"I wouldn't want to." Avram had explained to her that the priestesses had one main duty - they had s.e.x with any man who came into the temple with a sufficiently generous offering for the G.o.ddess. "You can call them priestesses, but where I come from they're called something else."

"It is an honest and honourable trade," he replied, shocked at her att.i.tude.

"Yeah, well, you would think that. You're a man, and you get the best of the deal."

He snorted. "I am unlikely ever to get the price needed to buy time here,"

he told her. "Not by playing my musical wares in this city."

"You should go to Uruk," she told him. "Especially if you know any good songs about Gilgamesh. He's a heavy tipper." She was only half paying attention to him or to what she said. She was studying the building ahead of them. "Now let's have a go at getting in, and no arguments."

Realizing that he would not be able to dissuade her, Avram nodded. "At least let me go first," he argued. "I will make certain that there are no people about to see you when you slip in: If they saw him, of course, he would play drunk, and pretend he was here for a session with one of the priestesses. He'd be thrown out, but nothing worse. If they found Ace within...

She reluctantly agreed to this, and he gently opened the main door, then slipped inside. The entrance hall was still. From a distance, he could hear the clatter of food being served. Shulpae, G.o.d of feasting, was the only deity being honoured at the moment. Good fortune smiled on them - at least temporarily. He turned back to the door and almost ran head-on into Ace.

"It's the time of the evening meal," he whispered. "We should be able to get within."

"Great." Ace followed him inside, then waited until her eyes adjusted to the gloom. "Aren't they afraid of thieves?" Avram stared at her in blank amazement. "Thieves?" he echoed. "Who would dare rob the house of the G.o.ddess?" "Yeah, I forgot about that. Okay, lead on, pilgrim."

Shaking his head, Avram moved quietly through the entrance hall, and into the main temple. Once again, he was relieved not to see anyone within.

The sacrificial fires were barely more than embers now, left to burn gently overnight. Despite the gloom, it was clear that they were alone in this part of the building. He breathed a silent prayer of thanks.

Explaining Ace to anyone they might encounter would not be easy. He wasn't even certain he could explain to himself why he was doing this, risking his liberty if not his life. Surely not just because she had a pretty face and a fine singing voice? They moved onwards, looking for any sign that Ace's friend might have pa.s.sed this way. Neither saw anything out of the ordinary - though in Ace's case, she wasn't certain what might pa.s.s for ordinary inside the temple. Avram was congratulating himself on their good fortune when, naturally, it ran out.

Approaching the area near the altars Ace rounded a pillar and walked straight into one of the priestesses. Before the girl could open her mouth Ace had her in a hammerlock, and pressed a hand over the astounded harlot's face.

"Keep your voice down," Ace warned the priestess. "Or I'll break your neck." She could see terror in the girl's eyes, and loosened her hold slightly. "Understand?" The girl nodded. Ace couldn't work out what to do next. Nor did she know why the girl had looked so scared when she had seen Ace. Okay, so Ace looked a bit outlandish, dressed in her leather jacket and jeans, but surely she wasn't terrifying? Or maybe the girl had just been listening to ghost stories, and had been spooked when Ace suddenly appeared? She didn't look much out of childhood, despite the unmissable development of her bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"Hang about," Ace muttered. "How come you're not at dinner with the other girls? Been sent to bed without your supper?" En-Gula shook her head as much as she could, trapped by the grip about her neck. When she had first seen Ace she had been scared witless, certain that Ishtar had discovered her treachery. But she wasn't so sure of that now. Ace cautiously loosened her hold a little more.

Avram cared for none of this. "We'd best get out of here," he urged Ace.

"Where there's one priestess, there's a hundred."

"Like c.o.c.kroaches, eh?" Ace asked, furiously trying to work out what she had better do next.

"No," En-Gula volunteered, surprising even herself. "There's just me here.

Dumuzi has two more priestesses within, watching the stranger, but - " She gagged on her words as Ace accidentally tightened her grip in excitement.

"Stranger?" she hissed. "A funny-looking bloke with a hat and umbrella?"

"Bloke? Umbrella?" asked En-Gula, when she could speak again. "I do not know these words. But he wears strange clothes and speaks just as oddly as you do."

"I knew it," Ace grinned. "The Doctor's in there."

"Is he a friend of yours?" asked En-Gula, hardly daring to hope that this unusual person might be of help.

"Sometimes he is", said Ace. "Right now, I'm here to warn him about this place."

"Then you are too late."

Ace dropped her arm lock, and smacked the girl back into the pillar, shoving her elbow against the priestess's throat. "What do you mean?" she growled, trying to suppress her fears.

"Dumuzi, the high priest, has drugged your friend to prepare him for union with Ishtar," explained En-Gula, struggling to catch her breath.

