But the Doctor's voice came clearly through her mind. 'The bigger picture, Ace. Always remember the bigger picture.
Sometimes, you'll find that if you concentrate on that, the smaller details will fell into place, too.'
Hell, she hoped so. And, if not, she'd deal with Bob Matson before they left. She didn't know how, yet, but she'd happily devote the next couple of days to considering her options.
But, as Matson moved away quickly, she remembered the Doctor, and the school, and she waited for her emotions to calm. They did, moments after Bob Matson disappeared from view.
Ace emerged from the shelter of the tree, and turned into the lane that led to the school. It sat some distance away, a large building darker than the hedgerows it seemed to sprout from, studded with one or two resolute lights.
The wind picked up just as the rain started to fell, and Ace swore under her breath. The leisurely stroll became a dash for shelter as she ran towards the school, past what seemed to be a staff car park and a bedraggled, tacked-on row of workshops and science labs. She crashed into the back door, thankful for the overhanging roof, and pressed the doorbell, no longer interested in subtlety.
At length the door opened, and a ratlike man stood in the doorway. 'Yes?' he asked, suspiciously.
Ace tried peering around him, as if the Doctor would be somewhere within sight, but saw only a wall of lockers and the doors to some toilets. 'I got caught in the rain.'
'Yes.'
The man seemed unconcerned, but Ace ploughed on regardless. 'So, can I come in? Out of the rain, I mean.'
'No.'
Ace opened her mouth to protest, but the man cut her short.
'Rules,' he said, 'are there to be obeyed by one and all.'
'Yeah, but surely I can -'
'And your friend is no longer here.'
If Ace was surprised by the man's sudden burst of intuition, she didn't show it. 'But he was?'
The man nodded. 'Of course. Last night. The reunion. He departed some time before midnight.'
'But I haven't seen him since.'
'Not my problem.' The man peered out into the darkness, as cold as the grey rain that was falling in sheets. 'Now, leave the school premises, or I'll set the dogs on you.'
In a different context, the threat would have been laughable, but Ace had spent long enough in Hexen Bridge to recognise that the man was deadly serious. She turned away, trying to think of something witty and abusive to say, but managed only a brusque 'Well, up yours, then.' The door closed with a muffled thump.
She walked down the little driveway back towards the lane, feeling one or more pairs of eyes watching her as she went.
Only when she turned the corner and the school slumped out of sight did she relax. As if on cue, the rain slowed to a pathetic drizzle.
What next? She supposed it was just about feasible that the Doctor had headed back to the TARDIS, and either been injured on his way, or had collapsed inside. 'Professor, I hate this!' she exclaimed out loud.
She recognised the bushy copse close to the field where the TARDIS had landed, and walked in that direction, clambering over a rustred gate and cutting through the ascending pastures.
She slapped her forehead. Perhaps the Doctor had left a note there, and Ace had frittered away her day chatting with Rebecca Baber, waiting for something to happen. Tomorrow, Ace resolved, she would seize the initiative and... do something.
She found a break in the hedge surrounding the field, and strode swiftly towards the area where the TARDIS nestled. A dark shape emerged from the deeper shadows, and Ace let out a sigh of relief. She hadn't realised how frightened she'd been of not finding it at all.
But something was wrong: the shape was all amorphous and rounded, not angular and square. Ace ducked back under the overhanging trees that skirted the edge of the field, approaching more cautiously.
The night-time clouds receded. As Ace walked closer she could see that an unmoving something something had surrounded the TARDIS on all sides. Actually, make that several somethings. had surrounded the TARDIS on all sides. Actually, make that several somethings.
A group of figures appeared to have encircled the TARDIS, their arms touching in an attempt to make a human cordon.
They were motionless, only the wind tugging at them causing an approximation of movement. They were scarecrows, straw-filled faces staring blandly out into the fields and down into the village.
