Head Notes: As I pointed out last time, I again borrow ideas from Granite Flats. I highly recommend that show, it's really fun. Anyway more fun planned out for this chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter Six
A backpack weighed heavily on Claire's shoulder. She watched uneasily from behind the one-way mirror as Clara struggled to resist the drugs. It was hard to watch as she tried to make sense of her drug-induced hallucinations. It wasn't physical interrogation that Greer had decided on. But in some ways it was worse. At least with physical, the individual could retain somewhat of a sane mind.
This was a combination of two methods of manipulation: Hypnosis and drugs. Hypnosis could manipulate a person's self-control. Certain drugs could strengthen the hypnosis and induce hallucinations based on the hypnosis. She didn't know exactly what drugs they were using, but she wouldn't wish them on anyone. They were used to augment hypnosis in a way that made everything seem absolutely real. All they needed to do was suggest a place and the person would see themselves there. Suggest a park, they would create one around them in their minds. Suggest that they were talking to a friend, and that friend would be there talking to them.
Unable to stand it anymore, she knocked on the glass. Greer looked back and excused himself to join Claire in the observation room.
"Something wrong, Claire?" he wondered.
"Can we give her a break?" she asked. "You have been at this for two hours already."
"We're close, Claire," he said, a mad glint in his eye. "A few more minutes and she will tell us how to find her friend."
"Look at her," Claire pointed out. "That is her brain fighting back with all the strength it has. She is not taking anything for face value. She knows something is wrong."
"All the more reason to press deeper," he replied.
"If she was going to break under the hallucinations," Claire began. "She would have already. She is already strong enough to question the validity of her hallucinations. The more we press, the harder she will fight back and the tighter she will cling to information about her friend."
Greer pursed his lips as he considered what she was saying.
"Very well," he consented. "I will have them bring her out of hypnosis and we will continue this later." He stopped at the door. "I suppose you'll want to speak with Ms. Oswald?" he clarified. At her affirmative nod, Mr. Greer exited the room.
XxXxXxX
The Doctor listened as Harold explained the situation as far as he could. There were several noticeable gaps in the narrative, but he would have to settle for that until he could coax him into revealing anymore.
"So, these people," he interrupted. "How do we get in touch with them?"
"I'm afraid we can't without drawing attention to ourselves," Harold said. "And if we draw attention to ourselves, they will find us and kill us before we could do anything."
"I assume you lot have a lab," he said. "Somewhere you can go to work out a strategy without being caught."
"We do have an underground base," Harold admitted.
"Have you got computers there?" the Doctor asked.
"Of course, but if we use them to reach out to these people, they will use the link to track us down."
"Not if I do something immensely clever," the Doctor said, a mad glint in his eye.
Before Harold or Root could catch on to what he saying, he bolted to the TARDIS.
"Come on, come on," he called impatiently, waving them into the TARDIS. Harold stopped to pick up the briefcase leaning against the door before following Root into the TARDIS.
XxXxXxX
John Reese staggered into the underground subway base. Six straight hours of paperwork still made him exhausted. Cover or not, the exhaustion was real. As well as the boredom.
Harold and Root had wanted to explore the Machine's capabilities more fully today. Frankly, this whole thing was taking too long. The longer they took tinkering with the Machine, the more people who would die because they didn't get their numbers.
Bear bounded up to greet him.
"Affliggen, Bear," he ordered softly, running his fingers though the dog's coarse fur.
Harold and Root weren't here yet, but he suspected they would be soon. He stepped into the subway car and took a seat at the desk.
There was a whoosh of air, like a passing car, but silent. So silent he'd nearly dismissed it before the sound came again except louder. Looking around for the source of the noise he startled at the sight of a blue booth fading from sight only to reappear more solidly in the next moment. Bear lowered his head and growled as John took cover just inside the car, drawing his gun. He didn't know how this was possible, but if their enemies had figured out where they were, the best he could do was make sure they couldn't report back.
Once the booth - some kind of old-fashioned phone booth - solidified, the door opened to reveal a grey-haired man in a suit, strolling out like he owned the place. Bear raised his hackles going on the attack as the man approached the car.
