The Dangers of Exceeding the Blinovitch Limitation EffectAlways the Third Doctor!;Jo Grant;Katy Manning;Jon Pertwee;Sequel to INFERNO;
The Dangers of Exceeding the Blinovitch Limitation Effect
Episode Seven
Written by Jeri Massi
Spent from his efforts to rescue Jo the night before and from the long vigil he had kept over her, the Master took to the room's single bed as soon as Jo vacated it and did not awaken until well past noon. Jo herself was lethargic after everything that had happened. She dozed in the soft chair, unaware of the Doctor's several anxious glances at her during her nap. He tried to coax her into conversation, but she was sleepy. It was not until the Master awoke, refreshed and ready for a planning session over an impromptu lunch that she seemed to really wake up and regain some energy.
The Master's wounds seemed much improved when he got up. He was jovial and seemed---to Jo---to have forgotten his previous sterness with her. He made strong coffee for the three of them while she found biscuits and wafers in the food supply. The Doctor used a small coffee table for drafting and turned out a well made map of the area, noting the buildings that they had passed through: those which were actually in use and those which were partially constructed or torn down.
"If the Doctor---my Doctor---thinks that I am dead, then I do not want to disillusion him," the Master said as they drank coffee and munched on biscuits around the small table. "And we have a problem that he is very curious about the two of you. He seems to think that you, Doctor, are his clone."
"I know," the Doctor said. "A concoction of this universe's High Council designed to destroy him."
"And he has already surmised that you are protective of Miss Grant, here. He will seek to strike at her again as your weakest link."
The Doctor took another biscuit from the plate. "So what do you suggest?"
"I have other lairs scattered about," the Master said airily. "As for the Doctor---my Doctor---he has assumed several different aliases simultaneously during his tenure here. He has made himself wealthy, respected, and feared, and London is his ideal environment. So long as he can give people in power what they want, he is able to keep them somewhat under his control."
"You mean he can come and go as he likes and fit in with different sets," Jo said.
The Master nodded. "At times he poses as a foreign scientist, at times as an attaché of the German government, at times he is a freedom fighter. This way he learns all the passwords and trade language of each group. He betrays them to each other as his mood suits him, but I suspect that he has some grand payoff in mind."
"He hardly needs to plot the overthrow of the earth while Professor Stahlman is on the scene," the Doctor said. "And surely he knows that the time left for earth to survive is limited if Stahlman is not stopped."
The Master cocked an eyebrow and let his dark eyes roam the plate for something that he liked. As he selected a biscuit for himself, he said, "I don't know what the Doctor knows and does not know. His TARDIS was damaged when he was marooned here. The damage may be extensive enough to force him to view time as linear. If that is so, he probably has no more insight into his future than a human does."
"Look, I don't get it!" Jo exclaimed, sounding more like her old self. "Why would this world's Doctor plan the downfall of this world? He's stuck here the same way everybody else is. If he sees to it that the earth is destroyed, then he's destroyed as well."
"His TARDIS, though damaged in its control systems, remains indestructible, Miss Grant," the Master told her. "He need only seal himself inside and let cataclysm take the earth."
"Yes, and any such cataclysm itself may serve as a huge signal flare to other races," the Doctor added. "Bring some of them running to investigate or collect the spoils, and offer him a chance to escape to some other world and work his mischief there as well." He cocked his head and looked at his new ally. "But what does all this amount to? He can come and go in this society, and he has built several powerful aliases for himself to use as weapons. He now knows where Jo and I are quartered, even if he thinks you are dead."
"My plan is that you two should take up new lodgings in one of my other points of refuge," the Master said. "And I will stay here. It is just possible that if he realizes you have gone, he may venture here himself, unwary, and be taken very easily by me."
"Would we lose communication with you?" the Doctor asked.
"Not at all. All of my refuges can communicate with each other. It isn't very far from here. And quite similar." He pointed to a spot on the map. "Right here. Unfinished building. Same as this one. They come in very handy."
"Why are there so many?" Jo asked.
"Financial collapse a few years ago. The entire London renovation project was financed by the government and badly managed. Everything was left half complete, and those buildings that were not partially remodeled lost power and water."
"Look, is this other lair of yours protected?" the Doctor's voice was sharp.
"Oh, yes. And as far as I know, he does not know of its existence."
Jo pointed out the obvious problem: "But if he's watching this place, he'll simply follow us there."
