Doctor Who: Paradise Towers (15 page)

‘They buried me away because I wanted to stop them using the Towers. And now it is your job to destroy them.’

His eyes, the burning red eyes of the Chiefs pet not the bloodshot eyes of the Chief Caretaker himself, took in the serried ranks of Cleaners, all ready and gleaming white.

‘You will destroy them,’ he repeated. ‘All of them!’

10

‘Three hundred... three hundred and one... three hundred and two... three hundred and three... three hundred and...’

Mel held her breath. Then the lift juddered to a halt. And the floor indicator read very clearly ‘304’. ‘We made it!’ she exclaimed with relief. But what, she wondered, was in store up here at the very top of Paradise Towers? More horrors?

The lift door opened. A blindingly bright light flooded in, almost dazzling both Mel and Pex. And, at the same moment, the sound of soft, sweet recorded music hit their ears.

They advanced out of the lift almost in a trance and walked along a deep carpeted corridor decorated with potted plants and gaily coloured murals all as good as new.

‘I just don’t believe it,’ Mel murmured. ‘I really don’t.’

They pushed open the beautiful glass door and there it was.

The Pool in the Sky. The pool Mel had dreamed about. And, incredibly, it was exactly as it had been in the pictures Mel had seen in the video-brochure. The marble floors. The luxurious loungers. The shimmering blue water. Utterly spotless and completely deserted. And, somehow, here in reality it was even more magnificent than any pictures could have made it seem.

After all Mel had been through, it seemed almost too good to be true.

The soft music wafted over them as they took in their surroundings. ‘It’s just the sort of pool I’ve dreamed of,’ Mel announced, flopping down into one of the lavishly upholstered loungers that lay by its side. ‘Why don’t the residents of the Towers ever use it, Pex?’

Pex was pacing anxiously by the pool side. He was still unsettled despite the relaxing nature of the environment. ‘We should not be here,’ he kept muttering as he wandered around, peering anxiously into every crevice. ‘It’s the home of the unalive.’

‘I think that’s all nonsense,’ Mel replied, lazily stretching out her arms. ‘Don’t you think it’s wonderful to be somewhere clean and calm and relaxing?’

‘It makes me nervous,’ Pex replied.

‘Everything makes you nervous.’ Mel peered longingly into the water. ‘I’m glad this is where I agreed to meet the Doctor.

Aren’t you going to have a swim, Pex?’

Pex shook his head and continued his searching.

‘I just don’t understand you, Pex. I think that all that talk about this place being dangerous is just a trick by the Caretakers so they don’t have to come and clean up the pool all the time.’

Pex completed his nervy reconnaissance and having found nothing, perched unhappily on the edge of the next lounger to Mel.

‘Just a few minutes to take the weight off my feet,’ Mel announced, ‘and then it’s straight into that lovely cool water.’

She looked down again longingly into the heated water. She assumed that the bubbles she saw near the middle of the pool were something to do with the heating system. It did not occur to her that there might be anything sinister or threatening about them.

Reports were coming in to the Red Kang Brainquarters from all over the Towers. Red and Blue Eye-Spies said that the Cleaners were on the rampage, destroying whoever they found in their path without exception. The first few floors of the Towers were already empty of all humans – apart from those unlucky enough not to move up to a higher floor in time. Drinking Fountain and Bin Liner both sent out orders to their Eye-Spies to abandon their posts and return as quickly as they could to Red Kang Brainquarters.

They came as quickly as they could, some defiant, some already scared. Only Fire Escape had still to return from a difficult mission on Floor Two. But it was apparent to everyone what was happening. Kroagnon was using the Cleaners to take over the Towers floor by floor.

‘Are all the Kangs here, Blue and Red?’ the Doctor asked when the Brainquarters seemed full to bursting with the young warriors who had played the Kang game for so long and now had to face something much worse.

‘Yes,’ Drinking Fountain returned. ‘Except for Fire Escape and –’ She could not complete the sentence because of what she felt.

‘Those who have been made unalive?’ the Doctor enquired kindly, helping her to acknowledge the sense of loss. The Blue Kang leader nodded gratefully.

Fire Escape returned soon after, her young face trying hard not to show how much what she had seen had affected her.

