Disclaimer: I don't own what you recognise; the drill should be familiar to you by now
Feedback: I'd appreciate it; I'm trying to do something a bit different here
AN: Thanks are owed to the members of the Facebook page 'The Magic of Torchwood' who helped refine some of the details of a particular confrontation the Doctor has in this chapter.
The Age of Paradox 2.5: Miracle Day
With Gwen marching through the camp in an authoritative manner, all Amy had to really do was stick close behind her and be ready to step in if it looked like the older woman needed help. Disguising themselves as nurses was a fairly basic step to take in the current situation, but it got them into the camp and they didn't have to worry about anyone asking questions so long as nobody looked too closely at them.
Looking at the patients gathered in each area around them, Amy wondered if she should just feel sick or disappointed at how poor these conditions were. She could appreciate that a situation on this scale was going to be difficult to cope with, but it still felt like whoever had set these things up should have put more effort into making it comfortable. Did they even realise that they'd probably have to spend time in these camps eventually if they didn't find a way to deal with this problem eventually, or were they just dealing with the short-term situation and hoping the long-term problem would sort itself out?
OK, the Doctor's taking a look at it, but it's not like anyone apart from us knows that…
As they walked through the various tents set up inside the old aircraft hanger, Amy wondered if she should feel impressed at the scale of what these people had done on such short notice, but decided to save any such admiration until they knew the extent of the current schemes. Gwen had managed to take a quick look at a few computers, but without knowing her father's exact condition and unwilling to show their cards too soon, the two were left just wandering around while trying to look as though they knew where they were going. Amy was vaguely aware that Rhys was somewhere behind them, his own pass in his pocket as he maintained a suitable distance to avoid giving the impression that they were actually part of a group, but so far the focus was just on finding Gwen's father.
As they walked through rooms full of beds that just consisted of red blankets and patients lying on them, Amy found herself already re-evaluating what these people had done; she appreciated that nobody was going to die in the current circumstances, but surely some kind of heart monitor was only appropriate to make sure they were in good condition-
"Gwen?" a voice called out from behind them.
"Oh my God, Dad!" Gwen said, turning around and running towards an older man lying in bed, wearing brown-and-yellow striped pyjamas.
"I thought that was you," the old man said, taking her hands in his and smiling warmly at Amy's new friend.
"How are you?" Gwen looked tenderly at her father. "How do you feel?"
"All the better for seeing you," the old man said, before his gaze moved to Amy. "And… who's your friend?"
"Amy Pond," Amy nodded at him with a kind smile. "I'm… I work with your daughter."
"Really?" the old man said with a weak smile. "What are you wearing? Pyjamas?"
"Disguise," Amy shrugged.
"They wouldn't let us come to visit, so we came here to get you out and setting this up was the only way to do it," Gwen explained with a broad grin.
"Get me out?" the old man repeated in surprise, just as Rhys walked up behind them. "Oh; Rhys is here too?"
"Hiya, Geraint," Rhys said as Gwen pulled her father's blanket off. "All right? I've got the lorry, ready to go."
"Let's go, Dad," Gwen said, helping the old man sit up. "What have you got, shoes or just slippers?"
"Where are we going?"
"It's not safe here, Dad, OK?" Gwen repeated, clearly not ready for that particular conversation right now. "I'm gonna take you home."
"What do you mean it's not safe?" her father looked at her with new urgency.
"You know all those things I used to investigate with Torchwood?" Gwen explained. "This is one of them. Haven't the time to explain now, but you've got to come with me, Dad, OK?"
"Right you are then," Mr Cooper said, smiling at her in understanding.
"OK, that's it," Gwen said, putting a blanket over her father's shoulders before she and Rhys helped him to his feet and began to walk him out. "That's it, as fast as we can."
With Gwen and Rhys leading her father out of the camp, Amy was left to walk close behind them, keeping a discreet distance while also making sure nobody was paying them any particular attention. Fortunately, the open design of the camp made it relatively easy to reach the truck Rhys had left outside for this purpose, and it looked like her and Gwen's nurse outfits were enough to deter casual queries about what they were doing with an obvious patient.
"That's it," Gwen smiled encouragingly at her father. "All right? Almost there, Dad."