"I shall take you in my TARDIS. A quick jump of distance. If he's keeping watch outside, then he cannot be monitoring the area for TARDIS transmissions, and the signal will be brief and low powered. It's worth the risk."
The Doctor suddenly sat back. "Look, speaking of your TARDIS---"
"Yes?"
"Well, you promised my assistant return passage if she helped you. She kept her part of the bargain, and we saved you from your adversary. What about fulfilling your part of the agreement?"
"I don't object to keeping my word," the Master said. "We would have to wait for a moment when we knew for sure that our enemy Doctor was not in his TARDIS of course, so that there would be no danger that he would see such a powerful signal."
Jo turned to the Doctor. "Go back?" she asked. "You mean you're ready to go?"
He made his eyes gentle. "You could go back, Jo. I would join you later."
The offer took her by surprise, but she turned it down. "Nothing doing! If you stay, I stay! You need me, you know!"
"Jo---"
"You honestly do! I get you out of plenty of scrapes, and you need me to see your way around all these humans!"
The Master quickly took up his cup, amused, the Doctor thought, to hear such a small and youthful human scold him but not wanting her to see him smile.
"Our enemy is incredibly vicious---" the Doctor began.
"Oh, I know all about that! I'm staying right here with you. Look, if I go off and leave you, and then this awful version of you shows up at UNIT, how would any of us know it's him and not you then? He could come through the barrier and destroy my world as well." She folded her arms. "I'm staying. If only to keep track of who is who in this mess!"
"All right." But he looked doubtful.
"Well." The Master made his voice pleasant as he set down his cup. The Doctor could see that the other timelord was indeed amused with Jo and her earnest belief that the Doctor needed her to look after him. "We can be on our way then. I take it, Doctor, that you intend to follow up on your own plans to save this unhappy planet?"
"Yes," the Doctor said. "And Jo can come with me."
"I need Miss Grant," the Master said. "She is an effective agent, and one reason I am sending you off to a second lair is to allow me to take my own Doctor by surprise. Since he thinks I am dead."
The Doctor looked suspicious. "How do you plan to do that?"
"By means of variable wave length triangulation. Low power TARDIS transmissions are frequently emitted whenever anybody is doing anything in a TARDIS. But they are difficult to detect from a single-point station fixed in place. So far I have been successful only in tracking my Doctor when he generates a powerful signal: moves his TARDIS about."
"I see. So you hope to get a better fix on his TARDIS with triangulation." The Doctor inclined his head. "It is almost certain that he is nearby."
"Precisely. If you set up a station in a more distant part of the city, and if Miss Grant will stand by in her location to vary the wave length, I can move about in my TARDIS and increase or decrease the triangle size until I find him. She will be in no danger. I need her only to adjust a control knob."
The Doctor glanced at her, and Jo nodded. "All right," she said. "I think I'd be happy to know that this other Doctor's been brought down."
* * * *
The new lair to which the Master brought them was slightly more Spartan than the first. But the security system was sophisticated and seemed impervious, and there was a supply of food and water, as well as a much larger window that served as skylight. Jo had nearly forgotten how blue the sky could be, even in this grim and grey world.
The Master and the Doctor spent a good deal of time struggling with a transmission and receiving unit that they brought from the Master's TARDIS. They set it up in one corner of the square, box-like room. The furniture in the room consisted of one soft easy chair, several hard chairs, and a desk. There was one wall full of cabinets, but Jo decided not to explore these until after the Master left. It would seem too much like snooping while he was there.
When the two timelords had at last finished, the Master showed Jo how to operate the station. He showed her how to find a range and then vary the frequency. When he was satisfied that she understood, he handed her and the Doctor a small communications device each.
"This will keep us in touch no matter where each of us is. Doctor, we'll need you to set up our fixed point," he said. "Hadn't you better be going?"
"No, not yet," the Doctor's voice was sharp. "My new allies won't be expecting me until evening. And there's no use hanging about on the street. It's a good way to get arrested. You'll just have to be patient."
"Oh very well." The Master turned to his TARDIS, which had taken on the appearance of a huge cabinet in the small room. "I'll attend to my own setup. Signal me when you are ready. Good luck." And he strode into his TARDIS. In another moment, the time machine had disappeared.
* * * * *
Impatient and annoyed, Kit opened the door to Mike Yates and another man. "Have you gone round the twist?" she asked. "Both of you together? In day light? And at my door? Off with you!"
"We need help!" Yates exclaimed, and he put his foot in the doorway before she could close the door. He slid inside and held the door so that his partner came too. Kit looked from one to the other, glaring at them.
