'Hey, I speak up when something's bothering me.'

'That's because '

She stopped. Fitz grimaced and dropped and stepped on his cigarette.

'Because I'm a boy?'

'No!' She flushed. 'I don't think that. I was going to say, because you're, well...' He eyed her sardonically. 'Unique.'

'Ah.'

'I mean, you don't care what people think,' she went on, flustered. 'And things just sort of roll off you. You've been through a lot, Fitz it's kind of surprising you're not in a place like this.'

'Mm.'

'What is this, anyway? All of a sudden you've gone all self-critical. You never used to give a damn.'

'I don't now, really. It's just, sometimes I wonder what I'm doing with my life.'

She looked at him in amazement. 'Uh... Saving the universe?'

Fitz snorted and took out another cigarette. 'He's the one who saves the universe. I just help out.'

'Well '

'Anj, anyone anyone can help him. He was saving the universe long before I met him. And you know who was with him when I can help him. He was saving the universe long before I met him. And you know who was with him when I did did first meet him? A teenaged girl. It's not exactly a job with high entry-level qualifications, helping him.' first meet him? A teenaged girl. It's not exactly a job with high entry-level qualifications, helping him.'

'For heaven's sake, what were you doing before? You were a florist florist ' '

He sat up, stung. 'I was not not a florist. I was selling plants.' a florist. I was selling plants.'

'Same difference.'

'It is not not. Florists, like, arrange arrange flowers. These were mostly in pots. With leaves and stuff.' flowers. These were mostly in pots. With leaves and stuff.'

'Stuff?'

'Twiggy stuff. Like wood. Most of them didn't even have flowers.'

'I see.'

'And there were other things in the shop. Lots of other things. Gnomes for instance.'

'Gnomes?'

'You know, the little plaster ones.'

'I see. So you were a shop assistant.'

'Yeah.'

'And now you're only a save-theuniverse assistant.'

'Let's just drop it.'

'You '

'I don't want to talk about it!'

She smiled with mock smugness. 'Just like a man.'

He opened his mouth to reply, then stopped, puzzled. She giggled. 'All right,' he said, trying not to smile. 'All right. Another goal for Kapoor.'

'You shouldn't play out of your game.'

'No,' he agreed.

'No,' said Chiltern.

'I see,' said the Doctor, though actually this wasn't true. It wasn't at all clear to him what was going on. He put on his mildest expression and regarded Chiltern thoughtfully. The alienist had drawn sheer lace curtains across the windows, but even in diffuse light he looked more strained than when the Doctor had last seen him which, considering he had been distraught and full of opium, was something of an accomplishment. His whole manner was different too. There had been a gentleness in him that the Doctor no longer saw any trace of. The man across the desk now was tense, harsh and abrupt.

'May I ask why you changed your mind?' the Doctor asked courteously. 'I trust that I have not inadvertently '

'No, no, nothing to do with you,' said Chiltern impatiently. 'I'm sure you're a competent hypnotist. I simply, after thinking it over, decided it was not something I was interested in after all.'

'I understand,' said the Doctor. 'It is is an invasive procedure. And your brother?' an invasive procedure. And your brother?'

Chiltern looked at him sharply. 'My brother?'

'Do you still want me to talk to him?'

'I'm not sure I ever wanted you to at all,' Chiltern retorted, frowning. 'If I did, I can't imagine what was in my mind. I certainly don't now.'

Two down, thought the Doctor. 'How is Miss Jane?'

'Quite well. She's gone home.'

'Home?'

'To America. One of the western states, I believe.'

And three. The Doctor stood up politely. 'I won't take any more of your time.'

Chiltern nodded curtly.

The Doctor paused in the hall outside Chiltern's office and looked up and down. At one end, a nurse was assisting an elderly man through a door. Otherwise, he was alone. He turned and briskly headed in the direction of the violent ward.

He didn't consider this an ideal course of action, but it was the one that presented itself. Sneaking back into the grounds and dodging guards and orderlies didn't strike him as ideal either. Particularly in such a relatively unregulated place, walking confidently along as if he knew where he was going got him easily past the nurses and patients and occasional doctor he passed. The orderly sitting in a chair at the entrance to the ward, however, was another matter. As he looked up, the Doctor increased his stride and stuck out his hand. 'I'm Dr Smith. Did we meet last week?'

The man had risen to take the Doctor's hand. He was young, very big, and rough-looking, though groomed without a button or hair out of place. He squinted at the Doctor, half-suspiciously. 'Don't believe so, sir.'

'Well, Mr, er...'

'O'Keagh.'

'Mr O'Keagh. I won't keep you long. I had a question to Dr Chiltern that he thought you could answer.' The Doctor looked frankly into the orderly's eyes. 'So I just nipped down here rather than have him go to the trouble of fetching you, though perhaps you wouldn't have minded that, it must get rather dull standing about here all day with no one to talk to, tiring too, I'd imagine, perhaps you'd like to sit back down...'

