Chapter Four
Back at the school, a soldier armed with an ATR leaves the cellar just before the transmat starts up and delivers another cream and silver Dalek.
At a funeral parlour the next morning, the milkman leaves a pint at the front door. In the back a Welshman is screwing the brass fittings onto a coffin. Something crackles in a large casket of bizarre design nearby. He goes to it and gets a small static electric shock.
The Doctor walks in. "Good morning. I believe this belongs to you." The Doctor hands over the bottle of milk.
"Yes."
"The door was open so I thought I'd just pop in and collect my casket."
"Ah, well, um the governor has yet to arrive and I'm afraid I can't just let you. Which er, casket would this be?"
The Doctor takes out Ace's baseball bat and indicates the strange one.
"Oh, I see. Er, well, if you could just wait until the governor arrives, I'm sure…"
"Yes, that would be perfectly all right."
"Oh, good. Splendid. Mister er…"
"Doctor."
"Doctor?"
"Yes. Now, if I might be alone with the…"
"Oh, yes, yes, of course. I'll leave you alone with, er…"
"Thank you."
"I'll just be in the next room if you…"
"Yes."
Martin leaves. The Doctor shuts the door behind him then returns to the casket.
"Hello. Open."
The casket lid tilts open to reveal dry ice swirling around inside.
In the funeral parlour office Martin is on the phone to his boss.
"Hello, governor? Somebody's come to collect that big casket. Yes. Yes, the Doctor. Just one thing, governor. I thought you said he was an old geezer with white hair."
"Now, let's see what you can make of this." The Doctor places the baseball bat on the dry ice and it slowly sinks.
In the boarding house. Mike is fully dressed when Ace and Nita enter in dressing gowns.
"Hello," Nita greets.
"Good morning," replies Mike.
"Where are you off to?" asks Ace.
"I have to check some things out at the Association," replies Mike.
"Who's the Association?" asks Nita.
"They're my friends," replies Mike. "You can meet them later."
Mike leaves. Ace picks up the newspaper - Daily Express with headline Rescue Bid Is On.
"Come on, now. Give it up." The baseball bat zooms up and the Doctor grabs it.
"Goodbye. Close."
The casket lid shuts.
"Follow me."
In the funeral parlour office, Martin is still on the phone.
"Yes, all right, governor."
"Thank you," the Doctor says on his way out.
"Oh, cheerio, Doctor. But Doctor, what about your…"
The casket glides past Martin, who faints.
Ratcliffe is in his office.
"Once we possess this Hand of Omega, what then?" he asks the Dalek computer.
"We shall be on the brink of great power."
"And our agreement?"
"You too shall share this power, if you have the stomach for it."
"What do you mean?"
"There will be casualties. Many deaths."
"War is hell."
At Willesden Lane Cemetery there is a funeral procession made up of the Doctor and a vicar using a white stick, with the casket bringing up the rear.
"It's very good of you to do this at such short notice," says the Doctor.
"Nonsense, my dear Doctor," the vicar replies. "The grave's been ready for a month. Mister Stevens, the gravedigger, was wondering what he should do."
"I had to leave suddenly," the Doctor explains, thinking about that day so many years ago when he showed off to Ian and Barbara, and didn't come back.
They turn off the path to an open grave. The casket positions itself over the hole in the ground.
"Forgive me for saying this, but it seems to me that your voice has changed somewhat since we last met," the vicar remarks. He is blind, so doesn't notice what else has changed.
"Yes, it has changed," the Doctor agrees. "Several times."
"I must say your pallbearers are very quiet. Silent as ghosts, really."
"Yes."
The Doctor removes his hat.
Ratcliffe is pacing his office when the telephone rings.
"Yes? Good. Stay with the Doctor. Watch him and call me back. Ah, ah, ah. Yours not to reason why, just to obey orders. Now just get on with it."
He puts the telephone down.
"My man has found it," he tells the Dalek computer.
"Yes, but my enemies have found your man."
