Post by Fitz Kreiner on Oct 7, 2010 9:39:13 GMT
“Are you trying to tell me that Crompton should be replaced?” Morris asked with a sigh.
He had been having a protracted conversation with Tom since he and Loding had returned from the Wingmoore Institute two hours ago.
“I dunno,” the Time Lord replied again. He was sat furiously typing at the computer, only the centre screen of the seven was illuminated. It was supplying the only other source of light in the room other than the dim lamp.
“Look, will you please look at me when we’re trying to have this conversation?” Morris finally snapped.
With a loud sigh, Tom turned round on the office chair and looked at Morris. He could only see one half of the young Time Lords face, and in this light, it seemed paler than ever. His eyes were almost hidden in dark shadow, except for an icy blue glint. If he was human, Morris though, he’d have said that he was depressed, possibly manic depression with some of his mood swings. Still, having been abandoned on Earth by his friends must have had some effect.
“I just want a straight answer,” Morris said, his voice becoming softer. “I know you’re not the Doctor and you work differently from him, but you’ve one thing in common, you don’t give a bloody straight answer. It’s infuriating to say the least.”
“Off the record?” Tom asked.
Morris nodded.
“Crompton is an arse,” Tom replied. “I don’t really trust him, but I dunno if he should be removed just for being an arse. Otherwise, well, you wouldn’t have a government from what I can tell.”
Morris chuckled softly.
“I just think he’s feeding information to someone,” Tom continued. “He was rather unsubtle about his asking why I wanted to see the Master.”
“But did you find out what you wanted to know?” Morris asked.
“I dunno,” Tom shrugged. “The Master told me something, but with him,” Tom finished the sentence with a shrug.
“You don’t know whether to believe him or not?” Morris asked.
“Pretty much,” Tom replied. “I mean, he told me what I asked him, but I don’t know whether he was telling me what I wanted to hear, trying to bluff or double bluff. Or with him, it could be a triple bluff with a sting in the tail.”
“So it’s not really left you any the wiser?”
“I don’t know. I’m trying to track down any pics of the latest lot of UFO’s, but there seems to be a massive crackdown on them all,” Tom paused and turned back to the screens and pulled up a window. “Pretty much all the forums have been closed down and there’s been an exclusion zone put around the Tower from what I can gather.”
“I’d heard about that,” Morris replied. “The official story is that it’s going to become Duncan’s seat of power. It’s been over the news, the Tower is no longer a museum; everything in there is going to the British museum and Bucks palace, which is being turned into a museum.”
“Bit of a swaparound,” Tom mused. “Why is he moving to the Tower, you know?”
Morris shook his head. “Not privy to that. Bailey may be, but I’m just a Captain; mine isn’t to reason why, and all that.”
“Well, I think I can safely say that they’re making sure that no one does any research into Duncan anymore,” Tom replied. “And if you still want me to look into him, it’ll have to be done even more covertly.”
“Look, Tom,” Morris said, running a hand through his hair. “If you mean illegally, I’d rather not know. I shouldn’t be talking to you about this as it is.”
“Ok,” Tom said, “Then why are you here now?”
“Alright, cards on the table,” Morris replied, sitting forwards. “I don’t fully trust what’s happening and I want to know if it’s right or not, but because I can’t look into it myself, I have to leave it to you.”
“Just curious?” Tom asked. “Is this a normal thing when you change the head of state?”
“It’s never been like this, at least not for a good couple of hundred years,” Morris replied. “I’m no history buff, but this all seems rather unusual, and that’s a UNIT specialty. These UFO’s just solidify it.”
“We could do with the Doctor,” Tom agreed getting to his feet. “I need to think about what the Master said.”
“Where are you going?” Morris asked.
“Pub,” Tom replied. “Good source of information your bloke in the pub, once you cut through the hyperbole.”
“Which pub?” Morris asked, following Tom out of the room.
“Well,” the Time Lord replied turning and smiling thinly, “as we discussed, probably best you don’t know.”
