[Outside a night club]

(In a stairwell, a small blob resolves itself in a series of painful jerks into the figure of the Stranger. A long-haired man in a leather jacket gets out of a parked car and leans on a wall. A man wearing headphones comes out of a door nearby.
NORMAN: If you want a piss, would you mind going round the back.
SAUL: You Mister Raven?
NORMAN: Look, I haven't got any money.
SAUL: No, no. I said, are you Mister Raven?
NORMAN: Do I look like management? I'm a philosophy graduate.
SAUL: Raven.
NORMAN: Look, Mister Raven is the manager. Would you like a word with him?
SAUL: Not just now, thanks.

(Meanwhile, the Stranger has staggered to the bin area at the back of the club and collapsed.)

TAMORA [OC]: Norman? Those cats have had the bins over again.
NORMAN: You're going to have to excuse me, I'm afraid. I've got a fascinating day ahead.

[Night club]

TAMORA [OC]: Norman!
NORMAN: Yes, I'm onto it, Miss Hennessey. Soon as I've solved the Third World food crisis, that is.

(Saul drives his car away. The Stranger wakes up and gets up to explore his surroundings.)

[Office]

(At a sound outside, Egan (David Troughton) puts down his newspaper and picks up a gun. Saul bursts in and grins.)

EGAN: I'm at work, Saul.
SAUL: It's a night club. He's the manager. I know he's there.

(Egan uses a palm-top computer.)

EGAN: It's confirmed. Ten o'clock tomorrow night, local time.

[Night club]

(Norman is eating Pot Noodle and listening on his earphones when the Stranger staggers in.)

STRANGER: Hello? Could I just ask? I've a feeling I'm late. Perhaps I'm early. Look, I know I'm supposed to be here. It just sort of feels right.
NORMAN: Sorry? Look, I'm sorry, I'm afraid we're closed.

(The Stranger crumples to the floor.)

NORMAN: Must be National Weirdo Day.

[Room]

(In an abandoned flat. Saul enters cautiously, gun ready. Egan walks past him with a carrier bag.)

EGAN: You reckon it'll be that easy, do you?
SAUL: Why not? (takes a bottle from the bag) Want a drink? What is it?
EGAN: I dunno. I just don't feel right about this one.
SAUL: Well, I'm not losing my nerve.
EGAN: Oh, so what have we done then, Saul, eh? Bit of sabotage here and there, some data theft. Look, there's no point in acting tough with me. If you're not scared, you're dangerous.
SAUL: So, why don't you feel right? I mean, we know who the victim is, we know when we're going to kill him, and we know we can get away
EGAN: Yeah, everything's fine.

[Night club]

(The Stranger wakes and stands.)

STRANGER: Yes. Why?

(He walks carefully up the stairs with a sense of dread and images of himself in evening dress with gun at the ready.)

TAMORA: (Louise Jameson) Is this your dead body? Can I help you? Let me give you a clue. You're trespassing.
STRANGER: Am I?
TAMORA: Bit old for this place, ain't ya?
NORMAN: Shall I call the police?
TAMORA: Oh, go and have another Pot Noodle, Norman.
NORMAN: Yes, right, okay, fine. I'll just go and have another Pot Noodle. (leaves)
TAMORA: Did I see you here last night?
STRANGER: I was outside.
TAMORA: Oh, slept it off in the bins? Beware happy hour.
STRANGER: The door wasn't locked properly. Could you tell me where I am?
TAMORA: Oh, you are in a bad way, ain't ya? If I were you I'd use that approach when I got home. I didn't know where I was, I can't remember.

(Takes him back down the stairs.)

TAMORA: Did you buy me a drink last night? Cos I did come down for about an hour.
STRANGER: There was a woman, and a man with a bowler hat, then he was in a suit.
TAMORA: That must have been after I went to bed. No, our speciality is techno-techno, louder than you can imagine. A lot of sweaty dancing bodies and overpriced beer.

(The Stranger has another vision, gets dizzy and sits on the stairs.)

TAMORA: Oh, you are in a bad way. Norman! Coffee.

