'No? What is it, then?'

Trix grabbed Fitz's arm. 'You're upset.'

The Doctor had taken a step back. He still had the signalling device in his hand. He was finding it hard to look in Fitz's direction.

'The TARDIS laboratory has equipment that will be able to a.n.a.lyse this and. . . '

He didn't finish the sentence. Instead he turned round and headed back to the ship.

Fitz sat for a moment, not saying anything.

'Sam was a schoolgirl when they met,' he said, finally.

'He wouldn't put a kid in danger, would he?' Trix asked.

'He puts us in danger.'

'We're old enough to understand the risks, though.'

'I was thinking about this the other day. He can go into the future, he knows everything about it when he gets there. So who's to say he didn't know the exact date Sam died?'

Trix's mouth twitched. 'You've been to the future. As far as you're concerned, this is the future. So have you ever looked for your own death certifi-cate or gravestone?'

'No, but. . . '

'Would you want to? Don't you feel just a little uncomfortable knowing the things you do about the future already? It's weird, but you get used to it. We all die, Fitz. It would be a bit depressing to '

'Sam was so young when she died, Trix.'

'She'd left the Doctor. However short her life was, think of all the places she went and people she met. We do more in a week than most people do in a lifetime.'

53.'Think, Fitz, that she'll reappear in the future, as part of our travels. She wasn't confined between 1980 and 2002, whatever that gravestone says,' the Doctor agreed.

The Doctor's words hung in the night air for a moment. Neither Trix nor Fitz were sure when he'd returned, or what he'd heard. 'I thought you were going back to the TARDIS,' Fitz said.

'Um, I was. It's just that it seems to have gone.'

54.Matrix projection, extrapolated from current time line. History has been altered following the destruction of the cicatrix. In the first draft, the creatures evolved to became an advanced, benevolent race. In the redraft, the creatures have scattered, and migrated. They have swarmed across and occupied much of the galaxy, evolving along aggressive lines.

First draft, they were not a threat to Gallifrey. Now the Matrix projects a final stand between the Time Lords and these creatures. Time Lord fa-talities were 20 to 40 per cent of the total population. This is a possible Last Contact.

Matrix Projection date index 309456/4756.7RE/1213GRT/100447TL

Chapter Four.

Acquisitions

The lorry, Trix realised.

They'd heard it while they'd been over by Sam's gravestone, and she knew now that they'd walked straight into a heist. Someone had lured the TARDIS here, then led its crew just far enough out of the way for it to be loaded on the back of a lorry and driven away.

There were tyre tracks in the mud, right next to the square imprint the TARDIS had left. No footprints. The lorry must be one with a hydraulic grabbing claw on it. It wouldn't make a very good getaway car, and it was probably still within a couple of miles of here. But it was dark, they didn't have any transport, and so the thieves might as well have beamed the TARDIS to Pluto.

The Doctor didn't seem unduly concerned. 'We'll find it,' he a.s.sured them.

Fitz and Trix exchanged glances.

'Like that?' Fitz asked.

'We've just walked into a trap,' Trix said.

'And we're still standing,' the Doctor pointed out.

'Aren't you worried?' Fitz asked, speaking for both himself and Trix.

'Whoever's taken the TARDIS can't get inside. We'll find it.'

'You hope.'

'What do we do now?' Trix asked.

'We find somewhere to sit down, I think.'

The warning siren of the lorry as it reversed into Marnal's garage would wake up all the neighbours, Rachel was sure of it.

Marnal had never learnt how to drive, so she'd been behind the wheel of the lorry. Rachel imagined it counted as a heavy goods vehicle, meaning she didn't have a licence to drive it, and she knew for a fact that she hadn't been insured. Marnal had spent the entire return journey glancing back at the police box they'd stolen, and was practically salivating.

Now they were home he was straight out of the cabin and on to the back of the lorry. When Rachel caught up with him he was running his hand down the front door of the police box. He tried the handle, but it wouldn't budge.

57.The lock looked like a Yale, but Rachel guessed it was going to be a lot less straightforward than that.

'Why did we leave the Doctor there?' she asked.

'This is his time machine, we '

'I know what this is. But the Doctor was right there.'

