Doctor Who: Paradise Towers (18 page)

And then it was Mel’s turn. She had grown very fond of Pex for all his idiocies and she hated to think this might be their last conversation. She tried not to think of that, though, and luckily for her, she had something to give him that took her mind off the danger. It was a Kang bracelet.

‘They wanted to give it to you, Pex.’ Mel explained as she fastened it round his neck. ‘They think you’re not a scaredy cat any longer but a real Kang.’ And she kissed the blushing Pex gently on the cheek. ‘Good luck, Pex.’

He stood awkwardly for a moment and then reached into his belt. He pulled out his gun and handed it to Mel. ‘You take this, Mel,’ he mumbled. ‘I can’t use it this time.’

It was all Pex had to give and Mel was touched. Soon he was gone and she was left to think over what would happen to him.

He was right, of course. His gun would be worse than useless in the encounter Pex had ahead of him. He would need clearheadedness and courage far more. She could only hope that Pex had really discovered those qualities in himself. If he hadn’t then it boded ill for their whole undertaking.

With a sigh, Mel went to help the others with preparation of the door. The Doctor had not exaggerated. They would need every second Pex could buy them.

The Great Architect had spent precious time trying to trace the impertinent Doctor but without success. He should not have allowed himself to become so angered. It was not fitting for an intellect of his capacity. But if there was one thing he could not endure, it was any suggestion that his architectural design was less than perfect. He began making plans for a particularly nasty contraption in which the Doctor would be incarcerated and slowly crushed.

Still, he should make sure how his Cleaners were getting on first. They should at least be up to the 260th floor by now. He pressed the control buttons to take a look. And to his surprise a face appeared again on the central screen. A different face though. A young warrior by the look of him, strong-jawed and powerful, but with absolutely no intellectual capacity whatsoever.

Still, it could do no harm to listen to what he had to say.

Pex was sweating. He could not help it. But still he managed to hold his ground and get his story out. He was a disillusioned rebel against Kroagnon. He had been treated badly by the arrogant Doctor and wanted revenge.

‘So you could lead me to this Doctor, could you?’ asked the sinister metallic voice softly, terrifying Pex to the marrow.

‘Yes,’ he answered as firmly as he could. ‘He and the other remaining – er – mobile rubbish have found a place to hide which they think you don’t know about. And they’re planning ways of resistance.’

The Great Architect smiled secretly. Taking these meddlers by surprise like rats in a trap appealed to his sense of humour. It was so much more amusing than sitting around here in the Caretakers’ Headquarters while the Cleaners had all the fun.

One doubt remained. ‘Why should you help Kroagnon?’ he asked the warrior.

But Pex had been prepared to answer this question.

‘Because I don’t belong with the others here,’ he explained. ‘I know you’re going to win. All I ask is that you promise me a safe way out of the Towers when the others are destroyed.’

‘Of course,’ Kroagnon returned smoothly. ‘If you deliver me the Doctor, I’ll give you a safe way out.’ He smiled again. It was so easy to make promises when you had no intention of keeping them.

‘Doctor!’ Mel ran down the steep steps of the Brainquarters. She found him checking out the layout of the explosive. ‘Doctor,’ she gasped breathlessly, ‘the door’s nearly in place. But they’re having a problem with the fortimoloscope opening device.’

The Doctor looked grave. This device was the key to the whole ambush. Triggered by the slightest touch it would make the door spring open and catapult the intended victim into the explosive below. Half a minute later it would also trigger the explosive itself. If it did not work, the plan was sunk. ‘I’d better give them a hand,’ the Doctor decided. ‘See what you can do to help the Kangs down here, Mel,’ he added. ‘And don’t forget to leave the secret escape hatch uncovered so that I can make my exit.’

Everything depended on split-second timing. The door was to spring open. The Great Architect was to see the Doctor below.

He would lean down to see him. Pex would push him from behind. And the Great Architect would topple to his death a split-second after the Doctor had sneaked to safety from the exploding Brainquarters.

‘I just hope Pex doesn’t lose his nerve and hurry,’ the Doctor muttered to himself as he rushed up the steps.

‘Otherwise it won’t be Kroagnon who’s caught in a booby trap.

It’ll be us.’

