Did Krillitanes cry, he wondered. 'That's what I mean, yes,'

he said. 'And you couldn't have saved him, not from a Krillitane. You mustn't blame yourself for this.'

Henry turned back to the Doctor. His face was determined. He brushed away the tear with the back of his hand. 'What do we do, Doctor? How do we stop these monsters before they kill anyone else?'

'First we need to know what they're up to. I hope we'll find that out at the secret meeting at the hotel tomorrow.' The Doctor leaned forwards suddenly, staring at Henry. 'You haven't had your ears pierced, have you?'

'No, why?'

The Doctor ran his hands through his hair, spiking it up.

'Just wondered.'

'Right,' Henry said, confused. 'But even if we know their plan, what can we do against something that can...?' Henry's voice tailed off and he glanced again at Jeff's body.

'Well,' the Doctor said, leading Henry out of his office, 'it's not all gloom and doom, you know. I mean, I still have eighty-three bags of crisps.'

Chapter Seven.

The Doctor and Henry wanted to be at the hotel ahead of everyone else. They arrived at six and found that the staff were already setting things up for the meeting. The Doctor showed them his psychic paper, which appeared to say that he and Henry were meant to be there to check that everything was running smoothly and on time.

The meeting was going to take place in the ballroom.

The middle of the room had been cleared and a single long table set up. High above it was a net, full of brightly coloured balloons. Everything was ready and waiting for a silver wedding party in the evening. Tables and chairs were stacked on one side of the room, also ready for later.

'I love parties,' the Doctor told Henry, as they looked up at the net. 'Don't you?'

'I don't get invited to many,' Henry admitted. 'What are you thinking?'

The Doctor told him. Henry a.s.sumed he was joking, but the Doctor wasn't.

Half an hour later, the Doctor pulled Henry quickly to one side. A young woman with blonde hair and gla.s.ses had just come into the ballroom. The Doctor and Henry crouched down out of sight. They hid themselves behind the stack of tables and chairs at the side of the room.

'It's only Gabby,' Henry said. 'They often get her to hand out the coffee and information packs at meetings. She's good with people.'

'I'd rather no one knew we were here, even Gabby,' the Doctor told him. 'Besides, she might tell me off for not getting into work early to catch up on my emails.'

'So what do we do now just wait here?'

'For the moment.' The Doctor was holding a small remote control box he had found. It controlled the lights and curtains and a few other things in the room. He was hoping Sir Manning Cross wouldn't notice it was gone. 'We need to find a good place to hide, and we have a little job to do.'

Soon, the first people started arriving for the meeting.

Gabby handed out folders and showed people where they could help themselves to coffee and tea. There were gla.s.ses and bottles of water on the table.

By seven o'clock, everyone had taken their seats. Sir Manning Cross and Stella Sark sat at one end of the big table. The Doctor could see Clive and a few other people from yesterday's meeting. Gabby spoke quietly to Stella Sark, then left the room. She closed the door firmly behind her.

There were half a dozen other people, too. They were not dressed as uniformly as the men and women from the firm. One of them was a large man with steel-grey hair and a military moustache. He took charge and opened the meeting.

The man introduced himself as James Purcell, although everyone seemed to know him already.

'You may be wondering why I asked for this meeting of the firm's board and our most important shareholders,'

Purcell said. 'Well, it's quite simple really. Since Sir Manning took charge, we've seen the firm's profits rocket. These new Brainy Crisps really seem to be doing very well.'

Sir Manning smiled. 'So you've called us here to give us your thanks, I take it.'

'Well, yes. And no.'

'Oh? I thought the point of any firm was to make profit.'

Purcell scowled. 'The point of any firm is to make profit for its shareholders. But despite the huge amounts of money the firm is making, you are still not paying out to shareholders.'

Stella Sark leaned forward. 'The value of your shares has gone up a lot. Isn't that enough?'

'Frankly, no. I don't want to sell my shares. Why would I, when everything is going so well. What I want is to see some return on my investment. Instead, you seem h.e.l.l-bent on putting all the profits back into ever more costly IT projects.

Computer projects which we just don't need.'

There were murmurs of agreement from the other shareholders. Someone clapped.

Sir Manning rose to his feet. 'I rather think it is up to me to decide what is necessary. I run this firm.'

Purcell gave a snort of laughter. 'We own own this firm. You work for us.' this firm. You work for us.'

'Not any more,' Miss Sark said, so quietly that Purcell didn't seem to hear.

'You have no idea, do you,' Sir Manning said. His voice was rising in pitch and volume. 'No idea at all what we are really doing. How dare you presume to tell me how to run my firm?'

' Our Our firm,' Purcell said, but he was hesitant now. He seemed surprised at Sir Manning's sudden anger. firm,' Purcell said, but he was hesitant now. He seemed surprised at Sir Manning's sudden anger.

'You thought you could make a quick few pounds out of potato crisps and gullible customers,' Sir Manning ranted.

'That's all you were in it for. Well, no longer. Your involvement ends, here and now.'

The shareholders looked at each other, surprised and confused.

'Is he offering to buy us out?' a woman in a blue dress asked the man beside her.

'All you think about is money,' Sir Manning told her. 'I am trying to create life life!'

There was silence. Everyone stared at Sir Manning.

