The Doctor nodded gently. 'It's not really up to me any more, though,' he said. 'Sooal is a war criminal and has to answer for his crimes.' He stepped aside and looked at the couple behind him. 'These are Annarene and they've come to take Sooal back for trial.'

Sooal brought his gun up sharply and suddenly found it inexplicably tangled up in the handle of the Doctor's umbrella. It was jerked from his grasp and flung over the Doctor's shoulder into the laboratory where it clattered loudly across the floor.

Sooal watched the plodding shape of the Annarene's dog their Landine, he realised, with a sick feeling in his stomach retrieve the weapon as if it were a stick thrown for its amus.e.m.e.nt and hand it over to its master.

'Doctor. .' said Ace, 'something's going on here.' She gestured at the female Annarene.

She was smiling as she looked round the room, shaking her head slowly and deliberately. 'From where did you get that idea, Doctor?' she said with infinite patience. 'What is it that makes you think that we intend to take Sooal back to Annares?'

The male Annarene raised Sooal's gun. 'Now that Sooal has the access codes for the stasis chamber, we intend to take them for ourselves. And with the weapons contained in it, we will make this planet the centre of an empire mightier than the Tulks ever dreamed. The legacy of the Tulks is ours.'

Chapter Eighteen.

This was one of those moments, thought Ace. One of those special Doctor Moments when, with a triumphant 'Aha!' he'd produce something out of thin air a bit of gubbins from his pocket, a clever plan he'd been hatching for the last few hours, secretly knowing what was going on but keeping it from everyone for dramatic effect.

But he did nothing.

'Don't tell me,' she said, a cold, sinking sensation gripping her. 'It's as much a surprise to you as it is to me.'

'Not at all,' he huffed, drawing himself up. 'Why else would our friends here have been content to watch and wait for all these years?' He turned to the Annarene who, still pointing the gun at them, had backed into the laboratory 'If you'd genuinely wanted to bring him to justice you would have done it long ago.'

He tipped his head back and glared at them.

Go gettem, Professor! thought Ace, hoping that he had something a little more concrete up his sleeve than a stern look. thought Ace, hoping that he had something a little more concrete up his sleeve than a stern look.

'I a.s.sume you don't speak for the Annarene Protectorate,'

the Doctor said. 'They'd never countenance this. They're peaceful, humane '

'And weak,' cut in the male Annarene with a sneer. 'Annares was once one of the greatest powers in this sector until some of our leaders decided that the way forward for the Protectorate lay in pacifism and "forging bonds". Some of us decided that there was another way '

'And when the Tulks were caught and sentenced,' the Doctor interrupted, clearly determined not to be outdone in the cutting-in stakes, 'I presume you found out about this cache of weapons what are they? The usual? Mind-controllers, solar disruptors? Meme bombs? and decided to give Sooal here a little helping hand in rescuing them.'

Ace couldn't remember ever seeing someone's mouth drop open quite as widely as Sooal's did then. He was genuinely shocked, she realised, by the fact that he hadn't accomplished all of this on his own. She wanted to laugh; but somehow, on the eve of world domination, it didn't seem entirely appropriate.

'So I went through all of that all of these years stuck on this pitiful planet for nothing nothing?' Sooal said bleakly, looking as if he were unable to believe that his marvellous duplicity had been outdone by a couple of aliens wearing sh.e.l.lsuits made of skin.

He took a step towards the Annarene, but the male shook the gun, a gentle reminder.

'We knew Sooal's intelligence would be insufficient to facilitate the rescue of the Tulks, recover the stasis chamber, escape and revive the Tulks' memories without a.s.sistance,' the male said casually 'So our faction helped them covertly, of course and then we followed.' Its voice held no smugness just a creepy sense of superiority, inevitability in the success of their plans. 'We had awareness of the stasis chamber and the weapons and the fact that you would collect them before taking the War Council into hiding. Unfortmately, our stupid Annarene brethren had all but obliterated the memory of the codes from the Tulks' memories. We had knowledge of the fact that you were an expert psychobiochemist, and of what you would plan to do. We simply facilitated your work.'

Sooal's fists were clenching; Ace wondered if he would be angry and stupid enough to attack the Annarene.