They had been the most terrifying minutes of Pex’s life. First the talk with Kroagnon. Then the wait for him to emerge from the Headquarters to join Pex at the appointed place with a flotilla of Cleaners in tow. And now, worst of all, the slow progress along the familiar streets and squares of the Towers with the Great Architect by his side, his fearsome red eyes darting this way and that, his measured robotic tread telling of ferocious power and determination.

Pex knew that concealed along the way were Kangs with crossbows. But he also knew that they could only observe what was happening not intervene. If they were lucky, they might be able to pick off a few of the Cleaners with their explosive during the final moments. But Kroagnon was far too wily to put himself in any position where he might be exposed to danger from hidden enemies.

‘This is not some trick, is it?’ the Great Architect demanded as they walked side by side. His wolfish grin made Pex’s blood run cold.

‘No, no,’ Pex answered, feeling his heart pounding faster and faster.

‘That’s just as well,’ leered Kroagnon. ‘I’ve only just begun to enjoy walking round my marvellous Towers again in this body. And I wouldn’t deal kindly with anyone who was stupid enough to try and lay a trap for me.’

He stopped suddenly and his eyes pierced into Pex’s. Their brilliance and cruelty were quite breath-taking. Pex felt he could hide nothing from such a being. Kroagnon edged closer. ‘Not frightened, are you?’ he hissed.

It was too much. Pex knew his nerves would not hold. This awful ordeal had to end as soon as possible. ‘I think... I think we ought to hurry, Great Architect,’ Pex begged. ‘Please – let’s hurry.’ He hated himself for saying it but he was convinced he would blurt out everything if he had to stare into those deep eyes one second longer.

‘As you wish,’ the Great Architect replied, a trace of cruel amusement entering his face at Pex’s terror. And he quickened his pace to match Pex’s.

Drinking Fountain, hidden nearby, watched this development with dismay. If they kept up this pace they would be there far, far too soon. She hurried to the nearest talkiphone to report.

It was Bin Liner who took the call in the Brainquarters. Most of the Kangs had already left the explosive-lined room but she and Mel were still there to await the notification of Kroagnon’s arrival.

‘What’s happened?’ Mel asked anxiously as she saw Bin Liner’s face cloud over with dismay.

‘They’re making all speed here,’ Bin Liner replied.

‘What?’ Mel could not believe the awfulness of the news.

‘Pex has been a scaredy cat,’ Bin Liner continued bitterly, replacing the talkiphone receiver. ‘They’ll be here in no time.’

‘I must warn the Doctor.’ Mel started to run up the stairs to where he was working. But Bin Liner stopped her just in time.

As an added precaution, trip wires had been laid. One step up the stairs and Mel would have gone up in smoke. And the plan with her. She had no choice but to follow Bin Liner through the secret escape hatch. In her agony, she realised there was nothing else she could do to help the Doctor.

The fortimoloscope opening device had proved tricky even for the Doctor and valuable minutes had ticked away while he had been working on it. But now he finally thought he had got it working.

‘Doctor –’ The Deputy Chief’s voice was suddenly stiff with fear. They looked up the street and what they saw was the last thing they wanted to see. The Great Architect had turned the corner and was coming towards them with Pex at his side.

‘And we’re not ready for them.’ In those few simple words the Deputy had expressed it all. Pex had failed them when the Doctor had trusted him. The plan was ruined and the Doctor would have to make do as best he could.

The first thing he did was to persuade the Deputy and Fire Escape to move back away from the door. They were reluctant to do so, particularly the Red Kang leader who did not want to abandon her teacher to certain death. ‘But you must go,’ the Doctor insisted urgently. ‘There’s only one way this might work.

And for that I need to be on my own.’

Finally they withdrew. And the Doctor, totally alone by the door, turned to face his approaching enemy. Seeing the Doctor was alone, Kroagnon gestured to his cohorts of Cleaners to wait at the end of the street. He advanced himself, however, a triumphant smile on his lips and a quivering Pex by his side.

They came nearer and nearer but the Doctor held his ground. And Mel and Bin Liner emerged into the street from the secret escape route to join the small frightened group that clustered at the corner of the street some way behind the Doctor’s back. Mel had imagined the Great Architect would be alarming. But she had never imagined anyone as terrifying as this grisly corpse-like creature who towered over her Doctor.

