'If you are too busy, I shal speak to Romana.'

'Good,' he said. 'Then she can put you in charge.'

She slid down to his level and met his eyes. 'I am am in charge.' in charge.'

'Yes, please.'

They jumped quickly apart as the door slid open.

'Mistress?'

A knee-high metallic shape was trundling into the office.

'He always does that,' groaned Leela.

Andred sat back in his chair. 'He's your dog.'

18.'Our dog.' She turned to look at the robotic retriever and it wagged its metal tail. Its angular bodywork had got a bit battered during its time on Gallifrey.

'K9, don't you ever knock?' said Leela.

The machine's synthetic voice had a singsong prissiness that was by turns endearing or irritating. 'Apologies, Mistress and Master. Please resume your canoodling.'

'Never mind,' Leela intoned.

Andred sat back in his chair. 'Did you bring him or did he just follow you?'

'News, Mistress,' K9 interjected.

'Wait, K9.'

'Our discovery.'

'I was working up to it,' she protested.

'Working up to what?' enquired Andred.

'I think it'll have to wait until...'

'It is about your Family,' she said quickly.

He tutted and looked awkward. 'Now what have they done? I know they annoy you, but...'

'Nothing, Master. They have done nothing,' interrupted K9.

'Well, that's a relief.'

Leela shook her head. 'No. That is the problem.'

He sighed. He had so much work to do. 'You'd better tell me,' he said.

She sat crossed-legged in the seat of the chair that Yeux had occupied. 'We were bored,' she began. 'There is no one to talk to. Rodan has been sent on a cross-cultural liaison course. Romana is away.'

'The President is not available,' he corrected.

'She is away.'

'Yes, but you're not supposed to know that.'

'She told me.'

No wonder Spandrel retired, thought Andred. Romana is a security nightmare.

'She did not tel me where,' added Leela.

'Good,' he said, much relieved.

'I forbade her to do so.'

'You are are in charge, aren't you?' Andred declared. 'So what have you been doing?' in charge, aren't you?' Andred declared. 'So what have you been doing?'

'I decided that I must learn more about your Family.'

19.'That's a bit sudden?'

She gave K9 a sidelong glance and said quickly, 'It is your heritage. Each of us should know our ancestors.'

He nodded. He understood that her roots were far away on some benighted, primitive world that she did not even have a sensible catalogued name or number for.

'My ancestry is not very exciting,' he said. 'Just a long line of military ordinals. Several squads full. Must be something in the Loom.'

'But we have discovered a mystery.' She looked very grave.

'Affirmative,' K9 chimed in. 'An anomaly with considerable repercussions.'

'Six hundred and seventy-three years ago, one of your Cousins was a captain in the Prydon Chapterhouse Guard.'

'His name was Redred,' added K9. Castellan Andred stayed silent.

'And this Redred was sent on a mission to the House of Lungbarrow in the mountains of the South.'

'Never heard of it. Or him.'

'Because he never returned,' Leela said. 'He vanished.'

'That's not possible,' Andred insisted. 'There must be records.' He began to turn the cubes on his desk port.

'I have checked al available data,' announced K9. 'All records of this mission have been expunged by order of the Prydon Chapterhouse.'

'How can you know then?' Andred scanned his plasma screen for relevant information. There was no mention of any House of Lungbarrow.

'K9 is very wise,' said Leela proudly.

'I think we'd better have a long talk about security and what you are and are not al owed to access.'

'There is more,' said K9.

'Later,' he snapped and immediately felt a need to apologize. 'Look, why don't you go down to the House at RedLooms and visit my Cousins? Get out of the Capitol for a while. You won't be bored down there. You like them really.'

'They do not like me.'

'Of course they do.'

'The House does not like me either.'

'What rot.'

'It is true.'

'Just because one table...'

I wil stay here at the Capitol, where the furniture does not argue if I want to sit on it.'

He looked at her with deep affection. 'I like the beading in your hair. Does it have some meaning?'

She stared at the floor. 'The blue is for the memory of your Cousin.'

20.'That's kind, and you are wonderful,' he said, genuinely touched. 'And what about the red?'

'Master Andred, there is more,' interrupted K9 again.

Plainly there was no escape. K9 only ever real y kept quiet for Leela, and she was fielding that look of earnestness that always forewarned of sleepless nights until he gave in. 'Go on then.'

K9 pul ed closer to the desk as if he intended to whisper, which he did not. 'According to the records of the Matrician Bench of Ordnance Surveyists, the House of Lungbarrow itself no longer stands on the side of Mount Lung in the Southern Mountains. It has vanished without trace.'

Andred started to laugh. 'What? A House can't just vanish! That's ridiculous.'

'Then where are your records?' demanded Leela.

Sometimes she was so exasperating. 'I'll sort it out later,' he protested.

'You have no sense of your Family's honour,' she said coldly.

'Not at al . I'm just too busy with security to deal with ancient history now. As soon as I have time, then we'll find out what happened. We'll do it together. Just don't go interfering on your own.'

'There is still more,' she said.

There was a bleep from his screen port. He had an incoming communication at last. Gold-coded from off-Gallifrey.

'Tell me later,' he said gently to Leela.

She nodded indignantly. Then she turned and swept out of the office with K9 trundling faithfully behind.

Andred's port bleeped again. He activated the screen and watched as the angry face of President Romana appeared. He noted that she was attired in her full white and gold-collared ceremonial regalia.

'Castellan Andred? Where in blue blazers is that transduction order I gave you?'

Taken aback, he picked the crystal cube out of its courier case and held it up for her to see.

'It's here, Madam. I've just had it returned from Accessions.'

'Then why hasn't the transduction been completed?'

He had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. 'But it has. I was waiting for confirmation from Chancellor Theora.'

' Our Guest Our Guest hasn't arrived.' There was an uncustomary hint of panic in her voice. 'You know I can't deal directly with the situation myself. Not now. If the Agency find out what's going on...' hasn't arrived.' There was an uncustomary hint of panic in her voice. 'You know I can't deal directly with the situation myself. Not now. If the Agency find out what's going on...'

'I'll follow it through immediately, Madam,' he said calmly. It was no surprise that Romana was up to her neck in clandestine intrigues, mostly of her own making. And she styled herself as chief advocate of the new open-government policy. Sooner or later the truth would out. Andred had arranged the security for these secret off-Gallifrey talks himself, but he was not attending them and had no idea whom they involved. He simply followed instructions from the Chancel or. The trust they invested in him was appreciated. But even so...

'It would help if you could tell me exactly who or what Our Guest Our Guest is,' he ventured. is,' he ventured.

She shook her head. 'I can't tell you, Andred. Security, you know.'

'I am security, Madam President.'

'Yes, but you won't like it.'

21.'As you wish.'

She sighed audibly. 'Andred, in my term as President, there wil be nothing more important than these negotiations. Actually, there's been nothing so important for thousands of years. Thousands and thousands.

Everything depends on them. We can't afford mistakes. So please, just find out what's happened to that transduction beam.'

'Very good, Madam.'

'Thank you.' Her grave demeanour lifted a little and a studied smile broke the gloom. 'How's Leela?' she said in a careless sort of way.

'Very well, thank you,' he responded slowly.

'Oh, good.' She sounded greatly relieved.

Andred paused for a moment. 'Why?' he asked, puzzled.

She laughed nervously. 'Oh, no matter. Just asking.'

'Your tunic is covered in fruit stains,' observed Almoner Crest Yeux over his gla.s.s of tea. 'Castellan Spandrel would have had your eyeb.a.l.l.s for epaulettes over that.'

Captain Jomdek smiled.