With horror, Ace realised that it was no empty suit in the robot’s clutches. It was a man, a man with a spider-web of metal filaments falling from his fingers, stitching themselves into the skeletal form of the Wraith. The robot draped the man over the Wraith’s bony shoulders, strapping him in place like a backpack made of flesh. Slowly the figures grew clearer to her.

With horror, she saw it was Kim Fortune now piggy-backed on the Wraith, his eyes blank white, the fluid in his plastic suit bubbling, his fingers digging like needles into the alien’s dark, mottled skin.

‘Your friend feels no pain, at least,’ said Halogi-Kari. ‘Consciousness is suspended. The processed abductees are little more than organic pacemakers. Once conjoined with their Wraith, they are placed in cold storage until their forces are finally great enough …’

‘Why do this …?’ They were the only words she could form, and sounded so small and feeble in that storm of light and heat and horror.

‘No one will be expecting the Wraiths to escape their captivity, least of all the Shadow Proclamation. So, at my direction, those dear do-gooders will be the first to be torn apart.’ The imp-creature grinned, dimples deepening in the waxy veined cheeks. ‘I shall be free from the Proclamation’s scrutiny. Free to act exactly as I choose.’

The anger sparked deeper inside Ace now. ‘You’ll unleash a new war on the universe … leave millions of worlds undefended … probably kill billions … because you can’t handle your parole board?’

‘What a comeback, mm?’ Halogi-Kari was practically hopping from foot to foot. ‘Wiping out the Shadow Proclamation. What won’t people pay for my services then, mm?’

Ace felt her fingers curling into fists. Nothing could stop it. ‘Why … are you showing me?’

‘Because you will help me, Earth-Child.’ He laughed. ‘So much!’

‘No,’ she hissed. ‘Never.’

‘Oh, yes, and very soon.’ There was such craftiness in the dark eyes. ‘The people I have taken, they die too quickly on the backs of the Wraiths. My systems distort the mismatch between our reality and theirs, sure, but life expectancy is badly compromised. To improve this, what I need is someone who has touched the Wraiths already and felt their touch. Someone who has ridden time and space the hard way. Who knows the Wraiths …’

Ace felt cold to her core. She remembered the Doctor’s words: ‘Someone who can interact with them would make a useful … emissary.’

But not yours, Professor, she realised, her anger building. Halogi-Kari’s.

‘No!’ She tried to lunge for the little demon, but found her movements were hopelessly slow; Ace couldn’t stop him as he stepped smartly back through the door of the vault and it slammed shut behind him. ‘Let me out of here!’