Glitz had been sidling round, hoping for a clear shot, and now thought he had his chance. Oskar's arm flashed round as he heard the sound of Glitz's gun being drawn.

Glitz's gun snagged on his belt, and for a moment, he knew he was dead. The solid weight of Dibber crashed into him, and both went sprawling to the floor. Jack was already leaping over the console, returning fire.

Blaster bolts blew the locked door to the bounty hunters'

prison askew, and knocked charred pits into the walls. The newly revealed Whifferdill dodged easily, but this gave Frobisher the chance to grapple with him again, shoving him towards a panel hit by a stray shot.

'You ignorant screed,' Glitz groaned. 'You could have cracked my skull open doing that.' He wasn't exactly ungrateful, but any response he made was better than the whimper he feared he might have let out. He could always show his appreciation later. 'And I'll tell you something else, you feel as heavy as the Doctor looks.'

Dibber didn't answer, and Glitz shook him. 'Dibber? Come on, lad, you're starting to scare me...' Dibber rolled over, and Glitz saw the cauterised hole that was burned through his back. His eyes were still open, but Dibber wasn't seeing anything with them.

Glitz sat back on his heels, unsure how to react to this.

The Doctor joined in, shoving Oskar forward. Frobisher let go at the last minute, but the Doctor wasn't so quick on his feet. The other Whifferdill reached out an extrusion to steady himself - and touched an exposed power feed.

Sparks arced across him, and his shape lost cohesion. With an unearthly and piercing series of multitonal screams, matter sloughed away from Oskar, until he was little more than a steaming pool of sludge on the deck.

Sha'ol emerged cautiously, and kept his hands in the open as he moved to where the Doctor had been blasted by the power surge. The humans were all covering the Tzun with weapons, and he had no plans to give them any excuses to use them.

The Time Lord was lying face down on the far side of the flight deck.

Sha'ol reached out to check both pulses, and straightened, it was a curious feeling... He had expected to feel more triumph at the completion of his mission. He looked up at the others, and motioned for Karthakh to leave the KEM rifle he was surreptitiously picking up.

'Our contract is fulfilled. The Doctor is dead.'

Frobisher lost cohesion, and suddenly he was the little faceless humanoid again, unable to control his own shape, let alone help his friend.

'We bear you no ill will,' Sha'ol reassured the others. 'Our contract was only for the Doctor. With his death, that contract is fulfilled. We need only inform our employer.'

Frobisher was doubtful, but nodded anyway. If nothing else, it would help the rest of the group feel better. That was what the Doctor would want, he knew. There wasn't much point in sacrificing oneself for someone, if those people were then lost anyway.

Frobisher didn't really notice where any of the others were.

They had faded from his consciousness, though his brain still knew they were there and trying to comfort him. No such attempt really registered yet, though.

Oddly, the one person whom Frobisher did still see with some clarity through his round glasses was Glitz. There was something of himself in Glitz's expression, yet worse, if that were possible. 'You've never lost a friend before, have you?'

Glitz shook his head. 'Never even knew I had one. I mean, it was just Dibber, wasn't it? Daft nerk who doesn't know to keep his head down.' Glitz sounded as stunned as Frobisher felt. 'I wonder if it gets easier.'

'No,' Frobisher said quietly, 'it doesn't.'

'Glad I ain't got any other friends, then.' Glitz paused. 'I hope not, anyway.'

Sha'ol traced a pattern on his time ring. 'Yes?' a chilling voice asked. Frobisher recognised it as the same one from the Speculator.

'This is Sha'ol and Karthakh. The Doctor is dead.'

'He could be faking it,' the voice warned, raising Frobisher's hopes. 'We - he has the ability to stop his hearts, and also possesses a respiratory bypass system. Do you have a medical scanner?'

'Yes.' Sha'ol pulled a compact scanning device from the pocket of his waistcoat.

'Scan the Doctor's brain for electrochemical response.'

Sha'ol did so, and Frobisher watched keenly, hoping something would register, even if that meant they would have to fight again.

