Doctor Who: The Myth Makers by Donald Cotton Read Free Book Online

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    ‘Nothing of the sort! Ask Achilles, if you don’t believe me; he saw it materialize.’
    ‘So he said. But then, Achilles will say anything to be the centre of attention. In any case, unfortunately for you, he’s not here. No doubt he felt he’d championed a losing cause and held it tactful to be absent.’
    The skies had blown clear by now, but not before the rains had softened the ground, and Agamemnon was casting about for tracks, like an over-weight boar-hound. ‘ Something has been here,’ he admitted, indicating the furrows in the mud, left by the TARDIS, ‘Look...’
    ‘Aye, and someone, too,’ agreed Odysseus, ‘some several tracks which lead across to Troy! Enough of this foolishness!
    Your friends in the city have doubtless thought your ruse successful, and reclaimed their own.’
    ‘They’ve captured it, you mean,’ contradicted the Doctor,
    ‘you must help me to get it back – and at once.’
    ‘And walk into a trap, of course? Yes, you’d like that I’m sure. Admit your fault. Lord Agamemnon, these men are both spies.’
    ‘So it would begin to seem,’ said the general, reluctantly.
    ‘Very well, bring forward the prisoner. Now, Father Zeus, – you have but one chance left to prove yourself. Kill this Trojan, as you promised.’
    Odysseus tapped a sandal impatiently. ‘Yes, fling a thunderbolt – or do something to rise to the occasion.’
    The Doctor was beginning to run out of steam. ‘But I tell you, the sacrifice can only be performed within the temple.
    Didn’t I mention that?’
    ‘Yes, yes, yes... which temple is now in Troy, and therefore will we give you leave to go there? Just so. Well, I, for one, have heard enough. Perhaps Lord Agamemnon here will still believe... until he reads your war memoirs.’
     
    The game was obviously up, and the Doctor knew it. He looked at the vicious circle of angry, disbelieving faces and he smiled sadly. ‘Yes, quite so. There is no need to labour the point.
    I am not Zeus, of course, and this man is my friend. But I ask you to believe that neither of us is a Trojan.’
    Brave of him, I thought, but his honesty proved useless.
    ‘I care not who you are,’ roared Agamemnon. ‘Seize him! It is enough that you have trifled with my credulity, and made me look a fool, in front of my captains.’
    ‘Oh, don’t say that,’ soothed Odysseus, pouring oil on troubled flames. ‘Rest assured we shall never hold it against you.
    A song or two, perhaps, about the fire, telling how Agamemnon dined with Zeus, and begged a Trojan prisoner for advice. But nothing detrimental!’
    Agamemnon controlled himself with the difficulty he always experienced. ‘Well – very well, Odysseus, enjoy your little joke. I shall not forget your part in this – you brought them both to camp, remember! Now, finish the business, and be brief. And do not bring their bodies back. Let them rot here, disembowelled and unburied, as a gift to the blow-flies and a warning to their fellows...’
    ‘Aye, in a very little while, O great commander. But first, Lord of men, since we have two Trojans all alive, may I not question them? Just a formality, of course, unimportant trifles, like their army’s present strength and future plans.’
    ‘As you wish. Drag what information you can from them, and as painfully as possible. Then report to me – and don’t delay. The sun is up; patrols are out, and, much as I might welcome it myself, we can’t afford to lose you – at the moment!’
    ‘You are very kind,’ smiled Odysseus, with a mocking bow; and Agamemnon splashed angrily off through the mud, at the head of his sniggering soldiers.
     
    Odysseus watched them go. Then, turning to his two terrified prisoners, he drew his great bronze sword, and wiped it thoughtfully on his sleeve.
    They watched the manoeuvre with fascinated horror. He plucked a hair from his beard, and tested it appraisingly on the blade’s edge. It fell in two, without a detectable struggle.