+34+ - What the hell
The Doctor was weak, so weak. He couldn't even keep his eyes open. They had been working the machine on him for hours, testing the limits of his body and mind. He felt terrible. Everything hurt, although, actually he wasn't injured. But the pain had caused his muscles to spasm like crazy and he was left with a burning sensation in his body after they had finally turned off the machine and released him from the electrodes and straps that had held him in place.
He was too weak to go an take another try to escape. They knew that, that's why they untied him and helped him to clean himself. The Doctor felt so dizzy, he didn't even realize that Rhymes helped him shower, because he was too weak to stand properly.
After they put him into fresh clothes (again grey jumper and trousers) they brought him back to "his room". He didn't even notice they had brought him a completely new bed with fresh sheets and duvet covers. All he noticed was Rhymes and Slipstream gently pushing him down onto the bed.
"Get away from me!", he wanted to yell, but it came out in hoarse, rattling whisper. His halfhearted efforts to get out of their grip only paid him a harsh whisper from Slipstream.
"Lay down or I will strap you to that bed again!"
"After the last time we left him unrestrained we should propably do that.", Rhymes admitted.
"This will do.", Slipstream said as he cuffed one of the Doctor's wrists to the pipe on the wall which led to the heater under the window. The chain was long enough for the Doctor to sit up. "He will need to regain some energy. Also, we don't want our guest to feel uncomfortable, don't we?"
He gave the Doctor a sick grin.
"Sorry if I'm not laughing. What do I do if I need the toilet?"
"You can use this.", Slipstream handed him a urine bottle.
"And for the rest you can use the bedpan under your bed.", Rhymes stated.
"Well, the sanitary equipment around here isn't really worth a star for your hotel."
Rhymes smiled.
"You still got your humor."
"Maybe you haven't suffered enough."; Slipstream added.
"It will take more than that to get me on my knees."
Slipstream smiled coldly.
"Well, then. You go to sleep and regain your energy and Rhymes and I will think of something to get you there."
The Doctor only gave him an equaly cold smile for an answer.
Slipstream and Rhymes left the room and the Doctor turned around to examine the handcuff. Unfortunately this was a very good quality, which meant he wasn't able to pick the lock. Besides he was too weak to make another attempt of escaping. He decided to once listen to Rhymes and Slipstream and get some sleep. His body would recover from the chemical pain the machine had caused and the spasms and he could make another try tomorrow.
"Now what have we got so far?", the president asked Rhymes.
"Well, I don't think we've come far. It takes his willpower to use the bit of regeneration energy he's got left. And we both know it won't be enough to give him a full regeneration. This is his last body."
"So, you think we can't make him use it?"
"This is not something you can't control, like keeping someone from peeing and sooner or later they will pee into their pants. It's his decision to use it or not. And I actually think he'd rather die then give us what we want."
"Then we propably need to think of a different way of torture, maybe it's better to actually cause him physical pain instead of having him onto that machine.", Slipestream stated.
They headed towards the main offices on the fourth floor while talking.
"Possible, but we'll have to be careful with that, he's not immortal as you know, too much torture will kill him."
"We need something to put pressure on him.", Slipstream said. "With the right appliance of pressure he will propably give us what we want."
Rhymes nodded, then a thought hit him.
"Do you think the girl is still alive?"
"Possible. I will sent an order to the soldiers in Atlanta to find her."
With that they had reached the office rooms and Slipstream told Rhymes to inform him if the Doctor would follow their advice and get some sleep.
When Rhymes had left he went to the bureau next to his desk and took the bottle of whisky down. He filled some of it in his glass and with a sigh he sat down in his chair. This day had been very exciting. They had almost lost their prisoner. He decided to double the guards infront of the door to the room the alien was kept in and send an appropriate order through his walkie-talkie to the lieutenant on the third floor.
After the that he took a mouthfull of his whisky and sighed again. He had known that the Doctor was strong, people weren't calling him "The Oncoming storm" for no reason. But never had he expected that much defiance. He had to admit that he kind of admired the Doctor for that. He wasn't easy to break, but sooner or later they would do it.
Just as he was going to pick up his phone (he knew it would be Rhymes) he heard a huge crash and noise from beneath. He felt the floor beneath him vibrate and wobble. The glass of whisky on his desk slipped over the edge and crashed onto the floor.
"What's going on?!"
He hurried to the window and looked down. On the ground floor there was a huge hole in the wall. Everything was full of dust and wreckage, glas too. He couldn't even believe what he was staring at. At first he wondered why the whole building was still standing, but then he realized the walls were still stabilized by the thing that had caused the hole.
"What the hell.", he said when he saw the huge tank that had just crashed into the hospital's wall.