‘No, no…’ August raised a hand. ‘I think it’s a great achievement. It’s not as if our own projects haven’t blossomed in this last decade. Now then, I believe Hoff thinks that the Time Lords could be tracking us.’

The big man grunted in the affirmative. ‘If they knew everything, they might divert an asteroid, cleanse the whole site.’

‘Well, I disagree with that, they haven’t the will these days, they’d probably just send an agent. But anyhow, we really should be going. Lead the way, Laylock.’

The old man did so, glancing nervously at the roof.

The cabinet was a rusty old gothic thing, hidden away under a cloth in a corner of Laylock’s surgical supplies area. He pulled the cloth aside and slapped a control.

The front of the cabinet, previously a metal door, dissolved into the butterfly tunnel of the time vortex.

‘Don’t stare into it, daughter.’ Greeneye hid Aphasia’s eyes. ‘After a while, you see terrible things.’

Aphasia slapped his hand away. ‘I want to see terrible things.’

‘The tracer’s working,’ Laylock confirmed. ‘I activated it as soon as he left. There.’

A golden thread snaked down the vortex tunnel and spiralled off into the distance.

‘That’ll lead you to wherever he’s going. Estimated travel time… about nine weeks.’

‘Yes. Good.’ August stared into the tunnel with some trepidation. Behind him, Hoff and Greeneye were bringing in several large packs of equipment. ‘We’ll need to keep this link open, so you’ll remain here, Laylock. That won’t be too much of a burden for you, will it?’

Laylock nodded. ‘Thank you.’

‘Any idea of what he got?’

‘No, he brought it himself. They often do, those who think of themselves as composers. He’d been in contact with me for several days, asking for tech specs, wondering if I could really do what I said I could. I had to be discreet; I wondered for a while if he was an Intervention Agent.’

‘Opek to a Grotzi he is!’ muttered Greeneye. ‘If this is a set up⁠ —’

‘It isn’t, I’m certain,’ Laylock told him. ‘He was going through real quantum rearrangement effects when he left, at any rate.’ He handed August a memory pad.

‘This is everything I learnt about him, including a description. I did try to persuade him to give up the pod, but⁠ —’

‘That’s too much to expect, yes.’ August clapped his hands for quiet. ‘All right then. This is the best shot we’re going to get. Follow me.’ He took a deep breath, pinched his nose, and leapt into the tunnel. He shot off into the distance, a doll-like figure, buffeted to and fro until he vanished, his form curling around the path of the golden thread.

‘Hey!’ shouted Aphasia. ‘Wait for me!’ And she leapt in too.

Greeneye and Hoff followed, carrying the bundles they’d brought from the hopper.