'Sure,' said Trix. 'I'll just wait for you to come and hold my hand and make everything all right.'

'Good idea.' The Doctor paused. 'Trix?'

But there was no answer.

Trix started as Roddle s.n.a.t.c.hed back his wristpad. 'I don't see Sook and Kreiner anywhere,' he said.

'Uh, they're probably in there,' said Trix, pointing to the grimy business unit.

'You think I'm stupid, don't you?' Roddle hissed.

'Of course I don't! Look, Roddle, why don't you go back to the flyer, pick up the Doctor, and '

'So I'm your taxi service, now?'

'Trix?' The Doctor's tinny voice kept calling from the wristpad. 'Come on, don't sulk. . . '

Roddle threw the wristpad to the ground and stamped on it.

'What did you do that for, you idiot!'

'Taxi service!' He shoved her backwards. 'That's all I'm good for, huh?'

195.

Oh G.o.d, he's been slugged. Trix stood her ground, held out her hands pla-catingly. 'Roddle, just take it easy.' Trix stood her ground, held out her hands pla-catingly. 'Roddle, just take it easy.'

'Shut up!' His voice rose in anger, his black eye twitching with sudden rage.

'You people can't tell me what to do!'

'Quiet, you idiot,' she hissed, 'you want every soldier left in the place to come down on '

But the sky came down on them first. In an instant, the springtime blue was banished by night. Jupiter appeared, dominating the horizon with its ma.s.sive, terrifying presence. Trix gasped, heard distant cries of alarm and coos of awe from beyond the compound.

'Sky out,' said Roddle softly, staring up at the awesome sight and rubbing his temples. 'Yeah, it was scheduled. Round about now we were going to nuke the first moon. . . '

He seemed calm again, shocked out of his anger. 'Are you OK?' asked Trix shakily.

'I. . . I guess. . . '

'Then get back to the flyer and get the h.e.l.l out of here,' she urged him.

'Halcyon needs you, OK? Get back to Halcyon and the Doctor as quick as you can, right?'

'Right,' he said, casting furtive little looks into the shadows. 'Take care. I'll see you.'

Trix swallowed hard as he crossed the compound a little uncertainly.

'Maybe,' she whispered.

Falsh fought to keep his composure as Klimt came out of the shadows at the back of the shed. His grey hair was spidery and wild. His eyes were bright but the skin around them was dead and waxen. He stalked out of that gloom like he belonged on the dead pile, patchy stubble gritting his face, spit-froth flecking his lips.

'You tried to kill me,' Klimt said.

Falsh attempted a smile. 'Direct as ever.'

'You paid me a salary worthy of a genius, but you took me for a fool.' Klimt seemed genuinely puzzled. 'I never really worked that one out. Not even with a brain my size.'

'You tried to make a fool out of me,' Falsh said. 'I give you four years, you give me a slug!'

'Nothing more than you deserved.' Klimt pulled back his fist and threw it into Falsh's jaw.

Falsh staggered backwards but stayed standing. 'I knew about the emergency launcher you had installed on Carme,' he said, tasting blood in his mouth. 'I knew that.'

196.

'Like you knew Tinya had been through your files. And yet you did nothing about it?' Klimt shook his head, advanced on him. 'Not very thorough, Falsh.

And you normally do thorough so well.'

Falsh took another punch from Klimt, but this time rolled with the blow.

'If you really had had known about any of these things, I think you'd have acted rather differently,' Klimt went on. 'So I can only a.s.sume you've become wise after the event. How are the Doctor and Trix, Falsh?' known about any of these things, I think you'd have acted rather differently,' Klimt went on. 'So I can only a.s.sume you've become wise after the event. How are the Doctor and Trix, Falsh?'

Falsh and Tinya both spoke at once: 'You know them?'

'I'm beginning to think they really are Investigators as they would have us believe.' He glanced at Tinya. 'You a.s.sured me you'd been so careful, so discreet.'

'I have been!' she insisted.

'The evidence is rather to the contrary, don't you think?'

'She's a weak link, Klimt. Don't trust her.'

'Shut up!' Klimt stormed. 'You can't play me for a fool, Falsh, I'm not a fool!'

So hit me again, d.a.m.n it. Falsh had been watching Klimt carefully. If he advanced one more time he would block Tinya's line of fire. Falsh could tell that the danger hadn't occurred to her. Falsh had been watching Klimt carefully. If he advanced one more time he would block Tinya's line of fire. Falsh could tell that the danger hadn't occurred to her. That That would be the time to act. would be the time to act.

He could do it. His heart began to hammer. He could start turning all this around.

