Heart of Stone / Death Riders Read online

  The quickest way back to the fair, Korl had told Rory, was to follow the Death Ride tracks for about twenty minutes until he reached the “main concourse”. Apparently he couldn’t miss this, as it was the widest tunnel in the asteroid. In Rory’s experience, ‘You can’t miss it,’ usually meant the opposite.

  But he never got that far. Death was waiting for Rory along the way.

  CHAPTER 7

  DEATH IN THE TUNNELS

  The fair was soon as lively and noisy as it had been before the funeral procession. Amy was hoping to see Garvo and Drexxon again. She still wasn’t convinced the monkey-like creature was as happy and contented as Garvo said. She’d have liked to watch them again to reassure herself, but they were not outside their tent and no one had seen them since the procession.

  People were happy to talk to Amy – people working at the fair, and people there to enjoy themselves. But none of them knew much about the death. Rodge had been a popular and well-known character. Everyone knew he had ventured into Off-Limits. He was the sort of person who was always looking for short cuts in the way he worked, so actually taking a short cut was completely in character for him. The general feeling was that he had been killed in a freak rockfall.

  ‘That happens in Off-Limits,’ a woman told Amy. ‘That’s why they’re Off-Limits, of course. We all do it, we all take the odd short cut. But, well, some tunnels are more Off-Limits than others. Rodge knew he was taking a risk, poor soul.’

  ‘He was always a bit reckless,’ an older man confided. ‘Wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but if you take that sort of risk … ’ He shook his head and whistled through his teeth. ‘Only have to get it wrong once, you know. Don’t you go Off-Limits, now. Don’t you even think about it.’

  Amy thanked him for his advice. ‘Are there many deaths in Off-Limits areas, many accidents?’

  The man considered. ‘Not many. It’s years since Jemmie nearly suffocated when an Off-Limits sealed itself off after an oxygen leak while he was playing hide and seek … No, some say Perpetual Pete is too strict about Off-Limits. But this just goes to show what can happen if you’re not strict enough. Without Perpetual Pete there’d be a lot more accidents, you mark my words, young woman.’

  ‘But it’s not that unusual?’

  The man nodded sadly. ‘Tragic, but accidents do happen. A death though? That’s extremely unlikely to happen again. Especially now, people will be even more wary of the Off-Limits. There won’t be any more accidental deaths for years, you can take it from me.’

  Another dead body?’ the Doctor asked. ‘You sure? No, sorry, forget that. You work in a hospital. Of course you’re sure.’

  Rory was doubled over, out of breath. He’d run all the way, hoping to find the Doctor still with Perpetual Pete – which he had. He’d paused only to shout to Korl that he’d found a body.

  Perpetual Pete was anxious to know exactly where Rory had discovered the corpse. Rory tried to hold his breath while the smelly old man was talking, but it was difficult. As he led them back through the tunnels to where the body was, he described how he’d followed the Death Ride tracks through several tunnels. Sometimes they rose steeply up into a higher level before plunging down again. But it was easy enough to follow the route.

  ‘It was just luck,’ Rory explained. ‘I stopped to get my bearings. Just by where the track disappears underground. It goes down this deep, dark hole, really steep.’ He shuddered at the thought of experiencing the ride. The Doctor’s obvious eagerness didn’t improve his feeling. ‘Anyway, there’s a tunnel running off the other way at that point. I thought, if the ride turns while it’s down a level, maybe it’ll come up again in that tunnel. There’s a flashing red sign that says “Off-Limits” at the entrance to the tunnel, but I thought I’d check anyway. Just in case.’ He swallowed, catching sight of Pete’s angry glare. ‘So I went to look – just a few steps. That’s all.’

  ‘Green Eight,’ Perpetual Pete said. ‘They wanted to give it a hairpin turn there and go all the way through to Green Nine. No way,’ he added, shaking his head emphatically. ‘The signs are there for a reason. You shouldn’t have gone down there. It’s not safe at all.’

  ‘Obviously not,’ the Doctor agreed.

  ‘She was lying close to the tunnel wall. There isn’t a lot of light at that point – those crystal things don’t seem to work in that tunnel. But there was enough to catch her face. Her eyes …’ Rory shuddered again. He’d seen a lot of death, but he would never get used to it.

