Chapter 15: Old New York was Once New Amsterdam
Rose knew the Doctor wasn't in bed with her before she opened her eyes the next morning. But there was a lightness in his telepathic presence that she'd never sensed before, so rather than worry, she rolled over and pulled the duvet up over her head.
A moment later, it was tugged out of her hand. Rose groaned and looked up at the Doctor, blinking as the simulated sunlight shone into her eyes.
"Time to rise and shine, Rose Tyler!"
She pushed herself up and started to complain about wanting more sleep, but then she caught her first real glimpse of the Doctor. "You're…" She blinked, but the image didn't change. "You're wearing a different suit."
The Doctor buttoned the cuffs on his light blue Oxford, then sat down on the edge of the bed and started lacing up a pair of dark red Chucks. "The TARDIS had it in our wardrobe this morning," he said. "I opened the doors, just thinking of maybe finding a new tie or a different shirt, but there was a brand new suit." He stood up and grabbed his tie from where he'd left it, lying over the back of the chair.
"It fits the same as the brown one," Rose observed as he flipped up his collar to put his tie on.
He finished the knot and waggled his eyebrows at her. "Guess she knows what we both like." He ducked, and the pillow she threw at his head missed. "Come on, what do you think?"
Rose let her eyes travel down his body, purposely taking her time. She knew the Doctor could easily read her approval, but he was still impatient for her to say something.
"It's nice," she offered finally. "Different."
"Nice?" he squeaked. "Different? Is that all you can say?"
She crossed her arms over her chest and nibbled on her lip as she appraised him again. "The blue suits you," she finally offered.
The pun distracted him, as she'd known it would. "It does suit me, doesn't it?" He turned and preened in front of her vanity mirror.
The view from the back was even nicer, and Rose enjoyed the opportunity to stare at his bum. Blue or brown, his pinstriped trousers fit him exceptionally well.
The Doctor caught her gaze in the mirror and smirked at her. "I think you might like my new blue suit a little more than you let on, love," he purred.
A shiver ran through Rose's body at the suggestive note in her Doctor's voice, and her breath caught in her throat when she felt the first stirring of desire from him. She held his gaze in the mirror as she swung her legs off of the bed, watching his eyes darken when the left strap of her nightgown slipped off her shoulder.
When she was within arm's reach, the Doctor traced a circular pattern over her bare shoulder, then ran his finger along her clavicle with a barely-there touch. He heard a soft hitch in her breathing, then she grabbed his tie and tugged until she could whisper in his ear. "Your new suit looks incredible on you," she admitted, "but right now, I'm more interested in how quickly can I get you out of it."
The Doctor barely managed to suppress a shiver as her hot breath fanned against his ear. "Shall I time you?" he suggested huskily, then scraped his teeth over her earlobe.
When she tilted her head back in a silent request for him to move his lips lower, he instead pulled back entirely, putting a bit of extra space between them. Rose glared at him, and he smiled innocently. "Just giving you room to work."
She arched an eyebrow, and he felt the familiar swooping sensation that always coursed through him when she accepted his challenge. Then her right hand slid up his chest and around to the back of his neck, and his breathing shallowed in anticipation of her next move.
A moment later, he had to bite back a whimper when she brushed against the spot below his ear that always made him weak in the knees. Her thumb rubbed tiny circles, sending little bolts of electricity through his body. Despite the Doctor's comment about giving her room to work, his hands landed on Rose's hips and he tugged her closer, resting his forehead against hers.
A disappointed whine slipped out when Rose's hand left his neck. Her practiced fingers got his tie out of the way in seconds, and she went after the buttons on his shirt. After undoing the top three buttons, she leaned forward and pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to his collarbone.
The Doctor sighed and felt Rose's lips turn up in a smile. Time to even things out a bit, he thought. Once she had his shirt completely unbuttoned and untucked, he shrugged it off and tossed it over the back of a chair, followed by his vest.
Rose reached for his bare chest, but he caught her hands and drew them up around his neck. "My turn," he whispered as he ran his hands down her arms and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer.
"Thought I was supposed to be undressing you."
"That was before you decided to tease me."
oOoOoOoOo
Later, when the Doctor was putting on his new blue suit for the second time and Rose was putting mousse in her damp hair, she broached the topic of their current companion.
"I like Martha," she said without equivocation as she fluffed her wavy hair, checking her reflection in the mirror for any product that hadn't been worked in. "You said one alien planet, to see how she did—and she was brilliant."
