Act Four, Part Three

Harlequin smiled in triumph as the walls of the TARDIS faded into view. "Ah!" he said gloatingly. "And here are the dear ladies now!"

The TARDIS faded in, and faded out again. The walls of the corner behind it came into plain sight once more.

"No!" cried Harlequin.

"Yes," breathed Artie.

His captor rounded on him. "How are you doing that?" he snarled.

"Me?" said Artie. "You think I'm doing anything? My TARDIS knows what you're up to. She knows if you win, an innocent woman and child, both of whom she's particularly fond of, will die. She'll fight you to the last ounce of her strength to keep Lily and Peaches out of your hands — and more power to her!"

Harlequin glared down at him, his fingers clutching at the air. "What an enemy of truth and justice you are, that you have perverted even the TT capsule you use to serve your will! Well, nothing defeats Prof Harlequin!" He shrank in on himself for an eternal moment, then threw back his head and cried out in a voice like the endless vastness of space and time itself.

"Peregrine's daughter! COME!"

…

That unseen hand gripped Jim's firmly as the cozy tent disappeared. Again Jim was engulfed in the swirling white mist; again he found himself in that place that was no place, his vision swimming as the ache of silence echoed in his ears.

And then he was through. The mist dissipated, revealing anew the room from which he'd been banished. There was Harlequin, stretched up on his toes, nearly floating in the air. On the floor across the room, immobile and utterly helpless, there lay Artie.

And between them in the air was the shimmering substance of a TARDIS about to land.

"Harlequin!" Jim cried. The Time Lady had said Harlequin would be summoning Lily and the baby. But if Jim could break the madman's concentration… He lifted the staser, ready to fire.

Harlequin whirled to stare in astonishment. "You! How is it you are here?"

And in that instant, the TARDIS disappeared. In that instant also, the iron grip of the mad Time Lord's mind clamped down on Jim's body. Furious, Harlequin snarled, "If you have cost me my prize, Captain West, I swear to you, I will…!"

"Oh, you'll what, Turnip Head?"

Harlequin broke off to stare about himself in consternation. "What… Who said that?"

Artie, still on the floor unable to move, was also looking around. He met Jim's eye, silently inquiring of him what was going on.

The disembodied voice continued. "That's right, Harlequin," said an unseen woman, "I'm talking to you. Up to your usual fun and games, are you? What is it this time: killing Jim? Killing Artie? Killing them both? Oh, you're little Johnny-One-Note, you are. Kill, kill, kill!"

They could all hear the voice clearly; it seemed to come from everywhere at once. Harlequin turned his head this way and that, trying to get a lock on the woman's location. If he could only find her, he would certainly capture her. "Who are you?" he asked again, intent on keeping her talking.

"Someone you know — or maybe you don't! Someone tired of your endless quest for revenge. Someone…" she added with a chuckle, "…who would really rather you didn't know her name!"

Harlequin was still turning his head, glancing here and there. "You know me?" he inquired.

"Oh, your reputation precedes you, Professor, believe you me! And I have no doubt you hope that by keeping me talking, you'll be able to pinpoint where I am. That's a good idea… except for one thing."

"And that is?"

Again she laughed. "Ever heard of ventriloquism?"

Harlequin's concentration was being divided; Artie could tell. His body wasn't being held as completely motionless as before, and he took advantage of it, quietly slipping his fingers into the closest pocket he could reach without making too obvious a movement. He had a little ball of something interesting there, if he could just ease it out…

"Hey, Monkey-Brains!" the woman called again. "Did I ever tell you you're tops with me?" Something hurtled out of thin air and hit Harlequin in the shins. It bounced off and went whirling around the floor for a bit before swiftly losing momentum and spinning out onto its side.

It was a top. An ordinary child's top.

Harlequin's eyes flashed. By throwing something at him, she had given her location away! He bent all his mind upon her, catching at her, grasping at her, his mind seeking, searching…

"Perception filter!" he cried in triumph and ripped the device from her shoulder.

"Ow!" she yelped as suddenly there she was, a middle-aged woman with a mop of shaggy white hair. "Careful, you pervert! You nearly tore my shirt right off!"

"You," said Harlequin, seizing her without hands and lifting her into the air, "whoever you are, shall die now. For your insolence, your insults, your interference, I shall now visit upon you the same fate I have imagined all these years to inflict upon the loved ones of Artemus Gordon. Your death, you nameless interloper, shall be the appetizer before the banquet!" He lifted her still higher.

She laughed and spat at him.

Rage consumed him. "That was your final insult of all!" he fumed, bringing every resource of his prodigious mind to bear upon that provoking woman. And as he focused himself upon her, he quite forgot his other two captives.

Artie on the floor plucked that ball from his pocket and flung it with all his might. Harlequin saw it out of the corner of his eye and divided his attention once again to seize the ball with his mind and send it hurtled back the way it had come. The ball hit the floor by Artie's feet — and bounced harmlessly away.

"Harlequin!"

And now Jim, his limbs his own again, aimed the staser and fired it even as the Time Lord turned toward him. Harlequin saw the incoming blast and laughed merrily that Captain West should fire the same staser at him a second time. He stood strong and tall as the beam of gleaming energy struck him full in the chest, bathing him in brilliant light. He smiled and laughed.

And froze, the laughter still on his lips.

And fell. And great was the fall of Harlequin. He fell and did not rise.

END OF ACT FOUR