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particular. And what the Doctor saw there quite took his breath away. The scrawl showed a girl dressed in yellow being threatened by two large white mechanical claws.
    ‘It looks like a Kang and something attacking her. Some sort of machine? With a claw?’ The Doctor knew instinctively that this was important.
    ‘The Wallscrawlers make up a lot of silly pictures,’ the Deputy put in swiftly, obviously hoping to close the conversation.
    ‘Let’s hope they are just silly pictures,’ the Doctor returned, unconvinced. And then as he bent to examine the Kang wallscrawl more closely, the Doctor heard a sound, low at first, growing in volume. A soft mechanical whirring, regular but somehow menacing.
    ‘What’s that?’ He turned questioningly to the Deputy.
    ‘What’s what?’ The Deputy was suddenly very shifty, trying to pretend that there was no sound there at all. Then as the sound grew louder, he started to bluster. ‘Look, sunshine, if there was anything wrong, there’d be instructions about how to deal with it in here, wouldn’t there?’
    But the Doctor was no longer paying attention. Down the corridor moving swiftly towards them was a large, gleaming white, wheeled robot, with headlights and blades swishing away at its sides. The Doctor was immediately fascinated as he was by all new encounters.
    ‘Ah, I see,’ he said, his eyes taking in the robot’s contours.
    ‘Some sort of robotic cleaner. With oltrimotive bi-curval scraping blades. Impressive workmanship.’
    ‘You don’t understand –’ the Deputy Chief began, anxious now the Cleaner was approaching, to leave as soon as possible.
     
    Even his slow-moving brain sensed something was very wrong and he began to recall all the scaremongering that had been going the rounds of the Caretakers’ Headquarters. But, unfortunately for him, his words had no effect on the Doctor who was heading straight towards the robotic cleaner.
    ‘Now let’s have a look at this oltrimotive blade, shall we?’ the Doctor urged, edging closer and closer in his curiosity. The Deputy and the other Caretakers stood in a state of shock, unable either to help or hinder him. But they did see something the Doctor didn’t. As he tried to look at the flashing steel blades protruding from its sides, the Cleaner had released from its top a large mechanical claw. Not unlike the one in the Wallscrawl.
    And menacing enough to suggest its purpose was not just to assist in picking up rubbish. The claw hovered threateningly above the Doctor’s head ready to pounce as soon as the Cleaner was sufficiently close.
    The Doctor’s survival instincts were strong. Which was just as well. At almost the last moment he looked up and saw the claw reaching out towards him. He gave a gasp. The claw lunged towards him and he managed to evade its grasp and scamper off down the corridor to where the band of Caretakers stood transfixed.
    ‘Do you do what I usually do in these circumstances?’ the Doctor shouted as he ran towards them.
    ‘What’s that?’ the Deputy Chief shouted back, galvanised into action by the sudden turn of events.
    ‘Run!’ called the Doctor. And run they all did as fast as they could. Prisoner and guards were suddenly all in the same boat.
    And the Cleaner with its menacing claw pursued them down the long deserted streets. There was much in this encounter that puzzled the Doctor. But there were times to sit and think. And times to run for your life.
     
    ‘Quick, into the lift!’ The Deputy Chief pointed to the end of the street where the lift door lay tantalisingly open and waiting.
    It was not far now but none of the runners had much energy left. While not that far behind them the Robotic Self-Activating Megapodic Mark 7Z Cleaner rolled relentlessly and speedily along in pursuit.
    Somehow they all made it. Deputy, Doctor and Caretakers were packed sweating into the confined lift space. The Doctor looked at the control panel which informed them, correctly or not, that