Henry looked irritated and confused as the guard marched him out of the impound lot. Abe was just glad it didn't look like the guard had roughed him up any.
"Be thankful I don't have you charged for trespassing," said the guard. "Do me a favour gramps, get him outta hear and keep him out of trouble."
"Gramps?" Abe scoffed. "Come on Henry, I think we've outstayed our welcome here.
Henry chewed his lip and looked like he was going to argue with the guard, but Abe gripped his arm rather firmly and muttered, "You're not going to help anyone like this."
Henry was about to rebut, but his better judgement kicked in.
"You don't understand Abe, she was here and now she's not. How can she have just vanished into thin air?"
Abe looked doubtful. "Henry, come on, this lot's pretty big and you weren't in there for all that long. She's probably just somewhere way up back, is all. If we hang around here long enough she'll come out and problem solved."
"You don't understand Abe, I…heard something."
"You heard something? Like what?"
"I…don't know, it was coming from a way off in the distance. But I'm sure that I'd heard it somewhere before."
Abe gave him a questioning look and Henry couldn't blame him. He was well aware how he was sounding, but over his long lifetime he'd garnered a knack…a sense for knowing when things weren't right. It wasn't easy to explain, especially not to an ordinary person. Only someone who'd lived as long as he had could understand just how one's perception and instinct were altered over centuries of experience.
Unfortunately though, he'd only ever encountered one other immortal – a madman named Adam. Even if he weren't currently in a coma, he wasn't exactly the sort of fellow he could go to for support and understanding. Maybe one day he'd meet a nicer sort of immortal.
"Listen, Henry, I know it goes against your Georgian code of honour or whatever, but why don't you just put yourself – and me – out of your misery and use this?" Abe fished a smart phone out of his pocket and held it out for his adoptive father to take.
Henry cringed a little at the sight of the hand-held device. He'd learned to adapt to a lot of things over the past two centuries, but cellular telephones were just one of those things that he couldn't quite bring himself to grow accustomed to just yet.
"Oh, quick baulking and just call her," said Abe as he pressed the phone into Henry's hand, "at least then maybe we can stop running around the city chasing our tails."
Henry knew he had a point, so he decided to relent. Just one question remained.
"Abraham…how do you unlock this thing exactly?"
Abe shook his head, "Oh, brother."
Jo's eyes darted this way and that as that strange grating noise rang out all around her, all the while she held her arms out from her body to steady herself.
Suddenly, even over the deafening groaning sound, she heard the distinctive sound of her phone's ringtone as it vibrated away in her jacket pocket.
"Martinez," she said, trying not to sound too bewildered as she answered the phone.
"Jo!" came the voice on the other end. "Jo, are you alright? Where are you?"
She gasped, recognising the voice immediately.
"Henry! My God, Henry, how…I saw you…how can this be happening?"
The Doctor and Lucie's ears pricked up and they both exchanged uncertain glances from across the console.
Jo put her hand to her mouth as she simultaneously grinned and shed a tear. Suddenly a thought occurred to her that caused her smile to falter. If this thing really was a time machine, could it be that she was actually talking to a past version of Henry?
"Henry, is this really you?" she asked hopefully, her heart racing in her chest.
"Jo, it's me, I'm fine. I know what you saw must have been horrifying, but that thing didn't kill me."
"But then, what…"
"Listen Jo, I'll explain later, but right now I need to know where you are and whether you're alright."
She looked around at the cavernous, gothic space and time machine that defied all logic and reason.
"I-I'm…I'm heading back to the factory," she said, not untruthfully, "the Doctor and Lucie are with me."
"What? Jo, no, what are you thinking? You can't go back there."
"It's fine," she said, "this Doctor guy, he seems to know about these…things, we're going to do some recon and see if we can formulate a plan of attack. Hanson's called in SWAT, but they won't be any good if they don't know what they're walking into."
Henry's voice grew severe. "Jo, please, promise me you won't go into that factory. That thing…I don't want you anywhere near it."
Jo's brow furrowed, a tinge of anger striking in her gut.
"I'm sorry Henry, but that's not your call to make."
"Detective, please listen-"
"No, Henry, you listen. You're not my superior, you're my medical examiner and, yeah, OK, you're my friend. We've done a lot of good together and I trust you more than anyone I know. And yeah, today is weird as Hell and if I'm being honest, I have no idea what's going on. Henry, I am so out of my depth it's not funny. But as long as I've got this badge, I'm going to do my job, and that means maintaining law and order, aliens or no aliens."
"Excuse me? Did you just say aliens?"
The ship thudded as it came to a landing, the groaning and wheezing dying away.
"Look, Henry, I've got to go. Just head back to your office and we'll debrief when this is all over."
She hung up the phone before he could object and held it to her chest, her eyes closed as she took a deep breath.
She opened them to see the Doctor and Lucie staring at her rather awkwardly.