'A tracer was planted on your ship and then we followed you here,' the female Annarene continued. 'One team was a.s.signed to observe your operations at this location, another at the site of your ship's landing. Then an we needed to do was to wait for you to revive the Tulks' memories, and obtain the codes. Now that they are in your possession, travel will be made to the landing site, the inputting of the codes into the control sphere will be completed, and the weapons will be ours.'

The control sphere! For Ace, it all suddenly fell into place.

'So you did trash the boat and steal John's find!' she snapped without thinking, sudden outrage at the damage inflicted on the brothers' boat flaring up in her.

'Ace!' hissed the Doctor, and she turned to him, feeling her face burn red. He gave a sigh and rolled his eyes.

'What? It's true and if you'd let me, I could have told you they were up to something when we first met them!'

She glared at the Annarene who were looking puzzled.

Well, she a.s.sumed they were puzzled: considering they were just things wearing squelchy artificial faces, it was a bit hard to tell.

But they were glancing at each other, clearly confused by what she'd...

Oh bog, she thought. she thought. Big mistake. Big mistake.

She glanced at her watch, and realised why the Doctor had given her that look: it hadn't happened yet. The Annarene on Kelsay hadn't trashed the boat yet; they hadn't stolen the control sphere. In fact, if she remembered things correctly, they were still in their cottage. That's what the Annarene in the Orkneys had meant when he'd thanked her.

She looked at the Doctor. He couldn't have known what she knew but she could see that he'd read her expression. After being a good girl and keeping her gob shut all this time, she'd blabbed about the future, blown it all. She thought she'd been so clever, so smart. Duh! Ace. Just duh!

'I am confused,' said the female Annarene, fixing her eyes on Ace. 'The control sphere is not yet in our possession has it been detached from the stasis chamber?'

'Sorry,' Ace bluffed wearily, knowing even as she did that she was convincing no one. 'I must be getting confused. Forget I said anything.'

'Contact the other team,' the female said to the male.

'Ascertain whether the control sphere is in their possession, and if they have searched the boat.'

The male nodded. 'And the humans?'

'Imprison them with the Caarian until we have the control sphere and the stasis chamber, they should be kept alive. But first...'

For a moment, Ace wondered who this 'Caarian' was until she realised that they meant Sooal. He glowered at the Annarene.

In other circ.u.mstances, she might have commented on how seething anger actually gave a little colour to his cheeks.

The woman wriggled her neck strangely, impossibly and Ace heard a soft, wet, splitting sound, like a melon slowly being pulled apart. The Annarene reached behind her head and Ace winced, as the woman's fingers dug into the flesh at the base of her skull. Her face went suddenly slack, becoming nothing more than a mask as she pulled, peeling the fleshsuit over her head. It came away with a reluctant sucking, clinging to her face. The creature Ace couldn't thing of it as a her her any more shook its head sharply, disengaging the last threads of the fleshsuit, and the mask fell loosely across her chest, blood-matted hair dribbling down her jacket. any more shook its head sharply, disengaging the last threads of the fleshsuit, and the mask fell loosely across her chest, blood-matted hair dribbling down her jacket.

The creature underneath lifted its head its bony, orange head, crested with two rows of darker b.u.mps, like split peas, running back from the forehead and the two disconcertingly human eyes blinked sharply. The mouth, little more than a lipless gash, twitched and macabrely smiled.

'You have no idea how liberating that felt,' it said. What made it so much stranger was that it was still the woman's voice slightly more inflected, more musical, but still distinctly hers. It waved a disconcertingly still-human hand towards Ace, the Doctor and Sooal. 'Incarcerate them whilst I remove the rest of this... this filth filth.'

The Annarene began to peel the rest of the fleshsuit away from its chest as the male nodded and gestured with the gun for them to move towards the storeroom. Only then did Ace realise that Joyce was missing: she must have slipped back up the stairs when no one was looking. Ace hoped that she'd be back soon with help.

'Wha.s.sat?'

Alexander jolted, suddenly brought back from his guilty reveries about abandoning Ace, as John's voice came from the front of the boat. Long, wavering shadows staggered drunkenly across the deck as the lamp swung to and fro. John came padding through the pool of light, his face grim, tired and irritated.

