Chapter One

And now that little man had gone forever. The new Doctor looked up at her and waved, grinning. Benny smiled back, trying not to look like she was spying on him.

Suddenly he was on his feet, peering up at the sky to her left, shielding his face with his hand. She couldn't crane around enough to see what had grabbed his attention.

'Come down!' he shouted up at her.

There was a clattering filling the sky, and a droning underneath it. It shook the pictures hanging on the staircase wall, it rattled the crockery in the kitchen. It sounded like an aircraft in trouble. Benny bolted out of the door. As she reached the Doctor, the windows were rumbling, the sky was full of noise and a near gale force wind was blowing.

A shadow fell over the house and a vast black helicopter almost clipped the roof. Warm, gasoline-rich, air blasted down, pitching the garden umbrella over and forcing her and the Doctor to cover their faces. As their clothing whipped up, the aircraft passed over them, trailing thick black smoke. It was streaking towards the orchard, but all the time it was losing height. The orchard was on raised ground, and Benny realised that the helicopter was going to crash, and that nothing that she or the Doctor could do was going to stop it.

The whine of the engines, the clatter of the rotors, the screams of the men, the snapping of branches all merged into a solid wall of noise. They were flying through trees, each impact slowing them down but breaking them apart. One of the guards tumbled past Caldwell, his limbs flailing like a crash dummy's. Oxygen masks, medical kits and emergency supplies showered from the overhead compartments, trapping Caldwell in his seat, catching him on the side of the head, and perhaps even breaking one of his legs.