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‘You get on with yours, then?’

‘Not so’s you’d notice. Didn’t see much of Dad – and saw too much of Mum.’

‘Maybe you were lucky.’

‘Maybe...’

Alexander grinned suddenly. ‘How d’you fancy a trip over to the island – we’ve got a little camp over there, spare radio, that sort of thing. It’d make a change, give John a bit of space. Fancy it?’ Ace nodded. ‘Lead the way, Cap’n!’

. .are we going then-oh yes, yes, I suppose we-ouch no-can’t you turn it down.

Black sounds, black, black sounds. Sarah is that you? And all those coloured smel s, small and bright like pinpricks. I know this, I know it.

Thank you. Do I know you? I... it’s like a, what do they call it, a kaleidoscope. I recognise all tbe parts, all the fragments... but (pain again, pain again) they won’t come together, won’t make sense.

Splashing like a couple of kids at the seaside, Ace and Alexander dragged the orange dinghy ashore on the island. This was more fun than the holidays she’d had when she was young, despite the wind and cold. Once the dinghy was far enough up the beach not to be dragged back out to sea, they set off for the camp. The island was much bigger than it had looked on the map – a gently sloping green and brown rock, edged with pebbly beaches and a couple of low cliffs. The wind whipped Ace’s hair around her face and she could smell that seaside smell – seaweed and a hint of ozone.

‘So how long have you been here?’ she asked as they walked up the shingle beach towards the camp.

‘Seems like a lifetime,’ Alexander grinned. ‘About two weeks.

We brought a van up to Thurso with all John’s gear, and took the ferry to the Mainland – that’s the biggest of the Orkneys. We hired the boat off some money-grabbing local fisherman and sailed up here. And since then, I’ve stood around watching John doing whatever it is that he does.’

‘Sounds like fun. A bit like me and the Doctor, really.’

‘You mentioned him before. Friend – or your shrink?’

‘Friend – although sometimes I reckon he could do with a shrink.’ Ace’s thoughts suddenly turned to the Doctor, wondering what he was doing now.

‘So ... he’s your boyfriend?’

She laughed and gave him a playful shove in the back.

‘Not likely – he’s... a hundred, if he’s a day. He’s a mate. He needs me around to look out for him, stop him from getting into trouble.’

‘Right,’ he said dubiously. ‘Just remind me: who’s the one that’s castaway on an island three hundred miles from where she wants to be with no way to get back?’

Ace pulled a face. ‘I’ll think of something. Trust me.’

In the darkness of a small room at the top of the house, Sooal addressed eleven people. They sat in irritated, fidgety silence.

‘A little more patience,’ he said, looking round the assembled figures, ‘and then we will be ready. Only two more.’

‘Why is it taking so long?’ demanded one man in harsh, imperious tones.

‘These things can’t be rushed.’

‘We have waited too long, Sooal. I have no desire to wait longer.’

‘Sooal is doing his best,’ interjected a woman’s voice, commanding but less impatient than the man’s. ‘We should be grateful that he has brought us so far. We can wait a little longer.’

One of the others made a growling noise; there was the sound of cracking knuckles, like a pistol shot in the dark. ‘Why are we toadying around this colourless goblin?’ asked the man.

‘Why do we need him at all?’

‘Because we aren’t yet complete,’ the woman reminded him.

‘We were fine before –’

‘Things have changed,’ interjected one of the other men. ‘We need to be cautious and careful. If we attract undue attention, everything Sooal has achieved could be undone.’

They fell into a glowering silence. Sooal looked round the room, sensing that he had the majority of them on his side.

Good. They knew that they needed him. It galled him that he needed them just as much – at least for now. In his pocket, his datapad suddenly bleeped: he repressed a snarl – they didn’t know about the ship, about the processors. And it had to stay that way. He excused himself and left the room. Outside,