There was something comforting about the smell. It was the smell of beer and tobacco, the floor was sticky with spilled beer, as was the table. A layer of grey-blue smoke hung in the air. Closing his eyes, Tom took a breath in, savouring the smell; there was something about the atmosphere in these human drinking establishments that appealed to him. The background noise of conversation was dull in his ears, as he sat alone at a corner table, a pint of beer sat before him.
He kept playing through in his head what the Master had said; there shouldn’t be a James the Third at this time of Earth’s history. Could he trust the man? It would be very easy to believe that the Master was lying so that he would try to bring down the new king and end up getting caught and imprisoned, or worse, for treason. However, there was also the possibility that he was telling the truth, in which case, he had to bring down Duncan and allow history to continue unabated.
Tom didn’t feel as though he’d been overly persuasive either in his dealings with the Master, so why he was helping him was another thing that worried him. The Master almost seemed as though he had been toying with him. Tom got the very distinct feeling that there was a lot that the Master knew which he wasn’t saying. He was finding it hard to believe that the Master didn’t have something to do with what was going on, however, if he did, then why was he helping him? The ideas and accusations were flying round his head.
The music on the jukebox changed to a new track, heavy distorted guitar chords thrashed out, followed by the crashing of the drums and the growl of the vocals. Tom smiled to himself, no doubt Jess could tell exactly what the song, band and album was, but he personally had no idea. Maybe he should listen to more of her suggestions of music when he saw her again. If he saw her again.
No, that wasn’t fair. He knew the Doctor wouldn’t run out on him, not on purpose. There must have been a reason for their disappearance. As long as he wasn’t stuck on Earth for too much longer. He was starting to get itchy feet, wanting to move on. These few months had been the longest he’d stayed in once place for a while.
“Hi there,”
The voice took him by surprise. He looked up and saw a figure stood before him.
“How’re you doing? Long time no see.”
Tom blinked. The girl stood before him was smiling at him, wearing a full length black skirt, close fitting black blouse, the top few buttons undone, an elaborate silver Celtic cross nestled in her cleavage, and full length black wool coat. Her long hair was electric blue, her eyes smiling at him as well as her lips, on which she was wearing a deep purple lipstick. Her bottom lip was pierced, a silver ring around it.
“Sorry, do I-?” Tom started, looking at the girl.
“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me already?” she smiled with a wink before sitting down on the stool opposite him. “You don’t mind do you?”
Tom indicated the stool to confirm that it was empty for her to sit down.
“It’s Kelly, we met back in September, just before the big terror attack thing,” she said as a way to jog Tom’s memory. Kelly looked at Tom, her smile turning sad at his blank look. “I’m a friend of Jess’s. We met in here? You don’t remember me do you, spaceman.”
Tom blinked. “How did you-?” he began before the realisation dawned, Jess must have let slip about his non-terrestrial origins. Then it twigged; the facsimile. “Oh, sorry, yeah, I think when you met me I wasn’t quite myself,” Tom apologised.
“It’s ok,” Kelly smiled, taking a sip of her drink. “So tell me, what are you doing in here? One of these guys a space alien from the planet Hairy Biker?”
Tom laughed softly. This Kelly seemed quite relaxed about things, and Jess must really trust her to let her know about these things. “I doubt it,” he said, taking a sip of his beer. It was dark and malty, with what he thought were slightly chocolaty tones. It was called Hobgoblin and suited to the cold of the December evening. The poster advertising it on the wall reminded him of the tavern he’d been to on Tolkis 7.
“What about the Tower UFOs?” Kelly asked. “Tell me honestly! They’re real yeah?”
Tom rubbed his beard thoughtfully. He wasn’t sure what he could tell Kelly; still, he twigged that any friend of Jess’s would hopefully be a friend of his. Certainly she had picked him out in the pub and decided to sit with him.
“I don’t know,” he admitted truthfully. “There’s certainly something dodgy going on.”
“Aliens, yeah?” Kelly asked. “What about Jess? She about anywhere?” Kelly looked around hopefully, scouting through the throngs of people.
“I don’t know where she is,” Tom rubbed his neck looking uncomfortable, something that Kelly picked up on immediately.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, placing her glass back on the table.
