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The Age of Paradox 2.5: Miracle Day
Amy glanced over at the Doctor as they sat around the apartment, Natalie still resting against the door while Rex rested in one of the side rooms and Esther and Gwen had taken a break in another. After their attempt to pass on information to one of Rex's old CIA contacts had failed, Jack had left to spend a night on the town to give himself a break, while K9 had managed to hack communication networks to let Gwen talk with her husband and daughter before they all called it a night. The group as a whole had woken up a short while ago, but after a quick breakfast (during which Gwen had seemed particularly solemn about something), they had soon found themselves with nothing better to do than sit around and go over what they had gathered so far.
"Do you get the impression we're just spinning our wheels at this point?" Amy asked her mentor after a few moments of awkward silence.
"In what way?"
"In the sense that we've dug up this whole thing about a medical company stockpiling drugs in advance of the Miracle and we don't have anyone we can actually pass it on to after our American contact's best option didn't work out?"
"Right," Rex muttered as he looked bitterly over at the Time Lord and the young woman. "Like it's my fault that the guy's bought into the crap we're being accused of-"
"Did any of us say we were blaming you for that?" Amy cut Rex off with an exasperated glare at the CIA agent. "Look, we're doing our best here while dealing with a really weird situation; can you just stop acting like you could have done better if we weren't the ones calling the shots?"
"I never said-"
"You were thinking it," the Doctor pointed firmly at him, before he leant back in the chair and sighed. "I'm not sure which of us has it worse; your contacts don't believe you, and mine can't do anything because we don't have clear evidence of the unusual."
"Clear evidence of the unusual?" Rex repeated. "Like everyone being unable to die isn't unusual?"
"Let's just say that things are extremely complicated and I don't know if you're ready to hear just how bad it could be until I know for sure what we're up against," the Doctor observed, looking at Rex with a teasing smile before his expression became more serious. "All that you need to know is that my contacts can do anything to help us until I can give them a clear target-"
"Now you're OK with shooting people-?"
"'Target' doesn't necessarily have to mean 'kill', Agent Matheson-"
"The point," Gwen cut in, glaring between the Doctor and Rex before she focused on the American agent, "is that we have a name to dig into right now, which is at least more than we had before. K9 and Esther can do a bit of research to work out where we could find anything more about PhiCorp, and in the meantime… well, there has to be something we could pull off, right?"
"…Doctor Juarez," the agent said after a brief silence.
"The woman you met at the airport?" Natalie asked.
"I've still got her card," Rex said, his expression tentative as he looked around at the others. "From what she said during our last talk, she was… taking part in some medical research conferences to work out how we could deal with this shit as a society. If we can meet with her, maybe we can… get her point of view on things?"
"It can't hurt," the Doctor nodded at Rex with a slight smile. "While Esther and K9 run a search on PhiCorp, maybe you could set up a meeting with Doctor Juarez?"
"Hold on; me and the dog?" Esther looked at the Doctor in surprise. "You're serious?"
"Affirmative, Mistress Esther," K9 put in with a pleased tone to his voice. "You have demonstrated exceptional computer skills for a human; your assistance would be most appreciated."
"Well… thanks," Esther smiled at K9 as she turned her attention back to the computer. Looking over at the other woman, Natalie decided that she liked Esther's attitude. The young woman might have expressed doubts about how she was coping with this situation, even briefly wondering if she should just go back to her apartment so that she wasn't holding anyone else back, but she had decided to stick it out after Gwen had pointed out that leaving right now would only prove Rex right.
Got to hand it to that guy; he's been a pain in the neck, but that makes it a lot easier for us to come together.
"So how do we do this?" Esther grinned over at K9 as she turned back to sit directly in front of the computer. "I'll take company history and you handle its European operations?"
"Affirmative, Mistress Esther."
"I take it these phones you've all been working on can call Doctor Juarez without being tracked, right?" Matheson looked at K9.
"Affirmative, Agent Matheson."
"OK, she gets 'Mistress' and I get 'Agent'?" Rex looked over at the Doctor, actually coming across as somewhat hurt by that detail.