  ‘We don’t recharge the crystals in the Off-Limits tunnels. Was it another rockfall?’ Pete asked. But there was something in the way he asked it that made Rory suspect he already knew the answer.

  ‘Possibly,’ Rory said cautiously. He glanced at the Doctor before going on. ‘But it looked more to me like she’d been scratched and bitten.’

  ‘Do you have rats in the tunnels?’ the Doctor asked.

  Perpetual Pete shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Not rats.’

  ‘I’m guessing you don’t usually have this sort of trouble,’ the Doctor said.

  ‘Not usually. But I’ll tell you something,’ Pete said, spraying Rory with a fine mist of spittle, ‘if they go ahead with that Death Ride, we’re likely to have a whole lot more unpleasantness than you can imagine.’

  ‘Oh, I can actually imagine quite a lot of unpleasantness,’ the Doctor said. ‘Still, you could be right. You could very well be right.’

  Amy heard the sad sound of the harmonica before she saw them. Garvo and Drexxon were once more performing outside their tent, and a small crowd had already gathered.

  ‘They’re good, aren’t they?’

  Amy turned to find that Harby and Vosh, the boys from the orchestra, were standing close by.

  ‘They’re brilliant,’ she told them.

  ‘Weird, but good,’ Harby agreed. ‘We’ve been waiting for them to come back for ages.’

  ‘Come back from where?’

  ‘Who knows?’ Vosh said. ‘They just go off. Maybe they just go for something to eat or drink.’

  ‘Or maybe the rumours are true,’ Harby said.

  ‘What rumours are those?’ Amy wondered.

  The boys moved closer, checking that no one else was listening.

  ‘Walking the tunnels at night,’ Harby whispered.

  ‘People have heard them,’ Vosh added. ‘My mate Lymm says she heard Garvo’s harmonica echoing down an Off-Limits the other night shift. Real spooky, she said it was.’

  ‘I can imagine. But so what if Garvo plays his music at night and goes for a walk?’

  ‘It’s just weird,’ Harby said dismissively. ‘Probably part of the act. Like, getting attention and pretending to be mysterious and stuff.’

  ‘Probably,’ Amy agreed.

  Together with her two young friends, Amy wriggled her way to the front of the gathering crowd. Drexxon was capering up and down on his leash as the haunting music filled the air. Amy tried to catch the creature’s eye. Did it remember her? Could she tell from its furry little expression whether it was really happy? She wondered whether Drexxon actually danced instinctively to the music, or whether he had been trained – she hated to think how that might be done. More stick than carrot, she suspected.

  Maybe it was the tone of the music, but Amy suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of sadness for the creature. What choice could it possibly have while it was attached – shackled – to its master? It occurred to her that there was one way she could find out for sure if Drexxon was happy, or if he would rather run away and escape from Garvo. Without even thinking about it, she found she had edged closer to where Drexxon was now jumping up and down like an excited pogo stick.

  She would have to be quick. If Garvo guessed what she was up to, he’d stop playing and take Drexxon away before Amy could do anything. But she was almost within reach now. The creature tilted its head to one side slightly as it looked at Amy. It seemed like it recognised her, which would help.

  The music was coming to
an end. The crowd was getting ready to applaud. People were nodding to each other and murmuring praise. Amy forced herself to smile. She held her hands out to Drexxon as if to compliment him, and as she had hoped, the little creature reached back to her.

  As quickly, but gently, as she could, Amy caught Drexxon’s paw. It was warm and soft, but she could feel the hardness of the claws even while they were retracted. She only needed a moment. It was easier than she thought. She expected the leash to be firmly attached. But it was only loosely slipped over Drexxon’s wrist.

  Amy pulled the leash carefully away from Drexxon’s wrist and tossed it away.

  ‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘You’re safe now.’

  But her words were drowned out by the screams.

  ‘What have you done?’ Harby shouted.

  ‘He’s gone mad,’ Vosh added.

  They didn’t mean Drexxon. The creature was regarding Amy curiously. It made no effort to escape. If anything, it looked angry.

