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You couldn't stand each other. God, hypocritical binmen, is there anything worse?'

Ralph scowled. 'Drunken media slappers do you think maybe?'

I'm up for it,' Tommy said. Where do you suggest we do it?'

'I've already made my suggestion,' Josh smirked.

Chapter Ten

Leela could not hide her relief when the Doctor stuck his head round the door of the laboratory and smiled his most dazzling smile. 'Doctor where have you been?' she almost shouted. 'I have been waiting for you.' She gestured towards the control and monitoring suite where Barry Hitchins was checking video time codes. 'Doctor Ghostbuster Bazzer Hitchins has been waiting for you too.'

I'm sorry I'm late,' the Doctor said cheerfully. May I come in?'

Barry came out of the suite and called, 'Please do, come in, Doctor.'

The Doctor stepped inside and closed the door. Directly in front of him and occupying most of the available space was the partially dismantled sensory-deprivation tank. The floor of the lab was still damp from the resultant leaks and spillages. 'Did I miss something unexpected?' he asked.

Barry hurried to him and offered his hand. 'I'm Barry Hitchins. Your assistant Leela insists on calling me Doctor Ghostbuster Bazzer Hitchins.

She tells me it's my fighting name and she uses it in full as a matter of respect.' He lowered his voice to just above a whisper. 'I gather she's from the Balkans?'

'It's a bit further away than that,' the Doctor said.

'Her English is really excellent,' Barry said. Very precise.'

The Doctor nodded vaguely. 'It comes partly from learning by machine.' He stepped carefully through the debris. 'What happened here?'

'Doctor?' Leela said. 'I must tell you what happened in the wood where we left the TARDIS.'

The Doctor patted her arm absently. Let me talk to Dr Hitchins first. This is important.' He took off his hat and stuffed in into his coat pocket. 'You were saying, Dr Hitchins?'

Barry said, 'I'm not entirely sure but I think your assistant may have arrived just in time to avert a major accident.'

'Really?' the Doctor said. 'I've always quite liked the idea that there is no such thing as an accident.' He bent down and rubbed a finger along the edge of a separated insulation panel.

"There are many times,' Leela said, 'when the Doctor says things like that.'

She frowned at his back. Things he will not explain to me.'

'Leela's background was very practical,' the Doctor said, rubbing a smear of red insulation gel between his thumb and forefinger.

Leela said, 'To me it is obvious that an accident is something unexpected which happens.'

'If everything has a cause,' the Doctor said, 'nothing can be truly unexpected. If an accident is something unexpected, and nothing can be truly unexpected then' He looked at Leela and smiled encouragingly.

'There is no such thing as an accident,' she supplied, and then added after a moment's thought, There is something wrong with that.'

'Possibly,' the Doctor said. There is certainly something wrong with this.' He indicated the sensory-deprivation tank. Tell me about the accident; he said to Barry.

'Doctor?' Leela said. 'I have been waiting to talk to you. I think what I have to tell you is important.'

'In a moment, Leela.' He waved her to silence.

'It's a new piece of equipment,' Barry said, and we were test-running the experimental procedures.'

We?'

'I was using student volunteers.' Barry poked some pieces of the tank with his foot. 'This is the best-value small unit I could find on the market. It's fun-size except that in the event it isn't any fun at all. This is an individual -'

'It's a sensory-deprivation tank, yes, yes,' the Doctor interrupted impatiently.

'Your theory being that the mind comes into full focus if you eliminate as far as possible all physical inputs.'

Crestfallen, Barry said. You know about it.' He shrugged and shook his head ruefully. 'Of course you know about it. How would you not know about it?'

The Doctor opened the nearest of