"The difference is that K9 and I like Esther Drummond," the Doctor looked pointedly at Rex. "You're here because I don't believe that you deserve to be left behind to die because I don't like you; there's a difference."
"Oh, thanks," Esther smiled over at the Doctor, before shrugging awkwardly at Rex and turning her attention back to the computer. Rex looked as though he was about to say something, but finally just shook his head and walked off to a corner of the room, muttering something about having to make a phone call.
Sitting opposite the young man who had walked into her house and introduced himself as 'the Doctor', Doctor Vera Juarez had no idea why she was listening to this man's story. Agent Matheson might have vouched for him, but the way he'd said it suggested that he didn't exactly like the young man, and Vera couldn't shake the feeling that he looked more like he should still be an attending physician or some kind of student rather than an actual doctor.
On the other hand, there was something in the young man's eyes that made her think that she should show him more respect than she would for anyone else his age…
"So… you've been treating Agent Matheson?" she asked, still wondering at how she had reached the point where she was so casual about letting strange men sit around her apartment.
"More like making sure he doesn't put too much stress on that wound of his, but yes," the Doctor nodded. "Anyway, I'm not that sort of doctor full-time; I'm more of a general scientist rather than a medical specialist."
"But you know enough to get by?"
"I do what I can," the Doctor said, before he shrugged and looked at her with a new intensity. "But that's not relevant right now; what is relevant is that we need your help."
"How?"
"We're… looking in the Miracle."
"Everyone is-" Vera began.
"Not in the sense of people looking into how to deal with it, but in the sense that we're looking into finding out what caused it in the first place." Something in the Doctor's manner suggested that he was thinking beyond that, but wasn't willing to say anything he couldn't commit to.
"What caused it?" Vera looked at the nameless doctor with a new sense of surprise; even if he wasn't going to say more, the mere implication of what he wasn't saying was enough to make her think. "You have ideas about that?"
"We're still working out the details, but we have found evidence that there was someone deliberately behind this," the Doctor nodded. "Apart from the fact that someone tried to kill the only mortal man left on the planet, we've also found hints that someone has been setting up a network to eliminate anyone who might be able to oppose the Miracle, dating back to long before it went into action, which led us to a few interesting hints that certain companies were actively preparing for something like this."
"Like what?"
"Stockpiling antibiotics and other drugs in a quantity that goes beyond what anyone need for anything pre-Miracle."
"Stockpiling?" Vera looked at him in surprise. "Are you suggesting… the pharmaceutical companies knew that this was going to happen?"
"Only one company, as far as we can tell, and only in the sense that they were stocking up on painkillers when there wouldn't have been an obvious reason to do so," the self-proclaimed 'Doctor' explained, before he looked at her with a tentative curiously. "Are you all right?"
"My… my mother had a massive stroke last year," Vera said, the memory still painful as she recalled seeing the once-strong woman lying so still. "I… I had to make a choice. God, if I'd just kept her alive a little longer-"
"It might not have made a difference," the Doctor cut her off, placing a reassuring hand on hers as it lay on the table. "We've seen nothing to indicate that people are going to get better from that kind of serious injury or illness because of these events; they're just not going to die from it. It's possible that injuries like Agent Matheson's will eventually heal if he's given enough time to rest, but that's not the same as expecting someone to get over the damage caused by a stroke."
"…Maybe," Vera conceded, nodding tentatively at him; it was still too early to be sure how normally fatal injuries would cope with the subject's inability to die, but he made a good point about how people were likely to react on a biological level. "But there are so many other cases… God, someone from PhiCorp even gave me their card earlier; some woman called Kitzinger wanted me to attend some kind of private meeting…"
"Really?" the Doctor looked at Vera with a thoughtful smile. "I don't suppose… I realise that this is asking a lot of you, but would you be willing to… attend that meeting for us?"
"For you?" Vera looked at him in surprise.
"For our team," the Doctor clarified. "I assure you that you won't be expected to do anything that might put you at risk or compromise your moral integrity; we just need to be able to get some more information about PhiCorp, which means getting a look at their files and maybe taking a look at whatever meeting might be taking place."