'Now we're getting somewhere,' the Doctor whispered to Henry as they watched from their hiding place.

'You heard me life life!' Sir Manning looked round the table. 'That's why we needed your money, and why we now need every penny of profit. We have done what no other firm can do. We have hijacked the internet.'

Purcell stared in utter surprise. 'What?'

'That's right. When any computer links to the Brainy_ Crisps website, it is instantly infected with our code. The code links infected computers together over the internet, then finds and links in every bit of computing power too. Oh, we only steal a little bit of computing power from each one, but hundreds of millions of computers are working away for us.

They are working on the equations and formulae provided by the people who have eaten our crisps.'

Miss Sark stood beside her boss. 'Almost everyone who eats Brainy Crisps goes to our website to find out how much more brainy they've become. They think they're playing a game, or answering a pop-up question. They think they're rating the usefulness of the site and the tastiness of the crisps. In fact, they are all slowly solving the overall problem.

They are solving it with improved intelligence from the Brainy Crisps and the processing power of the entire internet.

Purcell and the other shareholders were really confused now. 'But why? What problem are they solving?'

Sir Manning smiled. 'The computers work with the people whose brains have been improved by the oil in the crisps.

Together they are solving the riddle of life itself. We are a race that has evolved in a random way. We have chosen a hotchpotch of bits and pieces from other life forms. Over the years, this has become inefficient. We have lost our way.

Even the oil we secrete is a poison to us. It burns us when we touch it our own oil. Now we will redesign ourselves to be the greatest, most powerful species in the universe.'

'I think we've heard quite enough,' Purcell said, 'I had no idea when we gave you the job that you were a complete madman. It's time to propose a motion that we remove you from the firm at once.'

Behind the stack of tables and chairs, the Doctor turned to Henry. His face looked grave. 'So that's what they're doing. The Krillitanes are creating a new genetic form for themselves. Up to now they've been evolving over time.

They've taken parts that seemed useful and random bits of DNA from the species they've conquered. Now they've decided to design themselves again, and to do it properly from scratch.'

'Is that bad?' Henry asked.

'Not if they were a nice, friendly race of cuddly creatures.

But they're not. They're warlike empire-builders who'll enslave the human race and any other species as soon as look at them.'

The shareholders were nodding, about to vote on Purcell's motion. Then Miss Sark walked round the table and grabbed Purcell. The other shareholders watched in horror as Stella Sark lifted Purcell off the floor. She flung him across the table, and gla.s.ses and bottles and papers went flying.

'Time, I think, for our investors to see what they have really bought,' Sir Manning said.

The people from the firm all stood up. There were about eight of them, including Sir Manning, Stella and Clive. The air around them shimmered and blurred. Then, in place of the people, stood tall winged creatures with long stony faces and sharp claws. Krillitanes.

'Now,' the Krillitane that had been Sir Manning Cross snarled, 'are there any questions before you die?'

The shareholders sat frozen in terror. Purcell was groaning as he pulled himself off the table. Only one person spoke.

'Um, since you ask. I have a question.'

Henry looked on in horror as the Doctor stood up and walked towards the table.

'Yes, me again, I'm afraid, and I have another question. I just can't help myself. It's how I am. So, I was just wondering...'

The Krillitanes all watched the Doctor.

'I a.s.sume you're planning to create a race of Super-Krillitane creatures ready to make Earth their first new home world. And from there take over well, maybe one day the whole universe. Is that right?'

The air was filled with alien laughter.

'I shall answer your question, Doctor your last question,' the Krillitane Stella Sark said. 'The answer is yes.'

'Let me ask you a question,' Sir Manning said.

The Doctor nodded happily. 'Oh good, I like a good question. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The egg, definitely. Or was it the chicken? Sorry, what's the question?'

'Simply this. We are going to kill all the people in this room, Doctor, starting with you. Then we are going to complete our plan and conquer this world. So, I ask you this: what can you possibly hope to do about it?'

The Doctor stuck his hands into his pockets. He sucked air through his teeth. Finally, he grinned. 'Well,' he said, 'I can offer you a crisp.'

Chapter Eight.

The Doctor faced the Krillitanes.

The human shareholders were trapped in their seats.

They were too afraid to move. But even if they did, the Krillitanes had them trapped. The people would be cut down before they got to the door to escape.

'You are a very strange human being, Doctor,' said the Krillitane Sir Manning.

'Oh, I'm not a human being at all,' the Doctor told him.

'Which means you have a choice to make, because I'm giving you a last chance.'

The Krillitane's large head dipped slightly as it laughed.

' You You are giving are giving us us a last chance?' a last chance?'

'Better believe it.' The Doctor was serious. Slowly the alien laugher died away. When there was silence, the Doctor said, 'One last chance. Leave now. Give up on this daft plan of yours. Be happy with what you've got and accept how you are.'

'Strange and stupid, it would seem,' Stella Sark said. 'Do you really expect us to listen to you, whoever you really are?'

The Doctor shook his head sadly. 'No, not really.'

'Then I am afraid the party is over,' Sir Manning said.

'Oh no,' the Doctor told him. 'It's only just starting. I warned you,' he said, pointing to the Krillitanes. Then he pointed to the human shareholders cowering in their seats.