Ace accelerated up the slip road onto the motorway, missing the effortless power of the Hypergreen. She had no doubt that Will was making the most of his temporary ownership of the sports car. She would be having words if it came back with so much as a scuff on it.

The M40 was its usual endless train of articulated lories heading towards London and the south coast. It was already getting dark and a light rain had started to fall, forming hazy haloes around the sickly yellow motorway lighting.

There was a loud squawk from the radio. Ryan was mucking around on the walkie-talkie in the other car, coming up with ludicrous call signs for them all. Ace turned down the volume, pleased to have a chance to talk to the Doctor on her own, but unsure as to where that conversation might lead.

‘So, just like old times, eh, Professor?’

‘Yeah …’ The Doctor smiled wistfully. ‘Just like old times, Ace.’

There was a long awkward pause.

‘How have you been?’

‘What have you been up to?’

The two of them spoke simultaneously, then embarrassed laughter broke the ice.

‘You first,’ said Ace. ‘This new face of yours. Is it the only new one since I last saw you or have there been a few?’

‘Oh, there have been a few,’ said the Doctor, her smile fading. ‘More than a few, in fact …’

There was another long pause. Realising that she wasn’t going to be drawn any further on that subject, Ace changed the focus. ‘What about your crew? I suppose there have been more than a few of them since me, too?’

‘Yeah … I always seem to find someone daft enough to come along for the ride. Everyone always seems more than happy to leave the Earth behind them and head off into the wild blue yonder.’

‘Not all of us have a choice about that, if you recall,’ Ace reminded her. ‘I didn’t exactly choose to end up on Iceworld, you know.’

‘No … You didn’t.’

Another pause. This was getting ridiculous.

‘Professor …’ Ace took a deep breath. ‘I think that whatever is going on has something to do with me, with that day that I was taken away from Earth.’

‘Oh?’ The Doctor looked at her curiously. ‘Why?’

Grateful to have a confidante who wouldn’t question the more extraordinary aspects of her story, Ace told her everything about her recurring dreams; about the feeling of being drawn from her body and launched across space, about the strange alien landscape, about the cries of her fellow abductees, about the creature whose huge, terrible claws dragged her screaming back to consciousness.

The Doctor just listened, nodding to herself occasionally, her expression betraying nothing.

‘And now it seems to be happening again,’ said Ace more emotion in her voice than she had wanted. ‘Teenage girls being whisked away from Earth, a huge, evil presence. If this is Fenric again …’