"And you think that will help you find who caused… this?"
"At the very least it'll help us rule out a suspect."
"…This morning, I tried to treat a woman who had been strangled by her husband," Vera said, her tone solemn as she looked at the younger man. "Her brain was basically soup from oxygen deprivation and her neck was practically dust, but since she was still biologically alive, the police couldn't charge her husband with murder… God, they told me they weren't even allowed to say 'murder' under the new rules!"
"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, looking at her with a solemn expression that reinforced her earlier impression of him as a man of great age despite his apparent youth.
"I'm not saying that I can help you get all the answers about what's happening here… but if you think you can help, I might be able to get you inside the building where the meeting will happen."
"That could be enough," the Doctor nodded with a thoughtful smile. "Just provide us the address and time, and maybe let us through the door…"
"You're sure this is safe?" Gwen looked uncertainly at the Doctor as they walked up to the PhiCorp building Vera had identified for them. "I could just do this with the Eye 5s-"
"And you'd see a lot but probably understand not that much," the Doctor cut her off. "No offence, Gwen Cooper, but you're not a scientist; you focus on trying to spot any useful faces in the main conference, and I'll see what I can find on the science front."
"And you're sure you won't get caught out?" Gwen asked, still unsure how serious the Doctor was about his current plans. "I mean, you're relying on a key to protect yourself?"
"This key's been synced up to the TARDIS's chameleon circuit after a few past close calls; it generates the same low-level perception filter your elevator used back in the day," the Doctor explained, reaching down his shirt to briefly lift out the key he was wearing around his neck. "So long as I'm wearing this, any sensors in there will read me as human, and people who aren't expecting me to be there won't see me unless I talk to them first."
"Neat," Gwen smiled at him, before they walked up to a fire door at the rear of the mail building. The Doctor gave the door a sharp knock and it opened to reveal Doctor Juarez, now wearing a dark blue jacket and skirt.
"Doctor," Vera nodded at the Time Lord, waiting a moment as though trying to encourage him to provide his name, before she looked uncertainly at Gwen. "And… you are?"
"Gwen Cooper; one of the best we've got," the Doctor smiled, nodding at the doctor. "Just keep everyone busy at that meeting of yours; we'll do what we can here."
Nodding in understanding, Vera turned back down the corridor towards the meeting, Gwen following behind the woman as the Doctor headed down another corridor. Soon finding the office of Jilly Kitzinger, the closest thing they had to a name for someone in authority in PhiCorp, the Doctor quickly sonicked the door open and sneaked into the office. Grateful that his time training Amy had helped him brush up on his contemporary computer skills, the Doctor turned the computer on and was swiftly able to start copying various files onto the memory stick he'd been given by Jack.
Slower than I'd like, but it's discreet; I just have to hope these give us something…
As the drive finished its work, the Doctor removed it from the computer just as a young red-haired woman walked into the office, with a confidence in her manner that made the Doctor certain she was Jilly Kitzinger. Pressing himself back against the wall, the Doctor waited until the woman had walked to the computer and then quickly slipped out of the open door to head down another corridor.
"I've got the data," the Doctor whispered as he reached up to activate the discreet earpiece he'd put together the night before. "Everything coming along at your end?"
"We're running facial recognition on the footage from the conference," Esther replied. "PhiCorp have a lot of people talking about this from all over the world, and they're all focused on the idea of making prescription drugs legal on a global scale, but from what the lip-reader's giving us, they're just talking about making new rules rather than talking about how they're in a position to do anything about it…"
"The tragedy of this kind of situation; once people are offered a solution, they don't often think about the reasons why someone might be able to offer it," the Doctor observed. "I'll wait outside in case Gwen needs any help, and we'll join you later."
Jack didn't like leaving people alone in the middle of a crisis, but once he'd realised that he had a chance to question a potential key player in this situation he had decided to take the opportunity.
