'You didn't go into the military system?'

'Dr Peron was put in charge. She's a confidante to Gaskill Tyran. And she's a colonel in Military One.'

'They're gonna drop on you like a '

' Gaskill Tyran! Gaskill Tyran! ' Veta insisted. 'Do you know what he looks like?' Josef shook his head, and she used the remote to open the comp. A face appeared out of a buzz of holographic static, and Josef was stunned when he recognised it. ' Veta insisted. 'Do you know what he looks like?' Josef shook his head, and she used the remote to open the comp. A face appeared out of a buzz of holographic static, and Josef was stunned when he recognised it.

'He was the man in the suit,' he said.

'He was there in Medicare Central while Joby was being born,' Veta confirmed. 'He never said anything, kept out of the way. I a.s.sumed he was part of the management team. But that is the great Gaskill Tyran. Now why would he be hovering about in Medicare Central while our baby was being born, eh?'

Josef was dumbfounded.

'And another thing,' she said. 'Some of the records are kept offline. Doesn't that strike you as odd? Medicare records not available to medicare staff? As far as I can see they were transferred directly to Peron's personal databook.'

'Records of straight birth defects would have been left available to the staff,'

Josef agreed. 'However terrible they were.'

'Well I think those records weren't left online for one simple reason.'

'What?'

'They were a military secret.'

Josef glared at her.

'There's something else,' she told him. 'The staff changes two months ago were never reversed. Military One have been in charge of Medicare Central ever since. And today there were special orders sent out to all civilian staff to report to alternative posts. The military have total control now. And that can only mean one thing.'

100.

Josef could only shake his head in wonder.

'Whatever that military secret was it's still ongoing.'

'Oh my G.o.d.'

'Now do you think I'm being paranoid?'

'What are we going to do?'

Veta took a deep breath. 'We're going to confront them.'

Josef shot her a startled look.

'I already called Dr Pryce today,' she said. 'He seemed very edgy. Not at all the man we met two months ago. But he agreed to see us. Now.'

'Oh, s.h.i.t,' he said.

The sound of a growling dog metamorphosed into the voice of a growling man, and Fitz was left with a disturbing half-dream impression of a big gruff bloke with a Doberman's head as he surfaced swiftly out of sleep. His eyes were on fire so he lay there while the sounds took form in his head. The building site off in the distance. Tent flaps thrashing in a rising wind. The rumbling of machinery.

Then he heard Ayla's voice, urgent and imploring, and focused immediately on her words.

'. . . certainly not well enough to be bullied by your brutes,' she hissed.

'Better to strike now before he's well enough to resist,' the dog voice growled.

'All I'm interested in is the truth.'

Fitz risked a look but Ayla and the man were the other side of the canvas sheet that made up the walls of the room.

' Your Your truth,' Ayla said angrily, obviously struggling to keep her voice down as well as her temper. 'All you're interested in is your version of the truth. Oh, this is very convenient for you, isn't it, Jorgan?' truth,' Ayla said angrily, obviously struggling to keep her voice down as well as her temper. 'All you're interested in is your version of the truth. Oh, this is very convenient for you, isn't it, Jorgan?'

'It's very suspicious, yes,' Jorgan replied.

'Well, I'm med officer here and this man's under my authority until he's well enough to fend for himself. You'll get a report from me first thing in the morning.'

There was a moment of silence before the dog voice replied.

'We'll see. I'll talk to Reeves and the others.'

'I don't care what they say,' Ayla told him flatly, 'this man doesn't leave here until I say so.'

There was a scuffling of heavy-booted feet and a short silence ensued. Then Fitz heard another scuffling of boots, this time much lighter, and he found Ayla 101 standing in the doorway regarding him anxiously. He began to struggle to sit up but a buzzing warning filled the air and Ayla rushed over to restrain him.

'Hey,' she said, 'don't try to get up. You're not cooked yet.'

'No,' Fitz croaked. 'But I soon will be if that Jorgan bloke gets hold of me, by the sound of it.'

'Don't worry about Ra.s.sel Jorgan,' she told him, forcing a smile into her face that just didn't look genuine. 'I can handle him all right.'

Fitz allowed himself to be pushed gently back on to the bunk and awarded himself the momentary luxury of simply gazing into her face as she fussed with the array of fine wires between him and the monitor. She proceeded to poke at the machine with a slight frown of concentration and he thought suddenly that this being badly injured wasn't so bad after all. There were upsides to every down.

'So why do they want to interrogate me?' he asked.

'They just want to ask you a few questions,' she said dismissively. 'Jorgan's a bit of a drama queen, you know. A lot of fuss and palaver about nothing. It does his ego good.'

'So how come he's so uptight about me?'

Ayla shrugged. 'You just don't find people out in the field. You've got no ID and you haven't got a com.'

'A com?'

She gave him a curious look and he knew instantly he shouldn't have shown his ignorance.

'I must have lost it,' he babbled, but she didn't look too convinced.

'Can you remember what happened?'

Fitz could remember the hysteria on board the TARDIS, remember the Doctor plunging into the storm with Anji while he lay in the hollow. He could remember the earthquake that swallowed him. How could he forget?

But there was a pack of hungry animals baying for his blood and his instinct was to say nothing. The Doctor would be fine, he thought. The Doctor was always fine. Fitz just needed to tread carefully until he could get back to that city and look for him. Or until the Doctor came riding out of the storm to save his skin from the rabble.

He shook his head and she gave him a sorry look.

'But I'm not a spy,' he told her.

'Oh, I believe you,' she said. 'A spy wouldn't have been so stupid.'

