Tancredi glanced behind him at the hospital. It was shaking as if struck by an earthquake. Tamany, the Matron and Kasbek pressed against the window to watch. Soon the hospital began to rise into the air, but it didn’t disintegrate as it moved upwards. To Tancredi’s astonishment, it formed into the shape of a human leg. His finger reached involuntarily for the comfort of his nose.

There was panic on the roads. Everyone was saying: ‘The Monster is coming!’ There seemed to be no means of escape until the Chief Psychiatrist announced, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll head for the coast.’

The skies darkened on the journey, not with storm clouds, but with great shapes swirling in the air.

‘Look, there’s a torso,’ said the Matron.

‘And isn’t that an arm?’ asked Tamany.

As the travellers looked up, the most extraordinary thing happened – the arm and torso combined.

After a short distance they found the roads blocked and the ambulance could go no further.

‘Right, everybody out,’ said the Chief Psychiatrist, ‘we’ll walk the rest of the way.’

A signpost told them they were a few miles from the coast. Every few steps the Matron practised a can-can kick.

‘What’s she doing?’ Tancredi asked the Chief Psychiatrist, hoping he might be able to explain her erratic behaviour.

‘Oh, she’s practising the dance,’ he replied matter-of-factly. Tancredi looked blank.

‘There’s a theory going around,’ the Chief Psychiatrist explained. ‘When Surprise goes supernova, anyone who links arms and does the can-can will be protected from the blast. Something about creating a cosmic counter-vibration. There is, however, another school of thought. This states that those who flap their arms vigorously will fly with the explosion unharmed. The can-can theory is dominant.’

Tancredi and Tamany looked at each other, stupefied. This was beyond the insanity they’d encountered on the Invincible.

‘Dogs have to do it as well,’ Tamany said to Kasbek with a chuckle. Kasbek cocked his head by way of response.

Still, the pressing issue remained the hospitals spinning above their heads.

‘What about all those hospitals in the sky?’ asked Tancredi pointing upwards. ‘It looks as if something’s out of control. I thought Sanitalis was a place of careful planning.’

‘We started with the best motives,’ replied the Chief Psychiatrist with a sigh, ‘but somehow we got carried away. It seems that good short-term intentions have led to a bad long-term result.’

By now they had arrived at a cliff top by the coast.

‘What’s that?’ asked Tamany, pointing out to sea at a great shape advancing.

‘It’s a tsunami,’ replied the Matron.

‘No, it’s not,’ said Tancredi, ‘it’s too big for that. It looks like a floating city.’

Kasbek began to whimper; his dog senses told him something terrible was about to happen. The little group strained to discern the composition of the approaching shape. Presently it towered over the cliff top; now they had a close-up view.

The Monster was composed of all the hospitals ever built on Sanitalis. Somehow they had torn themselves loose from their foundations, and floated off into the sky. Its limbs were made of walls; its torso from rooftops; its face, hospital beds pimpled with red brick and sash-cracked windows; its skin was linen; its eyes two liniment-filled pools. A groan came from deep within its body.