The Doctor sat down and put his shoes on. "Yes, she was," he agreed.
"So…"
He tugged on his ear. "Thing is, I don't know quite how to phrase the question to guarantee she says yes."
Rose paused for a moment with her head partway through the opening of her new pink jumper to stare at him. He didn't seem to be joking, and she shook her head, then tugged the top on the rest of the way.
"Normally, just extending the invitation is enough," she pointed out drily.
"Donna wouldn't have stayed, if we'd asked."
"Donna had just watched her fiancé get eaten by a giant spider," Rose countered. "She needed time to process everything that happened."
"True…" The Doctor pulled on his suit jacket and buttoned the top two buttons. "Tell you what. Why don't we suggest one more trip over breakfast, see what she thinks?"
He stuck his hands in his pockets and spun on his heel. Rose shook her head at him, but followed him out of their room.
oOoOoOoOo
When Martha woke up after a full eight hours of sleep, it took her a moment to remember where she was. The details came quickly, though—the Doctor and Rose, the TARDIS, meeting Shakespeare, going to New Earth. Wonder where we'll go today, she thought as she bounced out of bed.
She'd showered the night before to rinse the grime from the exhaust fumes off her skin, so after washing her face and brushing her teeth, she started getting dressed. The underwear she'd hand washed before going to bed was hanging over the towel rack in the bathroom, and she was in the in the middle of slipping back into her jeans when her thoughts caught up with her. How long was this trip going to last? How long did she want it to last?
Once she'd finished dressing, Martha set off in search of the Doctor and Rose. Exiting her room, she looked up and down the corridor, trying to guess which way to go. Cocking her head, she heard voices off to her right, so she followed them. As she got closer, she smelled bacon frying and her stomach growled.
"Martha!" the Doctor exclaimed happily when she found them in the kitchen. "Good morning!"
"Morning, Doctor." She glanced at the teabag hanging out of his cup, then looked at Rose. "I don't suppose you have coffee?"
She smiled warmly and pointed to a cabinet. "Yeah, 'course. Help yourself."
Martha rummaged around for a moment, then emerged victorious with a can of coffee and a French press. Rose put the kettle back on and pulled yogurt out of the fridge while the Doctor reached up to the top shelf of the cupboard for granola. Martha made the toast while she waited for her coffee, and ten minutes later, they were all sitting around the table.
"We were thinking about taking one more trip before you go home," the Doctor said as he slathered an unhealthy amount of marmalade over a slice of toast.
Martha's heart jumped, but she forced herself to think for a moment. "I don't think that's what I want," she said carefully. The Doctor and Rose both looked surprised, and she hurried to explain. "I don't want to just be a guest tagging along. I love travelling with you, but if I stay, I want it to be permanent—at least until I go back to take my exams."
To her surprise, both Rose and the Doctor grinned widely at that statement. "Brilliant!" the Doctor proclaimed. "We hoped you would, but I wasn't sure how to ask."
Rose rolled her eyes. "I did suggest he just try, 'Martha, would you care to travel with us for a while?' but apparently that was too straightforward for him."
He sniffed and pointed his nose upward. "Yes, well… Martha's staying, so that doesn't matter now."
Martha shook her head at this strange couple she was starting to consider friends. "So, where are we off to today, then?"
The Doctor beamed and little crinkles formed around his eyes. "I thought maybe Old New York, since we just visited New New York."
Adrenaline rushed through Martha, and she barely stopped a squeal from escaping. "I've always wanted to go to New York. I mean the real New York, not the new, new, new, new, new one," she said.
"Well then!" He raised his mug in a salute. "Let's finish breakfast and get going!"
oOoOoOoOo
Martha's excitement still hadn't worn off when she watched the Doctor and Rose pilot the TARDIS. She knew she wouldn't want this crazy life forever—she wasn't letting go of her dream of being a doctor. But, if she could join them just for a bit, take sort of a gap year and see things no one else even knew existed, she couldn't turn that down.
The landing was hard, and she looked at Rose. "He was flying again, wasn't he?"
The Doctor shook his head and put his coat on. "Come on, ladies. We're in New York, the city that never sleeps. No time to stand here… chinwagging."
Martha and Rose laughed as they followed him out of the TARDIS. This time, unlike her previous two landings, they were on soft grass. The sun shone brightly in the clear blue sky, though they were parked in the shadow of a stone wall.
