‘Look at these people.’ Slowly, stiffly, Graham stood up. ‘They’re different from you, but they’re just as scared. They’re longing for home, just like you.’

‘They didn’t ask to be here,’ Yaz said. ‘They’ve been used.’

‘And you’re being used now,’ Ryan added, ‘to fight a war that ended way back.’

Masst snorted. ‘You don’t know what the Wraiths did!’

‘I know that these people have done nothing to you, it’s all been done to them!’ Ryan felt the ball of Nitro-90 so cold in his palm. Slowly he lowered his fist. ‘I’m not gonna use this. You say you want it over? Well, open fire on these people, Masst, and it’ll never be over. You’ll hear their screams every time you fall asleep. You’ll see their eyes whenever you close yours.’ He swallowed hard, eyes locked with the centaurion’s. ‘Never. Ever. Over.’

The holding area was silent. It felt like time had stopped.

With a hiss of anger, Elkon raised his own crossbow and opened fire.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Chantelle was following the Doctor down a dark, shadowy palace passage. Suddenly the Doctor came to a halt.

‘This pulsation of energy. I know what it is!’ She was staring at the sheet of plastic, at the lines drawn upon it and pulsing circles of light. Squidget shuddered and made a mournful bleep. ‘Someone’s tapped into the power of the Quantum Anvil. The Wraiths will have a way back out into our world.’

‘And that’s bad, right?’ said Chantelle.

‘Bad? Yeah, you could say it’s bad.’ The Doctor went on gawping at the screen. Then Squidget blooped loudly, and she quickened her step. ‘But it’s not the worst of it.’

‘What is the worst?’

‘Huge energy surge up ahead,’ she said. ‘According to Squidget, something’s been activated.’

‘What something? A machine?’

‘Maybe. But it’s brought that something into being. A war-hungry creature I thought the universe was rid of …’

The Doctor pointed ahead of them. Standing before a huge vault door, like a sentry, was a night-dark figure as tall as a tree with something draped over it …

‘A Wraith,’ breathed the Doctor. ‘Out of the Quantum realm, back in ours.’

‘What the …? Doctor, look.’ Chantelle felt recognition like a knife to the guts. There was a man spreadeagled on the back of the creature, his face contorted with pain. ‘It’s Kim. That thing’s wearing Kim like a stole.’

The Doctor nodded gravely. ‘Stole is right.’

‘What’s happened to him?’

‘Cellular predation,’ said the Doctor, fascinated and revolted. ‘The Wraith’s own alignment with our reality is totally messed up, so it’s having to feed off Kim’s to inhabit this time frame.’

‘You never speak English!’ Chantelle groaned. ‘Is Kim dead?’