Fleeing from the Drekker projection saw failure, as every time Theodore and Lila fled from the lumbering giant that chased after them, it'd always caught up to them, no matter how far they ran, due to the sensors projecting the Drekker accurately placing it wherever they're fleeing.
Eventually, the futility drove innovation, with Theodore deciding that if they can't flee the Drekker, they'll rid it, in the only way they know how.
Destroying the sensors, why of course.
For that to work, Theodore had to pull from every science book he read throughout his youth, using whatever he managed to get his hand on with the aid of Lila, managing to deduce which is the real object, and not another simulated object.
A makeshift, but effective, handheld cannon.
Not something that most science books would describe in detail, but Theodore never said it'd been science books from his schools.
Uncle showed him books when he and his siblings went to Gallifrey for breaks, to the average person, they weren't books you'd expect a young child to read for schoolwork, but honestly, it was, with the even more complicated science restricted to older students.
How complicated, well, Theodore's not sure even Einstein could've understood it if he had a copy of the textbooks.
How Theodore even understood half the things in the damn books, well, having dear uncle explain it to him and give him pointers, helps, but the old Time Lord had centuries to dedicate teaching to children.
Anyhow, the hand cannon worked without a hitch, shot up at the sensors each time Theodore pressed down on the handle, and they broke off each at a time, the force strong enough that it broke it down to the inner tubes.
While running from the Drekker, Theodore periodically shot at the sensors, every time he destroyed them, the Drekker became increasingly scattered at appearing.
Eventually, Theodore managed to get enough distance from the Drekker, that it hadn't reappeared, giving him time to talk to Lila as they're attempting to catch their breath.
"Not to ruin the moment, but it can't hurt us, Samuels said it," Lila pointed out that they wasted precious time to rescue the trapped guests due to them running from the projection, but Theodore wasn't convinced they were better off not destroying the sensors.
There's something else going on here, not just the usual antics of an AI going haywire, with the programming bearing mention of the Doctor, it concerned him.
"Al, can you hear me?" Theodore called out telepathically to the AI and he responded, saying he can.
Theodore asks him what he managed to find on former employees from the private sector and Al tells him that he can't find anything on the employee.
Either the employee gotten iced before this started after turning over Samuels Argyle to the irate company for the theft, or as Theodore's thinking, something else.
"You're thinking that they intentionally let Samuels Argyle steal the equipment?" Al summed what Theodore's thinking and he nodded as he tells the AI it didn't make sense that the equipment gotten stolen in the first place.
That kind of equipment required guards, with it being military surplus, the company wouldn't let Samuels Argyle steal it easily. These things required certifications, special IDs, the whole nine yards, something that the equipment lacked.
With the equipment identified by Al as two pieces, the main component that processed the programming and commands and the output that broadcasts it, Samuels Argyle shouldn't have managed to stolen it with his spurred partner due to the sheer sizes of the equipment.
Which, Theodore's finding it hard to believe that it was a spurred partner that conveniently worked for the company. He deduced that the company intentionally gotten someone, unaffiliated with them, to lure Samuels Argyle into stealing the equipment from them.
"Why?" Al wondered what Theodore's thinking as the aloof giant's trying to think while sweat dripped from his curly hair.
Thinking, Theodore suggested that the company wanted to test the machines, but couldn't because of whatever reason, but came to find Samuels Argyle having money issues, and that's all he wrote.
It's a good coverup, too, have someone like Samuels Argyle and his alleged partner steal from them, with the cameras not working, well, obviously they're irresponsible for having the cameras easily turned off, but they couldn't been guilty for the theft, thefts happen, and a rogue employee isn't unheard of, either.
Since the machines referenced the Doctor, Theodore suspected the trap's for him, or at least a Doctor in particular that they haven't come across, yet, but it's something to do with the Doctor, that much's apparent.
"Any luck on "Almar" and what it even is?" Theodore asks if Al found anything about the word, which Al says he got a lead, Almar's a person.
Not a very good one, either, a quack, and dangerous.
Don't ask how, but Al swears he knows the person, but he can't place him.
Probably on a partition of the black box, who knows.
All he know's Almar's obsessive about the one thing that all walks of life have in common.
Fear.
Al says Almar had warrants and a bounty put on him following the breakthrough where it was found he was responsible for at least three deaths, just what they found, and left the bodies in different stretches of the universe.
The only reason Almar became known to authorities's because of a camera footage when he dumped the third victim.
"But the thing is, I can't find out where he's been for the last couple of years, it's blotted out. I think the private sector might've gotten a hold of him and been working in conjunction. It'd explain the military surplus. They were using his designs," Al summed his attempts finding out more about Almar and the damning evidence that the private sector either convinced him to work with them or threatened him into doing so at the risk of being tossed to the wolves.
"I'll go through my black box and see if I can't find anything useful," Al tells Theodore of his plans of digging through the black box, seeing if he can't find anything about Almar, consulting with resources, expanding his searches, trying to break through the programming, the usual.
Before he let him go, Theodore asks if there's indeed a risk of the simulations hurting them, but Al seemed dodgy, before admitting that Almar's the egotistical Scarecrow, only instead of fear toxins, he's using the human mind against itself.
"The simulations aren't real, but because of the sensory overloads, your mind doesn't realize it," Al summed his fears. "Simulation traps you in the deep underground caverns, chest pressing against the stones, your mind's going to go haywire. You basically scare yourself, even if you try to convince yourself it's a simulation, and with the simulation growing intense by the second, you basically risk scaring yourself to death."
In an unconventional sense, Almar's taking pages from a fictional comic book villain and amplifying the effects without using toxins to do it for him.