“Her and the Doctor, they’re about somewhere, just not on Earth,” he admitted. “There was a bit of a glitch, I think, and they were shunted off into time and space, unfortunately I wasn’t onboard and have been marooned.”
“Aw no, dude,” Kelly replied, placing her hand on Tom’s arm. “You know if they’re ok?”
“Should be,” Tom replied. “The Doctor’ll look out for Jess. Or she’ll look out for him, which is probably more likely,” he added smiling.
Kelly smiled at Tom’s wry comment. “And what about you?”
“Stuck here,” he replied with a shrug and sip of beer.
“Where are you staying?”
“In the HQ, got a sofa in the lab,” Tom replied absently.
Kelly blinked, looking at Tom as though he was mad. “You’re not staying with friends?”
Tom shrugged again. “Can’t say I know anyone really on Earth,” he replied. “Well, other than the UNIT lot, but that’s just a work thing really. Just me on my own.”
Kelly smiled sympathetically and put her hand back on his arm. “Well, you know me. I’m here over the Christmas period, staying at my sisters. Always up for a drink or cinema or something.”
“Thanks,” Tom smiled.
“Any time,” Kelly smiled. “So what are you doing sat here all alone?”
“Thinking,” Tom replied. “Had to go visit someone earlier today and they’ve given me a lot to think about.”
“Wanna talk about it?” Kelly asked, cocking her head to one side. “Can you talk about it?”
“Well,” Tom mused, “I kinda had to see someone today to find something out from them, and I don’t really know whether I can trust what they said and it’s rather important I find out the truth.”
“Girlfriend trouble?” Kelly asked.
“No,” Tom said, looking down and not noticing the glimmer of a smile from Kelly. “More like enemy trouble.”
“Ok, is that like evil ex trouble or something?”
“Hmm?” Tom asked looking up at Kelly. “Sorry, what did you say?”
“You weren’t listening to me were you?” she asked.
“Sorry,” Tom said. “What did you say?”
“What’s bothering you? What do you mean by ‘enemy’?”
“It’s a long story,” Tom replied.
“I’ve got time,” Kelly smiled.
“Well, I had to go and visit someone this morning. Someone I’ve had a couple of run ins with before; someone who’s tried to kill me, the Doctor and Jess in the past,” Tom paused thoughtfully, not noticing the look of shock coming over Kelly’s face. “How can I put it? Jess showed me a film once, ‘Silence of the Lambs’ it was called, have you seen it? Anyway, the villain is locked up and the American agent has to go to see him for help in a case.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen it,” Kelly said faintly.
“That’s sort of the situation I have with the Master,” Tom said, getting slightly more distant. “Only, I don’t know whether I can fully trust what he says, or if I can, then he may be the only one who can help us.”
“He tried to kill you all?” Kelly asked, finally cutting in and stopping Tom.
“It’s very complicated,” Tom replied. “We’ve met each other out of order. “When I first met him, all this had already happened to him.”
“Oh, ok, now you’ve lost me,” Kelly said, taking another sip of her drink.
“It’s kinda complicated,” Tom replied. “I dunno how much Jess told you, but this may be hard to believe; we travel through time.”
“Yeah, she said,” Kelly replied. “Although she’s a bit of a joker, I don’t quite know how much of what she said was true.”
“You don’t trust her?” Tom asked.
“I do,” Kelly said. “She’s like a sister to me. It’s just she said she was travelling through time and you were an alien.” Kelly paused and laughed softly. “But she also said she was working with a government lot.”
“Me too, in a way,” Tom replied. “Both were right. We do travel through time, but every so often we stop off here and have to help out the UNIT lot.”
“You mentioned them before. What are they?”
“Sort of secret military investigation group,” Tom replied. “I was working for them with Jess and the Doc when we caught the Master,” pausing, Tom looked around before finishing his beer. “Look, it’s rather public here, I’d rather not talk about it. Come back with me and I’ll tell you more.”
“Really?” Kelly smiled.
