The Doctor pointed up. ‘Our local collector. Its job was to boost the victims on to the next station in the sequence – it has to know where that next station is. Best-case scenario, the entire forwarding pattern might be preserved in the computer systems.’

‘Worst case, just the next collector in the sequence,’ said Yaz. ‘But from there we can find the location of the next …’

The Doctor sucked in a breath in sudden horror. ‘Which I bet is exactly what the Astingir have already done! We have to catch them up …’ She reached into the cradle and heaved out Squidget. A silver eye opened indignantly and its tentacles coiled as if having a stretch. ‘Come on, fella,’ she said, ‘we’ve got a job to do.’

‘But the collector has been knocked out of orbit, remember?’ Will said. ‘It’s heading for break-up and burn-up in our atmosphere in …’ He checked his watch. ‘In less than four hours. Conditions on board will be impossible.’

‘Impossible?’ The Doctor kicked open the TARDIS doors and waved Yaz inside. ‘Will, I was marooned once for six months in an Obverse Sunset west of the Silver Devastation. Impossible conditions are a doddle. It’s the improbable ones you need to watch out for …’

She dashed in with Squidget and the doors closed behind her.

‘Wait!’ Will ran after her. But the grating wheeze of the TARDIS engines had already kicked in. A wind blew up from nowhere and the police box disappeared into it.

He stared at the empty space where it had stood.

Then, slowly, Will Buckland sank to his knees, closed his eyes, and lowered his head in a silent prayer.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Ace opened her eyes but the blackness wouldn’t leave them. Her head felt hot, her body aching. The air smelled like fumes and burned in her lungs. Where am I? Why can’t I see? Her heart began to race faster and flashes of horror jumped through her memory. The thick smack of her baseball bat on a rodent’s skull. Teeth and claws thrust up in her face. Something sickeningly slimy regurgitated over her flesh. The penthouse, her home, trashed and bloodstained and littered with bodies …