Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?

Chapter Summary: The Doctor spends more time with Liana and he and Rose try to find out exactly who Xan is and what he wants.

Chapter Nine: Criminal Minds

'You've certainly got yourself into bigger trouble than you realise,' Liana observed. She sounded amused.

The Doctor gave her a swift grin. 'That's nothing new,' he said.

'Can you describe the man you saw?' she asked. 'I know most people of any consequence here, I might know who he is.'

The Doctor thought. 'Tall, short blond hair, dressed in black.'

'That describes half the human men on this planet,' she said.

'He had turquoise eyes and he was a human-Amraki hybrid,' the Doctor added.

'That narrows things down,' Liana said with a sigh. 'That's Xianfrith Excalda, former Commander of the security forces in Cyber City.'

'How can you be sure?' Rose asked suspiciously.

Liana waved a hand wearily. 'Xianfrith and I were – well, I didn't know him well enough to call him a friend but we were acquaintances. He was a good man. But things have changed.'

'How do you mean?' the Doctor asked curiously.

'He changed,' Liana said. She looked unhappy. 'You understand I'm only telling you this because I want to help, to get to the bottom of this? I dislike speaking of this. It was an unpleasant episode and not one I really wish to talk about.'

'Why?' Rose wanted to know. 'You said you weren't friends, why should it bother you?'

'Because it includes people who are my friends,' the Time Lord said sharply. 'I also had a great deal of respect for Commander Excalda, and like many people in this city I trusted him.' She looked away. 'People don't like to find out that those they have trusted are not in fact worthy of that trust.'

The Doctor gave Rose a warning look. She glared at him, but didn't say anything else.

'So?' the Doctor said gently. 'What happened?'

'There is an extensive black market,' Liana said. 'One branch deals specifically with buying and selling people.'

'Yeah?' Rose said slowly. 'You mean a slave trade?'

'Yes,' Liana said grimly. 'There is a great deal of interest in acquiring people who have certain skills in this society. People who have telepathic or telekinetic skills, for example. Such people can sell their services for a great deal of money, and other people can sell these individuals for high sums of money.'

'Was Xan involved in this trade?' the Doctor asked.

'This highly illegal trade,' she said. 'He was up to his neck in it, Doctor. He was sentenced to ten years in a prison mine in the western colonies of this planet. He escaped and returned to the city, I don't know why. Considering his skills, his contracts and his abilities, as well as his past record, it can't be for any good reason. There's a price on his head, a heavy one, dead or alive.'

'Shame we didn't know that before,' the Doctor said neutrally.

Liana frowned. 'I'm sorry. I didn't know you'd encounter him again – '

He waved his hand, dismissing this. He was more interested in what else she had to say. 'Why would he be wandering around now? Why risk being sent back to the prison mines?'

'Or executed,' Liana said grimly.

His eyebrows raised. 'Executed?'

'He is a dangerous criminal,' she said, as if the answer should be obvious.

The Doctor looked at the floor, his brow wrinkled in thought.

'What is a prison mine?' Rose asked slowly.

'They are resource mines,' Liana explained. 'Precious stones, ores, and so on. The governments sends criminals down into the mines rather than – '

'Than put other people at risk?' Rose said in a sharp tone.

'The death toll in the mines is very high,' Liana said after a pause.

'I bet it is,' Rose said.

The Doctor watched this exchange silently.

'Even criminals are people,' Rose said.

'I never said they weren't,' Liana replied.

'We're getting off subject,' the Doctor said mildly, as if he hadn't found the previous conversation remotely interesting. Rose shot him an irritated look which he studiously ignored. He turned instead to Liana. 'All right. What possible reason would this man have for coming back?'

'I have no idea,' she said promptly.

'You know that we came here because we were led by a distress signal,' the Doctor said. 'It came from this Circle. You don't have any idea about that?'

'None,' she said firmly.

He shrugged. 'All right. He knows something about these people dying. If he's a slave trader, why would he care? If he's a criminal, why would he risk getting caught coming back here and why get involved in a series of highly suspicious deaths?'

'Meaning?' Rose asked.

'He knew something. He was trying to find out what was going on. If he's a criminal, why would he be risking getting caught? Whatever is going on, it's important enough for him to risk getting caught, possibly killed.' He shook his head, looking annoyed. 'This is such a mess. What is going on around here?'

'If I knew that, I could help,' Liana said impatiently.

The Doctor looked up at her. 'You're a Time Lord,' he said flatly. 'What have you been doing about this?'

