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‘Pure accident,’ the Doctor said and smiled more broadly.

‘Your turn,’ Leela interrupted.

Fermindor said, ‘I like being an investigator. I’m good at it.

It’s what I do. I get bored when I’m not doing it.’ He took a small swig from his canteen. ‘This has been a bit more extreme than the usual assignment. But like they say: if you haven’t got a sense of humour you shouldn’t have joined.’ He did not smile.

‘I can see why you chose him,’ the Doctor said to Kley.

Kley looked at the short, heavy-set man who was now her second-in-command, as he should have been from the beginning. ‘Fe would have been my first choice, had I been given a choice.’

The Doctor kept the question casual. ‘You weren’t given a choice?’

‘The team was assembled in a hurry. The computer profile was appropriate for the job. The psych numbers were fine.’

‘But the job wasn’t what you expected, was it?’ the Doctor suggested.

She shrugged helplessly. ‘Who could have known?’

‘Who indeed? Not the computer certainly.’

‘Did you feel that?’ Leela got to her feet. ‘The ground is shaking.’

‘Are you sure?’ the Doctor asked.

‘It is stopping now.’ Leela knelt and rested first her forehead and then her ear on the ground. ‘It is very faint. It is a sort of creaking sound. It may be coming from the rocks.’

Belay watched her admiringly. ‘If you ever wanted to sell shares in her,’ he said, glancing at the Doctor, ‘I’d be very interested in taking an option on any part that was available.’

Leela sat back on her heels. ‘What did you say?’ she demanded of the thin, pale young man who was smiling at her. She rested her hand on the handle of her knife.

‘It was intended as a compliment, Leela,’ the Doctor said.

‘I think you have an admirer.’

‘I have a reasonable amount of money saved,’ Belay said.

‘That’s why I volunteered for this assignment. The payments were better than average.’

‘Because the costs were low,’ the Doctor said. ‘Or because the risks were high, which may be the same thing of course.’

‘I’d say she was a worthwhile gamble,’ Belay said. ‘In fact there are some people I know who might be interested in buying her contract outright. If you wanted to take a guaranteed early profit.’

The Doctor thought for a moment, looking suitably serious.

‘If we get out of this alive, we’ll discuss it.’

‘Leela has a lot of potential,’ Belay said. ‘And I’ve seen some of the best kills, I mean actually seen them in the flesh, not just on screen. I’ve been to major fights, seen big-league players, and she moves like the best of them.’

‘I think I have heard enough of these... compliments,’

Leela said pointedly. She stood up and stalked off into the clearing.

Kley stood up too. ‘Why are we sitting around here?’ she said without looking at the Doctor. ‘What are we doing? Is this your master plan, Thedoctor?’

‘Do you have an alternative?’ the Doctor asked politely.

‘“Do nothing” is your brilliant strategy?’

‘You’ve been running around,’ the Doctor said, ‘chasing someone you haven’t seen, who is doing something you haven’t understood. You’re out of ammunition and before long you’ll be out of food and water. My advice is to stop confusing movement with action and simply wait for him to make the next move.’

‘So you think the runner is responsible for everything that’s happened,’ Fermindor said.

‘He has something to do with it, certainly.’

‘Yes, but what?’ Pertanor asked, inhaling deeply as though he was suddenly short of breath.

‘That’s what we’re waiting to find out,’ the Doctor said, stretching out and closing his eyes. He was a little tired himself now. It seemed to be getting hotter. He really should have checked the movement of this planet in relation to the positions of both the suns nearby. It could get hotter still, especially if there was some sort of focusing effect on this area. Perhaps a heat-retaining gas layer.

Kley sat down again with a heavy sigh. ‘Suppose he doesn’t make the next move. Suppose he doesn’t do anything at all.’

‘He’ll have to do something,’ the Doctor murmured drowsily. ‘I think we have something he wants.’

‘Any chance you might