Heart of Stone / Death Riders Read online

  ‘But we need to look for Gravo and Drexxon,’ Amy protested.

  ‘Not just as we’re about to start on the journey to the centre of Earth,’ Rory told her.

  As he finished speaking, screams of delight echoed from the carriage in front of them. The whole train was tipping and sliding into the hole in the ground. Moments later, their own carriage began to tip. Over the tops of the seats, Amy could see the whole length of the train – right to the small engine at the front. The engine that was plunging into the dark hole and dragging the other carriages with it.

  The carriage continued to tip, until it seemed that Amy and everyone inside would fall out of it. Then they were hurtling down into the blackness, and Amy was screaming as loudly as anyone. Except possibly Rory, whose shrieks were so loud they hurt Amy’s ears.

  ‘Geronimo!’ Amy yelled, as the darkness closed over her.

  ‘That’s my line,’ the Doctor complained as Amy’s cry – accompanied by shrieks and wails and screams – floated back to where he was standing.

  ‘So what do you want us to do then, Mister?’ one of the boys the Doctor had just pulled off the train asked.

  ‘It’s “Doctor”, all right? Don’t ever forget that. Doc-tor,’ he pronounced it carefully and precisely.

  ‘So, what do you want us to do then, Mister Doc-tor?’ another of the boys asked. A girl clicked her tongue and shook her head.

  ‘We are going to give a concert,’ the Doctor said. ‘You are going to find as many of your friends in the orchestra as you can in the next five minutes.’ He looked round at the crowds. Already people were queuing for the next ride. ‘Then we meet out there in the tunnel.’

  ‘What if we don’t have our instruments?’ the clicky-tongue girl asked.

  ‘Then you hum and sing and clap your hands.’

  ‘Do you play an instrument?’ one of the grown-ups asked. Their tone suggested they thought he didn’t.

  ‘Only if you count the spoons, and I didn’t bring any. No,’ the Doctor said proudly, his chest swelling, ‘I shall be your conductor. Now, hurry up. I’ve got Harby and Vosh looking for people too, so with luck we’ll have enough. See you in four and a half minutes, right?’

  ‘Right,’ they all agreed.

  None of them really had any idea what was going on, but it sounded like it might be fun.

  Perpetual Pete was the one person who didn’t have a smile on his face. But then, the Doctor thought, his face wasn’t really built for smiling. ‘You think this’ll work?’ he asked the Doctor.

  ‘Oh, yes. Probably. I’ll need to know the exact run of musical notes to open the Chamber, though,’ the Doctor told him.

  ‘If I can remember what it is. It’s been a while. But we can’t open the Chamber – that’s the last thing we want to do.’

  ‘I agree,’ the Doctor said. ‘But I still need to know the right chords to do it.’

  Several levels below where the Doctor and Perpetual Pete were standing, and travelling much, much faster, the Death Ride took another plunge. This one was quite tame compared with that first dive into the ground. But it still left Amy feeling that her stomach was floating somewhere back down the track and she would probably never see it again.

  ‘Time to make our move, I guess,’ Rory said, getting carefully to his feet as the ride levelled out again.

  ‘How do you suggest we get to the other carriages and the engine?’ Amy asked.

  Rory looked at her and she saw how pale he had grown. ‘I think we have to climb across.’

  ‘While the train’s going?’

  Rory nodded.

  ‘At about a hundred miles an hour?’

  Rory swallowed and nodded again.

  ‘With the Train of Death liable to drop into the ground or fly up into the air at any moment while we’re doing it?’

  ‘Problem?’ Rory asked. His voice seemed to have risen in pitch.

  ‘No,’ Amy told him. ‘No problem at all. Let’s get started.’

  She grabbed Rory’s arm for support as the train lurched and dived again.

  CHAPTER 13

  FINE TUNING

  Despite understanding better than anyone the threat they faced, Perpetual Pete was beginning to enjoy himself. In the early years, when the miners first arrived, it had been a challenge to keep the digging and tunnelling away from the Perpetuity Chamber hidden in its Vault deep inside the asteroid. Not that the challenge was anything like as great as commanding the Combined Stellar Forces armies in their war against the Drexxons … But that was when Perpetual Pete was a much younger man.