"Shut up!" the man suddenly shouted impatiently. "I'm here to help." He spoke with some kind of European accent. Scottish?
Immediately following the man's outburst, Bear relaxed and his posture became warm and friendly.
Wasting no more time, John came out from where he was hiding and pointed his gun directly at the man's heart.
"Who are you?" he threatened.
If the man was surprised at his sudden appearance or concerned with the gun pointed at his chest, he didn't show it. In fact, he seemed to do the exact opposite of what would be considered a normal reaction. He returned John's dangerous glare with one that dwarfed anything he could do.
"It's alright, Mr. Reese," a familiar voice called. Suddenly noticing Harold behind him, John felt himself relax a little. Root exited the booth right after him.
Lowering the gun, John looked past the man and looked at Harold.
"Who is he?"
"I'm the Doctor," the man interjected. "And I don't appreciate being held at gunpoint."
He pushed past him and looked around at the base they had made themselves. Or rather, Harold had wired up. John looked back at Harold.
"Root says that he might be able to help us in our fight against Samaritan," Harold explained quietly. "As we are short-handed, we can hardly afford to be stingy in our choice of allies. Nor can we afford to reject assistance when we can get it."
"How did Root find him?" John wondered.
"We tested the Machine earlier," Root said jumping in. "She saw him and insisted that we work together."
"Who built all this?" the man, the Doctor, suddenly asked.
"I did," Harold answered, moving toward the Doctor. "I found this abandoned subway station and wired it for power among other things."
"This is completely off the grid," the Doctor said in awe. "Your own power source, a subway car transformed into an information terminal. Your underground base is completely and perfectly hidden away. Which means you lot are either criminals or on the run. Although I'd put my money that he's probably both." He indicated John.
Sensing that was a very poorly disguised insult, John rolled his eyes.
"He doesn't like guns," Root explained.
"I noticed," John rasped. "I'm guessing Harold doesn't want him knowing about the Machine?"
"No, but I imagine he will eventually," Root said.
"Why?" John wondered.
"Because he's stubborn like you," Root said. "He won't rest until either we tell him or he figures it out."
"Oh this is clever," the Doctor gasped. "Hang on, hang on, do you leech energy provided by the subway system itself?"
"The city makes so much I doubt they would miss it," Harold reasoned.
"Nice, yes this is all very impressive for a pudding-headed human," the Doctor said. "Now which computer is your main one?"
"This one," Harold indicated the collection of monitors in the subway car. "Why do you ask?" he wondered as the Doctor sat down.
"We need to send a message to the people holding Clara."
XxXxXxX
Claire waited at the end of Clara's bed as the latter regained consciousness. It had been thirty minutes since Greer had agreed to stop the interrogation. That was hardly surprising due to the effect those drugs had on the brain. Slowly, Clara's eyes began to blink open and Claire shared an uneasy smile as her eyes rested on her.
"What did they do to me?" she wondered.
"It was an interrogation technique that the CIA experimented with during the '60's," Claire began. "I think they called it MK ULTRA. It combines hypnosis and drug-induced hallucinations to open the individual's mind. Samaritan came across the research a few months ago."
"And you think Samaritan is good?" Clara accused.
"It wasn't Samaritan's idea," Claire explained. "Look. Samaritan has goals to help humanity but he relies on human methods to bring them to fruition. He put Greer in charge because he gets results. Provides him with any research he might need to do it, but ultimately he makes the decision."
"Seriously?" Clara challenged.
"Greer is an extremist," Claire explained. "But he's the extremist in charge. Every decision goes through him. everything we do must be approved by him."
"So then if Samaritan is so good, why doesn't it replace him with someone else?" Clara asked.
"Like I said, he gets results," Claire said. "As long as his methods produce results, Samaritan doesn't care how he does it."
"Why are you so convinced that Samaritan is good?"
"He saved my life," Claire smiled. "Out of seven billion people and hundreds of other things happening around the world at that exact moment, he cared enough to save me. Why would he do that unless he truly cared about people? I'm not really that important in the grand scheme of things."
Clara took in her answer with a skeptical look.