'No response. There is no electrochemical or EM activity in the brain or nervous system.'

There was a long indrawn breath. 'At last...' Frobisher could almost hear the satisfied smile. 'And the telepathic circuits built into the time ring prove it.' There was a longer pause. 'I am a man of my word, for today at least. The hundred million is being transferred into your accounts. You are fine workers,' the voice mused. 'I may use you again.'

The voice faded, and as it did, so too did the two time rings.

'What now?'Jack asked. 'We all kiss and make up?'

'No,' Glitz said darkly. 'Now we go to Veltroch and hand over this bauble like the Doctor wanted.' Frobisher was surprised at Glitz's turn. Maybe he wasn't such a scruff after all. 'Mandell screwed us all over, and that's the one thing he doesn't want.'

Frobisher had to bow to that logic. It was the best way of getting back at the guy who was indirectly responsible for the deaths of the Doctor, Dibber, and Liang. The rest of the gang nodded slowly.

'It's what he'd have wanted,' Jack supposed.

'Liang too,' Chat agreed. Her voice was surprisingly strong under the circumstances.

'I also agree,' Karthakh rumbled. 'Many innocent Veltrochni died as result of Mandell's schemes. It is right that his true aim should be thwarted.'

Sha'ol looked up at him. 'This is most unwise. For a Tzun to enter Veltrochni space...' Frobisher realised that the spindly grey bounty hunter was scared. Terrified, in fact.

'And the Core rightfully belongs to my people.'

Karthakh remained silent for a moment. 'My Pack are your people now.'

Sha'ol looked around, as if he was about to protest. Then he tilted his head curiously. 'As you wish.'

'Well, I'm glad all that's settled!' the Doctor exclaimed with a stifled yawn. He sat up, as Glitz's eyes almost popped out of his head. 'I was beginning to wonder if anything would ever get decided around here.'

'You're alive! Frobisher yelled, hugging the Doctor. The Doctor looked vaguely embarrassed at all the attention.

'Half a millisecond,' Glitz protested. 'You're dead!'

The Doctor grinned cheekily. 'That's twice you've made that assumption, Sabalom Glitz; I wouldn't give up the day job for a career as a coroner if I were you.'

'Our contract,' Sha'ol began.

'Is legally fulfilled. I was, in all the relevant areas, dead, was I not?'

'You were -'

'No heartsbeat, no respiration, room temperature skin? And even a medical scanner would have confirmed it?'

'Yes, but-'

'And your employer paid up?'

'Yes.'

'Then,' the Doctor announced simply, 'your contract is fulfilled, by your own logic.'

'It is,' Sha'ol admitted slowly. 'But how are you now living?'

'I was living all along.' The Doctor held out the circuit that he had taken from the Thor Facility. 'A temporal circuit from the time dams, and the power surge. More than enough to put me in complete temporal stasis for several minutes.'

'Stasis?'

'Exactly. I wasn't dead, merely frozen between heartbeats for a few minutes. Your employers don't know that I took this circuit, so they didn't think of that, though I'm sure they had you make certain I wasn't faking it by stopping my hearts.'

Sha'ol looked up at him as he stood. 'How can you be so certain?'

'Because they're Time Lords. Didn't you know? Someone in the Celestial Intervention Agency hired you two to kill me, because they didn't want me to find out that they've been selling our technology, and dealing in vraxoin, for their own purposes. I imagine it's something to do with keeping their local operatives under control - they enlist criminals, get them involved in a lucrative and otherwise impossible trade, and can then threaten to expose them to the authorities. Of course, they probably do do expose them to the authorities when the other side have something they want. Useful to be able to manipulate so effectively when you're a covert organisation and you don't want to show your hand.' expose them to the authorities when the other side have something they want. Useful to be able to manipulate so effectively when you're a covert organisation and you don't want to show your hand.'

