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'Got it,' she told the Doctor. 'Still on the track and about twenty-one klicks ahead.'

'I think we should close the gap,' said the Doctor. 'Don't you?'

As the LCD speedometer climbed above 250 kilometres an hour Kadiatu looked in vain for some sign of strain on the Doctor's face. They hit a bump and the wheels spun free as the dustkart left the ground. Kadiatu gripped her armrests as they slammed back down. She'd felt safer divebombing Kings Cross in Francine's jet.

'Don't worry,' he said. 'I never drive faster than I can see. How are we doing?'

'Gaining, twenty klicks give or take two hundred metres.'

'I wonder where she's going?'

Kadiatu checked the map. 'There's nothing ahead except a couple of geological stations on Arsia Mons.'

The Doctor veered sharply to avoid a fresh crater across the track. The dustkart tilted violently over as the right-hand wheels clipped the edge.

'Benny's the virus, isn't she?' asked Kadiatu as the dustkart righted. 'I mean the core instructions of the virus are contained within her. The vriks from hell and all the rest of it, they're just peripheral.'

'What makes you say that?'

'It's obvious. Benny was the only person caught in the direct line of the initial attack who's still in one piece. The only one.'

'Possibly,' said the Doctor. 'It may have replicated though.'

'But out here she's isolated from the transit system,' said Kadiatu. 'If we destroy her out here ...'

'No.'

'Why not?'

'Because I'm not a virus,' said the Doctor.

They hit another ridge, the wheels slamming down out of sequence.

'I'm going to see if we've got any pressure suits,' said Kadiatu. 'We might need them.' She climbed out of her seat and went aft. There were three pressure suits in a locker opposite the toilet, all of them bearing unbroken inspection seals, but Kadiatu already knew that. Instead she opened an equipment locker marked with hazard symbols and picked out a laser torch from amongst the neatly arrayed tools. She thumbed the test button and got a fully charged icon on the status LCD. Set in pulse mode a torch like this could bum a hole through sheet steel at four metres, further in an attenuated atmosphere.

Kadiatu transferred the torch into the thigh pocket of the pressure suit she had picked out for herself. Then she went back to rejoin the Doctor.

'Have we got any?' asked the Doctor as she sat down.

'Three and completely operational.'

'Good,' said the Doctor. 'Because I think she's stopped.'

Benny's dustkart had veered off the marked trail to the south and out across the plain. The fat tyre tracks were clearly visible and the Doctor slowed down to follow them. Kadiatu put up the HUD again and looked around. They should be almost on top of her by now but Kadiatu could only find the rapidly dissipating dust plume.

'I see her,' said the Doctor. 'She's gone down a rabbit hole.

The Doctor got as close to the edge of the pit as he dared The ground must have collapsed under Benny's dustkart, dropping it into the hollow space underneath. It lay twenty metres below, pitched at a forty-five degree angle, nose first.

The shape of the pit bothered Kadiatu. Underneath layers of dust and rubble she thought she could discern straight edges. As if it had been dug out artificially. It made her think of the leopard traps back home.

'Suit up,' said the Doctor, 'and let's follow after Alice.'

Kadiatu had no idea what he was talking about.

The undersuit was made of air-permeable goretex and fit like a second skin. A label heat pressed into the fabric just above a cluster of sensors on the chest said 'Made in Israel/Palestine'. Kadiatu followed the instructions that came on a little laminated card and carefully smoothed out any air pockets. There was even a special hairnet provided to keep her extensions under control. The suit proper was woven out of boron mesh and lined with aluminized latex. Limb and torso lengths adjusted automatically as she put it on.

The Doctor didn't bother with an