The Stolen Scion (2/2)

[gin_and_ashes]

Title: The Stolen Scion (2/2)
Author: gin_and_ashes
Rating: PG
Pairing: Rose/Ten II
Summary: When Tony and Jackie Tyler mysteriously vanish from inside the Tyler mansion, the Doctor, Rose, and Pete must work together to discover where they were taken-and how.
Author's notes: Thanks as always to jlrpuck for being a wonderful beta, and to shinyopals for her browbeating encouragement and assistance.

Episode 7 of a virtual series at the_altverse, following The Tenth Sister last week.
Virtual Series Masterlist

Part One | Part Two


Rose's stomach churned. The blood drained from her face as she turned helplessly towards the Doctor. Her mother's phone--their only chance of finding her and Tony--still sat in her outstretched hand. With her eyes, she pleaded with the Doctor to tell her it wasn't so; that he had some brilliant, mad plan to pull her mother and brother from thin air. But he only gazed back at her, his expression wan, his mouth drawn in a thin, pale line, and shook his head almost imperceptibly.

Her eyes began to sting. She bit down hard on her lower lip in an attempt to hold back the tears that threatened to overwhelm her. The phone slipped from her palm, bouncing on the floor next to her foot. She spun and walked briskly out of the office, breaking into a run once she reached the corridor. Behind her, she could hear and feel the Doctor giving chase. She tensed, anticipating the press of his hands on her shoulders. He caught her, spinning her into his arms and holding her tight.

"Don't you give up, Rose Tyler. Don't you give up on them for one second, you hear me?"

" 'm not," she mumbled into his lapel. He loosened his hold on her, both to hear her better and to give her some desperately needed oxygen.

"I didn't think so," he replied. He raised his hands to cup her face, brushing his thumbs over the apples of her cheeks and wiping the tears away. "The Rose Tyler who found me across universes isn't going to have trouble finding two Tylers in London."

"You think they're still in London?" The Doctor smirked; Rose pounced on that assurance like a lifeline. "Why? You know something, don't you?"

"More suspect than know, really. But things are starting to take shape up here," he said, tapping his index finger against his temple. "I just need some more time, is all. And you?"

Rose sniffled. "I...was going to make some tea?"

"Tea! Brilliant! Just what your mother would suggest. Get those synapses firing, eh?" She nodded. "Would you like me to come with you?"

"Nah, I could use the time to pull myself together. Besides, you'd just distract me."

The Doctor's smile widened; his hands slid down past the small of her back as he leaned in close. "Oh, I distract you, do I? Tell me more, Ms. Tyler."

"Go on," she said, giving him a playful but firm shove. "I'll meet you back in the study with tea."

"And biscuits?"

She groaned. "Yes, and biscuits."

The Doctor kissed her on the nose, then turned, grinning over his shoulder at her as he loped back down the corridor to Pete's study. With a roll of her eyes, Rose walked away in the direction of the kitchen. The kitchen staff had gone home for the evening, even before the lockdown, and she was glad of it. It made her uncomfortable, being waited on and catered to all the time. Besides, she hadn't lied to the Doctor; she found the process of making the tea--water in the kettle, tea in the pot, warming the mugs, all of it--to be a comforting and reassuring ritual. She searched the cupboards, smiling when she found box after box of the Doctor's favourite biscuits hidden behind bottles of barley water. By the time the tea things were arranged on a tray and ready to be carried to the study, Rose had regained her composure and even some of her optimism. They'd been through worse, found each other in more impossible circumstances. Somehow, some way, they'd solve this.

When she reached Pete's study, she found her father standing in front of his desk, frantically working the phone. The Doctor had appropriated his desk chair (and much of the desk itself) in order to better study Jackie's phone, which seemed to be of great interest to him--so much so that he didn't even look up when she entered or when she passed her father's mug to him. Still, a working Doctor was a Doctor that hadn't given up, and she didn't want to disturb him. He didn't say a word until she'd returned to the settee, fetched her own cuppa, and was halfway to a seated position.

"No biscuits?" he asked.

"They're right here," Rose replied archly. "And if you stop playing with mum's phone, you can have one."

