Part 3 (1/2)

'If you are too busy, I shal speak to Romana.'

'Good,' he said. 'Then she can put you in charge.'

She slid down to his level and met his eyes. 'I am am in charge.' in charge.'

'Yes, please.'

They jumped quickly apart as the door slid open.

'Mistress?'

A knee-high metallic shape was trundling into the office.

'He always does that,' groaned Leela.

Andred sat back in his chair. 'He's your dog.'

18.'Our dog.' She turned to look at the robotic retriever and it wagged its metal tail. Its angular bodywork had got a bit battered during its time on Gallifrey.

'K9, don't you ever knock?' said Leela.

The machine's synthetic voice had a singsong prissiness that was by turns endearing or irritating. 'Apologies, Mistress and Master. Please resume your canoodling.'

'Never mind,' Leela intoned.

Andred sat back in his chair. 'Did you bring him or did he just follow you?'

'News, Mistress,' K9 interjected.

'Wait, K9.'

'Our discovery.'

'I was working up to it,' she protested.

'Working up to what?' enquired Andred.

'I think it'll have to wait until...'

'It is about your Family,' she said quickly.

He tutted and looked awkward. 'Now what have they done? I know they annoy you, but...'

'Nothing, Master. They have done nothing,' interrupted K9.

'Well, that's a relief.'

Leela shook her head. 'No. That is the problem.'

He sighed. He had so much work to do. 'You'd better tell me,' he said.

She sat crossed-legged in the seat of the chair that Yeux had occupied. 'We were bored,' she began. 'There is no one to talk to. Rodan has been sent on a cross-cultural liaison course. Romana is away.'

'The President is not available,' he corrected.

'She is away.'

'Yes, but you're not supposed to know that.'

'She told me.'

No wonder Spandrel retired, thought Andred. Romana is a security nightmare.

'She did not tel me where,' added Leela.

'Good,' he said, much relieved.

'I forbade her to do so.'

'You are are in charge, aren't you?' Andred declared. 'So what have you been doing?' in charge, aren't you?' Andred declared. 'So what have you been doing?'

'I decided that I must learn more about your Family.'

19.'That's a bit sudden?'

She gave K9 a sidelong glance and said quickly, 'It is your heritage. Each of us should know our ancestors.'

He nodded. He understood that her roots were far away on some benighted, primitive world that she did not even have a sensible catalogued name or number for.

'My ancestry is not very exciting,' he said. 'Just a long line of military ordinals. Several squads full. Must be something in the Loom.'

'But we have discovered a mystery.' She looked very grave.

'Affirmative,' K9 chimed in. 'An anomaly with considerable repercussions.'

'Six hundred and seventy-three years ago, one of your Cousins was a captain in the Prydon Chapterhouse Guard.'

'His name was Redred,' added K9. Castellan Andred stayed silent.

'And this Redred was sent on a mission to the House of Lungbarrow in the mountains of the South.'

'Never heard of it. Or him.'

'Because he never returned,' Leela said. 'He vanished.'

'That's not possible,' Andred insisted. 'There must be records.' He began to turn the cubes on his desk port.

'I have checked al available data,' announced K9. 'All records of this mission have been expunged by order of the Prydon Chapterhouse.'

'How can you know then?' Andred scanned his plasma screen for relevant information. There was no mention of any House of Lungbarrow.