Thomni looked up. ‘You killed him, you!’ he sobbed.
Songtsen looked in utter amazement at the bloody sword in his hands… ‘I?’ he said wonderingly.
A cold voice filled the room. ‘Slay them, Songtsen. Slay them all!’
The blankness of trance came over Songtsen’s face and he raised the sword. ‘Kill! Kill! Kill!’ he hissed.
‘Look out!’ yelled the Doctor. He dodged the blow and grabbed the Abbot’s sword arm.
Despite his modest size, the Doctor could exert amazing strength when he needed to. But he was helpless in Songtsen’s grip. The frail old body was vibrating with supernatural force. Thomni and Jamie, both young and strong, joined in the struggle. It took every ounce of their combined strengths to subdue the Abbot and wrench the sword from his hands. Suddenly Songtsen slumped in their grip. The Doctor stood back panting. ‘Get him out of here,’ he gasped. ‘Quickly!’
Jamie and Thomni dragged the Abbot away. The Doctor looked grimly at the closed doors to the Sanctum. ‘I was wrong, then,’ he thought grimly. ‘Whatever is controlling Padmasambvha will not let him die!’
The Doctor turned and left, and the Anteroom was filled with the mad, icy laughter of the Intelligence.
As the Doctor walked along the corridor he met an excited Travers. ‘You’d better come at once, Doctor. There’s going to be a riot!’
11
The Final Battle
A confused and angry crowd filled the courtyard. They surrounded Jamie and Thomni, and the frightened and confused Songtsen. ‘Indeed, it is true, brothers,’ Thomni was shouting. ‘Khrisong was slain by the Abbot. But Songtsen was under an evil spell, placed on him by the Master.’
One of the young warrior monks thrust himself to the front of the crowd. ‘Tell us it is not so, my Abbot,’ he implored.
For a moment Songtsen gazed at him uncomprehendingly. Then, grabbing the still bloody sword from Thomni’s hand he hissed, ‘Kill! Kill! Kill!’ and swung the sword at the astonished monk. Once again it took the combined efforts of several strong young warriors to hold down the frail body. Then the fit was over and the Abbot went limp.
A roar of fear and terror rose from the crowd. ‘He is bewitched,’ they shouted. ‘He is possessed by demons. Slay him now before he kills us all.’ Another warrior stepped forward, sword raised high above Songtsen’s head. Ignoring the weapon, Jamie gave the man a hearty shove that sent him staggering back into the crowd.
‘I’m thinking we’ve had enough killing,’ he said grimly. ‘Stand back!’
‘Do not interfere, stranger,’ said the monk angrily, and the warriors began to close in. Jamie slipped the highland dagger from his stocking, and shoved the Abbot behind him.
‘Wait, my brothers,’ called Thomni, but the warriors would not listen.
As the Doctor entered the courtyard with Travers, he took in the ugly situation at a glance. In times of crisis, his normally modest and unassuming personality took on a new force.
‘Stop this nonsense at once,’ he ordered, pushing through the crowd.
‘Your Abbot is not responsible for his crime. Neither for that matter is the Master, Padmasambvha. Both are being controlled by a greater force.’
The monks fell silent. ‘What must we do, Doctor?’ asked old Sapan.
‘Leave the Monastery. There is great evil here. One day soon, if I am successful, you will be able to return.’
‘The Doctor is right, my brethren,’ shouted Thomni. ‘Let us obey him and leave now!’
There was a murmur of agreement. Their anger subsiding, the confused and frightened monks began to gather up their belongings. Thomni said, ‘And what of you, Doctor?’
‘I shall stay here,’ said the Doctor simply. ‘If this evil isn’t stopped it will spread… And the root of it is here, in this Monastery.’
‘Well, if you’re staying, I’m staying too,’ said Victoria firmly.
‘Aye, and me!’ added Jamie.
‘I too will stay and help you, if I may, Doctor,’ said Thomni.
The Doctor smiled. ‘Thank you, all of you. It may be dangerous, but I won’t pretend I’m not glad of your help.’
‘What’s the first step?’ asked Jamie.
‘There are things I need to know,’ said the Doctor thoughtfully. ‘And Songtsen is the only one who can tell me.’