Breathing heavily in relief, Ace strode over towards the TARDIS. Probably some straw-sucker's idea of a joke, she thought. Just shift these out of the way and open the door and - The faces were terrifying, and Ace stopped dead in her tracks, suddenly remembering the manikin she had spied on the green earlier that morning. Twigs and roots ran over skin-coloured cloth faces in a parody of veins and arteries; bunches of corn ears and brown leaves formed muscles and features. The eyes and mouths were savage slits in the cloth.
Steeling herself, she approached the first scarecrow. It wore a thick checked shirt and scuffed chinos, and when she gripped its shoulder she could feel the strong, straight branches underneath that supported the straw stuffing.
She pulled, expecting the thing to topple over, but it was locked solid. She pulled again, harder, and some dried grass came away in her hands, but the impassive figure hadn't budged an inch. She glanced down at the broken boots and stick legs of the scarecrow, but there were no obvious means of keeping it in place. It was as if the entire thing had been cast in bronze, and rooted deep into the ground.
She walked around the sinister group. All were motionless and immovable, resting against the solid walls of the TARDIS as if seeking warmth. There was no gap, no way through.
Ace swallowed down her rising panic, and turned back for the village. As she glanced over her shoulder, the wind tugged at the scarecrows. It was as if they were turning their faces to watch her.
PART TWO.
JACK IN THE BOX.
CHAPTER 5.
THE PROMISED LAND.
The Doctor sat on a mountain top. Below him, a thousand miles away, friends, family and companions were calling to him. He could hear the voices clearly as they echoed up through the clouds and the thin air towards him. He tried to answer, but his tongue was tied. Above him there was nothing but the vast rich blue of the universe. A scattering of stars, as bright as a hundred suns, cascaded their light upon him... And there was Pogar, his guiding star. The light that always brought him home from the furthest reaches of time and space.
He was dreaming, of course. He had known that for some time. The Yeti who had asked him, in halting Old High Gallifreyan, if he had any cigarettes probably gave the game away.
Get up.
Consciousness overwhelmed the Doctor's mind, and for a moment he lost all sense of where he was. When he finally opened his eyes - focusing on a beautiful woman sitting on a cream leather sofa - he was none the wiser. She was blonde, with high cheekbones. She wore a strapless full-length dress that, the Doctor supposed, probably curved in all the right places. In her hand was a half-smoked cigarette. She glanced at the Doctor and noticed that he was awake. She got to her feet without a word.
'Those are very bad for you,' observed the Doctor, but the woman had already gone.
He looked around the room keenly. He seemed to be in some sort of luxurious apartment, and he noticed for the first time that he was slumped in an armchair that would, in other circumstances, have been hugely comfortable. His wrists and ankles were bound, and he couldn't feel his feet at all. When he tried to push himself into a more upright position, the cramp in his legs caused him to cry out in pain.
'Are you compos mentis compos mentis yet, or what?' asked a familiar voice. yet, or what?' asked a familiar voice.
'You always were good at Latin, as I remember,' said the Doctor, still wincing against the terrible ache in his legs. 'Nice place you've got here.'
'Ta,' said Shanks, looking almost embarrassed, although there was no one else in the room to hear the Doctor's remark. He knelt beside the Doctor, beginning to loosen his bonds. 'The drug will take a while to wear off, so don't do anything too energetic just yet.'
'I know,' said the Doctor, feeling as though his head was stuffed with cotton wool. He had a vague memory of Shanks injecting him with something during the long journey from Hexen Bridge. 'I am a pharmacologist. Amongst other things.'
'You poor bloody divvy,' said Shanks with a seemingly genuine sadness. 'You ain't gonna like what I've got planned for you.'
On her second morning in Hexen Bridge, Ace awoke to the sound of smashing crockery. The Matsons were clearly having a big argument in the kitchen. Ace didn't like listening in on private conversations, but the volume employed made it impossible not to.
