Lord sighed. “Oh, very well. I am actually a traveler through space and time. I came here in the hopes of securing whatever caused the destruction of this community for myself. I believe that it could be a very useful weapon.”
Lord gave Flynn a genuine smile. He so seldom had occasion to tell the plain truth that the found the experience refreshing in its novelty. He calmly waited for the Captain to start his inevitable sputtering protests of disbelief. To his surprise, Flynn merely looked thoughtful.
“I wonder what the Doctor would make of all this,” Flynn said softly.
Lord suddenly felt nauseous. “The Doctor?” he said. “Doctor who?”
“Oh, no one you would know.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Lord said. He found himself glancing around nervously. Damn the man! he thought. It would be just like him to show up now! Must he dog my steps everywhere I go?
His agitation did not go unnoticed by Flynn. “What’s got you so worried all of a sudden?”
“I’m not worried about a thing! Tell me, is the Doctor here? If he is, I would certainly like to see him. We happen to be old friends.”
Flynn lowered the pistol slightly. “I don’t think we’re talking about the same man.”
Lord believed they were. “Tall fellow?” he said. “White hair? Bit of a dandy?”
Flynn smiled, and the pistol fell a little lower. “That does sound like him. Although I don’t know about the hair. He was always wearing a turban.”
A turban? Lord thought. How gauche! Truly there was no limit to the Doctor’s affectations. No doubt this impertinent twit was one of his so-called “companions.” Well, Lord would soon be rid of him. If the fellow would just let that pistol drop a little more…
“Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the Doctor since I was just a little boy,” Flynn said, “but I would give just about anything to have him here now.”
“As would I,” Lord said, his hand inching toward his pocket.
“I wonder if that’s true. He didn’t seem like the sort of man who would associate with guys trolling time and space for weapons from Mars.”
“Mars?” Lord said. “Why do you say that?”
“There’s a man in the cells who claims that there’s a space-ship from Mars in the bottom of the mine.”
“That can’t be right. It would be impossible for…”
“For what?” Flynn prodded.
Lord, intrigued by this new wrinkle, temporarily forgot his murderous impulses. “Can you take me to this man? I would very much like to speak to him.”
“Why not?” Flynn said. “You’re going to a cell anyway.”
Leo sat cross-legged on the floor of the cell. His eyes were closed, his breathing slow and rhythmic, his focus turning ever inward. The clawing had faded, becoming more weak and tentative.
The storm was coming. He could sense it. He had been overtaken by it once before, many years ago, but it wouldn’t happen again. I’m ready for you this time, he thought. I know how to fight you, how to resist you. I won’t let you use me again.
“Open your eyes, my good man,” someone said. “You and I need to talk.”
Leo, masking his anger, looked up to see an imperious little man glaring down at him. He was surprised to note that the man was being held at gunpoint by Flynn.
“Do I know you?” Leo asked
“Call me Lord. Why did you say the object in the mine was a ship from Mars?”
“Because it is.”
“How would you know?”
“I’ve said all I’m going to say. Please leave me alone.”
Lord clenched his teeth, and Leo suddenly felt as if his skull were enclosed in a hand of iron. “You most certainly have not said all you are going to,” the man sneered. “In fact, you are going to tell me everything I want to know. Isn’t that right, my good man?”
The hand squeezed. The fingers punched through the bone and into the brain beneath. The tip of each finger sprouted 1000 writhing tentacles that snaked through his mind, encircling his will, binding it to that of the man called Lord.
“Isn’t that right?”
The tentacles pulled themselves taut, and Leo became a puppet. “What…do you want…to know?” he said in a halting voice. He fought against every word, but his tongue refused to obey.
“Again, why did you say it was from Mars?”
“I saw one there.”
“That’s ridiculous. Admit that you’re lying!”
