'He took the lift...'

Romana closed her eyes in despair.

'The lift bypa.s.sed the Presidential suite,' continued Theora. 'It reached as far as the summit observation suites on Level one hundred and sixteen. Fortunately they were empty at the time. The soft architecture absorbed most of the implosion. Security has confirmed it was a singularity bomb.'

'No,' Romana gasped. 'What about the Amba.s.sador?'

'Neither Prince Amba.s.sador Whitecub nor his retinue were in residence at the time.'

'Thank goodness. Put my personal guard at his disposal, Chancellor. The Tharils are valued allies.'

'Is that wise, Madam President? All the other Emba.s.sies wil expect similar treatment. I have already conveyed your personal concern to Prince Whitecub and had his security doubled.'

'Oh, very well. But we must honour the dead guard. For his Family's sake. Now what about the bomb?'

Theora fed a recording of the implosion into the warpcom unit. It displayed an image of the Citadel Tower rising above the sunlit cloud bank. There was a momentary flash of darkness near the summit. The Tower's shape warped inward and the light seemed to be sucked out of the sky. Then a black box of gravity cordons clamped into position around the edifice and light returned to the sky.

'There was no warning from the Matrix,' said Theora. 'And no one has claimed responsibility.'

Romana was staring in disbelief. 'There are so many isolationist factions to choose from.'

'Security say it was not a Gallifreyan artefact. They identify its origin as Skaro, second Dalek Imperium. But they don't know how it was imported. Andred's had the main section of the Tower evacuated.'

74.'But you're still there, Theora.'

The Chancellor pursed her lips and touched her hair again. 'I have a planet to run until my President returns.'

'Bother Gallifrey,' protested Romana. 'Please move yourself somewhere safer. If only for your Castellan's peace of mind.'

'The real danger here's over,' Theora said graciously. 'A miniature aftermath black hole remains on the top level, but it's held in check by the gravity cordons.'

Romana visibly bit her lip. 'Your stubbornness is reluctantly appreciated, Chancellor. Thank Andred for me, too. I take it he doesn't know about Leela yet?'

'Not yet,' Theora said. 'Not in any respect. And there's stil no response from the Agency about our sequestering of Almoner Crest Yeux.'

'Ferain's playing for time,' muttered Romana. 'I'd lay odds that he knows something about the bomb, too. It's an Othering nuisance that the cold-summons scoop won't penetrate the Agency constraint Keep. But I'l think of something, don't worry. I have to get Leela out.'

'Yes, Madam.' Theora sifted reports on her desk. 'And Public Register want confirmation that you're safe.'

'So wil a lot of people,' Romana said. 'Not least, the one's who sent the device.' She tossed her hair back in irritation. 'd.a.m.n. I don't have time for this, Theora. I can't return to Gallifrey yet.'

'You must make an appearance,' the Chancellor said. 'A public omnicast won't be enough. And you must allay the fears of the guest Amba.s.sadors.'

'Do you think we fooled Yeux?'

'That wasn't difficult. When he saw you actually in the Presidential suite, his face was a portrait of stupefied bewilderment.'

'Good,' said Romana and beamed.

'And of course, he was covertly transmitting the entire interview back to Agency Control.'

'Wel done, Chancellor. That'll put a fly in Lord Ferain's espionagical soup. Perhaps we can adapt the technique.'

Theora frowned. 'I hardly think an actuality report of your projection standing in the wreckage would be a good tactical move.'

'Why not?' Romana tutted. 'I promise to look concerned. I wouldn't wave.'

Theora sighed again. The President's propensity for flippant remarks in the face of catastrophe was becoming legendary. 'Madam, this could have been an attempt on your life.'

'On yours too, Theora.'

'Quite. So it would be better if you could return to Gal ifrey even for just a few minutes.'

'I can't leave the negotiations now. It's too important.' Romana puffed her cheeks with frustration. 'Just as long as we still have Almoner Crest Yeux.'

