Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace (9 page)

The Doctor considered the irony of the situation. He had escaped death many times in the past at the hands of many fearsome enemies: Daleks, Drahvins, Cybermen, all had tried to destroy him and failed. And now here he was to die a sacrifice to the heathen idol of a primitive religion in a city which everyone had thought destroyed over three thousand years ago.

He looked over to Ramo whose face betrayed no emotion whatsoever. ‘I’m sorry I got you into all this, Ramo,’ he said.

‘We all have to die sometime, Doctor,’ the priest said flatly. ‘If it is the will of Amdo then it is inevitable.’

Ramo’s stoicism was cut short by an ear-shattering scream which reverberated around the temple. Fearfully, everyone turned their eyes to the source of the noise – the statue of Amdo.

‘
This is the Voice of Amdo. Hear me.
’ The deep booming words echoed and re-echoed throughout the room, causing the fear-stricken listeners to lower their heads in abject tenor.

‘
Bow down your heads so that Amdo may inspect your
sacrifice,
’ the voice continued. ‘
Let no human eye witness this
moment.
’

By now everyone was looking to the floor. Only the Doctor, after his initial surprise was unmoved and unbowed. The frown on his face suddenly became a satisfied look of recognition. ‘I know that voice...’ he muttered to himself, and a smile crossed his features, as he saw emerging from a concealed door behind the statue the familiar figure of Ben. The sailor motioned for the Doctor to get up and follow him.

The Doctor nudged Ramo. The priest, whose head was bowed, glanced cautiously up at his fellow prisoner. ‘Don’t be afraid,’ the Doctor whispered to him. ‘Get up and follow me.’

As their hands were still tied behind their backs they had some difficulty in getting to their feet. Finally they managed to cross over to the statue of Amdo, unobserved by the priests who were still looking at the floor.

At that moment Lolem, unable to resist the temptation of looking upon the visitation of his goddess, raised his head. The Doctor and Ramo quickly ducked out of sight behind the altar.

‘
He who looks on the living face of Amdo shall die,
’ the voice warned. Lolem quickly lowered his head again.

Assisted by Ben the Doctor and Ramo climbed the altar steps and dashed through the door behind the statue. The door shut silently behind them.

‘
Amdo has been well pleased. Raise your heads, my disciples.
’

Slowly the congregation looked upon the face of Amdo.

If they had been expecting to see anything unusual they were disappointed; the goddess’s face was as impassive as it had ever been. Lolem turned around to attend to the Doctor and Ramo and raised his hands in jubilation. ‘A miracle! A great and powerful miracle!’ he effused. ‘The mighty Amdo has eaten up her victims!’

Ramo’s world had just been shattered. Throughout his life he had heard tales of Amdo visiting her disciples and speaking to them. Now the hard truth had been brought home to him: Amdo was nothing more than an idol made of stone, a secret chamber and a speaking grille. He shook his head sadly as the Doctor, who had been happily greeting his friends, laid a sympathetic hand on the priest’s shoulder.

‘Unbelievable... So Amdo was made to trick us...’ Ramo muttered. ‘All those years and I never guessed the truth..

‘Neither did Lolem,’ said the Doctor and turned to Polly. ‘I thought I recognised that voice! But how on Earth did you do it?’

Polly indicated the speaking grille. ‘It’s a bit old but it.

still works.’

The Doctor hugged her gratefully. ‘It was the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard in my whole life.’

‘Keep your voice down,’ urged Ben who was looking out through Amdo’s eyes at the jubilant priests in the temple.

‘Otherwise they’ll hear you.’

‘No, they won’t,’ said Polly. ‘I’ve closed the grille.’ ‘How did you find this place?’ asked the Doctor.

‘A tunnel in the mines leads straight here,’ explained Jamie. ‘The whole place is honeycombed with them; you could lose yourself forever in them.’

‘Well, I’m afraid we don’t have forever,’ said the Doctor.

‘If we don’t stop Zaroff in the next few hours we’re all going to wish we’d been sacrificed out there!’

Zaroff was concluding his audience with King Thous.

Once again the old King had asked for Zaroff to explain the details of his plan; and once again Zaroff had revealed just as much as he wished, filling the remainder in with a large amount of obtuse technical jargon, none of which he knew Thous would understand.

‘So I tell you it is complete,’ the scientist said.

‘Everything will be ready in approximately twelve hours from now.’

‘To think that after all these untold centuries the Great Day has finally arrived,’ marvelled the King of Atlantis.