The Doctor tilted his head back and took a deep breath. "Ah, smell that Atlantic breeze. Nice and cold."
"In fact I think I'll grab my jacket," Rose said, and walked right back inside. A moment later, Rose reappeared, wearing a black leather jacket.
"Are we ready then?" the Doctor asked. "Anything else you want to take care of before we go explore?"
The exasperation in his voice was obviously fake, and judging by the cheeky smile Rose shot him, she knew that as well as Martha did.
"No, I think I'm good. Thanks for asking though."
The Doctor rolled his eyes, then nodded at something behind Martha and Rose. "Have you met my friend, ladies?"
Martha followed his gaze up along the wall, her jaw dropping when she saw one of the most iconic landmarks in the world. "Is that? Oh, my God. That's the Statue of Liberty."
"Gateway to the New World," the Doctor said quietly. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
"That's so brilliant," Martha breathed, squinting as the sun peeked around the torch arm and shone in her eyes. "So we're really in New York City."
The Doctor turned around and started towards the harbour. "Yep! The genuine article," he said, nodding at the skyline. "So good, they named it twice. Mind you, it was New Amsterdam originally. Harder to say twice. No wonder it didn't catch on. New Amsterdam, New Amsterdam."
Rose cleared her throat and looked at him significantly. "Oh! Right!" The Doctor pulled something out of his pocket. "Before I forget, you'll be needing this."
He held it between his fingers, and Martha realised it was a key—a TARDIS key. "Are you serious?" she asked as she reached for it.
"Of course!" Rose told her. "If you're going to live with us for a while, you ought to be able to get inside, don't you think?"
"Yes, of course! Thank you!" Martha slipped the key into her jeans pocket, making a mental note to get something more secure to keep it on later.
"So, we're in New York City," Rose said. "What year is it, Doctor?"
Martha looked out at the skyline. "Well, it has to be a while ago—because look, the Empire State Building's not even finished yet."
"Work in progress," the Doctor said. "Still got a couple floors to go, and if I know my history, that makes the date somewhere around—"
"November first, 1930," Rose said from behind them.
"You're really learning to use your time senses, Rose," the Doctor said as he turned around. "Oh."
Martha glanced over her shoulder and shook her head when she spotted the paper in Rose's hands. Then she looked back at the city—a city that was looking as vibrant and alive as it did in 2008.
"Eighty years ago," she mused. "It's funny, because you see those old newsreels all in black and white like it's so far away, but here we are. It's real. It's now. Come on then." She looked over at the Doctor and Rose. "Where do you want to go first?"
"I think our fun holiday just got a bit more serious," the Doctor said soberly.
He held the newspaper up, and she read the headline out loud. "'Hooverville Mystery Deepens.' What's Hooverville?"
"Tell you what," Rose said, "let's enjoy the ferry ride over to Manhattan, and then you can explain it to us, Doctor."
He folded the paper up and stuck it inside his coat. "Well, come on then," he said, taking her hand and leading them towards the pier.
The Doctor flashed his psychic paper at the young man collecting tickets at the gangplank to the ferry, and he let the three of them pass. "So what," Martha said, keeping her voice low, "that thing makes people think you've given them money, too?"
"No!" he said indignantly. "It makes them think I don't need to give them money."
She furrowed her brows, uncertain if that was really any better.
"Think of it like this, Martha," Rose suggested as the Doctor led the way to the front railing. "We're likely going to fix something that's gone wrong here, yeah? And we won't ask to be paid for it. So how much is a ferry ticket worth, then?"
The Doctor, meanwhile, had found the perfect spot on the bow of the ship. He let Rose and Martha stand right against the railing, then he stood behind Rose and wrapped his arms around her waist.
The ferry started, and the movement of the boat and a stiff Atlantic breeze sent a slight spray of seawater up into the air. He closed his eyes and breathed in, relishing the salty tang.
"Look at that city," he told Rose and Martha as they came up on it. "You know, the Dutch purchased Manhattan Island from the Native Americans for roughly $1050 dollars, in modern US currency… which makes it…" He pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth. "Oooh, about 600 pounds. Roughly."
"You're kidding me," Martha said.
"Nope," he said, popping the p.
"They paid an entire tribe less than a month's wages for that piece of land?"
The Doctor grimaced. "Sadly, that is neither the first nor the last instance of European settlers taking advantage of the native people."
