She paced the room, straightening up bits of my mess. 'When he said I should stay, this time I didn't even try and argue with him. I just sat down and let him go. Why am I here? I ought to be with him.'

Bob said, 'He knew what he was doing when he told us to stay.'

Peri didn't hear him. 'I want to be here. No, that's not right.' Something was dawning in her face. 'I don't want to be here. This is all wrong. I want to be wherever the Doctor is.

Wherever he goes.'

'You know something?' said Bob. 'I don't don't want to be wherever he is right now.' He hunched his shoulders in shame. want to be wherever he is right now.' He hunched his shoulders in shame.

'That sounds terrible.'

'Be fair on yourself,' said Peri. 'There are some things the Doctor can do that we just can't.' Bob gave her a pointed look.

Peri flopped down on the sofa. 'He still needs somebody to look after him. He doesn't have anybody anybody. No family.

Sometimes we visit friends of his, but we never stay long. But I like like him. And he likes me, and... I don't know. I just ought to be there.' him. And he likes me, and... I don't know. I just ought to be there.'

'I don't get it,' said Bob. 'You two fight all the time. Why do you even want to stay together?'

Peri's voice grew small. 'There was a time when he got realty, really sick, and I had no idea what to do. I should have made him get help, but I just panicked. I guess in a way I'm still making that up to him.'

Bob said, 'Look at it this way. Look at it this way. If something does happen, you're safe here. You can stay. We'll call your folks.'

Peri gave him the look of death. Bob wilted, not sure what he'd said wrong. But he was right: she had not found herself stranded on a mountainside in a blizzard, or moneyless in a many-tongued city. If the Doctor didn't come back, the decision about whether or not to leave him had been taken away from her.

I sat in my bedroom next to two full suitcases, smoking and waiting. Waiting and smoking. There was half a sock hanging out of one of the cases. I flipped open the lid, stuffed it back inside, and slammed it shut again.

There was a bunch of stuff in the apartment. I'd give Trina a call, ask her to ship a few things to me wherever I ended up.

She could have the rest, or give it to charity, or just let the landlord throw it all out, I didn't care. I had everything I needed in those two suitcases.

Hmm Maybe Trinst wasn't a good idea. I'd call Sally instead.

Peri, pacing the apartment, came in to see what I was doing. I snuck a peek at myself in the full-length mirror behind the door and combed my fingers through my hair. Now I looked dashing instead of just rumpled. Not that it mattered any more. 'I'm sorry you lost your job,' she said.

'Oh, I haven't lost it, exactly' I said. 'If I talk to my editor, I can work this out. He's not real broadminded, but we get on well and he likes my work.'

'Well, that's good.'

'Except that he'll tell everyone in the whole office.' I stabbed the cigarette out viciously in the ashtray. 'He doesn't like secrets. He doesn't think it's fair to keep secrets. When he found out some guy in the mail room was a f.a.ggot, he made sure everyone from the janitor to the publisher knew about it.'

'That's really mean' Peri said.

'I guess it saves him the trouble of having to fire people.' I said. 'I can't stand the thought of a lot of self-appointed experts trying to tell me I'm just a frustrated lesbian. Don't you worry about me, young miss. I'm going to write a book about all of this. It's about time I got my Pulitzer.'

'We were really worried about you,' Peri said. 'After you called from the diner. The Doctor said he wasn't sure if you'd be coming back.'

'That's sweet,' I said. (What she was actually saying was she still thought I was OK. ) 'It was b.l.o.o.d.y creepy. Even as I was walking out of there, I was wondering if Swan had somehow given me a command command to walk out. You know, I gave the waitress back the hundred bucks on my way out the door.' to walk out. You know, I gave the waitress back the hundred bucks on my way out the door.'

Peri gave me a pleased smile. 'Yeah, but was it really my idea? Or did Swan make Luis make me?' I took a long drag on a fresh cigarette and offered it to her, but she shook her head.

'Even now I feel hollow. There's no way to know if I'm me, or just acting like a robot.'

Peri said, 'Robots wouldn't but if you had been affected, we'd know. You'd have that faraway look. All that confusion.'

'How do I even know we're having this conversation?' I blew out a cloud. 'I'll go nuts just wondering about it. I'm sure you're right.'

'Chick,' said Peri. 'Can I talk to you about, you know?'

I half wanted her to get out of there and half wanted to keep looking cool about the whole thing. 'Sure,' I said, fumbling for another smoke.