"I want you out of here. If Jimmy finds out there have been men here, my goose is cooked. And if the police find all three of us together, what then? We've all three got people suspicious of us!"
"Look, Kit, we've heard that Jimmy's people are planning a raid," Mike told her. "They got something from Sandy before he died. We've got to know how much and what they plan to do."
"All right. I'll find out for you."
He shook his head. "There's no time. We want to come in and have a listen."
She was shocked. "What, hide in here while Jimmy's with me? You're out of your mind!"
"Kit!" He took her arm. "You've got to let us! There's so little time. Do this for us, and all debts are paid!"
She jerked her arm free. "All debts are paid!" she exclaimed. "Until the next time!"
"Look, after the coup it'll go well for you," he reminded her. "And we can get him off as well. We'll say he collaborated with us. We'll get both of you shipped off to that country place you both want so much."
She hesitated. Then she eyed them both up and down. "Yeah? And what about guns? I don't want Jimmy hurt!"
Yates lifted his jacket to show her that he was unarmed. He nodded to his friend. "Go on Roddy." And the other man also opened his jacket and turned to show her that he wasn't carrying anything.
"Let us slip into the closet and eavesdrop," Yates said.
She sighed. "You could be in there all night."
"All right. At least it's out of the weather. We won't make a noise." He handed her a piece of paper. "These are the questions you need to ask him."
She glanced at the paper. "Quite a lot, isn't it?"
"We really need to know, Kit."
"All right. Be quiet and let me get them down."
* * * *
The Doctor made a few more touches on the map he had made and then set it aside. In the easy chair, Jo glanced at him. "Would you like this chair, Doctor? You could use a rest before tonight."
He stood up, stretching his legs. "No, No, Jo. Thank you." She had been looking up through the skylight, in the way that humans have when they are enjoying daylight. He gently stroked the top of her head, and she smiled up at him.
"Maybe we should have left together," he said soberly.
"What? And leave the job undone?"
"I don't know. Pretty witless idea to try it in the first place." He meditatively stroked her hair and forehead, looking down at her with quiet, sad eyes. "You were right, Jo. Everything you said was true."
Her eyes became sober, too, her voice quiet. "I was angry when I said all that."
"You had a right to be angry. I didn't know what I was mucking about with. Perhaps I still don't."
She touched the back of his hand. "But I'm all right now. Truly I am."
"You must stay here."
"Believe me, Doctor, I don't have the slightest inclination to leave this place." And then she smiled up at him. He smiled back, but then he paced restlessly. "Some of this still doesn't make sense."
She glanced over at him. "What doesn't make sense?"
"The High Council, for one thing. If they could imprison my double here, maroon him, why can they not execute him? It's far more difficult to place a person with a TARDIS in exile than it is to kill him outright."
"They strike me as the sort of people who would just wipe out the earth if that was necessary to kill him," she said. "I mean, you know, like that king said, 'Better the innocent perish' and all that."
"Herod," he told her. "Or let me see, was it Artaxerses? 'Better that the innocent should perish than the guilty should escape.' Yes, they do seem to think along those lines. Ruthless and exacting."
"And yet here he is, still living." She shot him a pensive look. "And living off of human lives and human suffering."
He was still pacing, and he strode back to her and again rested his hand on her head. "After tonight, we'll be able to help the Master more."
"You still don't trust him, do you?" she asked.
"I know that he is genuinely attached to you, Jo. I trust him that far. But otherwise, no. He knows more than he lets on. About everything." He let out a pensive sigh. "It will likely take me an hour to lug that fixed point station to where I need to put it, and another hour to set it up. I suppose I had better be on my way."
"Be careful."
"You too, and mind you, no opening the door for anybody!"
"I'm no fool, Doctor!"
He quietened his voice, once again contrite. "I know. But this devil in my form wants you. And that frightens me."
He went to the cabinets, and started looking through them until he found what he wanted: a small pile of chocolate bars, packets of tea, and small bags of sugar. He pocketed several handfuls of each, then picked up the bulky rucksack that held the small fixed point receiver station. At last he shot Jo a pensive, regretful look, and went out. The doorway opened for him and then closed without a seam.
* * * *
In only a couple days of traversing the same course back and forth through the city, the Doctor had learned which streets were safest to take. He also knew that the trifles in his pockets could probably buy his way out of any minor difficulties or questions about the contents of his rucksack. Anything that looked like a radio transmitter in this country would probably be illegal to own and operate.