  Gradually, the miners had come to accept Pete, if not actually to respect him as much as he’d have liked. They grew used to his constant arguments about health and safety. They believed he was acting in their best interests – which of course he was. Just not quite in the way they imagined.

  But then, they imagined he was being paid by the Mining Conglomerates and had some official status. It was all bluff. IMC and the others had no idea that Pete even existed. If they had thought he was making the mining for trisilicate and duralinium harder and more expensive than it needed to be, they’d have been very angry indeed.

  It had been a difficult job calling for tact and diplomacy as much as stubbornness and determination. But over the years it had got easier and now everyone took what Pete said for granted. If he told them a tunnel was Off-Limits, they accepted that. Since they had the whole of the rest of the asteroid to mine, keeping them away from one small area had not actually been too much of a problem.

  Until now.

  The Death Ride needed to be kept away from the working mine areas. No one wanted it to interfere with the mining, and everyone understood the possible hazards of having a fairground ride set up where robot equipment was used to having the place to itself as it tunnelled and mined, detonated explosives to expose new ore seams and routinely pumped out the air from areas where there might be a gas pocket so as to avoid explosions.

  It was almost inevitable that the Galactic Fair would want to run their Death Ride through some of the Off-Limits areas. Pete had managed to steer them away from the tunnels that went nearest to the vault. But even so, the tracks were closer than he’d have liked in a couple of areas.

  He had the route marked on a plan in his pocket, which he now showed the Doctor. Pete smoothed out the stained paper, and jabbed a wrinkled finger at where the vault was located. Of course, it wasn’t actually marked. But Pete had drawn a blue line to show the route of the Death Ride.

  ‘I think the most likely point of sabotage would be here.’ He indicated a place where the blue line turned sharply away from the vault area.

  The Doctor nodded. ‘If the Drexxon derails the Death Ride, it will carry on through the tunnel wall and breach the vault. That’s at the bottom of a huge drop, so it’ll be going very fast indeed.’

  ‘I’ll get in touch with Korl and get him to send whatever emergency equipment he can to that section,’ Pete said. ‘Could be a lot of casualties though,’ he added quietly.

  ‘I know. And Amy and Rory are riding on that thing.’

  It was a nightmare. Amy and Rory had agreed that Rory would try to get to the engine. Amy agreed that he might have a better idea of how to stop the ride than she did. Amy’s job was to find Drexxon and Garvo and break the link between them.

  Rory wasn’t happy about that. Drexxon was likely to attack Amy as soon as he saw her. But Amy reckoned that she could get help from other passengers. And once Garvo had recovered from the shock, he would surely help too.

  ‘Anyway, he might not even be on board,’ she pointed out. She had to shout over the sound of the wheels on the track and the wind rushing past.

  ‘I still think we should stay together.’

  Amy shook her head. ‘You get to the engine as quick as you can and stop this thing.’ She didn’t like to have to admit it, but Rory would be quicker than her working his way along the train and leaping from carriage to carriage. She would keep up as best she
could, but once she saw Garvo and Drexxon she’d deal with them, while Rory still needed to stop the train.

  ‘Health and Safety. Just doing an in-ride assessment,’ Rory told the startled passengers in the next carriage as he landed with a bump on the pitching floor.

  Amy leaped after him – just as the train dropped away down another steep slope. Rory leaned back and grabbed her hands, dragging her into the carriage after him.

  Getting to the next carriage was even more dangerous. Rory jumped just as the train veered round a bend. Amy watched helplessly as he leaped out into space, the train twisting away beneath him. But, somehow, Rory managed to flail his arms and scrabble at the side of the carriage as he fell. The train lurched back the other way and Rory was hurled up in the air, to land with a painful-sounding bump in the back of the carriage.

  ‘All part of the show,’ he gasped, waving away helping hands. ‘I’ll be collecting tips later.’

  Amy was careful to time her own jump on a flat, straight section. But that meant she had to wait, and she could see Rory using the same section to make his own leap into the next carriage along. He turned to wave back at Amy.

  ‘Keep going!’ she yelled.

  Rory frowned, cupping his hand round his ear to show he hadn’t heard what she said.