The Doctor set the phone down, then stood and stretched until his spine made a sensational popping noise. Though he sighed in deep satisfaction, Rose shuddered; the human body wasn't supposed to sound like that. He slipped off his glasses, pocketing them as he crossed the room to sit next to her on the settee. He fixed himself a cuppa, then gave a pleased little squeal when he saw the biscuits on the tray. Grabbing a handful, he settled against the sofa back, raising an arm to invite Rose to lean against him, which she promptly did.

"How's it going?" she asked, sleepily. How someone so thin and bony could be so incredibly cosy, she'd never know.

The Doctor, who had shoved an entire biscuit in his mouth, hesitated before replying, finally taking an enormous swig of his tea before swallowing. "It's...going. Your father's calling in every favour he's ever been owed--which is saying something--and I'm...argh!" He sighed. "I've got bits of it in my head, but they're not forming a clear picture yet."

"How's that?"

"I'm sure I know the what--a transmat's the only thing that fits, really--and I suspect the how. Well, I suspect most of the how. Part of the how." He paused. "A bit of the how." He took another bite of biscuit, chewing thoughtfully before continuing. "No idea about who or why, but we can worry about that later, once we have Jackie and Tony back. Anyway, right now I don't think your father cares much who took them, as long as we get them home safely."

"Have to say, I kind of agree with him there."

"Yes, well. But--like I said, it's all there, and yet it doesn't make any sense. It's as though I'm supposed to be seeing something that I'm not, but I have to know what it is to even begin looking for it."

"Don't worry, Doctor. I know you. You'll put all the pieces together, I'm sure of it."

Rose felt the Doctor's body go rigid. "The pieces...oh, of course!" He stood, raking his fingers through his hair. "It's the Purloined Letter."

"The what?" Pete had ceased his conversation and was eyeing the Doctor with barely concealed hope.

"But that's just…" The Doctor froze in place, eyes bright, laugh lines deepening like so much wrinkled linen. His open mouth curved into a wide, manic grin. Without a word, he darted out of Pete's study and down the corridor, skidding around the corner and out of sight. Rose and Pete exchanged a quick, worried glance, then charged after him, following him as he ran full tilt out the front door of the estate and around to the side garden.

"It's absurd!" the Doctor was shouting as he ran across the lawn. "Needlessly complex, like something someone would patch together out of tin cans and string because they didn't have the means to make it simply. Why? Why do that, when what you have is sophisticated--elegant, even? Why bury it in layers of superfluous intricacy?"

"Doctor, where are you going?" Rose cried after him. He stopped, sweeping the area around him with blazing eyes. "Do you know where Mum and Tony are?"

"No idea!" he shouted gleefully before tearing off in another direction.

Rose looked over at her father, who was panting and clutching his side. "Are you all right?" she asked. "Maybe you should go back to the house."

"Bit of a stitch in my side," Pete said between gasping breaths. "I'll be fine."

"You sure? I don't want you--" her eyes went wide. "What. In. The. Hell?"

Pete spun, wincing, to see what had given Rose such pause and wondered if at last he'd gone mad. The Doctor was sprinting towards them, smiling like a man unhinged and carrying in his arms a very large, very angry, and rather incontinent swan.

Rose and Pete watched the Doctor run past, mouths agape, then began a frantic dash to catch up with him.

"When did you get swans?" she called over her shoulder as they went.

"Our anniversary party. Your mum hired 'em for the day to swim in the fountain, but instead they built a nest and laid their eggs."

They'd reached the front door. Pete leaned heavily on a column and caught his breath. "Jackie was terrified something would happen to the babies, and they wouldn't budge anyway, so...I bought them."

"Softie." Rose stepped through the open door into the foyer, but stopped, grimacing, her foot hovering just over the carpet. "Ew. Er, speaking of soft...you might want to watch your step."

Gingerly, they picked their way back to Pete's study, following the trail left by the Doctor's new acquisition. When they got there, they found the entrance blocked. The Doctor had shifted a small settee in front of the doorway, apparently to keep the door open and the swan inside. Said swan had registered its displeasure at this arrangement in several places already, and was hissing and flapping its wings angrily as it sought a way to escape.

The Doctor was sitting cross-legged on top of Pete's desk, surrounded by bits of electronics and wire. Occasionally, he'd pick something up, aim the sonic screwdriver at it, then hunt for another piece, tongue pressed firmly against the back of his upper teeth as he worked. Rose and Pete stared in silent amazement at the speed and scope of the destruction he'd wrought.

"Your mother," Pete muttered, "is going to--"

"I know."

