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'Ah,' the Doctor had said, fiddling with some equipment he'd found in one of the armoured personnel carriers, 'I hadn't thought of that. Probably the after-effects of the soul-catching. perhaps if you could ask Shuskin to search the area thoroughly Ili Ili ping might be found...'

And so the Soviets had inspected the area around the destroyed vehicles. One of them found a Waro corpse, and dragged it across to the Doctor.

'Good man,' he said.

In this light the creature looked more like a grotesque vampire bat, with large ears and rows of needle-sharp teeth.

The corpse's eyes were blank and accusatory.

Liz examined the wings more closely. They emerged from a box held on to the creature's back like a rucksack, simple motorised limbs and joints connected by a strong rubbery material. Without saying a word the Doctor passed her a flat piece of metal that he had been using as a lever, and she began to prise off the back. 'It certainly looks primitive, said Liz.

That's what I'm relying on,' said the Doctor. 'The control mechanisms and software must be quite sophisticated, given the degree of agility we've witnessed, but I rather expect the motors and so on will be simple. Less to break, I suppose.'

And easier to jam,' observed Liz.

'Let's hope so,' said the Doctor. 'Mechanical and electrical interference is such a complex phenomenon.

Fiendishly complicated if you want to manipulate it, but you try watching your favourite television programme when there's a thunderstorm overhead. .. '

As if on cue the sky darkened.

'Odd,' said the Doctor, still using his sonic screwdriver to construct the jamming device. 'I wasn't expecting inclement weather.'

Liz glanced upwards. 'Doctor!' she screamed. 'That's no storm cloud!'

'What?'

The first alien creature swooped into the Doctor's shoulders with such force that he tumbled backward. He tried to grab the creature's artificial wings and hurl it from him but another screeching Waro crashed into him.

Liz saw yet more creatures diving down, like vultures attracted to the dying. Soon the Doctor was swamped beneath a mass of black leathery wings.

FOURTH INTERLUDE:

ELIMINATION TIME

So, what were they actually like?' asked David Arthurs.

'Amazing,' replied Bob Decker. 'They did loads off the White Album. They started with "Happiness is a Warm Gun", then "Yer Blues". It was a really happening scene, you know?'

Arthurs nodded knowingly, but secretly he was fuming.

He'd waited years to see the Beatles, only to miss them at Madison Square Garden because of work commitments.

Decker had arrived back from leave and had been talking about it non-stop ever since. Arthurs was torn between wanting to find out more and trying to pretend the whole thing had never happened.

'No old songs, then?' he asked.

'Just "Rock and Roll Music". A girl next to me was screaming for "1 Feel Fine". All the cats were laughing at her!'

'If I were you, I wouldn't mention you'd been to see them to any of the uniforms. They think they're long-haired, pinko, fag subversives on drugs.'

'Small minds, man,' said Decker with a cheeky grin.

'Yeah well, if you don't like it, go live in Russia!'

'You know,' he said wistfully, 'New York looks really beautiful at this time of year.'

'You're crazy,' said Arthurs, as he checked his computer screen. 'I hate cities, man, they freak me out. I need the space and the clean air to get my head together.'

'Oregon's OK,' said Decker quickly, 'but nothing happens here. Leastways, not that Joe Public's going to hear about'

Arthurs laughed. 'This is UNIT, baby. If something happens here, the whole world knows about it.'

The pair were just starting a twenty-four-hour shift at UNIT'S 'listening station' in the foothills of the Columbia plateau. Their work, as computer operatives, was important, if sometimes tedious. Being 'a pair of buggers', as Decker and Arthurs often dubbed themselves, was frequently boring, and they occasionally wondered if they weren't frittering away