'That is true,' Hyskanth sneered. 'He is a bounty hunter, hunting for money. Why do you speak of him?'

'Because he's trying to kill me, and I want to know why.'

'You are a thief, are you not?' Hyskanth said dismissively.

Mandell neatly stepped between them, smiling, before the Doctor could go on. 'It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Chacb-to Chacb-to Hyskanth. I hope we can do so again some time.' Hyskanth. I hope we can do so again some time.'

'Do not presume on your luck, lirdmon,' lirdmon,' Hyskanth growled. Hyskanth growled.

'You are fortunate to escape a war you cannot win.'

Mandell shrugged. 'Well, it's the taking part that's important, isn't it?' The Veltrochni Pack-Leader merely hissed, and turned away. Mandell watched the aliens walk the first few yards of the distance back to their lander.

Fish in a barrel, he thought again, and raised the large-calibre slugger that had been concealed behind his back. The handgun fired old-fashioned bullets, which the Veltrochni's energy-absorbing armour couldn't protect against.

The Doctor leapt forward, trying to grab hold of Mandell's arm, but was too late. As the first shot boomed, Hyskanth's head burst in a shower of tissue and quills. Mandell put his smoking gun to the Doctor's head. 'Move again and you're dead.'

The other Veltrochni turned back, raising their KEM rifles, but were immediately picked off by head shots from all around. When the last alien fell heavily to the ground, Mandell put away his gun, and delicately retrieved the Core from Hyskanth's dead hands. 'As I said,' Mandell murmured to the late alien, 'it's a pleasure doing business with you.'

The marksmen Mandell had secreted in the abandoned village buildings during his first landing emerged now. They kept their slugrifles trained on the Veltrochni warriors until they were certain that all of them were dead.

'That slaughter was completely needless,' the Doctor exclaimed, outraged. 'You murdered them in cold blood.'

Mandell looked around at the bodies. So some aliens were dead, so what? Better them dead than his life ruined. 'Yes,'

he said simply. 'Necessary for business, though. And it gets better too.' He smiled, eyes glinting.

'Better!?' the Doctor exploded. 'Better! And what's "better"

about any of this? Is death better than life to you?'

'Well, it gets more practical, at least.' He tossed his empty slugger to Dibber, who caught it reflexively. 'See...' He looked around, as if seeking a prompt from the ether. 'It's like this.

Your gang came here to make this private deal with the Veltrochni. Unfortunately, something went wrong.' He shrugged. 'You crossed them, they crossed you, an adder got in the way, whatever. Anyway, you and the Veltrochni fought each other to the proverbial, and indeed cliched, last man, who then succumbed to his wounds. In the crossfire, the Core was destroyed.'

'And you expect us to go along with that?' Jack demanded.

'I don't think you've thought this through, you two-faced bastard.'

'I imagine,' the Doctor said pointedly, 'that we are to be killed with the Veltrochni's weapons. After which, we'll be found holding those guns of yours, eh, Mandell?' He leaned forward accusingly. Though he always claimed to be a man of peace, he looked to Mandell as if he was ready to do bloody murder. Not with the troops covering him, though.

'Correct. Having conveniently killed each other, while I make a getaway with my ill-gotten gains.' Mandell nodded to himself. 'You know how it is, Doctor - if you want something done right, kill the witnesses while you're at it, that's what I say.'

'Then at least tell me what the Core is.' The Doctor eyed him dubiously. 'As you are obviously so fond of cliches, you may as well indulge in the one about revealing your master-plan before we die.'

Mandell laughed. 'Don't be too hard on cliches, Doctor - after all, they're why I'm winning. As for your last request...'

He beckoned one of the troops to fetch a portable computer, which he set up on a fairly flat chunk of broken wall. The other troops were busy herding the rest of the gang away from the Nosferatu. Nosferatu. One man laid a KEM rifle beside Mandell, and received a nod of acknowledgement. One man laid a KEM rifle beside Mandell, and received a nod of acknowledgement.

Mandell brought up on the computer an image of a small moon. Bio-domes were clustered here and there, and a gaping crater seemed to be so deep that the moon could truly be called hollow. 'This is the shipyard at Teal Alpha,' Mandell said helpfully. The darkness at the heart of the hollow moon was suddenly split by enormous fusion-powered floodlights.

In the vast low-gravity space, a number of large forms were stretched out, surrounded by shuttles and work vehicles.

There were three, all in various stages of construction, from the skeletal to one that was complete but for a few open patches in the hull. Their hulls were the shape of straight sword blades, with engines in place of the hilt, and a large nacelle trailing at the end of a ventral boom.

'Tzun Stormblades?' the Doctor asked.

