'They've run out on you, Halcyon!' she shouted. 'Move back off the steps!

They've gone!' The suite lurched as some ma.s.sive, feathered b.a.s.t.a.r.d hurled itself against a window. The gla.s.s cracked.

'We'd better get going too,' said Boko.

'Yes, get us out of here!' squeaked The Voice.

Sook looked back to the showscreen. Her breath caught in her throat.

Where Halcyon had been standing, there was now only empty s.p.a.ce.

'Head for the stage,' she told Boko.

Wait.' Boko squinted at the showscreen. 'Who is that on on the stage?' the stage?'

'Fitz!' The Doctor gestured up at Halcyon's staircase. 'What's generating these steps?'

'Uh. . . ' leaving Trix to guard Falsh, Fitz followed the Doctor on to the stage, trying to shut out what was going on in the main arena. 'A thing called PadPad does the design '

'No, no, no, not that!' The Doctor stared around, practically dancing a jig.

'Must be a kind of force generator powering these virtual steps but where is is it?' it?'

'I don't know!'

'Think, Fitz!'

'I tell you, I don't know!'

He frowned. 'You're looking very smart, by the way, Have you shaved?'

'Yes, I have.' Distracted from thinking too hard, an image flashed into his mind. 'Hang on. I did did see Boko and his crowd standing around something over there. . . ' see Boko and his crowd standing around something over there. . . '

'Well done!' The Doctor raced over to the far side of the stage to a block of stone. But when he rubbed his fingers over the side, the stone vanished, leaving behind a small metal box. In moments, the Doctor had it blowing out a big pink bubblescreen. He started jabbing it with his fingers like he was trying to make it burst.

'What are you doing?'

'I'm hoping to clear the force protocols.'

'Yeah, but what are you doing doing?'

The Doctor looked up. 'Have you been eating properly, Fitz? You seem to have lost a bit of weight.'

'Put it down to stress,' said Fitz.

'Hey, Fitz!' Trix called. 'Your mate's looking a bit wobbly up there!'

172.

He looked up the virtual staircase and saw Halcyon was three steps down, shivering on his hands and knees, alone and forgotten.

'I'd get him down if I were you,' the Doctor advised. 'Rather quickly.'

Fitz nodded and sprinted up the steps. He wasn't one given to Big Thoughts in the usual run of things, but a Big Thought was filling his little head right now. When he was panicking about what to do in the wake of the wild animals, one particular idea hadn't hadn't occurred to him: occurred to him: ask the Doctor ask the Doctor. OK, so he hadn't come up with anything more constructive in place of that, but it was still a kind of milestone moment.

Fitz Kreiner comes of age, he thought hopefully.

It seemed too ridiculous to contemplate.

'Halcyon?' Fitz crouched beside him. 'Are you all right?'

'Lost my balance,' he gasped.

'Did you fall?' Fitz helped him up, slipped an arm round him and helped him down the steps.

Halcyon practically clung to him. 'It's ruined,' he hissed. 'Everything is ruined. What's happening? What is happening happening out there?' out there?'

'The Doctor's here,' said Fitz, 'things will be all right now.'

As he spoke, the step vanished beneath them. With a strangled shout, Fitz fell about six feet to the floor. He landed on his coccyx. The pain jarred through him as he lay gasping for breath. The stage was suddenly bare, just Halcytoned walls as before. Halcyon himself was sprawled beside him, still breathing, but motionless.

A moment later, Trix was beside him, checking he was all right. 'Fitz? Can you hear me?'

'Not clearly,' he said. 'Try some sweet nothings.'

She cuffed him round the chops and he smiled weakly. He turned and felt Halcyon's neck for a pulse. It was pounding away like the drum in Fitz's head.

That was something.

'Trix!' the Doctor shouted as he rushed over to join them. 'Where's Falsh?'

He stamped his foot petulantly. 'He's got away! You've let him go!'

Trix looked behind her and swore. 'Well, who needs him, anyway? And what was I supposed supposed to do? Watch Fitz drop and have a good laugh?' to do? Watch Fitz drop and have a good laugh?'

The Doctor didn't answer. He'd removed Halcyon's shades, lifted an eyelid, and nodded thoughtfully. 'He'll live.'

Trix was looking out over the arena. 'Doctor, apart from nearly breaking Fitz's neck and killing Halcyon, what did you you do?' do?'

Fitz propped himself up on his elbows and saw that all the seating had disappeared. The arena was back to being a wide-open s.p.a.ce the size of a small town. People and animals alike were caught wrong-footed and fell to the plastic turf.

173.

