"What do you mean, 'she's gone'?" the Brigadier roared.
"I'm sorry sir," Benton said. "The detail monitoring her communications said she reported that she was on her way out, but our man in the lobby said she never got off the lift. We've searched the building but there's no sign of her."
The Brigadier looked at the clock on his desk and sighed heavily. Sixteen hours until world leaders would start arriving.
Harry's call had been a little odd - Sarah was going to be late, and she wanted him to eat dinner with Harry at UNIT so she wouldn't worry about him - but the driver he'd sent, Sgt. Jennings, was friendly enough, putting him at ease pretty quickly.
"So how do you like being a civilian," Jennings joked with him during the drive.
John had been about to break the silence by asking what it was like to be a soldier, so he found himself laughing before he could open his mouth. "Everyone asks that, eh?"
"It's usually the first thing they say, so I like to get my little joke in first," he laughed. He reached his free hand over to John to shake. "Name's Albert Jennings, you can call me Bertie if you like."
"Nice to meet you, Bertie," John said, shaking his hand.
"And how would you liked to be addressed Sir?"
"Oh, er," John stammered, "just … John, I suppose."
"Well 'Just John', if you don't mind I'm going to call you Johnny. Much more friendly that way. Say Johnny, what's a quiet looking fellow like you going to UNIT HQ for, if I'm not being too nosey?
"Friendly is good," John said, relaxing a bit into his seat. "Honestly, I've no idea. My friend Doctor Sullivan says that I'm to have dinner there, but he sounded a bit odd when he called."
"Oh, you're in with UNIT's elite then. You'll have a much better dinner than I will, I can promise you that," he laughed. "Here's your dinner date now," he said as they pulled up to the door.
Harry met him at the car with a completely unreadable expression on his face, his head down. Having to deal with Sarah Jane's anger yesterday had been bad enough; she'd let him know precisely how furious she was with him for telling the Brig what she had been up to.
At the time, he hadn't been sorry he'd done it, though he'd never intended to hurt her or make her feel smothered. He'd just been worried, and now it seemed he'd been justified. Now she was missing, and that was withUNIT's help.
While he had been waiting for John to arrive, his mind had been racing, thinking about the danger she could be in and what might be happening to her. He hated the feeling of helplessness that was overwhelming him.
What he had to do next wasn't sitting well with him either. All he could bring himself to say was, "I need you to follow me John. The Brigadier would like to talk to you before we have dinner." Then he turned and headed inside. As he put his hand on the door, he straightened himself as best he could.
John followed Harry into the complex. He'd seen a bit of it - more than he'd really wanted to - when he and Sarah had been summoned by the Brigadier, so it wasn't completely unfamiliar, but he was still a bit surprised when Harry led him to what looked like a corridor of flats. He followed Harry inside a smallish looking apartment. "People live here, do they?"
Harry turned to face him, and for a moment, he didn't say anything. Then he took a deep breath. "Please sit down for a moment, John. I have something I need to tell you."
Harry looked so troubled that John wondered what could be so difficult to tell him. He looked around him at the apartment and sat down slowly on the couch, the situation beginning to become clear in his mind. "Did Sarah decide she doesn't want me living at her house any more? Did I do something wrong?"
Harry sighed deeply and sat down, putting a reassuring arm on John's shoulder. "No, that's not it at all. It's nothing you did. She thinks you're great." He took another deep breath. "I'm afraid that Sarah Jane won't be coming home today, John. In fact, I'm not sure when she's coming home. I'm sorry to say that she's been abducted."
"Ab..." John tried to absorb what Harry was saying. "Wait a minute," he realized, "she told me she was just going to run some errands. She must have gone to Doctor Linus this morning!" Worry began to gather in the pit of his stomach. "She was supposed to wait for UNIT, wasn't she? Did she go off on her own? You can go after her, can't you?"
"No," Harry said, "that's not it either. She was at UNIT this morning and they wired her so they could cover her moves and hear everything that was happening to her."
"So … so you lot were involved, then, and you let her get kidnapped? How could you let that happen?" He felt a strong emotion rising in him, but he wasn't sure whether it was fear or anger.
Harry sighed again. "We didn't just 'let' it happen, John. She finished the interview and was on her way down in the lift. She never got out of it. She seems to have simply vanished somewhere between the third floor and ground level."
"Well … have you looked for her, then?"
