Part 19 (2/2)

They both yelled as Benny slammed through the door behind them. 'Doctor,' she said, 'there's still no sign of Jason.

This has gone beyond sulk.'

'Chris is gone!' said Joel, waving his arms about.

'What!' said Benny. 'Is there a spatio-temporal anomaly around here that people are falling into?'

'They must have been waiting for us! They took him!'

'Who took him?' said Benny. 'What's happened?'

'We'll have to bug out - this is completely out of control now!'

Isaac and the Doctor looked at each other. Together, they shouted, 'Quiet!'

Benny, Joel and Tony fell silent.

'We have a customer upstairs,' said Isaac.

'A helicopter drove me off the road,' said Joel in a stage whisper. 'Two soldiers had me pinned down in the woods, and Tony and Chris came to get me out. The soldiers took Chris.'

'RAF?' said Isaac.

'Army,' said Joel.

They all whirled as Roz came into the shop. She looked at them. 'Ms Randrianasolo and Jacqui decided to keep looking. I took a taxi back.'

'Right,' said Isaac. 'Joel and Roz, I want you to evacuate the resident aliens.'

'Myn Jareshth will be safest waiting for his own people tonight,' said the Doctor.

'Someone should stay with him at all times,' said Isaac.

'I will,' said Benny. 'But Jason -'

'What did you say about his father?' said the Doctor.

Benny took a deep breath. 'That he might kill the man.

To stop him from beating his children.'

'Jesus Christ,' said Joel.

'We can't let him do that,' said the Doctor, getting up.

'What's that?' said Joel.

'A ghost-detector,' said the Doctor.

'A ghost-detector?' said Benny.

'Hey cool,' said Joel. 'A PKE meter.'

'What?' said Benny.

'Quiet!' shouted the Doctor again. Everyone glanced at the ceiling. A board creaked as Woodworth stepped on it.

'Roz, Chris is missing.'

'What!' said Roz.

'The ghost!' said Benny. 'Oh my G.o.d! She must have followed us!'

'I wish I could contact UNIT,' said the Doctor. 'We might be able to get this cleared up.'

'We can't risk it,' said Isaac.

'I don't believe this!' Roz whispered, not very quietly.

'People are just vanis.h.i.+ng vanis.h.i.+ng around us, and we're just around us, and we're just sitting sitting here!' She glared at the Doctor. 'The holiday is over!' She rounded on Isaac. 'And so's the turf war! It's not coincidence that this has all happened since we arrived. Maybe Ia Jareshth did run off, but where is she now? Who took the TARDIS? Where the h.e.l.l are Jason and Chris? We have a here!' She glared at the Doctor. 'The holiday is over!' She rounded on Isaac. 'And so's the turf war! It's not coincidence that this has all happened since we arrived. Maybe Ia Jareshth did run off, but where is she now? Who took the TARDIS? Where the h.e.l.l are Jason and Chris? We have a situation situation here.' She planted her hands on her hips. 'What are you two going to do about it?' here.' She planted her hands on her hips. 'What are you two going to do about it?'

'Are we bugging out, sir?' said Tony, in the awkward silence that followed. 'I'll let you know,' said Isaac.

There was nothing in the storeroom but more books. No files, nothing obviously unusual.

Woodworth figured she had at least another few minutes before they stopped arguing about whatever it was. She pushed open the other door and found herself on a narrow, carpeted landing. Three other doors led off it.

She opened the nearest door. It was a bedroom - spick and span, no clutter at all. She slipped in, leaving the door open an inch.

When the odd radio signals had first been detected by the USAF, they'd pa.s.sed them on to the British Army for identification. But the signals had stopped after a day, and anyway no-one knew what they were, so the matter was forgotten.

One of Woodworth's contacts had brought her a copy of the signals, and, more importantly, the triangulation that had placed the source in Little Caldwell. She'd spent a s.h.i.+vering night with an army radio in the hope that whoever was sending the signals might transmit again.

It had been worth it, even though there'd been nothing more. That kind of transmission had been recorded only half a dozen times. Oh yes, indeed, it had been worth it.

There was a safe. She ignored it. She found what she was looking for in the sock drawer.

She picked up the black sphere, turned it around in her hand. It was light and heavy at once, as though there was some dense object inside the thin sh.e.l.l, slightly off-centre.

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