"When a felon's not engaged in his employment..."

 M watched the newcomer sympathetically as she moaned into consciousness.

 "...Or maturing his felonious little plans..."

 "Where am I?" The stranger looked middle-aged, perhaps younger. She wore her auburn hair shoulder length and slightly scuffed clothes that were predominantly shades of red. A second chair had been placed in the cell; the newcomer seemed securely attached to it.

 "...His capacity for innocent enjoyment..."

 "I'm afraid I can't answer that," M replied.

 "...Is just as great as any honest man's..."

 "You are Elizabeth Shaw, I believe," she added.

 "...Der-dum-de-dum-de-difficulty smother..."

 The redhead looked up too quickly and winced. "That's right," she said weakly before frowning and asking, "Are you on our side?"

 "...When constabulary duty's dum-de-dum..."

 "I," M replied, "am on the side of Her Majesty's Government. I'm not sure whose side *you* are on, but by the looks of things it isn't the Master's."

 "...Ah, take one consideration with another..."

 Shaw didn't seem familiar with the name. "The Master?"

 "...A policeman's lot is not a happy one..."

 M sighed. "The silky-voiced wannabe-sergeant singing." She listened. "I do believe it's stopped. Thank goodness for small mercies."

 The cell door opened and the Master peered inside. "Ah, Miss Shaw, you're awake at last!"

 Shaw gazed up at the Master. "Why did you bring me here?"

 The Master smiled. "Oh, *I* didn't bring you here, Miss Shaw: I have people for that sort of thing." He chuckled, though M failed to see the joke. "No, I brought you here because I'm afraid the Planners are none too happy with you."

 "The Planners?" M could tell she was feigning ignorance; so, she assumed, could the Master.

 "Come, Miss Shaw, you were going to spill the beans to the Doctor, weren't you? You found out what was going on in Cambridge, didn't you?"

 Shaw cracked. "It has to be stopped!" she shouted at the Master. "The world is in grave danger!" She shook her head, wearily. "I should have told the Doctor when I had the chance."

 The Master chuckled again. "Yes, Miss Shaw, you should have. I'm afraid I don't like failures."

 "Failures?"

 "Ah, M, I'm glad you asked me that. You see, Miss Shaw here thinks she knows details of the Planners'...well, plans."

 "I do," Shaw said, peering at the floor. "One of my students discovered something was wrong. I had to investigate."

 The Master chuckled again. M glared at him, but he didn't appear to notice. "Ah, yes, Mr Dossst."

 Shaw forced herself to look up. She seemed almost tearful. "Dossst?" she asked quietly.

 The Master smiled. "Three 's's in one name makes him an exceedingly good employee." He absorbed the horrified look on Shaw's face before bidding the two women farewell and disappearing again, locking the door after him.

 "...Ah, when constabulary duty's to be done..."

 M was relieved when his voice faded into the distance.

 "Yes, James."

 "Where are you intending to take us in this contraption?"

 The Doctor kept watching the road as he glanced across at Bond from the corner of his eye. "Now that UNIT are out of the way at Southbridge, we can deal with the Master and friends."

 "And how are we going to do that?" Bond's tone was derogatory, as if the Doctor were living in a fantasy world.

 The Doctor snorted. "Since the Brigadier has kindly taken Mr Braun into custody, you can pose as him."

 Bond pondered this for a moment. "Do you think the Master will fall for it?"

 The Doctor smiled wryly. "Almost certainly not - we're dealing with an intergalactic master criminal, not a blind Millalouphian slime beast. However, it should get us close enough to deal with him."

 "Good," Bond said. "Maybe I'll get a chance to settle with Jiang too."

 The Doctor nodded slowly. "I wonder what happened to him..."

 They drove along for a few more miles before Bond asked his original question again: "So where *are* we going?"

 "Cambridge," Jo told him.

 The Doctor almost slammed on the brakes in surprise. "Well done, Jo!"

 She grinned.

 "Yes," the Doctor continued, "you're quite right. Liz appeared out of the blue, having gone to the trouble to find out which hotel and room we were in, and then announced that she doesn't feel like staying. That's a very strange thing to do, don't you think?"

 "And since she works in Cambridge, that's where we might find a lead!" Bond turned to Jo. "And you worked all that out on your own..."

 Another day, she might have chided him for being patronising. Instead, she replied, "No, I just noticed from the road signs that we seemed to be heading for Cambridge."

 It wouldn't have been quite so bad had there been a single car to stop, but so far the roads were empty. If they didn't get to hold up traffic soon, his men would start getting restless. It was times like this that Lethbridge-Stewart didn't mind the free trips to Geneva, despite the deathly-dull conferences that went with them.

 He'd give it a few more hours, he decided, then he was going to do something more constructive.

 "What?"

 "He called you M. Is that your name?"

 "It's as much of my name as you need to know."

 Liz nodded. "MI5?"

 "Secret Service. And before you say it, it's *not* so secret that we're supposed to pretend it doesn't exist. Unlike UNIT."

 "UNIT? What's that?"

 M smiled. "Exactly. I've read the file on you, Miss Shaw. My best man seemed to think you weren't involved with any of this."

 "Bond? He was odd - kept offering to get me drinks."

 "That's his way of being friendly. Or, perhaps, an indication of alcohol addiction. I'll have to make a note to speak to him about that... For the moment, Miss Shaw, maybe you'd like to tell me everything you know about these 'Planners' the Master kindly mentioned."

 Liz shrugged. "For all I know it was misinformation from the start. However, there's certainly *something* bad going on." And she went on to explain everything she'd discovered.

 As Jo yawned and sat up in the back, Bond turned to the Doctor. "Cambridge may not be huge, but it's still going to be like looking for a Russian in Siberia."

 "Not necessarily," the Doctor said. "If Liz is involved, her place of work seems like the best place to start. Hopefully it will have a better thermostat than her home."

 "Oh?"

 "Nothing to do with us, James," he replied quickly. "Now, if I remember rightly, her office isn't too far from here..."

 "Sergeant Benton!"

 As if by magic, Benton appeared at his side.

 "Ah, there you are. Order the men to start packing up here: we're going nowhere at an extraordinary rate. Radio the other blocks and tell them to stand down."

 "Very good, sir."

 Benton stepped towards the roadblock and called for the attention of the other UNIT soldiers. "That's it, lads," he said. "Nothing's going to happen here."

 At that moment, the sky flashed with light and something erupted in the distance behind him. He spun round as the shock wave reached them. The soldiers clasped their ears in a vain attempt to dull the sound of the explosion.

 The Brigadier jumped up from his seat. "Everyone into the vehicles, status yellow 13!" he barked. "It's the school!"

 TO BE CONTINUED...

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