“No! I lived there! I had a wife…children…There was an entire colony! Oxus and the others…they discovered some ruins near the settlement. There was a ship there. Oxus believed it had been built to travel to the Earth. He translated some documents that were found at the site. He said that the Ancient Martians were…that they were…”
“Go on.”
“They were experimenting on humans. Trying to affect how human life would evolve. He said that, if he were right, it could mean that a portion of the human race carried a Martian strain in their genetic code.”
“He sounds like a very imaginative fellow. What became of him?”
“He was killed.”
“How?”
“He thought that it would be possible to reactivate the devices on the ship…learn their secrets. But when he tried…the ship took on a life of its own. It released an energy wave that…that…”
“Stop stammering! What did it do?”
“It awakened the Martian strain! It was some sort of race memory. Everyone who carried the taint inside them was driven to kill everyone who didn’t.”
“An ethnic cleansing.”
“Yes, and they manifested abilities that gave them the power to do it.”
“Abilities?”
“Yes, yes, mental powers…telekinesis. In the end, it was too much for those affected. Their hearts began to burst, but not before they had killed…they killed…”
“Why is there no record of these events?”
“There is, but it was passed off as an exaggeration of one my adventures. I went back to Mars years later and personally destroyed every trace of the colony…razed it to the ground…I didn’t want anyone to ever know the truth…”
“Why not? What are you not telling me?”
“No…please…I can’t…”
“What are you not telling me?”
Leo cried out and clutched his head. Some of the tentacles in his brain began to burn white hot. They lashed about, and then plunged down, down, down into the depths of Leo’s mind, melting their way through every barrier, every defense. They came to the thing, the thing that had been burrowing so fiercely into the safety of the darkness. It redoubled its efforts to escape, digging furiously but to no avail. The tentacles leapt forward, ensnared it, and dragged it wet and red and screaming into the light.
“That’s enough,” Flynn said.
Lord gave him a fiery glance. “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”
“I’ve given you too much of a free hand already. What did you do to him? Some kind of hypnosis?”
Lord was about to answer when he was cut off by a moan from the cell. The two men turned to see Leo, his features twisted into a rictus of agony, tears streaming down his face. His mouth worked, and a choked whisper escaped from his lips.
“What?” Lord said, impatiently. “What are you saying? Speak up!”
“I killed them,” Leo gasped.
“Whom did you kill?”
“The children.”
Flynn felt the blood drain from his face. He suddenly became aware of how quiet it was in the jail. All of the other prisoners were silent as stones. He knew they couldn’t see what was happening, but they could hear. He felt as if they were all standing beside him, crowding at his shoulder, staring down at this piteous man. From the corner of his eye he saw Stuart, awake now, and a giant of a man who looked back at him accusingly. Why don’t you stop this? he seemed to be saying.
“It took control of me,” Leo continued. “It took over my mind an
d I…joined in the slaughter. Then I found the children. When I looked at them, all I could see was…that they were other. They were not of the hive.”
“You don’t have to talk about this anymore,” Flynn said. “You’ve told us everything we need to know.”
“They held up their hands,” Leo said, his voice rising. “They cried out to me! Papa, no! Papa, please don’t hurt us! Papa! Papa! Papa!”
He threw back his head, his body shaking as if battered by tidal waves of grief. “My little ones,” he cried. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry. I loved you so much. I…loved…you…so…”
His hands covered his face, and for a terrible moment Flynn thought the man might claw out his own eyes. But he merely held them there, quietly weeping.
“Heracles cursed by Hera,” Lord muttered. “Oh well…” He turned to Flynn. “It appears you were right. He has given us everything. We need to get to a radio immediately.”
Flynn opened his mouth to ask why, but didn’t bother. He already knew the answer. “You’ve sent everyone to the mine, haven’t you?”
“I think it would an excellent idea to recall them. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Then they heard the roaring. The cells erupted with screams. Entreaties to God and cries of “not again!” began to fill the air.
