'Yeah.' Ben shrugged. 'Bit creepy, but so what?'

'It was stationary outside the office when we left.' He stared down the corridor the three Daleks had emerged from. 'That is the corridor leading to Lesterson's laboratory.'

'So?'

'Ben,' the Doctor said carefully, 'think! We're supposed to have one Dalek behind us. Yet three have just gone past.

Three, Ben.' He rubbed his chin. 'There were only three in the capsule so where did the fourth one come from?'

Ben shrugged. 'Maybe the first one scarpered around quick to join his mates.'

'They're fast, Ben, but they aren't invisible.' The Doctor's face contorted as he struggled with the question.

'Unless... No. No. Lesterson couldn't have manufactured more. Maybe there was another hidden chamber in the capsule'

Ben was losing interest in the matter. 'Look, you're making a big deal out of nothing. The one we left behind just nipped down a side corridor to join the other two, that's all. It's Polly you should be thinking about, not Daleks. Who cares if there's three or four of the things?'

The Doctor nodded. 'We'll go and talk to Lesterson. I want to show him the note. It tells us to leave him alone, after all.

'You think he wrote it?' Ben asked. His fists clenched. 'I could... ask him'

'Well, perhaps he might have an idea about where Polly could be, at any rate.'

'Or that a.s.sistant of his,' Ben suggested. 'Janley, I mean.

There's something about her...'

'Yes,' the Doctor agreed. 'That girl interests me. She received a call on the comm unit before it was repaired.

And she put up a notice on the board just now. One that Kebble found very interesting.' He moved over to stare at the note on the board. As he did so, a woman came around the corner, apparently heading for the board. She stopped as she saw the Doctor there, apparently trying to decide whether to pause or not. Intrigued, the Doctor nodded at her.

'Come along, Ben,' he said. 'We'd better see Lesterson right away.' He led Ben off down the corridor away from the board, then stopped. Turning, he saw that the woman was standing beside Janley's note, jotting something down.

Somehow, she seemed to realize she was being watched.

She glanced around and saw the Doctor. Quickly she snapped her pad shut and hurried off 'Interesting,' the Doctor murmured. 'I frightened her off for some reason. I wonder what the fascination of this board is?'

'You remember what Thane said,' Ben replied, irritated at the delay. 'It's the only way they've got to put out messages for each other.'

'What about the comms units?'

Ben shrugged. 'General messages, then. Who cares?

We're going to see Lesterson now now. We have to find Polly!'

'Yes, all right,' the Doctor agreed. He started off again with Ben, but the bulletin board was clearly on his mind.

He glanced back as he walked, and saw someone else at the board. It looked like Thane, and she was also jotting in her pad. The Doctor decided that he'd better take a much closer look at what was so appealing about Janley's note.

But, first things first: right now they had to have words with Lesterson. About a disappearing a.s.sistant, and an appearing Dalek.

19.

These Things Are Just Machines Janley was hard at work with her notes when a shadow loomed over her. Startled, she looked up. Lesterson, his face drawn and tired-looking, was there, a piece of the Daleks' flexible metal in his hand.

'You startled me,' she said. 'What is it?'

'The Daleks,' Lesterson replied, waving the sheet at her.

It hummed softly as he shook it. 'They've made up a new list of materials that they want.'

Janley tapped the SAVE function on her pad, then held out her hand. 'Let me see.' Lesterson handed her the metal the Daleks used instead of paper. She quickly scanned the list, then shrugged. 'We've got all these things in stock.' A slight frown marred her perfect features. 'They've rebuilt the satellite computer already.'

'I know that,' Lesterson snapped. Something was clearly vexing him.

'They need material to work with,' Janley told him in their defence.

'But why these quant.i.ties, Janley?' he asked. 'Why?

Why? How could they have used up all the materials I gave them when was it?' He glanced at the clock. 'Good heavens, it was only a few hours ago!' How could they have used up all the materials I gave them when was it?' He glanced at the clock. 'Good heavens, it was only a few hours ago!'

'They're building new things for us,' Janley told him soothingly. It wasn't easy, stroking his ego like this, but she knew she had to do it. 'Wonderful things.'

'I don't want them to do anything without consulting me,' Lesterson snapped. He ran a hand through his hair. It came away sticky with sweat. He looked like a man subject to nightmares. His gaze came to rest on the capsule. The door to it was closed. 'They've even locked themselves in there now. What are they doing inside there?'

'You're worrying too much.' Janley had never seen Lesterson this agitated before. But it was imperative that he didn't discover what her plans for the Daleks were.

'They're probably just working on ideas for the mining systems they planned.'

' They They planned,' Lesterson said. 'Not us' planned,' Lesterson said. 'Not us'

'Don't worry so much.'

Lesterson gave her a panicky look. 'That's the sort of remark I've been making to a lot of other people,' he mumbled. 'The Governor, the Examiner... Don't you see, Janley?' He seemed to be begging for her understanding.

