Part 28 (1/2)

1.

Ian rushed into the surgery, telling himself he was delivering important news urgently and not panicking. He knew it was a lie.

'Doctor!'

'What is it, Chesterton?' The Doctor was all business in response to Ian's tone.

'I've just had a visitor - he says he has Barbara and Vicki.'

'You mean a kidnapper?'

As if it wasn't blindingly b.l.o.o.d.y obvious, Ian thought, then realised this was the voice of panic and fear speaking. He forced himself to take a deep breath and approach the situation rationally. Anything else would just make things worse.

'Who was this man?' the Doctor asked.

Ian had hardly any idea of the personalities of this time and place. I don't know. He said his name was Gao.'

'Can you describe him?'

'About your height, lean, short hair. The cloak he was wearing hung pretty oddly, as if there was more than just man under there.'

'Weapons and armour, you mean?'

'I couldn't swear to it, of course, but, yes, I think so.'

'Good!'

'Good?' Ian was stunned. 'What's good about it?'

'For one thing, my boy, it means this abbot is convinced we are a threat to him, and hopefully that means we are.

Secondly, if they are using Barbara and Vicki as leverage they will be kept alive for the moment, and that is the most important thing.'

Barbara and Vicki had been fed steamed dumplings and vegetables. They had been given small cups of rice wine to wash the food down with, which tasted to Barbara like petrol flavoured with soy sauce.

'We have to escape,' Vicki said. 'That abbot's insane, worse than Bennett. You know it's only a matter of time before he kills us. Or worse.'

Barbara looked at the door. 'I'm not so sure, Vicki. There's something about the way he talks. I almost half-believe him.'

'That he's possessed by the spirit of an ancient emperor?'

Vicki was surprised. Based on what she knew of Ian and Barbara so far, she hadn't thought the citizens of the twentieth century were quite that superst.i.tious or primitive.

'But it's impossible,' she said. 'At least it is without having access to machines and technology that haven't been invented yet.'

'I know that. But electric torches haven't been invented yet either, and I know both the Doctor and Ian carry pen torches.'

Barbara laid her hand on the wall, feeling the roughness of the brickwork. 'Vicki, do you know anything about this ”stone tape” idea the Doctor had when we told him about that little house?'

'Well, I've heard of it, of course. It's quite simple really.

Metallic oxides in...'

'Yes, I've heard about all of that side of it from Ian as well. I was wondering if it could, I don't know, work the other way.'

'The other way?'

'Yes. I mean, what if he really is Qin s.h.i.+ Huangdi? What if he somehow recorded himself into one of these stone tapes, and then that recording was put into the abbot? Could that be possible?'

'Neural technology wasn't on my syllabus, but... an AI can respond to what you do,' Vicki said. 'An artificial intelligence,'

she added for Barbara's benefit.

'Artificial intelligence?'

'AIs are sort of like recordings in computers, but they can think for themselves and hold conversations, fight against you in games... What they do or say will change depending on what you do or say.'

Light flooded across the room, interrupting their conversation. The abbot was standing in the doorway. 'Computers,'

he said. 'Neural technology. No-one on this insignificant world knows of such things. How is it that you do?'

Vicki felt as guilty as she was terrified. She had let something slip that she shouldn't have, and it might well benefit their captor. Her face fell, sinking with her heart.

The abbot regarded her, but not as coldly as she had expected. Was there something he wanted from her? She hoped not.

'You were borne to this time and this place by a TARDIS?'

'Yes.' Vicki was too surprised to hesitate long enough to lie.

'Vicki!' Barbara complained plaintively Vicki wanted to cringe away from the betrayed look in her eyes.

Barbara could have slapped Vicki for being so stupid. She might be from a more advanced time, and have had a more advanced education, but she was still a child.

'What do you -' She broke off as light flared from the abbot's eyes. It was as if someone had thrown a switch to turn on the headlights of a car.

'Then you are a traveller?' his voice boomed. 'You are both travellers?'

'I am a teacher. A history teacher,' Barbara said. 'You know that. But I travel these days, yes.'

'Through the s.p.a.ce-time vortex?'

The voice was oddly inflected and not simply with a Chinese accent. It sounded mournful, the way the man in the moon might sound if he could talk.

'Yes,' Barbara admitted, too startled to say anything else.