'Your problem, Falsh, was that you a.s.sumed that since I was a brilliant scientist, I couldn't possibly have your kind of ambition. You like simple definitions, don't you? Everyone and everything stamped and categorised and filed in a little box, waiting to become useful and discarded when that usefulness is at an end.'

'I guess you could call me single-minded,' said Falsh.

'No, no, Falsh. That's what you could call me me.' He smiled again, that slightly crazy, staring smile. 'It didn't take me long to work out that this weapon you asked of me was never intended for offer to our Empire. So naturally I deduced you would require me dead once the work was finished. So that the sale could never be traced '

'And so you couldn't duplicate the work for another power,' Falsh agreed.

'Nothing personal. Your death was a requirement, stated in the Icthal contract.'

'As Tinya discovered,' said Klimt, 'once she'd finally tracked down your auction files. The contract showed they'd invested so much already they'd never agree to the new price that I I have in mind.' He smiled. 'So I decided to exclude the Icthal from these negotiations and deal purely with the other potential bidders you'd lined up.' have in mind.' He smiled. 'So I decided to exclude the Icthal from these negotiations and deal purely with the other potential bidders you'd lined up.'

Falsh glimpsed the funny side and smiled back, despite himself. 'Tinya was your mole from the start, wasn't she?'

197.

'I approached her when she was still at Anghelic,' said Klimt. He nodded, clearly delighted that the penny had dropped at long last; this man could gloat for the Empire. 'Tipped for great things, was Tinya. If only she didn't bore so easily.'

Tinya said nothing, glum with the gun. The angle had changed. Klimt would have to move closer.

'Ambitious, efficient I knew she'd soon be gathered to that cold Falsh breast. I reckoned on her reaching executive status within two years.'

'I did it in thirteen months,' she complained.

'And she's been telling you everything I have or haven't been doing since,'

said Falsh.

'Especially the things you shouldn't have been doing at all,' Klimt agreed.

'You may as well have been moving in slow motion.'

'Still fast enough to run rings around you.' Come on, come on. . . Come on, come on. . . 'Ambitious and efficient. That's Tinya, sure. But it's not you she's been acting for, Klimt. 'Ambitious and efficient. That's Tinya, sure. But it's not you she's been acting for, Klimt.

It's herself.'

'That's not true,' said Tinya sullenly, holding the gun with a little more spirit.

'She wouldn't have the nerve or the know-how,' said Klimt, swaggering closer, raising his fist once more.

Falsh tensed himself to move.

And then the thing came screaming out from the shadows, spraying them all with a thick and stinging venom.

198.

Chapter Twenty-five.

'Trix? Please Please come in, it's the Doctor!' come in, it's the Doctor!'

He sighed to break the persistent silence.

'Where am I?'

The Doctor turned to find Halcyon had propped himself up heroically on one elbow.

'You're on Falsh's ship. Please don't fret, I'm the Doctor a friend of Fitz Kreiner.' Some white lies might make for an easy life. 'He and Sook asked me to look after you.'

'Where is is Sook?' Halcyon was rigid with fright. 'I must have her here.' Sook?' Halcyon was rigid with fright. 'I must have her here.'

'I'm afraid she's otherwise engaged,' said the Doctor. 'And no, Falsh isn't here either, he had to, er, run. But Roddle should be back soon. I hope.'

Halcyon's eyes widened behind his dark gla.s.ses. 'What has happened?'

'You may not have noticed, but there was something of an altercation in the stadium. Your colleagues are helping '

'The stadium! I should be on air!' Halcyon spluttered. Then he clutched his wrist. 'Where's my wristpad! I need to '

'The vidcast was cancelled,' snapped the Doctor.

'After all that. . . all the last minute scrabbling about. . . it was cancelled cancelled?'

Halcyon crumpled back down on the couch. 'What happened?'

'You don't remember?' asked the Doctor lightly.

Halcyon looked away. 'I asked you, what happened?'

'You fell from the stairs and took a b.u.mp to the head,' the Doctor told him more gently. 'Try to relax.'

'Now listen here, I don't know who you are, but. . . ' Halcyon trailed off, c.o.c.ked his head to one side. 'Wait. Did you say you were. . . the Doctor?

Kreiner's friend, the inventor of the endless cupboard?'

'Of the what what?'

'Your blue box! My dear fellow, I'm so glad you turned up your friend was so worried about you.'

'It's mutual.'

'He told me you'd be very keen to do business! You are, aren't you? Tell me you are! We can solve the Empire's housing crisis! How many immigrants do you think we could house in one of your boxes, hmm?'

'Halcyon '

199.

'I was going to demonstrate tonight with a thousand dancing girls!'

'Halcyon, we are facing more pressing crises '

Suddenly, the Doctor noticed the translation visor perched on the console.