“Yeah,” Tom said, picking his hat from the bench beside him and setting it on his head. “I haven’t got anyone to run things through with.”
“Erm, ok,” Kelly smiled again, finishing her drink. “Is it far?”
“Just round the corner,” Tom smiled back.
Captain Morris yawned and rubbed his eyes. He was getting weary of his shift, he had started working at twenty-one hundred hours yesterday, and it was now twelve thirty. At least he knew that he didn’t have to be back until midday tomorrow. And Charlotte had the morning off as well, so they could spend some time together. After how busy he’d been in the last week, they were both looking forward to getting to spend some time together.
The ringing of the telephone seemed distant at first, but then brought Morris back with a crash.
“Morris,” he said blearily as he picked up the receiver.
“Morris, General Bailey here,” Bailey’s voice barked from the other end of the phone.
“Yes sir,” Morris said, suddenly becoming alert. “What can I do for you?”
“I understand you have a Mr. Tom Rowan working for you,” Bailey said.
“Well, not officially,” Morris replied. “He’s a friend of the Doctor, helping me out with some things while the Doctor isn’t here.”
“He’s also been to visit the Wingmoore Institute,” Bailey said. “We both know who’s there, and this has been brought to my attention.”
“I know, he told me that he was going there,” Morris replied scratching his head. “I’m not too sure what you’re getting at, sir. I did authorise it.”
“It’s been brought to my attention that he’s visiting the prisoner there and discussing some rather sensitive material with him,” Bailey said. “I’ve had reports from Sir Daniel. He’s not only been discussing sensitive issues with possibly the most wanted man in British, if not Earth history, but the subject matter itself is near treasonous.”
“Ah,” Morris said, unsure about what to say, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yes, well,”
“Morris,” Bailey said cutting him off, “I’ve received orders that his activities are to be investigated. Any conversations that he has with military personnel are to be fully recorded; any visits to Wingmoore are to be reported.”
“Sir?” Morris asked.
“From now on, he is not to be included in staff meetings,” Bailey continued. “He is to be kept under strict observation. He is now being investigated under the emergency statutes laid down by James Duncan himself this morning.”
He had been having a protracted conversation with Tom since he and Loding had returned from the Wingmoore Institute two hours ago.
“I dunno,” the Time Lord replied again. He was sat furiously typing at the computer, only the centre screen of the seven was illuminated. It was supplying the only other source of light in the room other than the dim lamp.
“Look, will you please look at me when we’re trying to have this conversation?” Morris finally snapped.
With a loud sigh, Tom turned round on the office chair and looked at Morris. He could only see one half of the young Time Lords face, and in this light, it seemed paler than ever. His eyes were almost hidden in dark shadow, except for an icy blue glint. If he was human, Morris though, he’d have said that he was depressed, possibly manic depression with some of his mood swings. Still, having been abandoned on Earth by his friends must have had some effect.
“I just want a straight answer,” Morris said, his voice becoming softer. “I know you’re not the Doctor and you work differently from him, but you’ve one thing in common, you don’t give a bloody straight answer. It’s infuriating to say the least.”
“Off the record?” Tom asked.
Morris nodded.
“Crompton is an arse,” Tom replied. “I don’t really trust him, but I dunno if he should be removed just for being an arse. Otherwise, well, you wouldn’t have a government from what I can tell.”
Morris chuckled softly.
“I just think he’s feeding information to someone,” Tom continued. “He was rather unsubtle about his asking why I wanted to see the Master.”
“But did you find out what you wanted to know?” Morris asked.
“I dunno,” Tom shrugged. “The Master told me something, but with him,” Tom finished the sentence with a shrug.
“You don’t know whether to believe him or not?” Morris asked.
“Pretty much,” Tom replied. “I mean, he told me what I asked him, but I don’t know whether he was telling me what I wanted to hear, trying to bluff or double bluff. Or with him, it could be a triple bluff with a sting in the tail.”
“So it’s not really left you any the wiser?”