[Room]

SAUL: He was your friend, wasn't he? Your cell leader.
EGAN: We didn't have time for friendship. We were just survivors, relying on one another, waiting to see which one of us got it first. And now he's gone.
SAUL: You could have give it up. What stopped you?
EGAN: Hatred. Hatred of what they did to our people. Hatred of what they're still doing. You remember that hatred. It'll keep you alive.

(He tries the drink, and hates it, then picks up the gun.)

EGAN: Come on. We'll go and see that night club of yours, shall we?

[Night club]

(Norman is stomping around sweeping the floor. Tamora pours the Stranger a coffee.)

STRANGER: I ought to be going.
TAMORA: Are you in trouble? Lawyer? Stockbroker? Accountant? International terrorist?
STRANGER: Traveller.
TAMORA: Oh, you're a salesman or something.
STRANGER: Sort of. There was a door. Is there anyone else here?
TAMORA: Oh, well, there's Mister Raven, the new manager. His office is upstairs.
STRANGER: Mister Raven?
TAMORA: He's just a kid. We're walking him in, testing his management potential.
STRANGER: There was someone.
TAMORA: Look, if you're in trouble
STRANGER: Did I say I was?
TAMORA: No, no, no, I said if you were in trouble, maybe you came here last night to forget. You had one drink too many or whatever. Now, in the cold light of day, you don't know what to do, you don't know where to go. And you don't want to talk about it.
STRANGER: Something like that.
TAMORA: Look, there's a flat upstairs, company owned. I'm staying there at the moment. If you'd like to freshen up, get yourself together before you go, or whatever. What'd you think to that? Sound reasonable?
STRANGER: Very generous.
TAMORA: Good. Tamora Hennessey. And you are? Don't tell me, you'd rather not say. Well, just you stay with your coffee for a bit. I've got one or two things to sort out.

[Saul's car]

SAUL: That's it.
EGAN: Right. Well, take a look round the back.
SAUL: What are you going to do?
EGAN: I have to think. We don't want any unknown escape routes for him, do we?

[Night club security room]

(Norman is eating crisps.)

TAMORA: You stay where I can see you.

(The Stranger is on CCTV. Saul goes round the back of the night club building and relieves himself in a corner. The Stranger gets up and goes to the stairs.)

NORMAN: What's he doing now?
TAMORA: Shh. Eat your crisps. Quietly.

(The Stranger finds the door in his vision and turns the handle. It is locked. He hears a strange noise and puts his eye to the keyhole. What he sees is someone heavily bandaged and shaking.)

NORMAN: Classic signs of persecution complex.
TAMORA: You did philosophy, not psychology.

(The Stranger hurries back downstairs and runs outside. Tamora follows to listen.)

[Back of the night club]

SAUL: Hello, stranger. Listen, we've got a car out front.

[By Saul's car]

SAUL: Look who's turned up, Mister Egan.

(Saul makes the Stranger bend down do look in through the window. Egan gets out of the car, happy.)

EGAN: You'd better get in.

(Meanwhile, Tamora brings a meal to the locked room. She knocks, gets a weird sound and unlocks the door.)

[Room]

SAUL: So what happens now? Does he take command again.
EGAN: Shut it, Saul.
SAUL: Oh, I think it's a fair point.
EGAN: So, what happened?
STRANGER: I don't know. I can't remember clearly. I take it I'm supposed to be here.
EGAN: You were supposed to be here
SAUL: He doesn't know, Egan. Maybe he has been got at by the Protectorate. He may just
EGAN: Shut it! Get out.
STRANGER: Ah, your friend's right. I don't know. Where I am, why I'm here. I don't know who you two are. Oh, I know that I know you, and I know that place. There was a door. I saw it.
EGAN: And before?
SAUL: How the hell did he get here, that's what I want to know. Hey, if you don't know what you're supposed to be doing here, why bother turning up in the first place, eh? I don't know. (leaves)
EGAN: So tell me what you do know. Try!
STRANGER: Just images. A girl, a man with a bowler hat, and a train. A steam train.
EGAN: Where?

