Chapter Forty Nine

The next morning, everyone assembled at the kitchen table. While they ate their breakfast, Ianto opened an atlas and the Doctor set the journals on the table while they planned their next move. They were eating eggs, bacon and croissant and James had coffee while everyone else had tea.

"Now…" Ianto said while they looked at a map of France. "Are we still sticking to our plan of trying to infiltrate a military base and sending a message to the world because we need to head in the direction of a military base if we're doing that."

"Are there any bases in France?" Rose asked.

"There's some in Germany," James said. "I had a cousin who was in the army and they sent him to Germany."

Ianto turned to Germany in the atlas and they studied the map.

"Any idea where he was stationed?" the Doctor asked James.

"Not sure. This was when I was a kid and I didn't see him except at funerals."

"Ugh, I hate that," Rose said. "They come up to you and know you since you were small and you're trying to figure out who they are."

"Yup, that's how it is in my family," James said. "So sorry I can't be more help."

"No worries, we're headed that way anyway," the Doctor said. "We'll ask the locals where the army bases are. And while we're here and looking for places to go, I wanted to share with you some things I found in the journals. Lazarus Labs wasn't the only lab experimenting with alien tech. It was the main one but they also had another lab in Tokyo that was experimenting with growing clones. Seems they were able to extract more DNA from the sample they took from John's hand. But in fact, it doesn't take much to get a DNA sample, just one cell, and that means you can get several samples even from a small piece of flesh. John, how big was the sample the Master took from you?"

John held up his fingers about two inches apart. The Doctor nodded.

"That would be enough to create a few clones and put some of the genetic material in the Master's screwdriver," he said. "Now…according to these journals, there was an attack at Lazarus Labs when the clone that we saw managed to escape and went bonkers and killed that woman we saw in the corridor. They then had to kill the clone because they deemed him too dangerous to live."

Rose flinched at that and took John's hand.

"But you said the bodies were still laying there. Why didn't they dispose of them?" Martha said.

"Dunno. This was the last journal entry that was written and from what I can deduce, whoever wrote it was in a hurry. The handwriting is rushed," the Doctor said. "Maybe the Master found out about it and ordered them to abandon the lab and they didn't have time to dispose of the dead bodies. However…"

The Doctor put one of the journals in front of him and opened up to a page he had marked with a piece of paper. He read to them while they listened.

"We have made progress with the clone. He seems to respond to the conditioning and we are hopeful that we can finish brainwashing him soon and begin mating him with the prisoners."

"Conditioning? That doesn't sound good," Martha said while Rose squeezed John's hand.

"Does it say what the conditioning is?" Ianto asked.

"No. This entry was made several months ago though," the Doctor said.

"So, he could be brainwashed by now," Rose said.

The Doctor nodded grimly.

"That's not all," he said, turning to another bookmarked page. "They have another entry here that lists the women they captured for the mating process. They list their names and where they're from. There is one from Japan but the others are foreign born, including one from London, Chiswick to be precise and I know who she is."

"Who?" Rose said.

"Remember I told you that after I said goodbye to you, I met this woman who was sucked on to my TARDIS."

"The bride?" Rose said.

"Yes, her name is Donna Noble and they have a Donna Noble listed here from Chiswick. I'm willing to bet it's the same Donna."

"And they're going to try to mate her with this clone?" Ianto said.

"Yes, I can just imagine her reaction to that. I'm sure Donna kicked and screamed and yelled their ears off and she'll do that because I can guarantee you if they don't lobotomize her first, she will be dragged the whole way to the bed or whatever they're gonna use to mate them with."

"So, we go and rescue your friend?" James said.

"I'd like to. I want to try to find this clone as well and see what they've done to him. They did brain surgery on the one that went out of control so I can just imagine what they did to this clone to make him obey. I'm sure it wasn't pleasant."

"We could use the manipulator and go to Tokyo and check," Ianto said.

"Yeah, it sounds like this is very urgent," James said. "If we can hop over there, I'd say go and check this out first."

"There's more though," the Doctor said, turning to another bookmarked page. "There were other experiments including trying to make more Toclafane using the current humans. Rassilon knows why since he has six billion Toclafane at his disposal but I s'pose the Master needs to do something with those he can't use for slave labor. According to this, they've tried a few tests but nothing successful but this was also from several months ago."

"And this is also in Tokyo?" Martha said.

"No, they have a third lab in Los Angeles. They're doing the experiments there."

"So, we're gonna be very busy," James said.

"Seems so, but I suggest going to Tokyo first. The other things can wait for the moment," the Doctor said. "I want to rescue Donna and I want to see what happened to this clone and if we can save it as well. So, is everyone okay with that?"

Everyone else nodded.

"Then I suggest we get some rest and leave tonight. Once again, we'll need the cover of darkness but at least we'll have our perception filters," the Doctor said. "I just hope that we're not too late and Donna isn't dead or a vegetable."