Wallis lashed out and grabbed the Doctor's coat, pulling the smaller man towards him. He threw out his fist, connecting it to the Doctor's face with an unpleasant crack. The Doctor sprawled to the floor, blood dripping from his nose.

'Oi!' Ben said, leaping to his friend's defence. He tried to Punch Wallis himself, but the older man, more agile than his appearance implied, was too quick. He grabbed Ben's arm mid-punch and twisted it round in an old police hold.

'This is my fight,' he growled. 'I'm sure the Doctor can do without your help.'

Ben struggled to escape his grip but found his efforts were futile. Lack of blood numbed his arm, and when Wallis finally dropped him to the floor a few moments passed before the pain receded enough for him to be able to sit up. 'Now shut up and get ready,' the policeman said. 'Your Initiation is about to begin.

Something tells me you'll be a bit less confrontational after that.'

Wallis walked off into the crowd, ignoring the startled onlookers who had noticed the brawl. The Doctor was sitting up, dabbing his nose with his handkerchief. 'Oh my,' he said. 'I seemed to hit a nerve there.'

'Come on, Doctor,' Ben said. 'Let's teach him a lesson. That was well out of order!'

The Doctor shook his head. 'No no, Ben. There's no need to make the situation any worse. I have all the proof I need of what happened to poor Harold.'

'You sure you're OK, Doctor?' Ben said as he stood up.

'That bloke packs quite a punch.'

'And I've got quite a thick skin.' The Doctor grinned. 'I'm fine. Come on, I think I want a few more words with our sponsor.'

At one end of the auditorium was a large stone podium with small holes into which a group of people dressed in the same type of robes as Brother Reinert were busy slotting candles.

De Sande's mighty form stood over the podium watching the careful operation, his eyes seemingly transfixed by the flames.

'Mr De Sande?' the Doctor said quietly as he moved to stand beside the director. 'I just wanted to say thank you for giving us the benefit of the doubt tonight. I had no idea our organisation made such a... "unique" contribution to the welfare of this city.'

A small smile crept across De Sande's face, revealing his famous golden front tooth. 'I'm very glad of that,' he said.

The Doctor paused, looking for the right words. When he spoke, his voice was a reverential whisper. 'I don't believe Robert Chate killed Harold Reitman.'

De Sande shook his head and sighed. 'Charles warned me you were rather obsessed with this subject. What the devil has he been feeding you this time?'

'I believe Mr Wallis knows his son didn't kill Harold. He knows this because he he was the killer.' was the killer.'

De Sande's face was cold and expressionless, like a poker player keeping his cards close to his chest. 'You told the police you didn't see anything. What makes you think such things?

Charles is one of my oldest friends. I know you two don't get on, but to accuse him of being a murderer? Come on, Doctor!'

The director shook his head and took a deep breath. 'Anyway, whether Chate did or did not kill Reitman is irrelevant now. He's made his bed by killing Revere. The police want him for double homicide. He's dead even if he only goes down for one.'

'Do you really think he killed Revere?'

De Sande's voice contained little emotion. 'No one else could have. Martin's body was found in the wreckage of Chate's apartment, Chate was seen going in there, then no sign of Chate... He has to be the killer. Besides, he seems the sort who would be capable of that kind of thing. Yeah, he had a killing streak, all right. Ruthless, dangerous. You wouldn't want to cross him, you know? We should have dealt with him when we had the chance. We shouldn't have let him go like that.'

One of the robed men sidled up to De Sande and tugged on the sleeve of his tuxedo. 'We're ready,' the man rasped, his head bowed. 'It's time.'

All the holes in the podium were now filled with burning candles. The robed group stood back and the auditorium filled with silence.

De Sande moved to the front of the room and held his arms out as one of the monks draped a long red robe over him. A gong sounded and the lights dimmed the room so that only the Podium was illuminated.

De Sande stepped forward into the spotlight and began his speech.

'It's been a poignant evening, so far,' he said, 'and now I'd like to invite you all to witness a modern miracle.'

The crowd bustled excitedly in agreement.

'And now, ladies and gentlemen, I'll hand you over to one of the representatives.' He turned to one of the cloaked figures standing in the shadows behind him. 'Sir?'

