.f.fled, contained largely within the car, and the sound did not carry far. Still at the same steady pace, Keldo's convoy drove on through the gateway and down the dear track between the ranks of parked cars. As they approached the launch site, the Ship and its gantry seemed to swell until they filled the sky.

The convoy drew up in an orderly manner ten metres from the row of elevators. The last few people filing into them hardly looked round. Some kind of religious ceremony seemed to be taking place. Men in priestly robes stood by a body resting on a litter, while another more gaudily dressed holy man was shaking water over the stanchions beside the elevators. What purpose this served Keldo neither knew nor cared.