They were silent for a minute, then he quickly shifted gears. "Anyway! That's why it was called New Amsterdam at first. Then you English conquered the Dutch colony of New Netherlands in 1664 and renamed it New York, after the Duke of York—the future King James II."
"He's the one who was deposed, right?" Rose asked.
The Doctor nodded. "One of them, yes. The city was called New Orange for a year or so when the Dutch regained control, but otherwise, it's been New York ever since."
When the ferry docked, the Doctor hailed a cab, and in relatively short order, they arrived at Central Park. "This way," he said, setting off down a path. A few brown and yellow leaves covered the pavement, crunching beneath their feet as they walked.
"Right, so back to Hooverville," the Doctor said. "Herbert Hoover, thirty-first President of the USA, came to power a year ago. Up till then New York was a boom town, the Roaring Twenties, and then—"
"The Wall Street Crash," Rose said. "That was almost exactly a year ago, wasn't it?"
"Yeah. Whole economy, wiped out overnight. Thousands of people unemployed. All of a sudden, the huddled masses doubled in number with nowhere to go." A cyclist rang his bell and rode by them. "So, they ended up here in Central Park."
"What, they actually live in the park?" Martha asked disbelievingly. "In the middle of the city?"
"It happens in London too, Martha," Rose said before the Doctor could answer. "Ordinary people—good people—they lose their jobs. They can't pay the rent and they lose everything."
The Doctor studied her for a moment. Something about the conversation had stirred a memory, but she'd locked it away before he could see it. He made a note to come back and ask her about that later, but they had reached the first shanties at the edge of Hooverville, so he let it go for the moment.
"There are places like this all over America," the Doctor explained. Poor people, dressed in as many layers as they could to keep warm, watched them warily as they walked through the makeshift city. "No one's helping them. You only come to Hooverville when there's nowhere else to go."
Shouts and the sound of fists hitting flesh broke the stillness of Hooverville, and the Doctor picked up his pace. "He stole my bread!" a man shouted as they turned a corner.
"That's enough!" a deeper voice ordered. "Did you take it?"
"I don't know what happened," a third voice said. "He just went crazy."
When they slipped around washing that was hanging across the path, they could see a black man in a camel-coloured coat and weatherbeaten hat looking at two younger men, one black and one white.
"That's enough!" the older man repeated, then looked at the white man. "Now, think real careful before you lie to me."
A few seconds later, the defiance on the accused thief's face crumbled. "I'm starving, Solomon."
The Doctor, Rose, and Martha stopped and watched the rest of the drama play out. Solomon held out his hand to the thief, and he reluctantly pulled a loaf of bread from the inside of his coat.
"We all starving," Solomon said. "We all got families somewhere."
He tore the loaf in two and gave a half to each man. The Doctor's eyebrow quirked up when he recognised the similarity to the test the biblical Solomon had used on the two mothers who each claimed the living child belonged to her.
"No stealing and no fighting," Solomon commanded, looking at each man in turn. "You know the rules. Thirteen years ago I fought in the Great War. A lot of us did. And the only reason we got through was because we stuck together. No matter how bad things get, we still act like human beings. It's all we got."
The two men looked at each other and slunk off in opposite directions, and the crowd that had gathered to watch the fight and subsequent judgement dispersed.
The Doctor gestured for Rose and Martha to follow him, then walked towards Solomon before he could get away. "I suppose that makes you the boss around here," he said.
Solomon turned around and looked at the three of them bemusedly. "And, er, who might you be?"
Rose took a half step forward. "I'm Rose, and this is my husband, the Doctor." She shifted slightly, pointing to Martha. "And that's our friend, Martha."
Speculation and grim humour lit Solomon's eyes. "A doctor. Huh. Well, we got stockbrokers, we got a lawyer," he said, nodding towards two men respectively, "but you're the first doctor. Neighbourhood gets classier by the day." He held his hands out over a fire, trying to get warm.
"How many people live here?" asked Martha, and the Doctor could tell she still couldn't quite believe people were forced to live in circumstances like this.
Solomon could hear the incredulity in her voice as well, and he smiled wryly at her. "At any one time, hundreds. No place else to go. But I will say this about Hooverville," he said, looking around his community. "We are a truly equal society. Black, white, all the same. All starving. So you're welcome, all of you."
He frowned, and lines formed around his eyes. "But tell me. Doctor, you're a man of learning, right? Explain this to me." He led them to where the Empire State Building peeked through a gap in the trees. "That there's going to be the tallest building in the world. How come they can do that, when we got people starving in the heart of Manhattan?"