[Night club office]

(Pressing a couple of keys on a keyboard makes a green virtual screen appear.)

TAMORA: Reporting in. No further contact with the strange Preceptor cell. No further degeneration. It looks as though he'll survive until the operation's complete.

[Outside the room]

EGAN: It's tomorrow night at 10.
SAUL: And you want Mister No-Brain with us?
EGAN: He is, he was one of the best. We don't know what's happened. We'll see how he is tomorrow.
SAUL: And then what, if he has been planted here. I mean, I say we sack the bastard now.
EGAN: I'll decide, tomorrow.

[Night club office]

TAMORA: It's dark outside now. You understand? Dark. Come on.

(The bandaged person gets up.)

[Room]

(Next day. The Stranger is sleeping on a folded blanket on the floor.)

EGAN: Wake up. Wake up!
STRANGER: What are you going to do to me?
EGAN: You wanna leave?
STRANGER: Why, are you going to let me leave?
EGAN: I might do. Go on.

(But the Stranger's exit is blocked by Saul coming in.)

SAUL: Where are you going? Eh?

(He punches the Stranger in the stomach.)

SAUL: Where are you going?
STRANGER: I don't know. He said I could.
SAUL: I don't know.

(He pushes him into Egan's arms.)

EGAN: Not good enough. Tie him up.

(Saul punches the Stranger.)

EGAN: That's enough. I said tie him up.

(Egan uses his palm top computer.)

EGAN: There's a cab on its way. Keep an eye on him, let me know.
SAUL: Are you sure about this?
EGAN: We'll have to risk it.
STRANGER: What are you doing?
EGAN: I want you to listen to me very carefully. This is going to hurt you. Look at it from our point of view. Our information is that they caught you. Now, we don't know what they do to people like us, people like you. If you're caught, you seem to disappear, apparently.
STRANGER: People like us? Who are we?
EGAN: You disappeared. You were meant to be here, with us, now, but you never turned up. Did the Protectorate send you to sabotage this mission, to infiltrate this cell? They'd like that.
STRANGER: Look, I'm sorry, but
SAUL: Got it!

(The palm top computer is put on a table and a green beam fires out of it into the Stranger's head.)

[Night club office]

(Holding up a knife and fork.)

TAMORA: Shall we try with these again? No, I didn't think so.

(The bandaged man tries to eat with bandaged hands. The green virtual screen is flickering.)

TAMORA: Another communication beam active. They're desperate.

[Room]

EGAN: We've pulled up a hunter pulse, and you know what that is. I've seen you use it often enough. It's a searchlight into the mind, that's what you call it. Well, I want to know what's on your mind.

[Night club office]

(On Tamora's screen, images from In Memory Alone - the train, Minor, Miss Brown, then the Stranger and the words Preceptor Cell Leader Missing.)

TAMORA: It's you.

[Room]

SAUL: Hang on, I recognise the face.
EGAN: Preceptor agent?
SAUL: Custodian. She gets about.
EGAN: Custodian? They erase his memory, send him on a wild goose chase with her to keep an eye on him.
SAUL: What for?
EGAN: The Estrangement Programme.
SAUL: How did you break free?
HOLOGRAM [on screen]: Absorbing too much energy. The simulation's collapse is accelerating. Concentrate on returning everything to its proper place. That way your neural net interface may find the correct program.
SAUL: Alien software screwed up the Protectorate's programming.
EGAN: And brought him to this transfer point where he was heading in the first place when the Protectorate lifted him.
SAUL: Protectorate scanning pulse.
EGAN: There's still time, Saul.

[Night club office]

TAMORA: Fascinating. We're literally breathing down their necks and they're risking everything.

[Room]

(A high pitched sound.)

EGAN: Do you hear that? Do you hear that?
STRANGER: Yes.
EGAN: That is a scanning pulse from the Protectorate. They're our enemies. If they find us here we're finished. Understand? Understand?
STRANGER: Yes!
EGAN: If you really are on our side, I have to know. Why are you here?
SAUL: You know why he's here, Egan!
EGAN: Shut it.
SAUL: If that scan finds this portal open
EGAN: We have to know why he's here.