‘Well?’

The Doctor’s careful plans were in ruins. All he could do was improvise in the faint hope that an opportunity might occur for him to push Kroagnon single-handed through the barely completed door into the blackness below. The Doctor, however, was a creature of enormous determination and resource. He assumed a cheerful expression and started to chatter away as if nothing untoward had happened.

‘Well, well, Kroagnon,’ he started as the Great Architect approached, ‘how nice of you to drop in. I’m so glad. I wanted to have a few words with you about the shoddy design of this building.’ He gestured towards the door, hoping desperately his foe would not notice its newness. ‘I mean, take a look at this for instance.’

Kroagnon glowered. ‘There was nothing wrong with it when I built it,’ he roared. ‘Unless humanoid creatures have damaged it.’

‘Well, speaking as an expert,’ the Doctor proclaimed, trying to draw the Great Architect nearer to the object under discussion, ‘I’m prepared to tell the Universe you couldn’t design a simple door knob. Look at it.’

Curiosity and vanity got the better of Kroagnon and he moved towards the door to examine it more closely and defend his workmanship. It was the Doctor’s chance. Swiftly he operated the fortimoloscope device, the door flew open and he tried to push the Great Architect down.

Kroagnon nearly fell but at the last minute he managed to stop himself. And then he grabbed at the Doctor and held him tight. A terrific fight took place upon the edge of an opening that lead to a ferocious booby trap. And though the Doctor struggled gallantly, there was no doubt that the other was the stronger and would in time prevail.

Pex, the only person near at hand, watched, horrified. The Doctor called for him to help but it was hopeless. He could no more take action than he could by the side of the great Pool in the Sky. Whatever courage he had managed to acquire had vanished quite away. In fact, it was worse than before. For now Pex started to run from the desperate struggle as fast as he could, abandoning the Doctor to be bruised and buffeted before being thrown to his death.

He ran first towards the Cleaners but realised quickly there could be no escape that way. So he ran the other way towards where the tight little group of Mel, the Deputy and the Kangs watched helplessly.

And then Pex’s eyes met those of Mel. And there was such reproach in her eyes for betraying her Doctor that he could not stand it. Pex fingered the bracelet the Kangs had given him. The sign that he was indeed part of Paradise Towers not an outcast and a laughing stock. Mel was still staring at him with a beseeching look in her eye and in a moment all the memories of their adventures together flooded back into his agitated brain.

To Pex the debate in his brain took an age to resolve itself.

To the watchers it was all a matter of seconds. He stood there irresolute for a moment, fingered his bracelet, exchanged a final glance of understanding with Mel and rushed back to the fight.

The Doctor was at his last gasp, barely aware of what was happening, when Pex pushed him aside. Dimly he became aware that Pex was grappling with Kroagnon in a fierce and deadly struggle and that he could now step back for a moment to draw breath.

He collapsed with a gasp on the floor nearby. And, as he did so, Pex gave a final triumphant cry and jumped back into the darkness dragging the struggling Kroagnon with him.

A few seconds later there was a huge explosion. The trap had achieved its purpose. But at a cost.

12

The shrine the Kangs built was a simple one. Improvised from the rubbish of Paradise Towers as the shrines of unalive Kangs had been in the past. But on the top of it they placed Pex’s gun, a last reminder of the saviour of the Towers.

Bin Liner led the ceremony in a quiet and dignified way.

The words Mel had heard once for the last of the Yellow Kangs echoed in her brain now. But this time a Kang leader was standing in Fountain of Happiness Square before a solemn assembly of all the residents of Paradise Towers. Not just the Red Kangs and the Blue Kangs. But Maddy and the Rezzies.

And the Deputy Chief Caretaker with all the remaining Caretakers.

‘Hail Pex.’ Bin Liner’s young voice echoed eloquently round the Square. ‘Hail the unalive who gave his life for the Towers. In life he was not a Kang but in death he was brave and bold as a Kang should be.’

‘Hail Pex. Hail the unalive...’

Other voices took up the chant now, circling reverently round the shrine as they did so. Mel and the Doctor watched slightly apart from the others. Though as moved as the celebrants, they somehow felt themselves not part of what was going on. After all, they did not belong to Paradise Towers.