Doctor Who_ Placebo Effect Part 16

Serenity.

Sanctuary.

Absolution.

He opened his eyes and smiled. Sam was gone still, but she would return.

He would find her. More important to him right now was the start of his training.

He looked around and saw one of the hovering droids, a cap perched on its head, the word COACH stencilled across it.

He tapped on its head and it swivelled around, looking at him.

The faintest sound of a camera zooming could be heard as he let it read his features.

'Oh, hi,' it said.'You're Kyle Dale. Training Ground Four.' Kyle thanked it and looked for the signs to the training grounds.

Today was going to be such a good day.

Professor Jeol sat at his desk, twisting a pen around aimlessly. The Doctor had vanished and Commandant Ritchie upstairs seemed to be going through some sort of denial about the man's very existence.

His thoughts were interrupted when a Teknix walked in, without knocking.

Jeol was about to reprimand him when he saw the name tag (well, it was the only way to tell the wretched things apart) and realised it was Kra.s.six, Ritchie's PA. 'Can I help you, Kra.s.six?'

Kra.s.six dropped a datapad on his desk. 'Commandant Ritchie considered your questions... inappropriate. However, he asked me to prepare some answers for you.' Without waiting for a reply, Kra.s.six turned and left. Jeol shuddered - Teknix gave him the creeps. What on Earth provoked Ritchie to employ one he could not imagine. And what would the powers that be on Micawber's World do if they found out? Oh well, so long as Kra.s.six kept his head down...

He activated the datapad and began reading about the Doctor, why Ritchie had employed him and a few pertinent facts gleaned from the Federation database about his activities in the past.

Jeol a.s.sumed that Kra.s.six had downloaded some corrupted information as the dates were way off (unless the Doctor was more than two hundred years old) and shook his head. Given even the simplest tasks, administrators couldn't get them right.

After a few moments, Jeol was aware that he was being watched.

Expecting it to be the Doctor, the scientist looked up and prepared to challenge him on a few things.

Instead, he was facing his missing colleague, Dr Miles Mason, his arm in a sling.

'Dr Mason, how are you?'Jeol was at his side in an instant. 'We thought you were... well, anyway, I'm very glad to see you. The Doctor and I were very concerned.' He guided Mason to his seat. 'Can I get you a drink?'

Mason shook his head. 'Doctor? Doctor who?'

Jeol shrugged. 'Some weirdo brought in by the SSS Administration. Odd, but has a knack for observation frankly lacking in most of our interns these days. If he wasn't so d.a.m.ned strange, I'd ask him to do some lectures.'

Mason tilted his head slightly and Jeol wondered if he'd hurt his neck. 'You all right. Mason?'

'We're fine, thank you, Professor Jeol.'

'We?'

'I. We. We're all the same.'

Jeol decided Mason had clearly had a rough time. 'Hurt your head, did you? Where have you been?'

Mason stood up and took the datapad from Jeol's hand, scanning it very quickly.

Jeol a.s.sumed he was looking for something, because he couldn't possibly read it that fast.'Can I help?'

Mason stopped reading and slowly looked back at Jeol. 'You know this person well?'

"The Doctor? Not really, but yes, we were working together last night.

Trying to find you in fact: Mason suddenly crushed the datapad in his hand, ignoring the bits of plastic and plexigla.s.s that splintered into his palm.'We are perfectly healthy, thank you, Professor. We need you to see something. It's terribly important.'

Jeol was staring at the destroyed datapad which Mason let fall to the carpet.'What the h.e.l.l...'

Mason suddenly tugged his injured arm out of the sling. In place of his hand and most of his lower arm was a green pulsating ma.s.s of mucus-like skin. His shirtsleeve was somehow melded into it and the arm was constantly changing shape, as if it was moving of its own accord, growing then subsiding.

'My G.o.d, Mason, what happened to your arm?'

'Perfection,' hissed Mason. He swiped the thrashing limb at Jeol's face.

The professor gasped as some of the mucus came away from Mason and coated his cheek.

He wanted to cry out, in surprise and alarm, let alone the sudden burning pain.

But then a voice in his head told him not to panic. Everything was going to be fine.

