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He tried telling the woman, but he couldn’t find the right words. Whenever he tried to speak, she just nodded, and said they should stay out of sight. They were moving through the alleyways now, slowly and cautiously, heading for Catcher’s house without using any of the main streets.

And why in the name of God are you going back there, Daniel Tremayne?

‘Because it’s the only thing you can do,’ said the woman, though Daniel hadn’t realized he’d been speaking aloud. He watched the African out of the corner of his eye. Wasn’t she a little too friendly, for one of her kind? She acted with a kind of authority as well, like a councillor or a watchman would have done; but it was like she hadn’t used her authority for a long time, and kept forgetting how she should talk to him.

‘Didn’t mean to say anything,’ said Daniel.

‘That’s OK,’ said the woman. Forrester. She’d said her name was Forrester. ‘You don’t like talking, do you? Funny.

You seemed conversational enough the first time we met.’

‘Everything’s different now.’ He slipped out onto a side-street, Forrester right behind him.

‘You just want to get on with your life, is that it? That strikes me as odd. It’s not like your life seems that great.’ She clenched her teeth. ‘Sorry. Didn’t mean it to sound that offensive.’

Daniel Tremayne shrugged. ‘Don’t want to get caught up in any of this. Don’t want to stick my head up so as I get noticed.

You in the War?’

There was a moment’s silence from Forrester. ‘No. Not the one you mean.’

‘Saw what happened to them when they fought the War.

Got hurt. Killed. Should’ve seen them, covered in sick and dirt.’

‘Who?’

‘The ones who fought the English. You can’t go up against things like that, things like the English. Like going up against the weather.’ He was pleased with the way he’d put that, but the woman didn’t look impressed. As they slipped into another alley, he caught a puzzled expression on her face.

‘They won, though, didn’t they?’ she said. ‘Someone told me that the Americans beat the shite out of the British. I think those were the words he used, anyway.’

‘That’s what the soft people say, that they won the War and changed everything. World still looks the same to me, though.’

Again, he found himself wondering how he knew what the world had looked like before the War, but he decided to keep the thought to himself. ‘The English. The Revolution. People, people like me, we can’t do anything about them. They do what they like, the Presidents and the Kings and all. They make the world, we just live in the cracks. Got to keep our heads down or they get shot right off.’

Forrester sniffed. ‘When history goes overhead, duck.’

‘Hahh. That’s right.’ Daniel nodded to himself. He was starting to get a grip on this witch-woman.

And maybe she caught that thought, because she said: ‘You don’t believe in witches, though, do you?’

‘Don’t believe anything. Don’t believe in God. Don’t believe in the Devil.’ He shook his head. ‘Or maybe I do. The Revolution, that’s just like a God. Can’t understand why it does what it does, can’t do anything about it. The Devil, the English, what’s the difference?’

Forrester went quiet after that. Daniel wondered what she was thinking

Just like home, just like the thirtieth century. The whole universe run by an Empire. Not by people, just by an Empire, and no one can do a damn thing about it. We don’t believe in gods and demons. He’s got the English to be scared of, I’ve got the Empress.

Goddess, and I used to believe in the Empire, didn’t I?

Right up until the point when the Empire tried to kill me off.

Right up to the point when the Doctor showed his face in Overcity Five.

I’m going to have to go back, sometime. Aren’t I?

Don’t think about that now.

And the kid’s right. Something’s happening in this town.

Not like the Doctor said, not some maniac rebuilding the world with the amaranth. The amaranth I lost. No. The town’s going mad on its own. Outside the church, they were talking about all kinds of garbage. Mad scientists. Satanists. This town’s making its own monsters.

Maybe it’s because