I need to ask you something.’ He tapped the Dalek ‘I’m taking this to bits. Just for safe keeping, take the gun away. Pretty soon, someone up there’s gonna come down here and start asking questions.’ He nodded to the gun. ‘They can get their hands on me, OK, but nobody must get their hands on that. Pop it in your bag and take it home. I’ll 23

pick it up this evening.’

Frank’s bag was made of faded green canvas. He’d had it since the 1970s. He picked it up and put the Dalek weapon inside, next to his lunchbox and paper.

‘What’s your postcode?’ asked the Doctor.

‘WP4 2LN,’ said Frank

The Doctor thought for a second. ‘Redlands Road, Twyford?’

Frank felt even more confused now, but eventually he simply shook his head and smiled. ‘That’s it, number 15. I’ll see you later, then.’ He set off for the exit.

As he was nearing the huge lift, the Doctor called, ‘Frank’ Frank turned. ‘Can’t do that thing with the wife. It bends the rules. But. . . I could manage the fall of Troy from a safe distance?’

Frank shrugged. It was like a game of bluff, he half-decided. The Doctor was just being silly. ‘Ta. But I’m happy where I am, Doctor.’ He entered the lift and pressed the button to go up.

Kate and Rose got off the bus at what looked like a building site. A series of half-built flats lay across a field beyond a high wire fence.

Cranes with various attachments were dotted around the site, along with piles of building materials. About a quarter of a mile beyond was the sea, radiant and blue, on what was turning out to be a warm day for May. A security man and a bunch of people who looked like students were standing outside a bungalow in the middle of the site.

Voices were being raised.

Kate pointed to the bungalow. ‘That’s the entrance to the bunker.

It was a bit of a tourist attraction. Then they decided to fill it in.’ As she spoke, a middle-aged man carrying an old canvas bag walked by.

Kate eyed him with interest, not knowing why. Her skin tingled with static.

Rose nodded at the fuss by the bungalow. ‘Oh yeah, the Doctor’s definitely down there. People are shouting. Come on.’

She led Kate over the rough ground. They waited until the security man, who was in the middle of the students, looked the other way, 24

then slipped into the old bungalow. Inside was a huge iron lift, its doors open. They got in and Rose pressed the button to go down.

Kate looked over at Rose. ‘I suppose I don’t mind going blonde.’

‘It’s not so bad,’ said Rose.

‘Naturally blonde,’ said Kate.

It was the kind of friendly, mock-bitchy thing she’d say all the time.

But inside, her mind was stirring with visions she couldn’t even find words to describe. She knew she must keep them secret. Keeping secrets and lying had never appealed to her before. She remembered an ex telling her – in the process of him becoming an ex – that one of her most annoying qualities was that she always showed her real feelings. Today, being cunning felt like a thrill. She could tell this Rose anything, and then, when the time came, when Rose trusted her the most, she would turn – and exterminate her!

The lift jolted and Rose ran out into a huge pit. A skinny man in a slightly crumpled suit was bending over something on the far side.

Rose ran across to him. ‘Doctor! On this mosaic, there’s a –’

The skinny man turned, revealing what he’d been looking at. Kate felt a thrill run through her. The man was nothing like the shadowy shape she’d seen in the visions, but she knew somehow that he was the same person.

And the object he’d been looking at – it uplifted her, called to her.

She longed to run towards it, embrace it, but she knew the Doctor was dangerous. This game would have to be played with that wonderful cunning.

Rose had stopped dead at the sight of it. ‘It’s impossible. They all died.’

The Doctor came towards her, took her arm. ‘Yeah. They all did.

Even this one. Dead. Like all the others.’

Kate felt she had to say something. ‘What is it?’ she asked, trying her best to appear dumb and ordinary.

The Doctor looked her over. ‘Oh, great, we’re back to the questions.

Knew that wouldn’t last.’ He turned to Rose. ‘Who is this?’

Rose couldn’t take her eyes off the object. ‘You sure it’s dead?’

25

‘Are you?’ he asked gently. ‘You looked into the time vortex. You used its power. You destroyed them all. You’re not saying you missed a bit?’

Rose blinked, as if she was trying to remember something hidden from her. Then she smiled. ‘No, I got them all. And I’m not sorry I did.’

‘So,’ said the Doctor. ‘Your friend. . . ?’

He nodded over to Kate. Kate nodded back. The part of her that was still Kate found him rather attractive.

‘Yeah,’ said Rose. ‘She’s called Kate. And there’s something else, something really weird about her.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Nice to meet you, Kate.’ Then he turned back to Rose, ignoring her. ‘Rose, I’ve got one chance to do this. I’ve got to take it to bits, then we’ll dump it somewhere. There’s a lovely black hole in the galaxy Casta Pizellus that’ll do very nicely. I can’t risk taking it into the TARDIS intact.’

‘It’s dead, though,’ said Rose. ‘Isn’t it?’

‘There’s an old saying,’ said the Doctor, ‘dates from about 4000:

“Never turn your back on a dead Dalek.” The casings were full of booby traps. There’s a slight chance there are still virus transmitters in the shell. They could latch on to the TARDIS’s power systems.’

‘What, and bring it back to life?’

‘No, but they could take over the TARDIS computer. Like nasty computer viruses. Less than a chance in a trillion. But, come on, with our luck are we gonna risk that?’

Rose looked back at Kate. ‘But –’

‘Please. Five minutes and I’ll be finished. It can’t be as important as this.’

He walked back to the thing – Dalek, he had called it. Kate had never heard that word before, but it caused a deep feeling of satisfaction within her strange new mind.

As the Doctor ran a long metal tube inside the casing and chattered on to Rose, Kate walked round slowly to the other side. She put on an innocent, curious face.

26

‘Must have crashed and burnt here thousands of years ago, fleeing the Time War,’ the Doctor was telling Rose. ‘The Romans dug it up, put it on show in their villa. An antique, something to talk about at dinner parties. “Peel me a grape, Marcus, and have a look at what I’ve got." Then it got thrown down here. And today someone digs it up again.’

‘After that long, how could a computer virus or whatever survive?’

asked Rose.

‘Probably all wiped out when it crashed,’ said the Doctor. ‘But I know about Daleks. They always, always had something you never knew about. . . ’

He looked up to see Kate reaching out, stretching her fingers into the casing, reaching for the spaghetti-like mass of connections.

Tiny glowing filaments, like strands of sparkling green glue, were flowing from her fingertips into the Dalek.

27

CHAPTER SIX

THE DOCTOR PUT HIS head down and charged at Kate like a bull, knocking her to the ground beneath him.

Rose stared at the Dalek casing, instinctively backing away.

A

faint green glow remained, shining up from the empty main section.

‘What’s she done?’

The Doctor got up and smacked his fist against his forehead, hard.

‘Why didn’t I listen to you? Tell me everything!’

So Rose quickly told him the story of Kate’s incredible recovery from the accident, all the while watching the dying glow in the Dalek and worrying.

Kate was shaking with fear. The Doctor raised her hand carefully and felt her fingers. ‘Static! There’s some kind of Dalek energy inside her.’

‘But she’s human,’ said Rose.