"The carpets."

"I know."

"Is the swan pecking that settee?"

"Pecking it apart, yes," Rose clarified.

She hoisted a leg over the sofa and into the room, but the swan hissed again and snapped its beak at her. Startled, she drew back sharply.

"Wouldn't do that if I were you," the Doctor chirped. "Frederick's a bit territorial, even for a swan. We have an arrangement, though."

"And that would be…?"

He paused, looking up over the rims of his glasses at Rose. "I stay up here and he doesn't attack me."

"Uh-huh." Rose swung her leg back over the sofa. "Any chance you might tell us why Frederick is in Dad's study?"

"Give us your earring, would you?"

"What?"

"Your earring, please?" The Doctor held out his hand. Bemused, Rose removed one of her hoop earrings and tossed it in an arc to the Doctor, who snatched it out of midair and went back to work. "Cheers."

"Doctor. How is Frederick going to help us find Mum?"

"Tracking device." He held up the jumble of wires. "It's the phone, you see."

"The phone?" Pete asked. With one wary eye on Frederick, he leaned over the back of the sofa.

"Yep. The phone is the key." The Doctor laughed. "Get it? Key?"

Pete just stared. "I'm lost."

"Yeah, me too," Rose said. "Sorry, Doctor, I don't understand."

The Doctor brought the improvised device close to his eyes as he continued to attach bits of wire to it. "You said the phone's battery drained incredibly fast, yes?"

Pete nodded. "She had to charge it a lot, yeah, but--"

"Too fast even for a smartphone completely loaded with the useless rubbish doodads Jackie Tyler would find irresistible. No, something else was draining that battery. Something like a relay for a transmat."

"That couldn't go undetected, though," protested Pete.

"It could, if it only activated under certain conditions--say, perhaps, a call to Torchwood. Whenever Jackie connected to your office from her mobile, the relay would open. It would only need a tiny window--a few seconds at the most--to transmit her coordinates. Then, assuming she was in the right location, a transmat beam would be triggered and poof! They'd have her. Disguise it as a harmless smartphone application, or piggyback it onto another one, and no one would ever notice."

"But Jackie calls me all the time. Why wasn't she taken before?"

"Ah, but she never called you from in here before. Look around," he said with a wave of his arms. "You've got a room full of Torchwood technology; R&D know you like to test prototypes yourself before starting a public trial. All our kidnappers had to do was divide the transmat's components and incorporate them piece by piece into those prototypes. On their own, they don't attract notice, but--put them in range of each other, and they form a triangulation device."

"You're saying this was done from inside Torchwood."

"Oh yes. At least in part. Shocking, that, since everyone there is so competent and trustworthy."

The Doctor removed his glasses and tucked them into his pocket. In one hand he held what looked like a small circuit board. Wires of varying sizes and colours streamed from every side, all of which were attached to Rose's earring. He looked it over critically.

"The trick, of course, was getting Jackie in here without you present. Breaking up the transponder probably weakened its signal and made it less than perfectly accurate. Whoever these people are, whatever they're after, they didn't want to take you, and they didn't want you to witness Jackie being taken."

"Then how would Dad even know? There's been no ransom demand, no threats, no contact from the kidnappers at all." Rose knit her brow, trying to follow the Doctor's logic.

"That's why they took Tony first. When Jackie called Torchwood and unlocked the door, that activated the relay for the first time--when she was in the room and hung up. They took Tony--not hard to do, just lock on the smaller of the two life forms in the room--which of course prompted Jackie to call Pete--"

"At Torchwood," Rose added. Things were starting to make sense at last.

"At Torchwood, yes. And the transmitter turned on again. Only they didn't take her right away. Now that indicates the transmat beam isn't well-powered, and needs time to recharge between uses. And if it doesn't have that much power, then--"

"Then it can't have taken them very far!" Rose cried.

"Exactly! Which is why," the Doctor said as he climbed down carefully from the desk, "this tracking device should do the trick." With measured, hesitant steps, he approached the swan, who had abandoned the settee and instead set about desecrating the potted palm in the corner of the room. "Now, now, Freddy my boy," he said, "this is your chance to pay Jackie back for saving your little cygnets."

Frederick took a combative pose, arching his neck and flapping his wings violently.

"Steady, Freddy," the Doctor urged as he inched forward.