‘How will you make him do that, Doctor?’ asked Thomni. ‘His mind is controlled.’
The Doctor sighed. ‘There’s more than one kind of control, Thomni. Let’s take him inside, shall we?’
Travers walked slowly back to his room. He was convinced that, for all his cleverness, the Doctor was wrong. The source of the evil wasn’t some old monk in the Monastery, it was the evil throbbing mass in that cave up the mountain.
There was nothing Travers wanted less than to see that cave again. But he reckoned it was up to him. He picked up his rifle and loaded it. He’d blast that pyramid thing with a clip full of bullets, and see if that stopped it.
Unnoticed by the busy monks, Travers slipped out of the gate and began climbing up the mountain path. It was getting dark now. For a moment he stopped, and looked back longingly at the lights of the Monastery. Then, he began to climb the path, dreading what he might find at the end of his journey.
In the Great Hall, the Abbot Songtsen sat on a high-backed stone chair. His eyes were wide open and he stared unseeingly ahead of him. But this time, the voice he heard and obeyed came not from Padmasambvha, but from the Doctor.
‘What about the robots, the false Yeti?’ the Doctor was prompting.
‘They were designed to serve the Intelligence. Their purpose was to frighten all travellers and pilgrims from Det-sen, lest they hinder the Great Plan.’
‘And just what is this plan?’ the Doctor asked.
‘At first the Intelligence said that it wished only to create substance for itself – as an experiment. It wanted only the cave. Then it demanded the whole mountain. The Monastery, too. Its appetite is insatiable. It seeks to overwhelm the whole world.’
The Doctor remembered Travers’ description of the glowing, ever-growing mass in the cave. He had a sudden horrific vision of the whole Earth, hanging in space, one heaving, pulsating mass. And what then? Suppose it travelled through space. All the planets in the Universe could be under threat. The Doctor shivered. Somehow he had to stop it.
‘Tell me, Songtsen,’ he said. ‘How are the Yeti controlled?’
‘By Padmasambvha.’
‘What about the control units? Where did they come from?’
‘Under the guidance of the Intelligence, the Master laboured for nearly three hundred years. He made the control units, the Yeti, all the other wonderful machines…’
‘But there still has to be some kind of master transmitter,’ insisted the Doctor. ‘The power source that amplifies the commands of Padmasambvha’s mind. Where is it?’
Songtsen said, ‘It is in the Sanctum.’
The Doctor was puzzled. ‘I’ve been in the Sanctum, very briefly, it’s true, but I saw nothing.’
‘There is a secret room…’
‘Where is it, Songtsen? How do we get in there?’
There was no reply. The Abbot sat staring into space.
The Doctor leaned forward, his voice commanding.
‘How do we reach the secret room, Songtsen? You must tell us. You must tell us…’
In the Inner Sanctum the body of Padmasambvha jerked into life as the Intelligence took over. The withered hand hovered over the board, picked up a Yeti and moved it down towards the Monastery.
Out on the mountain, in the fast-gathering dark, Travers plodded on, rifle in hand. Not that he really expected the weapon would do him any good against a Yeti. It was just that its presence gave him a certain comfort.
He heard the sound of huge shuffling feet ahead of him and dropped into cover. Two Yeti lumbered past, then another and another. Making for the Monastery, thought Travers. He hoped those poor devils of monks had got safel
y away. And what about that fellow, the Doctor? What were his plans?
Travers got to his feet and started to move on. As he climbed he became aware of something very strange. On the lower slopes of the mountain, it had been getting darker and darker as the night drew on. But now that he was actually getting closer to the cave it seemed to be getting lighter. It was as though the entire mountain was somehow glowing.
The strange light continued to increase. Then as he came within sight of the cave, Travers understood why. The cave itself was the source of the light.
The pulsating, glowing mass of the Intelligence’s physical form was flooding out of the cave at an absolutely incredible rate. Spreading out from the cave, it seemed to be seeping into and absorbing the very substance of the mountain.
It was moving in both directions, upwards as if to consume the topmost peak of the mountain, and downwards too. If it went on spreading it would eventually ooze down the mountain slopes and engulf the entire Monastery.