‘We shall surprise the whole of mankind...’

‘Yes, it will be a great surprise,’ agreed Zaroff. ‘Perhaps the greatest surprise ever!’

‘I shall order prayers of thanksgiving to Amdo,’ decided Thous.

Zaroff smiled ironically. ‘Why not?’ he said with veiled sarcasm. ‘It will keep the people happy.’ Let them have their prayers, he thought; within hours he would demonstrate for ever the mastery of science over superstition.

Thous was about to chastise Zaroff for his attitude when the doors to the Council Chamber were opened and Lolem minced in, his face a picture of joy.

‘What is the meaning of this?’ Thous asked sternly.

‘A miracle, mighty Thous!’ said Lolem. ‘A miracle before our very eyes!’

‘Tell us,’ Zaroff invited, hoping that Lolem would at least provide some amusement.

‘Mighty Amdo, Goddess of Land and Sea, has accepted the sacrifice of the priest and the little Doctor!’

Zaroff sniggered. ‘What a miracle!’ he said sarcastically.

‘You have done your job well.’

Lolem darted Zaroff a look of pure hatred. ‘They vanished into thin air before they could be beheaded,’ he stated.

Zaroff’s manner instantly changed. He grabbed Lolem by the arm. ‘What do you mean, “vanished”?’

Lolem winced, but stared defiantly into the scientist’s eyes. ‘They were in our midst and we bowed our heads in prayer,’ he said. ‘When we looked up they were gone.’

‘You lie to me!’ barked Zaroff and with a mighty sweep of his arm flung the High Priest down to the ground. ‘You and your incompetent followers allowed them to escape!’

Thous strode up to Zaroff. ‘You discredit the mystic power of Amdo!’

‘I am a scientist. I believe only what I can see with my own eyes,’ said Zaroff.

Thous bent down to the sorry figure of Lolem who was lying in a very unpriestly heap on the floor. ‘Tell us the truth, Lolem,’ he said gently as he helped him to his feet.

‘I am telling he truth,’ the priest said sulkily. ‘The Voice of Amdo spoke to us; the Doctor no longer lives.’

‘You are certain?’

‘By the spirit of Atlantis, by the all-beating heart of Living Atlantis.’

Thous considered the matter. Although he questioned the power the priests held he believed in the ancient traditions and beliefs of Atlantis. Like Lolem he was unaware of how the cult of Amdo had been stage-managed by the old priests of Atlantis as a means of exercising and maintaining their power. ‘Perhaps he speaks the truth, Professor Zaroff, perhaps it is a miracle,’ he said. ‘You may go, Lolem.’

‘Yes, go,’ said Zaroff. ‘And pray to Amdo that you are right!’

‘May the wrath of Amdo engulf you!’ said Lolem.

‘I’ll take my chance! Now get out of my sight!’

Lolem stared steely-eyed at Zaroff. For a moment Zaroff was disturbed; there was murder in those eyes. Then Lolem swept out of the room.

‘I know your feelings about the beliefs of my people, Professor,’ said Thous when Lolem had gone. ‘But is it wise to sow seeds of doubt by discrediting a miracle just now?’

‘Yes!’ snapped Zaroff. ‘If the Doctor is at large he can be an even bigger danger. We must search the whole of Atlantis for him.’

‘But Lolem –’

‘Maybe Lolem can raise Atlantis again from the sea with his prayers?’

Thous took the point. Zaroff was about to achieve after twenty years’ work what the priests had failed to do in three thousand.

He bowed his head and conceded defeat. ‘Give me your orders, Professor. It shall be as you wish.’

‘Now you are talking sense again!’

‘Our course is plain,’ said the Doctor after he had revealed Zaroffs plans to his companions. ‘We must attack Zaroff.

He has gone completely mad and is bent on destroying the whole world. We have only a short time in which to stop him.’

‘Just tell us what to do and we’ll do it,’ said Sean.

‘Food!’ pronounced the Doctor.

Sean was taken aback. Surely this was no time for the Doctor to think about his stomach? ‘Are you hungry, Doctor?’ he asked.

‘Of course not,’ retorted the Doctor. ‘What I mean is that Zaroff and his people cannot survive without food.’

Not for the first time Ramo couldn’t follow the Doctor’s reasoning. ‘But there is always plenty of food for all,’ he said. ‘The sea is all around us.’

‘Yes – but who provides it?’

‘The Fish People.’

