'Jolly good,' interrupted the Doctor. 'Shall we get on with it?'

'I'm not sure I can help, Doctor,' Nyssa said. 'I mean, I think I can sense the Bloodhunter, but I don't think I can track it for you.'

'This is a terrible idea,' Tegan said. 'I just want you both to know that.'

'Thank you, Tegan, but we really don't have a lot of choice. It's imperative that we track the Bloodhunter down, and as soon as possible.'

'Why? Why can't we all stay on board the Adamantium Adamantium where it's safe?' where it's safe?'

'Because nowhere nowhere is safe,' the Doctor said with sudden impatience. 'Not while the thing that tried to enter the TARDIS is safe,' the Doctor said with sudden impatience. 'Not while the thing that tried to enter the TARDIS is still here, still trying to get free.'

Tegan was confused. 'But how do you know the Bloodhunter will take take you to it?' you to it?'

'I don't. But I've got a nasty suspicion forming in my mind.' The Doctor hesitated. 'Or at any rate, a nasty something something forming in my forming in my mind.' mind.'

'You've lost me.'

'Then listen, both of you: a little While ago I induced Nyssa into a state of light hypnosis...'

'What?' both women exclaimed.

'It's really nothing to worry about, just a little technique I know to help lower the mind's natural defences.'

'I've heard about men like you before,' Tegan said dryly.

'Tegan, please!'

'What does she mean?' Nyssa asked.

'Never mind,' the Doctor said. 'The important thing is, I established a link with... something, I don't know exactly what, but it was a definite sentience or force.'

'Inside my mind?' Nyssa said anxiously.

'Not necessarily inside, no. But a presence nonetheless.

Your mind acted acted as a sort of link or conduit.' as a sort of link or conduit.'

'Were you able to communicate with it?'

'No. It did... speak... to me, though. After a fashion.'

'What did it say?' Tegan wondered.

The Doctor pulled a face. 'Nothing much. Enough to make me realise that it's me me it wants.' it wants.'

'You?'

'Well, try not to sound so so surprised, Tegan. It did originally try to attack the TARDIS, remember. And the TARDIS and I are, well, very close. Perhaps the TARDIS was the only way to get to me.' surprised, Tegan. It did originally try to attack the TARDIS, remember. And the TARDIS and I are, well, very close. Perhaps the TARDIS was the only way to get to me.'

And my mind was the only way for it to gain entry to the TARDIS,'

Nyssa recalled. 'Doctor, what is it?'

'That's what I want to find out. Are you ready?'

Nyssa nodded after only a momentary pause. 'I'm willing to help you in any way I can, Doctor. You know that.'

The Doctor looked at her seriously. 'I know. But it could be very dangerous.'

Nyssa smiled faintly. 'I take that for granted, Doctor.'

'Yes, I know that too, but... well, the truth of the matter is this: this force, force, whatever it might be, can affect us all in very subtle ways. Ways of which we may not be aware at the time.' whatever it might be, can affect us all in very subtle ways. Ways of which we may not be aware at the time.'

Tegan said, 'You mean it's affecting our minds.

Perceptual interference, you said.'

'Thought control?' Nyssa sounded worried.

'That's what Tegan said originally. But it's not thought control. It's subtler than that. Less easy to define or even notice.' The Doctor sighed. 'Nyssa, it's possible that you might be agreeing to this because it it wants you to. wants you to.

'How would I know that?'

'You wouldn't. That's the difficulty. But it would mean that, if your decision is being influenced by the enemy, then that makes this whole undertaking even more dangerous.'

'Because it wants you to walk right into a trap.'

The Doctor nodded solemnly.

Nyssa sat upright and braced herself. 'It's a chance we will have to take, then.'

'No it is not!' Tegan declared hotly. She stared at the Doctor. He returned her look with haunted eyes, and she felt gooseb.u.mps rise up all over her skin. 'Is it?' she added weakly.

The Doctor's only answer was to produce his cricket ball.

He held the ball up before Nyssa, holding it lightly between finger and thumb. Nyssa instantly stiffened, her eyes taking on a horrible, unearthly look: not quite vacant, but totally expressionless. That she was in some kind of trance was obvious.

Tegan was appalled. 'Strewth, Doctor, that was quick work!'

'Post-hypnotic autosuggestion,' he said. 'Thought it might save time.'

'What now?' Tegan kept looking uncertainly at Nyssa.

'Now Nyssa will be able to find the creature. Take me to the enemy.' The Doctor turned to look at Tegan again. 'I've got a job for you too.' She swallowed. This was it, Tegan thought, put up up or or shut up time. shut up time. This was why she'd wanted to join up with the Doctor again in Amsterdam. Not just a chance to see the universe, but the chance to This was why she'd wanted to join up with the Doctor again in Amsterdam. Not just a chance to see the universe, but the chance to help. help. She looked him in the eye. 'Just say the word, Doctor.' She looked him in the eye. 'Just say the word, Doctor.'