"Easiest to have him in the cab," Rhys suggested. "What do you think, Geraint? Can you climb up? We'll give you a hand."
"I can do that, don't worry," Geraint said urgently.
"Amy, you can help me get him up," Gwen called out. "Rhys, you pull him up from the other end."
"Check," Amy nodded, taking up position on the other side of the old man, while Rhys gave his own affirmative response and ran around to the other side of the lorry.
"Are they coming?" Geraint said, looking anxiously around as he opened the door. "Is it safe?"
"Dad, don't panic now, OK?" Gwen said as her father nearly fell into the lorry. "Stay calm; I've got you. Hurry up, hurry up; people are starting to notice…"
Amy recognised that she didn't know that much about natural human frailties, but she knew enough to at least guess that Gwen's father was suffering from a new heart attack when he suddenly called out and moved to hold his chest.
"He doesn't look good," Rhys said before Amy could voice her own thoughts.
"What?" Gwen said, looking at her father in shock as he fell out of the lorry and sat back against the nearest wheel. "Dad?"
"I'm… not sure we can do this right now," Amy looked apologetically at Gwen. "I mean, I get that you want to get him out of here, but this place… they have to be able to do something for him, right?"
"And you're both nurses," Rhys pointed out, even as he shot Amy a grateful look for saying it first.
"…Code one!" Gwen called back towards the camp, waving her hand urgently at her father as a doctor ran over to them. "Assistance needed, please. Code One! I need assistance now! Come on! Look, he's my patient. He's already had a heart attack, all right? Look, he's my dad, okay? He's my father. Now I need you to look after him, please. Is it bad? I got you. Dad?"
Geriant Cooper had just enough awareness to tenderly stroke his daughter's face before the camp doctors moved to take him away from the lorry. A couple of the staff seemed to be curious about what a man in Geriant's condition had been doing so far from his bed in the first place, but so far nobody seemed prepared to actually ask the question in favour of focusing on the current dilemma.
I just wish I could be sure they were doing that because they care and not because they want to give the impression that these camps are running smoothly…
When Vera got off Maloney's cart, the Doctor honestly couldn't blame her for her obvious frustration. He'd been on his share of official and unofficial tours over the course of his lives, and the only 'good' thing he could say about this tour so far was that it was basically a masterful exercise in showing people everything while trying not to show them anything 'useful'.
"I'm sorry, where are you going?" Maloney asked as Vera walked towards a long house up against what looked like a wall of the camp.
"I want to see inside," Vera replied.
"And I'm going with her," the Doctor added, walking briskly to catch up with his new associate.
"It's just storage," Maloney protested even as he joined them.
"Every time Doctor Taylor and I want to see anything, you turn us away," Vera countered firmly. "We're here to inspect, so let us do our job."
As soon as they had walked into the building, the Doctor was put uncomfortably in mind of the times he'd come close to concentration camps during his visits to the Second World War (those visits were always dangerous places historically; he could never know if getting one person out would lead to the death of someone who may have some important role to play in post-war events). The room was full of punk beds lined up against one wall, people lying in those beds with stained bandages and a random assortment of sleepwear and bedding, giving the impression that nobody had actually bothered to look at them since they'd been left here.
"Storage?" Vera repeated, looking indignantly back at Maloney. "This is storage?"
"It's only a temporary measure," Maloney said, as Vera noticed more beds on the other side of a set of pillars in the middle of the room.
"Temporary?" the Doctor repeated, giving Maloney the cold glare he normally reserved for the Daleks' utter disregard for life. "This is 'temporary'? And that excuses it?"
"We don't have the staff, we don't have the money, we don't have the room-"
"And would you be willing to stay here?"
"They're all unconscious and they don't have insurance-"
"Where are the nurses?" Vera cut Maloney off. "Have they even been fed? Excuse me, I'm sorry, but how long have you been here?"
"Yesterday," a pale woman said from a small camp-bed on the floor of the room. "They said we had to wait."
"These people, they're just- they're pending," Maloney said as he tried to talk to Vera. "We've got a couple glitches in the system, that's all. I'd point out that ten days ago I had a job in public housing; I think I've adapted very well."
