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'We're too late. Every move of the game, we're too late.'

The Doctor was once more pacing the already worn carpet of McBride's office.

Breathless from ascending the four flights of stairs, Mullen closed the door behind him and slumped into the private eye's chair. It was more comfortable than his own back at the station, he noted.

'Detective work's all about patience, Doctor. It's a waiting game.'

'We don't have the time, Inspector. People are one jump ahead of us; events are one jump ahead of us. We still haven't come anywhere near catching your Lurker. We still don't know where Wall is, and I still don't know whether Ace is safe.'

'We know she's alive, Doctor. Mr Washington told us that.'

The Doctor looked puzzled for a moment, then he smiled. 'Oh, Mama, you mean? Is that his name? Yes, it would appear that Ace is alive, no thanks to me.'

From his pocket he pulled the dead, buckshotriddled Cybermat he had taken from Mama. The big American had wanted to put it on the wall when he reopened.

'First time I ever managed to shoot anything dead, he had said.

The Doctor hefted it in his hand for a moment, staring into its torn casing.

'We're not even managing to keep this thing contained.'

He placed it emphatically on the desk. 'What have you got for me, Inspector?'

'The names of the companies you asked for. The ones working in the same field as Peddler. And the address of the blood place. I've already sent some men there. They're fully armed. They know what to expect.'

'Excellent, Inspector.' The Doctor scanned the sheets of paper in front of him.

Advanced electrical and electronic engineering. A highly specialised field, particularly in 1940. Six names, Peddler's among them. Jocelyn & Co., Midlands Electric, Daniel International, Peddler Electronic Engineering, Lemur Engineering, Vital Systems Corporation. Six names. He was assuming a lot. That Wall and his henchmen had brought the Cybermats with them, for instance, but it was just as possible they had made them over the last few days in hiding. That they had previously been based on British soil, yet it was just as possible that they had come from overseas. He looked down at the dead Cybermat on the desk. No. That at least was unlikely. He had spent the time waiting for Mullen probing about the creature's insides. This one had originally been a squirrel. A red squirrel. These Cybermats were made on Earth. And, very likely, the British Isles. Made in England.

He placed the Cybermat carefully back in his pocket.

'Well, Inspector,' he said leadenly, walking towards the door, thrusting Mullen's pristine leaves of paper roughly into his pocket, 'what are we waiting for?'

He knew what he was waiting for. He cast a backward glance at the telephone. He had made Ace take the number: why didn't she use it?

Ah, well, too much to do, Ace. Another time. Ciao.

The telephone rang. The Doctor pushed back past Mullen and grabbed the receiver.

'Yes...'

He was silent for a long minute.

Then, 'I'm on my way.'

He slammed down the phone and marched past the chief inspector and down the stairs.

'Was it her?' Mullen puffed behind him. He really should be fitter, in his job.

'Yes and no,' the Doctor replied. Two things I want you to do, Inspector. First, I want you to find out what's happening with your friend the Lurker, find out what's going on at that blood collection centre. Second, I want you to get Cody McBride out of Lazonby's clutches.

'Impossible, Doctor.' Mullen replied.

'Inspector...' The Doctor was in no mood to be trifled with. 'We are facing an implacable and, frankly, at the moment inscrutable enemy. We need every scrap of information we can get our hands on. Cody McBride has seen the Cybermen at close quarters. I need to talk to him.'

'What are you going to do, Doctor?'

'I have to see a man. That was him on the phone. He has Ace with him. She's safe. He also says he has some information, which he refuses to discuss with anyone but me.

He won't tell me what it is over the