Peri gathered up her courage and said, 'When did you, uh, decide?'

'Found out for sure when I was fifteen,' I said. 'But I always knew My mom and dad had been raising me wrong all those years.'

'But you, uh, you've got a girl's body, haven't you?'

'I'm a girl the same way you're a blonde,' I said. 'Only on the outside. Inside I have an X and a Y chromosome, same as any guy. But something went wrong, so my body doesn't respond to male hormones the way it should. My parents spent a cmall fortune on the tests, and then they wouldn't accept the results. They had brought me up as a girl.'

'You could have kept on being a girl,' said Peri.

'Yeah, but I'm not not,' I snapped. 'Never was.' Now I'd hurt her feelings. I blew out a long cloud of smoke. 'What makes you a girl?' I asked.

Peri had to think about that one. The question isn't as simple as it sounds. 'I can have babies,' she said at last.

'I can't,' I said. 'No womb.'

'Oh... I guess I see. You know, it's funny. I'm sort of surrounded. The Doctor also ' she stopped short, colour jumping into her cheeks. 'Uh, never mind.'

'It's OK. You can tell me,' I said. I am a very wicked fellow; we were still on the record, until she told me that we weren't.

But Peri just shook her head, scrabbling around for a change of subject. 'What about your girlfriends?' she blurted.

'What about 'em?'

'Well, do they know?'

'I've never had any complaints.' She stared. I gave her my best dirty grin and took a long, slow drag on that ciggie.

'Uh,' said Peri.

'Relax,' I said. 'You're not my type.'

Two.

The Doctor's entire plan could have been scuppered by his inability to imitate a decent American accent. Perhaps that's one reason he left Peri behind: from time to time he would tease her with an imitation of her voice, and she knew perfectly well what he sounded like.

When he called Swan, he spoke in his normal voice. She was returning to her car with her ill-gotten loot when she heard a phone ringing. It took her only a few moments to spot the one across the street. An empty payphone booth, ringing and ringing. It was practically calling her name.

She got in her car, carefully settling Luis into the pa.s.senger seat, and drove across the road to the other parking lot. The phone was still ringing when she reached the booth.

'Well?' she said.

'Swan,' said the Doctor. 'I have a device which will shut Luis down the same way it shut down your idiot savant.

Indicate that you understand me.'

'You son of a b.i.t.c.h,' said Swan. 'If you come anywhere near either of us, I'll have Luis turn you into a frigging zombie. Do you you understand understand me me?'

'I'm already near you,' said the Doctor. 'Nearer than you realise. I only need a moment to operate the device. And then this spree of yours will be at an end.'

'You'll kill him,' said Swan. 'The way you killed the "idiot savant." Are you a murderer?'

'Listen very carefully,' said the Doctor. 'The Savant was programmed to reproduce itself. Its offspring would have known everything it had learnt. That program has been pa.s.sed on to Luis.'

'And you're telling me this because... ?'

'Luis will lay his eggs in the minds of other human beings,' said the Doctor. 'It's already begun. Every person you have manipulated now has a miniature copy of the Savant inside their skull, waiting to be activated. Every person who has come into contact with it in any way there must be hundreds of people in the town of Ritchie alone. That's why they become so distant and confused a large part of their mental activity is taken up by it, even in a dormant state. Just as the Savant was able to adapt itself to the network, it has adapted itself to human brains. Indicate '

' I understand, said Swan. 'I understand you want to kill Luis. You know I can't let you do that.'

'Swan,' hissed the Doctor, 'this is no longer about your petty ambitions. It's about the safety and sanity of the entire human race. Each of those affected people will spread the infection to others. Within a few weeks, every person in the world could be affected. Billions of ticking time bombs. Just waiting for the Eridani to arrive and take advantage of them. I have no choice but to shut this down.'

'Screw you!' Swan screamed like a teenager. In the next moment her voice was back under control. 'I won't let you hurt him.'

'I won't have to hurt him if you'll only let me help you.

We only need to isolate him. I may even be able to reverse some of the brain damage. The Eridani never intended to invade this world. They'll be keen to avoid an interplanetary incident.'

Behind the Doctor, Peri and Bob were wincing. But Swan took him at his word.

'Give me one good reason I should trust you,' she said.

'Good grief, woman,' shouted the Doctor, 'Haven't I made the picture clear enough for you? Do I have to describe in detail an entire world of zombies? A whole human race turned into dummy terminals for an alien power?'