(The screen shows his vision himself at the locked door.)

SAUL: What's that?
EGAN: The target. That's not where

(This time the door opens to reveal a woman in a brightly coloured blouse. The Stranger smiles and fires his gun, which turns out to deliver a red beam. The woman screams and vanishes.)

STRANGER: No!
EGAN: Why are you here!

(They struggle, and the Stranger uses the rope from his wrists to try and strangle Egan.)

STRANGER: I have to kill, Egan!

[Night club office]

TAMORA: There have been some developments.

[Room]

(The Stranger has run outside. The high pitched sound has stopped.)

SAUL: Do you think it found us?
EGAN: We're still here, aren't we?

[Night club office]

TAMORA: Lost Preceptor Cell Leader located at this transit point. He seems to have arrived without a portal. The cell have him now. I couldn't intervene without risking detection. Well, it's unclear whether his correction programme is intact or not. Yes, certainly. I'll continue observation.

[Marina]

STRANGER: Don't come any closer.
EGAN: Look, you're
STRANGER: I know what I am. I just found out, thanks to you.
EGAN: Now look, it was either that or we
STRANGER: Or you would have killed me. Is that all killing is to you?
EGAN: What does it mean to you? I'll tell you what it means to you. It's a way of life.
STRANGER: Not any more.
EGAN: It's too late.

(They walk along the path by the estuary.)

STRANGER: What do you mean, too late?
EGAN: You made all those decisions a lot time ago.
STRANGER: To become a terrorist, a murderer? What am I, some kind of psychopath?
EGAN: You're a Preceptor. You're fighting for justice. Our people were the teachers, creators of knowledge which established the great dimensional Web, which encircles, pervades every aspect of this stunted little macrocosm. We belong to a species that live belong all this, this physical universe. Our people were betrayed.
STRANGER: By the Protectorate.
EGAN: Yes. The Enforcers, the Custodians, the Emissaries. All part of that vile bureaucracy which choked the dimensional pathways with their regulations, because to them upholding the rule of our creation were more important than the creators themselves.
STRANGER: Was that why we have them killed? What had that woman done to deserve death? I could see it in her eyes. She didn't understand. This Raven, what has he done to deserve
EGAN: You don't understand.
STRANGER: I do, Egan. I do understand. The terrible thing is, I still want to kill him. I have to kill Raven.
EGAN: No, wait.

(The Stranger head-butts Egan and leaves.)

[Night club office]

(The bandaged man is trying to use a fork, but shakes so badly the food falls off it.)

RAVEN: Free. Free.

(He cries.)

[Marina]

SAUL: What the hell happened?
EGAN: I really thought I'd reached him. I have, in a way.
SAUL: Where is he now?
EGAN: Gone to kill Raven.
SAUL: Well, that's all right then, isn't it?

(Egan spots the gun and grabs it, hiding it under his jacket.)

EGAN: You prat! Look, that is Raven. This is the random power break we detected. The random power break reaches its correct transverse point at 10 o'clock tonight. That's when we kill him, because that's when it's safe to get back into the dimensional Web.
SAUL: All right, all right.
EGAN: Right now we have a Protectorate scan pulse sitting on our arse. It's got to be 10 o'clock tonight local time, or we're up shit creek. If he blows it now, well Saul, you can stick your head between your knees and kiss your arse goodbye.
SAUL: So we kill him before he gets to Raven.
EGAN: We have to. He's dangerous now.
SAUL: Knew you'd come round.

[Night club office]

(Tamora sweeps up the spilt food and broken crockery.)

RAVEN: Set me free.
TAMORA: Reassimilation.

[Saul's car]

SAUL: He'll go in through the back way.
EGAN: Get back to the flat now.

[Night club office]

RAVEN: Help me.
TAMORA: This physical world. We should have let you die.

(The door opens.)

RAVEN: Who?
STRANGER [OC]: I have to kill Raven. I want to kill Raven.
STRANGER: No!