Travers realised the foolishness of his plan to attack the pyramid in the cave. There was nothing he could do against the kind of power that was exultantly displayed here. Perhaps the Doctor had been right all along. Perhaps the Monastery did hold the key to it all. Travers remembered the Yeti he had seen trooping down the mountainside. With a sudden sense of urgency, he began to run back down the path.
In the Great Hall, the Doctor handed Songtsen over to the care of the old lama Sapan, who was now the leader of the monks. ‘I have done my best to erase the memory of evil from his mind,’ said the Doctor. ‘But he will be troubled for a long time. He has suffered much.’
‘We will care for him, Doctor,’ promised Sapan. Two other lamas gently led the old Abbot out of the hall.
The Doctor turned to those left behind – Thomni, Jamie and Victoria. ‘Now remember,’ he said. ‘As soon as all the monks and lamas are safely away, we’ll have to make our attack on the control room of the Intelligence. You two lads have got to smash up the equipment. Whatever you find in there, wreck it utterly and completely, do you understand?’ The two young men nodded.
‘I thought these would be useful,’ said Thomni. He produced a pair of long, heavy, iron-tipped staffs. Jamie took one and swung it appreciatively.
‘Aye,’ he said happily, ‘that ought to do it.’
‘It won’t be any picnic,’ warned the Doctor. ‘The Intelligence has supernormal powers and it will use them all.’
‘What kind of powers?’ asked Victoria nervously.
‘Well, it’ll probably try to hypnotise you,’ said the Doctor. ‘Thomni, you teach her the “jewel in the lotus” prayer. That’ll give her something to concentrate on…’
Their conference was interrupted by a chorus of shouts and screams from outside. Led by the Doctor, they rushed outside to see what was wrong.
In the courtyard the procession was ready to move off. But all the monks were gazing upwards, at the mountain. ‘Look, Doctor,’ called Sapan. ‘The mountain is burning.’
The Doctor looked. The night was now so dark, and the flowing substance from the cave had now spread so far, that it could be clearly seen from the Monastery. It seemed as though the whole peak of the mountain was glowing and burning. And the glow was moving downwards.
The Doctor turned quickly to Sapan. ‘There is even less time than I feared. You must lead your brethren away at once.’
Obediently the old lama began to give orders. The warrior monks marshalled the procession into line. They began to hand out torches for the steep climb down to the lower valley.
‘Our brethren in the plains will give us shelter,’ said Sapan. ‘But I fear for you, Doctor. Will you not let our brave warriors stay and help you?’
‘They are needed to guard you and your fellow lamas, Sapan,’ replied the Doctor. ‘Thomni is staying with me – he will be all the help I need.’ The Doctor thought to himself that if the few of them couldn’t succeed, a larger party would do no better. ‘Go now, Sapan,’ he said.
The little procession began to wind its way out of the courtyard and down the path. Standing by the doors, the Doctor and his companions watched the line of torches disappear into the darkness. Floating up to them came the sound of monks chanting the ‘jewel in the lotus’ prayer that Thomni had just taught Victoria.
‘Om, mane, padme, hum.’ The sound was curiously moving and beautiful.
At last the lights died away, the sounds faded and they were left alone. Victoria shivered. How strange and eerie to be the sole inhabitants of the Monastery! Except, that is, for whatever was lurking in the Sanctum.
‘Will we shut the doors, Doctor?’ asked Jamie.
The Doctor shrugged. ‘No point, Jamie. We’re fighting something inside as well as outside.’ He glanced grimly up at the glowing, burning mountain for the last time, and led them back inside the Monastery.
As the little party disappeared inside the building, there was movement outside the doors. Yeti appeared from the darkness. Grouped in a semicircle, they stood waiting outside the gates.
Back in the Great Hall, the Doctor gave his companions a final briefing. ‘As soon as we’re in the control room, I’ll tackle the Intelligence. Thomni and Jamie, move away the statue of Buddha at the end of the room. Get inside there and—’
‘Aye, you’ve told us,’ said Jamie. ‘Smash the lot to bits!’ He and Thomni picked up their massive, iron-tipped staffs. Jamie spun his, whistling it through the air.