He spent much time lingering in doorways and once had to drop his precious cargo into a dust bin and pretend to be cleaning off a stoop while one of the local patrol passed by.
But at last, he reached his destination and quickly climbed up to the top of the tenement building. Kit was almost the sole occupant of the top floor, and she never lingered out on the floor or landing. He went to the top floor, found the back fire escape that faced another building, and immediately began to set up his station on the grating.
Getting it fixed securely in place took some time, and he had to calibrate the tuner and locate the correct frequency. Adjusting the antenna , which was a spaghetti-like bundle of frail filaments, took up most of his time and a good bit of electrical tape, but at last he had it arranged as a web of strands that fanned out down the outer wall and onto the inner ceiling of the place.
* * * *
Jimmy entered the apartment to find Kit waiting for him with his beer. He took her in his arms.
"Any word from the Doctor?" he asked.
"What's the matter? Do you like him more than me now?" she asked back.
He quickly kissed her. "I've got that information he wanted. I think he's on to something, Kit. Stahlman's got almost no evidence of anything on that earth drilling project of his. He borrowed all his information from a scientist in Germany."
"We get everything from Germany," she told him. She pressed the bottle of beer into his hand. "Come sit down if you like." Then she slipped her arms around his neck. "Or we could do other things. You were a bit tired last night. You forgot to look after a few things."
"I'm serious about this," he told her. "I might be able to land a berth overseeing that Engineering Work Force place. Get out of Interrogation."
"What will you do about your post with Interrogation?" she asked. "Can you just push everything off on somebody else?" She kissed his lips. "Will they let you walk away from everything you've got planned?"
"I don't have much planned. They can promote one of my officers. Kit---" He kissed her but spoke gently to dissuade her. "We don't have time. Not with the Doctor coming."
"Oh, he won't be here until dark. And if he puts you to sleep like he did last night, I'm going to be seriously annoyed, Jimmy." She gently pushed him towards the back room. "What about that radio boy you interrogated? Weren't you going to follow up on his suicide? I thought you'd be getting pressure from that. Are the officers willing to drop the matter?"
"You worry too much." He was almost back to the hallway, in easy listening range of the men hiding in the closet. "Look," he said. "You'd better have a drink of my beer. You need to relax. We've got to wait for the Doctor."
"I thought the men over you would be furious over that boy killing himself," she said. But she took a sip of his beer.
"They were furious, all right. But with his guards. Not with me. There's no follow-up planned. He's just one more that got away. Now give me a kiss and let's wait for the Doctor."
She was startled at this revelation, but he didn't see her expression as he leaned down to kiss her. At the same moment, the closet door opened smoothly, and the last thing Kit saw before the gun blast was the sight of Mike Yates raising a weapon, his eyes fixed on the side of Jimmy's head.
* * * *
The last thing that the Doctor did to secure the triangulation station was to affix a sign onto the wall: GOVERNMENT WEATHER STATION. NOTIFY GWI IN CASE OF DAMAGE. That might fool people for an hour or so, should anybody become suspicious.
He was just straightening up when he heard two gun blasts from around the corner.
"Kit!" he shouted, and he ran for her door.
Inside the apartment, Jimmy's body lay against the corner of the hallway, most of his face obliterated.
"You killed him!" Kit screamed. Her own face was plastered with blood, Jimmy's blood, and debris from his wounds. She raked her finger nails at Mike Yates, missed his face, and scratched him down his shirt. As she flung herself at him again, his companion leveled a hand gun at her. Yates knocked it away. "Stop it! Don't kill her!"
"Kill me! You've killed him! You swore you would never hurt him! You liar! You murderer!" She raked at him and pounded him with her fists. Yates pulled her wrists together and threw her to the floor. "I couldn't help it! I had to!" he shouted.
She flung herself at him, but just then, two strong arms got around her and pulled her back. "What have you done?" a terrible voice asked. "What are you doing here?"
Yates had never seen the tall, white-haired man who crashed through the door and seized Kit protectively in his arms. But the voice made him pause. He recognized it instantly.
"Kit!" the stranger exclaimed "Kit!" He seemed afraid that she had been shot, but as his hands quickly passed over the blood and debris on her forehead and in her hair, he realized that she was uninjured.
Yates pointed at Jimmy's body. "Get him wrapped up! Hurry up! The car is waiting." His companion nodded and ran to the back.