  But the effect on Garvo was very different. He collapsed to his knees, hands clasped to his head as if in pain. His harmonica fell to the ground as he screamed and shrieked. His whole body was shaking. His face was contorted with pain. As Amy watched, he fell sideways, curling into a ball as he continued to cry out.

  CHAPTER 8

  BROKEN LINKS

  Drexxon immediately scampered back towards Garvo. The creature looked down at the writhing man, and Amy could see what looked almost like pity in its eyes. Its furry little paws tugged at the thin leash that was still attached to Garvo’s wrist. It pulled on the leash, reeling it in as quickly as it could. As soon as it caught hold of the loop at the end, it slipped it back over its wrist.

  Amy was amazed. But she was also pleased. Despite her fears and worries, the creature really did seem to value its relationship with its human master. Though perhaps, Amy thought, it was more of a partnership, as Garvo had told her. After all, she now knew from her own experience, Drexxon could have removed the leash from its wrist at any time.

  She turned her attention to Garvo. Having got over their shock at his collapse, several people from the crowd had hurried to help. Amy suddenly felt incredibly guilty about the distress she’d caused the man. She was sure he had reacted to her ‘releasing’ Drexxon. Had he really worried he might lose the creature – his friend? Or was it painful to break the link between them? Just as Garvo reacted to the way the leash conveyed Garvo’s music, did Garvo feel something from Drexxon that it was unpleasant for him to lose?

  ‘What was all that about?’ Harby asked. ‘Is he OK?’

  Garvo seemed to be recovering. He waved away the people trying to help and got back to his feet.

  ‘I’m so sorry.’ His voice sounded strained and tired. ‘I had a bit of a shock. The connection between myself and Drexxon – it’s what drives the music, the dance. What keeps us working so well together as an act.’

  Aware that the people near her were beginning to look at Amy rather suspiciously, she backed away. How many of them had seen her slip Drexxon’s leash off the creature’s wrist? How many of those people had realised that it must have been the cause of Garvo’s dramatic collapse? He’d just told them, after all, that breaking the connection had caused him pain and upset.

  ‘See you,’ she said quietly to Harby and Vosh, and backed away through the crowd.

  The harmonica music started up again and people turned back to see the show. As she turned and slipped away, the last Amy saw of the show was Drexxon – its deep-set, dark eyes fixed on her accusingly.

  The body that Rory had found was a female mining engineer who’d been part of the team helping to set up the Death Ride. The best theory seemed to be that she had wandered into the Off-Limits tunnel, and been caught in a rockfall.

  ‘An extremely rare rockfall,’ the Doctor pointed out. ‘An extremely rare rockfall that didn’t show up on your seismic registers.’

  ‘They aren’t tuned to be as sensitive in Off-Limits areas,’ Perpetual Pete pointed out.

  The Doctor, Rory and Pete watched as the body was stretchered away by medics. The ‘Off-Limits’ sign at the mouth of the tunnel flashed on and off, striping the stretcher with red light.

  ‘So,’ the Doctor went on, ‘an extremely rare and small rockfall that left her with no crush injuries, just those scratches.’

  ‘And then,’ Rory added, ‘she staggered back here, and died of heart failure.’

  ‘Delayed shock,’ Perpetual Pete grumbled.

  ‘Very delayed,’ the Doctor said. He peered down the dimly lit Off-Limits tunnel. ‘Can’t see any sign of a rockfall from here. Let’s go and find it.’

  Perpetual Pete grabbed the Doctor’s collar and hauled him back with surprising strength. ‘No one goes down there,’ he spat. Literally.

  ‘Why not?’ the Doctor demanded. ‘You didn’t even want the medics to go and retrieve the body, and it was only a few metres down the tunnel.’

  ‘It’s Off-Limits. That’s why.’

  ‘There’s got to be more to it than that.’ Rory told him.

  ‘Don’t you get it?’ Pete said. ‘It’s dangerous. That’s why the tunnels are Off-Limits. It’s a safety measure, and people need to understand that Off-Limits means Off-Limits.’

  ‘Well,’ the Doctor announced, ‘that tunnel looks safe enough to me. The roof’s secure, the walls are sound. There’s no sign of damage or stress. What is it that makes you so certain that going down that tunnel is dangerous?’