'I thought a level playing field might speed up the evacuation,' said the Doctor.

'But it's levelled things for the animals too,' Fitz pointed out. 'Nice pink savannah to run in!'

'We have to distract them,' the Doctor cried, dashing back to his box. 'Give people time to get clear!'

Trix helped Fitz up. He felt winded and sick as he stared out from the stage.

There were dozens of sick little scenes vying for his sight. A man on his knees, screaming as a lioness bore down on him. Two apes flinging round an old woman like a rag doll. Like kids at Christmas, the animals were tearing their way through human parcels, discarding the opened contents, the frenzied unwrapping all that mattered.

'For G.o.d's sake, hurry up, Doctor!' snapped Fitz.

'I noticed this sonic barrier part.i.tioning the stage,' said the Doctor. 'What do you know about it, Fitz?'

'It dampens the sound of that lot.'

Trix shuddered. 'Imagine what the noise would be like without it.' A spike of sound drove through Fitz's brain. He yelled. Trix clasped her ears and looked pained.

The Doctor threw him a wild grin. 'What good imaginations you have! Hold on!'

A piercing, getting-home-from-the-noisy-club whine sounded in Fitz's ears.

And grew louder and louder.

'What the h.e.l.l are you doing?' gasped Fitz.

'Getting the animals' attention,' said the Doctor. 'If I can notch up the sonic frequency to a point that's tolerable to us but unbearable to them. . . '

Trix swore. 'They'll come charging after us!'

He pouted. 'Well, at least those poor people will have a chance to escape!'

'Wow, it sure is good to have you back, Doctor,' said Fitz sourly.

'Done it!' he cried.

The awful sound in Fitz's ears subsided. But suddenly, a collection of mangy, blood-spattered animals came tramping out of the gloom towards the stage, shaking their heads, roaring and hissing and chittering.

'Lions and tigers and bears,' said Fitz, 'oh, fab fab.'

174.

Chapter Twenty-two.

Sook gasped as the control suite filled with the piercing whine, clutched her ears. The whole suite seemed to spin and shake.

Boko screamed with pain. 'Cut speakers!' he yelled. 'Cut speakers!'

The noise went on. 'What's happening?' Sook shouted.

'Someone's tampered with the soundwall,' cried Boko. 'Ma.s.sive feedback into the audio circuits. Speakers, cut cut!'

The noise shut off at last. 'It's him!' said Boko. 'That man on the stage, look! He's got at the stage controls. He He did this!' did this!'

Sook could see the man now, with Kreiner and some girl. His friends! Somehow he'd got them back. And somehow, he seemed to be drawing the animals to him. They were leaving the panic-stricken people alone, and closing in on the stage.

She stepped over The Voice and squeezed in next to Boko. 'We've got to help them!'

'Doctor!' called Fitz worriedly. 'I have a nasty feeling that the rhino there has always wanted to take to the stage.'

A big white brute with a crumpled, b.l.o.o.d.y horn was edging ahead of the battered pack.

The Doctor was busy at his bubble. 'Rhinos can't jump, Fitz.'

A monkey jumped on to the rhino's back, using it as a springboard. Screeching like crazy it leaped on to the stage, arms outstretched for Fitz's throat.

'Get rid of it!' the Doctor snapped.

'The thought had occurred to me.' Trix grabbed it off him and swung it back off the stage. But more animals were coming. A tiger crouched, prepared to pounce; gibbons and gorillas were lumbering forward.

'Now!' the Doctor cried.

'Now what?' yelled Fitz.

'Faster!' shouted Sook. 'Zoom in overhead, maybe we can scare them off!'

'No!' The Voice had got back to his feet, and pushed his way forwards to join them. 'The birds will get us! Turn us around!'

'Go on on, Boko!' Sook insisted. 'They don't stand a chance!'

175.

Fitz and Trix screamed as the wild animals charged forwards.

And crunched into an invisible wall.

The other beasts piled up behind them, not understanding that the way was blocked, frustrated, desperate to reach their prey. Some tried to turn and escape back into the arena. But another see-through wall held them back.

Trix laughed with relief. 'You trapped them!'

'Poor things. I reconfigured the force generator. They're caught between what used to be the stage staircase on one side '

'And the stadium seating on the other,' reasoned Trix. 'Only turned vertical instead of horizontal, right?'

The Doctor nodded, looking out sadly at the animals crushed up against thin air. Then suddenly, he ran to the edge of the stage. 'Stop! Get back, get back!' He was waving his arms about like a madman. 'Get back!'

'You're not Dr Doolittle,' Trix sighed. 'If the things are so set on killing themselves '