“I don’t know. I’m trying to track down any pics of the latest lot of UFO’s, but there seems to be a massive crackdown on them all,” Tom paused and turned back to the screens and pulled up a window. “Pretty much all the forums have been closed down and there’s been an exclusion zone put around the Tower from what I can gather.”
“I’d heard about that,” Morris replied. “The official story is that it’s going to become Duncan’s seat of power. It’s been over the news, the Tower is no longer a museum; everything in there is going to the British museum and Bucks palace, which is being turned into a museum.”
“Bit of a swaparound,” Tom mused. “Why is he moving to the Tower, you know?”
Morris shook his head. “Not privy to that. Bailey may be, but I’m just a Captain; mine isn’t to reason why, and all that.”
“Well, I think I can safely say that they’re making sure that no one does any research into Duncan anymore,” Tom replied. “And if you still want me to look into him, it’ll have to be done even more covertly.”
“Look, Tom,” Morris said, running a hand through his hair. “If you mean illegally, I’d rather not know. I shouldn’t be talking to you about this as it is.”
“Ok,” Tom said, “Then why are you here now?”
“Alright, cards on the table,” Morris replied, sitting forwards. “I don’t fully trust what’s happening and I want to know if it’s right or not, but because I can’t look into it myself, I have to leave it to you.”
“Just curious?” Tom asked. “Is this a normal thing when you change the head of state?”
“It’s never been like this, at least not for a good couple of hundred years,” Morris replied. “I’m no history buff, but this all seems rather unusual, and that’s a UNIT specialty. These UFO’s just solidify it.”
“We could do with the Doctor,” Tom agreed getting to his feet. “I need to think about what the Master said.”
“Where are you going?” Morris asked.
“Pub,” Tom replied. “Good source of information your bloke in the pub, once you cut through the hyperbole.”
“Which pub?” Morris asked, following Tom out of the room.
“Well,” the Time Lord replied turning and smiling thinly, “as we discussed, probably best you don’t know.”
*
There was something comforting about the smell. It was the smell of beer and tobacco, the floor was sticky with spilled beer, as was the table. A layer of grey-blue smoke hung in the air. Closing his eyes, Tom took a breath in, savouring the smell; there was something about the atmosphere in these human drinking establishments that appealed to him. The background noise of conversation was dull in his ears, as he sat alone at a corner table, a pint of beer sat before him.
He kept playing through in his head what the Master had said; there shouldn’t be a James the Third at this time of Earth’s history. Could he trust the man? It would be very easy to believe that the Master was lying so that he would try to bring down the new king and end up getting caught and imprisoned, or worse, for treason. However, there was also the possibility that he was telling the truth, in which case, he had to bring down Duncan and allow history to continue unabated.
Tom didn’t feel as though he’d been overly persuasive either in his dealings with the Master, so why he was helping him was another thing that worried him. The Master almost seemed as though he had been toying with him. Tom got the very distinct feeling that there was a lot that the Master knew which he wasn’t saying. He was finding it hard to believe that the Master didn’t have something to do with what was going on, however, if he did, then why was he helping him? The ideas and accusations were flying round his head.
The music on the jukebox changed to a new track, heavy distorted guitar chords thrashed out, followed by the crashing of the drums and the growl of the vocals. Tom smiled to himself, no doubt Jess could tell exactly what the song, band and album was, but he personally had no idea. Maybe he should listen to more of her suggestions of music when he saw her again. If he saw her again.
No, that wasn’t fair. He knew the Doctor wouldn’t run out on him, not on purpose. There must have been a reason for their disappearance. As long as he wasn’t stuck on Earth for too much longer. He was starting to get itchy feet, wanting to move on. These few months had been the longest he’d stayed in once place for a while.
“Hi there,”
The voice took him by surprise. He looked up and saw a figure stood before him.
“How’re you doing? Long time no see.”
Tom blinked. The girl stood before him was smiling at him, wearing a full length black skirt, close fitting black blouse, the top few buttons undone, an elaborate silver Celtic cross nestled in her cleavage, and full length black wool coat. Her long hair was electric blue, her eyes smiling at him as well as her lips, on which she was wearing a deep purple lipstick. Her bottom lip was pierced, a silver ring around it.