'Just give me one reason why I I should trust should trust you you,' said Swan desperately 'I can't; said the Doctot 'That's a leap you're going to have to make yourself.'

Swan hung up.

This time, Washington's notorious traffic was on our side. As Swan was driving south to her home in Virginia, she became part of a queue of backed-up cars waiting to cross the Cabin John Bridge7. This was quite normal, but for a woman who's just robbed a bank, it was more than a little annoying. She didn't want any trouble, she just wanted to get home and get on with her new and satisfying life.

She switched on her police scanner, twiddling the dial up and down, hoping for news on the delay. And amongst the chatter, she heard her numberplate being read out.

She slammed on the brakes, causing the car behind her to kiss her b.u.mper, and tuned back in.

There it was again. One officer telling another to keep an eye out for her vehicle, believed to be heading south on the Beltway. The other officer said they were stopping cars at the Cabin John Bridge.

She had slipped up somewhere. She had been so confident about her perfect crime that she had left some fingerprint behind, left some witness to tell the tale.

Chick Peters. That little f.a.ggot. Or hulld.y.k.e, or whatever it was. Swan had scared the man-woman thing so badly that she just about p.i.s.sed in her pants. But she or he or it hadn't taken the hint. Peters had told the Doctor where Swan was and what she was doing, and one of them had told the police.

Swan would use Luis to kill both of them. Mash their brains between her fingers like a handful of mince.

That would have to keep. For now, she had two problems: the police, and the Doctor, who was out there somewhere in the traffic jam, looking for her. He was the real threat. She just needed a few minutes' peace, out of the pressure, to decide what to do.

Swan took exit 15 onto the George Washington Parkway, safely on the Maryland side of the bridge. The Parkway is divided, with no turnoffs, just exits. She already had a plan: take the ramp to Carderock, double back onto the parkway, heading south-east past the Beltway towards DC. She could get across the river on the Chain Bridge and be safely home in under an hour.

The Travco was waiting for her at the top of the Carderock ramp.

7 Later renamed the American Legion Memorial Bridge Her first urge was to ram it. Just aim the car at the side of the campervan and smash into it in a white blaze. She took a deep breath and let the station wagon roll to a stop on the side of the parkway, maybe fifty yards behind it.

What's your range, Doctor?' she growled. She had the handgun in the pocket of her jacket and the shotgun in the back seat. And she had Luis. The Doctor must have expected her to fly past him on the parkway; giving him a few instants in which to activate his device and deactivate Luis. He had hoped to surprise her, because without that, he was hopelessly outweaponed.

He knew it. The Travco climbed out into the thin stream of traffic, running for it.

Swan had two choices at this point: she could stick to her original plan and head back to the south-east, or she could follow the Doctor and press her advantage.

It had to be now. As long as he was out there, she and Luis would never be safe. He was the only thing that could put a dent in her new life. The only obstacle left to overcome.

Swan pulled out and accelerated. She savoured the mental image of what would happen when they caught him up the Travco suddenly losing control, careening off the road as its driver lost the mental capacity to steer.

Luis was infuriatingly calm and blank in his seat. She wanted to hit him. 'If you see the Doctor,' she growled,'lf you even sense sense him, I want you to drop him where he stands. Blow his brains out. Kill him. Any way you can. Do you understand?' him, I want you to drop him where he stands. Blow his brains out. Kill him. Any way you can. Do you understand?'

Luis just blinked slowly, but she knew her instruction had gone in. The Savant would be at least as determined to protect itself as she was.

The Doctor managed to keep ahead of her, driving wildly, weaving the dinosaur bulk of the campervan around the few cars on the road. Swan wanted to slam the accelerator to the floor, but something kept stopping her. It took her a few minutes to realise she didn't dare risk Luis's life: the urge to protect the Savant was too powerful. She swore and slapped the steering wheel. The Doctor had no such limitation, and he was getting away from them, even in that monstrosity.

The Parkway narrowed to two lanes, and then curved sharply. The Doctor turned hard left onto Macarthur Boulevard, without slowing down, almost side-swiping a VW Bug. He stayed on the road, accelerating away, Swan furiously trying to drive faster and failing. The Travco rounded a corner and was suddenly gone from sight. He was winning this video game. Swan wove down the hairpin turns as fast as she dared.

She was aware they were heading back towards the water. But the Doctor had no plan that she could see: he was just frantically trying to put distance between them.