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'She has high intelligence,' observed Azoth, his voice all over the shop.

'Thank you,' she said.'I do elocution too, if you're interested. Repeat after me:"The rain in..." Her voice tailed off. 'Oh God. What is that thing?'

Azoth was holding a perspex cube with a fat black lump in it, like the one Austen had been carrying, only far larger.

'It generates a program, 'Azoth said, haltingly, almost as if it were a question.

'We saw that corpse in your mind,' said Tarr. 'Comparing it to the body of Peter Taylor, we know what it is that has been removed:

'You've got him here, too?'

'Yes. He got violent when he woke up, though. We had to put him to sleep.'

Sam wondered if that was a euphemism, but somehow she doubted it. This guy was as blunt as a baseball bat.

'Azoth's so pleased to find all this out. He'd forgotten it, you see. You roused him.'

'I'm overwhelmed; said Sam.

'Your DNA is special. He's very sensitive to DNA, is Azoth, and yours stands out round here.'

His words seemed to insert a flash-frame of herself into her racing thoughts. She had dark hair and a whole different life, sitting in a bedsit eating hamburgers on a rainy day. With an effort, she blinked that daydream away. They were just talking about some side effect of travelling in the TARDIS, that was all. Time travel was enough to give anyone

'special' DNA, surely?

Tarr was still speaking:'.. .gives Azoth all sorts of hopes for getting more good results from you.'

'Results?' asked Sam.

Tarr's tone became more confidential. 'I'm not sure what he means myself,'

he said, as if indulging a child. 'He won't tell me! Wants it to be a surprise, I think.'

Azoth placed the box on a glowing yellow dais. Soon, a black glob pared itself off from the main lump. It looked exactly like the leech that had been in Austen.

Sam swallowed hard as Azoth took the leech out of the box. A tiny thread of light seemed to be connecting it to the blob in the box, which had begun to pulsate.

'The Benelisa program is running. 'Azoth announced.

'Benelisa? What's that?' Sam wanted to know.

'I... am uncertain.'

Tarr smiled sympathetically. 'His memory isn't very good.'

He obviously remembered how to make the thing work, though. The black thing wriggled as if in anticipation.

'Don't you want to know why I don't belong, how I got here?' Sam yelled, trying to stall them.

'No,' said Tarr, simply. 'You are here now. That's the important thing.'

She felt like a guest being indulged for turning up hours late for a party.

She squirmed in horror as the leech was held out to the side of her head.

It's going to be like in the Star Trek movie, she thought, panicking. It's going to crawl in my ear!

5.4

The Doctor stared down in confusion at a small readout screen on the TARDIS console. He was scanning for any anachronistic energy readings nearby, but all he was getting was a kind of blanket emission from all over London. He banged his fist on the monitor's housing but the effect refused to transfigure itself into something more sensible. He frowned. Either the TARDIS was acting up again, or something very peculiar was going on.

***

Roley stood alone in the hallway, hands thrust deep in his trouser pockets.

The Doctor had vanished, just like that. He'd wanted nothing more this morning, but now...

He shuddered at the sight of the shattered doorway. A rectangle of lawn and warm blue sky mocked him with its calm. As Roley walked forward for a breath of fresh air, the Doctor burst through the doorway, sending him skittering backward with a cry of alarm.

'You weren't planning to go out in your car, were you?' asked the Doctor, his face serious.

'No, but -'

'Splendid. Then lend me your keys.'

Roley found himself crossing to the key hooks on the wall like an obedient dog. With a flash of irritation he turned back to the Doctor. 'Look, I really think...' He tailed off. 'What's that you're holding?'

'What, this?' The Doctor