Doctor Who_ Ultimate Treasure Part 27

The section of corridor before them was long, plain, and high.

Its upper half was filled by a huge block of stone, suspended by some hidden means so that it just cleared the side walls by a couple of centimetres. There was no way past it. Alpha examined it closely, confirming that it was real stone. With all his strength, Drorgon could just set it swaying slightly, indicating that it was hanging freely, and must have ma.s.sed a few hundred tonnes. If it was released while somebody was in the corridor below it would crush them flat.

'It's so obviously a trap, Alpha said, 'but is it as harmless as the others?'

'Like I said before, somebody is playing some really sick jokes around here!' Peri fumed, pulling the sticky threads of a giant cobweb from her. A spider six feet across was still twirling slowly on its thread before her. It was, as they had ascertained only after its dramatic appearance, made of rubber. Red sniffed at it curiously.

'I don't think anything has been placed here simply for the fun of it,' the Doctor corrected her gently. 'I think there is a far deeper purpose.'

'But what?' Jaharnus said, looking anxiously up and down the corridor, grasping her sword more tightly.

'A final warning, perhaps: that they can kill us any time they wish if we continue? Or is it meant to symbolise something: traps that no longer function guarding a treasure that is no longer there?'

'You've thought that all along, haven't you, Doctor?' said Peri quietly.

'Let's say I believe it is a strong possibility.'

'So you're saying I should be prepared to be disappointed?'

'I thought you'd renounced treasure hunting?'

Peri grinned. 'Well, I thought, as we're here anyway and if we sort of stumbled over it, we might as well take a look...' They rounded the next corner.

'Ah... now this is something a little different,' the Doctor said.

There was a ma.s.sive stone block suspended above the corridor.

The Marquis prepared to step under the slab that overhung their section of corridor. Arnella was trying to stop him. 'Please, Uncle.

This one might be real.'

'I have not come this far to give up now.'

'It could be suicide!' Brockwell said. 'Professor, talk some sense into him.'

Thorrin looked anything but stable himself. 'I don't know, any more,' he said faintly. 'Perhaps it is real, perhaps another fake. Is it to test our resolve, or ingenuity? But I don't see any other way to test it than we already have. It is worth every risk but this... a paradox.'

Brockwell was looking at him in dismay. The Marquis pulled free of Arnella.

'I refuse to cower here paralysed by uncertainly,' he said, and stepped boldly forward.

Fearfully, Drorgon had stamped on the floor under the block, thrown rocks, and done everything else Alpha had commanded in order to spring any hidden mechanism. The block still hung there menacingly.

'Such an obvious hazard, whereas the others were hidden,'

Alpha mused. 'Is that the actual intent? To trap us into knowingly pa.s.sing under it? There is nothing else for it.

Gentlemen, I need a volunteer...'

Either it will fall and you will die, or else it will not and you will live. It certainly makes you think, said the Doctor, staring at the slab. 'Is that its purpose? To decide what value you really put on your life? Do you gamble everything on a fifty-fifty chance - the toss of a coin?'

'Doctor,' said Peri, 'there's no end to second-guessing this thing and wondering if its a bluff or not. I don't think I can stand waiting here much longer. We have to find out the truth!'

'The truth? Is that fundamentally what its all about?'

And then they heard Falstaff say softly, 'Cowards die many times before their deaths: the valiant never taste of death but once...'

And he ran through the pa.s.sage under the block.

They looked at each other in surprise, then dashed after him, Red bounding along excitedly in the rear, followed by the DAVE unit.

The block did not fall.

Falstaff was lying sprawled on his face on the far side. They rolled him over and the Doctor examined him anxiously, then grinned. 'He's all right. Heart beating like a trip hammer. Fainted from shock, I think.' He slapped Falstaff's face lightly. 'Come on, Sir John. You've made it. Wakey, wakey...'

His eyes flickered open, and he stared at them for a long moment. 'Preston Loxley the Third,' he said faintly.

'Pardon?'

'Preston Loxley the Third. It's my real name.'

'Ah,' the Doctor said slowly. 'Well we had surmised it wasn't really Falstaff.'

'Why the deception?' Jaharnus asked suspiciously.

Loxley/Falstaff heaved himself up until he rested against the wall. 'It's nothing sinister, Inspector; just sad, perhaps. But you may not understand my reasons.' Peri thought his speech sounded strangely bland now, shorn of its antique frills and allusions. He sighed. 'You've always known who you are and what your purpose is in life. I haven't. My family was wealthy but completely undistinguished - and so was I. Other people had personalities that shone out - I had money, a glib tongue with nothing worth saying, and a slight weight problem. I wanted to be genuinely interesting: a real character. Someone people would remember, instead of wondering afterwards: who was that fat man anyway? Then I came across Falstaff in some ancient texts.

It was a revelation! Here was somebody who was fat, a cheat, and a liar, and yet he was popular. People forgave him his faults. And so I, well, borrowed him.'

'That was years ago. I've grown into the part since, you might say. But life sometimes rather cruelly imitates art, you know.

Falstaff was a coward at the core... and I slowly discovered that so was I.'

'So you came on the quest to prove yourself?' said the Doctor.

'Yes. But it's hard to abandon a character just like that. It's so much easier to keep up the barrier, and to go on making up excuses and talking your way out of trouble.'

'There's nothing wrong with talking your way out of things,'

said Peri sympathetically.

