They raced along country roads at a breakneck speed, Keller steering the car easily with one hand. They met few other vehicles on their journey and soon found their way to a small habitation, a few dozen separate buildings, no more. Leto spent her time eagerly looking at everything unfamiliar to her, but decided it best not to ask questions. Earth was bright and wet and green, and so much noisier than anywhere else she had ever been. She had a desire to explore, but kept it carefully hidden.
Their target was to one end of the village, off a little side road. It was nothing at all like Leto had expected: an unremarkable building, unguarded and not a single person in sight. The humans clearly didn't realise the value of what they had stored within. She almost regretted how easy this would be.
They left the car in the driveway, and entered the building. It was as quiet inside as out, perhaps a half dozen visitors. It would be easy enough to use violence, but Keller had been adamant: he wanted a more elegant sign that he had been here than a building full of bodies. His preference was to leave the distinctive classic car outside, his calling card, he had said.
Leto stood back, observing the people here, curious. They appeared interested enough in the exhibits, all apparently connected to local history. To take pride in one's history was something she approved of, and she knew that she did not share Keller's disdain for the people of this world, despite the questionable value of much of the television programming that they broadcast to their populace. She found their literature enjoyable enough, their food endlessly fascinating and she so very much wanted to talk to one of them.
She glanced back at to the reception desk to see that Keller had found it a simple matter to dominate the mind of the man there. His gaze was blank and he was being subjected to a swift interrogation. Leto suppressed a shudder. It was nothing new to her, few on her own planet had been able to resist Keller's hypnosis and those who had generally reduced their life expectancy to a scant few minutes.
Nobody noticed a thing out of place as they walked through the exhibits, stopping at a glass case of Roman artefacts. Leto noted the map by the casing, illustrating the extent of this old empire's reach, and quickly read the inscription beneath it. Keller ordered the man, the curator, to unlock the case and fetch a box for storage.
"We have to take them all?" asked Leto.
"Unless you can determine which of these pieces have been subject to massive gravitational forces merely by looking at them, yes."
Leto looked in the case, carefully examining each object. Some stone, some metal. Coinage, she realised, remembering how they had exhibited similar pieces of old currency on her own world.
"Are these considered valuable here?"
"Not particularly. They date from some two thousand years ago, from a civilisation that is considered one of the greatest in the planet's history. These are common enough remnants."
"Except your artefact."
"Naturally."
The curator returned, carrying a lined and lockable box. He placed it in front of the cabinet and Keller dismissed him with a movement of his hand.
Quickly, the artefacts were wrapped in packing materials and placed securely in the storage box. It wasn't particularly heavy once full, but Keller still summoned the curator back to carry it for them. Leto found it astonishing that none of the patrons noticed anything wrong with this. No questions, no enquiries. An apathy, she wondered, or was this removal of artefacts considered normal here?
Once outside the museum, it was a simple matter for Keller to exert his force of will over the driver of a passing car, forcing one to pull up. The box was placed safely in the boot of the car before Keller and Leto were chauffeured away.
Presently they arrived back at the country house, and the driver was allowed to depart. The rest of the day was taken up setting up Keller's equipment in the cellar. This was where they had arrived in the house and it didn't take Leto long to notice that something very important was missing.
"Where is your TARDIS?" she asked, not looking up as she took chemical after chemical from the box. Running her eye over the equipment, she noted how primitive it seemed and guessed it was either another sign of Keller's arrogance or he did not want to risk giving the humans advanced technology that might be used against him.
"Perfectly safe."
She risked a glance at him, but he did not seem incensed, despite the mild tone which she knew to be dangerous. "Even if I wanted to steal it, I wouldn't know how."
Keller stopped what he was doing. "An underestimation, I feel. You could probably have it take-off through sheer perseverance. Nevertheless, that is not the reason I moved it. I cannot risk it falling into UNIT's hands, or the Doctor's, if I am found before I intend to be."
"They've met you before then?"
He gave a smile that chilled her. "Many times. The Doctor has a penchant for this world."
"Is that why you hate it?"
"I don't recall expressing any such sentiment to you. Derision, perhaps."
"But you do hate it," insisted Leto.
"Can you feel that then?" he asked her.
She shook her head. "No. No, when I look at you, there's nothing. It's like you're not really there at all."
"Your empathic abilities are primitive. In a few millennia your species might have developed a skill worth having."
Leto swallowed, tried not to see the burning cities behind her eyes, the corpses strewn in the streets. The images were harsh and vivid enough for her to smell the burning flesh, hear the screams.
She returned her attention to the chemicals, but Keller moved to stop her, grasping her wrist in his gloved hand. She looked up, into his eyes, and felt the power behind them.
"You don't have to remember," he told her gently. "I can take it away; you can be free of it."
She shook her head. "No."
"You won't even know that they're gone."
"No," she repeated. "I need those memories. I need them. Please."
He nodded, let her go. Neither spoke again as they finished unpacking the equipment.