'I saw you at the stinking yellow restaurant!' It was Bob Matson in full flood. 'Try and deny it.'
'I was talking business.' business.' Joanna's voice was calmer, but the anger in it, too, was unmistakable. Joanna's voice was calmer, but the anger in it, too, was unmistakable.
'Oh, don't give me that. You're screwing that chink kid.'
'That's rich coming from you. At least he's he's over sixteen.' over sixteen.'
'What the hell are you on about, woman?'
'That bit of jailbait you've been knocking up. Our "guest".
There are laws in this country.'
Ace couldn't help but shiver; the entire idea was too gruesome for words.
'You're round the bloody twist! Anyway, she's over sixteen.'
'Oh, you know, do you?' shrieked Joanna, the first touch of hysteria audible in her voice.
Ace had heard enough. This had gone way beyond soap-opera funny. These were real people self-destructing beneath her feet, and it was time to get out. She pulled on her clothes as quickly as she could, and bolted out of the back door.
She let out a long sigh as the door closed behind her. The only thing you could say in the Matsons' defence was that they probably deserved each other. Anyway, she had work to do.
What she needed was an outsider's point of view, someone who had been in the village long enough but hadn't been swept away by the festering insanity. Someone she could trust. Rebecca was the obvious choice, but she'd been born and raised here, and the thing with the handwriting still spooked Ace. The Chens seemed the next-best bet.
Ace strolled down the lane towards A Taste of the Orient, wondering whether to mention what she'd seen Bob Matson doing the previous night. When Steven Chen pulled open the door, his smile was so full of bitterness and fear that Ace decided to leave the subject well alone. The Chens must have known who was behind the racist attacks, and it seemed foolish to raise the matter so abruptly. Perhaps they had their own way of dealing with it. Maybe some strange Chinese rite could breathe life into the stone lions, who would devour Bob Matson next time he came calling.
'Hello,' said Steven. 'What can I do for you?'
'I delivered your note,' replied Ace brightly.
Steven immediately put a finger to his lips. 'Come inside,'
he whispered, holding the door open for her.
Steven Chen led Ace into the kitchens, which were deserted. He seemed to be in the middle of washing the floor, the metal work-surfaces already looking clean enough to eat off. Which, decided Ace, was probably just as well, given the number of tacky takeaway joints in Perivale that had been closed by Environmental Health.
'My parents do not approve of my friendship with Joanna,'
said Steven.
'I suppose you can see their point of view,' said Ace cautiously. 'I mean, she is married to -'
'Of course,' said Steven Chen hurriedly. 'I sometimes think what we're doing is stupid.' He sighed. 'Anyway, it doesn't really matter. I hope Bob Matson hasn't made life... difficult for you.'
'No more so than usual,' smiled Ace. 'I came to ask you about the school. The Doctor disappeared during the reunion the night before last.'
'Really?' Steven looked genuinely surprised. Whatever village grapevine there was, it obviously bypassed the Chens completely. 'What's happened to him?'
'No idea,' said Ace. 'From what Rebecca's told me, the school's an odd sort of place.'
'"Odd" is one way of putting it,' said Steven. 'I've spent the last five years trying to forget about it.'
'Was it that bad?'
'If you're an outsider, they make your life an absolute hell. I know a lot of kids have to put up with bullying, but this was systematic torture.'
'But you've lived here so long...'
'But I wasn't born born here,' said Steven. 'Thank God. None of my family were. You're either one of Jack's children, or you're not.' here,' said Steven. 'Thank God. None of my family were. You're either one of Jack's children, or you're not.'
'Jack?' queried Ace, surprised.
'Just one way they put it. I don't know what it means,' he added, hurriedly.
'I noticed that the pupils' handwriting all seemed very similar.'
Steven laughed. 'In most other places, interbreeding causes extra limbs or close-set eyes. Here...' He paused, looking around as if someone were listening. 'You wouldn't believe what it gives rise to here.'