She looked taken aback. 'What?'

'You heard me. What have you been doing?'

Liana's eyes narrowed. 'This is an issue for the security forces on this planet. Not me. I survive here by not offending people, by keeping my head down and obeying the law. This is not my problem.'

'How often have those words been an excuse?' the Doctor snapped.

'I don't want to argue over this,' Liana said firmly. 'I'll help you as far as I can but please remember that, unlike you, I live here, and I have a business and a life and people depend upon me.'

The Doctor stared at her for a moment. Before he could say anything, there was a knock at the door.

Liana called, 'Come in!'

One of the shop assistants put her head around the door and said, 'I'm very sorry to interrupt, but there's a gentleman here to see you.' She looked very nervous.

'Send him in,' Liana said. She looked the Doctor. 'if you don't mind, this is a private meeting.'

'We don't,' the Doctor said with forced cheerfulness. He and Rose got up and walked out. A man walked past them, almost shoved past them. He ignored both of them, walked into the office and shut the door sharply.

The shop assistant looked after the man with an expression of mixed anger, dislike and fear.

'Something wrong?' the Doctor asked.

The girl began to walk away. 'Nothing,' she said shortly.

Rose gave him a warning look and said, 'You don't look very happy. What's wrong?' She gave a friendly, sympathetic smile.

'Well…I don't like him,' the girl said, gesturing towards the closed door and speaking in a low voice. 'He's a creepy man and I know who he is.'

'Who is he?' Rose asked. When the girl hesitated, she said, 'You can trust me.'

'He's a scientist, he's involved in genetic experimentation,' the girl said quietly. 'A lot of his experiments and his methods have been highly controversial. There have been a few scandals involving him and his research.'

'Like what?' Rose asked, curious.

'He's been rumoured to have been buying slaves for his experiments,' she said. 'And he's been linked to several slaving rings in this city, although nothing's been proved.'

Rose frowned. 'Wasn't there a commander involved in the slave trade?'

'Yes,' the girl said, looking puzzled and Rose was certain she saw a flash of anger cross the girl's face. 'This wasn't connected, though. But I don't like him.'

'Why's he here? He's friends with Liana?'

'I think he's one of her investors,' the girl said.

'All right, thank you,' Rose said and walked back over to the Doctor. 'He's a scientist,' she told him. 'Apparently involved in buying slaves and in genetic experimentation. The girl said that a lot of his work and research has been very controversial.'

'Interesting,' the Doctor said. 'Why's he here?'

'He's one of Liana's investors,' she said.

'Interesting,' the Doctor said again. 'Let's go outside.' They left the shop and found a bench. Sitting down, the Doctor said, 'So. What do we know so far?'

'Distress signal,' Rose said. 'It brought us here. Someone sent it.'

'Right. We don't know who, but we know it came from Liana's shop.'

'Dead bodies have been turning up, and the logical assumption is that that's what the distress signal was about,' Rose said.

'That Xan knows something about all of this, and he's either a criminal who's involved or he's a criminal trying to stop it or he's innocent and involved or innocent and trying to stop it.'

'Yeah,' Rose said, frowning slightly. 'One of the above. He knows something, but he's not talking.'

'And there are scientists in this city involved in genetic experimentation.'

'It's not a lot to go on, is it?' Rose said eventually.

'More than we usually get,' the Doctor said with a sigh. 'Let's face it, Liana isn't going to be able to help us very much. We need to think of another approach.'

'Great,' Rose muttered. 'You think I should try talking to the girl in the shop again?'

'That could help,' the Doctor agreed. 'She might know something else.'

'What about you? What are you going to do?' She waited a moment. He was frowning and she saw that he had taken the piece of psychic paper out of his pocket.

'Rose,' the Doctor said in a low voice.

'What?'

'I need you to do something for me,' he said. 'If Liana comes out of her meeting before I get back, I need you to keep her distracted about where I've gone.'

'Distracted?' Rose looked bemused and curious. 'Why?'

'I got a message,' he said, showing her the psychic paper. There was a message scrawled across it. Meet me, Circle Seven Entrance.

'Who's it from?'

'I got a pretty good idea who,' he said. 'I want to meet him again, I want to see if he can shed any light on this affair.'

'I thought Liana told you everything you wanted to know,' Rose said, unable to keep the bite from her tone.

He either didn't notice or chose to ignore this. 'No one ever tells me everything I want to know. You should know this by now. I like to hear what everyone has to say. As much as I like Liana, she may not have told us everything. In fact, I doubt that she has.'