'Not quite.' Mandell was enjoying this. The Time Lords seemed to think they knew everything, and it was certainly nice to be able to surprise one. There were some differences from the original ships, Mandell knew. Where proper Tzun Stormblades had been so polished that the eye slid off them, these were solid and imposing gun-metal, covered in brightly lit viewports. 'The cylinder here is the last remaining Data Core from S'Arl, the Tzun home planet. The Veltrochni salvaged it during their destruction of the planet.'

The Doctor harrumphed. 'So that's what all this is about, eh? I suppose you're planning to "conquer the universe" with them, eh?' he suggested dismissively. 'I've heard these kinds of speeches before.'

'Nothing so theatrical, Doctor,' Mandell said smoothly. 'I have no particular interest in being a president or an emperor. A fancy title and a crown merely make you attractive to assassins and usurpers.'

'Well, what, then? I'm sure you're dying to tell me.'

'You mean you're dying to be told, surely? It's perfectly simple: the age of Empires is over. Our budgets are being slashed now that we simply have not enough enemies to work against. Before long, I and my employees will be victims of the peace dividend. So I find that we need a new line of business.' Mandell stepped a little closer to the viewport.

'Nobody builds ships like these any more. The masters of gravitational technology are long gone from the universe, and their powers forgotten. To most spacefaring races, this will all be new. A brand-new standard in starship architecture and weapons technology.'

'For you to exploit?'

'Not exactly, Doctor - for me to sell. The SID owns a controlling stake in this shipyard. With the information retained in this Core, we will build a new generation of starships based on gravitational technology. And then we shall sell them, to anyone who is willing to pay the top prices for the latest advances. Already the Draconians have offered thirty billion credit-bars each for those three Stormblades, and I fully expect to be able to beat them up to a hundred billion for the set. I daren't even think what the secrets of RNA memory duplication will be worth, and that's all in there as well.' He stroked his beard, and smiled dreamily. When this is over, and the President puts me out to pasture, I may not be the ruler of the cosmos, but I will be richer than Mammon.'

He touched the safety control on the Veltrochni KEM rifle.

'Now, just remember, this is nothing personal; only business.'

The Doctor looked at him impassively. 'They all say that,'

he said deprecatingly. 'You're just another greedy little man, aren't you?'

Mandell hesitated. 'Actually, you're right; I lied. This makes me rich, so it's a pleasure. If I'm lucky, the first couple of darts might not even kill you; I've never seen a Time Lord regenerate before, so that could be fun...' He aimed the KEM rifle at the Doctor's chest. 'Bye.'

'I wouldn't be so quick to do that, if I were you,' the Doctor said sharply. Mandell froze as the Doctor continued. 'I have the strangest feeling that you're going to need some strong character witnesses before too long.'

'What?'

'Haven't you looked at the security recordings yet? Very lax of you, that is.'

Mandell began feel a chilly suspicion creep along his spine.

He turned to the computer, and tapped into the SID network.

From there it took only a moment to access the security recordings he had already had brought back to SID headquarters. On the screen, he saw the Doctor and Monty sabotaging the time dams, while another man, with a beard, instructed them on what to do. The third man looked awfully familiar... The tightly-curled hair and squared-off beard were unmistakable; he was looking at himself.

'So you faked the recordings? We can deal with that?'

'Several guards also saw you with their own eyes,' the Doctor countered happily. 'And just watch the next part.' On the screen, the other Mandell thumped the console, cracking it slightly. Standing out in the sun, Mandell glanced at the little red scar where he'd cut himself on that broken glass in the Nosferatu. Nosferatu. This couldn't be happening he told himself. It just couldn't. The Doctor nodded slowly. 'Now you've gone and left some DNA traces as well.' This couldn't be happening he told himself. It just couldn't. The Doctor nodded slowly. 'Now you've gone and left some DNA traces as well.'

Mandell gaped and shook his head. 'That damned Whifferdill...'

'Actually, no, but it doesn't matter either way.' the Doctor said. He shook his head. 'Doesn't look good for you at all, does it?' he asked in a distinctly menacing tone.

Mandell felt like a condemned man who just heard the trapdoor open beneath his feet. Just as gravity would take over, and hang the prisoner, so it was equally obvious what would happen when this security video got out.

'What,' he began through gritted teeth, 'exactly is it you have in mind?'

The Doctor held up the circuit he had taken from the time dams. 'Let's start with who designed those time dams for you.

"A company on Dronid" your man there said.'

Mandell nodded. Chronodyne Industries. They're very good.'

'They're also rather too advanced for this century,' the Doctor said acidly. 'What I want to know is, whether they have an office on Vandor Prime, and whether you know who you're really dealing with.'

Mandell laughed. 'Try the Yellow ' he frowned. It was the oddest thing: he couldn't remember off-hand who he had dealt with from the company. There had been a man, but he was just a dark blur in Mandell's memory. 'Why?' Though Niccolo didn't say so, that was as much an expression of his concern at this localised amnesia as it was a question to the Doctor. The possibility that someone had tampered with his mind was most unpleasant.