"We did everything we could, John, but we have no idea of what's happened to her or where she is right now." Harry stood. "I'm afraid, old man, that for now, our Miss Smith is missing in action."
"So … we need to find her, then." John said, standing and heading for the door. "UNIT's still looking, aren't they? You're not going to stop until you find her, right?"
Harry stepped in front of him. "No, of course we're not going to stop until we find her." He brought John back to the couch. This was the part he'd been particularly dreading. "There's more, John. I'm sorry, but you're going to be living here until she's been rescued and home safe."
John staggered backwards for a moment. "What?"
Harry put his hands on John's shoulders, partly to steady him, and partly to keep him from bolting. "Orders is orders John. You've nothing to be concerned about though, UNIT has plenty of room, as you can see, and the accommodations aren't that bad. Much better than a homeless shelter and certainly much safer. Everyone will treat you well, and I'll be here every day to check on you and visit. We can even send a detail to go and get some of your things. They can bring that computer you've been working on as well, and anything else you feel might make you more comfortable. I'm afraid the food isn't as good as Sarah Jane's cooking, but it's edible and there's loads of it. You'll be fine, you'll see."
John looked around at the room, which seemed to be getting smaller by the second. His heart pounded. He thought it must have seemed like a trivial thing to everyone else, but Sarah Jane's house was the only home he'd ever known, and the thought of just picking up and leaving... "You can't do that," he said as Harry once again blocked his path to the door. "You can't keep me here, you just can't."
"I'm afraid, Mr. Doe," the Brigadier said as he strode into the room, "that we can, and we shall. We are responsible for Miss Smith, and as she was responsible for you, that means that as of right now, you're our responsibility as well. You are officially the legal ward of UNIT."
John sank back into the couch, slowly shaking his head. "The legal … Harry, you're not going to let them do this..." He looked up at him, his eyes pleading. "Are you?"
Harry slumped back down onto the couch next to him. Why did he always seem to be the one stuck in the middle and getting blamed for everything? He sighed and wished Sarah Jane was safe and he was very far away, preferably with her.
He brushed his hand over his head and looked up at John. "I'm sorry John, I have to take my orders from the Brigadier." He knew he wasn't responsible for anything that had happened, but when his eyes met John's, he felt like he'd just shot Bambi.
"Look, John," he said, trying to sound cheerful. "At least you know that you're completely safe here. Why, if the aliens wanted to come after you, they'd have to take take on an army to do it. We have a huge arsenal of men and weapons to protect you. No one could get past them," he said, hoping it helped John feel better.
John thought about what he was saying and his shoulders slumped. "And that's why I have to stay here," he said quietly. "Because UNIT still isn't sure I haven't been compromised."
"You may have no memory, Mr. Doe," said the Brigadier firmly, "but I'll say this for you, you're as sharp as they come."
John thought about how easily he'd watched Sarah walk out the door into danger that morning. "Not sharp enough, apparently," he sighed.
The Brigadier walked back to his office, knowing that Sullivan was getting Mr. Doe settled in. He felt better knowing that that particular loose end was accounted for. At least for now.
Now he just had to find Miss Smith, defeat the aliens, and prevent a takeover of the entire world and then he could go somewhere very far away for a long vacation. It was all he'd need to be really happy.
Engvar Sa-itch'wi stood at the console of his ship, staring down at the Earth, seething. His antennae twitched angrily at the unfolding events.
It wouldn't be long now before the leaders of the major states would be together, and then their plan would be complete. The soldier drones had completed their work, as had the human hosts. Everything was ready.
Except.
Except for the interloper.
He looked at the monitor, staring at the female in her cell. The male newspaper host had confirmed her identity, and the likelihood that she had been investigating the physician host, Linus. Who knew who else she had gotten involved? Who knew what new interruptions and obstacles were falling into place every moment?
Why is it, he thought, that just when you have everything in place, and you know exactly what is going to happen, someone or something has to get in the way? "Why?" he roared, sending underlings skittering out of reach of his Andrarrrastick.
Even the simplest things weren't working out. Under any other circumstances, they would just inoculate her as a host, and that would be the end of it. They could send her back, and use her to dismantle those obstacles. But no... the soldier drones insisted that there were "mitigating anomalies" that made it impossible.
"I'll give you 'mitigating anomalies'," he shouted. "Prepare my transport!"