Chapter 4

"Was there always no second floor?" Karena asked, peering at the screen. "I feel sure there was a second floor on that building the last time we were there."

River punched in some buttons.

"The TARDIS is definitely cutting through some sort of perception filter. It's taking out the bogus second floor, but not showing what's really there instead. It's just leaving it blank."

"I knew something felt strange," the Doctor admitted. "But I thought it was just because I was hungry. I get collywobbles in my tummy when I'm hungry now. It's a new thing. But I must have been sensing the perception field."

"But is there something there or nothing there?" Elizabeth asked, peering at the screen herself.

"Oh, there's something there," River confirmed. "The TARDIS's sensors just can't pick it up. She's getting confused, poor thing." She patted the TARDIS's wall kindly. "She can't sense what's really there, but she can see right through the filter, so she's stuck with putting nothing there."

"It's not your fault," the Doctor said, stroking a wall.

The TARDIS hummed her frustration.

"There has to be a second floor. There's always been a second floor," Jenna argued.

"Has there?" the Doctor asked. "Jenna, how often do you go to that restaurant?"

"All the time," Jenna admitted. "Almost every night, some weeks. I'm not a very good cook, you know."

"Every night?" River asked. "Don't you get sick of it?"

Jenna shrugged.

"No? It's really good."

"Ahah!" the Doctor clapped his hands together, making everyone jump at the sudden noise. "I wasn't being poisoned, at least not directly. That Gallifrayan poison is very addictive to humans, and it was on the food."

Jenna looked horrified.

"I've been eating poison?"

"It's not poison to you," the Doctor said consolingly. "Only a very addictive drug."

"I'm addicted to a drug?" Jenna demanded, not comforted in the least. "This is horrible. I've been eating a drug on my sushi the whole time. What if I don't even like sushi?"

"Come to think of it," Elizabeth said thoughtfully. "Even I was starting to eat the sushi, and I've never liked it before."

Jenna looked genuinely upset.

"Now I don't even know if I like my favorite food or not!" she wailed.

"I identify," said the Doctor. He put a hand on Jenna's shoulder. "Don't worry, when this is all over we'll pop over to Japan and you can find out if you really like sushi or not, alright?"

"Alright," said Jenna, feeling a lot better.

"Now," said the Doctor, turning back to the screen. "It's pretty obvious that something's hiding up on the top of that restaurant. I say we discover what it is. Sonics out, everyone?"

He reached into the inner pocket of his tweed jacket, and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. At the same time, River produced from the pocket of her bomber jacket a small tube.

"Sonic lipstick," she explained to the other companions with a wink.

The Doctor looked at his three other companions.

"Nothing sonic on you?"

Karena looked at him helplessly while the other two shrugged.

"You wouldn't even let us touch your sonic screwdriver," Elizabeth reminded him. "You said we were liable to roast our fingers off."

"Well, never mind that," the Doctor brushed her comment off. "Here, this should work."

He produced from another of his pockets the sonic chopsticks he had had earlier. He gave one to each of the three girls, smiling broadly.

"Didn't you only have two before?" Karena asked.

"You wouldn't believe the things I have in these pockets," the Doctor said mildly.

Karena shrugged, and shoved her chopstick into her back pocket.

"Right, well now that we're all sonic-ed up, let's investigate," said the Doctor.

"Team TARDIS, move out," River summed up.

The Doctor scowled at her.

"I hate that name," he said.

River smiled at him.

"I know," she replied.


It was decided, after some discussion, that they would attempt to get to the restaurant's top floor through the back stairway, which was located behind the restaurant, beside the patio.

"There's some stairs out back," Jenna said. "We just need to go round the back of the restaurant and go up there."

Karena stared up at the second floor of the shop. It looked so real, so familiar to her. It looked just like every other time that she had seen it, either eating there or walking past. There were even curtains in the windows, though they were drawn. She shook her head.

"If I hadn't seen on the screen that there was no second floor, I'd never believe you," she said. "It looks so real."

"It's meant to," the Doctor said.

They climbed the rather rickety wooden steps at the back of the shop. Elizabeth continued to cast fugitive glances at the patio of the restaurant, as if she expected them to be caught sneaking up the stairs, but no one exited that way. The dark wrapped around them like a cloak, covering them from prying eyes.

The door at the top was locked, but of course that didn't stop the Doctor. He buzzed his sonic screwdriver and the door clicked open.

"You'd think someone who knew about Gallifrayan poisons would know to deadlock seal their door," River whispered.

The Doctor just shrugged.

"They're using it as an addictive additive, not as a poison," he reminded her.

He pushed the door open, and it swung silently on its hinges, opening into a dark yawning space. The Doctor aimed his screwdriver at the ceiling, and lights flickered on.

"Nice place," he said.

As everyone filed in after him, they gasped in surprise. Inside was not a flat, like each of them had been expecting to see. It was a large room, devoid of any furniture except long tables standing in the middle of the space. The walls were white, the floor was white, the tables were white. Scattered across the table nearest the door were sheaves of paper. The Doctor picked one up. He stared at it for a long time before handing it to River.

"Look," he said.

On the page was a spiraling tesseract. The symbol was an elegant scrawl of swirling lines. Both Jenna and Elizabeth recognized it instantly. It was the only language the TARDIS would not translate for them.

"Gallifrayan," Elizabeth breathed.

"But that's impossible," said River. "It's a dead language. You're the only one who speaks it. Well, you and me."

"Unless… River, do you know what this means?" the Doctor said, his back still to her.

"That someone else can speak Gallifrayan, or at least copy it down?"

He turned to River, his eyes shining with a hope so intense it could have broken your heart.

"It means I may not be the last one."

"Doctor…" River said. She laid a gentle hand on his arm. "I don't want you to get your hopes up."

The Doctor waved the paper at her.

"Gallifrayan writing. Only two people in the universe know how to do it, and we're both right here. I didn't write this, and I'm pretty sure you didn't either or you would have said something. So how did this paper get here? There could be another Time Lord out there, River."

Karena, who hadn't been paying attention to the conversation, not knowing the significance of the Gallifrayan writing, had wandered over to the next table. She picked up a glass beaker, examining its contents.

"Hey guys," she called. "Look what I found."

On the table in front of her was spread equipment of various kinds, beakers and pots and Bunsen burners. Inside a vial was a pale orange powder. The Doctor peered at it, but didn't touch it. He buzzed it with his screwdriver, then nodded.

"That's it alright," he said. "It looks like it's being manufactured on a large scale."

Jenna walked the length of the table, examining the pots as she went.

"They must sprinkle the food with it," she said. "But why? Hoping to catch a Time Lord when he comes in for sushi?"

Before anyone could answer, a door at the far end of the room opened, and silhouetted in the doorway was a large man in a white apron. Immediately he pulled out a very large, wickedly sharp looking knife. It was the chef from downstairs.