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The Process, its every breath a rasping growl, surveyed them.

Reogus stumbled to his feet. "Monster! Send us home! We don't belong here!"

Two whips cracked out, their wicked tongues binding his arms and holding him in check. The guards chittered angrily.

"Home?" said Vael. "And where is that?"

The Chronauts stared amongst themselves. The past eluded them. They were lost and alone.

"The Future is stolen!" the Process croaked. "You are Phazels. This City Phase, it must be searched for the stolen Future. The search, begin it here. The Doctor is destroyed. The stolen Future, it must be found."

"Sorry about that," smiled Vael. "But what could I do?"

Time whirled inside Shonnzi's brain. It was as meaningless in his head as anywhere in the City. The Beginning was still occurring somewhere. They had yet to find the Ending. There is only Now.

Somewhere the Pilot, just a desperate kid with tangled red-gold hair, was running from what he had seen. Leaving the others trapped.

And Shonnzi had been running ever since.

"Lucky I got you before the guards," said Vael.

"Who for?" Shonnzi tried to focus, but it was easier to lie face down, staring at his own misty reflection in the steel-plate ledge on which they waited. Through the pain in his head he could hear the whirr and clack in the walls telling him he was where he had always dreaded. A prisoner in the Watch Tower at last. But Ace was still free . . . he hoped.

The ledge rested on iron struts, like a nest high amongst the naked mechanics of the Tower. A single platform which rose from the depths below seemed to be the only way up or down.

Shonnzi's wrists hurt behind his back. He could feel bindings cutting into the skin. "How did I get here?"

"The guards were almost on you," said Vael, somewhere above him. "I pulled you out of the way. You hit your head. Nasty."

"What against? A rock held by you?"

There was a smile in Vael's voice. "You're very heavy to drag all that way, Shonnzi. But I needed you."

"I don't collaborate."

"You knew you'd get caught sooner or later. You can't escape the inevitable."

"You're in trouble, aren't you?"

"Not as much as you. Can't find the Future, but can't escape it either." He pulled Shonnzi's head round, forcing the young man to twist over to stop his neck breaking. "I'm all right, so you're all right," Vael sneered.

Shonnzi bit his lip and lunged helplessly towards his taunter. "You dare touch that kid . . ."

Vael spread his hands in mock conciliation. "I touch that kid and you won't be here, Shonnzi." He kicked Shonnzi in the ribs. "Still pretty solid, aren't you? So the kid's all right. It would be a lot worse for the Phazels if either of us disappeared." He leaned in close. "So where's the girl?"

"Not telling." Shonnzi winced as he was kicked again.

The framework of the Tower clanked relentlessly around them. Nothing solid or with an overall symmetry. Just a cruel, skinless construction of metal bones and moving mechanical innards greased with slime. Here and there, swathes of glutinous web were stirred by the incessant whirring of the devices.

"Have you noticed how Time's changing?" Vael said. "The Process gets very angry about it. The brute's terrified."

"Good," said Shonnzi.

"That's when it's most dangerous," snapped Vael. "That's why we've got to find the girl. She's something to do with the Beginning, isn't she?"

"I don't remember the Beginning. Ask the grumblies."

"If we find the girl, she'll lead us to the Doctor."

"The Doctor was destroyed in the Beginning," Shonnzi interrupted wearily.

". . . and maybe there'll be a way out of this place. If the Process finds the Future first, then we're all scrubbed."

There was a hiss like a steam piston. They stared upwards and both cowered. High above them, the monstrous creature looped its way along the underside of a heavy iron girder. One footmouth of its molluscan body stretched down towards them, and the other foot suckered to the metal surface above.