(And collapses. Tamora catches him.)

TAMORA: Physical.

[Behind the night club]

EGAN: Smells of piss.

[Tamora's flat]

(The Stranger enters the little kitchen.)

TAMORA: I thought you might like to take up my offer after all.

(Outside, Egan indicates where Saul needs to laser the back door. Tamora tends to a cut on the Stranger's lip.)

TAMORA: I suppose you're not going to tell me how this happened.
STRANGER: Two old friends of mine beat me up.
TAMORA: Friends?
STRANGER: Ah yes, they're definitely my friends. I'm just not sure who I am any more.
TAMORA: Very deep.
STRANGER: No. It's just before I retired things were better.
TAMORA: Oh, the good old days.
STRANGER: Yes. Now, now I feel weary of it all.
TAMORA: Of what?
STRANGER: The fighting! Sorry. I can't be making much sense to you.
TAMORA: Well, it helps to talk.
STRANGER: It feels dangerous. As if talking might somehow
TAMORA: What?
STRANGER: Why didn't you just throw me out into the street?
TAMORA: I felt responsible. Maybe you got drunk on our drink. Maybe.
STRANGER: Maybe? Maybe? I know this world of yours. I've seen thousands like it. Urban cages. Sentient lifeforms trapped in faceless concrete warrens. People here don't feel responsible, and they don't help strangers.
TAMORA: Perhaps you should see a shrink. Maybe you've been on drugs. Maybe you should stay away from your friends.

(He grabs her hair.)

STRANGER: Who are you?

(Saul and Egan enter the nightclub.)

STRANGER: Aren't you going to ask me to leave?
TAMORA: Why? Do you want to leave?
STRANGER: I'm physically assaulting you, and you don't want me to leave?
TAMORA: Well, maybe I fancy you.

[Night club office]

(Saul and Egan burst in and see the bandaged man.)

EGAN: Raven?

[Tamora's flat]

(The cordless telephone rings.)

TAMORA: Hello? Your friends are here.
STRANGER: What are you going to do?
TAMORA: What are you going to do?

[Night club office]

EGAN: Well, it's definitely the same genetic code we gave the Protectorate in our warning.
SAUL: Never thought it'd be such a pathetic specimen.

(Raven touches Saul's hand.)

SAUL: Jesus!

(He points the gun at Raven's heart and laughs.)

EGAN: It isn't about enjoying it. We wait until 10 o'clock.
SAUL: (to Raven) Shut it! You think I'm enjoying the company of that?
EGAN: Take another look around. He may have turned up.

(Saul leaves. Egan gives Raven the fork.)

[Night club security room]

(Saul is on the CCTV.)

NORMAN: Oh shit.

[Night club office]

RAVEN: Please set me free.
EGAN: You'll be free, my friend, tonight. I didn't imagine you to be so pathetic. There you are, that's the random choice information on a computer net. Of all the worlds that ever exist, every likely to exist, this time round the finger of fate fell on you. I'm giving you a stay of execution, you know that? A very old friend of mine is coming here, and he's going to kill you. But he's lost his way, up here. (gestures to head) So he has to die as well. There are more important things than friendship. There is a greater cause. I'm sure you won't mind waiting.

(He reaches for the bandages and Raven threatens him with the fork.)

EGAN: Never mind.

[Night club]

(Tamora and the Stranger enter, to be confronted by Saul.)

SAUL: Hello, stranger.
TAMORA: What on Earth?
SAUL: You can go, darling.
TAMORA: Oh no, I think you can go

(Saul twists Tamora's arm behind her back. Norman see it.)

TAMORA: That doesn't look like a real gun to me.

(Saul laughs.)

[Night club office]

(Egan finally notices the virtual screen.)

EGAN: Protectorate!

[Night club security room]

NORMAN: Yeah, right.

(He leaves the room and gets zapped by Egan.)

[Night club]

(Tamora gets thrown to the floor.)

