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By Root 773 0

himself sitting down. Once he was safely seated the machinery shifted him and his seat sideways, transferring him to a vertical tube down which he dropped in a series of slowly braking spirals. At the bottom of the tube the seat transferred sideways again and unfolded itself so that he was standing. Gradually the slightly inclined escalator slowed so that he could step off it in comfort.

The Doctor found it hard to estimate how far he had descended below ground. Perhaps that was the purpose, he thought.

Immediately behind him Josh stepped off the escalator. 'Some people are claustrophobic so it's better that they don't know,' he said. 'And the different sensations make it less stressful than a lift.'

'How very considerate,' the Doctor said. You can tell me. I'm not claustrophobic. How far below ground are we?'

Josh ignored the question and gestured for the Doctor to follow him. 'It's a refinement of a ride Professor Finer developed for a theme park.'

'I noticed theme-park development as part of his portfolio of business interests,' the Doctor remarked as they walked down a brightly lit corridor.

'He's obviously a man of many talents.'

'You have no idea,' Josh said.

'Give me a clue, Josh,' the Doctor said, smiling his most charming smile.

'May I call you Josh? Are we just below the surface here, Josh, or deeper than that, or very deep indeed?'

'Why do you want to know?'

'Call it professional curiosity.'

'We're very, very, very deep indeed.'

The Doctor stopped in his tracks. 'I lied. I am claustrophobic. Can we go back now please?'

Josh said, 'You didn't lie; you're not claustrophobic; and no, we can't go back now.'

'Tell me something, Josh,' the Doctor said. 'Why do you bother with speech? Is your telepathy only one-way?

Can you only receive thoughts? Maybe you're not telepathic at all? Maybe you're just good at reading expressions? Is that what you are?' He leant forward smiling and lowered his voice conspiratorially. 'Are you a fortune-teller without a tent?'

At the far end of the corridor a door soughed open. Finer strode towards them. 'I'll take care of this, Josh; he said. 'You'd better go and clear your mind.'

'Clear your mind for what?' the Doctor asked.

Josh smirked. 'You ask a lot of questions.'

'Try answering some of them.'

'I'll answer all your questions,' Finer said.

'I seriously doubt that,' the Doctor said. 'You've spent too much time covering up to reveal everything to a perfect stranger like me.'

Josh strolled away. The Doctor wondered whether the focus of his telepathy was affected by distance, and if so what its range might be. Could he be clearing his mind, whatever that involved, and still be eavesdropping?

'It's the fact that you are a perfect stranger that makes such candour possible,' Finer said, ushering the Doctor into a spartan office. 'That and the fact that nobody knows where you are.' One wall of the room was a single, flat display screen within which were strips of linked images. He pointed a small light wand and the screen filled with a life-size Barry Hitchins peering around and banging on the revolving door. 'Nobody of any consequence knows where you are.' The thin, sour smile did nothing to soften the features of Finer's narrow, bony face.

'Why do you hate him so much?' the Doctor asked casually.

'He was the wrong choice,' Finer said. 'He was useless and irritating.

Ghostbuster indeed. I wasted a lot of time getting him to do what I wanted him to do.'

'Which was?'

Find me a suitable psychic. If such a thing existed.'

'You couldn't do that for yourself?'

'Hardly. I do have a reputation. Some standing in the academic community.'

For the Doctor another piece of the puzzle drifted towards a place. 'It's not on the list, but you own the Kellerfield Foundation presumably.'

I am the Kellerfield Foundation,' Finer said. It doesn't actually exist as such.

If anybody had taken the trouble to investigate they'd have found that out.

Nobody did, of course. Funding is hard to come by these days so no one