Then, flat on the steel floor, she resorted to something that she didn't often do.

She prayed.

The end of the day was quite beautiful, noted Bernice, and the sun was dappling orange on the river. There was a pleasant sense of old-fashioned charm about the boat crews' supporters with their tea and scones on the pub terrace. It would all have been most agreeable if she could have ignored the unbreakable grip of a Gallifreyan android disguised as a woman police constable in the British Metropolitan Police Force, and the utterly defeated expression on the face of the Doctor.

'Couldn't we have got a closer fix?' complained President Epsilon Delta in annoyance, scanning Magdalen Bridge with a telescope.

Amanda, her shades reflecting the activity on the river bank, cupped her hand to her head as if listening to something. 'Negative. Danger of energy field disintegration.'

'Oh, very well.' The President, presumably conscious of the stares that the eclectic group was getting from the spectators, snapped his telescope shut and nodded to the police-androids. 'Let's go.'

Bernice saw Captain Romulus Terrin looking around in wonderment. 'I hope someone is going to convince me this is real,' he said faintly. 'It looks frighteningly like twentieth-century Earth.'

'Open mind, Romulus,' said the Doctor. 'Open mind. Be a good chap and keep quiet, would you?' And Bernice imagined he would have dug the captain gently in the ribs, had he been a little nearer and unmenaced by the coldness of Amanda's pistol on the back of his neck.

Bernice, Tom, Rafferty and Terrin were led away first, firmly propelled by their fake police. Then came the Doctor and Amanda. The android towered head and shoulders over the Doctor, who looked like a man being taken to execution. The President, quietly chuckling, brought up the rear.

It took a couple of minutes before Bernice realized they were getting encouraging shouts and laughter from both sides of Oxford High Street. She turned to Captain Terrin, but he was too engrossed by the broad, sweeping street with its thundering traffic to be able to utter anything coherent.

'What is it?' she cried to Tom Cheynor as they were marched past delicatessens, barbers and novelty shops.

'I think we might have been mistaken for a Rag parade,' he admitted a little embarrassedly. 'If anyone throws money at you, don't worry.'

The Time Soldiers were waiting in Radcliffe Square.

Two of them, feet planted firmly apart, shimmering in the evening light. They hovered just above the cobblestones, little more than outlines in a greenish mist. The domed Radcliffe Camera could be seen through their bodies, its gentle yellow soaking the dregs of the sun.

The party halted. Bernice could feel her heart thumping, and she heard the Doctor draw breath.

The President stepped forward to greet the ghostly figures. His face glowed with exultation and smugness, and he whirled to face the party of prisoners with his cane held aloft. Its tip came to rest just short of the Doctor's nose.

'We have our escort, Doctor. Now where are we headed?'

For a moment the Doctor was silent. Behind them, the evening traffic roared. Bernice heard bells ringing somewhere near, voices and laughter on the other side of the square ridiculously joyful sounds. She wondered if the Doctor was going to astonish them all again.

'St Matthew's College,' said the Doctor. 'Front quad.'

The probes screamed.

'Up!' Ace shouted. 'Get up!'

Cheynor and Strakk were on their feet. The metallic snakes thrashed in agony at the bombardment from Ace's attacking program. Like wounded beasts, they squealed in pain and fury, lashing out at whatever was in their path. Sparks leapt from control panels. Screens smashed to pieces. The shrieks from the Garvond's gestalt mind grew in volume, piercing hatred and terror into their brains.

It hurtled towards Ace from the door of the engine room. Blotting out Strakk and Cheynor. More tangible than darkness, deeper than thought. She knew what was happening as the noise and blackness hit her. This was the Garvond's fury. Its attack against those who had deceived it. Ace tried to scream that it needed them. It has always needed them. That was why it hadn't killed them. Right? But now it was punishing them. In the way it knew best. Through the mind.

They reached to her like hands from water, dragging her down. Faces swam in the blackness. The Doctor, only half-seen like a child's tracing. There was Death, in his cloak of darkness, and behind him, in a vast and undulating train, the armies of the dead, marching through Time with a slicing, rhythmic beat. The scythe whirled, came biting down at her like a wind, and in that split second she remembered the many times she had faced him before, and lived. And the others, who had not been so lucky. Mike. Shreela. Jan. Souls screaming with the ship as it hurtled to destiny through the Vortex. She tried to lift herself with her palms flat on the floor. Death's blade skimmed her hair, slicing a lock from it, which split into fragments, each falling and becoming a droplet of blood.