It was his own voice. And Miles Mason's voice. And Jean-Paul Cartwright's voice. And Steven Bailey's voice. And Jis Tok Nannarn's voice And...

And everything really was perfect now.

Ms Sox regarded the Doctor pretty much as she regarded most people - with suspicion and a healthy dose of scepticism.

'So Commandant Ritchie asked you to work, undercover, for the SSS, to discover something his own agents couldn't?'

The Doctor grinned with delight. "That's exactly right, yes...!'

Ms Sox glanced back towards the office door, behind which Chase Carrington was at work.

'And why should I believe you?'

The Doctor seemed to just look at her, his head c.o.c.ked slightly. Ms Sox felt almost... uncomfortable at this. Certainly surprised. It was as if he was seeing past her... no, through her. Trying to read her mind. Instinctively, she took a step back.

'You may be right, Ms Sox,' he said quietly. 'But, if I am on the level, you have an ally, not an enemy.'

Ms Sox rea.s.serted her cool. He was just a good manipulator. It wasn't as if he could really read her mind. Jadeans were blank to telepaths (that was why they so often found employment in business offices - no one could unwittingly scan them for the opposition), so she shouldn't be affected by his prying. So why was she?

'What do you mean, Doctor?'

But the Doctor just smiled, his greyish eyes impenetrable pools of liquid platinum. Ms Sox felt she could almost drown in them...

She turned away suddenly. 'You're very good, Doctor. I'm tempted to believe that Ritchie did employ you - you can be... persuasive.'

The Doctor was suddenly beside her (when exactly did he get out of the chair and cross the room?) and taking her left hand in his. She looked down, astonished at his physical touch, but surprised herself by not pulling away.

'You know as well as I do that something is not right around here, Ms Sox.

The Foamasi are gathering their different Lodges together. SSS troopers are disappearing. Commandant Ritchie is caught up in something so big, he suddenly entrusts himself to me, whom he doesn't know from Adam, and you... You think something is very wrong here at Carrington Corp, don't you? And all these things might be taken as odd coincidences if the Olympics weren't about to happen.'

'And if the d.u.c.h.ess of Auckland wasn't here... and...'

'Yes.' The Doctor squeezed her hand, encouragingly. So few humans knew how Jadeans like to be touched...

She frowned. 'Mr Carrington seems unusually... preoccupied today. He seems to have forgotten the simplest of things.'

'Go on.'

'Well, a group from the pool were going over to see the Stadium today, watch the athletes training before the Games begin.

Yesterday, he was all for it. Today, he was angry that they were there.'

'He changed his mind perhaps? Wanted his staff here?'

Ms Sox shrugged. 'No, it wasn't that so much as... so much as they were going to the Stadium. I mean, it's a project we've been working on for months. Everyone is very excited. But today, he's annoyed that anyone has gone near the place.'

'Has he now? I wonder...'

Ms Sox jolted out of her reverie and s.n.a.t.c.hed her hand back. 'Anyway, Doctor. What were you doing at the Foamasi Temple? They don't normally let non-Foamasi into their emba.s.sy like that.'

The Doctor had sat in his seat again (again, she must have been momentarily distracted for him to move that fast). 'Oh, a tip-off. I went to see the Amba.s.sador.'

'Green Fingers? You must be well connected.'

'Interesting...'

Ms Sox sighed. The Doctor seemed to find everything "interesting".'What now?'

'You knew he was Green Fingers. I didn't. Not until he told me. I didn't think many people knew that. Certainly Commandant Ritchie didn't.'

Ms Sox was herself "interested" to note this. 'I'm very surprised at that, Doctor. I fear he may have misled you. I really doubt that the security chief of the SSS didn't know that.'

'And how did you know?'

Ms Sox shrugged. 'Because apart from my duties as Mr Carrington's PA, I'm also head of security for Carrington Corp.'

The Doctor clapped his hands together. 'Delicious. I imagine Commandant Ritchie is unaware of that ,'

'Of course. I would not be a very good head of security if people knew it.'

The Doctor shot out of his chair. 'Delightful! Absolutely delightful.'

Ms Sox stepped back.'What is, Doctor?'