  Perpetual Pete’s face had reddened with anger. For a moment he was so furious he could scarcely speak. When he did, his voice was a low rumble, ‘What about a dead body? Doesn’t that suggest at least an element of risk to you? Or are you going to tell her husband and kids that the place she died is completely safe and there’s nothing at all to worry about and you’re happy she was down there?’

  Rory swallowed. ‘Fair point, I think actually, Doctor.’

  The Doctor was silent for a moment. Then he nodded slowly. ‘Well, it was good to meet you, Mr Pete. I don’t know what you’re hiding, but I don’t like it.’

  ‘I’m hiding nothing,’ Pete said. But he suddenly looked very uncomfortable.

  ‘And if anyone else dies – anyone at all,’ the Doctor went on, ‘I shall blame you. Come on Rory – it’s candyfloss time.’

  ‘You think he did it?’ Rory asked as they hurried back towards the fair.

  ‘He was with me, he can’t have killed that woman.’

  ‘But he knows more than he’s saying.’

  ‘Has to. Because he’s not saying anything.’

  ‘He’s a nasty, rude, smelly, old man,’ Rory said. ‘He’s got to be behind whatever’s going on.’

  The Doctor glanced sideways at him. ‘Way to go, Sherlock. Never mind the lack of evidence, the man stinks. So he has to be the villain.’

  ‘So what do you think?’ Rory demanded.

  ‘I think we should find Amy. I think I need more candyfloss. I think everything about this stinks, not just Perpetual Pete. And for what it’s worth, evidence or not, I think you’re right. He’s a nasty, rude, smelly, old man and he’s got to be the villain.’

  Amy didn’t really feel comfortable at the fair. It seemed like everyone was looking at her. She could imagine them whispering to each other: ‘Look, there goes that mad woman who caused all the trouble with Garvo and Drexxon.’

  She tried to ignore it, but the feeling just kept growing. There was only one thing for it, she decided – she’d have to go and apologise to Garvo. She ought to. It was the right thing to do. She’d been wrong and she’d caused him pain and grief, and however embarrassing it might be she should go and get it over with.

  It didn’t surprise her that Garvo and Drexxon were taking a break from performing. What did surprise her was what she saw as she looked round to try to work out the quickest way out of the cavern and the best way to try to find the Doctor and Rory.

  At first it was just a blurred movement, glimpsed out of the co
rner of her eye. But when she turned, her eye drawn to the movement, Amy was just in time to see the distinctive furry shape of Drexxon disappearing furtively into the nearest tunnel. The only reason she’d been in time to see the creature was that Drexxon had paused to look round, as if checking it wasn’t being watched, before slipping round the corner and out of sight.

  Assuming that Garvo must be with Drexxon, Amy hurried after the creature. But when she got to the tunnel, she could see no sign of anyone. She ran down the tunnel, hoping to catch up. At one point, she thought she saw a shadow scuttling ahead of her. But it certainly wasn’t Garvo.

  After a while she gave up and slowed to a halt. As she caught her breath, Amy saw that another, smaller tunnel led off to one side. A sign saying “Off-Limits” flickered as if the bulb was about to go. Was it her imagination, or could she see something moving down there?

  She stared into the near darkness of the side tunnel for a while, but she could make out nothing. Her best bet was to get back to the fair, she decided. Rory and the Doctor would look for her there – they might already be looking for her. And if and when Garvo returned from another harmonica-playing tour of the tunnels, or whatever he was up to, she could apologise to him properly.

  The Doctor and Rory were eating candyfloss when Amy found them.

  ‘Having fun?’ she asked.

  ‘Not really,’ Rory told her.

  ‘He found a dead body,’ the Doctor explained. ‘That’s never much fun.’

  Between them, the Doctor and Rory described what had happened, then Amy filled them in on the little she had learned.

  ‘So, we’re off to explore Off-Limits tunnels then?’ she asked.

  ‘Seems the best bet,’ Rory admitted. He didn’t sound excited by the idea.

  ‘Great,’ Amy said. ‘Oh, hang on … ’ A thought occurred to her. ‘I just want to check if Garvo’s back. He wasn’t there just now, but I want to talk to him.’