That said, it's a matter of will, Theodore and Lila must do everything they can to convince themselves that what they're seeing is a simulation, it can't hurt them, even if it looks like it can, and that includes the Drekker.
Even if it smells, growls, tries to gouge out their eyes, it's not real. Al already did a scan, there aren't any in this universe, and even if there were, the Drekker wouldn't be in the museum with the lights on. He would know the mere moment he found a report somewhere describing the creatures.
Through the power of their minds, they can't fall for the simulations, or else, as Al puts it, they'll be "deader than a door nail."
He can't tell them about the status of the guests, Theodore and Lila must find the security system, assuming the AI hadn't turned the cameras off, or blocking them off, and even then, he can't figure out how to break them out.
"There must be something!" Theodore tried to help Al come up with a plan to save the guests and get them out of there.
Thinking it over, Al says he could do something drastic. Something drastic enough that it throws the AI in a loop, giving him ample time to wrangle it when it's not looking.
"Ah, but it'll take me time. I'm not made of magic, but uh, you find Samuels Argyle, I'm sure that putz has the override key. You use that, I can really get some work done," Al warns Theodore of the time it'll take for his plan to work.
Theodore asks, "What if the override key doesn't work?"
Al told him, "It was the thing that turned it on, it'll be the thing that turn it off. Even it can't override it."
It wasn't like Samuels Argyle simply turned on the power switch, he had to nab the override key to power it on and use the input. Without that, he can't even change the clock, and more importantly, the machines can't derail it.
That's, of course, unless the machines make a simulation that scares the bejesus out Samuels Argyle to the point he dies and he dies in an area the two can't reach.
"But, uh, make like a tree and make a break for it," Al swatted the invisible air before pushing Theodore out of their conversation.
That said, Theodore relayed it, and they continued destroying the sensors along the way, depriving the machines of spots to project whatever it doled out, all in the attempts of finding Samuels Argyle, that Theodore's sure remains in the building, where, he doesn't know.
How Theodore planned on making Samuels Argyle give up the override key, need anyone ask?
Feeling the cylinders becoming increasingly hot and worn from overuse, Theodore's forced to reserve the cannon, relying on what else he learnt from his beloved uncle.
With Lila's help, Theodore procured something that gets his point across, Lila finding it stowed away in an unmasked closet.
A sledgehammer.
Coupled with his natural strength, Theodore's doing what he does best, making his point, one hit at a time.
Trying their best, they're searching for Samuels Argyle, and they're having problems doing that, despite Theodore's cannon and sledgehammer, the machines are still capable of camouflaging areas of the museum, keeping them away from places it doesn't want them going towards.
It'd appear it gotten intensely displeased, an understatement, with their efforts that it's changing its methods in stopping them, by splitting them up, keeping them away from each other.
Split up from Theodore, Lila's holding the cannon in her hands, keeping it close, but not close to her chest, as it remained hot.
She's in a different spot of the museum, maybe area, she doesn't know, everything's changed, and she can't find her way back to Theodore. Even with him in her mind, she can't pinpoint where he is and neither her, for the matter.
"Oh wonderful, death not by a Dalek, but by two machines made by a psychopath," Lila muttered to herself as she's trying to find her way back to Theodore, but everything's changed, she can't even turn back around, it's not the way she came, anymore.
Trying to remind herself that nothing in the museum can hurt her, Lila maneuvered through the unusually warped area she's in, the colors aren't natural, pastel, the hallway devoid of features, looked like the backdrop of an early PC game, complete with the loud colors popping out from the flat walls.
The hallway became narrow, with sharp turns, winding floor leading somewhere in the distance, that Lila's having trouble keeping up as she tried to find a way back.
It's becoming increasingly dizzy trying to walk on the spiraling floor, that it caused Lila to stop, and as she did, she sees someone in the distance.
She couldn't see him, it couldn't be Theodore, but as she stretched her neck out, she's unable to discern anything from the figure, yet felt eyes on her.
"It's in my head, it's the machines' doing it," Lila tells herself as she stared at the figure. "Theo's going to find me, we're gonna put a stop to this."
The figure's coming closer to her, those hateful eyes pierced her chestnut eyes, and as he's coming towards her, Lila sees his shadow, it stretched across the floor, instantly, she felt herself becoming colder.
"You're not real!" Lila tried to tell it, her voice echoing in every disjointed way possible, but for naught.
She heard back a distinct voice, "Well… well… Watson… in the… flesh…"
It sounded like a man, posh, but something about his tone of voice, sent chills up her spine, and her heart raced with fear like it never did before.
Unable to turn back, Lila's forced to watch as the figure came towards her, it was indeed, a man, wearing an outfit that Lila couldn't discern from afar, when he stopped short of her, the sensors above started failing, and Lila couldn't see him properly.
"This is just another one of the projections," Lila tells herself as she sees the man.
The man responded with a stilted, "I'd remember a face… like yours…"
"You're not real!" Lila pitifully cried out, but the shadowy man shook his head disdainfully, before he took another step forward, Lila tried to step back, but felt a wall behind her.
She would've turned back to look, but her chestnut eyes refused to break contact from the man.
When the man stood in front of her, his face indiscernible from the failing sensors, she felt those piercing eyes staring her down, hateful, disdainful.
Calmly, the man spoke to her, but as he spoke, something's going haywire with the sensors, causing his voice to wobble and stutter, yet Lila's able to hear the threat underlying, "You… cannot escape your fate… I promise you… no one… escapes me… no one… it will be… I will… break you… you won't die… you… won't… remember…"