The Doctor looked at the nearly complete skyscraper, then at the frustrated man. Solomon knew the answer as well as he did—greed, pure and simple.
"I wish I could explain why people do things like that," the Doctor said quietly. "Why human life is valued less than the ability to make more money." Solomon started back the way they'd come, and the Doctor, Rose, and Martha all followed. "But no matter how long I live, I think that's one thing I'll never completely understand."
"So Doctor," Solomon said as they walked through the streets of Hooverville, "what happened to bring you here, if you don't mind my asking? I reckon that people still get sick, so how did a doctor end up so down-and-out that he had to come here?"
"Ah, yeah…" The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck. "We don't actually need a place to live."
Solomon raised an eyebrow. "Then what are you doing here? I don't exactly think Hooverville is on the list of places tourists regularly hit." He stopped at a tent. "This here is my place," he said, then picked up the coffee pot sitting over the fire and tossed the cold coffee out.
"We sort of… travel, and investigate things. And when we arrived in New York City, I happened to spot a headline…" The Doctor pulled the newspaper out of his pocket and held it up, and comprehension dawned on the other man's face. "So, men are going missing. Is this true?"
Solomon took the paper. "It's true all right."
He tipped his head toward the tent, and the Doctor followed after him when he stepped inside. "But what does missing mean?" he asked from the entrance to the tent. "Men must come and go here all the time. It's not like anyone's keeping a register."
He felt a sharp wave of disapproval from Rose and looked over his shoulder at her. What? She shook her head, but her lips were pressed together in a thin line.
Solomon sat down heavily and took his hat off. "Come on in." He waited until they were all inside, sitting down on crates, before he continued. "This is different," he said, staring at the paper.
"In what way?" Martha asked.
He looked up her, and the Doctor tensed when he recognised the hesitation in the other man's eyes. Whatever was happening, it had Solomon scared.
"Someone takes them, at night," Solomon said after a moment. "We hear something, someone calls out for help. By the time we get there, they gone… like they vanished into thin air."
"And you're sure someone's taking them?" the Doctor asked, trying for a respectful tone to avoid upsetting Rose again.
But she spoke up before Solomon could. "They leave their stuff behind, don't they?"
Solomon nodded. "That's right." He looked at the Doctor and Martha. "When you got next to nothing, you hold on to the little you got. Your knife, blanket, you take it with you. You don't leave bread uneaten, fire still burning."
"Have you been to the police?" Martha questioned sympathetically.
The Doctor read the answer in Solomon's frustrated body language before he spoke. "Yeah, we tried that. Another deadbeat goes missing, big deal."
The Doctor tugged on his ear. "So the question is, who's taking them and what for?"
"Solomon!" A young man stuck his head inside the tent. "Solomon, Mr. Diagoras is here." Solomon grabbed his hat and left the tent, and the Doctor, Rose, and Martha followed him.
A well-dressed businessman standing on a crate was gathering a crowd. The Doctor let Martha get a few steps ahead of him and Rose, then slipped his hand into Rose's. Want to tell me about it?
She looked up at him. One of my schoolmates was homeless, she told him. Good people, but one month they were a few days behind on the rent, and…
He could feel the fear then, could tell how many times Jackie had barely made the rent when Rose was a child, and the impression that constant fear of living on the street had left on her. He could also tell she really didn't want to talk about it, so he just squeezed her hand and walked with her to the front of the crowd, to stand beside Solomon and Martha.
Up close, there was something a little too polished, a little too oiled, about Mr. Diagoras. "I need men," he said. "Volunteers. I've got a little work for you and you sure look like you can use the money."
The Doctor's suspicions were roused already. Anyone so obviously playing on people's desperation was not to be trusted.
"Yeah. What is the money?" asked the young man who'd told them Diagoras was here.
"A dollar a day."
"What's the work?" Solomon asked, and the men around him murmured their agreement.
"A little trip down the sewers," Diagoras said casually. The crowd started grumbling, and he raised his voice to carry over them. "Got a tunnel collapsed needs clearing and fixing. Any takers?"
"A dollar a day? That's slave wage," Solomon said, getting more agreement. "And men don't always come back up, do they?"
Diagoras shrugged insouciantly. "Accidents happen."
"What do you mean?" Rose asked sharply. "What sort of accidents?"
Diagoras looked her up and down, and the Doctor wrapped an arm around her and glared at him. Diagoras smirked. "I don't think you need the work, doll. Anybody else?"
