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Roley knelt down by Mrs Kreiner. 'You say... Neville died?'

'That's what they said. Went missing. Caused quite a hoo-hah.'

Fitz butted in. 'Yeah, right. He went missing until this very day when he turns up large as life in West Wycombe to bag himself a corpse.'

'Doctor?' asked Roley, expectantly.

'If you're carrying out experimental research, chances are you'll want a control group to compare against.'

'What, like you did with our blood?' asked Maria.

'Exactly. And if you need results but haven't perfected your methods...'The Doctor shook his head, sadly. 'Two heads are better than one.'

Russell scowled. 'What are you all talking about?'

The Doctor stood in the middle of the room, all eyes on him. 'We know that mental illness is caused by malfunctioning neurotransmitters, yes?'

Roley nodded. 'Signals being sent out and misinterpreted, the suppression or overproduction of certain chemicals in the brain...'

'Quite. But what if the mental illness in these poor people is the result of a technical fault?'

Everyone stared at him.

'What are you talking about?' spluttered Roley.

'What if it's the accidental result of a program of some kind. One designed not to run on a mechanical computer, but on the human brain.'

There was a long silence.

'Well, you lost me,' said Fitz.

The Doctor turned to Roley. "That leech thing has been terribly busy trying to upgrade your simulated neural net.'

'Upgrade it? For heaven's sake, man.

The Doctor raised a finger to his lips, then carried on. 'I believe the leech has been designed to interact with the human brain to enable a program to function - the same program that was originally engendered into a select group of minds back in the nineteenth century...'

'In the cave,' Roley breathed.

'Quite possibly. But it didn't work. And, with the genetic transfer of this program from generation to generation, it's become more and more corrupted.'

'Corrupted?' asked Mrs Kreiner. 'You mean in the way the devil corrupts?'

The Doctor smiled, awkwardly. 'That wasn't my precise meaning, Mrs Kreiner, but...'

'It's interesting though, isn't it,' said Roley. 'Why make these people believe they're possessed by the devil, Doctor?'

'I doubt it was intentional. I imagine it's down to something in the rerouting of their unconscious mind, as you suspected. Perhaps hell is the closest analogy they can find to express the program's true purpose.'

'But it seems so bizarre!' protested Roley. 'I know the brain can be compared to a computer in many ways, but if we're talking about this program being some kind of algorithmic instruction or whatever...'

'Computers are capable of far more than simple arithmetic, Dr Roley.'

'So what is the function of this program?' Roley asked.

'I don't know. I just don't know. 'Abruptly, the Doctor clapped his hands and rubbed them briskly together. 'Still, life would be dull as ditchwater if we all knew everything. Now if you'll excuse me, I've really got to rescue Sam.'

He left the room without another word.

***

'Have you been in my head since you jumped me in the alley?' Sam asked, feeling stronger now.

'Only a trace,' said Azoth.

'He didn't have the time to take all your mind,' explained Tarr.'So he passed on the bits he did get to me. Lucky for us the fresh bits come first.'

Sam shivered. 'You saw the house in my mind, then.'

Azoth nodded. 'I sensed a force had gathered. One important to my purpose,' he drawled in his bizarre voice.

'And what is your purpose?'

Azoth ignored the question. Sam got the feeling he didn't quite know himself. 'You showed us where the force was housed.'

'In a house!' said Sam. 'Neat.'

Tarr ignored her, too. 'And, when we were close enough to you, Azoth could see the things you've seen since.'

'How?'

Tarr smiled, proudly. 'He's really very clever. He's my best friend.'

A nutter, decided Sam. Why doesn't that surprise me. 'He's probably tuned in to my brainwaves or something,' she said, keeping her