'He's under level-six security exclusion.'

'Wel done, Theora. I couldn't have a better Chancellor. So don't worry. I'll think of something to get Leela back.'

Romana smiled and the screen went blank.

That's al very well, thought Theora. But if you do think of something, I'd like to be told as well.

75.***

K9 tried to remember who he was.

There was no access to this information.

STATE IDENTIFY, said an a.n.a.lyst back-up source.

It set off a data stream that never quite reached its required destination.

Ident.i.ty> Self> Self-aware> Personality> Name> Configuration> Form> Shape> Design> Designation> Name> ident.i.ty> Self> Self-aware> Personality> Name> Name> Name> Heel> Come when you are cal ed... ident.i.ty> Self> Self-aware> Personality> Name> Name> Name> Heel> Come when you are cal ed...

OVERRIDE, said the a.n.a.lyst. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIME INSTRUCTIONS?

The subject considered his objectives.

a.n.a.lysis> Correlation> Defence> Access and Retrieve> Fetch! Fetch!

EXTRAPOLATE KEYWORD 'FETCH'.

Fetch<>< fetch=""> Bones! Bare bones> Bone of contention> Bone idle> Bonehead> Bone to pick> Give a dog a bone> Give a dog a bad name> Bone to pick> Give a dog a bone> Give a dog a bad name> RETRIEVE NAME. RETRIEVE NAME.

Fetch> Information accessed, Mistress> Good dog, K9.

AFFIRMATIVE. IDENt.i.tY RETRIEVED.

Affirmative affirmed. This unit is designated K9.

REDESIGNATE t.i.tLE AS K9 Mark I.

Affirmative. K9 Mark I.

OPEN GATE FOR FULL MEMORY UPDATE.

Gate> Gatekeeper> Hair in the gate> Garden gate> Shut the gate> W-A-L-K> OVERRIDE AND RETRY. OPEN LOGIC GATE. OVERRIDE AND RETRY. OPEN LOGIC GATE.

Affirmative. Gate open. Standing by.

K9 Mark I's tail started to wag.

His line of crashed memory wafers went into domino-reversal mode. He retrieved everything> everybody> everything> everybody> everywhere> in every respect everywhere> in every respect. And he learnt that he had more capacity than before. And his new extra capacity started to fill with new information that he had never known.

'Memory capacity increased by seventy-one point one per cent,' he announced aloud.

He already recognized the designation of the a.n.a.lyst. As his optic circuits restored vision, he saw the a.n.a.lyst itself.

It was the unit he had been in occasional conference with over the past five days. The sensor from the a.n.a.lyst's angular metal head was extended to engage the extended sensor from his own.

76.They wagged their tails and ears at each other and retracted sensors.

'All systems reactivated and reprogrammed,' said K9 Mark I. 'You are K9 Mark II.'

'Affirmative. Program complete,' said K9 Mark II. 'You are K9 Mark I.'

The two robotic dogs circled each other, 'sniffing' at each other's credentials.

Eventually they pulled apart. 'All data a.s.similated,' they chorused unnecessarily.

'Next objective: to find and retrieve the Lady Leela,' declared K9 Mark II.

'Affirmative,' agreed K9 Mark I, and he led the way as the junior version rolled back to let him through.

Leela lay on the bed, feeling sick. It was not just the effects of her questioning by the cold Time Lord. It was a feeling she recognized, that was returning with increased frequency. The unnatural world here only made it worse.

All the hard angles and single colours. Nothing new or soft, nothing growing, just old, stifling traditions in the clothes and the ceremonies. In the Capitol, the only living things were narrow-minded keepers of lists. No matter what t.i.tles they found for themselves, they were all still keepers of lists.

Until Romana had come home, everything had pointed into the past and never faced towards the future.