The Doctor and Rose raised their hands, and Diagoras knit his brows together. "Enough with the questions."
"Oh, no, no, no," the Doctor clarified. "We're volunteering."
Martha looked at them, her jaw set, but she raised her hand, too. "I'll kill you for this," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.
The Doctor chuckled.
Diagoras nodded, then looked at the rest of the crowd. "Anybody else?"
The same young man raised his hand, and then finally, reluctantly, so did Solomon.
oOoOoOoOo
The New York sewers were everything fiction had led Rose to think they would be: dark, dank, and slimy. She grimaced when she dropped off the ladder and landed with a slight splash; she could already feel the hem of her trousers dangling in the puddle. More water trickled down the walls of the tunnel, creating a constant background noise of running water.
The skin on the back of her neck prickled, and she glanced behind her to see Diagoras leering at her. Speaking of slimy… The Doctor tightened his hold on her hand, and for once she didn't mind his overprotective streak.
Twisted amusement glinted in Diagoras' eyes. He handed everyone a torch, then nodded down the tunnel. "Turn left. Go about a half a mile. Follow tunnel two seven three. Fall's right ahead of you, you can't miss it."
"And when do we get our dollar?" asked the young man, who'd introduced himself as Frank on the walk over.
All the amusement left Diagoras' face when he looked at Frank. "When you come back up," he said flatly.
"And if we don't come back up?" the Doctor asked.
"Then I got no one to pay," Diagoras told them, and a shiver went through Rose.
"Don't worry," Solomon said, "we'll be back."
"Let's hope so," Martha said under her breath. She followed Solomon down the tunnel, with Frank right behind her, leaving Rose and the Doctor alone with Diagoras.
The Doctor stared at the businessman, but he didn't blink. After a moment, Diagoras turned around and the Doctor and Rose followed their companions deeper into the sewers.
The Doctor's arm hung rigidly at his side, not swinging easily the way it usually did. Rose let go of his hand and took his arm instead, giving him the physical closeness she could tell he needed.
He sighed, and the muscles in his arm relaxed. I didn't like the way he looked at you.
I didn't like the way he talked about not having to pay us, Rose countered, redirecting his focus.
That too.
Rose took his hand again and brushed her thumb over his knuckles until she felt the rest of the tension ease out of his body. Come on, she said then, speeding up slightly. Let's catch up with the others.
Frank and Martha stood aside when they heard them coming. "There's a whole lot of runaways in the camp," he told Martha as they passed, "younger than me, from all over. Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas. Solomon keeps a lookout for us."
They were walking abreast with Solomon now, and Rose looked over at him when she heard Frank. He'd gained the respect of the entire camp, and he took care of the younger runaways in the group—he was a good man.
"So, what about you?" Frank asked Martha." You're a long way from home."
Rose snorted—he didn't know the half of it.
"I was just finishing school when I met the Doctor and Rose, and they asked me if I wanted to travel with them," Martha said. "I thought… sure, take a break and see some of the world before real life sets in."
The Doctor looked over at Solomon. "So this Diagoras bloke, who is he then?"
"A couple of months ago, he was just another foreman. Now, it seems like he's running most of Manhattan."
"How'd he manage that, then?" Rose asked as they turned another corner.
"These are strange times," Solomon said. "A man can go from being king of the hill to the lowest of the low overnight. It's just for some folks, it works the other way round."
The Doctor directed his torch at the ground, and an eerie green light filled the tunnel. "Whoa!" They all stopped to look down at what looked like a neon green jellyfish lying on the ground.
Martha squatted down and pointed her torch at it. "Is it radioactive or something?" When the Doctor crouched down right in front of her, she went around to Rose's side. A sour odour wafted up to them, and both women covered their noses. "It's gone off, whatever it is. And you've got to pick it up," she muttered to the Doctor as he took it into his hands.
He brought to his nose, and Martha nearly gagged again. "Oh, Martha," Rose said, suppressed laughter in her voice, "just be glad he isn't tasting it."
"Shine your torch through it," he murmured to Rose. The blob glowed green again, but this time, Rose could see the faint lines where it looked like smaller bits had been sewn together to create one larger creature. "Composite organic matter," the Doctor said, confirming her hypothesis. He glanced at their friend. "Martha? Medical opinion?"
She lowered the hand covering her mouth and leaned forward, just barely. "It's not human. I know that."