“Has someone restored power at the mine?” Stuart was shouting. “For God’s sake, shut it off!”
“I really don’t think there’s any time for that,” Lord said. He looked at Flynn. “We need to make good our escape before any of your fellow soldiers…” He fell silent and cocked his head, listening to a crackle of gunfire, followed by a series of explosions. Lord shook his head ruefully. “Too late,” he said. “It would seem that some of the men have gotten in touch with their Martian heritage.”
“Thanks to you,” Flynn snarled. Lord’s only reply was an infuriating smirk. Flynn, overcome with anger, made the fatal mistake of stepping within Lord’s reach, thus giving him the opportunity he had been waiting for. He lunged forward and smashed the palm of his hand into Flynn’s jaw even as his other hand deftly plucked the pistol from his grip.
Flynn’s vision went black for the briefest of instants, then he found himself looking up from the floor into the barrel of his own gun.
“Goodbye, Captain,” Lord said pleasantly, and then he disappeared into an explosion of dust and metal. Flynn, thoroughly confused but glad to be alive, rose to his knees to see Lord lying unconscious under a cell door which had been blown off its hinges.
The shouting in the cells reached a fever pitch of hysteria. “It’s one of them! Get us out of here! Get us out!”
“Professor!” Stuart yelled. Flynn turned and saw Quatermass walking toward him through the billowing clouds of dust. His eyes were glazed and his jaw was slack.
He’s in the grip of it, Flynn thought. He’ll kill everyone here if I don’t stop him! He saw the gun lying where Lord had dropped it. He leapt for it, but it suddenly flew out of his reach. Hanging in the air, it turned and pointed itself at his head…and was snatched away by an intervening hand even as it fired, sending a bullet harmlessly into the wall.
For a fraction of a second, Flynn was able to look into the burning eyes of the man who had saved him. “Thanks,” he said to Leo.
The Nyctalope did not reply. He turned and violently slammed Quatermass into the back of the cell. “Who are you?” he thundered, his face only inches from the Professor’s. “Tell me your name!”
Debris from the shattered entrance to the cell began to rise from the floor and fly through the air at Leo. Pieces of stone, wood, and metal smashed into his back and head, but he refused to let go.
“If you don’t fight it now, it’s going to kill you! Fight it, damn you! You’re not an insect in a hive! You’re a man! Fight it! Tell me your name!”
Blood began to run from lacerations in Leo’s scalp, dripping into his eyes. He was being stoned like St. Stephen, but he refused to let go.
“Tell me your name!”
“I…I…am…Bernard…Quatermass…”
“Say it again!”
“I am…Bernard Quatermass of…of the British Experimental Rocket Group!”
“Again!”
“I am Professor Bernard Quatermass, and I am…I am a man!”
“Yes,” Leo said. “Yes, you are.”
The stone and metal rain suddenly stopped. Quatermass fell forward, but Leo caught him and guided him to a bunk.
“Dear God,” Quatermass whispered. “It was horrible. I saw myself as…”
“I know what you saw, and how you felt,” Leo said, “but it is over now.”
The Professor’s eyes widened. He looked around in a sudden panic. “Oh, no! Was anyone hurt? Did I…?”
“No,” Leo said. “You will not have to live with that.”
A shadow fell over them and they turned to see Flynn. “Is he going to be all right?”
“As well as can be expected,” Leo replied.
“What do we do now? Should I let everyone go? I can hear the gunfire getting closer.”
Leo listened for a moment to the cries of the hysterical survivors. He thought of the two children, the boy and the girl. Would they be able to escape before the deranged soldiers caught them? “No,” he said, “they’re safer here.” He looked at the opposite cell. “Stuart, can you get me to that mine? Show me the way to that damned ship?”
The scientist nodded.
Leo turned to Flynn. “Do you have any explosives?”
Before the Captain could answer, the giant in Stuart’s cell spoke up. “There’s dynamite at the mine.”