  Amy shook her head and pointed forwards. ‘Keep going,’ she mouthed.

  Rory’s frown deepened as he worked it out. Then he smiled and gave her a thumbs up. Just as the train roared sharply upwards, knocking Rory off his feet. Amy also stumbled, and found herself sitting on the lap of a rather surprised elderly man.

  ‘Um, refreshments?’ Amy said.

  ‘Ice cream?’

  ‘Sorry, all out of ice cream. And hot drinks aren’t really recommended,’ she added as the train turned again and she was thrown across the carriage. Children and adults alike whooped with delight.

  There were about twenty people assembled in the tunnel with the Doctor and Perpetual Pete. About half of those had instruments. The Doctor got Harby and Vosh to organise them into sections according to what instrument they had or usually played.

  ‘If you don’t have your instrument with you, just make the noise. So if you play the trumpet, it’s … ’ He did his best to make a trumpet noise.

  Then he demonstrated drums, flute and finally bagpipes. The bagpipes earned him a small round of applause.

  Right, now, off we go. Drum Major Pete will lead the way – boom-boom-boom, remember, Pete.’

  Pete raised a wispy eyebrow and didn’t answer.

  ‘Where are we going?’ Harby asked as Perpetual Pete marched quickly down the tunnel and everyone hurried after him.

  ‘As close as we can get to a secret Perpetuity Chamber concealed inside a hidden vault. I’m hoping our music will echo along the tunnel and the programme of music I’ve prepared will prevent that vault from opening. That clear enough for you?’

  Everyone shook their heads and told him, ‘No.’

  ‘Good.’ The Doctor extended his sonic screwdriver, raising it like a conductor’s baton. ‘Right then, we start with When the Saints Go Marching In, I hope you know that one. Play it loud and play it with passion. Play it like your lives depend on it. Because …’ The Doctor tapped his makeshift baton on an imaginary music stand. ‘ … because they do.’

  CHAPTER 14

  INTO THE VAULT

  ‘There is just a chance,’ Amy yelled to anyone who would listen, ‘that we are going to crash. So hold on tight.’

  ‘Crash?’ a small boy nearby echoed. ‘Terrific!’

  ‘No, actually,’ Amy told him. ‘Not terrific. Not even remotely terrific. This isn’t part of the ride, it’s a proper, real, serious warning, all right?’

  ‘All right,’ the boy said sulkily.

  ‘So hold on, then,’ Amy told him. ‘And you,’ she told his friends.

  She had lost sight of Rory, and she still had not seen Drexxon and Garvo. What if they weren’t on board at all? What if the train wasn’t going to crash? How embarrassing would that be? ‘Come on, Pond,’ she muttered to herself. Never mind being embarrassed. If the ride didn’t crash that would be a good thing – a terrific thing.

  She timed her jump carefully, and leaped into the next carriage. As she jumped, she could see Rory, about three carriages ahead, waving and pointing.

  ‘Excuse me. Health and safety. Hold on tight in case we crash. But first, budge up a bit,’ Amy told a woman clutching the arm of a man on the back seat of the carriage. She’d landed just in front of them and now she shoved them aside enough to climb up on the seat.

  ‘Careful,’ the man warned, trying to push her down again. ‘That’s not safe.’

  But Amy shook off his attentions. She could see Rory, still pointing, and gave him a thumbs up. He glared back at her like she was mad, and pointed again, jabbing his finger urgently.

  A moment later he disappeared in a blur of brown fur as the Drexxon leaped at him.

  ‘Give me strength,’ Amy said and ran for the front of the carriage. The ride dipped and turned, throwing her sideways.

  ‘Coming through!’ she yelled as she kept going, hurling herself into the next carriage. She could see Rory now, just one carriage ahead. Drexxon was tearing at him. Garvo was pushing away anyone who tried to help Rory.

  Amy sprinted, suddenly running uphill as the ride rose steeply. Any moment it would plunge down again. She ran and jumped, just as the train dipped, and found herself falling towards the next carriage. She slammed into Garvo, sending him flying.

  But the leash remained attached to the Drexxon, who was still battering relentlessly at Rory.