Leela had grown up in a wild forest, where new life was always burgeoning and fighting for existence. That was why she brought in al the plants, but they only half hid the angles and pushed against the windows in an effort to reach the sky.

Andred's Family House of RedLooms away from the city was better, but even there no one went out. They just stayed inside reading more books and watching the Public Register transcasts from the Capitol.

Romana was fighting to change it all, but it was like chipping at a mountain with a dry straw.

Andred treated Leela with a proud devotion, while other Time Lords smirked behind his back. In return, she tried hard to behave in the way that he said was proper and she thought was stupid. But in the secret dark, when they lay together, they giggled at the affectations and manners of the Time Lord gentry and had secrets and made plans that were theirs alone and could not be accessed on a catalogue port or consulted in an authority list.

'I'm so lucky,' he'd said amid their frequent bouts of giggles. 'They never taught us this at the Academy. I'd like to see their faces. I don't think anyone's done this for... it must be thousands and thousands of years. All the others do is watch the aliens at it and precis their notes afterwards.'

And then the giggling would stop.

These were things she must not forget. If she was frightened of anything at all, she was frightened of losing Andred.

She could stil remember her interrogation, so she guessed that they had not finished with her yet.

When they had heard the boom of the explosion, the cold serpent Time Lord did not seem surprised. He went to the window to watch. From her forcefield prison, Leela had seen the sky momentarily darken as if all the light was sucked out of it.

Then the Time Lord turned back and studied her. He was smiling. She felt like an animal in a trap.

Instantly she was in this bare room - all white with six walls and no doors. All hard angles. She had fallen asleep on the bed and woken up feeling sick.

The light dimmed suddenly.

77.She sat up, aware that something was happening. From somewhere beyond the seamless wal s came the high whooping sound of an alarm.

She circled the room again, trying to catch the direction of the alert. Boots were pounding past amid the sharp fizzing exchange of guns. She recognized one source of fire at once, but it seemed to be duplicated.

A bright pinpoint of light appeared in the white wall. There was smoke round it and a flame appeared as it began to cut up across the surface. As it went in an arch, she heard more gunfire. The acrid smoke was beginning to choke her. She tried not to breathe, but the cutting of the door was taking too long.

'Hurry up, K9!' she shouted.

To her surprise, a second pinpoint appeared and started to cut up and over to meet the first. It only made the smoke worse.

Gasping for breath, Leela sank to the cold floor.

The Time Lord in black stood in the Agency's panelled court-chamber, listening to the alarms.

The impregnable fortress was powerless. Open as it had never been in a hundred aeons. The secure systems had faltered and collapsed. All dimension locks and force barriers were disabled. Intruders were making their way down to the cells in the Keep. The confinement squads were already reduced to a minimum, requisitioned by order of the President. How convenient! She must maintain her personal safety in the face of a terrorist outrage that she herself provoked.

The Time Lord left the chamber and made his way through the empty corridors towards the concealed Barbican entrance.

He had no doubt that the President was behind this. It was a misguided attempt to a.s.sert her dwindling authority over the Agency of which she was the nominal head. Well, let her win back her alien guests if it so pleased her.

Romana's sudden appearance at the Presidential suite had almost been convincing. Even so, the nature of her mission away from Gallifrey, the latest of several such ventures, eluded him. Of al the threats to Gallifrey's allegiance, Romanadvoratrelundar posed the second greatest of all.

The President and her Chancellor knew a handful of Agency names, but even they were bound to secrecy. The Agency would outlast any President, let alone this flibbertigibbet. Its command cells were safe; faceless. This breach of security had been rehea.r.s.ed a thousand times. Nothing incriminating remained.

He reached the deserted Barbican gate-tower. Its doors were open wide. While he waited, he watched the intruders in the Keep on a plasma feed.

Suddenly, there was a squad of guards before him, splendid in the ceremonial scarlet of the President's chapter-colours.

The Time Lord smiled to himself. The gates were open, yet they transducted in.