'Hey. Less of the "so stupid". I could be playing the old double bluff. I could be anybody.'

102.She grinned and he watched her eyes sparkle before her mood switched.

'Now,' she said, abruptly businesslike, 'I think it's time you got some rest.'

She prepared one of the sleep-inducing pads but he grasped her arm, bringing her hand into plain view and peeling the pad back off.

'I'm perfectly capable of resting without being knocked out,' he a.s.sured her, folding the pad with care and handing it back to her, a little lump of squishy plastic.

Sighing, she remained still on the edge of his bed, staring straight through him lost in thought.

'Promise I won't disappear,' he said.

'You're not fit to get up yet,' she warned him. 'You had some pretty serious internal bleeding that's only just stopped and there's a danger it could open up again. Another few hours on the accelerator and you'll be good as new. But if you get up now you could be dead by tonight.'

He stuck his right hand into the air. 'Scout's honour.'

She gave him another puzzled look and jumped from the bed to leave. At the door she glanced back and he threw her a wink that most probably looked like a spasm. Then she vanished and he lay there with only the sounds around him.

His impulse was to sneak straight after her, but even the thought of moving made him hurt. He closed his eyes and weighed the facts. There was a good chance that Jorgan might return with his big brusque mates, of course, but Ayla hadn't failed Fitz yet. And it sounded like she was well used to standing up to this Jorgan bloke. But then, if he came back with his mates, she might not stand much chance against a whole lynch mob of dog-headed men.

If he could only get back to the city Fitz was sure he'd find the Doctor, who was most probably searching for him this minute, and they could all get back into the TARDIS and fix the disease. He'd certainly be glad to climb back into his own bed with a good old-fashioned pack of aspirin and stay there for a week at least. Unfortunately, as he continued to consider the option of ignoring Ayla's order to stay put, he kept meeting with her parting words 'If you get up now you could be dead by tonight. . . '

So there he lay, listening to the tent flaps smacking in the gathering storm of oncoming night. And mingled in the winds he imagined the baying of mad hungry dogs.

Anji emerged from the fuzz of sleep to the equal fuzz of being awake. She was still on the bed in the hospital room, but things felt. . . strange strange. As if she were 103 still in a dream. As if she were seeing through the eyes of someone else. But the bombardment of foreign thoughts had disappeared. Her head felt perfectly clear. It was hard to define. But things weren't right. It took her a while to bring the feelings into focus, and only then did she realise what the problem was.

The need.

There was a simple, overriding compulsion that made everything else subor-dinate. Even her perception of reality came second to it. As she gazed about the room, she realised that it was glittering. The walls were twinkling, made of pixels, like computer-animated graphics. There and solid, but at the same time only constructs of a RAM imagination. Insubstantial stuff so easily lost.

She felt like Lara Croft waking in a virtual world.

Only the need.

Sitting up on the bed, she gazed at the monitor unit at her side. The intermittent beat of her heart was a giant thing. Every pulse a colossal, dull note. As if she were hearing an action replay, played back at quarter speed, the sound reverberated through her head like rolling, repeated thunder. The monitor made other sounds. Sounds she was sure should be blips and beeps.

But to Anji they were attenuated cries, full of coruscating tones and competing pitches, like little voices screaming out, millions of them in chorus.

Only the need.

The need to. . . what? In the heart of her heart, like a primitive calling, she felt it more clearly than she felt the room around her. But it was impossible to fathom. A kind of driving force to do something, but the something was just out of reach, just beyond her understanding.

Her mother handed Rezaul to her, and she took the tiny bundle, feeling contented and privileged at the same time. He was sleepy after his feed, but still squirmed in her grasp, occasionally flicking an uncertain hand up to his chubby squirmed in her grasp, occasionally flicking an uncertain hand up to his chubby cheeks. He felt warm and special in her young arms. Then she caught her first cheeks. He felt warm and special in her young arms. Then she caught her first glimpse of his eyes, and a love so profound bloomed open inside her. She remembered that feeling the comfort and rightness of it. glimpse of his eyes, and a love so profound bloomed open inside her. She remembered that feeling the comfort and rightness of it.

And then it was gone.

And then she saw him standing there. In the room. By the door. The alien child. Reaching out. Made of pixels like something not real.

There was no answer at Dr Pryce's door. They pressed the com again and again, but he refused to reply. Josef shook his head in dismay as they put a call out 104to his personal com. It connected, but there was no answer. Repeatedly no answer.

'Perhaps he's had an emergency,' Josef said.

But Veta was busy with the com, not listening.

'Let's go to medicare,' he suggested.

The WorldCorp logo materialised in the air in front of Pryce's door, and the WorldCorp voice greeted them in helpful, ingratiating tones.

'Can I help you?'

'I have an appointment with Dr Aaron Pryce,' Veta said. 'Can you tell me where to find him, please?'

There was an almost imperceptible pause. 'Dr Pryce has not reported for work this evening, I'm afraid. If you'd like to leave a message, I'll see that he gets it as soon as he arrives.'

'No,' Veta said. 'That's OK. I'll call him myself tomorrow.'

'That's fine,' the voice told her. 'Is there anything else I can help you with?'

'No. That's all, thank you.'

'Thank you for your call.'

The logo zipped itself up into nothing, and Veta started work on Pryce's apartment door com.

'Hey,' Josef yelped in alarm. 'What d'you think you're doing?'

'Getting in.'

He glanced up and down the corridor.

'You can't do that.'

'Of course I can. It's easy.'

'I mean. . . ethically.'

She shot him an obstinate look while he watched the corridor nervously.