She could see outlines in the darkness now. Wooden, creaking. In the corner, a stuffed bird, watching her with swivelling eyes. Creepy. Creepy. That old word. Rustling noises spiralled around her, trapping her. Roundels had begun to form on the wooden panelling, and now she knew this place for what it was. Not that house, Gabriel Chase; not some mystic land of her fears; not the TARDIS. None of these alone, but the darkness of all together, like a potent mandragora stealing away her life and dragging her down into oblivion. Where the Garvond lay. That old word. Rustling noises spiralled around her, trapping her. Roundels had begun to form on the wooden panelling, and now she knew this place for what it was. Not that house, Gabriel Chase; not some mystic land of her fears; not the TARDIS. None of these alone, but the darkness of all together, like a potent mandragora stealing away her life and dragging her down into oblivion. Where the Garvond lay.

And above her, the accusing eyes, the lost eyes, of the face she wanted to love. The face of Audrey, her mother.

Then Ace, falling towards death without absolution, saw the Doctor.

And the Doctor, smiling, watched her fall.

She opened her eyes.

A familiar sight greeted her. The low, circular room with its dim lighting and the captain's dais. Still sitting there, trembling with power in its own aura, was the Garvond. The frightened, useless TechnOps held at their posts by the Time Soldiers as the space-chariot sped on through an endless night. Somehow, she was back on the bridge.

Leave them, said the Garvond's voice in her head. said the Garvond's voice in her head. They are unimportant now. They are unimportant now.

'We failed,' said a voice she knew.

Her vision still blurred, Ace swivelled her head to the right. Albion Strakk was picking himself up from the floor by the elevator doors.

'How the hell did we get back here?' Ace hissed.

Strakk slumped beside her. 'Just be thankful if didn't attempt anything more amusing.'

Cheynor was back in his seat, next to them, gazing blankly at his palms as if seeing them for the first time in his life. He looked up, carefully, squinting in the orange light of the Bridge, and his eyes met Ace's.

'I saw my brother,' said Darius Cheynor faintly. 'It used him against me, like a weapon. Like before.' He shuddered. 'And I felt something else, too. Something I senses when these creatures first boarded, as if I should know more about them. Like I'd been through all this before...'

'And you?' Ace hardly dared ask Strakk.

The lieutenant's eyes were a long way away. 'I saw Mikaela and Anji burning. Their death, over and over.'

The silence was like ice. What are we dealing with? What are we dealing with? Ace thought. Ace thought. It knows everything. It burrows into our minds like a worm, chewing our fears and hates, spitting them back at us. It knows everything. It burrows into our minds like a worm, chewing our fears and hates, spitting them back at us.

'Okay,' she said. 'The rabbits got pulled out of the hat. Next time we'll be sawn in half.'

The cheeriness of her words was hollow, like a waiting coffin. She didn't ask Strakk what he thought had happened to Rosabeth McCarran.

She was thinking about death, and the shadowed face of the Doctor.

Somehow, the Garvond had delved to the place even she did not actively dare to confront. The part of her soul which flowed with the fire of mistrust.

Mistrust of the Doctor.

On the lawn of St Matthew's, the ill-assorted group had circled the flattened square of grass like mourners around a grave. Luckily, the college was closed to visitors that afternoon except to those accompanied by the President, of course, no matter how strange they might have looked. The two Time Soldiers had simply vanished outside the Porter's Lodge and re-formed themselves silently on the lawn.

The Doctor, sensing that everyone was waiting for him, held out his hand to Bernice.

'Is this really the time?' she asked.

'Give me the homing beacon.'

'Nicely,' she reproved him.

'Give me the homing beacon, nicely.'

She thumped it on to his palm and turned away in annoyance, arms folded. The Doctor, almost without looking, unscrewed the device and prodded inside it for several seconds. Then he looked up, his face impassive.

'I hope you're ready,' he said to Epsilon Delta.

