She spared him a brief glower. 'The ferret's lot are the obvious candi-dates. Those chumps you and Fitz got mistaken for, the Old Preservers.' She shrugged. 'But I suppose it could be anyone. Out for a bit of notoriety, or to get back at Halcyon.'

'Or at Falsh. I wonder if Fitz could have had anything to do with it?' The Doctor smiled fondly. 'He's a very resourceful boy.'

'He'll be all grown up if we don't get to him soon,' said Trix pointedly. 'We can't just hang around here. We should go to Callisto and find him. If Halcyon's there, Fitz must be too.'

'Aren't you forgetting the evidence we need?'

'Aren't you you?'

'I'm still working on it!' he protested. 'I was setting something up when I got sidetracked by the TV! Look in here. . . '

The Doctor showed her into a side room. There was a small mountain of used plastic cups in one corner and a by-now-familiar keypad and holosphere in the other. The Doctor wagged a finger at it and the image rippled.

123.

'What is it?'

'Those encrypted notes we took from the Inst.i.tute. I'm trying to translate them.'

Trix frowned. 'What's wrong with the Polar Lights Polar Lights's computers?'

'Billion-bit encryption doesn't break easily.' He grinned sheepishly. 'But sadly the Polar Lights Polar Lights's computers did while I was cracking the first part of the key. So I thought I'd better finish the job on the builders' computer. But it's very very slow.' slow.'

'Its owners are builders, what did you expect? It'll probably start working on it next Wednesday.'

'Quicker to do it myself,' he grumbled, pulling a pen and a sc.r.a.p of paper from his trouser pocket. But a test scribble proved the pen a dud. He threw it into the pile of crumpled plastic. 'Do you have a pen?'

Trix felt inside her borrowed jacket. 'I have a pencil.' She pa.s.sed it to him.

'Now, it's an asymmetric key cipher. . . ' Absentmindedly the Doctor started knocking it against his knuckles. 'a.s.suming the private key is. . . ' He trailed off, still tapping the pencil. Then he held his knuckles to his ear, and tapped again.

'What are you doing now?' Trix sighed.

'Shh.' He scowled at her, kept tapping, kept listening. Then he smiled. 'It's a good solid lead. A fine pencil.'

'Bit of an anachronism for the twenty-fifth century, isn't it?' said Trix. 'A pencil?'

The Doctor chomped on the blunt end. 'Probably denotes a certain senior-ity on the part of the owner, as well as an individual streak. I imagine pencils like this are very valuable.' He snapped the pencil in two. 'But not indestructible. . . '

'I think you're the one who's snapped,' said Trix.

'Probably.' Shrugging, he started scrawling on his piece of paper with the stub. 'Now, a.s.suming this is the key word. . . '

Trix leaned back against the wall and slowly slumped to the floor. Her b.u.m had barely rested for a moment when the Doctor's jubilant shout sent her jumping back up.

'P. . . A. . . I. . . N. Pain.'

'You certainly are,' she muttered.

'That's the word on this encrypted fragment.'

'I suppose the ultimate weapon's bound to cause a bit of pain, isn't it?

Comes with the job description.'

Suddenly a powerful vibration shook the floor beneath them. Trix flattened herself against the wall in alarm. 'Not again!' she cried. 'What was was that? that?

Someone softening up this place for vaporisation?'

124.

'I don't know,' said the Doctor, already haring from the room. 'We'd better see!'

Trix just about kept him in her sights as he ran all the way back to the TV room. 'Torvin? Where are you?'

He came staggering from further down the corridor: hair rumpled, eyes wide. 'Your ship. . . '

The Doctor didn't wait to question him further, just dashed off again. Trix braced herself for a lengthy pursuit, though in fact he soon skittered to a stop, in front of a small inspection window set into the corridor.

Bits of the Polar Lights Polar Lights were floating past the window, spiralling lazily out into s.p.a.ce. were floating past the window, spiralling lazily out into s.p.a.ce.

'Goodbye, old girl,' whispered the Doctor fondly. 'Thanks for the journeys.'

'Just what did you do do to those computers?' Trix demanded. to those computers?' Trix demanded.

'Not guilty.' murmured the Doctor, jabbing a finger towards the window.

'Which is more than I suspect we can say for that that.'

A chill ran through Trix. There was a ship outside, performing a lazy manoeuvre to bring it down to the docking pad. It resembled a dull silver arrowhead, absorbing the cold glare of the distant sun and the stars it shot through.

'That alien fish-thing,' she whispered. 'It's come for us.'

'Why destroy our ship now? Why not on Thebe?' The Doctor answered his own question. 'I suppose it must have known Thebe was about to get blitzed that's why it shot off when it did.'

'Never mind that! What are we going to do?'

'Ask Torvin for a lift in his ship?' suggested the Doctor.

But even as he spoke, there was a blinding white flash from outside. Seconds later, more debris was choking the view.

He sighed. 'Perhaps not.'

'Torvin?' Trix was already haring back down the corridor. 'How long before your mates pick you up?'

'It's that creature from Thebe, isn't it?' Torvin looked grey and haunted. 'He wiped out my crew, now he's come back for me!'