Yates looked at Kit and the stranger. The stranger was holding her fast. "He's killed Jimmy!" she screamed. "He promised he wouldn't! I betrayed him! Jimmy!" She fell into sobbing of remorse and grief. "Jimmy, I've killed you!"
The stranger covered her mouth and shot an anxious look at the door. Yates instantly went and closed it, then came back.
"All right," the stranger said to him. "You've got what you wanted. You murdered him, didn't you? Don't hurt her. Just get out of here."
Yates was confused. As his partner brought a blanket from the bedroom and began to wrap the body of the dead young officer, Yates offered a hesitant question. "Doctor?"
Kit abruptly regained control of herself to look at the Doctor. "Were you in on this, too?" she cried. And then she shouted, "he trusted you!"
"Stop it!" he ordered, and there was something in his voice that stopped her. "So that's it," he said. His eyes met the eyes of Mike Yates. "I am not that Doctor," he exclaimed. "Go back and tell your brutal master that you've carried out his orders like a faithful dog. And tell him you've met me, and that he's finished. He has bullied and tormented my friends enough, and I am going to enact my revenge on him!" And then suddenly he released Kit and moved before Yates could lift his gun again. He rammed his fingers into Yates' chest, paralyzing him. "Did you hear me, Yates? Tell him that I'm coming for him!"
He held Yates for a moment. As the other man would have moved to pull out his gun, the Doctor simply looked at him. "Don't," he said. "I'd rather send you back to my counter part alive." As the man did not move, the Doctor released Yates.
Gasping, Yates fell away from the wall. The Doctor took his gun from his hand and pocketed it. Then he turned to the other, helped him wrap up Jimmy's body, and stood back. "Get out," he said to them. "Don't forget my orders. You've been swindled into committing murder by the worst of murderers."
Yates obediently took up the head of the body as the other took the feet, but he said, "We're freedom fighters!"
"Where are you taking him?:" Kit asked, still sobbing. "Please, don't take him away."
"You've got to allow it, Kit. Or you'll be arrested for his murder," the Doctor told her. "Put your eyes here," And he turned her so that she wouldn't see them carry out the body. "Get out. Go on," he said. He held her as they went out.
For a long moment the apartment was silent except for her sobbing. He turned her again and pulled her in, as he would have held Jo. And now she was far more like Jo, her cynical shell knocked away. "It was my fault," she sobbed. "Oh, it was my fault. He loved me, and I killed him!"
The Doctor looked down at the spattering of blood on the wall, the spilled beer and shattered glass. There was more to do than just comfort Kit. He had to clean up every sign of the killing.
"Come into the front room," he said. "Come. It isn't your fault. He knows it's not your fault." He gently guided her to the front room. "Let me take care of this for you. Is there any paint about?"
"In the closet," she said. "Not much."
"I want you to stay right here and let me look after things." She had a ragged, tattered blanket thrown over the back of the sofa. He covered her with it and then went to the back to remove any evidence of what had passed.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, bored and restless, Jo was sitting at the variable wave length station and watching the signal input from the Master. She was able to follow his instructions well and keep a 90 degree angle constant between his signal and her own, but she realized that she had no idea how long this operation might take. It could go on for minutes or hours. She wished that she had looked after things like making tea and using the toilet.
Suddenly her personal communications device crackled. Keeping her eyes on the input signal screen of the station, she pulled up the hand held device from her pocket. "Go ahead," she said. But there was only static. She tried the tuner. "Go ahead," she said again, but she received only the faintest sounds of a voice and then more static.
She switched off and shot an uneasy glance at the wall, but it remained seamlessly secured. She turned back to the input signal on the screen.
* * * * *
The Doctor did not know how Yates got by with two gun shots that nobody investigated. Perhaps it was the remoteness of Kit's apartment from other residences. Or perhaps the people in the city knew better than to interfere with the resistance. Or perhaps the local, inefficient police were even then scurrying to all the wrong places in search of the origination of the shots.
Which ever was true, he was not interrupted as he sponged the blood and other spattered remains from the wall. He cleaned up the spilled beer and picked up every piece of broken glass and then swept up the remains.
When he returned to Kit, she was lying in a sort of stupor on the sofa. He went to the kitchen, emptied his pockets, and brewed her strong, sweet tea. He brought it to her.
"That's Jimmy's tea," she said weakly when he leaned over her with the cup. "It's for his breakfast."
"I brought this," he told her. He set it aside and helped her sit up. But as soon as she lifted her head, she began to cry. This was not the hysterical, terrified crying from earlier, but a soft weeping: remorse and sorrow.
