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Mullen groaned. Nobody was supposed to know that. He hadn't even told the squads of policemen he had sent fanning out across east London what they were looking for. Just any disturbances anything out of the ordinary. If a moron like Quick had put two and two together then his little secret must be all over the city by now. Panic... Riot... Resignation...

At the back of the classroom the Doctor sprawled across one of the benches and began fiddling with the gas taps.

'Chief Inspector,' Dr Walsh continued, 'you must forgive me...' It sounded more like an order than a request.'

'I understand,' said Mullen, defeated. 'The last woman Quick interviewed had to be sedated.'

'I'll tell you what I told him, Chief Inspector. There has been nothing out of the ordinary around here at all. No disturbances. All of our blood has been collected on schedule. Nothing has gone missing.' Standing in front of the blackboard she sounded for all the world like a teacher trying with all patience to communicate a simple idea to a stupid child.

'Should anything out of the ordinary happen,' she lectured on, 'we shall of course communicate the fact to the police at once. Now I don't think I really need add anything to

'

'Aha!'

The shout from the back of the classroom was the Doctor's. He had opened a number of large glass jeroboams, each containing differently coloured powders or crystals. He had made a little drymixture in a pile on the desk and was picking up handfuls and sprinkling them into the path of a gas tap. From the gas tap a flame shot across the desk .And as the Doctor's compound hit the flame it danced from yellow to red to green to silver, and then back again.

'Dr Walsh,' the Time Lord called, never lifting his eyes from the shimmering flame, 'where does your blood go after it's collected?'

'Oh...' She was staring into the Doctor's flame, and for a moment didn't answer. The light danced in her eyes. Her hard mouth softened to a gentle smile.

'It, ah...' She shook herself from her dream. But the smile remained. 'It's taken to a central collection point, and from there it's distributed around the city.'

'And this central collection point is... where?'

'Couldn't tell you. That information isn't passed down to me, I'm afraid.'

'Mullen...?' The chief inspector didn't answer. 'Mullen!'

The Doctor flapped his arms irritably in the direction of the almostsleeping policeman.

'Uh... I could find out, Doctor. We'd have to go back to the station.'

'Very well, come on.'

With a snap of the gas tap the Doctor killed the flame and jumped from the desk. His audience snapped to attention with a start. He raised his hat to Dr Walsh.

'Good day to you, Dr Walsh. It's been a pleasure meeting you.' 'Oh, the pleasure was all mine,' the haematologist replied. 'Quite, quite beautiful...'

She drifted out of the room and back down the corridor.

'I said come on,' said the Doctor tetchily, tugging the chief inspector by the sleeve of his overcoat.

'Doctor, I've got to tell you, I feel a little... lightheaded.'

'I'm the one who's been lightheaded,' said the Doctor dourly. 'Or clotheared, or flatfooted, or something. I've been slow, Inspector.' He raised his hands to the sky. 'Oh, Ace ...

Forgive me. I've been so slow. I should have thought that there would be a central collection point. That's where he'll make for?

The Doctor pushed open the glass front door of the school. He regarded Constable Quick, standing to attention, his back to them, immobile on the other side. It didn't look as if he had moved a muscle since they went in.

Mullen followed the Doctor through the door, then swung to his right, sauntered up to his subordinate and clapped him chummily on the shoulder.

'You're a good man, Quick.' he said. 'I know that.

Dedicated. Dogged. You'll make a good copper, Quick.'

'Yes, sir,' Quick replied flatly.

'Take a breather, why don't you? Go inside. Take the weight off your feet for a bit.

'Inspector Mullen...' The Doctor's voice was as