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The flintlock kicked hard against the Doctor's grip as it exploded loudly, its shot ripping through the planking of the door just above the lock.

'You missed!' screamed Mace. 'You wasted our only shot.'

The Doctor confidently blew down the barrel of the pistol Western-style. 'I never miss,'

he said calmly.

Mace rushed to the door and pointed. 'There is the lock,' he insisted. 'And there is your shot.' He fanned out his fingers and placed them so that they touched both the lock and the bullet-hole. 'A full span separates them!'

Concerned, Tegan looked at the Doctor. This time the actor wasn't exaggerating.

'Try the door.' The Doctor was still calm.

Richard Mace fell on the handle and turned it. To his amazement, the door opened.

'You see,' said the Doctor smugly.

Tegan looked relieved.

'Impossible.' Mace rubbed the stubble on his chin, unable to believe it.

'Let's go,' ordered the Doctor, as he and Tegan moved quickly out of the room. 'That shot might have been heard.'

Mace continued to stare at the door shaking his head. 'Impossible,' he muttered. 'I must have picked it. That's the only explanation.

Such was Mace's confused state of mind that for a while he blindly followed Tegan and the Doctor along the dark passageway, before realising they were heading in the wrong direction.

'Isn't this the way to the cellar?' he said.

'That's right,' said the Doctor.

The portly actor slid to a halt as the Doctor arrived at the cellar door.

'I am not going down there!' he said in a loud, theatrical whisper. 'That way lies death!'

'Wherever we go is death. Have you forgotten already?'

The actor looked puzzled. 'What do you mean?'

'Do you recall what the Terileptil said before you were fitted with a control bracelet?'

He shook his head.

'The Terileptil is about to release thousands of highly infected rats, carrying a genetically re-engineered plague virus.'

Mace looked confused, but Tegan was stunned. 'Can he do that?' she said.

'He has the knowledge. And even if he lacks the skill, his android could do it for him.'

'You keep using words I do not understand,' said Mace. 'What is genetics?'

'The words don't matter at the moment, only the Terileptil's intention. He wants to rid the planet of its native species. And that includes you,' he said, pointing at Mace. 'That's why we must try and stop him.'

Without waiting for comment, the Doctor silently eased the cellar door open and peered inside. The room was deserted. Quickly he made his way down the steps and across to where the energy barrier was and started to examine the walls.

Tegan and Mace fol owed reluctantly.

'Where's the entrance to the Terileptil's laboratory?' said Tegan gazing around.

'It's here somewhere,' said the Doctor, starting to move the large, empty ampoule-carrying cases.

'What are you looking for?' asked Tegan.

'The opening mechanism for the energy barrier.'

'Is this it?' she said, removing a stiff, dusty sheepskin from a nail and revealing a small triangular box.

'Press it and see.'

She did, but all that happened was that a light flashed briefly.

'A master control is over-riding the switch.'

Tegan pressed the box again. 'Do you think you can find a way round it?'

'I can try.'

Borrowing the flintlock from Mace, the Doctor started to attack the box with the butt of the gun. 'While I'm doing this, stack some boxes either side of where the opening should be.'

'Now what?' said Tegan.

The Doctor hammered away at the casing. 'If the master over-ride is in operation, it means there is still somebody in the lab.'

The colour drained from Richard Mace's face. 'That is not good news,' he said.

Speedily Tegan and Mace stacked the empty ampoule boxes as instructed, while the Doctor, the casing round the switch now removed, started to fiddle with its internal circuitry.

Inside the laboratory, the miller sat in the Leader's chair oblivious of what was happening.

Although he was still under