The elderly man moved with surprising deftness. His steps made little noise. Pausing beside a high wooden fence, he looked back over his shoulder and then gently tipped a board aside and stepped through the gap. The board swung back behind him. He noticed in passing that someone had chalked 'bad wolf' on the fence. When the shadows had swallowed him, he waited, listening. There was a handy knothole for him to keep watch through. Less than three minutes later, figures he could only make out as a man and a woman neared his hiding place.

"Not a trace--you?"

"No, but there are plenty of hiding places in this part of town. No need to assume he vanished into thin air."

"Let's get back to the Institute, then."

"A few minutes more to confirm. Let's check down this way."

"All right."

The two moved away. The old man stepped out of his hiding place, the faint lights in the area glinting off his white hair. This was too much! Hunted by humans, pestered, followed! One couldn't expect respect from these ignorant primitives, but he didn't have to put up with this, surely? And these people gave him pause: 'vanished into thin air.' Why would that be an option for assumption? Who did they think they were following and what did they know?

Too much. He'd have to speak to Susan; it was time to leave this wretched little backwater planet. In a few thousand years it might develop something more than the current vestigial civilization but in this era it barely served as a hiding place. An inadequate one if it meant he had to avoid investigation.

The night was a little foggy. The air seemed to catch in his chest and he coughed. Polluted atmosphere--what a dirty city this was. The Doctor made his way to the police box sitting in the junkyard and opened the door. Susan called to him, but the Doctor heard a woman's voice exclaiming behind him and he slammed shut the door of the TARDIS and turned on his pursuers. The man and woman stepped out of their place of concealment. The Doctor kept control of himself, though beneath his calm demeanor he was outraged (and a little afraid). He would find out what these two were and show them what it meant to beard a Time Lord in his lair. He was not to be trifled with!

end