On the bridge of the Icarus Icarus, the Garvond blazed in anticipation of its new power.

They all heard the voice.

At last, it said. it said. The final connection. The ship of Time. Then, we can emerge from the Vortex... The final connection. The ship of Time. Then, we can emerge from the Vortex...

Behind the Doctor, unseen by anyone, Amanda smiled. And her finger tightened on the trigger of her blaster.

Chapter 20.

Location and Dislocation One moment the square of grass was there as before, and then, in less than a blink of an eye, the TARDIS sprouted from it like a square blue tree.

Bernice was impressed.

'Gosh,' she said, 'you know, I'd almost accuse you of being theatrical.'

'Almost?' the Doctor raised an eyebrow.

'You'd take it as a compliment.'

Epsilon Delta stretched out a pudgy hand to stroke the paintwork. With a sinking heart, Bernice realized she could hear another of those melodramatic chuckles growing steadily in the back of his throat.

'So where was it?' Rafferty asked in wonderment.

'Here,' said the Doctor grimly, 'but not now now. You see, when we first arrived in Oxford, the ship sensed the Garvond's intrusion, and activated a rarely used system. It's called the DITO Defence Indefinite Timeloop Option.'

'Which means?' asked Tom eagerly. He was determined, even more so than his mentor the Professor, to follow all this. Now that he was beginning to think rationally after the initial shock, he was realizing that it might all have some bearing on his future studies. He wondered how the soldiers would react to his taking notes.

The Doctor turned to Tom and looked him squarely in the eye. 'The TARDIS,' he said, 'was always a millisecond in the future. Wherever you were looking for it. That caused the imprint on the lawn, because the ship had always just been there just been there, a millisecond ago. An infinite loop is child's play to create. It's only the application which is ' The Doctor shrugged and almost smiled, 'redolent of genius.'

We have heard enough.

The voice whispered around the quadrangle, echoing from the stonework and the ivy. Like a ghost of Oxford. Only they knew it was no ghost. All eyes were on the leading Time Soldier as its eyes flickered in harmony with each syllable.

You, Epsilon Delta, will now stand aside. Your time and your usefulness are at an end.

The President looked slightly put out, but even Bernice was impressed by how quickly he recovered. He gave an obsequious bow. 'Very well. As your master decrees. I trust,' he added, 'that Gallifrey, as we agreed, will be handed over to me before the Ravaging?'

We made no deals with you, said the Time Soldier. said the Time Soldier.

The silence in the quadrangle was tense. Everyone was rather interested to see what would happen next. Everyone except the Doctor, who was nonchalantly unlocking the TARDIS.

Epsilon Delta let out a hearty laugh, which stopped rapidly when he realized that no one was joining in.

For the first time, he looked frightened.

'What do you mean?' he asked.

The android will complete its task, said the voice from the Time Soldier. said the voice from the Time Soldier. For the disruption to be brought full circle, this must happen. For the disruption to be brought full circle, this must happen.

Amanda, responding now not to the President but to another, greater power, flexed her gun-arm.

The second Time Soldier emitted a shattering blaze of green radiance, shards of light slicing the evening air like knives. Before anyone realized what was happening, the android and the President were swallowed up.

An after-image, just a blur of purple light, lingered there on the lawn for a moment, and then there was silence.

The Doctor looked up. 'Hmm,' he said, 'I wondered when he'd work that out.' He pushed the TARDIS door open and smiled sadly up at the Time Soldiers. 'We'd better get this over with, then. Come on.'

Bernice could not believe her ears. 'You're going to let them into the TARDIS?'

'I'm not letting it do anything. Merely saving your life. All your lives.'

'Doctor,' James Rafferty said in astonishment, still gazing at the place where the green flare had been. 'What happened to the President and Amanda?'

The Doctor paused for a moment before meeting the gaze of his old friend.

'History,' he said sadly.

In Heathrow, it was as before. Only this time, Amanda was on roller-skates.

She skimmed along the smooth floor of the terminal, her body silver and black, the briefcase once more by her side. She knew the position of the blue-uniformed guards, of the target. Dodging the travellers and their trolleys, she sliced past one check-in desk after another.

Target thirty metres and closing.