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‘It must have been a bit of a shock.’

‘You could put it that way,’ said Isaac. ‘But in the end we discovered the base drew attention away from us. And up until now, there haven’t actually been any missiles.’ He started gathering up the empty cups.

‘Ah,’ said the Doctor.

‘Ah, what?’ said Isaac, putting the used cups on the counter.

‘That’s why they were so interested.’ He breathed out a sigh. ‘They had very specific information about me. A government source, perhaps. I’m starting to wonder how much they’re involved in all of this.’

‘You’re nothing like the way you’re described,’ said Isaac.

The Doctor snapped the last component into place on his ghost-detector. ‘That’s because I’m not your mortal enemy.’

The doorbell jingled. Joel and Tony both tried to get in through the door at once, got jammed, and shot into the shop like corks out of a bottle.

‘Doctor!’

‘Chris!’

‘Admiral!’

‘The car is a write-off!’

‘They took Chris! We can’t track him by his communicator, he tossed it —’

They both yelled as Benny slammed through the door behind them. ‘Doctor,’ she said, ‘there’s still no sign of Jason.

This has gone beyond sulk.’

‘Chris is gone!’ said Joel, waving his arms about.

‘What!’ said Benny. ‘Is there a spatio-temporal anomaly around here that people are falling into?’

‘They must have been waiting for us! They took him!’

‘Who took him?’ said Benny. ‘What’s happened?’

‘We’ll have to bug out — this is completely out of control now!’

Isaac and the Doctor looked at each other. Together, they shouted, ‘Quiet!’

Benny, Joel and Tony fell silent.

‘We have a customer upstairs,’ said Isaac.

‘A helicopter drove me off the road,’ said Joel in a stage whisper. ‘Two soldiers had me pinned down in the woods, and Tony and Chris came to get me out. The soldiers took Chris.’

‘RAF?’ said Isaac.

‘Army,’ said Joel.

They all whirled as Roz came into the shop. She looked at them. ‘Ms Randrianasolo and Jacqui decided to keep looking. I took a taxi back.’

‘Right,’ said Isaac. ‘Joel and Roz, I want you to evacuate the resident aliens.’

‘Myn Jareshth will be safest waiting for his own people tonight,’ said the Doctor.

‘Someone should stay with him at all times,’ said Isaac.

‘I will,’ said Benny. ‘But Jason —’

‘What did you say about his father?’ said the Doctor.

Benny took a deep breath. ‘That he might kill the man.

To stop him from beating his children.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ said Joel.

‘We can’t let him do that,’ said the Doctor, getting up.

‘What’s that?’ said Joel.

‘A ghost-detector,’ said the Doctor.

‘A ghost-detector?’ said Benny.

‘Hey cool,’ said Joel. ‘A PKE meter.’

‘What?’ said Benny.

‘Quiet!’ shouted the Doctor again. Everyone glanced at the ceiling. A board creaked as Woodworth stepped on it.

‘Roz, Chris is missing.’

‘What!’ said Roz.

‘The ghost!’ said Benny. ‘Oh my God! She must have followed us!’

‘I wish I could contact UNIT,’ said the Doctor. ‘We might be able to get this cleared up.’

‘We can’t risk it,’ said Isaac.

‘I don’t believe this!’ Roz whispered, not very quietly.

‘People are just vanishing around us, and we’re just sitting here!’ She glared at the Doctor. ‘The holiday is over!’ She rounded on Isaac. ‘And so’s the turf war! It’s not coincidence that this has all happened since we arrived. Maybe Ia Jareshth did run off, but where is she now? Who took the TARDIS? Where the hell are Jason and Chris? We have a situation here.’ She planted her hands on her hips. ‘What are you two going to do about it?’

‘Are we bugging out, sir?’ said Tony, in the awkward silence that followed. ‘I’ll let you know,’ said Isaac.

* * *

There was nothing in the storeroom but more books. No files, nothing obviously unusual.

Woodworth figured she had at least another few minutes before they stopped arguing about whatever it was. She pushed open the other door and found herself on a narrow, carpeted landing. Three other doors led off it.

She opened the nearest door. It was a bedroom — spick and span, no clutter