'If it's only your own life at stake, perhaps not,' said Loxley.

'But eventually you run out of words, and must either stand your ground... or abandon others in need. As I attempted to back at the inn or did in the forest.' He looked at Jaharnus. 'Sorry, Inspector.'

Jaharnus smiled. 'I think you've made up for it now I'm not sure if I would have taken the risk.'

'But you have always had something worth preserving. It was only through taking the risk that I discovered if I had also'

'And have you?' the Doctor asked.

Loxley rose to his feet. Peri thought he stood a little straighter than before. 'Yes, I believe I have,' he said slowly. 'Shall we continue? I'm still afraid, but I'll try never to let you down again.'

A tunnel curved away before them. A brighter light was reflected along it from some hidden source.

'I think this might be it,' the Doctor said.

The end of the tunnel opened into a large brightly lit chamber.

After the dark of the tunnels Peri squinted in the glare until her eyes adjusted. It was panelled with white marble. Several tunnel mouths identical to the one they had emerged from opened on to it, together with four heavy metal doors set in the facing wall.

Thorrin, the Marquis, Arnella, and Brockwell were grouped a little to one side, looking dishevelled and bewildered. Standing before them in front of the four doors were Shalvis and Dexel Dynes, flanked by two DAVE units.

Even as Peri took this in, another party emerged from a tunnel to their left. Gribbs and Drorgon she recognised at once, but she flinched in surprise at the sight of the tracked silver robot thing that accompanied them. Where had they found that?

Nothing, however, seemed to disturb Shalvis's equanimity.

'Your quest is over,' she said gravely. 'Welcome to the antechamber of Rovan's treasure vault.'

CHAPTER 22.

CHOICES.

'Now you are all gathered as was foretold,' Shalvis continued, 'the final stage may begin.'

The silver robot raised the wicked-looking gun it was carrying.

'I think not,' it said in a harsh, precise voice. 'You must be the one called the Speaker. You will follow my orders.'

'Alpha?' said Jaharnus, incredulously, gaping at the thing.

'Inspector Jaharnus,' it replied, with incongruous cordiality. 'As alert as ever. As you see, reports of my demise were premature - in a manner of speaking. Qwaid, however, is definitely no longer with us: a victim of his own shortcomings.'

Red growled at Alpha, and the machine swung his gun round to cover him.

'You will keep that beast under control or I will kill it,' he said coldly, as Peri patted Red placatingly. 'I a.s.sure you my weapons are amply powerful enough.' His glowing eyes pa.s.sed over the rest of them. 'You will all note that we are the only armed party present, and I for one am not constrained by any mental inhibitions against using weapons.'

'He speaks the truth,' said Shalvis calmly. 'We have no power over an artificial mind such as his.'

'So I trust you will be reasonable,' Alpha continued. 'If you will open the way to the treasure and do nothing to prevent my a.s.sociates loading it on to our s.h.i.+p, there need be no unpleasantness.'

'That is not possible,' said Shalvis.

Alpha raised his gun and pointed it directly at her heart.

'You may kill me and all these present,' Shalvis said calmly, 'but it will not gain you the treasure. You see only the surface of this chamber, but its true functions are far more complex than you can possibly comprehend, and beyond the reach of any force you can employ. A certain procedure must be followed. Only once it is complete may the ways be opened according to Rovan's wishes. Then you may make your own choice as to which treasure you wish to take from Gelsandor. Choose well and you can leave enriched without any need for violence.'

Peri thought she detected the first edge of doubt in the Alpha robot's voice. 'What do you mean: "which treasure"?'

'Because the legacy of Rovan is more complex than you imagine. It is a measure of your ignorance that you were not aware of that obvious fact. Ask your companions or anyone in this room, if you disbelieve me. Though your mind is closed to us theirs are not, and they can recognise the truth when a Gelsandoran speaks it.'

Gribbs was nodding quickly. 'It's right, boss. They tell you if they're going to lie. This is the straight stuff.'

'Does the treasure include any more illusions?' the Doctor asked Shalvis almost casually. 'I suspect you're very good at them.'

'The only illusions will be those you create for yourselves.'

This seemed to decide Alpha. 'That is something I shall not be troubled by. Very well, do what you have to. But no tricks.'

'There will be none. Only self-deception by those who cannot recognise the simple truth when it is presented to them - as Rovan wished it to be.'

She walked over to the first door on the left, which had, Peri now noticed, a slight green tinge to the metal it was composed of.

'This way leads back to the woods where you landed. If you do not wish to proceed further I advise you to choose this path.

Remember, there is no shame in being satisfied with what you have already achieved. That is something to treasure in itself.'

She moved to the next door, which was tinted a pale yellow.

'This door will only take you into the lesser treasure room and nowhere else. Within it there is a collection of ephemeral material wealth, but nothing more of true and lasting value. I advise you not to enter this room unless that is all you wish for the rest of your life.'

The next door was tinted blue.

'This will bring you to what you most desire, if you do not possess it already. Only take this path if your need is of the utmost urgency, and you are certain beyond doubt it can be satisfied in no other way. I promise you will find what you seek, but once you are committed there is no return.'

She moved to the final door, tinted in red.

'Through here is the ultimate treasure. It is beyond meaningful description, limit, or measure, to make of what you will. But nevertheless, I expect many of you will be disappointed at what you find if you choose this way.