“How much?”
“More than enough for what you have in mind.”
Leo nodded. “What’s your name, my friend?”
“They call me Big John.”
“They have a knack for understatement.” He looked at Flynn. “Let them out,” he said. “They’re both coming with me. With any luck, some of your unaffected comrades will have escaped and will be heading back here.”
“But what if…”
“Stop wasting time!”
They commandeered a “deuce-and-a-half”—a big 6X6 GMC troop carrier—which roared through the streets like a prehistoric beast, smashing with impunity through any obstacles they couldn’t avoid. Leo was driving, with Stuart sandwiched uncomfortably between him and Big John.
“How far to the mine?” Leo asked.
“We should be there in about five minutes,” Big John said. “Just stay on this main road, then you’ll turn left in a couple of miles.”
They passed a jeep that was racing in the opposite direction. Leo thought he recognized Vincenzo at the wheel. A moment later, two more trucks went by them.
“Those men,” Stuart said, “the ones we just passed, do you think they’re under the influence of…”
“No,” Leo said. “If they were, they would be on foot.”
There was a brief silence, then Stuart asked: “How are you resisting it?”
“With great difficulty.”
Leo hit the brakes and the men slammed forward into the dash. A line of soldiers was standing across the road. They were staggering forward in a clumsy but deliberate march, their arms stretched stiff at their side.
Leo muttered a curse and pressed the accelerator, leaving the road and plunging into the rock-strewn sands of the desert.
“Why didn’t you just go through them?” John asked.
“I have enough blood on my hands,” Leo said. “I don’t want any more, at least not tonight.”
John nodded and pointed at a dim, flickering illumination in the middle distance. “Keep this thing pointed at that light,” he said. “That’s the mine.”
The light flickered out. “What just happened?” Stuart asked.
“The generators are probably blown,” John said.
“No more power,” Stuart said. “That’s a good thing, right?”
“It depends,” John said. “If you think you can shimmy down 300 fe
et of elevator cable in pitch dark to get to Main Level Two, then it’s great! That’s not even considering getting down the winze to the drift exploration, which is where we need to set the charges.”
They closed the distance to their destination without further conversation. The ride over the rough terrain was difficult, but Leo was a skillful driver and they arrived quickly. It took John only a few minutes to gather the explosives and lead them to the lift entrance.
“I could only find one helmet that didn’t have the lamp blown out,” John said. He held out his hand. “Well, gents, this is where we part ways.”
“What do you mean?” Stuart asked. “We’re going with you!”
“Like Hell you are,” John said. “I know you’ve been down there before, Stuart, but you had more than just a safety lamp for illumination.” He tapped the helmet. “If this light goes out, then what? You won’t be able to find your own ass, much less an exit.”
“I could do it,” Leo said.
John shook his head. “How? Can you see in the dark?”
Leo smiled.
“Forget it, pal,” John said, not unkindly. “This is a one-way trip, and I’m the only one here qualified to take it. Don’t lose any sleep over me. I’ve always known that one day I was gonna die in a mine.”
“Maybe so, but not today,” Leo said, and he ended the argument with an uppercut to John’s jaw that actually lifted the big man off his feet before he went crashing to the ground.
Leo turned to Stuart. “I need you to tell me exactly how to find my way through these tunnels to the ship.”
Stuart did so, even drawing a map in the dust with his finger. Leo studied it for a moment, asked a couple of questions, and then amazed Stuart by gently lifting John as if he weighed no more than a child. Leo carried the big man back to the truck and then tossed Stuart the keys.
“Get back to the jail and help Flynn,” Leo told him. “I can take care of this.”
Stuart nodded. “One thing,” he said.
“What?” Leo asked.
“Unless they can somehow shake it off, everyone affected by the energy wave dies from heart failure.”
“That’s appears to be the case.”
“Then how did you survive when it took you over on Mars?”
The Nyctalope Steps In Page 17