'Oh dear,' whispered the Doctor. 'I don't like the look of this at all.'

Slowly, the figure lifted its hood and dropped it back to reveal the face underneath. The face of death.

Pale white flesh, barely attached to the protruding bone, peeled off a skull with rotting eyeballs in its eye sockets. Clumps of dead hair sprouted from the top of the figure's decomposing head and the flesh around the mouth was shrivelled, wrinkled and decaying. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't human. It didn't seem alien, either. Ben could think of only one way to describe it. The thing was a corpse. A corpse that walked among men.

Third Reel

Chapter Eighteen.

Their faces were made of wrinkled white flesh, their sunken eye sockets revealed rotting veined eyeballs, their facial muscles were altered by rigor mortis. They were dead. Yet they were alive.

The corpse in the middle of the group stepped forward on to the podium. Its walk reminded Ben of the skeletons in that Jason and the Argonauts Jason and the Argonauts film. It was like they weren't quite real, as if they had been animated frame by frame. The corpse's face was expressionless, as if it was in a trance. film. It was like they weren't quite real, as if they had been animated frame by frame. The corpse's face was expressionless, as if it was in a trance.

The creature looked like it would fall over at any moment and crumble into a pile of dust, but it managed to keep its balance until it reached the microphone De Sande had been using.

'Friends,' it croaked in a slow, rasping voice. It made Ben think of a coma patent trying to speak for the first time in years, and he wondered whether the corpse's voice would get clearer once it got used to speaking again.

'We are at a junction,' it said. 'A nexus in our quest. The first stage of the plan has been successfully completed. You have all done well.'

The crowd started to murmur excitedly.

'There is still much to do,' the corpse continued. 'It is less than two days until Dying in the Sun Dying in the Sun is released across the country. is released across the country.

In less than two days the clearest vision of our beliefs ever created will be released, bringing our way of life to more people than has ever been possible before. Once the film is in the public domain our plan will be complete, and the first stage of our work will be done. Be watchful, and be there to help those who begin to understand our way. A new era begins here.'

The corpse stepped back and the crowd applauded. Once the applause had died down, the lights went up and people began to chatter excitedly amongst themselves.

'What the hell is this all about?' Ben whispered to the Doctor. 'What was that thing?'

The Doctor's brow was furrowed. 'I'm not sure, Ben.'

'And now,' De Sande announced, 'will the Initiates please come forth.' He glanced down at the Doctor and Ben and beckoned for them to come forward.

The crowd cleared a space and a small group of people, presumably the other Initiates, stepped forward. Middle-aged men with potbellies, younger people not much older than Ben and a couple of heavily made-up women the group was a mixed bunch, but all had a look of pure excitement on their faces.

The lights dimmed further, and the whirring noise of machinery could be heard. Suddenly the giant projector screen behind the podium leapt into life as the spinning star of the Star Light logo began to rotate gracefully on the screen.

'If I'd have known we were going to the pictures I'd have brought some popcorn,' Ben whispered.

The Doctor shushed him quiet as the film began. The canopy of a jungle, a camera flying down quickly to eye level and focusing on a man in a suit marching hurriedly through the undergrowth. The film was Dying in the Sun Dying in the Sun.

'I've seen this one,' Ben joked. 'I wonder what else is on?'

As the film continued the Doctor and Ben joined the Initiates, who were now standing in a horseshoe formation around the screen. Slowly, in harmony, everyone in the auditorium began to chant in a language Ben didn't recognise.

As he watched the film he became aware that it wasn't quite the same as the version he had seen before. As the creatures on the film worked their magic, blood flowed from wounded bodies stabbed by the hero, there were images of naked natives being slaughtered at the hands of a businessman from LA, the heroine was attacked and rescued in a heavy rainstorm that drenched everything in sight. The chaos and the nastiness of the film the Doctor and Ben had seen at De Sande's mansion had been turned up several notches. It was unpleasant, it was addictive, it was incredible.

The chant went on, and as he glanced around Ben realised that very few people were actually watching the film. It was as if they didn't even need to see it to absorb the emotions it generated within them. Like a besuited congregation they worshipped the flickering images on the screen, images that became more and more intense as the chanting continued, as if the film itself was feeding on the hysteria of the crowd. Perhaps it was.

