The TARDIS had dematerialized.

13 Ground Zero

Chris couldn't read German, but he didn't need to: the needle on the temperature gauge was quivering up past the orange zone and into the red. On a more optimistic note, everything else was fine: there was still plenty of fuel, and Munin was a beautiful plane to fly. Chris had even got used to the bone-jarring vibrations that pulsed through the fuselage. It was a pity that the plane was only minutes away from exploding, really.

'We haven't got much longer, Doctor,' Chris told him, as calmly as he could.

The Doctor had been mulling over the problem for the last couple of minutes. He had ordered Chris to keep the plane in the air while he considered their options. They hadn't got parachutes (and they couldn't leave the plane anyway, not now it was flying over London); a mid-air repair job was out of the question.

'Doctor, we could eject the fuel,' Chris declared. He was already reaching for the control.

The Doctor's face lit up. 'That's it! No, not ejecting it. Just the opposite.'

Chris's hand hovered over the control panel. 'We can't refuel, and why would we want to? Surely the more fuel there was on board, the more there was to explode?'

'Pump fuel into the reserve tank from the main tank - I'll explain, but we haven't got time,' the Doctor insisted.

'But the problem's in the reserve tank -'

'Do it!' the Doctor shouted. Chris began flicking switches.

Behind them, the rhythmic oscillation of the fuel pump started up, and they could even hear the fuel as it began sloshing around.

'It takes two things to start a fire,' the Doctor noted sagely. 'You need an inflammable material - and the jet fuel is certainly that - but you also need oxygen. Filling up the tank with fuel forces out all the oxygen. No oxygen, no fire.'

'That's brilliant,' Chris declared.

'We can't push our luck as we're over London now so we'll have to -'

'- Land in the nearest available open s.p.a.ce. There are plenty of parks. If all else fails, we can ditch into the Thames.

Don't worry, Doctor, I've done this sort of thing before.'

Chris was already scanning the skyline.

The central column rose and fell, rose and fell. Everything seemed to be progressing normally. Bernice was a little annoyed that after several years travelling with the Doctor she couldn't remember any of the routine that he went through when the TARDIS was in flight. She'd been content to watch him fuss around the console, press a b.u.t.ton here, pull a lever there. It was a good job that he'd shown her how to open the door, or she'd be stuck inside forever.

Benny was too tired to feel any panic - whatever else was about to happen, she personally was in no immediate danger inside the TARDIS. There were so many safety systems that she felt quite safe, and anything capable of destroying the ship would be either a) so devastatingly awful that it would be mercifully quick or b) so incomprehensible that she'd be too fascinated by what was going on to worry about it. That was the plan, anyway.

The scanner had turned itself off, and Benny was unable to interpret the navigational data flowing across the readouts. Every so often the console would make a rea.s.suring beeping noise. Benny stepped back for a moment. Was it her imagination or was the column slowing down? Before her eyes it ground to a halt, and there was a resonant chime deep beneath the floor. The TARDIS had landed. The whole journey had taken a little under three minutes.

Benny ran her eyes over the instruments. The environment outside was cool, there was atmospheric moisture, but the gravity and radiation readings were perfectly acceptable. She thought she remembered the Doctor saying once that if it wasn't safe to go outside, then the TARDIS wouldn't let them open the door. Or was she making that up? It was the sort of thing he said, anyway. If it wasn't true, it jolly well ought to be. Benny crossed her fingers and pulled down on the door lever. The heavy double-doors swung open.

She stepped out into the gloom and onto wet gra.s.s.

There were church bells ringing in the distance, from every direction. The TARDIS had landed in a public park, flat gra.s.sland with trees screening off the city. The odd statue was dotted here and there. Ducks bobbed up and down on an expanse of lake. The London skyline was silhouetted by searchlight beams across the sky. The TARDIS had moved across the city, and it looked as though it was still 1941.

Benny knew enough about London to be able to work out where she was by finding a couple of landmarks. She began to triangulate her position. If that building behind her and to the right was Admiralty Arch, then...

Something huge, silent and almost invisible loomed ten feet overhead, swooping low, coming in to land. Instinctively, Benny pulled back, b.u.mping into the side of the TARDIS which disorientated her for a second or two. When she recovered, she tried to make sense of the shape. This would be a tricky task - in normal circ.u.mstances, there wouldn't be any giant bats flying over London in 1941, but with the Doctor around there might well be. There was a disc of fire - an afterburner or an eye? Great black, flat wings. Tyres ploughed into the soft mud, churning it up. The evil-looking object skidded slightly, but ground to a halt not fifty yards away. It was a plane, almost invisible in the twilight. There was something spooky about it - the way the light fell on it perhaps, the eerie lack of sound. Benny wasn't really an expert on the war planes of the period, but it looked oddly out of place. She realized she had seen something like it before, glimpsed for a second before it exploded over St Jaonnet. If this was the TARDIS's idea of safety, than it really needed its Dictionary Disk looking at.

This plane hadn't exploded. The c.o.c.kpit canopy was pulling back. Benny thought about getting back inside the TARDIS, but decided against it. She needed to find out what was going on.

A huge figure in military uniform came bounding over.

Before she had time to panic, she realized that it was Chris Cwej dressed in n.a.z.i uniform. One of her more lurid dreams come true, she mused.

'Benny!' he whooped, lifting her up and hugging her.

It took a moment to recover her breath. Finally, she managed to say, 'Chris what's that thing above your mouth?'

Chris probed his top lip anxiously. 'It's my moustache,'

he concluded.

'It looks stupid.'