It wasn't that Jack doubted Esther's investigative skills- so far she'd proven to be an exceptional asset in her field, whereas Rex was just being kept on because nobody disliked him enough to want him to suffer whatever was the equivalent of getting killed right now- but with the amount of media attention being directed at Oswald Danes, he'd prefer to chat with the man directly. Maybe Esther was right and Oswald was only significant because he was executed on the right day and was smart enough to spin that into a 'career', but when Gwen had seen Oswald in PhiCorp, he'd slipped out of the flat managed to track Danes to the nearby broadcast station, sneaking into the building via a suitable back window.
"OK," a voice said, Jack turning to see Oswald Danes walking into the room with a nonchalant manner, "you ready for me?"
"Yeah, sure," Jack said; he didn't think this lie was going to work for long, but he might as well take advantage of the opportunity.
"I'd apologise for being late, but it wasn't my fault; I was needed across town," Danes continued. "Still, made it, and this will be going on live, yes? Can you tell me who's interviewing me?"
"Yeah, it's… Sod it," Jack drew his gun; the Doctor was better at this kind of impulsive bluff anyway.
"I suppose a man like you was always on his way," Danes observed, looking back at Jack with the kind of coolness that made Jack think he would have reacted that way even if the gun was able to kill him.
"You met with PhiCorp today," Jack said. "Why?"
"You'll have to ask them," Danes replied, still frustratingly nonchalant.
"Did they mention the name Jack Harkness?" Jack said; it might be tipping his hand, but he had to cut to the chase if they were going to get anywhere. "Have you heard that name?"
"Never," Danes replied. "Why do you ask, Jack? I figured if you cared that much about the name, it was probably yours."
"I just want you to talk," Jack countered as he took out a small recording device; whether or not Danes knew his name didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but he was going to come out of this with something…
"What about?"
"I saw you on television saying you feel forgiven for taking the life of a child," Jack said, wishing he could stop himself thinking about Steven once those words passed his lips; he understood why the Doctor couldn't always show up, but that didn't stop it hurting when he wondered if the Doctor could have helped him during that crap with the 456. "That's a lie. I know that's a lie."
"How do you know that, Jack, with such certainty?" Danes asked.
"Tell the truth!" Jack yelled, refusing to get drawn into that kind of question. "The murder of Susie Cabina? You don't feel sorry at all."
"The truth is… she flaunted it," Danes said, moving slowly towards Jack even as the gun was aimed right at his throat. "Her innocence. Most people, they get hit or whatever, it's hours before the bruises rise up. But they showed right away with her… It was like I was painting on her. And she looked so beautiful, I thought it couldn't get any better than that, but oh, Jack… I swear to you, right then at the end, I felt her life leave and she left through me."
The fact that the man was actually smiling as he spoke was the really disturbing part for Jack.
"Yeah," Danes continued. "You know that feeling? I think you do. And I relive it every single night, because that was the best moment of my life."
The best moment of my life…
"Now I understand," Jack said, lowering his gun as he looked at Danes with a mix of horror and contempt. "You're doing all this because you're searching for one thing. One simple thing. Execution. World without death, so you get to live. And it's killing you."
"Jack," Danes said, actually looking like he was fighting the urge to laugh, "what are you going to do with that recording?"
"We're in a broadcast centre," Jack countered. "Figure I might broadcast it."
"Excellent idea, if only I didn't have to do this," Danes responded. "Boys!"
A duo of guards walked into the room and grabbed Jack from behind before he could move to react properly.
"Take that recording off him," Danes said, as the guards took a firm grip on Jack. "I did visit PhiCorp, and they were kind enough to offer me protection."
"In exchange for what?" Jack asked, refusing to show fear; he might be able to die right now, but there was no way anyone else could know that if Danes didn't know it himself.
"The message," Danes said, picking up a jacket and walking for the door. "Don't hurt him, just get rid of him. It was nice to meet you, Jack Harkness."
The man actually had the nerve to pause as he was about to walk out of the door. "Well, you can hurt him a little, but not the face. That's how it's done these days."
Jack didn't have time to wonder what that meant before he felt the first punch to his stomach, gritting his teeth at the new sense of pain, such a contrast to the sharpened form of pleasure he'd felt last night…