‘Exactly! And why? Because they’re slaves. But slaves, like worms, can be made to turn.’

Polly finally caught on. ‘So if you organise the Fish People to cut off supplies – but that’s no use, they’ll just live off their stocks.

‘Tell them, Ramo.’

‘We have no stocks of food,’ said the priest.

‘Precisely! Zaroff has not yet found the answer to his greatest problem. All the seafood goes bad in a couple of hours and has to be thrown away.’

‘I get it!’ said Ben. ‘We persuade the Fish People to go on strike!’

‘Exactly! Zaroff made the Atlanteans dependent of plankton so he could exert a stranglehold on them. Now it’s time to turn the tables on him!’

‘You are dreaming, man,’ Jacko said with typical pessimism.

Sean was not so despondent. ‘It could work... at least it’s worth a try...’

‘Look, I hate to sound dim,’ said Polly. ‘But what exactly would it achieve?’

The Doctor was upset. He had always encouraged his companions to ask questions, but there were times when the ones they asked were particularly difficult to answer.

‘What would it achieve?’ he repeated. ‘Well, I don’t really know – but it’s a start! We must create chaos for Zaroff – give him something to take his mind off the Project for a while. D’you think you can do it, Sean?’

‘We’ll have a go, Doctor. But it’ll take a great gift of the gab to win over those fishes, you know.’

‘But you are Irish after all,’ the Doctor reminded him with a twinkle in his eye.

‘Aye, that’s right enough,’ said Sean, accepting the Doctor’s challenge. ‘Come along, laughing boy,’ he said to Jacko and then turned back to the Doctor. ‘Wait a minute; how do we contact you?’

‘We’ll make this chamber our headquarters. No one knows of its existence except ourselves. If no one is here leave a message.’

As Sean and Jacko left, Polly wished them luck. ‘We’ll need it,’ muttered Jacko gloomily.

After they had gone, Jamie asked, ‘What do
we
do?’

The Doctor’s next words made them all suspect that there were, in fact, two mad scientists in Atlantis, rather than one.

Quite seriously the Doctor answered: ‘Kidnap Professor Zaroff!’

7

The market place of Atlantis was situated in an enormous cavern at the very centre of the lost city. Numerous tunnels ran off it, like the spokes of a vast wheel, and afforded access to all levels and points of this vast subterranean kingdom.

This was the general meeting place of the common folk of Atlantis. The whole place was abuzz with the sound of children playing, public entertainers, and vendors advertising their various wares.

Dressed in long robes and conch-shell head-dresses, Polly and Ara entered the market place and made their way carefully through the milling throngs of people. By an ornamental pool around which children played, there sat a tiny hunched figure wearing a long cape, dark glasses and a red bandana around his head. He looked like a gypsy, or perhaps a pirate, as he slyly watched the two girls pass through the crowd.

Polly and Ara stopped by a jewellery stall near the gypsy. Polly picked up a coral necklace and pretended to examine it; surreptitiously she glanced over at the old gypsy.

‘Couldn’t you find a better disguise than that?’ she whispered.

‘What’s wrong with it?’ came the Doctor’s affronted reply.

‘You look like a sailor!’

‘I’m supposed to!’ said the Doctor.

Putting down the necklace, Polly and Ara sauntered over to the pool by which the disguised Doctor was sitting.

Polly bent down to the pool, cupped her hands and took a sip of water. She immediately spat it out again.

‘Ugh!’ she grimaced. ‘It’s salt water!’

‘What did you expect? This is Atlantis, after all! Now, do you know what to do?’

Polly nodded. Ara had told them that Zaroff invariably passed through the market place each day with two guards on his way to inspect the work at the drill head. The Doctor’s plan was to wait until Zaroff appeared and then cause a diversion, in the ensuing chaos of which Ben and Jamie, who were lying in wait, would attempt to separate Zaroff from his guards.

As expected, the guards arrived at the usual time; but there was no sign of Zaroff. With a dreadful sinking feeling the Doctor realised that these two were part of the contingent of guards searching for him and Polly. He urged Polly and Ara to leave while he hid his face beneath his cloak.

Polly and Ara walked quickly through the crowds of people. But the exit they were seeking was already being watched. The two black-suited guards behind them were very close now. Ara’s eyes searched desperately through the crowd of familiar faces. She dragged Polly over to a carpet stall where the old woman tending the stall greeted Ara with a nod of the head.

‘Nola, we need help,’ pleaded Ara.