'With his companions. Three against two. Our opponents are a team, one used to conflict. If we had confronted them they would have beaten us. Without his TARDIS, the Doctor can't get far.'

'I suppose,' Rachel conceded. They'd spent two weeks coming up with this strategy, talking it through, checking the Doctor's previous behaviour to see what he would do.

'My plan worked. We didn't just take his TARDIS. . . '

'. . . We drove a wedge between the Doctor and his companions in the process.'

'It's difficult to keep track of how many birds we killed with one stone,'

Marnal said gleefully.

'The Doctor is still dangerous.'

Marnal wasn't listening, though. He held his hand flat against one of the wood panels of the police box. 'h.e.l.lo, old girl,' he said.

Rachel must have had a scathing look on her face.

'Try it,' he suggested.

Rachel did, placing a hand on the door. It wasn't humming like a boiler or a computer. It felt more as though she was stroking a cat. 'It's alive!'

'Yes.'

She looked up at it. 'It's locked?'

'I can get in,' Marnal a.s.sured her. 'I have the key.'

'What about the Doctor?'

'What about him? There's no way he can find us here.'

'Well, actually, we've got two ways,' the Doctor replied. 'First, we have this little device.'

He put the glowing plastic ball down on the melamine counter in a little cafe they'd found.

'We can't a.n.a.lyse it without the TARDIS lab,' Trix pointed out.

'Well, which leads me to the second clue.'

'The lorry,' she said.

'Indeed. Now, unless we've made enemies of a bunch of builders, whoever stole the TARDIS must have hired the lorry.'

'Or bought it.'

58.'Possibly. But the key thing is that it was acquired recently the tracks it left looked as though the tyres were very fresh. It's a specialist piece of equipment.'

'Not that specialist.'

'No, but there can only be a finite number of places where they could have got one.'

Trix didn't think it would be easy. Finite encompa.s.sed a lot of numbers, and if she was doing anything like stealing the TARDIS she'd have paid a little extra to buy some silence.

'They knew who we were,' Fitz said gloomily. These were his first words for a while.

'An old enemy out for revenge?' Trix wondered.

'Who knew Sam,' the Doctor added. 'I'm not so sure. It's not as though there's a shortage of candidates, it's just. . .

Well, the chief suspects must be the two people I saw in the control room a couple of days ago. Do you remember, Fitz?'

Fitz shrugged. 'Look. I need a cigarette. I'm going outside.'

He patted Trix on the shoulder, but it was clear he didn't want her following him.

'Two people in the control room?' Trix asked.

'A man and a woman. I didn't think I recognised either of them, but I may be wrong. There was something familiar about both of them, and that's nagging away at me a little.'

'Is Fitz all right?' Trix asked.

The Doctor looked up from the plastic ball. 'Oh yes. He's upset about Sam.'

'And you're not?'

'I don't remember her. She was young, and clearly she travelled with me, so. . . yes, I feel something.'

Trix had a sudden image of a tall, middle-aged woman with blonde hair standing alone in a s.p.a.ce station at the end of time. It had happened a few months ago. They'd watched her die. Just one of many deaths they had seen, but this had been someone special. 'Miranda,' she said.

The Doctor looked up.

'You didn't mourn her after she died, either. You hardly reacted at all when she was killed right in front of your eyes. She was your daughter, Doctor. Not that you ever talked about her, let alone went to visit her. When we got back to the TARDIS, when you had some time on your own, did you cry for her then?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'The two of us spoke beforehand. Afterwards, I stayed in my room and thought about our time together, and that I was now a grandfather. I didn't cry.'

59.'And. . . do you think that's right?'

'I can't afford to dwell on my past.'

'You're avoiding something nasty. Something you know you shouldn't have done.'

The Doctor looked her right in the eye. 'Takes one to know one, Patricia.'

Trix turned away.

'Do you you think Fitz is all right?' the Doctor asked. think Fitz is all right?' the Doctor asked.

Trix looked at him and considered the question for a moment. 'I don't know,'

she admitted.

The Doctor nodded. He scooped up the plastic ball and slipped it into his coat pocket. 'He's upset with me, but not with you. See what you can do to cheer him up.'