Caretakers were not safe now. Nor Rezzies. She had seen both being made unalive.

The Doctor took in the faces around him. ‘Our only hope,’

he insisted, ‘is to make for the great pool in the sky.’

Bin Liner shook her head obstinately. ‘No ballgames. No flyposts. No visitors to the pool in the sky.’ She spoke for a number of the others who nodded in agreement.

‘Bin Liner, listen,’ the Doctor insisted gently, ‘we need time to think and plan. The Cleaners will be here in no time at all at the rate they’re going. The pool in the sky is the furthest place we can go.’

Bin Liner hesitated. The others too. It was hard to let go of old superstitions but they knew they had to. And they had come to trust the Doctor, who had explained so much they did not’

understand. The Doctor felt sure he would be able to win them over.

‘Besides, you may recall,’ he added, to press his advantage,

‘I have to meet my very good friend, Mel, up there.’ He paused and sighed. ‘I can only hope she’s safely there already.’

*

Pex had checked all the changing cubicles and both the showers several times over. But he was still uneasy and perched uneasily on the lounger staring at the water as if it was a loaded weapon.

Mel, however, was having none of it, and, feeling fully rested, had decided to take the plunge.

Plunge was not perhaps the right word. The water was deliciously warm and relaxing and she felt better the moment she climbed down the poolside steps and entered it. She swam strongly out into the middle of the pool.

‘The water’s really lovely,’ she called to Pex. ‘You ought to come and join me. It’d do you the world of good and there’s absolutely nothing to be frightened of.’

She spoke too soon. She had swum very close to the bubbles which she had assumed were part of the heating system. They were not. A giant yellow mechanical crab lurked there and now, sensing its opportunity, it rose from the bottom of the pool and grabbed Mel in one of its strong metal claws.

Mel screamed and struggled. To have evaded the claws of the Cleaners to be dragged underwater by this awesome creature with its snapping claws and supple, probing metal antennae was beyond her worst nightmares.

‘Pex!’ she called. ‘Pex, help! Do something!’

Pex dithered feebly on the side of the pool. He was so terrified by what he saw now in the water that he was unable to make any practical move to help her.

‘What shall I do?’ he called.

‘Anything,’ Mel cried back as she thrashed about in the water, trying to loosen the crab’s steely grip on her wrist.

Pex called for help. Even in her agony, Mel could not quite believe it. The best this supposed hero could manage was a cry for help. Not a very powerful one at that.

‘Can’t you think of anything else?’ she shouted desperately.

Pex could not. Fortunately for Mel, she was a strong swimmer and somehow she managed to swim back towards the steps of the pool. The crab, however, still held on and she knew it was only a matter of moments before she went under. Its other claw snapped ferociously around her. She could think of only one solution. Pex’s gun. If he would not use it – and she had never seen him dare – she would have to use it herself.

‘Quick!’ she cried, edging herself nearer and nearer to the poolside steps above which Pex panicked ineffectually. ‘Give me the gun! Quick!’

Pex still seemed incapable of action. Mel’s strength was going and she knew the crab would soon have won their deadly tug of war. ‘Come on, Pex!’

The desperation in Mel’s voice finally galvanised Pex into action. He edged timidly nearer the water’s edge and passed her his powerful gun. Mel grabbed it thankfully with her free hand.

It was some time before she could take aim. The crab was constantly in movement and its grip relentless. Pex, anticipating the explosion, put his fingers to his ears. And then the moment came.

Mel pulled the trigger and fired directly into the body of the crab. There was a hissing as if air was escaping. The crab’s grip loosened, the body deflated and the mechanical monster sank leadenly to the bottom of the pool.

Mel stared as it sank, breathless with her struggle, wordless with relief. Pex unblocked his ears and he too watched the crab’s final moments.

‘Well,’ he sighed, his face a picture of relief, ‘I did warn you.’

Perhaps it was as well that Mel did not have the breath to reply.

It was becoming clearer and clearer to the Deputy Chief that everything was going seriously out of control. Terrifying reports were reaching him from Caretakers all over the Towers. The Cleaners were running amok all the way up to the eleventh floor and there was still no sign whatsoever of the Chief. Rules and regulations he had built his life on now seemed totally irrelevant to this alarming new situation.