'What?' Alexander asked, wondering if he'd missed some sign from Ace, back on the island. Maybe she'd just lost her torch. Maybe she'd found that transmat thingy that she'd been looking for and had gone home. No, he didn't think she was the type to desert them, even if she did seem awfully keen to get back to this Doctor.

John raised his finger to his lips and c.o.c.ked his head on one side. 'Listen,' he whispered.

Above the gentle slopping sound of the waves against the hull, oily and glutinous, there was another sound. Over the weeks that they'd virtually lived aboard the boat, Alexander had become accustomed to the myriad creaks and squeaks of the vessel the shrinkage and expansion of the timbers, the pained groans of rusty metal on rusty metal to the point where he didn't hear them any more. On the rare nights he'd spent on the island, he'd found the lack of any sound but the wind vaguely disturbing, as though something vital had been s.n.a.t.c.hed away, leaving a void that nothing could fill. But as he listened, he heard it a tiny scrabbling, scratching sound, amplified by the boat's hull. As one, they looked down at the edge of the deck. John peered over the side. But it must have been in complete shadow, and he stepped back, shaking his head.

The yelp that Alexander emitted when the shiny black thing crawled over the edge of the boat onto the deck was, he later admitted, just a little bit girly. But John jumped back in alarm, perhaps saving his life. At that moment, something sprang through the air and slammed against the cabin wall.

It was about the size of a small dog, black and bristly with short, stumpy legs ending in splayed claws. Alexander was immediately reminded of the tweedies' little dog. Ace had thought there was something creepy about it, but surely this couldn't be the same thing...?

Glittering blue eyes darted from one brother to the other, as if a.s.sessing which of them to go for first. Fortunately, the two of them saved the creature the trouble. As if they'd read each other's minds for probably the first time in their adult lives, the two of them stepped to the railing and vaulted over, disappearing into the blackness with one huge splash.

As Joyce entered her mum's room and saw the figure helping her mother to her feet, she had a sudden flashback to the morning of her attack until she realised that it was Michael.

'What are you doing?' she asked, still flushed and breathless from her flight from the charnel house in the cellar.

Michael turned sharply, his face set determinedly. 'Don't stop me, Mum. We have to get Gran out of here. I know she's having her treatment and all that, but '

'OK,' Joyce said simply, placing her hand on Michael's arm.

He jerked his head back sharply, and Joyce felt ashamed at what pa.s.sed momentarily through his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but she shook her head, shushing him. 'You're right. This place is no place for your gran.'

'But what you said earlier about her treatment '

'It doesn't matter. We'll sort something out. Let's just get her somewhere safe.'

He smiled at her, cautious, tight-lipped. 'The B&B?'

It was Joyce's turn to smile.

In all her travels with the Doctor through all the ups and the many, many downs Ace had never felt quite as alone as she did now She'd made her way up to the top of the cliff, and stood looking out across the black sea. She turned back to the island and the wind roared in her ears, whipping her hair around her face. It was starting to drizzle again, and she could hear the pattering of the rain against her jacket. The tiny figure that she was sure had been Megan was out of sight behind the rising slope of the cliff. She looked down the slope in the other direction: the roof of the tweedies' cottage shone silver in the moonlight. She wondered what John and Alexander were doing now; whether they'd abandoned her for good; whether Megan or the tweedies had somehow got out there and...

She didn't want to think about 'and...'

'Good evening!'

Ace whirled around and almost lost her footing on the friable soil at the edge of the cliff. Standing behind her was the tweedy man, the dog at his feet. His hands were hanging loosely at his sides which somehow made him seem more alien than anything instead of being jammed into his pockets like they ought to have been. On his face was plastered a cold, beatific smile. And how the h.e.l.l had he managed to creep up on her like that? She stepped away from the cliff edge and glanced around, wondering where the woman was.

'Nice weather,' she said edgily. The man nodded, his mouth still stretched in that curious rictus. She looked down at the dog, its eyes catching the moonlight, its fur looking oddly smooth and wet.

'The moisture content of your atmosphere is not to our taste,' he said distantly and Ace realised he was staring out to sea, towards John and Alexander's boat. She felt a chill and took a step back. As the ground beneath her sank away slightly, she remembered how close she was to the edge of the cliff, and did an awkward sideways shuffle. The man turned his head suddenly, sharply, his eyes following her, hawklike and predatory.