EGAN: You bastard! You set us up! There's a Protectorate portal in the office.
SAUL: Right under our noses?
EGAN: Guess we'll have to do the job now.
SAUL: There's no power break to escape through.
EGAN: We'll have to risk it. I'll do it.
STRANGER: I have
EGAN: We were like brothers, fighting together. That's how I shall always remember you.

(And puts his gun to the Stranger's forehead. Tamora lasers it out of his hand.)

SAUL: Protectorate.
EGAN: So, what are you going to do, eh? You can't kill us. You can't do anything unless you catch us in the act. Your precious rules.
TAMORA: I can kill you in self-defence.
STRANGER: I have no connection with the Protectorate.
EGAN: So it's true. The Estrangement Programme. Yes, we know. Hasn't quite worked with him though, has it?

(Raven leaves his room.)

EGAN: You can see how they set us up. The power break we detected. The dimensional Web isn't going to occur. It's a fake. Saul and I will just have to risk it, like we used to in the old days, remember?
STRANGER: Yes.
EGAN: If we're sharp, we'll get away. But you're in no fit state, you know that, don't you? Don't you?
STRANGER: Yes.
EGAN: You have to stay here. Take Saul's gun, finish the job. Play the game. Strike a blow for the Preceptors.
TAMORA: He won't listen to you.
STRANGER: What harm has Raven ever done to the Preceptors, Egan?
EGAN: They betrayed us. They let us die in our billions because of their rules and regulations.
STRANGER: I know the history.
EGAN: We demanded an investigation, we demanded justice. They subjugated us.
STRANGER: And so we play a pointless game with people's lives?
EGAN: We break their bloody rules! We lead them a merry shitty little dance because we know they're duty-bound to protect this stinking universe. That way they know the Preceptors are still alive.
STRANGER: And that way the killing goes on for ever, achieving nothing. We've forgotten what we're fighting for. All that's left is the game.

(Egan backs away.)

EGAN: Saul!

(Saul throws his gun to the Stranger and joins Egan with his palm top computer. They glow green.)

EGAN: Do it, Solomon. Remember who you really are.

(Egan and Saul vanish. The Stranger zaps Tamora's gun. She runs. Raven starts to come down the stairs.)

STRANGER: Get back!
TAMORA: Why not just do it here and now, Solomon? Isn't that the dream you had? You are torn between what you once were and what you are now. You can't go back to being a terrorist, a murderer.
STRANGER: Shut up! Get back to the office. Run! Move it! Run. Raven, run.

[Night club office]

(Raven crawls back to the room and starts to unpeel the bandages. The Stranger staggers back and looks at the gun in his hand.)

RAVEN: You set me free.
TAMORA: He was barely alive when we reconstructed him and set him up here as a replacement for the real Raven.
STRANGER: Bait. You were prepared to let him die just so you could capture the people who killed him?
TAMORA: Morals? From you?

(The Stranger drops the gun.)

TAMORA: Well, it's true. We half expected him to die before Saul and Egan got to him. But there has been some reassimilation. He started to speak
RAVEN: You.
STRANGER: What are you going to do with him?

(Tamora activates the keyboard and Raven is sucked away in a beam of light.)

TAMORA: At least he'll have some kind of life in the Web, free from physical corruption.
STRANGER: And what about me?
TAMORA: The game's up. You remember your crime, you remember your punishment. You were supposed to have relived both until we thought you had mended your ways.
STRANGER: With that girl to watch over me. My Custodian. What happened to her?
TAMORA: I presume she's returned to her original transverse point.
STRANGER: I see. Everything in its proper place. But what about me? What's my proper place?
TAMORA: Think of me as your new Custodian. Just for a while

(She activates the screen and the Stranger cries out in pain.)

TAMORA: What is it?

(He grabs the remote control, and pushes her out of the beam, then vanishes.)

TAMORA: He's escaped into the Web without me and blocked off this transfer circuit. Reset.

(Rest of dialogue lost under sound effect. She vanishes.)

Transcript originally provided by Chrissie. Adapted by TARDIS.guide. The transcripts are for educational and entertainment purposes only. All other copyrights property of their respective holders.