The Deputy Chief was not noted for his initiative and so he puzzled hard and long about what to do. And finally he made a momentous decision, one that he had thought he would never have to make. He went to the control panel and gave out a message that would be heard by Caretakers all over the Towers on their Mark 12 LDCEs.

‘Attention all Caretakers... Attention all Caretakers...’

The Deputy cleared his throat nervously and then began.

‘Regulation ZZZ is now in operation. This over-rides all other rules and regulations. I repeat. This over-rides all other rules and regulations. All Caretakers are to act with extreme caution and get back here as fast as they can.’

He had been doing so well up to now but the enormity of what was happening finally struck him. ‘Get back as fast as you can!’ he begged frantically.

And then he sat to wait until his companions all returned.

He had played the master card, the final rule of rules in his treasured book. Regulation ZZZ was in force. The main problem was that he had not the least idea what to do next.

Mel lay exhausted on her lounger. Her clothes were dry now but in her mind she was still being attacked by yellow claws. Pex beside her hung his head miserably, all too conscious of his failure. And yet, Mel realised, though he had not been brave, he had been right. He had suspected a trap in the water and she, pig-headedly, had brushed his fears aside and gone in. As if anything in Paradise Towers could be without some danger attached to it. She no longer felt let down by him now and felt she should say so. She gently put her arm on Pex’s.

‘Pex –‘ she began.

‘What?’

‘I’m sorry, really I am.’ Mel patted his arm reassuringly. ‘I do understand now why people don’t dare to come here. You were right about that.’

And then a rustling sound came from one of the curtained changing cubicles at the far end of the pool. Pex tensed. They both listened again. The rustling was faint but it was unmistakable.

‘It’s definitely coming from over there.’ Mel pointed to the offending cubicle.

‘But I only checked it a few minutes ago,’ Pex protested.

Now there was potential danger there, he was no longer keen to take another look.

‘Shall I go then?’ Mel offered.

‘If you want,’ Pex agreed, with evident relief.

Mel got up wearily and walked round the pool towards the cubicle. The curtain shook slightly. Perhaps it was just the wind making the curtain move. But in the artificially controlled atmosphere of the pool there didn’t seem likely to be much breeze.

Mel took a deep breath and pulled back the curtain. There was nothing there. She breathed a sigh of relief and pulled the curtain to again. She’d had quite enough surprises for one day.

‘Are you sure there’s nothing there?’ Pex called timidly.

‘Of course,’ Mel replied. ‘Look.’ And she pulled back the curtain once more. It was Pex’s stare of disbelief that first told her there
was
someone there. And then she turned and saw it was none other than the Doctor himself. It seemed too good to be true.

‘Sorry to give you such a shock, Mel,’ the Doctor apologised.

‘This is where the Cleaners’ service lift appears to come out.’

The Doctor gestured and behind him Mel saw a group of Red and Blue Kangs. And behind them she could just make out the outlines of a lift door in the apparently solid tiling of the cubicle.

But how the Doctor had got there was secondary. The main thing was that he had arrived. Mel hugged him warmly. ‘Oh, Doctor,’ she cried, ‘it’s so good to see you.’

‘And you, Mel,’ the Doctor returned enthusiastically, ‘and you.’

How long had it been since the two travellers had been separated in Fountain of Happiness Square? Neither of them was any longer quite sure. They were just delighted to be together again. Mel had so much to tell the Doctor but she sensed from the presence of the Kangs that, for all his warmth and delight at seeing her again, the Doctor had much to relate and much that had to be discussed.

The Service Lift had gone down again to bring up more of the Kangs. That the Doctor and the Kangs now got on so well was one of the things Mel wanted to know about. But she knew immediately they were united by some common danger.

If a killer crab lurked in the beautiful waters of the pool, what horrors might lurk elsewhere in the Towers?

The Chief who was not the Chief strode confidently down the streets of the 33rd floor. Progress was easy so far. The Cleaners sprayed their noxious gas and the inhabitants of the Towers fell like flies. The Caretakers were the easiest to trap since obedience was engrained in them. Caretaker number 49 stroke 7