'What? Oh, this. This painting. A delightful example of pre-republican Dolmite artwork. Quinaposki, if I'm not mistaken.'

'You're not. Third Dynasty, Eighth Lineage, actually. Quinaposki's finest century, some believe.'

'You don't?'

'I work with figures and lists, Doctor. I acknowledge art, I have no opinions on it one way or another.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Tell me, Ms Sox. A casual stereotype, I know, but as I rememberjadeans are well versed in numeracy and literacy. The Federation employs them throughout the administration as... well, administrators. Your reputation is both formidable and accurate. Why did you sidestep into the murky world of politics and security?'

Ms Sox glanced back at the door to Carrington's office, hoping her employer was not listening. Before she could reply, the Doctor interrupted.

'All right, I'm aware you feel a great deal of affection for Mr Carrington, I can sense that. But even so, I imagine you must have come up with the idea prior to meeting him... five years ago, wasn't it? On Sirius 4?'

Ms Sox gazed open-mouthed at the Doctor. Eventually she spoke. 'How did you know that? You haven't accessed anything here or -'

'Or you would have been notified. Because nothing goes on in this corporation without your knowing who is doing what, where and when. And frequently why and how.' The Doctor turned away from her, tracing his finger across the painting he so admired, touching the outline of the rolling hills and soft trees it showed. 'But you see, Ms Sox, I know far more. That's my job. My mission. I came here for nothing more than a wedding. I ended up investigating the savage death of a Foamasi called George, and becoming embroiled in Commandant Ritchie's dangerous games. He, you see, is working for two separate masters. One of which I know, the other I can only guess at. You, on the other hand, are a bit of an enigma. When we met after the wedding fiasco, you allowed your guard to fall.' He turned and looked straight at her. In place of the relaxed, almost whimsical young man she had seen before, she suddenly saw a new Doctor. Beneath that casual exterior, she realised, was a sharp, incisive man. She felt she was being not so much spoken to, or looked at even, but examined, as a scientist might look to see if a white mouse had done its job of spinning a wheel or eaten its food - something mundane and simple. For a moment, Ms Sox had a glimpse of something else via his eyes. A darkness, an agelessness. He might look like a human male in his late thirties, but Ms Sox suddenly knew here was someone who measured his experiences in hundreds, possibly thousands, of years.

'Who... What are you?' she breathed.

He stepped towards her. 'Irrelevant, Ms Sox, All you need to know, need to understand, is that somewhere on this planet is a clanger we haven't foreseen. On Earth they have a saying about cows. Do you know what a cow is Ms Sox?'

She nodded. 'A bovine Earth mammal, and a source of nourishment. Cows have been exported all over the galaxy, even to Jadea. They are about the only creatures on the planet that aren't green.'

The Doctor smiled. 'Indeed. And cows, unlike most humans, know when it is going to rain.'

'Nonsense. Earth has a fully functional weather-control system, and has done for thousands of years.'

The Doctor didn't miss a beat. 'Ms Sox, I was on Earth when they set those devices up. I was on Earth when they only dreamt of such things. I was on Earth when mankind settled in various parts of their world simply because of the weather. I have seen the very birth of mankind, from a single-celled amoeba mutated by neutronic radiation. I have witnessed the birth and destruction of entire solar systems. And, above all, I have watched cows sense when it is going to rain and watched as they settle down on a dry area of gra.s.s, ensuring that after the weather has pa.s.sed, they will have dry grazing to munch on. Cows and I share a common apt.i.tude, Ms Sox.

We know when it is going to rain and we know when something is wrong.

And unless I find out exacdy what is going to happen round here, I fear that a great many people may die.' He suddenly threw his arms out. 'And I absolutely love the decor of this room.'

Ms Sox turned away from him, taking in the decor, despite the fact that she knew it inside out. She had designed it, selected the colours, the paintings, the furnishings and the carpets. Shaking her head, she turned back to the Doctor.

He was gone. The room was empty apart from herself.

She just looked at where he had been. There were some holographic words floating in the air, a small pad lying on the floor beneath, projecting them.

SEE YOU IN TEN. WHERE WE FIRST MET.