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"Then you'd better treat me properly."

His voice hardened and his eyes darted towards the guards and back again. "Not just me. That's why the Process wants you."

Ace shook out her hair. It was thick with dust.

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE. NOTORIOUS NITRO-NINE QUEEN ACE, ALSO KNOWN AS DEAD-EYE DOROTHY — Crimes include Arson, illegal Use of Explosives and Being Rude to Her Mother.

It was fame of a sort. She took it as a kind of compliment and understood why the Doctor could secretly enjoy such notoriety. Whatever the authorities said, it was always done in a good cause. She allowed herself time for a little preening. "Do I get to make demands?" she said.

"That depends on how much you cooperate."

"Who with?" She could guess the answer already. Vael had games of his own to play.

He pointed ahead. At the junction with another street, a trail of slimy green footprints crossed their path.

"Do you know what that means?" he asked.

The slime was fresh and glistening.

"The Process?"

"But the Process is in the Tower," he said with a knowing smile.

"Perhaps it has family."

He shook his head. "There's only one Process."

"So why don't you go and find out?" she retorted. "Do I get proper treatment or what?"

To her increasing irritation he began to laugh, a nervous, edgy laugh accompanied by a tick of the head.

You're on the brink, she thought.

"It means trouble," he said. "And you know nothing about this place."

"I don't care either," Ace snapped. "I want to find the Doctor. And don't give me that guff about 'the Doctor was destroyed in the Beginning'. I know he's here. And Shonnzi knows as well."

The sneer switched off his face like a change in channels and a rage burned up in his eyes. She had never seen a rage like it. A seething rage you could almost touch. He tautened with an intensity that actually knocked her backwards. His eyes were like suns. A wave of heat enveloped her like the blast from a furnace. She felt her skin tighten and sting as if she was being burned alive.

A claw pulled Vael back. He was thrown across the street and lay shaking, apparently terrified by the energy that he had unleashed at her.

Looming over him, the Guard Captain was contorted at a bizarre puppet angle. Its claws pushed at its own armoured helmet. "Leave her!" warned its muffled voice.

The others barred Ace's way. They squealed in anger.

The Captain twisted again and assumed a new and very powerful position. It seemed to stretch taller. Its eyelets agitated wildly. It turned to take in its surroundings as if for the first time. A new voice issued through its throat, cracked and ancient as if the vocal cords were being forced to create sounds they were not designed for.

"These alternatives, bring them to the Watch Tower."

The voice chilled Ace. but she was not going to panic. Vael's head twitched with fear. She saw that he was completely terrified.

"I give the orders," he muttered. "They're meant to obey me."

Ace stood up and faced the Captain. "You beetle-heads have been looking for me, right? And you think I'm the answer to your problems."

All the creature's eyelets inclined towards her. She reckoned that constituted an audience and got into her stride.

"So if I'm so precious to you, there's a few things we're going to get clear now. I don't think much of your set-up round here. There's going to be some changes."

A ripple of chittering went around the other guards.

"For a start, you're going to listen to what people round here want and that means decent food and clothes for all of them."

Vael looked up at her. He began to laugh.

She ignored him. Under the Captain's implacable stare, she could already feel her act falling apart, but she kept going anyway. "And when that's sorted out, then we're going to have a little chat about . . ."

Claws were laid on them both and experience went for nothing again. Ace was bunched together with Vael, and this time she was forced to walk as well. The Captain led the way and the two prisoners were driven on with the other guards