"So, Samaritan saved your life," she repeated. At Claire's affirmative nod, she continued. "Then you know why I'll never betray the Doctor. Because he's saved mine. And he has never once let me down. And if you have any idea of what that means, you know what I would do for him."
She and Clara jumped as someone threw the door open.
"Claire, something's wrong," a man said.
"What is it?"
"We don't know. Something is eating through the company firewall. We need your skills." He reported.
"Okay, I'll be right there," she said. "Talk to you later." She said to Clara before following the man out.
XxXxXxX
Greer stood in front of Samaritan's interface, not daring to believe what he was seeing. All the screens in the room were malfunctioning like white noise on the television or radio.
"What is it?" Claire asked behind him.
"It seems as though someone is trying to make contact," he realized.
After a moment the picture cleared and two people appeared on the screens. The man that Samaritan had located in the hall last night and Mr. Finch standing behind him. For a brief moment, dread filled his chest as he saw them standing together, clearly in alliance. But soon logic restored some calm.
"Start running a scan," he ordered.
"Oh I wouldn't bother with that," the grey-haired man said smugly.
"Doctor, what are you doing?" Mr. Finch asked. "They can find where we are now."
"Can they," he challenged. Looking into the screen and into the very room. He challenged them. "Well, can you? Go on, try it. Try to track us down."
"Where are they?" Greer asked the technicians.
"Everywhere," a woman said. "It doesn't seem possible, but they are broadcasting from nearly every country."
"Is there a source of origin?" Greer asked.
"Everywhere," she repeated.
"How is that possible?" Greer wondered.
"Oh just a bit of hacking and cloaking technologies from about a hundred years in Earth's future," the Doctor boasted. "Am I to assume you are in charge?"
"Yes I am," Greer admitted.
"Then I want one thing from you," he said, his eyebrows darkening. "Release Clara Oswald to me. Release her to me immediately. I want her safe. I want her alive. And I don't want her hurt in any way."
"I'm afraid that won't be possible," Greer said. "Although, I do believe you would be proud of her. Such a tough nut to crack-"
"Shut up!" he roared. "Forget whatever you've got planned. If Clara Oswald is not freed unharmed and safe, right now, I will destroy your company."
"I hardly think one man can stop us," Greer mocked.
"You are talking to a man who was able to hack into your systems without leaving a track," the doctor reminded him. "It would be wise not to underestimate me."
"What if we met halfway?" Greer offered. "It would be easier for all of us if you turned yourself in. You would get Clara Oswald back and we could move forward with our plans. Unfortunately we'd have to ensure you wouldn't interfere again."
"Meaning you'd kill us," the Doctor translated. "Consider me old-fashioned but I prefer the chance to walk away again."
"Well, I'm afraid that is the only offer you are going to get," Greer insisted.
"No," the Doctor hissed. "It's yours. Consider this a warning."
He pointed what looked like a green laser pointer at the screen. The screen flickered and the video feed cut out. A moment later there was a flurry of panic behind him.
"Mr. Greer," the woman called.
"What is it?" he asked, moving behind her. All the screens on the row were flickering and producing lines of code; a virus, he realized. "Do we know what it is doing?" he asked, uncharacteristically panicked.
"It's affecting our entire network," she answered. "I don't know if it will be permanent or temporary. But all our systems are down."
"He's sending us a message," Greer realized. "We must answer back. Claire."
"Yes, sir," she responded.
"We need to find a way to track him down. Which means we must get his information from Ms. Oswald." He said.
"Why don't we just let her go?" she asked.
"He's already allied with Mr. Finch and his colleagues," Greer pointed out. "We can't take the chance that he will continue to antagonize us after we let his friend go."
"He's just trying to save his friend," she pointed out. "If we let her go, he won't have any reason to come after us."
"We can't be sure of that," he reasoned. "We must track him down. Using whatever is necessary."
"Okay, I can talk to her," Claire offered.
"Unfortunately, we are going to need something far more effective than idle chatter," Greer said.
XxXxXxXxX
End Notes: I really wanted The Doctor to meet John and Bear, of course. So back when I was still working it out I wrote him into it. And only the Doctor would have the audacity to hack Samaritan's building. What did you think?