A low rumbling sound began, emanating from the podium.

The chanting silenced and the Initiates all stood back. Slowly, the rumbling turned into a scraping sound as the centre of the podium began to sink into the ground leaving a large hole in its centre.

A fast whooshing noise, then suddenly a rush of bright light burst from the hole. Somewhere in the room, though Ben could not quite work out where, a distant choral singing began.

A stone pillar rose up through the hole, slowly blocking out the rush of light. On top of the pillar was a glass vase that glowed brightly with a bubbling, fiery gold liquid. The pillar stopped moving, all noise died and the light dimmed, leaving only the glow from the liquid as illumination.

De Sande reached down and carefully picked up the vase, lifting it above his head where he held it for several moments.

He then passed the liquid to the Initiate on his left and one by one the group began to drink from the vase. An unholy communion, if ever there was one.

As the vase was passed to a man facing towards Ben and the Doctor they saw what was happening in detail. Small lights danced around in the liquid like fireflies, and as people drank it you could almost see the brightness shining through the translucence of their skin as the liquid slipped down their throats. Ben got a sick feeling in his stomach as he realised what he was seeing. There were living things in the liquid and the Initiates were swallowing them live.

The vase was passed to Ben and he paused, looking to the Doctor for advice on how to proceed.

'Drink it,' De Sande whispered. 'Go on.'

Ben raised the vase to his lips, then shook his head and handed the vase to the next Initiate. 'I'm sorry,' he said, rushing from the podium. 'I can't.'

'Oh dear,' the Doctor said to De Sande. 'Let me see if he's OK.'

He walked over to the side of the room where Ben had collapsed into a chair.

'It's OK,' De Sande announced. 'Continue with the ceremony.'

Once the last Initiate had drunk from the vase, it was handed back to De Sande who replaced it on the podium. The podium receded into the ground, becoming the simple stone platform it had been before. The extract from Dying in the Sun Dying in the Sun disappeared from the cinema screen as the projector was switched off. De Sande stepped forward to the lectern. disappeared from the cinema screen as the projector was switched off. De Sande stepped forward to the lectern.

'The ceremony is complete,' he announced. 'The Initiates have welcomed the Selyoids into their lives.' He turned to one of the Initiates. 'How does it feel?'

The Initiate looked bewildered, but her face was covered in a smile. 'It's beautiful,' she said, tears in her eyes. 'I finally realise what life is all about. Thank you.'

De Sande nodded and gestured to one of the monks to lead the Initiates away from the podium so that they could sit down and recover from their experience.

'She should not thank me,' De Sande told the crowd. 'She should thank the Selyoids.' There was a round of applause from the audience and he stepped down from the stage, then marched straight up to the chair where Ben was sitting. 'What's going on?'

he asked. 'Are you OK?'

'What was that corpse thing?' Ben asked. 'It scared the willies out of me.'

'You shouldn't have been upset by it,' De Sande said, confused. 'The ceremonial atmosphere should have relaxed you enough for it not to have proved a problem. It seems I was mistaken, though. Perhaps I should have let you know what you were in for earlier.'

'Ben's just been feeling a bit under the weather,' the Doctor explained.

De Sande shrugged. 'Oh well. At least you participated in most of the ceremony. We can complete your Initiation in a few minutes once you've got yourself together.'

'Indeed,' the Doctor said. 'Tell me, are the corpses animatronic devices or genuine?'

'Genuine corpses, Doctor. John Does from the local morgue. One hundred per cent genuine walking dead. Nothing but the best for FOCAL, I assure you.'

'Glad to hear it,' Ben said sarcastically.

'They are dead bodies, but they are being animated by a highly intelligent life form unlike any ever documented by science. These creatures have a great capacity for intelligence, and while they are almost microscopic in size they can meld with a human host and experience life through their eyes and ears. If the creatures merge with a living being they are subject to the will of the person's mind, but if they adopt a stiff they can exert complete control on it. Doctor, the creatures controlling those cadavers are going to change the face of America for ever.'

'What are they?' Ben asked.

'I don't know exactly,' De Sande admitted, 'but you can rest assured they're totally benevolent. Science has no record of them, so they have no name. I call them Selyoids. It's kind of a joke.'

The Doctor sighed. 'But what are are they?' they?'