"Please… help me," another man gasped, reaching up to grab at the Doctor's coat. Quickly the Time Lord bent down to look the man over properly before he stood back up to face Maloney.
"You are aware that this man is wearing a red peg while still being conscious?" he looked coldly at the camp organiser. "In other words, he's classed as a Category One when he's a Category Two?"
"So we made a mistake," Maloney countered with a nonchalance that essentially destroyed any tentative thought the Doctor might have had of classing Maloney as a man who was just dealing with an impossible situation. "Hundreds of patients, one mistake; that's an excellent hit rate-"
"When you're dealing with anything other than human lives," the Doctor cut Maloney off. "One mistake is acceptable when you're dealing with filing; if you're dealing with human lives, one mistake cannot be tolerated in an operation of this scale."
"I think we should step outside; we're disturbing the patients-"
"What else are you hiding?" Vera said as she walked down a corridor into an area filled with sheets practically piled on top of each other. "Is this laundry? Are these bed sheets? Oh my God, this place is stinking!"
"I think you've forgotten America's in crisis-"
"The world is in crisis, Mr Maloney," the Doctor said, refusing to let this man even attempt to justify his escalating mistakes. "If you honestly believe you're doing a good job in this situation, let me ask you this; would you like to be left here?"
"I'm under budget-!"
"You're supposed to spend the money, not praise yourself for staying under some budget!" Vera spat in contempt. "This is why a system like this is never going to work; because it's always going to be run by men like you!"
"Oh, so what are you going to do?" Maloney asked. "What will you do? Report me?"
"Oh, we're going to do more than that," Vera vowed with low contempt. "We'll have you prosecuted!"
"Oh, you're so full of it-"
"No, you are full of it," the Doctor cut Maloney off, fixing him with the kind of intense glare he'd perfected when he really needed to make a point in his fifth and eighth bodies in particular. "When we are dealing with human lives, you cannot reduce them to a 'budget'; you do everything in your power to protect those lives!"
"You don't understand-!" Maloney tried to protest.
"We 'understand' that you're going be prosecuted for causing harm to those people in your care, and you will be found guilty as charged," Vera affirmed. "I guarantee you're going to jail, you stupid little man. I'm gonna see you inside a prison cell, you limp-dick little coward."
"You really think you have-?" Maloney began.
"Shut up," the Doctor said, keeping his tone low as he walked over to stand directly in front of Maloney.
"Doctor Taylor, you can't just-!"
"I think you'll find that I actually have the authority to do whatever I wish in situations like this," the Doctor cut the camp supervisor off. "I don't normally use that authority when dealing with human stupidity rather than some external threat, even when faced with situations like this, but you're such a… I believe 'git' is the appropriate term?"
"Git?" Maloney repeated in what was probably intended to be an indignant manner but just made him sound like some high-voiced cartoon character. "Doctor Taylor, just w-who do you-?"
"I am not 'Doctor Ian Taylor', Mr Maloney; I am simply 'the Doctor'," the Doctor said, giving Maloney a glare of cold contempt. "I have been a scientific advisor for an elite government task force for at least as long as you have been alive, I have travelled across time and space for longer than your civilisation has existed, I have encountered some of the most twisted and evil beings that the universe has ever produced… and in that time, I can honestly say that I have never encountered such a pathetic git as yourself."
"Th-that's not-" Maloney began, as Vera and Ralph watched the confrontation in silence.
"Your world just lost the ability to die, Mr Maloney; I think your ability to accept outrageous claims should have grown after something like that," the Doctor cut him off, before he shook his head. "But that reaction just proves my colleague's point; you are a small man who took power in his little kingdom and has such a small perspective that you're doing 'good' because you're sticking to a budget."
"I was just- I'm trying-!"
"I have faced monsters whose daily activities would give you nightmares if you were aware of their mere existence, and yet I don't believe I have ever come to hate most of them quite as quickly as I have come to loathe you, Mr Maloney," the Doctor interjected once again, folding his arms and giving the man a firm stare. "The worst part is that I do believe, in your own sad little way, you think you're doing the right thing, but that just makes it even more horrific. The nightmares at least know that their goals and methods are evil, but you don't even have the strength to be honest with yourself about what you are."
