Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [96]
Someone knew that and was exploiting it to turn them into killers. It seemed that all they had to do was change one robot and it would change others and they would change others and so the danger multiplied. It was like a virus infection. What he hadn’t managed to find out was why they had been sent to the Sewerpits on a killing spree.
And then Padil came into the room and said, ‘All the survivors are across the boundary. Taren Capel, humanity be in him, and in you, brought them to safety.’
The robot the Doctor was studying responded immediately.
‘Where is Taren Capel?’ it asked politely.
The Doctor gestured Padil to silence. ‘Is Taren Capel important to you?’ he asked, above her stubbornly muttered chant.
‘We must destroy Taren Capel and all those who are with him,’ the robot said. ‘All units must follow this order.’
‘Whose order is it?’
‘It is the order of Taren Capel.’
‘Taren Capel’s order is that you should kill Taren Capel?’ the Doctor said. ‘That makes about as much sense as Padil does gibbering away there.’
Padil finished her chanting and said, ‘There can be only one Taren Capel, humanity be in you.’
‘Yes,’ the robot said and the Doctor realised abruptly that it was him they had come to kill. The horror, the destruction and the death, was because of him. Someone - who? Poul probably -
identified him as Taren Capel, and then somebody who thought they were Taren Capel decided to eliminate him. It was madness.
He couldn’t blame himself for someone’s madness. Yet it felt like his failure. He had let it get out of hand and people had been killed. He hadn’t tried hard enough to make them see the truth.
Well, he would make sure nobody else died because of Taren Capel. ‘Where is Taren Capel?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ the robot said. ‘Where is Taren Capel?’
‘Where have you come from?’ the Doctor asked.
‘It is called base,’ the robot said.
‘Can you tell me how to get there?’ he asked.
The route the robot talked about was vague enough to mean nothing.
Padil, who had finally finished her ritual responses to the mention of Taren Capel’s name, said, ‘Describe base.’
From what the robot said she was able to identify the central service facility almost immediately. ‘It might not have looked that way but our raids were very well planned,’ she said. ‘For that one we had detailed layouts, access points, routes to follow. I know the central service facility better than most of the people who work there. A lot better than the ’pits scum they recruit for the security force.’
‘Who supplied all that detail?’
Padil sighed and shook her head. ‘You did,’ she said, sadly.
‘Did I supply the fliers?’ the Doctor asked.
‘No,’ Padil said. ‘I supplied those.’
‘You supplied them.’ The Doctor decided to postpone the obvious questions and said instead, ‘Can you do it again? I must get to the central service facility as quickly as possible.’
‘After what we’ve just heard,’ Padil said. ‘I think we’ll all want to go with you.’
Chapter Thirteen
It was happening to some of the Vocs and Supervocs now. They were becoming erratic and unresponsive. Orders they were given seemed to be overridden as they followed priorities of their own.
So far it was only a few of the units at the central service facility and no news of it had been allowed to leak out but the numbers were growing slowly and the concern was growing fast. It was nothing like the problem of the disappearing Cyborg class which unconfirmed reports suggested were turning up in unlikely numbers at the Sewerpits.
The joint project leaders had quarrelled over whether to include data on the standard robots. They had been tasked to bring the Cyborgs under control and they had already deactivated half the compromised production