  ‘Get off my Rory!’ Amy yelled at the Drexxon.

  She grabbed the furry creature round the middle and wrenched him away. Immediately the Drexxon turned its attack on Amy. Rory staggered to his feet – falling down again as the ride lurched round a steep bend.

  ‘Never mind me – get to the engine,’ Amy shouted. ‘Stop this thing before it crashes!’

  ‘Crashes?’ a young man sitting nearby repeated.

  ‘Yes. We’re going to crash. So hold on tight. Brace yourselves,’ Amy shouted back, still wrestling with the Drexxon. ‘Pass it on. Tell the person next to you, and pass it on along the carriages.’

  Garvo was getting to his feet. But Rory shoved him out of the way as he hurried past, heading for the next carriage. The engine was only a few carriages away now. Amy just hoped Rory would get to it in time. And that he’d be able to do something when he did.

  But she didn’t have much time to worry about Rory, because the Drexxon was clutching at her face, scratching her hands as she tried to hold the creature off, nipping and biting at her with its sharp teeth …

  ‘Well, help me!’ she gasped at the nearest person, the young man she’d just spoken to.

  ‘You told me to hold on tight,’ he said. ‘Make your mind up.’

  ‘Help me first,’ Amy said through gritted teeth and a face full of attacking fur. ‘Then hold on tight.’

  Rory too was shouting warnings as he raced through the last couple of carriages. He could see the front of the train – heading right for a rock wall. Rory threw his hands up in front of his face and dived to the floor. At the last moment, the Death Ride swerved violently sideways. The rock wall shot past, and the train dived down again, bouncing Rory painfully across the floor.

  ‘You part of the act, sonny?’ a grizzled old miner with a straggly grey beard asked.

  ‘Better believe it,’ Rory told him. ‘Hold on tight, old timer – this thing could crash at any moment.’

  ‘Runaway mine train, you reckon?’ the old man asked. ‘Wouldn’t be the first,’ he added knowingly.

  Rory pulled himself to his feet and staggered to the front of the little carriage. Just one more jump, he told himself – one more, then all he had to do was tell the driver to put the brakes on and stop the train.

  Rory got up speed as the train dived downwards, and took a running jump out of the end of t
he carriage. The old miner and several other people applauded.

  He slammed painfully to the floor of the front carriage. It was smaller than the others. The engine. In front of him Rory could see a panel with lots of levers, switches and knobs. There were several dials and read-outs on it too. One seemed to be the speed, another showed direction of travel, a third was timing the ride. Rory briefly surveyed the switches and levers – one of which must be the brake. The driver would know.

  But as Rory looked round desperately for the driver, he realised he was alone in the carriage. There was no driver. It was all automated. There was no one there who could stop the Death Ride.

  No one except Rory.

  He didn’t waste time worrying. There was no time left to waste. Instead, Rory pulled the nearest lever – and the train increased speed. He shoved the lever back into place, but the speed didn’t reduce. So Rory pressed buttons and turned knobs and pulled other levers.

  It made no difference. The train was hurtling ever faster through the rocky tunnels, and at any moment Rory knew it might reach the section of track that the Drexxon had sabotaged.

  ‘What would the Doctor do?’ Rory wondered out loud. He didn’t have a sonic screwdriver, so the obvious answer was no use.

  But another thought occurred to Rory. ‘What would the Doctor do if he didn’t have his sonic screwdriver?’ He pulled off his shoe and hammered at the controls with it.

  Sparks erupted from the control panel. A small explosion blew off an access panel and Rory reached inside to grab handfuls of smoking wires and rip them free. He felt a jolt of electricity up his arm, like someone had thumped the funny bone in his elbow.

  But, miraculously, the train did seem to be slowing. Rory breathed a long, heartfelt sigh of relief.

  Then he realised the train was slowing because it was going steeply uphill. It almost stopped, teetering on the brink of the deepest, darkest, sharpest, most terrifying drop yet.

  ‘Hang on!’ came Amy’s voice from somewhere behind Rory. It was advice he didn’t need. He grabbed hold of the side of the little carriage as the Death Ride plunged down again, faster than ever, gathering speed. Heading straight for a rock wall.