“Sorry, do I-?” Tom started, looking at the girl.
“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me already?” she smiled with a wink before sitting down on the stool opposite him. “You don’t mind do you?”
Tom indicated the stool to confirm that it was empty for her to sit down.
“It’s Kelly, we met back in September, just before the big terror attack thing,” she said as a way to jog Tom’s memory. Kelly looked at Tom, her smile turning sad at his blank look. “I’m a friend of Jess’s. We met in here? You don’t remember me do you, spaceman.”
Tom blinked. “How did you-?” he began before the realisation dawned, Jess must have let slip about his non-terrestrial origins. Then it twigged; the facsimile. “Oh, sorry, yeah, I think when you met me I wasn’t quite myself,” Tom apologised.
“It’s ok,” Kelly smiled, taking a sip of her drink. “So tell me, what are you doing in here? One of these guys a space alien from the planet Hairy Biker?”
Tom laughed softly. This Kelly seemed quite relaxed about things, and Jess must really trust her to let her know about these things. “I doubt it,” he said, taking a sip of his beer. It was dark and malty, with what he thought were slightly chocolaty tones. It was called Hobgoblin and suited to the cold of the December evening. The poster advertising it on the wall reminded him of the tavern he’d been to on Tolkis 7.
“What about the Tower UFOs?” Kelly asked. “Tell me honestly! They’re real yeah?”
Tom rubbed his beard thoughtfully. He wasn’t sure what he could tell Kelly; still, he twigged that any friend of Jess’s would hopefully be a friend of his. Certainly she had picked him out in the pub and decided to sit with him.
“I don’t know,” he admitted truthfully. “There’s certainly something dodgy going on.”
“Aliens, yeah?” Kelly asked. “What about Jess? She about anywhere?” Kelly looked around hopefully, scouting through the throngs of people.
“I don’t know where she is,” Tom rubbed his neck looking uncomfortable, something that Kelly picked up on immediately.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, placing her glass back on the table.
“Her and the Doctor, they’re about somewhere, just not on Earth,” he admitted. “There was a bit of a glitch, I think, and they were shunted off into time and space, unfortunately I wasn’t onboard and have been marooned.”
“Aw no, dude,” Kelly replied, placing her hand on Tom’s arm. “You know if they’re ok?”
“Should be,” Tom replied. “The Doctor’ll look out for Jess. Or she’ll look out for him, which is probably more likely,” he added smiling.
Kelly smiled at Tom’s wry comment. “And what about you?”
“Stuck here,” he replied with a shrug and sip of beer.
“Where are you staying?”
“In the HQ, got a sofa in the lab,” Tom replied absently.
Kelly blinked, looking at Tom as though he was mad. “You’re not staying with friends?”
Tom shrugged again. “Can’t say I know anyone really on Earth,” he replied. “Well, other than the UNIT lot, but that’s just a work thing really. Just me on my own.”
Kelly smiled sympathetically and put her hand back on his arm. “Well, you know me. I’m here over the Christmas period, staying at my sisters. Always up for a drink or cinema or something.”
“Thanks,” Tom smiled.
“Any time,” Kelly smiled. “So what are you doing sat here all alone?”
“Thinking,” Tom replied. “Had to go visit someone earlier today and they’ve given me a lot to think about.”
“Wanna talk about it?” Kelly asked, cocking her head to one side. “Can you talk about it?”
“Well,” Tom mused, “I kinda had to see someone today to find something out from them, and I don’t really know whether I can trust what they said and it’s rather important I find out the truth.”
“Girlfriend trouble?” Kelly asked.
“No,” Tom said, looking down and not noticing the glimmer of a smile from Kelly. “More like enemy trouble.”
“Ok, is that like evil ex trouble or something?”
“Hmm?” Tom asked looking up at Kelly. “Sorry, what did you say?”
“You weren’t listening to me were you?” she asked.
“Sorry,” Tom said. “What did you say?”
“What’s bothering you? What do you mean by ‘enemy’?”