'Because someone with access to time travel sent two bounty hunters after me from here, and because this company based on Dronid is -' An explosion drowned out anything else he might have said, and bowled Mandell over the wall.

There was a roar, the bow-shock of a vehicle hurtling towards them at high speed. Everyone hurled themselves to the ground, as a heavily armoured gunship thundered towards them on what looked to Jack like a kamikaze run.

It pulled up at the last minute, but a flurry of cannon-blasts ripped through the ghost town. Already-unstable walls shattered, and craters erupted in the sand. As Mandell landed heavily on the other side of the wall, his troopers tried to fire at the gunship.

Their projectile weapons made no impression on the gunship's hull, but its automatic turrets were rather more effective against the unshielded men. Plasma bursts erupted both around and through the scattering troopers.

Blood stained the sand as the gunship dropped to the ground between the humans and the Nosferatu. Nosferatu. Jack wondered if maybe the VP police force had tracked them here, and it was a strangely attractive idea. This would really put paid to Mandrell's plans. Jack wondered if maybe the VP police force had tracked them here, and it was a strangely attractive idea. This would really put paid to Mandrell's plans.

His hopes were dashed, however, when the hatch opened, and the bulky forms of Ogrons loped out with surprising grace. Several Ogrons chased after the SID men, guns blazing, while others grabbed Chat and Liang, and bundled them into the gunship. Monty and the Doctor were next.

Chance looked around at the carnage, wondering what sort of dashing and heroically reckless escape he should attempt.

After all, he couldn't let himself be known as someone who was captured by mere Ogrons.

On the other hand, it would be a damn sight easier to pull the rug out from under the Ogrons' hobnailed boots than to do so with the Vandorian intelligence community.

Common wisdom dictated that in a firefight, one should keep one's head down if one wanted to keep it at all. Ogrons had never been great ones for wisdom. Gorrak stood his ground like a tree in the path of an oncoming tornado, blazing away with his plasma rifle.

Somehow he survived. The humans were too frightened to aim properly, and aimed where they thought he would jump to. It didn't seem to occur to anyone that he would just stand and shoot.

An explosion went off in the midst of a group of riot police, and Gorrak laughed uproariously. 'Hurhurhuhr. That gotta hurt.' He opened fire again, driving the remaining Men back.

He looked back and saw that the last of the Men wanted by his new partners was aboard their ship. It was time to leave.

'You bastards!' Mandell squeaked, half choked with outrage.

He'd spent hundreds of man-hours and millions of credit-bars setting this up, and who'd messed it up? The Ogrons.

How in Satan's name had these jumped-up chimpanzees got into this?

Some half-buried corner of his mind that was still connected to rational thought tried to point out that they were most likely the pirates who had been attacking shipping in the vicinity, and had simply got lucky. He wasn't listening to that Inner voice, though. People who feel superior often feel that only a conspiracy has the combined power to interfere with them, and Mandell was no exception. It was much easier to fight against a specific enemy than mere chance. It was easier to rage against one too.

He waved to his few remaining troops, indicating the Ogrons and their captives, almost frothing at the mouth. 'Kill them! Kill them all! Destroy! Kill! Kill!'

He was too late, however, as the gunship was already blasting off. 'Godsdammit!' he screamed. 'Get back to the ship. 'Let's go!' One way or the other, he was going to get those strategically shaved baboons for this.

The Thazrakh' Thazrakh' s Flight Director jabbed a claw at the huge and lumbering vessel which had so recently appeared on screen. s Flight Director jabbed a claw at the huge and lumbering vessel which had so recently appeared on screen.

'Pirates,' he spat. 'Power the quantum lance, and bring us about.' Those who attacked others for only personal gain instead of family or honour were vermin, no better than bark-crawlers. Something that knew only how to feed itself and reproduce deserved no consideration.

The flight crew started working furiously.

'Flank speed.' The Flight Director braced himself against the back of the command couch. Even though Hyskanth was on the planet below, and it was his right to hold his leader's place for him until he returned, the Flight Director wouldn't feel comfortable sitting there. He didn't think he'd earned that honour yet. 'Program lateral shear. We will cut them in half.'

The gunnery officer hissed approvingly, baring fangs.

In the Speculator's Speculator's control room, Borrk whimpered nervously as the Dragon swung about, the quantum lance coming to fiery green life. 'We doomed,' he complained. 'Veltrochni Dragon outgun this ship.' control room, Borrk whimpered nervously as the Dragon swung about, the quantum lance coming to fiery green life. 'We doomed,' he complained. 'Veltrochni Dragon outgun this ship.'