"I'm trying to keep this place in order-"
"I repeat, you are a small man in a large world who's convinced himself that he's carved out a fair-sized piece of the kingdom because you're operating within your budget," the Doctor retorted, giving the last few words all the contempt he could. "Order and chaos aren't that easy to balance, Mr Maloney; if you honestly can't see what's wrong with this scenario, you should never have been given any authority anywhere."
"I'm trying-!" Maloney protested, suddenly reaching back to try and grab a gun hanging at Ralph's side, only for Vera to kick him sharply between the legs before he could aim it properly at anyone. Maloney dropped the gun and fell to the ground with a semi-strangled scream of agony as he clutched at his groin, only for that scream to end when the doctor punched him in the face and sent him to the ground.
"Officially, I must state that I completely disapprove of that response and stand by my own beliefs that violence doesn't solve anything," the Doctor said as he looked at the now-unconscious Maloney before he gave Vera an approving nod. "Unofficially, and just between the two of us, I'll call that one of the exceptional cases where I'm willing to bend the rule."
"B-but- Mr Maloney- you can't-!" Ralph began.
"We can and we will," Vera said firmly as she looked at Ralph. "Get him somewhere he can't bother anyone and nobody can bother him for the next few hours; I'm going to see about getting things done properly in this camp."
"And if anyone asks, please remember that we're authorised inspectors; we have every right to step in if we disapprove of the way things are being done," the Doctor smiled politely at Ralph before turning back to Vera. "Now then, you find somewhere we can leave this man and deal with things at the top, and I'll try and track down our inside men."
Getting into the building while avoiding the crowd gathered for the rally had been a challenge, but Jack had grown used to sneaking into places even before he became an immortal time-traveller and had to rely on faked credentials to get most of his work done. Even with most of Torchwood's official credentials lost, it hadn't been hard to find a secure way into the building, which left him and Natalie free to explore the area where Oswald Danes would soon be addressing the public. Jack had noticed Dane's apparent PR woman talking with an unfamiliar face during their search of the stadium, but for the moment he was going to focus his attention on Danes and work out exactly where she fit into the equation later.
"Mister Jack Harkness," Danes said, walking away from the crowd waiting for his speech at the other end of the corridor to greet his two unexpected visitors. "I could accuse you of having an obsession with me… and who is this?"
"Natalie Kreiner," Natalie replied, fixing the murderer with a cool stare, grateful that she'd gone with Jack's suggestion to wear a coat and purchased a dark leather jacket on their way to the stadium. She could certainly handle Oswald Danes in a fight, but she didn't want to think about the man looking at her if more of her body was 'on display' in her usual clothes…
"What happens afterward, Oswald, when the fever dies down and the world wakes up to the fact that a murderer is standing centre stage?" Jack replied, ignoring the former teacher's question. "Somewhere out there, those men are waiting for you in the dark."
"I can smell them," Danes smiled, apparently enjoying the thought of the scenario Jack was proposing. "Their pits are soaked with sweat and bile."
"But what if… you became a hero instead?"
Natalie fought down her initial shock at that suggestion; Jack Harkness wouldn't make an offer like that to a man like Danes without a clear plan in mind, and it didn't involve making this man a 'Get Out of Jail Free' pass.
"Certainly, that would be good," Danes said speculatively.
"You're about to go out onstage and talk to the world with a happy little PhiCorp speech, yeah?" Jack elaborated as he held out a new piece of paper. "But you could use this moment, Oswald. Here's your speech. Say those words instead. PhiCorp knew about the Miracle. They've been ready for years. That's the proof, all written down ready for everyone to hear it."
"You want my help?" Danes looked at Jack.
"We want anyone's help," Jack said; Natalie could only hope that the immortal captain was exaggerating the scale of their helplessness to make Danes feel like they needed him. "Even my most experienced colleagues have never dealt with anything like this, but you… you could expose PhiCorp live on air and help me change the world."
"We'd be partners?" Danes asked.
"You'd play an important part in our efforts," Natalie conceded; they might need the man right now, but she didn't want him to get too big an opinion of himself.
"And what would I get out of it?" Danes asked.
"End the Miracle, and then you can die," Jack responded. "You're an intelligent man, Oswald, which means you're smart enough to know who you are and acknowledge that you want it to end. You help us, and I promise, we willhelp you to die."