‘What about me?’ asked Victoria. ‘What do I do?’
‘Nothing, I hope,’ said the Doctor briskly. ‘But you never know. Something may turn up.’
He hadn’t the heart to tell Victoria she was only being included in the expedition because she would find it even more frightening to be left on her own. Moreover, win or lose, she’d be as safe with them as she would anywhere.
‘Everybody ready?’ asked the Doctor. ‘Right, off we go.’
As they moved cautiously along the gloomy corridors, Jamie had a sudden thought.
‘Hey, what happened to yon fellow Travers? I havena seen him.’
‘Maybe he’s deserted us,’ suggested Victoria.
‘I somehow doubt it,’ said the Doctor. ‘More likely he’s gone off on some scheme of his own.’
‘Well, he’s no’ here now, at any rate,’ said Jamie. ‘We’ll just have to manage without him!’ By the light of their flickering torches they crept forward along the echoing stone corridors towards the Inner Sanctum.
Travers, in fact, was very near. He was running full tilt down the last stretch of the path towards the Monastery. Far below him in the darkness he could see the torch-lit procession of the departing monks, and even hear their chanting.
As he came to the gates of the Monastery, Travers came to a sudden halt.
Standing grouped in a semicircle around the door was a group of Yeti – four of them. He wondered if they were activated or not. He picked up a big rock and rolled it towards them. Instantly all the Yeti swung round, alert to the movement. They were alive all right, thought Travers. Alive and waiting. There was nothing for it – he would have to wait, too.
Glancing back over his shoulder, he saw that the glowing mass was covering more and more of the mountain. It was moving nearer and nearer to the Monastery. Soon he would have to leave. Yet somehow, Travers felt that things were coming to a climax. He decided to wait as long as he could. Those Yeti were waiting for something, too.
The Doctor and his friends stopped in the corridor outside the Anteroom. ‘Everyone remember what to do?’ asked the Doctor. They all nodded. Jamie and Thomni took a firmer grip of their staves. ‘All right,’ said the Doctor. ‘In we go!’
Their actual entrance into the Anteroom was something of an anti-climax. All was still and quiet. The prayer lamps were burning low and the place was shrouded in gloom and silence. Led by the Doctor, the little group moved forward.
The Doctor went up to the doors of the Inner Sanctum. He tried them, but they were fast closed. Suddenly,
the voice of the Intelligence spoke to them, out of the air. There was a subtle change in its quality. It was harsher, colder, more inhuman, the traces of Padmasambvha’s personality almost completely erased.
‘Why are you here?’ the voice said. ‘Why do you not heed my warnings? You are stubborn, Doctor.’
‘Who are you?’ said the Doctor steadily. ‘Or should I rather ask – what are you?’
A terrible mock-sweetness came into the alien voice. ‘You know me well, Doctor. Am I not your old and treasured friend, Padmasambvha?’
‘No!’ said the Doctor. ‘No, you are not. You have captured his spirit and abused his body. You have taken the mind and being of a good and great man, and corrupted and abused it. I ask again, who are you? Where do you come from?’
‘I come from what you would call another dimension. I was exiled into yours, without physical substance; condemned to hover eternally between the stars. Then I made contact with the mind of Padmasambvha. He had journeyed further on the mental plane than any other of your kind. I tempted him, promised him knowledge and long life. Gradually I took him over, and made him my own. But I have rewarded him well.’
‘You have enslaved him,’ said the Doctor angrily. ‘Now you withhold from him the one thing he craves – the boon of a natural death. You are evil. You are what men once called a demon!’
Jamie, Thomni and Victoria waited motionless behind the Doctor while this exchange was going on. ‘It’s all verra well standing here name-calling,’ thought Jamie. ‘How’s he going to get the thing to open the door?’
Similar thoughts were passing through the Doctor’s mind. His one hope was that the Intelligence had not realised that the power of Hypnotism was shared by the Doctor. So long as it was unaware of the extent and the value of the information he had drawn from the mind of Songtsen, they still had a fighting chance.
‘You are unwise to anger me, Doctor,’ said the voice. ‘My purposes are beyond the understanding of such a puny brain as yours. And I have power. Much power…’
Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen Page 11