Scenting that, at last, its hunt was over, the tyrannosaurus leapt through the last of the constricting trees . . .

. . . and collided hard with the outer wall of the returning Galactic Prison.

67.

8.Don't Ask

Bernice sat up and rubbed the back of her neck with a groan.

'You know, before I met the Doctor, I could count the number of times I'd been knocked unconscious on the fingers of . . .

well, one finger. Now it's becoming a regular habit.'

'Occupational hazard,' the computer chirped from nearby.

Benny clambered up and yelped as the jetstream of a pa.s.sing airbus nearly blew her off the rooftop. She took hold of the sky-bike's handlebars and mounted it stiffly. 'Remind me what happened.'

'You crashed when a raspberry blancmange thrown by the Quiz hit your face.'

'I should be surprised. My life's become quite surreal lately.

A fortnight ago, I was fighting mad teddy bears.' That stray recollection cleared Benny's mind a little. She spotted a gap in the traffic and went for it. As the bike eased itself into the flow, she rubbed her eyes and wished that the dull ache in her forehead would go away. 'What am I doing in this place?'

'You're chasing the Quiz, by following the clue he left on my street guide whilst you were asleep.'

Bernice looked down at the green felt-tipped words, scrawled untidily across the map screen.

WHY DID THE ELEPHANT USE THE TELEPHONE?.

-? Q.

The Doctor strode along the corridors of the Galactic Prison building, hands clasped behind his back, inspecting the decor with a nonchalant air. 'Grey walls, grey floor, grey ceiling,' he mused. 'Not very imaginative.'

He smiled as he rounded a corner and saw the familiar police 68 box sh.e.l.l of his TARDIS. As he approached it, two men appeared from nowhere, one each side of him. They were tall and muscular, dressed in fawn prison officer's uniforms.

Without speaking or even looking at him, they gripped an arm each and propelled the Doctor's slighter form towards the TARDIS doors, his feet barely touching ground. He didn't resist.

After a short wait, the doors swung open and three figures emerged, the first with her hands tied behind her back, being pushed along by the others. The Doctor's face lit up when he saw them. 'Of course, I should have realized.' He doffed his hat towards the prisoner, no mean feat with his upper arms pinned.

'h.e.l.lo, Mel. Nice to see you again.'

'Doctor!' Mel's face broke into a grin of relief. But the Doctor wasn't looking at her. He was staring intently at the young man in the black blazer.

'I wish I could say the same thing for you,' he growled. The third man - his own double, it seemed - broke the contact, interposing himself between the pair. 'What are you doing out of your cell?' he snapped.

'Inspection tour,' the Doctor answered, his tone belying the levity in his words.

The newcomer snorted derisively. Then he turned away.

'Jason and I have no time to waste on defeated miscreants.' He raised his voice to command the silent guards. 'Take these prisoners and lock them up. Securely, this time.'

The two men saluted smartly and the Doctor was lifted again.

Another guard appeared and took hold of Melanie's shoulder.

'It might interest you to know,' the ersatz Doctor called as they were dragged away, 'that I've tracked down your other accomplices. They'll soon be serving well-deserved sentences with you.' He chuckled to himself and swept back into the TARDIS. The Doctor craned to see over his shoulder: the young man Jason was still outside the ship and glaring at him with steel in his eyes.

'Aren't you going to do something?' Mel wailed.

'No, Mel,' the Doctor said mildly. 'Our friend there is right.

69.We've been very naughty and we must be punished. It's only fair.'

Roz rose from behind the console, worried. She circled it, but Dr Who was nowhere in sight. Not in here and certainly not on the scanner. But she had seen him pivot and walk in through the TARDIS doors, so quickly that she hadn't had time to escape.

He should have caught her red-handed. So where was he?

She turned her attention back to the screen, and watched as the Doctor and Mel were taken away. She resisted the impulse to charge out and help them. She had some inkling of the powers at Dr Who's disposal and she didn't want to tip her hand yet. Besides, she would have a better chance soon. She knew where the Doctor was now, and she had heard enough to understand that his captors were going after Benny and Chris next (and one more target - who could that be?). Once those two were aboard, the intruders wouldn't know what hit them!

Jason was heading back, so she turned off the scanner and darted out of the room. From the corridor, she could hear the young man talking - and the voice of his formerly missing companion joined in. 'The more recent accomplices next, I think. They should be out of that mysterious crystal by now.'

There was silence for a few seconds, apart from the clicks of the controls. 'That's odd. One of them has travelled to Detrios.'

'I don't want to go there again,' Jason complained.

'Okay, we'll pick up the other one first,' said Dr Who.

'Has the ship not detected the fifth villain yet?'

'I'm afraid not.'

Roz had heard all she needed to hear. She made her way back to the wardrobe hiding place, and wondered why the TARDIS hadn't told its new masters about her.

The sky-bike ploughed through the advertising board and Bernice struggled to keep control as plastic filaments exploded in an electrical shower around her. She wrenched the steering about and lowered the vehicle onto a rooftop.

Wheeee-hoooo! the computer yelled in its perennially cheerful voice. 'You worked out that one with microseconds to 70 spare. That could have been much nastier than it was.

'Chalk it down to deja vu deja vu,' said Benny, brushing shreds off her coveralls. 'I feel like I've done all this before. Any damage?'

'Only to your pride.'

'Very funny. Where were we going, before the Quiz's video stunt?'

'We were following the main trunk-line out of Metro City.'

'Say that again.'

'We were -'

'No, just the last bit. "Out of Metro City!" ' She sighed wistfully.