"Drugged?" Ace shook her head. "He always walks right into it." Then, glaring at the girl, she said: "Right, are you going to blow the whistle on us?" Seeing the lack of comprehension in her eyes, Ace added: "You going to tell anyone about us?" "I could not, even if I wished to," En-Gula replied.

"I have no explanation for being here either. To turn you in would be to betray myself."

Avram was having a hard time following all of this. "Then what are you doing here?" he asked. The longer he spent in Ace's company, the less sense anything that he or other people did or said seemed to make.

"It's a long story," En-Gula a.s.sured him.

"There's no time for stories, short or long," Ace said, firmly. Pulling a can of nitro-nine from her pocket, she primed it, then met their blank stares. "I'm going in there to get the Doctor out. Are you two going to help me, or what?" "I'm a musician, not a soldier," Avram said, hastily. "I'd be of little use in the event of trouble."

"Great," Ace muttered. She glared at En-Gula. "How about you? I could do with someone who knows her way about in there."

Swallowing, the girl nodded, slowly. "I will help you." Hoping she was doing the right thing in trusting this priestess, Ace nodded, then walked through the doorway. As he saw the two girls pa.s.s out of sight, Avram took hold of all his courage and followed behind them, into the portals of death.

The room was quite small, about twenty feet long and ten feet wide. In the centre was a stone altar, and stretched out on it lay the Doctor. His arms were folded on his chest, clutching his umbrella, and his hat lay atop them.

He was snoring loudly. There was no sign of anyone else.

Clutching the can of explosive, Ace edged her way to the dais, watching all round. There was nothing to be seen, and no sound.

"Right," she hissed at the others. "You grab him and head for the front door. I'll cover the retreat." One of the Doctor's eyes flew open, and he groaned. Thinking he was coming round, Ace grinned sympathetically down at him. "You'll be all right, Professor," she told him. "We'll get you out of here." "I don't want to be out of here," he snapped as quietly as he could.

She realized that he was completely conscious, and had been faking his snores. "I've worked hard to get where I am today. Now, clear out of here before someone comes!" En-Gula stared at him in shock. "But... I saw you drugged, with my own eyes!" "Ace," the Doctor hissed, "take your friends and get lost. You can explain to them about my respiratory bypa.s.s on the way out." It was too late. Dumuzi walked through the doorway from the inner rooms, and stared. His eyes swept over the three intruders, resting a second longer on En-Gula, and then looked down at the Doctor. Realizing he had been discovered, and that there was no longer any point in pretending, the Doctor sat up quickly, donning his hat.

"Thanks for the loan of the bed," he said. "I'm much better after my little nap. Ace, time to say your goodbyes." Misunderstanding him, Ace laughed and lobbed the canister of nitro-nine over the priest's head. She barely heard the Doctor's scream of outrage as she pushed En-Gula and Avram back the way they had come.

The blast behind them helped them on their way rather forcibly. Both the musician and the priestess were too startled to object to Ace's less than gentle prodding to keep them moving. Ace herself didn't pause to see if the Doctor was still with them. Her ears ringing from the sound of the blast she grabbed another canister of nitro-nine from her pocket, priming it as she ran. Ahead of them, blocking the exit, a squad of temple guards had started to form, many of them hastily swallowing mouthfuls of food.

No time to worry; Ace tossed the explosives as far as she could. The soldiers, a.s.suming that she'd missed her aim with the missile, simply stood their ground and drew their swords for the fight. The nitro-nine detonated behind them, shattering one of the pillars and flattening the men in the blast. Chips of stone lacerated their bodies. Ace jumped over the prostrate forms, having no time to see if they were still alive or dead. She and Avram hit the doors together, and piled into the deserted streets. En-Gula hesitated for a second before following them. Dumuzi had seen her, and to stay now would be more than her life was worth.

Clouds of dust and smoke poured out of the doors behind them, and then the Doctor leapt out, one hand on his hat, the other clutching his precious brolly. Flames licked at the edges of his coat and trousers.

"Now you've done it!" he yelled at Ace, but didn't stop to hear her answer.

"You're welcome!" she howled, running after him. Avram and En-Gula fell in behind them, following without understanding what was happening, but knowing it would be certain death to stay to think things out.

The temple of Ishtar was a shambles. The surviving soldiers at the door battled the fires that had started on the wall-hangings and the rush mats.

Further inside, the outer chambers of Ishtar's sanctum were destroyed.

Dumuzi, ignoring the cuts and bruises from the blast that had felled him, directed the priestesses who had rushed in to start clearing a way to the inner rooms.

Finally, enough of the shattered stones had been cleared to allow Ishtar to emerge from the wreckage. The can of nitro-nine hadn't exploded close to her, but her dignity and pride were severely bruised. The debris and rubble interfered with the traction of her metal coils on the floor, and she shook with rage and impatience. The eyes that glared at Dumuzi were pits of crimson fire.