Rose groaned. "You named him Frederick just so you could say that, didn't you?"

"Not now, Rose. This is delicate work."

"You did!"

"Well, I might never have had a chance, otherwise."

"So predictable..."

"Do you mind?" Pete exclaimed. Rose and the Doctor froze, staring at him. "I don't care what anyone named the damned swan, or why. My wife and son are missing. God only knows what they're going through right now, and you're...you're...bantering! Like it's nothing! Like it's all some kind of joke!" He closed his eyes and slumped into a heap against the corridor wall.

The Doctor said nothing, though his expression was guilt-ridden. Rose knelt down in front of Pete, taking his hands in hers. "Dad, I'm sorry. We didn't...we only--"

"Just get them back," he sighed, head bowed. "Please. I need them back."

"Doctor?" Rose stood.

The Doctor nodded. In a flash, his hand shot out and captured an unsuspecting Frederick by the neck. The swan squawked and batted at him with his wings, but appeared unharmed.

"Easy, Freddy. I just need to attach this to you...there."

He slipped Rose's earring around the swan's leg, then aimed the sonic screwdriver at it. The earring shrank and tightened until it fit snugly around the swan's leg. The circuit board, too, was reduced in size until it was no larger than a postage stamp. The Doctor released Frederick, jumping back to avoid an angry peck and climbing over the sofa to join Rose and Pete in the hallway.

"There. That should do nicely." He took Rose by the shoulders and eased her back a few steps. "Just in case, though, let's not be too close, eh?"

"What are you going to do, exactly?" she asked. Pete looked up at them, but didn't stand.

"If I'm right--and I'm always right--then we can use Jackie's phone to activate the transmat, sending good old Frederick here wherever Jackie and Tony went. Then, utilising the tracking device in the leg band, we can pinpoint the location where they're being held and ride to their rescue."

Pete stood. His eyes were wide, his expression hunted. "But what if--Doctor, they haven't asked for a ransom. If they know that you're closing in on them, they might--if they panic, if they decide--"

Pete's eyes squeezed shut. Behind him, Rose worried her thumbnail and looked to the Doctor for reassurance. For a fleeting moment, she saw uncertainty on her husband's face, even fear. Just before Pete's eyes opened, though, the Doctor schooled his face into a mask of serene confidence.

"That's not going to happen," he said matter-of-factly. "We're going to get them back. Both of them, safe and sound. Before you know it, you're going to be hugging your son, Jackie is going to be screaming at me about what I did to her carpets, and everything is going to be back to normal."

With a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, the Doctor raised his arm, pointing the sonic screwdriver at Jackie's phone. "Right," he said. "Freddy, my love? Please keep in touch while you're away." The phone's speaker came to life; Jackie's mobile dialled into Torchwood and was connected to Constance White's voice mail.

Rose bit her lip. "Will it work if--"

"Should do. It's the connexion that matters, not speaking to a live person." The phone clicked off and went quiet. "Now we wait."

Three pairs of eyes fixed on Frederick. Seconds ticked by, yet the swan remained, furiously stalking around Pete's office. For a terrible moment, it seemed that the Doctor had miscalculated. Just when Rose was ready to give up, a beam of energy shot from a small metal sphere behind Pete's desk. It bounced off what looked like a Geiger counter and into a lamp base. The room went bright white; The Doctor, Rose, and Pete shielded their eyes from the glow with their arms.

When the light faded, Frederick was gone. The Doctor vaulted over the settee and into the study, scanning the area with the sonic screwdriver, then--while Rose and Pete pushed the sofa back into place--raced to Pete's desk, punching keys on Pete's laptop and staring intently at what appeared to be a satellite view of the area.

"Freddy, Freddy, Freddy," The Doctor murmured, eyes scanning the screen. "Where have you gone?"

Rose and Pete hurried to join him, breath held, leaning over his shoulders. They waited for a sign--any sign--from Frederick. The moment seemed to stretch on forever; Rose found herself wanting to say something to break the tension, but no words would come. Then, finally, a single red dot appeared on screen, faint at first, then brighter. Pete grabbed his desk phone and shoved the Doctor aside in one swift movement. As Rose scurried to help the Doctor extricate himself from the desk chair, Pete took over the computer, zooming in on the highlighted area.

"I need a retrieval team sent to EC4, now," Pete shouted into the phone. "Hanging Sword Alley. Go!" Pete hung up the phone, grabbed his keys, and headed for the corridor.