Rose felt the atmosphere in the tunnel shift slightly, and realised they were making the two Americans curious.
"No, it's not," the Doctor agreed. Then he stood up and looked back the way they'd come. "And I'll tell you something else. We must be at least half a mile in. I don't see any sign of a collapse, do you?" Everyone shone their torches around the tunnel, revealing solid walls and ceilings. "So why did Mr. Diagoras send us down here?"
"Where are we now?" Martha asked. "What's above us?"
"Well," the Doctor said, looking up, "we're right underneath Manhattan."
Solomon stalked down the tunnel, and the other four followed him. "We're way beyond half a mile. There's no collapse, nothing."
"That Diagoras bloke, was he lying?" Martha asked.
The Doctor's hand tightened reflexively at the mention of the overseer's name. "Looks like it."
Frank asked the question that was on everyone's mind. "So why'd he want people to come down here?"
Rose could easily tell how much the Doctor wanted to ask her to go back to safety. Given the situation, she wouldn't even have minded the suggestion, as long as he accepted her refusal. But instead, he drew a deep breath and squeezed her hand tight before half-turning to face Solomon.
"Solomon, I think it's time you two went back. Unless I'm wrong, this is more up my alley than yours."
Squeals echoed through the tunnel, and the group looked at each other nervously. That sounded like a pig, Doctor, Rose said.
"What the hell was that?" Solomon said when they heard more squeals coming from another direction.
"Hello?" Frank shouted, drawing shushes and whispers of his name from Martha and Solomon. "What if it's one of the folk gone missing?" he said, but quieter. "You'd be scared and half mad down here on your own."
"Do you think they're still alive?" the Doctor asked, and Rose was glad he sounded curious, rather than pitying.
"Heck, we ain't seen no bodies down here," Frank said, and Rose couldn't argue with that logic. "Maybe they just got lost."
More squeals echoed through the sewer, and Solomon said, "I know I never heard nobody make a sound like that."
"Where's it coming from?" Frank whispered. "Sounds like there's more than one of them."
"This way."
The Doctor took a step, but Solomon's voice stopped him.
"No, that way." He shone his torch on a figure hunched over in the shadows.
It was still almost too dark to see what it was, but Rose put the shape together with the squeals and thought she knew. She nearly dropped her torch, and she put it in her other hand and wiped her sweaty palm on her trousers.
"Doctor?" Martha whispered.
"Who are you?" Solomon asked.
The creature didn't move, and Frank tried again. "Are you lost? Can you understand me?" There was a quiver in his voice, and the Doctor looked over at him. " I've been thinking about folk lost down—"
"It's all right, Frank." The Doctor held up a hand, and the young man stopped. "Just stay back. Let me have a look."
Rose stood by Martha while the Doctor slowly walked towards the shadow, talking to it in soothing tones. "He's got a point, though, my mate Frank. I'd hate to be stuck down here on my own. We know the way out. Daylight. If you come with us…"
She felt his surprise a moment before he pointed the torch at the creature's face. The man was a pig, just like Rose had suspected.
"Oh, but what are you?" the Doctor asked.
Solomon cleared his throat and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Is that, er, some kind of carnival mask?"
"No, it's real," the Doctor told him.
The pig grunted, and the Doctor looked back at it. "I'm sorry. Now listen to me. I promise I can help. Who did this to you?"
Shadows on the wall caught Rose's eye, and when more pigs turned the corner, she called out to him. "I think it's time for us to go, Doctor." He stood slowly, but didn't move as the pigs stalked him. "Doctor!"
"Actually, good point." The Doctor backed away from the pigs, but they didn't stop moving.
"They're following you," Martha said unnecessarily.
"Yeah, I noticed that, thanks." He reached the rest of the group, and the pigs started covering the ground between them. "Well then, Rose, Martha, Frank, Solomon."
"What?" Martha cried.
"Run!" Rose shouted, and they all spun around and ran down the tunnels.
Squeals echoed behind them, getting closer. Losing the pigs in the tunnels would be impossible, the Doctor realised—this was their territory.
They reached a junction, and Martha froze. "Where are we going?!" she screeched.
The Doctor ran past her, Rose right behind him. "This way!" he ordered, taking the turn.
As they ran through another junction, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. Light from above, and…
He skidded to a halt and spun around, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw a way out. "It's a ladder! Come on!"
He pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket as he climbed the ladder and used to it to open the manhole cover. Hopping out of the sewer, he turned to offer a hand to Rose first, then Martha.
