He reached the door and pushed it open. The noise stopped.

The light disappeared. He reached for a light switch, flicked it on and saw that he was in an old storeroom with bundles of movie memorabilia strewn about the place.

thud

This must be where De Sande kept all the trinkets he'd picked up in his years as a film-maker.

thud Ben was sure he'd heard something. A large antique-looking cupboard stood at the back of the room, the only piece of furniture.

He walked up to it and listened. He could definitely hear something something.

One. Two. Three. He pulled open the cupboard door, but there was barely enough light to see anything so it took a couple of moments for his eyes to adjust.

When they did he wished they hadn't, as the sight that greeted him made him feel nauseous. On the floor of the cupboard were two pale white figures which were clearly human corpses. Their flesh was pale and wrinkling, but the bodies hadn't begun to decompose yet so they must have died relatively recently. Ben turned away and wanted to be sick, but after taking a few deep breaths he managed to regain his composure. He reached down to see if there was anything in the jacket one of them wore that would reveal where the bodies had come from or who they were.

Suddenly an arm flew up and grabbed his face. As he looked down at the corpse, Ben was sure its expressionless face was laughing at him. He felt the cold flesh grip at his features and pulled away quickly, shocked and startled. By the time he looked back the body was dormant again. He turned and ran out of the room.

It took him ten minutes to find the Doctor and another five to prise him away from the conversation he was having with someone who claimed to be one of the investors in De Sande's film. The Doctor seemed incredulous at Ben's claims but came along with him anyway, like a parent checking under a child's bed for monsters. By this time Ben had recovered from the sickening contents of the cupboard, but nevertheless made sure the Doctor went into the room first.

'My my, what a treasure trove,' the Doctor commented, looking around at the memorabilia.

'You just wait until you see what's in there!' Ben said, pointing to the cupboard. 'You'll have a bleeding heart attack, you will.'

'I'm sure there's a perfectly rational explanation for this,' the Doctor said. 'De Sande seems a very amiable fellow. I doubt he'd be hiding dead bodies in his house!'

He opened the cupboard door. Ben tried to peer over his shoulder but in the dim light could barely see anything.

'Now this is is interesting,' the Doctor said. interesting,' the Doctor said.

'Do you see them?' Ben asked.

The Doctor turned round and smiled. 'Look around us, Ben.

This room is full of collectables and film props from a hundred motion pictures. De Sande is a keen film fan as well as a director, you know.'

'So?'

'So...' The Doctor reached inside and hauled up the body inside the cupboard. In the light it was clearly made of plastic, and wasn't even that convincing. 'It's a prop from an old zombie film, I shouldn't wonder,' the Doctor said.

Ben took a good look at the body. 'But it grabbed me, Doctor, I swear it!'

The Doctor tapped the side of the body's head. 'It rattles!

See, mechanical. You probably activated it accidentally.'

Ben felt embarrassed and ridiculous because of his mistake but was still unnerved.

As they left the room he remembered one detail he had forgotten.

'Doctor, there was only one prop there, but I'm sure I saw two.'

The Doctor laughed. 'Didn't you see? The back of that cupboard was a mirror!'

As they made their way back towards the party Ben whispered in the Doctor's ear. 'Don't tell Polly about this, yeah?'

The Doctor smiled and nodded. 'Understood, Ben, understood. Now listen, you're clearly bored by this party, aren't you?'

'Well I wouldn't say that, Doctor.'

'It's all right, I'm not too enthralled with the company either.

I think we'll say our goodbyes in a few minutes, but first I was wondering if you might do me a favour.'

The Doctor's voice dropped to a whisper. 'There's definitely more to this film than meets the eye. I'm curious to find out what, but it's clear Mr De Sande isn't giving up any secrets. Polly and I will distract the others.' He pointed in the direction of the screening room. 'See if you can "borrow" anything useful from in there, can you?'

'All right, Doctor,' Ben said, getting the gist of what his friend was implying.

Ben sneaked into the screening room and saw a couple of De Sande's servants busy buffing the seats and tidying things up after the night's performance. Even now the lighting was not particularly bright, so they didn't see him. He looked towards the back of the room and saw a small ladder leading up to the projection room. Moving as quickly but as silently as he could, he hitched himself up the ladder and snuck into the room.

'Can I help you?' asked a chirpy-looking dark-skinned teenager who was busy putting reels of film back in their canisters.

'Er, hello there,' Ben said, thinking on his feet. 'I just wanted to say congratulations on today's performance.'

'Oh thanks,' the boy said, 'but I just load the film reels into the projector. It's Mr De Sande you want to be thanking. He's a genius, probably the greatest film-maker in the world. Hang on a minute... What are you doing here? No one's allowed up here unless they're authorised members of Mr De Sande's staff.'

Ben looked around the room and saw rows and rows of film reels of varying sizes. He knew the Doctor would love him to 'borrow' a reel of Dying in the Sun Dying in the Sun, but it was clear that most of the film canisters were just too big for him to spirit one away. In the corner of the room were some much smaller canisters though, one of which could easily fit into his pocket. 'This is quite a collection you've got here,' he said, moving towards them. 'Are these all De Sande's pictures?'

'Please, sir,' the boy said, wringing his hands with agitation, 'if anyone finds you here I'll be in big trouble.'

Ben glanced down at the small canisters and saw that they contained extracts from different films. One of them was labelled 'Dying rough cut'. Even if it didn't turn out to be very useful, this was the best he could hope for.