"Oh. Right. You heard that, huh?"
"Jo? Jo? Blast! Why does she have to be so stubborn?" Henry thrust the phone back at Abe and began strutting towards the car at a hurried pace.
"Alright, where are we going now? Back to that factory, I take it?" Abe sounded like an exasperated parent who knew exactly when their child was in too much of a mood to be reasoned with. Rather ironic given the circumstances.
Henry cast a look at him as he reached for the door handle, only to realise that it was locked. He sighed. "No, of course not Abraham. We're not going back to the factory, you'll drop me off and head back to the shop. I've waylaid you enough for the day. Besides, it's bad enough that Jo is risking her life with that thing, I'm not going to put you in harm's way too."
"Hmm, well, I suppose this is the point where I'm supposed to boldly declare that I'm not going to let you do this alone, and indignantly declare that I may be getting on in years, but I can still look after myself. But truth be told, it's a beautiful Sunday, I've got a business to run and a very lovely lady who's waiting to have lunch with me. Besides, you're immortal and I'm not, you'll be fine."
His eyes twinkled and he gave Henry a sly grin as he unlocked the car.
Henry was going to say something, but opted instead to simply smile in return as he climbed into the passenger seat.
The TARDIS door creaked as the Doctor stepped out into the cool, early afternoon sun. They were behind an old warehouse that, if the Doctor had managed to stick the landing, should have been directly behind the factory.
"Alright, coast is clear," he called back into the TARDIS.
Lucie and Jo followed him out before he turned around and locked the doors behind them.
Jo still looked tense, taking baby steps – slowly and deliberately – as she looked around with wide eyes and a slightly gaping mouth. She looked like she was expecting the world to suddenly fall away from beneath her feet. In a way, she seemed even more distressed than when she'd first entered the TARDIS.
"We…we really did it," she said absently. "We…we moved."
"Noticed that, did ya?" said Lucie with a wink.
The Doctor gave her a sly smile. "I wish all of my travelling companions were as easily impressed as you. Maybe you can come with us once all this is over. I'd love to see your reaction to the Hallowed Halls of Costa-Nebraxus." With that, he was off and heading for the street corner.
Lucie gave Jo a light rap on the arm with her knuckles, bringing her attention back down to Earth. "Come on, can't hang around here lolly-gagging all day."
Jo looked at the surprisingly well-adjusted teenager and shook her head. "Right, right. Come on, let's go."
They caught up with the Doctor and the three of them kept pace together until they reached the next block over, the rear side of the factory in full view.
"Alright, this is where I leave you," said the Doctor. "If I'm not back in an hour, contact UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Tell them I sent you and request an air strike on the factory. I'm not sure who the leadership are at this point in time, but my name should still carry weight with them. Oh and give them my authorisation code: 211-2112-1968."
"OK, got it," said Jo as she made a mental note of the number.
"Excellent. Well then ladies," he said with a tight smile, "good luck." Then without another word he turned on his heels and headed for the rusted chain-link fence that surrounded the rear of the factory.
"Do you think he'll be OK?" asked Jo.
"Yeah, don't go worrying about the Doctor," said Lucie, "he can handle a couple of busted up old Daleks."
Jo knew that Lucie was trying to reassure her, but she couldn't hide the notes of fear and uncertainty that clipped at her voice.
"Right, well, come on," said Jo, before they both headed back to the police line at the front of the factory.
The Doctor walked along the length of the fence, looking for any gaps he might be able to take advantage of.
"Right, then," he said once he'd accepted that no such gap existed, "I suppose I'll have to make my own entrance."
He retrieved his sonic screwdriver from his pocket, adjusted the setting and then set about tracing a line from about head height, down to the ground. As the screwdriver whirred away over the metal links, they melted and snapped, causing the detached section of fence to peel inwards. Once he reached the ground, he stood back up and traced a horizontal line from the top of the vertical one, until he was satisfied that it would be wide enough to slip through.
Slipping the screwdriver back in his pocket, he nodded approvingly at his work, before rolling the loose flap of fence to the side and ducking through.
Much like the other side of the factory, there was a set of stairs that lead up to a service door. The Doctor crouched low as he crossed over to the stairs, although he had no idea what good crouching would do him if the Daleks spotted him. He supposed that some human habits must have been rubbing off on him.
He took the stairs slowly and cautiously, hoping not to cause too much of a clamour. When he was about two steps from the top, he realised that a flock of pigeons had made the landing home. He paused for a moment, wondering whether he could get the birds to leave quietly. Realising, however, that this was extremely unlikely, he just shrugged and continued on, hoping that the Daleks wouldn't pay any attention to the sound of cooing pigeons in a city like New York.
The birds flapped away in a flurry, as expected, as he reached the door and unlocked it with a whirr of the screwdriver. Then, taking a deep breath, he opened it and went inside.