O'Keagh's eyes became even narrower. The Doctor reminded himself that psychotics, the overly-suspicious and he glanced again at O'Keagh's military neatness obsessive-compulsives were almost impossible to hypnotise. He smiled in what he hoped was a winning and reassuring manner. 'What I mean to say is, I saw Miss Jane a couple of times. Professionally. And I wondered if at any time on your shift, you heard her say anything unusual.'

'Such as what?'

'Just anything that struck you as out of the ordinary.'

'Never heard her say anything.'

'Ah,' said the Doctor. O'Keagh regarded him truculently. 'Well, that's that, then.' With another smile, he turned and went away down the corridor. He could feel the big orderly's eyes on him. He hoped he wouldn't run into Chiltern on his way back to the front entrance, that would be rather embarrassing and difficult to explain. However he didn't, and as soon as he was out of the door be spotted Anji and Fitz on a bench by one of the gardens. He walked up to them. 'Something's wrong.'

'What?' said Fitz.

'I'm not sure.'

'How's Miss Jane?' said Anji.

'Gone back to America. At least, that's what Chiltern says.'

'You think Chiltern isn't straight?' said Fitz, surprised. 'Seemed soul-ofthe-Victoriangent to me.'

'Yes.' The Doctor looked around at the men and women strolling and talking in the bright grounds. 'To me as well. But there's something... Fitz, would you please wait here and keep an eye on the entrance? And if Chiltern comes out, come and warn us.'

'Where are you going?'

'To get a look at the grounds over by the old wing.'

'What's in the old wing?' said Anji as they crossed the lawn towards the grim stone walls.

'The violent ward.'

'Where Miss Jane was? Do you think she's still there?'

'I don't know. We may be able to find out, though. I think I got a sense of the place's layout when I was in there.' The Doctor glanced back at the main building. 'Unfortunately, we're in sight if anyone in the hall looks out of the windows, so I'll have to be quick. Shield me as much as you can.'

Anji didn't think that would be very much. But she obligingly stood behind the Doctor as he positioned himself beneath the last of the gridded windows. 'All clear?' he asked, and when she said yes, she heard him grip the bars and hoist himself up to look inside. He dropped back almost instantly and led her away.

'Empty. No sheets on the bed.'

'So she may be gone. Or she may simply not be in that room any longer. Now what?'

'Let's go round the other side.'

Looking up from his third cigarette, Fitz spotted the tall, gaunt figure of Dr Chiltern come through the clinic's doors. He jumped up, then hesitated as Chiltern turned and headed along the front of the main building in the direction of the old wing. There was no way to warn the Doctor without sprinting right across Chiltern's path. Well, he thought, all right then.

'Dr Chiltern!' he yelled, running after him. 'Dr Chiltern!'

Chiltern turned quickly, not exactly alarmed, but on guard. Fitz didn't blame him. He waved a friendly hand. 'Hello! It's me!' He panted up to the alienist. 'Fitz Kreiner. Remember? We met at Mrs Hemming's seance.'

Chiltern stared at him unwelcomingly. 'What are you doing here?'

'Well, I...' Fitz caught his breath. 'I thought I needed treatment.'

'Treatment?'

'As a patient.'

'Really,' Chiltern started to turn away, 'I don't think '

'No,' said Fitz desperately, 'you've got to help me. I see things!'

Chiltern stopped unwillingly. 'What sort of things?'

'Horrible. You can't imagine. People who turn into clocks. Beings from other worlds who look like rhinoceroses.'

'Perhaps you should take up the writing of sensational literature.' Chiltern moved away again.

Fitz followed right after him. 'And there were these things the Undecided, no, the Unnoticed they had their stomachs outside slung beneath their legs dripping acid, and with worms in.'

This time Chiltern looked at him in revulsion. It occurred to Fitz that if he did too good a job with this he could end up in a ward himself, He glanced past Chiltern to where the old wing was now visible. No sign of the Doctor or Anji. He stopped. 'Er, well then... maybe later.'

'I don't think so,' said Chiltern, and turned an abrupt corner around the main building. He hadn't been going to the violent ward after all. Just as well, thought Fitz. Even if the Doctor was out of sight, who knew what he was up to?

At that moment the Doctor was literally up to another window, his fingers intertwined in the grid, his feet braced against the stone wall beneath.

'Anyone?' said Anji from behind and below him.

'No.' The Doctor dropped back to the ground. 'There don't actually seem to be any other violent patients.'

'If Miss Jane's gone, there may not be any.'

'There are,' said the Doctor grimly, hoisting himself to another window, peering inside, and dropping again.

'Who?'

'Chiltern's brother.'