"Anything wrong, Osgood? You look as if you've had a bad night."

"I'm all right, Ma'am. Nothing to worry about."

Kate Stewart went back to her computer screen, but she kept throwing glances at her young colleague from time to time, and it was obvious that Osgood's mood wasn't improving. She was furrowing her brow and muttering, all the while staring at what looked like a book of chess moves. Finally, Kate couldn't stand it any longer. "Osgood!"

Kate's authoritative and slightly irritated tone almost made Osgood jump: "Ma'am ?"

"You're not all right – don't take me for a fool – now, what is it?"

Osgood sighed: "It's nothing, really – I was at chess club yesterday evening, and ..."

"That's what happen when I give you time off – apparently it doesn't suit you."

"It's not that, Ma'am – I like it – a lot, in fact – all those intricate moves, and …But yesterday evening – I lost – twice, in fact."

"Come on, Osgood! You're not ten anymore – surely you can't be such a sore loser ?"

"No, of course not" Osgood bit her lip . "At least …No, really, I'm not – but that's just it, Ma'am – the people who beat me – they were ten – actually, one was eight!"

Kate stared at Osgood: "Surely not? You won the National Championship last year, and the European, and the Dubaï Open, and…"

"Right – I know – please don't ! It only makes it more humiliating."

"Sorry, Osgood – I didn't mean it that way, you know that."

"Those two kids were awesome – fast, and clever, and …Anyway, I've been researching the tournaments, and it seems like in the last few months, many of them have been won by children!"

"Mmm – seems like you'll have to up your game, then …Come on – I'm sure you've work to do."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Two days later, Kate came in fuming. She didn't even greet her colleagues, which was a bad sign. For the whole morning, they tiptoed around her, and they were relieved when she closed her office door. At least they would be able to talk among them – when she was in a black mood, luckily quite rarely, Kate couldn't bear even whispering. Finally, Osgood decided to beard the lion in her den, and knocked gingerly at the door.

"Yes – what is it? I'm busy!"

Osgood stepped in hesitantly and proffered a cup of tea. Kate sighed: "Thank you, Osgood – I needed that – sorry for snapping at you."

"Anything wrong, Ma'am ?"

"No, not really. Actually …I shouldn't have teased you about your chess games. Because the same thing happened to me yesterday."

"I didn't know you played chess?"

"No, Osgood" replied Kate impatiently, "Not chess – I play bridge – and rather well, if I say so myself…But last night, my partner and I were defeated three times in a row by a team of children – brother and sister, apparently, about eight years-old."

Wisely, Osgood held her counsel. She knew that in Kate's mood, she wouldn't take kindly to being teased back: "Sorry, Ma'am – I'll let you get on with your work, then…"

The next morning, Colonel Shindi arrived at the Tower, looking rather discombobulated. As he was usual the most placid man on Earth, his mood was immediately noticed. Eager to tell his story, he settled by the coffee machine and explained to whoever was in need of an instant caffeine boost the reason for his state of mind. That morning in the Tube, he had offered his seat to a young mother with a toddler in a pushchair. He didn't really like kids in the Tube – crying, slobbering nuisances as a rule. However, this one seemed quite well-behaved, especially since the mother had provided him with a book. He wasn't really paying attention when he heard the kid whisper to his mum: "Mum, what's a predicate?" This surprised the Colonel enough for his to glance at the title of the book the toddler had in his hands. He didn't hear what the mother answered, but he managed to see that the book was the Critique of Pure Reason by Emmanuel Kant. Colonel Shindi thought they were somehow having a laugh on his account, and decided to play along – he asked the little girl – who probably wasn't more than four or five and not old enough to read – what she thought of the book. She remained quiet for a minute, and finally answered very seriously: "I like the synthesis between rationalist and empiricist traditions and the way the book avoids the metaphysical speculations of the rationalists without falling into metaphysical skepticism." This left Colonel Shindi speechless, and when the pair exited the Tube a few stations later, he was still processing the situation.

Kate came in to fill up her mug and he treated her to the story. Ten minutes later, UNIT researchers were assembled in the main control room. Kate begun: "All right, people, I want you to find out all you can about G&T kids – first in the UK, then extend the research to international if you detect a pattern."

"G&T, Ma'am ?"

"Not Gin & Tonic, Josh – Gifted and Talented! You know, the whizz kids – I want to know if there's been a surge in their number, where they live, what the families are like…I want bios, energy readings, maps - one can a be fluke, but three of them? Not a chance! Something's going on, and I want to know what."

"Three, Ma'am?"

"You don't need to know – just do what I said."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Kate was worried – as she'd already said several times before, she liked her enemies stupid – it wasted less time! She tried to reassure herself by telling that if there was really something afoot, those were after all kids, and they should be easy to counter, but a little nagging voice in her head repeated again and again: "One of those kids beat you at bridge…"

The team findings appeared innocuous enough. There had not been a sudden influx of gifted kids. The energy readings did not show anything special. Kate knew she should have found that reassuring and yet her sense of foreboding increased. She trusted her team, of course she did, but …As her father used to say, "if you want something done, do it yourself."

"Josh, Osgood, we're going on a field trip."

"A field trip, Ma'am ?"

"Yes…suddenly I'm in need of a little country air – it's rather stuffy in here, don't you think?"