"Come on, legs." "Come on, you can do it." "Pull yourself together." "Come on now, lift." "Left, right, left." "That's it, legs." "Come on, run!" "Run!" "Run!" "That shot will be your last." "I didn't know it were you!" "Well, you know now." "You was trespassing." "So were you, Ted Moss." "Now, put the gun down, miss." "I said put the gun down, miss." "Kill me and your friend dies, too." "She's a nutter, she is, Jack." "She means it!" "He ain't no friend of mine so that's a chance I'm prepared to take!" "The gun, miss!" "Right." "Now..." "Perhaps you would explain what you're doing in my gran's cottage?" "She was..." "Both of you." "Thea, what on earth are you doing?" "Fendelman will go barmy..." "Well, barmier if he found you messing..." "Thea?" "Thea!" "What's wrong, Thea?" "Thea!" "Thea, wake up!" "Adam, what are you doing?" "Come on, come on, let's get out of here." "What are you doing here?" "That scream, it came from the kitchen." "What scream?" "What..." "Never mind." "It's Mitchell." "That expression, it's the same as the other one." "There's a blister on the back of the neck." "Could be a birth mark, I suppose." "How can you be so dispassionate?" "The man's dead, Thea." "Adam..." "Adam!" "Thea!" "Don't touch her." "I said, don't touch her!" "How many deaths have there been?" "Deaths?" "Like this." "Two." "Now, look..." "No, no, no, no." "No, you look." "What was it?" "They look like embryo Fendahleen to me." "Come and sit down." "You'll be all right." "Embryo what?" "Embryo Fendahleen." "A creature from my own mythology." "Supposed to have perished when the fifth planet broke up." "At least, so they said." "A creature from mythology?" "Do you know what you're talking about?" "Well, you saw it." "It survived 12 million years." "Its energy reserves must be enormous." "Twelve million." "Why did you say 12 million?" "What?" "Well, about 12 million." "That's when the fifth planet broke up." "There are 4,000 million people here on your planet." "And if I'm right, within a year, there will be just one left alive." "Just one." "What are you exactly?" "Some sort of wandering Armageddon pedlar, hmm?" "Who's in charge around here?" "I am." "Ah, Dr Fendelman, I presume." "Is that really your name, Fendelman?" "Now listen, Fendelman," "I want you to do two things." "Dismantle the scanner and run some tests on Miss Thea." "Start with an X-ray of her skull, now..." "I will give the orders around here." "Take him away." "Lock him up somewhere." "Is this the way you treat all your houseguests?" "Only the uninvited ones whom I suspect of murder!" "But she needs help!" "Take him away!" "It is just the same as before." "This is a terrible thing." "Terrible." "This time I will call the police." "Come along, Thea." "As you wish, Adam." "But how will you explain to them that you did not call them before?" "Tell Fendelman there isn't time for all this!" "That do seem a bit far-fetched." "Ain't a word of truth in it, that's why." "You wouldn't recognise the truth if you fell over it." "Hey." "Why should I lie to you?" "Fear." "Does it seem to you that I am afraid?" "Well, you ought to be." "I said you ought to be!" "Oh, God!" "I must go now." "Hang on a minute." "Uh, please!" "You." "On your way." "I want to see Mother Tyler." "Well, Mrs Tyler don't want to see you." "Now, where is she?" "I don't know." "She's got something for me and I paid good money for it!" "You'll get your money, now get out!" "Out!" "I'll see you later." "Get some practice first." "Nasty piece of work." "Hmm." "Him and some others from the village, they, uh..." "Well, I'm not sure exactly, but the thing is that I think my gran's involved in whatever it is." "Now, she's a good old girl but, well, she was brought up in the old ways, you see." "The old ways?" "Yeah, the old superstitions and that." "See, he called her Mother Tyler." "Now, that ain't 'cause he likes her." "That's...that's the old religion." "Look, there's something nasty going on." "Do you know what it is?" "Have you been sent with this Doctor bloke to sort it out?" "Well, the Doctor came to stop the sonic time scan." "What's one of them?" "He said it would cause a..." "A direct continuum ex..." "Implosion." "Damn, girl, you don't half tell some whoppers, don't ya?" "Whoppers?" "Don't matter." "Listen, I'm sure the Doctor can help you." "Oh, he's very difficult sometimes, but he has great knowledge and gentleness." "I should have gone to the police right away." "Then why didn't you?" "Thea, I've always been ambitious." "That's a weakness in anyone." "Yes, particularly scientists." "When Fendelman offered me unlimited funds, I jumped at the chance." "I owe him a great deal." "And when he asked for the body to be moved, it seemed so unimportant." "But now that Mitchell's dead..." "Yes." "Well, then, phone the police!" "The line's disconnected." "Disconnected?" "Yes, as in "cut off"." "Adam, can't you be serious just for a minute?" "I am serious." "The place is surrounded by guards, we're beset by a wandering lunatic and we have a pair of corpses on our hands." "And on top of all that, the telephone seems to be very dead." "Thea, we are trapped." "It was planned." " By Fendelman." "No." "No, not by Fendelman, he's just part of it." "Doing what was planned for him." "Don't you see?" "For him." "That would fit." "That would explain it!" "Explain what?" "Adam, you haven't asked me whose plan it is." "Why don't you ask me?" "Go on, ask me who planned it!" "Stop it." "Stop it!" "I did." "Do you understand?" "I did." "Now, be reasonable, Thea." "How could you have?" "You're as sane as anyone here." "Except..." "Come on." "Come on." "You must think my head zips up the