‘We didn’t have to go through all that, thanks to the Doctor,’ said August. ‘His offer seemed so perfect that we spent days checking the incoming path of his TARDIS, watching for others around it, scanning the market area for other Gallifreyans. But there were none. We thought he would take the Pod off to a primitive civilization, forget he was a Time Lord and probably just leave it lying around somewhere for us to pick up. There was no need for any large-scale action of the kind that those with Time-Space Visualizers tend to notice, no need for any violence at all. Of course we said yes, and he arrived several days later. Everything was going as planned until⁠ —’

‘You arrived here and couldn’t find the Pod anywhere.’

‘Precisely. It’s not in his house, it’s not in his clothes or baggage. We’ve even searched the schoolroom where he teaches. Tell me, why did you think we had it?’

Benny shrugged. ‘Because it’s gone from the place where I was told to hide it.’

‘A tree?’ Serif asked.

‘As a matter of fact, yes.’

‘Yes, that’s clever of him. Time Lord biodata can hang on to organic matter quite invisibly, though the data can start to affect the host form.’

‘Good thought.’ August clicked his fingers in Hoff’s direction. ‘Scan for any unusual vegetation in the area. Now, Professor Summerfield, do you have any other ideas as to who might have taken the Pod?’

‘Not one. As you know, I’m as in the dark as you are. Which is great, incidentally, because you’ve got absolutely no reason to torture me.’

‘Very true,’ August agreed. ‘We’ll kill you both quite humanely before we eat you. Oh, and, Greeneye, do you want to⁠ —’

Greeneye nodded.

‘It seems he does. So that’s something to look forward to at least.’

Benny kept her tone level. ‘I thought we had an agreement.’

‘You have absolutely nothing to bargain with.’ August gestured to his family. ‘All right, we’ll do a sweep for unusual bioactivity right across the area.’ He glanced at the two captives. ‘And be back in time for tea.’

Smith and Joan had finished their picnic and had walked idly with the hamper for a while, crossing from one field to another. Smith suspected that they were both trying to get out of range of the military noises which had been coming from the direction of the school. They largely walked in silence, him glancing at his hand from time to time and wondering if he’d scared her with that sudden outburst.

How odd. The large things inside him shouldn’t come bursting out at awkward times like that. He didn’t want to scare her. ‘I’m not like that,’ he said.

‘Like what?’

‘Like you think I am.’

‘And how’s that?’ At least she was smiling.