"He wanted to be good," she said. "He tried to be good to me. He did the best he could. Down deep he was better than me because it all still mattered to him."
The Doctor sat next to her, drew her in, and took up the tea. "Come on," he said. "Drink this." He held it to her lips. She nearly protested, but then---with an exhausted obedience and trust in him that reminded him so sharply of Jo that it pained him---she sipped the tea: three nervous sips.
"You shouldn't take care of me," she said, pausing, her voice shaking. "You shouldn't. I'm such a bad lot. I turn on everybody. Betray them all."
"I don't believe a word of it," he said gently. "And I'm willing to trust you with my life. Come on, have a little more."
She drank more and then suddenly turned in his arms and rested the side of her face against him. "What's your game?" she asked. "What do you want? Me? You can't have gone through all this for that. Not for me or any woman."
"You matter far more to me than just any woman," he told her. "But not that way. I came here to stop Professor Stahlman. but in the course of doing so I've found another enemy. He uses my name. He looks like me, and he's already hurt somebody else that I care about very deeply. And now I find that he's had a hand in all of this, too. He's linked to Mike Yates and the resistance." He let out a deep sigh. "And unless I'm much mistaken, he's got a link to Stahlman. I should have guessed."
She looked up at him. "Jimmy told me that this Professor Stahlman got his information from a German scientist."
"I've been told that this man poses as a German scientist when it suits him."
"And he impersonate you as well?" For a moment, genuine curiosity and fascination pushed aside her grief.
He nodded. He held the cup up to her. "Have more. Once the wall back there is dry from my scrubbing, I've got to paint it over."
She shuddered, but she obediently drank more of the tea.
* * * *
Jo was dozing. The last signal change had been nearly thirty minutes ago. She woke up enough to realize that the signal was now fixed. Then she folded her arms on the board and put her head down for a really good rest when the loud sound of shots outside roused her.
"Jo!" the Doctor's voice called. "Jo! Stay inside! Don't come out! He's found us! He's armed!" More shots.
Jo leaped up and rushed to the cabinets. She opened them quickly and rummaged the drawers until she found what she wanted, a hand-held energy gun of the sort the Master had used in his first fight with this world's version of the Doctor. She took it and went to the wall that housed the portal.
It slid open at her presence, and she hesitated, the weapon ready. The doorway opened onto a long, unfinished landing. At last, after waiting for a long pause and listening, she peeped out.
There was nobody on either side of the doorway, and she cautiously stepped out. The landing was empty. She crept along the wall, the blaster ready.
Curfew had not yet come, and so the flood lights in the building were still on.
She came to the top of the first flight of steps and saw the huddled figure of the Doctor below, on the next landing. It wore his clothing, and the slightly longer, thicker hair was distinct from that of his counter part. She hurried down the steps, the blaster still ready.
But the building was silent. The Doctor was face down, his body huddled as though he had collapsed in pain. Three or four narrow streams of blood trickled out from under him.
"Doctor!" she exclaimed.
With the blaster ready to fire in one hand, she pulled at his shoulder.
"No!" he gasped weakly. "Don't Jo! Don't pull at me! I'm hit!"
"What are you shot with?" she asked. She set the gun down and took him by the shoulders but did not pull him. "We've got to get you out of here!"
Her wrist was seized, locked, and bent so quickly that she didn't know what he did until it was done. She neatly flipped over onto her back, and then he was on her, pinning her shoulders down with his arm across her. He threw aside the wig with his free hand. "That's better." He smiled at her, satisfied. "I've missed you, Jo. I trust you delivered my message for me."
"How did you find me?"
"Might say I was looking," he told her. "Checking radio frequencies. Seeing who would answer." He stroked her cheek. "I have missed you. Has it really only been a day? It looks like somebody's gone to the trouble of seeing to you, patching you up. He does care for you, doesn't he?" He reached into his pocket and withdrew a short needle that looked like a stubby sewing needle. He pulled its thin plastic cover off with his lips and spit the cover onto her face.
"I've missed you so much that I've made up a special little room for you in my TARDIS. With its own special little bed. Just for you. I do so want you to come and join my guests. Won't that be pleasant?"
He jabbed her neck with the needle, a lightning quick tap, but she instantly stopped pushing against him and went limp. "Yes, it's so much easier to get through the streets with a young lady who seems to have had a bit too much," he said. "Much better than making a scene." He took her by the face and looked at her as she slipped from consciousness. "We're going to have grand times, Jo. Just you wait and see."
