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The skin on Amy's nose tingled as the glass and metal rushed past her, bare millimetres from her face.

Amy was sure she could make out tiny Vykoid figures racing along behind the train, looking disappointed not to have made Pond-and-Doctor Jam out of them.

'This is why you should never walk on train lines...' the Doctor said. He smiled at Amy and shone his sonic screwdriver above them. 'Still. At least it woke me up properly. Now, I'll give you a

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leg up - you need to grab that ladder up there.'

'Hey. Thank you, Doctor. My kind of action hero.'

The Doctor gave Amy a quick hug. 'You're the best, Pond.

Now hurry up.'

With an almighty shove, Amy dislodged the manhole cover and flipped it out onto the street. Her head popped up like a ferret out of hole, and she surveyed the streets of New York.

'Ah, New York!' the Doctor exclaimed, hauling himself out after Amy. 'This is how it should be. All shops and doughnuts and pretzels, not rats and subways. I spent far too long underground last time I was here.'

They were outside Macy's on Fifth Avenue. But something was wrong. The shop windows had been smashed by looters, and the streets were deserted. There was no sign of the impromptu parties Amy had seen. Driven inside by fear, the blocks now resembled cold-war Eastern Europe.

Imposing buildings, but a frightened city, scared of something they couldn't see and would never understand.

Amy was upset at how much the streets had changed.

'They were all having parties in the streets. Why are they so easy to scare off? If they just stood firm they'd be OK, those Vykoids are only wee...'

The Doctor nodded grimly. 'Fear of the invisible enemy, Amy. It can reduce anyone to weakness.'

'But what can we do?' Amy protested. 'It's not 155

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meant to be like this! New York is all cocktails and glamour, not glass on the streets and people too scared to leave their flats.'

'Nah, it's like this most of the time. They love it, though.

Tough bunch, New Yorkers. They like a city to feel edgy...

Dropped by in 1829, and you should have seen the place -

the Plug Ugly gang were tearing into the Dead Rabbit gang

- all over Five Points. My fault, I didn't notice what was going on. We all sat down over a pack of Jammy Dodgers, and sorted it out. Well, it was either that or I sent them all back to Sligo. They soon saw sense.'

'I bet.'

'And I bet you're wondering what my plan is? Don't look at me like that. Of course I have one -head full of plans, me. And what I'm about to tell you is that of all the courses of action to take for fighting super-fast aliens, the most important thing is to-'

'Stop them moving so fast.’ Amy cut in. 'Exactly what I was going to say.'

When they first encountered the Vykoids, Amy recalled, they'd been moving at normal speed, like tiny versions of people. It was only after the ripple of light had passed over them that the aliens had begun to move so fast. Surely it was impossible for anything to move at that speed. It was certainly going to be hard for anyone to stop the Vykoids from doing whatever they wanted.

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'But we need to do more than that.’ Amy pointed out. 'New York is in serious danger. No electricity, no cars, no phones, no internet. We're cut off from the outside world, and we've only got a few hours before all of New York is taken to work as slaves.'

The Doctor smiled. 'Let's go to work, then.'

Amy grinned at her action man.

The Doctor turned back and smiled like a schoolboy.

'Always wanted to say that. Something about being in America makes it cooler, don't you think?'

Amy just about stopped herself from laughing outright.

'You wish!'

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Chapter

15

The main offices of the NYPD were lit with emergency storm lanterns, hurriedly dug out of storage. Even though it was the middle of the night, the place had never been so busy. Every single police officer in New York had been called in and, when all the communications