“It’s a long story,” Tom replied.
“I’ve got time,” Kelly smiled.
“Well, I had to go and visit someone this morning. Someone I’ve had a couple of run ins with before; someone who’s tried to kill me, the Doctor and Jess in the past,” Tom paused thoughtfully, not noticing the look of shock coming over Kelly’s face. “How can I put it? Jess showed me a film once, ‘Silence of the Lambs’ it was called, have you seen it? Anyway, the villain is locked up and the American agent has to go to see him for help in a case.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen it,” Kelly said faintly.
“That’s sort of the situation I have with the Master,” Tom said, getting slightly more distant. “Only, I don’t know whether I can fully trust what he says, or if I can, then he may be the only one who can help us.”
“He tried to kill you all?” Kelly asked, finally cutting in and stopping Tom.
“It’s very complicated,” Tom replied. “We’ve met each other out of order. “When I first met him, all this had already happened to him.”
“Oh, ok, now you’ve lost me,” Kelly said, taking another sip of her drink.
“It’s kinda complicated,” Tom replied. “I dunno how much Jess told you, but this may be hard to believe; we travel through time.”
“Yeah, she said,” Kelly replied. “Although she’s a bit of a joker, I don’t quite know how much of what she said was true.”
“You don’t trust her?” Tom asked.
“I do,” Kelly said. “She’s like a sister to me. It’s just she said she was travelling through time and you were an alien.” Kelly paused and laughed softly. “But she also said she was working with a government lot.”
“Me too, in a way,” Tom replied. “Both were right. We do travel through time, but every so often we stop off here and have to help out the UNIT lot.”
“You mentioned them before. What are they?”
“Sort of secret military investigation group,” Tom replied. “I was working for them with Jess and the Doc when we caught the Master,” pausing, Tom looked around before finishing his beer. “Look, it’s rather public here, I’d rather not talk about it. Come back with me and I’ll tell you more.”
“Really?” Kelly smiled.
“Yeah,” Tom said, picking his hat from the bench beside him and setting it on his head. “I haven’t got anyone to run things through with.”
“Erm, ok,” Kelly smiled again, finishing her drink. “Is it far?”
“Just round the corner,” Tom smiled back.
*
Captain Morris yawned and rubbed his eyes. He was getting weary of his shift, he had started working at twenty-one hundred hours yesterday, and it was now twelve thirty. At least he knew that he didn’t have to be back until midday tomorrow. And Charlotte had the morning off as well, so they could spend some time together. After how busy he’d been in the last week, they were both looking forward to getting to spend some time together.
The ringing of the telephone seemed distant at first, but then brought Morris back with a crash.
“Morris,” he said blearily as he picked up the receiver.
“Morris, General Bailey here,” Bailey’s voice barked from the other end of the phone.
“Yes sir,” Morris said, suddenly becoming alert. “What can I do for you?”
“I understand you have a Mr. Tom Rowan working for you,” Bailey said.
“Well, not officially,” Morris replied. “He’s a friend of the Doctor, helping me out with some things while the Doctor isn’t here.”
“He’s also been to visit the Wingmoore Institute,” Bailey said. “We both know who’s there, and this has been brought to my attention.”
“I know, he told me that he was going there,” Morris replied scratching his head. “I’m not too sure what you’re getting at, sir. I did authorise it.”
“It’s been brought to my attention that he’s visiting the prisoner there and discussing some rather sensitive material with him,” Bailey said. “I’ve had reports from Sir Daniel. He’s not only been discussing sensitive issues with possibly the most wanted man in British, if not Earth history, but the subject matter itself is near treasonous.”
“Ah,” Morris said, unsure about what to say, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yes, well,”
“Morris,” Bailey said cutting him off, “I’ve received orders that his activities are to be investigated. Any conversations that he has with military personnel are to be fully recorded; any visits to Wingmoore are to be reported.”
“Sir?” Morris asked.
“From now on, he is not to be included in staff meetings,” Bailey continued. “He is to be kept under strict observation. He is now being investigated under the emergency statutes laid down by James Duncan himself this morning.”