'The Daleks are proving that they have a dangerous amount of original thought!' He almost ran across the laboratory floor to the capsule. Hammering on the locked door, he yelled: 'What are you doing in there?' There was no reply. Almost frantically, he threatened: 'I can cut off your power!' Still there was no reply. He thundered his fists on the door again, but with no response. Dejectedly, he turned and slunk back to a stool by the workbench.

Janley moved to stand behind him. She began to ma.s.sage the tight, knotted muscles in his neck. 'Then why not cut it off?' she suggested.

'I want the Examiner's advice first.'

'The Examiner!' Janley exclaimed, her voice dripping scorn.

Lesterson pulled free of her ministering hands and glared at her. 'Look, Janley, say what you like, but I'm beginning to believe he was right about the Daleks.' He shivered. 'I can feel it in my bones. If we can control them... Well, that'll be marvellous and they'll serve us. But if we can't...'

'Yes?' Janley prompted.

'Then I'll have them destroyed. They're too dangerous otherwise.' He had clearly made up his mind. 'The Examiner seems to know more about them and I need his opinion.'

He was starting to get dangerously out of her control.

Janley knew that the time had come to put in the knives. 'I wouldn't bring the Examiner into it if I were you,' she advised him softly.

'I don't need your advice,' he retorted. 'You don't seem to understand how serious this is. The Daleks are all right, providing we control them. The Examiner knows all about them '

'But he doesn't know about Resno,' Janley reminded him.

'Resno!' Lesterson realized he'd completely forgotten about that that, and about his injured a.s.sistant. So much had been happening. 'That was just a little accident' He felt guilty about his neglect. 'How is he, anyway? I should have visited him. He should be getting better.'

'He's dead,' Janley replied coldly.

Lesterson went ashen. 'Dead?' he repeated, stunned.

'But you said... He was recovering, and...'

'You idiot,' she said. 'The Dalek killed killed him.' him.'

It was a good job he was sitting down. He looked in serious danger of total collapse. 'But, but you said said ' '

'I lied,' she replied brutally. 'You were busy with the experiments on the Dalek and didn't need another problem.'

His haunted eyes gradually focused on her. 'You should have told me,' he said, almost in tears. 'The body... We have to report it.'

'Don't worry.' Janley looked down at him scornfully.

'No one will find the body.'

He seemed to understand her at last. 'You've done a terrible thing, Janley,' he reproached. 'How am I going to explain it all now?'

'You couldn't explain it then then,' she sneered. 'The Dalek may have killed Resno, but you were to blame.'

This. .h.i.t him hard. She could see the guilt and torment in his face. 'No,' he protested weakly. 'No, I wasn't...'

She had him hooked now. It was just a matter of playing him right. His conscience, and his fear, would make him putty in her hands. 'You took precautions, did you?' she jeered. 'You knew that the Dalek was harmless? No! You made a mistake and I covered up for you.'

'But why?' he asked. 'Why did you do that?'

Janley chose her reply carefully. 'Because the experiments on the Daleks are more important.'

'More important than human life?' he asked her, incredulously. 'No. No, I can't accept that.'

'You will,' Janley insisted. 'You must.'

'Must?' he echoed. 'What are you talking about must must?'

Janley's look of contempt seemed to have finally hit home with him. He was trembling as she sized up her next words carefully for their impact. 'You were to blame for Resno's death. I could always say that you murdered him.

It's only your word against mine' She let that sink in. 'The Examiner's so keen on having the Daleks destroyed. That's just the sort of ammunition he'd love. To discredit you, imprison you...'

Lesterson finally comprehended what she was doing.

'I'm not going to be blackmailed by you!'

Janley smiled slightly, then shrugged. 'Funny sort of blackmail,' she mused. 'I get nothing but trouble from it.'

She glared at him. 'All I want you to do is to go on as you are. I'm not asking for anything. Scientific discovery can't stop now, Lesterson, just because of your queasy stomach!'

She was about to continue when the door opened.

Spinning around, she saw the Doctor and Ben march into the laboratory. It was the worst possible timing; she wasn't absolutely certain yet that Lesterson was completely under her thumb. She gave Lesterson a quick glance, but it was impossible to tell whether he'd hold up or crack. Too many emotions were churning inside him to be sure of his responses.

Right now, he hid his fears behind a bl.u.s.ter of anger. 'I told the guard no one was to be admitted!' he stormed.

'Apparently,' the Doctor said mildly, 'he didn't think that applied to the Examiner.'

'Well, it does,' Janley said rudely.

The Doctor turned his meek gaze on to her. 'I'm overwhelmed by your courtesy,' he told her. 'Accord every access, remember?'

Ben was impatient with the Doctor's lack of bluntness.

'We're looking for Polly,' he said.

'Well, she isn't here,' Lesterson snapped. Janley saw that he looked relieved that they weren't here to expose him.

'And I haven't seen her.'

'She's been kidnapped,' Ben informed him.

'On Vulcan?' Lesterson laughed scornfully. 'Impossible.

That kind of thing doesn't happen in the colony. There's no crime to speak of, except for the odd bit of bother from the rebels'