'Heads up,' the computer interrupted. 'We've got company.'

Bernice looked up, and an impossibly proportioned male figure dropped out of the sky to land beside her. 'A damsel in distress,' he said with relish. 'This looks like a job for me.

She stared at him, faint recollections stirring. He wore a full mask and a white latex costume which accentuated his bodily form to an embarra.s.sing degree. On his right breast, a yellow sword was monogrammed. 'You're the White Knight, aren't you?'

'Ah. You've heard of my heroic exploits.'

'No, I met you. Well, I met Norman Power.'

The costumed figure was aghast. 'You know my secret ident.i.ty?' She shrugged and opened her mouth to respond, but he pointed an accusing finger at her. 'You're an accomplice of Doctor Nemesis!'

'I am not! I -'

The White Knight slammed into her; she struggled to retain balance but toppled over something behind her. As she hit the roof, the white-clad character leapt atop her and she was dimly aware of the fleeting form of a young girl in a black cape, who had been crouching at her heels. She came to rest with an infuriating little giggle.

'It's all right, Sparky, I've got her.' A gloved fist slammed into Bernice's face. She howled in fury and brought her knee up hard.

71.The White Knight fell back with a gasp and doubled over.

'Serves you right for emphasizing your biggest vulnerability,'

said Benny pointedly. Then she heard giggling and realized that the sidekick was behind her again. She spun round, but her legs had become tangled in cord. The caped girl pulled on the end of the line and Benny felt herself falling right over the roof's parapet.

For a second, she pedalled thin air ridiculously. Then the distant street rushed towards her and she felt nauseous as dirty air gusted into her face. Absurdly, she hoped she hit ground before one of the air vehicles clipped her and broke her neck. At one point, the young driver of a streamlined car sounded his horn and screamed at her to get out of his way.

She had plummeted as far as the third storey when a shape blurred past and she dropped into the strong arms of the White Knight. Her stomach gave a disgruntled leap as her direction reversed instantaneously. 'You don't get away from me that easily,' he stated.

'Oh gee, it's a fair cop,' she answered sarcastically. 'And I almost escaped too in my cunning disguise as a pavement pancake.'

'I've a lot of questions for you,' the White Knight said as he deposited Benny, still tangled in cord, onto the roof. Sparky was chuckling again and Bernice wanted to punch her.

'I'm sick of questions. Are you in league with the Quiz or what?'

'The Quiz?'

'That's who I'm looking for.'

The White Knight and Sparky exchanged a look of surprise.

Then, to Benny's amazement, the Knight stepped forward and snapped the line which bound her. 'I apologize,' he said with almost too much sincerity. 'You wouldn't believe how often I end up fighting future allies over some misunderstanding.'

'It must be tiresome,' Benny said, with no sincerity at all. She rubbed her legs ruefully.

'But of course, if you're fighting the Quiz, then we have a foe in common.'

72.'So we team up, just like that, eh?'

'Come, I will take you to him.'

She shook her head. 'Don't worry, my computer's sussed things out.'

'I think you'll find it's wrong,' the Knight said knowledgeably. 'I know where the Quiz is.'

'Watch what you're saying, buster!' the computer piped up.

'You'll hear from my lawyers.'

'I remember where I know you from now,' Benny said thoughtfully. 'The Land of Fiction. You don't exist. Which gives me a few clues about this place.' She smiled as fragments of her pre-Metro life began to fill her mind. 'The question is,'

she said, now talking more to herself than to him, 'why are you here? I doubt if I imagined you - I don't think you loom so large in my memory, and certainly not like this. When I met you, you were . . . well, different.' She looked the White Knight squarely in his eyes, as if he could provide the answers she wanted. 'So whose thoughts did you crawl out of this morning?'

'This place is weird,' said Jason, casting his eye about Metro City distastefully. 'It looks like someone's jammed thirty different time zones together. And the traffic!'

'Nevertheless,' said Dr Who, checking the reading on the large plastic heat detector which he'd whipped up from nothing, 'it is where our next fugitive -' He vanished in mid-sentence.

Jason stood, at a loss, for a few seconds. Then he frowned and set his jaw, until his friend reappeared, as though nothing had happened.

'- is hiding. Not too far away now.'

'Do we have to go further in?' complained Jason. A low-flying hovercar ruffled his hair and almost sent him flying. He scowled at its rear and, a moment later, it crashed into an airbus and exploded. The noise of anti-gray engines quietened, the result of an unexpected lull in traffic.

Dr Who smiled. 'According to my detector, she's coming towards us.' He looked at Jason. 'Your doing, I suppose.'

Mel paced her cell impatiently and threw dirty glares at its 73 locked door. She hadn't broken out of one prison to end up here.

Then she stopped and listened. She was sure she had heard her name called, muted and indistinct, but unmistakably in the Doctor's own rolling Scottish accent. It came again and she hurried to the wall, pressing one ear against it. 'Doctor? Is that you, Doctor?'

'Ahh, Mel, you're in there.'

'I thought you couldn't hear me. I was shouting for ages.

'I know. I was busy thinking.'

She frowned but let the comment pa.s.s. 'What's going on here, Doctor? Who was that - that imposter? And why was he wearing your clothes?'

'He's not important. Just be careful of the boy.'

'Of Jason? Well, I know he was strange, but -'

'Strange and incredibly powerful, Mel. His mental processes are keeping this building in existence at the moment. So long as the Galactic Prison remains in his active memory, we will both be trapped within it.'