"Pete!" the Doctor called after him. "I can send Frederick's coordinates to the TARDIS's navigational system, we can be there in seconds."

"No offence, Doctor, but I don't want to get there five days from now."

"There's nothing--that only happened the once. Why is everyone always harping on it?"

"You go in the TARDIS. I'm going with the team."

"C'mon, Doctor," Rose urged, shoving her husband towards the TARDIS. "We're wasting time, let's just go! Dad should be there to direct the team anyways."

'Yes, fine, just let me--" he broke free of Rose's grasp, returning to the desk and aiming the sonic screwdriver at the metal sphere. Showers of pink sparks burst forth from it; it split in two with a puff of smoke, then melted, dripping down the front of the cabinet and into the carpet. An almost deafening crack caused Rose to jump and the Doctor to whirl around; both the lamp and the Geiger counter-like object had self-destructed. Only bits of charcoal and smouldering ash remained.

"Should have expected that," the Doctor remarked as he and Rose boarded the TARDIS. "They're cleaning up after themselves. We'd best hurry."

Rose shut the doors behind them and joined the Doctor at the console; he'd fed the coordinates into the TARDIS computer and was flipping the handbrake. There was the sound of dematerialisation, then, almost immediately afterwards, they landed.

"Just a hop, skip, and a jump," the Doctor said, then looked at Rose gravely. "Rose. Pete's a smart man. He knows what the lack of a ransom demand might mean, even if he couldn't or wouldn't say it. I need you to be strong; we don't know what we'll find here. You need to be prepared for anything."

"You think...to Tony?"

"I hope not. I want to believe not, but...do you want me to go first?"

Rose steeled herself. "No. I've got training you haven't. I should be first on scene, in case there's an ambush." She moved to the door and put a hand on the handle. "Wish I had my stun gun. Okay. On three. One...two..." With a deep breath, she burst through the doors.

"There you are. We were beginning to wonder."

Jackie Tyler was sitting on a metal stool in the middle of what appeared to be an abandoned loading dock, having her blood pressure taken. Around her, Torchwood technicians swarmed, taking readings with large hand-held devices, scraping bits of what would probably turn out to be petrified chewing gum into evidence bags, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. The med tech shone a penlight into Jackie's eyes; annoyed, she batted his hand away.

"Mrs. Tyler, you really should--"

"Oh, enough! You can poke and prod all you like later. I want to talk to my daughter." With that she stood and advanced on a stunned, confused Doctor and Rose. "You'd think I'd never been transmatted before. Anyway--" she jabbed her index finger into the Doctor's sternum. "You took long enough getting here."

"But...we...I... Seconds," the Doctor sputtered. "It's been seconds since we left, no more."

Jackie snorted. "Pete got here three hours ago, you twit. You really should let someone else drive for a change."

Stricken, the Doctor wheeled around and headed back into the TARDIS. Rose went to her mother, enveloping her in a hug. "Are you all right, though, mum? How's Tony?"

"We're both fine, honestly." Rose looked dubious. "We are! I'm not even sure what they wanted, really."

The Doctor reemerged, shaking his head. "I could have sworn I had it all sorted."

"It's saying we never left the timeline?"

"Not even a blip. We should have gotten here well before Pete, not three hours after he did."

"Well, she's still new," Rose offered, giving the TARDIS a reassuring pat. "I'm sure there are still wrinkles to be ironed out, yeah?"

"Ehhh--"

"Or maybe it's because he's never known how to steer that thing," Jackie scoffed.

"Mum!"

"What happened here, anyway, Jackie?" asked the Doctor as he cast a critical eye over the room. "And where are the people who took you? Are they in custody?"

"They're gone," she replied. "The whole thing was completely mad. They kept us locked up in that office over there, but they didn't ask me anything, didn't threaten us, nothing. They were almost--accommodating, really. Even gave Tony paper and pencils to draw with. Every now and then one of them would get on a phone and talk to someone; couldn't hear what they were saying, but I got the feeling we were being watched. Anyway, it definitely seemed like they were waiting for something, I'm just not sure what. And when the swan appeared--Tony found that hysterical, by the way--they started falling all over themselves packing everything up and talking to whoever their boss was about what to do next, I guess. Just before they left, one of 'em came to the window and told us our door would unlock five minutes after they'd gone--and he was right. I was just getting ready to take Tony and look for a phone when your father and his commandos came charging to the rescue."