He picked up a different canister, being careful to choose one that didn't seem to be connected to Dying in the Sun Dying in the Sun.

'Yeah, quite a collection.'

'Please, put that down!' said the projectionist. As he did so Ben dropped the canister on the floor.

'Careful!' the boy shouted, kneeling down to pick it up.

While he was doing this Ben took advantage of his distraction to slip the Dying in the Sun Dying in the Sun reel into his jacket pocket. reel into his jacket pocket.

'I'm sorry,' he apologised as the boy inspected the canister for signs of damage. 'I'm just a bit of a film buff, you know. I find places like this... well, interesting.'

The boy appeared to react slightly. Ben had obviously struck a chord with him.

'Anyway,' Ben continued, putting on a disappointed act, 'I wouldn't want you to get in trouble, so I'll be off now.

Goodbye.'

'Goodnight, sir,' the projectionist said as Ben climbed down the ladder and returned to the party.

Ben found a very bored-looking Doctor sulking in a corner.

Polly seemed to be trying to cheer him up. 'What's up with him?'

Ben asked.

'Oh, Mr De Sande won't let him in on any of his secrets, that's all,' Polly told him.

'Come on, Doctor,' Ben said. 'You heard what he said. He's like a magician. You can understand why he doesn't want the world to know how he does it.'

'That's just the point,' the Doctor said. 'What is it that the world needs to know about Mr De Sande?'

'Here,' Ben said, tapping his jacket pocket. 'I've got something that should cheer you up.'

The Doctor smiled. 'Best not show me here, eh?' He turned to Polly, and pointed at the exit through which people were gradually slipping away from the party. 'I think it's time we made a move, don't you think so, Polly?' She put her arm round the Doctor and they began to walk towards the door.

As Ben's feet started to crunch on the gravel just outside the house he felt a large hand clamp down on his shoulder. He turned round to see a burly security guard standing behind him.

'Excuse me, sir, we have to conduct a quick security check on all our guests. I'm sure you can understand.'

'What?' said Ben, panicking as he thought of the film reel in his pocket. 'You must be joking, right?'

'No, it's perfectly sensible,' said the Doctor, moving between Ben and the security guard. He threw his hands up into the air. 'I promise I haven't taken anything away with me other than a bit of a light head!'

The security guard didn't seem convinced and quickly searched the Doctor's pockets.

'You're clean,' he said. He pointed to Ben. 'Now you.'

'What?' Ben looked at the Doctor for support. 'I'm not being searched by that gorilla!'

The Doctor scuttled round behind Ben and tapped him on the back, pushing him towards the guard. 'Now don't be a silly.

It won't hurt.'

Ben reluctantly lifted his hands and let the man search him.

He expected all hell to break loose when the guard found the film but the guard didn't even seem to notice it.

'You're clean too,' the guard said, disappointment clear in his voice. He proceeded to search Polly but, when he couldn't find anything suspicious on her either, resignedly wished the group a nice day and told them to walk to the end of the driveway where a car would pick them up to take them home.

'Here, what was that all about?' Ben asked once they were out of earshot of the guard. 'Where's that film I nicked?'

The Doctor grinned and tapped his own jacket pocket.

'Sleight of hand, Ben, sleight of hand.'

As they passed through the gates at the entrance to the house they saw a fleet of cars waiting. Other party guests were getting into them and driving away.

'Polly!' hissed a voice.

The voice belonged to a tall man in a long dark coat who was pressing himself against the stone wall that shielded the house from everyday view. Although he was technically outside the gates to De Sande's estate, it appeared that he didn't want to attract too much attention from the security guards.

He looked around furtively, then moved closer. His face was briefly illuminated in the moonlight.

Polly gasped, though Ben couldn't understand why. There was nothing interesting or shocking about the man's appearance, he just looked like another middle-aged Hollywood businessman. The stranger smiled at Polly. 'How are you?'

'I'm fine,' Polly snapped. 'What do you want?'

'Hello,' the Doctor said to the man. 'I'm the Doctor.'

The man nodded, then tipped his hat. 'Polly told me about you. I'm Leon Zane, MGA Studios.'

'MGA Studios?' said Ben. 'The movie studio?'

Zane nodded. 'That's the one.'

'What on Earth are you doing here?' Polly asked. Ben wondered where she knew the man from. She certainly seemed to have very little time for him. 'Are you following me?'

Zane let out a bellowing laugh. 'You ain't that important, sister. One of our rivals is releasing a movie soon, and it's being screened tonight. No, I just came along to see what people thought of the flick... ask them on their way out, that sort of thing. Get some feedback so we know what we're in for. No one's saying much, though, and I keep getting dirty looks from those security guards. I was about to head off when I saw you and your friends.' Zane looked around furtively, clearly not too comfortable with speaking out in the open within earshot of the security guards. 'Listen, can the three of you come to my car for a minute? I wouldn't mind asking you a few questions and I don't like the idea of eavesdroppers around here.'

The Doctor appeared to be weighing up the wisdom of going with a complete stranger, but his curiosity soon got the better of him. 'Oh why not,' he said, rubbing his hands together.

'If you're a friend of Polly's... Come along, Ben.'

Zane's car, a luxurious white stretch limo, was parked in a side road well away from De Sande's estate. Once everyone was seated inside it Zane reached into his coat pocket and produced a business card which he handed to the Doctor.

'My contact details are on there if you ever need to talk,' he explained.