"Oswald," the young publicity agent yelled as she ran up towards him. "Oswald, they've been looking for you. You're on in thirty seconds."
"Yeah, sure, certainly," Danes said.
"Just think about it, and do the right thing," Natalie said solemnly, reaching over to briefly pat Oswald's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" the woman looked between Jack and Natalie as Danes walked down the corridor.
"You've got one chance," Jack said, ignoring the woman as he kept his gaze fixed on the convicted killer now walking away. "Take it."
"One chance for what?" the woman looked at Jack in confusion. "What exactly did you just say to him?"
"Maybe you're about to find out," Natalie grinned at the other woman, hoping that she was conveying her father's usual enigmatic grin.
"Who are you?" the red-haired woman said.
"Don't miss the speech," Jack replied with a smile that Natalie was certain even her father would consider mocking rather than flirtatious. As the formerly-immortal captain walked away, the woman pulled out her phone, but Natalie grabbed her wrist and shot a cool glare at the other woman.
"We don't do pictures," she said with a brief grin. "Frankly, we have no interest in your particular services; we like to stay discreet."
That said, she tossed the phone to the side and hurried after Jack while the redhead ran for the phone. Maybe what she'd done was a bit petty, but if that woman was working with a man like Oswald Danes, Natalie doubted that even her dad would insist that she treat the woman particularly well, and she definitely didn't want anyone working with Danes to have a picture of them. By the time Natalie had joined Jack up at the back of the crowd near the entrance to the seating area, Danes was standing at the podium in the centre of the stage, a crowd of people cheering around him, although the cheers died down as Danes began to talk.
"What do I want?" Danes began, seemingly sweating as he looked around the hall and down at his podium as though trying to keep track of his words. "That's the question. All these years on this Earth, what do I really want?"
"Children, you bastard!" a voice called out from the crowd, which at least assured Natalie that some people were remembering what this man had done.
"No," Danes responded. "Because that's my curse. I'm cursed with the knowledge of that deep down in my soul, sir. And that's my tragedy. It's who I am."
"You're a loser!" another man called out
"All these… all right… all these fancy words, they're no help to me," Oswald said, briefly dropping his speech and running to the side to pick it back up. "And these, these, these won't help me either. The truth is I know what I am. And I know what you are too. Yes, I do. Each and every one of you. Because I know for certain what has happened to the human race. I know because this has happened before."
A quick glance at Jack was enough for Natalie to confirm that Oswald wasn't using the speech Jack had written for him, but right now all they could do was hope that Danes would move back to their version of the speech at the right moment.
"Fifty thousand years BC," Danes continued, taking a microphone and moving away from the podium as he continued to address the crowd. "What's called the Great Leap Forward. Human beings suddenly, we started to bury our dead. We created art and money and love. They loved. They learned to love. We made a leap from animal to human. And now, right now, in our very own lifetimes… it has happened again. The next Great Leap."
When people began to cheer, Natalie couldn't believe anyone in the crowd were going along with this speech; the idea that a man like Oswald Danes could be forgiven because he was saying all these fancy words just baffled her…
"We have made it from animal to human to what?" Danes said. "This is the question. After Miracle Day, what are we now? I know. This is something I know because I am the man who has lost heaven forever, so I can feel the truth of it. I'm telling you, man… has risen again. Now he has a new name. And his name… is… Angel. Angel. Angel."
As the sudden silence was replaced by people chanting Oswald's name from the crowd, Natalie now knew that this wasn't going to work out the way she and Jack had hoped.
"We are angels," Oswald continued. "We have been elevated. We have been purified. We have been given life unending. We are the first angels on Earth. And I promise you this. There are even those who have been planning for this, the agents of angels in this brand new world. I'm telling you right now, they stand amongst us. Yes! For this is my Revelation!"
As the PhiCorp logo appeared on the screen behind Oswald to rapturous cheers from the crowd, Natalie could only exchange grim glances with Jack. The grim expression on Jack's face made it clear that any hope of using Oswald as an immediate 'in' to this conspiracy wasn't an option right now, but they'd at least made contact with the man and sown the seeds for something later.