back!" "Be reasonable, Colby." "Why should I disconnect the telephone?" "For the same reason you've got the place surrounded by thugs!" "And what reason is that?" "Because you're mad, Fendelman." "You're mad." "In that case, you are hardly behaving in a manner conducive to your own safety." "I should be humoured, surely." "Sit down, Colby." "This skull that you found is, I believe, extraterrestrial in origin." "An alien space traveller?" "Hence the guards." "Next of kin come for the remains?" "You're expecting an attack by little green men from Venus?" "Don't talk like a fool, Colby, you're not a fool!" "No, I'm not." "That skull is human." "It's a skull like yours and mine." "Modern man." "Homo sapiens!" "Exactly." "It is also 12 million years old!" "Millions of years older than the earliest of man's known ancestors." "You think we're all aliens?" "Let's go then." "Find this Doctor of yours." "Perhaps he can sort it out and make some sense of it all." "If he's half as clever as you say..." "Shh!" "Yeah." "If he's as clever as you say he is, he ought to be able to sort it out!" "You should not have come here." "I had to warn you." "There are security guards now." "Ah, city boys." "I know how to get past them." "It was a stupid risk." "Fendelman is already suspicious and uneasy." "Why do you think he sent for the guards?" "I had to warn you about the Doctor." "What doctor?" "Well, there's this bloke, calls hisself a doctor." "Tall, curly hair, he's got a girl working with him." "And I told him where to find this place." "Well, I didn't realise." "I tried to stop him after." "They know all about us." "'Tis true, they're investigators." "They come to investigate." "I will deal with them." "Now, go." "Quickly." "Are all our friends prepared?" "They're waiting for the word." "When the time comes, we must be 12." "We know you lead the coven now, but we know the old ways." "Thirteen be the number." "A place must be left for the one that kills." "Circumstantial, it's all circumstantial!" "It is the only logical explanation, Adam." "Man did not evolve on Earth." "Of this I am sure." "There is something else that I have not told you." "With the scanner," "I have traced what I now believe to be the moment of death of this alien traveller." "At that moment there is an enormous surge of power the like of which I have not seen before." "It was this that first attracted my attention." "It is an inpouring of energy." "A concentration of power as though to store." "And now I ask myself, where would this power be stored?" "And why?" "These questions I could not answer until I had X-rayed the skull." "You X-rayed the skull?" "When?" "Stael and I have been doing experiments in secret for some time." "Thank you." "No, no, no, you are right." "But from the beginning I had the feeling that this was so important that it must be kept secret." "And now we have these murders and this mysterious intruder." "He said something about X-rays." "Well, excuse me." "Oh, I'm sorry, Thea, are you still feeling ill?" "No, it's all right, I'm just a little tired." "I think I'll go and lie down." "You are looking very pale, my dear." "Perhaps you have been working too hard." "I will ask Stael to look in on you later." "There is no doubt that this intruder has been spying on us." "Yes." "Well, after the X-rays, what did you find?" "I will show you." "Come." "Gran, can you hear me?" "Drink this, old woman." "It will warm you." "What happened, Gran?" "Do not ask her that." "It's because she does not want to remember that she is like this." "You are safe now." "You are safe." "Nothing can hurt you." "I will let nothing hurt you." "I seen it..." "In my mind..." "Dark..." "Great..." "It called me..." "In my mind, it called me." "Hungry..." "Hungry for my soul." "What's it mean?" "Everything..." "There'll be nothing left." "The Doctor will know." "No life left." "Help me!" "Help us!" "I must find the Doctor." "Stay with her!" "It were hungry for my soul." "There." "Do you see it?" "It looks like a pentagram." "It's the way the fragments have been assembled." "No." "It is part of the bone structure itself." "I believe it to be a form of neural relay." "And this is where the energy is stored." "It is interesting, is it not?" "And for as long as man can remember, the pentagram has been a symbol for mystical energy and power." "Right." "Let's assume that's the "how"." "You're still left with "why?"" "A beacon." "What?" "Suppose the energy is still within this neural circuit and can only be released by the intelligent application of applied advanced technology." "You mean the release of that energy would act as a signal that there was intelligent life on this planet?" "And at last, mankind would meet its..." "Next of kin?" "Destiny, Adam." "Its destiny." "Hello." "Are you there?" "Please." "I need help." "Thea." "Max." "You frightened me." "Do you have to creep about like that?" "I apologise." "What are you doing here, Thea?" "I was..." "I was looking for the stranger." "Do you know where he is?" "It is not important." "Well, it is to me." "I must find him, I..." "I think he can help me." "Why should you need help, Thea?" "Anyway, the stranger has escaped." "He can do nothing." "It is too late." "Too late for all the meddling fools." "What are you talking about, Max?" "Get out of my way." "There's no need to be afraid of me, Thea." "Please, Max!" "It is fitting that you should be the key to my power." "Max, don't be such a fool." "The chosen one." "The chosen one." "Ah." "Parastatic magnetometer." "How very quaint." "Mmm." "12th century." "Aw!" "Aw." "Would you like a Jelly Baby?" "No, I don't suppose you would." "Alas, poor skull."