She'd forgotten how funny she found it watching his face fall. G.o.d, it was good to be acting childish again. She hugged him, nuzzled her head in that broad chest of his.

'Come here, you hulking great fashion victim, you.'

'At least I'm not wearing sungla.s.ses at night,' Chris sulked.

Benny broke off her embrace. 'I've got my reasons. Have you seen the Doctor?'

Chris pointed back the way he had come. 'He was in the plane with me. He muttered something about unfinished business.'

'That's him all right.' Benny peered across the park. 'I can't see him.' She began stumbling towards the plane.

'He also said we had to stay back.'

'Oh, come on.'

Chris followed her.

The Doctor had just managed to prise open the bomb-bay door when he head the sound of pistols being c.o.c.ked behind him.

'Hands in the air.'

The Doctor raised his hands high above his head and turned to face the gentleman who had addressed him. He was a British admiral aged about sixty, with lines around his eyes. The Doctor couldn't put a name to the face, but the officer clearly recognized him. Behind him were a number of troops, all armed.

'Doctor von Wer!' the admiral declared.

'Doctor who?' he scowled. There was only one thing worse than being recognized by an opponent, and that was being mistaken for someone else. The soldiers were moving to encircle him. Now he had moved, the Doctor's view of the TARDIS was blocked by the plane. There wasn't a clear escape route.

'He doesn't sound German, sir,' said a young army lieutenant at the admiral's side.

'Step away from the plane,' the admiral ordered.

The Doctor slowly edged back. A couple of the men ducked past him and began clambering up to Munin's c.o.c.kpit. He couldn't let them get too close a look at Munin - much as he would love to give the Allies some advantage in this war, they couldn't be allowed access to stealth technology. The British state-of-the-art counter-measure against radar at this time was dropping short strips of tin foil from the planes. It scattered radar beams, causing hundreds of confusing echoes, and it was actually pretty effective, but the technology was not exactly in Hartung's league.

'Which one is this, Hugin or Munin?' the officer asked.

'This one is Munin. May I ask who you are, please?'

'I am Admiral Kendrick of the -'

Scientific Intelligence Division,' finished the Doctor. 'Of course, I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you sooner. That chap up there is George Reed, isn't he? We almost met once.'

Lieutenant Reed jumped down from the plane. 'There's no sign of damage, sir, no sign of a forced landing. We did find this.' He held up the briefcase. The Doctor blanched.

'Ah yes, that's mine, if I could just...' the Doctor moved to take it from the young lieutenant, who s.n.a.t.c.hed it away from his grasp. A couple of the troops moved in to restrain the Doctor. Reed laid the case on the ground and opened it up.

The Doctor licked his lips nervously.

'Admiral, there's a fortune here in Reichsmarks.' Reed had clearly never seen so much money before. He rummaged underneath the pile of banknotes. 'There's also a set of blueprints. And this. Sorry, sir, it's in German, do you mind?'

Kendrick took the sheet of paper from him and began scanning it.

'Well, if my business here is concluded, I'll be off, then,'

said the Doctor cheerfully. 'I can see you've got a lot on your plate and -'

'"From today, March the fifth 1941, I shall become a loyal citizen of the German nation, I swear total allegiance to the authority of the Fuhrer and the rule of German law. From today, I shall work exclusively for the Luftwaffe zbV... I shall work untiringly for the final victory of the Reich, and the total extermination of its enemies... I renounce all previous a.s.sociations with foreign powers, organizations and individuals. I am in full possession of my faculties and I am not signing this statement under duress." I believe that's what is known as a signed confession.'

The Doctor blinked. 'There's a perfectly simple and innocent explanation for this.' The Doctor paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. 'The million Reichsmarks are... I have the blueprints because... er, the contract was...

Herr Kendrick, I was working to -'

' Herr Herr Kendrick?' Reed shouted incredulously. The young lieutenant would have hit the Doctor had the admiral not intervened. Kendrick?' Reed shouted incredulously. The young lieutenant would have hit the Doctor had the admiral not intervened.

'Out of the frying plane into the fire,' the Doctor observed.

Reed grabbed his arms and pinned them against his back.

Another man handcuffed him.

'Lieutenant, stay here with a couple of the men and guard Munin. I'll take this traitor back to HQ and interrogate him.'

There was a strange dark shape behind the trees in St James's Park. Roz decided that a barrage balloon had been punctured and had drifted back down to earth. The staff car screeched to a halt.

'What's the matter, Harry?' Roz's pistol was ready in her hand.

'Ma'am, it's Lieutenant Reed.'

Roz looked out of the windscreen. Almost impossible to see in the darkness, George was waving them down.

Roz pushed open her window.

'Where have you been?' Reed demanded.

She tapped her holdall. I've got something that'll be able to track the invisible plane. We haven't got long.'

Reed pointed over to the park. 'We've found it - it's landed here.'

She checked her watch. Her sixteen minutes had expired. 'Landed?'

Reed nodded. Roz leapt out of the car. A few drops of rain were beginning to fall; there was going to be quite a shower. Together, they ran across to the park to where George's men were guarding the plane. Even close up, Munin was only an outline. Roz ran her hand across the surface of the plane, which was still warm.

There was a commotion behind them.

Roz heard Chris's voice. 'Don't shoot, I am a British officer.' Chris was dragged forward by a couple of the men.

He was wearing an unfamiliar green-grey uniform, but looked well. After four days keeping a lid on her feelings, Roz was surprised by how relieved she was to see him.

We found this Hun, sir,' one of the men said.