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‘You're police! Brill!' She leapt off the back of the unicorn and put out a hand. She was wearing a black bomber jacket adorned with a variety of badges and luminous yellow leg warmers. Her hair tumbled around her shoulders in chestnut streams and when she smiled it was as though the sun had emerged from behind a cloud. Stevens shook her proffered hand, recognizing as he did how sweaty his own hand had become.

'D'you hear that, Bat?' Ace asked. 'This is a policeman. He’s one of the officials who'll be able to help us.'

Jack pushed forward. 'Who are you? And where did all of these unicorns come from? Where have you been hiding them all?'

'And what about the centaurs?' David added, wanting to be noticed by this attractive girl.

'I'm Ace and this is Bat.'

'You can talk to it?' asked Stevens.

'She's a she, not an it,' Ace reprimanded him. 'Of course I can talk to her. She's a unicorn, dum-dum.'

'Where are you from?' Jack asked the unicorn, feeling slightly stupid,

‘She can't talk to just anyone. She's from Tír na n-Óg.'

‘Tír na n-Óg? David asked, wondering why the name sounded familiar.

'You said I could help you?' Stevens said.

'Yeah you see this guy ... Where's he gone?' They looked around - Hughes had discreetly left them.

'Anyway, Emrys Hughes and his people in Tír na n-Óg are trying to evacuate to Earth ... Wait a moment, did you say paranormal investigations?'

Stevens looked embarrassed, but nodded.

'Like Ghostbusters?' she grinned.

‘Not exactly.'

'Oh. Anyway, they're trying to evacuate to Earth because their sun has vanished and demons are swarming over Tír na n-Óg. Do you follow anything that I'm saying?'

'These unicorns are from another world,' Jack summed up. 'Is that right?'

'Yeah.' She nodded her head vigorously.

'And they're evacuating to Earth?'

'No not the Ceffyl, the humans. Look, maybe I'd better show you.' She paused as though she was listening to something. 'No, I'm sure it'll be all right. I'll just take them to the circle and show them Tír na n-Óg and we’ll nip back before any of the guards can stop us.' The unicorn whinnied and headed off towards the rest of the herd.

'Come with me. I'll show you Tír na n-Óg.'

Ace led them along the track through the trees. As they neared the stone circle there was a rustling around them and suddenly they were surrounded by a ring of men dressed like something out of the Middle Ages - and carrying weapons that looked equally anachronistic. Emrys was with them.

'Oh no I knew I should have done something about you.'

'Take them through and hurry,' he ordered. 'You five men come with me and we'll deal with things here.'

'What's going on?' David asked.

'Well, we're still going to Tír na n-Óg, but it may be a longer stay than I'd planned,' Ace explained.

'Who are these people?'

'Stop asking dumb questions, Jack. They're the people from Tír na n-Óg and they aren't very friendly.'

'Keep moving, you!' one of the soldiers told him.

'Keep moving where? There's nowhere to go.'

'Into the circle,' Ace told him, 'that's the way to Tír na n-Óg.' She stepped forward into the centre of the stone circle and promptly vanished.

'Oh wow!' Jack exclaimed, following her, 'matter transm…’

'You next,' Stevens suggested to David.

'Okay, okay, I'm going.' David vanished.

Stevens turned to face his captors. 'It doesn't have any effect on fat, does it? Not an alternative to Weight Watchers?' His only reply was a shove that sent him backwards through gateway to the other world.

Ace found herself treading the same path she had gone along some days ago. Through the sadness and squalor of the tents of the humans they went. There was more of a chill in the air now and the people looked even more wretched. As they walked she tried to explain the situation to her three companions.

'Now you know where the unicorns - Ceffyl they're called here - came from. And this centaur that you found.'

'But what have the humans got against these mythological animals?' Inspector Stevens asked.

'Apparently there used to be another