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'Because Taylor's already carrying one. It's clearly important to these poor people - that's why they tried to put Austen's back inside him.'

Roley shuddered. 'Horrible.'

"There's obviously an enormous sympathetic resonance between them.'

'Did I awaken that in them?'

'Probably, Dr Roley, probably. 'The Doctor's expression softened. 'It could just be their proximity to each other. They were trying to help Austen, I'm sure. They just lacked the know-how.'

'They killed him!' Roley protested, then looked down at the floor. 'But it's my fault, isn't it?'

'Your hypnotic assaults may have broken down barriers in their minds, leaving them more susceptible. 'The Doctor darted about from device to device making small adjustments and calibrations, occasionally throwing whole clumps of wires and circuitry over his shoulder. 'The impulses they're receiving - the instructions, or instincts, or whatever they are - they're misinterpreting them...'

'Receiving from what, Doctor? The leeches?'

'The leeches may just be transmitters of some kind.'

Roley perched himself on a stool. 'And so with Watson hypnotised and his subconscious mind wide open... his own leech's transmissions swamped the others.'

'Swamped them... or orchestrated them, yes.'

'Fantastic...' Roley shook his head, then stood up and joined the Doctor. 'Is it possible for the memories of blood relatives to be somehow encoded genetically, passed down to new generations and left untapped in the subconscious?' His voice sounded desperate even to himself. 'Could that explain race memory?'

'It's more likely the leech was passed on genetically and took the information with it,' said the Doctor, bluntly. 'I doubt it's a natural faculty. I told you, these leeches are synthetic in origin. They must have a function of some kind - maybe that's part of it.'

Roley sighed deeply. 'You know, things have all moved so swiftly, and the ramifications... A death under my own roof... With all my work, I don't even know what hypothesis I'm trying to prove any more. I can feel it all slipping away.'

The Doctor didn't look up from his tangle of wires. 'Science was never a great respecter of ambition.'

'But with it goes the chance to prove anything else,' said Roley, quietly.

***

Tarr burst back into the cave to find his friend still standing motionless.

'I think I've found them, Azoth!' he yelled, quivering with excitement. 'Aren't you pleased? I think I know where we can find the people who can tell us more!'

Azoth remained silent.

'Haven't I done well. Azoth?' said Tarr, hopefully.

'Quickly,' said Azoth, although the word came out anything but. 'We must go to them.'

Tarr nodded. 'I think we'll have to take one of those bus things.'

'No.' Azoth walked slowly over to the doorway. 'We will need personal transport.'

'Oh, lots of the people we took knew how to drive!' said Tarr. 'I could drive after the first learning. Easy. We'll find someone with a car.'

'Yes.'

Azoth made as if to leave, but Tarr called after him to stop.'I haven't bandaged you up yet,' he said. 'People might stare at us.'

***

Watson had returned to his room and was lying back on the bed in trousers and vest, a belt tied round his exposed arm.

He'd left the door open. 'Here I am, Nurse, all ready for you.'

Maria got out her syringe, then paused. 'Your arm,' she said, suddenly realising. 'It seems fine, now.'

'It is fine,' said Watson, smiling at her. 'Perhaps it's time for someone else to start shaking?'

***

Tarr laid the body of the young woman in the back seat of her car. He wondered who she was - or, rather, who she'd been. They hadn't needed to know anything she knew, so Azoth had simply killed her.

Now Azoth sat, immobile, in the passenger seat. People would probably assume Tarr was driving round a dressed mannequin, not his best, his only, friend.

'The bus was heading for somewhere called West Wycombe. We can try other places on its route too,' Tarr said happily. He reached for the handbrake,