'I understand we have you to thank for the location of the control sphere,' he said, a hint of a smile on his pudgy lips.

'What?'

'The control sphere from the stasis chamber,' he said. 'Your friend took it aboard the boat. We would have found it eventually, but you have saved us much effort.'

'What are you talking about?' Ace's head was spinning. Did he mean the metal thing from the dome on the bottom of the sea? What did she have to do with it? She opened her mouth to ask him what the h.e.l.l he meant, but he was staring past her. Ace followed his gaze. Standing twenty feet or so behind her was Megan, the menacing, moonlit shape of her rifle cradled in her arm.

'About time,' Ace said c.o.c.kily. 'What kept you?'

Megan took a step forwards, hefting the gun in her hands, keeping it trained on Ace and the tweedy man. 'You have no idea how you're going to suffer for what you've done to me.'

Ace turned to the tweedy man. He seemed to have tensed up. Had she got it wrong about Megan and the tweedies?

Weren't they in league with each other after all? It hardly seemed to matter now. Megan was clearly about to kill her, and, finally, she had nowhere to run. She risked a glance over the edge of the cliff, but down below all she could see were the silver-flecked wavetops as they dashed onto the rocks. Not much of an escape route.

'It's too late now,' said the man out of nowhere.

Ace turned to him sharply: was he talking to her? No, he was looking at Megan.

'Too late?' she echoed. 'For what?'

'The control sphere is in our possession,' he said.

It was Megan's turn to be puzzled it showed clearly in her eyes: she looked between the tweedy and Ace, as if trying to work out who was working with whom.

'How do you know about...' Megan's voice tailed away as a look of horrified and angry realisation crossed her face.

'You're Annarene!' she hissed.

The man simply smiled and, as if following a silent cue from him, a soft droning filled the air. He turned and looked into the sky. Gliding like a huge, airborne manta ray, was a black diamond shape. It thundered overhead, only just visible against the clouds; then it turned, wheeled around, and flashed away into the night. The man turned back to them and smiled. 'It's being conveyed. We have won.'

Chapter Nineteen.

'Oh no!' spat Megan, 'oh no you don't not after all we've been through!' and raised her gun.

There was a sparking crack and something flashed at the tip of the gun. Instinctively, Ace threw herself aside, rolling away from the cliff, her knee jarring painfully against a rock buried in the gra.s.s. As she tumbled, she caught a brief, horrifying glimpse of the man sinking to the ground. He clutched his arms to his chest and howled in pain. She watched as an unearthly fire built up inside inside the man's body, lancing out through his open mouth, his eyes, his ears. And then he vanished in a burst of such painful brilliance that Ace threw her hands over her eyes. the man's body, lancing out through his open mouth, his eyes, his ears. And then he vanished in a burst of such painful brilliance that Ace threw her hands over her eyes.

Because of that, she missed what happened next; when she finally dropped her arm it was to the sound of slaVering and growling. Something dark and spiky launched itself from where the man had been standing and sprang at Megan.

The dog. But. . it had changed. In the darkness, Ace could hardly make out what it had become, but it was something far sleeker and far deadlier than the little terrier. A scrabbling, chitinous black thing, it seemed attached to Megan's throat; and as she screamed and tried to tear it away from her, it extended oily black tendrils around her neck like blind worms. She staggered backwards, accidentally kicking the gun in Ace's direction in her panic. She could just about make it if she ran for it, Ace thought, eyeing up the weapon. But before she could, there was a final scream from Megan. She lost her footing at the edge of the cliff, and she and the. . whatever it was. . toppled over the edge.

Then there was silence. Feeling her heart thumping in her ears loud enough to drown out the wind and the rain, Ace crawled to the cliff edge on all fours, gritting her teeth against the pain in her knee, and peered over. Sprawled face down, broken on the rocks below, was Megan, the remains of the thing that had been a dog still wrapped around her neck, crushed against the damp, sea-licked stone.

The door slammed behind them with a heavy finality that sent Ace's spirits into her boots. She looked around the storeroom and kicked sullenly at a cardboard box filled with baked beans, positioning her blow exactly between the two dents she'd made in it earlier that afternoon. Her knee yelled at her to stop.

'Don't bother looking for an air vent or anything,' she said as she saw the Doctor scanning the ceiling. 'Believe me, I know.'