Glitz stepped between them. 'Pity Dibber was only human, isn't it? The daft neric isn't going to wake up like you. He should have known better. Mind you, he never was the sharpest knife in the kitchen.' He looked hopefully at Frobisher, and Frobisher realised that Glitz was seeking approval of his acting.

'You're not fooling anybody,' Frobisher told him.

The Doctor attempted to jolly-up the gloomy atmosphere.

'Right,' he said, rubbing his hands together. 'I believe we agreed to return the Core to Veltroch. Since this ship isn't going anywhere now, I suggest we take the gunship in which we were brought here.'

'Your TARDIS is aboard that vessel,' Sha'ol informed them.

'Now that our contract is fulfilled, we will accompany you.'

Frobisher was quite taken aback by the way the Tzun said that, as if there was no question that this was how things were going to be. The Doctor, however, merely nodded.

'What about the Ogrons?'Jack asked.

'The ship isn't going anywhere, so neither are they. We'll let the authorities know where to find them.'

'Acceptable,' Sha'ol agreed. He lifted his disrupter, but this time turned it on the unarmed Gorrak, and stunned him. 'He would have attempted to prevent us. The stun effect will wear off soon.'

Once again, they formed into a circle, this time making their way to the hangar where the gunship was. The few Ogrons they saw didn't know that Sha'ol and Karthakh had made their peace with the humans, and so kept their distance.

The interior of the gunship was as cramped as Frobisher remembered, but at least this time the air wasn't thick with the stench of unwashed Ogrons. When Karthakh pointed to one of the interior cabins, Frobisher was delighted to see the TARDIS within.

'Couldn't we just take the Core in the TARDIS?' he suggested.

The Doctor shook his head. 'The TARDIS' navigational system isn't that that good, Frobisher. At least this way we know we'll reach Veltroch in the right time period. We can launch any time, on course for Veltroch.' good, Frobisher. At least this way we know we'll reach Veltroch in the right time period. We can launch any time, on course for Veltroch.'

Monty nodded, and started the engines. The gunship lurched wildly. 'Sorry about that; things weren't so sensitive in my day.' Monty touched the controls more gently, and guided the gunship out of the hangar and away on a long parabola.

Jemson, like most of the other military and legal officials who had come along, was visibly awed by the Veltrochni Dragon Zathakh. Its interior was dark and functional, yet also strangely spiritual. The metal walls and buttresses that enclosed the triangular bridge were aged and vaulted. It was like being in a kind of iron cathedral. Its interior was dark and functional, yet also strangely spiritual. The metal walls and buttresses that enclosed the triangular bridge were aged and vaulted. It was like being in a kind of iron cathedral.

Kala never noticed any of this. To her, every chamber aboard Brokhal's ship was just another room like every room anywhere. It was merely a place to stand or sit while she waited to see what truth was held in Nic's eyes.

Nobody knew where he had gone, but it was reasonable to assume that he would either be with the Doctor and the others, or following them. Currently, Zathakb Zathakb was heading for the last known position of the ship which had snatched the Doctor from under the SID's nose. From there, they would track it, as Nic was undoubtedly doing. was heading for the last known position of the ship which had snatched the Doctor from under the SID's nose. From there, they would track it, as Nic was undoubtedly doing.

Half of Kala wanted more than anything to catch him, and the other half hoped he'd run off, never to return. She wasn't really sure she wanted to know the truth; if he was innocent, then she was joined with his betrayers, but if he was guilty, then her love had been wasted on him.

Neither option was one that would allow her to resist the tears that she knew would come when this was over.

Gorrak was furious when he regained consciousness after a few minutes. Part of it was his general rage at being made a fool of, but at the back of his mind was the matriarch's conviction that his soul was no more solid than wind-blown sand. Even without her taunts, that jibing remained.

At least the Nest was still here. The ship could be repaired, or they would steal another. Then all the members of the Nest would move on. Ogron young grew up quickly, and it wouldn't be long before he had replaced the warriors he lost today.

That was a good thought; he and his mate free from the matriarch's insults...