Unsurprisingly, Silas Cadwell refused to go with the Doctor and Nyssa, and nor would he sanction any member of the Adamantium crew to accompany them. It was, he said, 'an expedition of the utmost folly, and one that I will not condone in any way, shape or form.'

So, the Doctor and Nyssa went on their own. Tegan watched them leave on one of the ship's exterior monitors.

The Doctor, ludicrously sporting his Panama, trudging across the dusty surface of the moon towards the cave entrance.

Nyssa, small and frail, hurried to keep up with him. Tegan watched them disappear with a deep sense of foreboding. It was made all the worse by the fact that only the three of them really knew what kind of danger they could be heading into: and even then, they didn't really really know what to expect at all. know what to expect at all.

Cadwell watched them leave as well, his cold grey eyes fixed on the viewer until the tiny white blob of the Doctor's hat disappeared from sight. A small muscle began to tic in his face as he leaned forward and switched off the monitor.

The Doctor lead Nyssa down through the main cavern at a fair pace, keeping up a jaunty commentary about caves he had visited before everything from the primitive dwelling places of prehistoric Earth to the mysterious, radiation-soaked subterranean world of Solos and the spectacular golden catacombs of Voga.

Nyssa knew that he was merely trying to take her mind off the purpose of their journey, and the possible dangers it might involve. She wasn't distracted for an instant; she heard the Doctor's voice but she did not listen to him. Instead, she was listening out for the other voice, the voice in her mind.

The voice from her dreams.

I am here, last daughter of Traken

Nyssa closed her eyes, so that she could be in darkness.

This was where the voice belonged.

I am always with you Sleeping with you 'Nyssa?'

She snapped open her eyes, blinded by the brightness around her. For a second she felt completely disorientated.

They were back in Ravus Oldeman's laboratory complex already. The artificial lighting was almost overwhelming. In her confused state of mind, Nyssa saw a great sphere of red, like a planet of boiling blood and lava, floating in the glare.

'Are you all right?' the Doctor inquired.

'Yes,' she gasped. The glowing red planet resolved itself into a cricket ball. 'Yes, I'm fine.'

He regarded her dubiously. 'Don't let your mind wander.'

'Must you use that?' Nyssa asked.

The Doctor looked at his cricket ball.'Doesn't it help?'

'Not really, no.'

He pocketed it. 'Then we'll carry on without it. If you're sure.'

'Yes,' she said firmly. She pointed across the secret door panel that made up part of the far wall. 'This way.'

She led him down into the lower chamber, where the stasis tanks were, and where Vega Jaal had been killed. With the exception of the equipment, the room was silent and empty.

'Over here.' Nyssa crossed to the back wall, between two of the stasis units.

The Doctor shone his torch down to floor level. The beam penetrated the shadows that clung to the rock and disappeared into a narrow black opening.

'So that's how it got out,' he murmured. 'That's how it was able to attack Vega Jaal when we were all up in the laboratory. It had its own little hidey-hole all along.'

'That's where it's gone,' Nyssa told him.

'Then that's where we go.'

The Doctor started forward, but Nyssa placed a hand on his arm.

'Doctor. Vega Jaal warned us about the last door, the last door, remember. He said we would not find the darkness beyond it remember. He said we would not find the darkness beyond it - but the darkness would find us.'

'Yes, I know.' The Doctor smiled briefly. 'I a.s.sume he was talking figuratively, of course, but either way we'll have to meet the, er, darkness darkness somewhere. We can always say we were just pa.s.sing, can't we? And it would be terribly rude not to pop in and say h.e.l.lo.' somewhere. We can always say we were just pa.s.sing, can't we? And it would be terribly rude not to pop in and say h.e.l.lo.'

With a last, cheery grin, the Doctor lowered himself nimbly through the hole. Nyssa watched him disappear into the cold shadows and then, her heart pounding, followed.

Chapter Fourteen.

Stoker had drunk enough Kalazak brandy to stun an Ogron.

Lawrence put the cap back on the flask and returned it to his desk. He was still deep in thought about Silas Cadwell. The 2IC was busy co-ordinating the hunt for the creature, but didn't seem to be making much progress. Lawrence considered this unusual: Cadwell was normally very efficient.

'You're forgetting something,' said Stoker. She struggled to sit up, and Lawrence eyed her warily.

'I'd forgotten how much you could drink and still stay conscious,' he remarked.

'Helps me think,' she replied. 'But that's not what I meant.

I've been wondering about your Silas Cadwell. Why don't you check his records again?'

'We already have. Remember?'