"Fool," she hissed. "The stranger was not felled by the drug. He must have called for help in some way. And look at what has happened to my temple!"

Calmly, Dumuzi stared back at her. "You were in my mind, G.o.ddess, when the stranger was drugged. You believed that he was unconscious as much as I did." Ignoring this inconvenient fact Ishtar spun furiously to glare at the closest of the priestesses. The girl, one of her mind-slaves, simply stood pa.s.sively. "And one of you - you, my servants helped the intruder to escape. Who is she?" The girl saw the mental image that Ishtar projected.

"She is called En-Gula, G.o.ddess."

"Is she gone from the temple?" Ishtar asked, swivelling to face Dumuzi.

"She was seen leaving with the others."

"She cannot flee beyond my vengeance," Ishtar vowed. She slithered furiously back and forth across the floor, grinding rubble to dust beneath her scales. "Neither her, nor that stranger, nor the other two. They are all to be killed. Is that clear?" "When they are found, they will die," Dumuzi agreed placidly. "I shall send out the guards to look for them."

"Good," Ishtar said. Calming a little, she added: "Has any trace of Gilgamesh been found in the city?" Dumuzi shrugged. "I have heard nothing, lady. As you know, there are patrols out looking for him also."

"I am surrounded by incompetents," she spat. "Can none of these idiots find me anyone?" Sweeping from the room, she retreated into her chamber to brood. Once again the problems with her conditioned slaves were resurfacing. Without her guidance they proved to be of little use. The only answer now was to take full control of their minds, no matter how much it drained her powers. Settling into position against the wall, she began to tap into the neural networks, scanning the minds of the various soldiers that she had Touched. She began the work of directing them, oblivious to everything but her desire for revenge on all those who had opposed and humiliated her...

Enkidu was on the verge of wringing his hairy hands in despair. Following the departure of Ace, Gilgamesh had retreated once again to the beer flasks. He hated to be crossed or turned down, and Ace seemed to delight in goading him. It didn't make Enkidu's task any easier. Knowing Gilgamesh, he realized that the king's pride had been hurt. The problem was that the king tended to take out his frustrations on those about him.

He was like a child, really. As long as he got his own way the king was a charming and cheerful soul. In Uruk, of course, he always got his own way.

There were plenty of grumbles about his behaviour of course. But such grumbles came mainly from the men whose women were either seduced or raped and were spoken, naturally, outside the king's hearing. The women, of course, had no say in the matter. But here, supposedly on a spying mission, Gilgamesh couldn't claim his divine rank - and especially not with Ace, since she was possibly a G.o.ddess. As a result, he sat and pouted, and - of course - drank to drown his frustrations.

Now Gilgamesh was at the stage in his drinking that Enkidu feared most: he was ready to start picking a fight with anyone. The problem was that Gilgamesh could kill people with his bare hands without being aware that he was doing so. All it took was a small spark to set him going.

One of the drinkers at the next table unwittingly supplied that spark. As he shifted on his stool to get at his drink, his elbow caught Gilgamesh in the ribs. It was a minor blow that the king hardly felt, but it was enough to make him growl.

"Sorry, friend," the drinker said. "But I should think with your huge frame, you get b.u.mped a lot."

That was enough cause for Gilgamesh. "What?" he roared, leaping to his feet. "You think you can punch a king and then joke about it?" "Hey," the man muttered. "It was an accident, and I apologized."

"That's not good enough," Gilgamesh growled, grabbing the man by the throat and swinging his hand for one good, clean punch. To his annoyance, Enkidu grabbed his arm and held it firm. Enkidu was the only person Gilgamesh had ever met that could match him for strength. "Let me be," the king said in a low voice.

Fearing that their cover was blown and their mission finished, Enkidu nevertheless tried to salvage what he could from the wreckage. "Lord, let him go, He's not worth the effort. I think it's time we left, and "Wait a minute!" one of the other drinkers yelled, pointing at Enkidu. The cloak the Neanderthal wore to cover his hairy body had fallen open as he struggled with Gilgamesh. "Look at that fur!" the man continued. "Only one person looks like that - the monkey-man that Gilgamesh of Uruk keeps as his pet!"

There was a chorus of agreement that petered out as the crowd gradually realized who the giant trying to throttle one of their friends had to be. The men fell back, and Enkidu knew that they were on the verge of sending someone for the guard. Subtlety was not called for at this point, so he let go of Gilgamesh's arm.

"I believe we've outstayed our welcome," he said, sighing. As the king punched the man he held and tossed the body aside, Enkidu grabbed the edge of the table they had been seated at, and heaved it towards the crowd. It took down several of their number with a splintering of timber and bones.