'He's come here for some purpose, certainly.' The Doctor's voice behind her made her jump; she hadn't heard him approach. 'But yes, now he knows we're here, he'll almost certainly want to kill us. So! Perhaps we should prepare some sort of barricade? Buy ourselves some time.'

'This podule thing is under construction,' said Trix. 'Surely we can find some building materials or something to put against the docking hatch?'

'Good thinking. Torvin, go with her and search.'

'And what will you you be doing?' Trix asked. be doing?' Trix asked.

'No barricade is going to hold that creature for long,' he said gravely. 'We need a second line of defence.'

125.

And he walked off, briskly.

'Come on then,' Trix told Torvin. 'We can't have long. It'll be docking any minute.'

'Escape capsule,' he said, standing his ground. 'Conference centre of bigwig business types there's bound to be an escape capsule! I can make it to my friends in that.'

'Brilliant!' Then her elation faded. 'But this place isn't finished. What if it's not been built yet?'

'Hey, Investigator.' He gave her that G.o.dd.a.m.ned ghost of a smile. It was cute and creepy all at once. 'There's only one way to find out.'

'But the barricade,' Trix said with a twinge of guilt. 'We have to slow it down, buy the Doctor time to think of something.'

'Oh. Yes, I guess you're right.' Torvin nodded. 'A distraction could could be useful, however small.' be useful, however small.'

With that, he punched Trix full in the face.

She staggered backwards and fell to the floor, cracking her head. Her eyes closed, and she didn't know how long it was before they opened again.

'A million and two ways to lose it.' She propped herself up on her elbows.

There was a dull, thick ache in her jaw and she could taste blood at the back of her throat. Of Torvin, predictably, there was no sign. b.a.s.t.a.r.d maniac.

Heavy, familiar footfalls sounded through the plastic floor. The thing was coming.

With nothing to stop it, it had just walked right in.

126.

Chapter Sixteen.

It was close to eleven, and Tinya's menagerie was a.s.sembled in the stadium ground; not just the zoo animals, but journos and shutterbugs from across the galaxy, waiting for Halcyon: the star attraction.

She looked at the wild animals. There were hundreds of them, no expense spared with the size of the arena, anything less would have looked lost. And this was about wonder. For wonder, you needed scale.

It was a good selection big grey things with tusks, flapping ears and long noses, side by side with big catlike animals, all stripes or spots and large teeth, bears, birds, fat snakes. . . Their keepers circled about the creatures warily with force wands. The animals had been doped, of course, so they weren't moving about much, and the really dangerous ones were in invisible force cages. That was doubtless the way everyone preferred it.

Her wristpad chimed, and she looked to see who was calling. She'd already heard from a resentful Pent Central representative; Falsh's team had been granted access to the s.p.a.ce slug on the President's personal say-so. They were converting a shed in the newly appropriated industrial park into a presentable little facility. Perfect. Now Falsh could disappear happily off into orbit on his oh-so-secret business. . . and leave her free to go about hers.

An image of Halcyon appeared on the tiny screen. He didn't bother with pleasantries.

'I won't be coming to your press-op.'

'Oh?' She raised her eyebrows. 'Did Roddle tell you '

'Roddle and Sook have related the details to me.'

'I think it's in the best interests of everyone '

'I think it's a ghastly idea and not one I wish to be a.s.sociated with at this time.'

'I see.' Tinya's enhanced cheekbones made it so much easier to hang a smile on her face. 'Well, thank you for letting me know. But I'm having the side stores here converted to a holding area. At the very least,' she said, allowing her voice to harden a touch, 'they will make good filler for tonight's vidcast while we await a final decision on the demolition.' She paused. 'I trust you will be present for vidcast rehearsals this evening?'

'Oh, yes.' He smiled thinly. 'The vidcast shall be going ahead, never fear.'

'I'll inform Falsh.'

127.

'Do as you will. Until later, then. . . '

The screen cut out. Tinya looked at the blank image thoughtfully. She well recognised the look of someone with a winning trick up his sleeve; she'd rarely seen him so self-a.s.sured. She sighed. One more thing to keep tabs on. . .

In the meantime, really, Halcyon's no-show wasn't such a bad thing. It would simply fuel speculation about the nature of the vidcast tonight, tantalise press and public alike. At least he was doing the vidcast. That was good.

There'd be a ma.s.sive audience here, almost a million. All of them led here by the promise of the greatest spectacle ever witnessed. . .

And that was exactly what they'd get.

She checked the time. Better get moving. She had important visitors arriving soon.

'If I could have your attention, everyone?' She smiled as she turned to address the thronging press. 'There's been a slight change of plan. . . '

The time was approaching. Falsh reckoned the Agent would arrive at the podule well ahead of the planned rendezvous. It had told him it would be prepared for treachery.

Falsh smiled. 'You have no idea.'

Here on the ship he had the proper equipment to check up on the thing.

He tweaked some controls on the new device with satisfaction. The boys had done well. Now he'd cleared orbit, there was no risk of signal chatter from Callisto's burgeoning industries interfering with the wavelengths. He set his ship on a direct course for the podule. He'd be there within a couple of hours.

'It's gonna work,' he told himself hoa.r.s.ely, placing the translation visor over his eyes. A grainy image slowly resolved on the bubblescreen before him. It's gonna. . . '

He blinked.