Down in the tunnel, he could hear Solomon calling for Frank. The older man backed up towards the ladder, his gaze focused on where Frank was presumably doing something heroic and dangerous.
After Solomon lifted himself up into the room, the squeals from the pigs grew angrier. Frank finally started climbing the ladder, and the Doctor and Solomon both bent down to give him a hand.
"C'mon, Frank! C'mon!" Solomon said urgently.
Frank was halfway up the ladder when the pigs wrapped their arms around his legs. The Doctor grabbed his wrist and strained against their pull. "I've got you. C'mon! Come on!"
The pigs put their full weight behind dragging Frank down into the tunnel, and his hand slipped out of the Doctor's grasp.
"Frank!" yelled Solomon.
The Doctor stared in horror as the young man was dragged away. "No!"
One of the pigs started climbing the ladder. Solomon shoved the Doctor away from the sewer and slammed the lid shut. "We can't go after him."
The Doctor clawed at the cover, trying to open it again. "We've got to go back down. We can't just leave him."
Solomon pushed the Doctor away and stood on the manhole cover. "No, I'm not losing anybody else."
Those words broke through the Doctor's agitation, and he glanced over at Rose and Martha. His bond mate and their companion. How did their safety rate against Frank's life?
"Those creatures were from Hell. From Hell itself! If we go after them, they'll take us all! There's nothing we can do. I'm sorry."
Before the Doctor could decide if he wanted to argue with that, or if he should be grateful to the man for keeping Rose and Martha safe, a new voice took them all by surprise.
"All right, then. Put them up." The Doctor, Rose, Martha, and Solomon all turned slowly to look at a young, blonde woman holding a revolver. The Doctor stared at her, hardly believing his eyes. But when she waved the revolver and pointed it at him, he realised this was real. "Hands in the air and no funny business. Now tell me, you schmucks, what have you done with Laszlo?"
"Who's Laszlo?" Martha asked.
The woman narrowed her eyes. "You don't know?"
The Doctor shook his head. "Not a clue."
"Right." Uncertainty crossed her face, and the weapon faltered. However, she quickly raised it again when Rose took a step towards her. "Oh no you don't," she ordered. "You can come with me. You might not know who Laszlo is, but you don't belong in the props room."
They were led down a narrow corridor to a dressing room. Inside, the woman sat at the vanity and put makeup on with one hand, while still holding a gun on them with the other.
"Laszlo's my boyfriend," she explained. "Or was my boyfriend until he disappeared two weeks ago. No letter, no goodbye, no nothing."
She gestured wildly with the gun while she talked, and the Doctor shifted so he was standing between this girl and Rose.
"And I'm not stupid," she said rapidly. "I know some guys are just pigs but not my Laszlo. I mean, what kind of guy asks you to meet his mother before he vamooses?" she asked, waving the gun at them again.
"Yeah. It might, might just help if you put that down," the Doctor ordered, pointing to a little table.
"Huh?" Her mouth hung open and she looked at the gun like she'd forgotten she was holding it, then rolled her eyes. "Oh, sure." Everyone jumped when she tossed it down onto a pile of tulle and satin. "Oh, come on. It's not real. It's just a prop. It was either that or a spear."
"What do you think happened to Laszlo?" Martha asked, obviously thinking the same thing they all were—another missing man, that couldn't be a coincidence.
"I wish I knew." The woman tossed her makeup back down on the vanity. "One minute he's there, the next, zip. Vanished."
The Doctor took a step towards her. "Listen, ah—what's your name?"
She looked up at him, her expression cool. "Tallulah."
"Tallulah."
"Three Ls and an H," she added before the Doctor could get a word in.
He blinked down at her. "Right. We can try to find Laszlo, but he's not the only one. There are people disappearing every night."
"And there are creatures," Solomon added. "Such creatures."
Tallulah looked around the Doctor to stare at Solomon. "What do you mean, creatures?" she asked suspiciously.
"Look, listen, just trust me. Everyone is in danger." The Doctor reached into his pocket and retrieved the thing they'd found in the tunnels. "I need to find out exactly what this is. Because then I'll know exactly what we're fighting."
Tallulah recoiled. "Yuck."
"That room we were in, you said that was the props room?" he asked. She nodded. "I think you'd probably have everything I need in there, if I could go back."
"As long as you take that thing with you, you can go wherever you want," she said, her nose still wrinkled in disgust.