Gilgamesh's hands flew to the battle-axe hidden under his cloak, and he swung it out and free.

"Right!" he grinned. "Who wants to die?" That cleared the room. Those that could shot out through the door. A couple managed to wriggle out of the windows. The innkeeper ran out the back way. Laughing, Gilgamesh walked to the innkeeper's desk and scooped up all the loose money he could find. "It was lousy beer," he explained. "It would be an insult to allow that crook to keep our money."

Enkidu hardly cared about that. It was time to leave Kish before the patrol arrived. Kicking open the door, he led the way into the street. Getting his bearings, he started for the gate through which they had entered the city. It was bound to be barred and guarded, but against problems from without, not within.

A group of soldiers appeared ahead of them. Even in the low light he could make out at least a dozen. Enkidu cursed but reckoned that if he and Gilgamesh were quick, these men would never be able to send for reinforcements.

Gilgamesh reacted in a more visceral fashion. With a scream of joy, he ran at the men. His axe scythed the air, leaving blood, entrails and limbs in its wake. Enkidu followed, his sword slashing at the remaining troops as he guarded his king's back.

All twelve of the patrol died within moments. Enkidu felt vaguely disappointed that they had not put up a better fight.

Gilgamesh had had most of the fun. Another patrol came into sight from the opposite direction. Enkidu frowned. How could they possibly have known where to come to? The leader of this new group smiled - a hollow, haunted grimace. "Gilgamesh" he said in dangerous tones. "Did I not promise you that I should have my revenge?" The king snorted. "I've never seen you before, lad - or you'd be dead."

"O king," the man's voice mocked grimly, "do you forget me so soon? Ah, but when last you saw me, I was a bewitching woman, and my ziggurat in ruins." Shocked, Gilgamesh blurted: "Ishtar!" "So you can remember that far back!" The man laughed with his voice, but his eyes remained dead.

"Now, O king of foolish words, it is time to die." Enkidu could have told the man he was making a mistake in talking to Gilgamesh instead of fighting.

The axe whistled, and the man's head left his body. The corpse stood a second, belching blood, then fell into the dirt of the street.

"Some revenge!" Gilgamesh shouted as he launched himself at the others in the squad. Enkidu was about to follow him when a third body of men arrived, marching from the same direction as the first, dead, party had come.

The leader of this group signalled the attack, and Enkidu leaped to stand them off. The leader's voice called out: "Gilgamesh, you cannot destroy a G.o.ddess as easily as that!" Without even turning his head, Gilgamesh let forth a loud laugh. "Ishtar, I am glad to hear it. I had been afraid that you'd be no fun at all!" Together, king and companion battled on, hacking, slashing, and parrying the blows of their attackers. Screams from the fallen died away as the wounded were swept up by merciful death, taken by the servants of Erishkigal, the queen of the underworld. Strong as Enkidu and Gilgamesh were, the constant fighting was taking its toll of their stamina.

Besides, the blood in the street made for difficult footing.

"I think it's time we left," Enkidu panted over his shoulder, as he stove in the skull of another soldier.

"What?" Gilgamesh asked, all trace of his inebriation gone. "Bored already?" He slashed out, severing the arm of an attacker. The mutilated man screamed, so Gilgamesh clove his head to quieten him.

"There's something very strange about these soldiers," Enkidu managed to explain. He blocked a blow that might have gutted him, then backhanded his attacker. "They've not bothered to send for reinforcements."

"Maybe they want to die," Gilgamesh suggested. He rammed the b.u.t.t of his axe into an advancing stomach, then hacked upwards with the blade, severing another head.

"But I hear more soldiers approaching," protested Enkidu. "This squad must have made signals of some sort for aid."

"They are beyond aid in this world," Gilgamesh chuckled, impaling the last of his foes and watching the man drop. "Still, perhaps we'd better leave some men alive so that the next time we stop for a visit, there'll be something to do."

Enkidu agreed quickly and finished off the final man he had been fighting.

Together, he and Gilgamesh turned and ran for the city gates. Enkidu wondered how they would get out of the city if the rest of the guards acted as if guided by the same preternatural communications as the three parties they had encountered so far.

The problem of getting through the gates was resolved fairly simply. As they neared the wooden barriers, ready to kill the guards and hack down the gates, there was a sudden light in the sky, followed by a deafening noise.

"Well," Gilgamesh managed to comment, when his ears had ceased ringing and the smoke was clearing from the ruins of the gate, "I think we now know where Aya went."

"Let's follow her," Enkidu suggested.

"I'm with you there!" Together, they sprinted through the shattered timbers and injured guards, and out into the darkness beyond.

10: ACE IN THE HOLE.

The roar of a lion broke the stillness of the night air. Ace huddled closer to the dark ma.s.s of the TARDIS and glared at the Doctor in disgust.