Outside the cemetery, Mike comes out of a telephone box and walks past the Headmaster, who then gets an instruction via the chip in his head: "He is an agent of the renegade Daleks. Apprehend and interrogate."
"I obey."
The Headmaster follows Mike into the cemetery. He grabs Mike from behind.
"What is the location of the renegade Dalek base?" the Headmaster demands.
"What? Get off me or I'll break…"
"What is the location of the renegade Dalek base?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Renegade Daleks have defied the will of the Emperor Dalek. They must be located and destroyed. And you are an agent of the renegade Daleks."
"I work for Mister Ratcliffe. The Association."
Mike finally elbows the Headmaster in the stomach and frees himself.
"Who do you work for?" Mike demands.
The Headmaster stares into the sky, listening on his ear-piece.
"Alert. Security is compromised. Terminate agent."
"No!" The Headmaster objects.
"Who do you work for?" Mike asks him again.
The Headmaster collapses. Mike puts him down on an old work memorial stone below an angel monument and runs off.
Meanwhile, the casket is lowering itself into the grave.
"It is over," says the vicar.
"No. It's only just beginning," the Doctor contradicts, as he throws a handful of soil onto the casket then gently leads the blind vicar away, watched by Mike.
In the boarding house dining room, Mike's mum brings in a fresh pot of tea for her four lady guests.
"Thank you," says Allison.
"The Professor said he'd be back by now," Ace is beginning to worry.
"What was he doing, anyway?" asks Rachel.
"Working, unlike some people," the Doctor replies, entering with Mike. "Have a nice sleep?" he asks Ace and Nita.
"It was okay," Nita replies. "You're late."
"I found him wandering the streets," says Mike.
"I was not wandering the streets," objects the Doctor. "I was merely contemplating certain local cartographic anomalies."
"There's a message for you, Mike," says his mum, handing him a note.
"Thanks," replies Mike, reading the note. "Ladies and gentlemen, the Group Captain is expecting us."
"Great. Something to do at last," Nita says happily.
"Ah..." Mike replies nervously. "He specifically ordered that Ace and Nita remain here."
Mike screws up the note to stop Ace reading it. She looks at the Doctor with her eyebrows raised.
"Professor?"
The Doctor has picked up a copy of 'Doctor in the House'. "Ah, Ace, I have a present for you." He takes out her baseball bat and taps it against his hand. It sparks and he winces in pain.
"How did you do that?" asks Rachel.
"Higher technology, and no, I can't tell you how."
"Why not?"
"You're not ready for it. No one on this planet is."
"Ladies? Doctor?" says Mike, heading for the door.
"I'll meet you outside," the Doctor replies.
"Sorry, girls. Work to be done," says Mike. "Back at six. Have dinner ready."
Mike, Allison and Rachel leave.
"Toe rag," Ace sneers. "Professor, you can't leave us here."
"Ace, I'm trying to convince Group Captain Gilmore to keep his men out of trouble, otherwise there'll be a lot of needless deaths."
Mike keeps sounding the van's horn outside.
"You're up to something," says Nita, suspiciously.
"Yes," the Doctor admits.
"Then we have to come with you," says Ace.
"No."
"Who else is going to guard your back?" Nita objects.
"Will you obey me this once?" the Doctor begs. "I'll explain everything when I return."
"Tell us now!" Ace demands.
"I haven't got the time!"
"All right," Nita concedes, winking at Ace. "We'll stay here if that's what you want."
"Trust me."
"Doctor?" says Ace.
"Yes?"
"You'd better explain when you get back, or…"
"Or?"
Ace hefts her baseball bat. "Things could get nasty."
Mike and the women are in the van. They watch the Doctor go into the TARDIS.
"I wonder what he's up to?" says Mike.
"Who knows? His motives are alien," says Rachel.
"Meaning?" asks Mike.
"Meaning I don't think he's human."
"And Ace and Nita?"
"They're not aliens. You're all right there."
"Good. Well, I mean, I wouldn't want them to be foreign, would I?"
The Doctor leaves the TARDIS.
"Ah, here comes the Doctor," says Rachel.