"Did you get a good look at any of them?"

"Nah, they all wore the same thing; balaclavas and lab coats. Tony thought they were videogame characters; the whole thing's been a lark for him. Don't you dare tell him otherwise. I don't want him having nightmares, you hear me?"

"And they didn't want anything from you?" The Doctor was incredulous.

"Not a thing. Oh, there he goes." Frederick the swan came waddling past, pursued by a giggling Tony. In one smooth motion, Jackie extended an arm and swept her son towards her. She pulled him close, holding him fast despite his struggling. "I told you, leave that poor bird alone. He's scared half to death." She looked back up at the Doctor. "How did you get that thing here, anyway?"

"Oh, you know, a bit of jiggery-pokery, simple, really. You'll want a new phone, though."

"Why? What did you--."

"Pete!" The Doctor called, eager to escape his mother-in-law's interrogation. He scooted past a scowling Jackie and made his way over to where Pete was directing the investigation.

"Bit late, are we?"

"Yes, yes, you were right to go on your own, well done Torchwood--though don't be surprised if you're missing some members of R&D, come morning. What have you found?"

"Nothing."

The Doctor gaped. "Nothing. As in not a thing?"

"Not one thing. Can't even find the transmat signature. Whoever these people were, whatever they were about, they were thorough. It's pretty clear that this was designed to be a mobile operation, but even so, nothing adds up. Why go to all the trouble of kidnapping Jackie and Tony--the expense of the energy needed to power the transmat alone would be immense. Why do that, and then just...let them go?"

"I don't like it," the Doctor murmured. "Not one bit."

"Nor I. We're combing this place with everything we've got, but frankly I'll be surprised if anything turns up."

"On that we agree. If anything should, though--"

"Oh, you'll be the first person I call. Believe me." Pete sighed. "There's really no point in me being here any longer; I'm going to take Jackie and Tony home. Stay and have a nose around, if you like. Just let one of my people know if you find anything."

"Will do. Oh, Pete?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't forget Freddy."

Pete raised an eyebrow. "Thought I'd leave that up to you."

"Ah. Yes. Well. I'll just...get on that, then."

The two men returned to join the rest of the family. Hugs were exchanged, and Pete soon departed with his wife and son in tow, leaving the Doctor and Rose behind. Though he made a token attempt to search for clues, there was nothing to find. As Pete had pointed out, the kidnappers had been meticulous in their cleanup--and anything that might have been left behind had either been taken or rendered useless by the overeager Torchwood techs. With nothing to go on and no hope of finding any worthwhile information, there was little reason for him or Rose to remain; they corralled Frederick and herded him into the TARDIS, then set the coordinates to return to the Tyler estate.

"What do you think happened, Doctor?" Asked Rose once they were in the Vortex. "Really, I mean."

"Oh, I dunno; opportunists in over their heads, I imagine. Probably panicked and ran off when they realised who and what they were up against. I wouldn't worry about it."

She eyed him suspiciously, even appeared ready to challenge him. Just then, though, her mobile rang, again playing the Imperial March. The Doctor rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the console--and to Frederick, who was trying his best to eat parts of it. "Oi! Freddy, no!" he cried. "That's the gravitronic stabiliser. I need that!"

Rose pulled her mobile from her pocket and answered, turning away from the console. "Hullo, Mum...no, we just left. Yes, he's here...Well, he's a little busy with Freddy...Freddy. You know, the swan? Oh. Ohhhh. Mum? Let me put you on speakerphone."

Smiling, Rose took her phone to the console, plugging it into the dock next to the monitor. "Jackie wants a word," she said, flipping a switch and stepping back. "Okay, Mum? He can hear you now."

The Doctor made a sour face at Rose, then smiled brightly--too brightly. "Hullo, Jackie!" he trilled. "Long time no talk, eh?"

"DOCTOR!" Jackie's voice thundered through the speakers. "MY CARPETS!"

The Doctor slammed his hand down on the console, disconnecting the call, then--ignoring Rose's laughter--turned and looked down at Frederick.

"Freddy my boy, how do you feel about Azerbaijan? I hear the Caspian Sea is lovely this time of year."

~~~~~

Next week: The Wretched Hive by ivydoor