CHAPTER 20

THIS ISN'T GOING TO BE PLEASANT.

The extract rewound and began as the Prince asked, "Tell me Doctor. Do you trust me?"

"What?" the Doctor asked in a horrified whisper.

Jason had already shifted his intense gaze to the Time Lord's rib cage. A large bruise was forming where Justin had kicked him. He looked up again, holding up the cloth he had been playing with. It was now in a neatly folded rectangle. "Bite," he ordered.

"Why?"

"Because this isn't going to be pleasant."

"Why am I not surprised?" the Doctor replied darkly. He felt an energy discharge from the hand Jason held to his chest and caught his breath, which allowed the Alterran to force the cloth between his teeth. Then pain caused him to clamp down on it.

The Doctor saw Jason's eyes blaze even brighter before going dull, and knew he was scanning him. He looked down and was appalled to see the Alterran's right arm had changed into a tendril and was actually penetrating his body just below his rib cage. It was shimmering as when he transmuted, his own torso shimmering as if in response. It felt like thousands of ants were crawling under his skin. He watched in horrified fascination as the alien appendage slid deeper inside his body. He wanted to scream out the words "What are you doing?" but instead bit down on the cloth in his mouth, the words becoming the unmistakable sound of pain rising in his throat.

The Doctor wanted to thrash, kick, scratch, claw, anything to fight back. He strained against his bindings, but found he could not move. It seemed he could do nothing but bite down on the gag in his mouth, endure the horrific, torturous procedure being performed on him and wait for the end of his life. Then he remembered that the Alterran Healer was one of the few individuals with the skill to prevent him regenerating. Would this truly be the end of his life?

He could feel the tendril entering his rib cage, pushing slowly and deliberately upward, the pressure within his chest becoming so great that he started having difficulty breathing. Then he could not draw a breath at all, his lungs seemingly paralyzed. His respiratory by-pass system would not respond either and he was certain he was about to suffocate. Suddenly the tendril stopped, the pressure and pain subsiding. His lungs started working again and, against his better judgment, his body relaxed as he struggled to catch his breath, his gasps coming in small whimpers. Now he was certain the Alterran was toying with him. How easy it would be for him to completely paralyze him and watch him die slowly.

The tendril started moving again and his body reacted instantly, his muscles locking. He clamped down harder on the wad of cloth in his mouth, another scream rising in his throat. What are you waiting for? he wondered helplessly. Just rip out my hearts and have done with it! As if in response to this the tendril stopped, having reached the space between his hearts.

The Doctor felt as if his whole chest cavity were about to burst. Somewhere in the blur of pain and the blood pounding in his ears, he heard Jason say, "Got it!" Then, mercifully, everything went black as he lost consciousness.

o

It could have been seconds, minutes or hours later, the Doctor had no way of telling as he slowly returned to reality and opened his eyes. He was lying on the slab against the wall with the cloak from Jason's disguise covering him. There was a dark shape beside him and he struggled to focus without success. Did I regenerated? That might explain…

"Doctor?"

A voice. I know that voice. Male. Possibly human. No, not human. Not even remotely human. The Doctor scowled. Now what was that supposed to mean?

"Doctor?" the voice said again. "Can you hear me?"

Yes, that's definitely a familiar voice. Someone was touching his shoulder. But was he friend or foe?The Doctor closed his unfocused eyes and struggled to concentrate. Something in the back of his mind told him to be on his guard and he concluded that the correct answer was foe. He gave a low groan as he opened his eyes again. "Where am I?" he asked weakly.

"You're still in the Sanctuary," Jason replied calmly. "How do you feel?"

"Like I've been turned inside out. Did I regenerate?"

"No. Close, but no."

"It feels like I have." The Doctor struggled to concentrate. "I can't seem to move."

"I know. That's my doing."

The Doctor blinked to clear his vision, scowling at the owner of the voice. "Jason? I don't…" he said in bewilderment. The events of the past half hour suddenly exploded in his mind. "Your doing?" he said more firmly, an accusing edge finding its way into his voice.

"You were trying to regenerate prematurely," the Alterran informed calmly. "The paralysis is a temporary side effect of the medication that prevented it happening." He received a skeptical look in reply and sighed heavily. "I'm telling the truth."

"Why start now?"

Jason chose to ignore the barbed comment. "Just try moving your fingers."

The Doctor found he could move his fingers, and then his hands. Then his mind cleared enough for him to realize he was no longer strapped to the wall. "Have we moved on to a new game?" he asked bitterly.

"Game?"

"Yes, game. You're playing at something," the Doctor said as he struggled to a sitting position. "I just don't know what yet." He leaned back against the wall, scrutinizing the Alterran.

"Payback's a bitch, ain't it, Doctor?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you don't like it when you're not the one who knows everything that's going on," the Prince replied knowingly. He held up a small silver object. "Know what this is?"

The Doctor replied immediately. "It's a pacemaker."

"Not quite. It's more like an anti-pacemaker. A remote control heart attack." Jason handed the object to the Doctor, who turned it over in his hands. "And I have a horrible feeling it may be compliments of the Benefactor."

The Doctor suddenly remembered the incident with the Benefactor and a hand went to his chest. "No one leaves the Sanctuary and lives to tell about it," he said in a horrified whisper.

"Yes," Jason replied. "Those things are getting implanted in everyone who leaves. Then with the touch of a button, they're another casualty of war."

"How do you know all that?" the Doctor asked suspiciously.

"Because they've been turning up in the bodies of apparent heart attack victims—every one of whom was supposed to've died by dispersal. But instead of being dispersed, they turned up at the Sanctuary. Then when they left…"

The Doctor gave him an appalled look. "Jason, I turned up at the Sanctuary!"

"Yes, I know. I'm the one who sent you, remember?"

"Don't remind me."

The Alterran gave him a sideways glance. "I can only assume the transmat implants the things." He held up another silver device. "This one's mine. That one's yours."

"What? Did you just…?" The Doctor stared in a combination of amazement and anger. "You might've warned me!"

"Oh, yeah. That explanation would've gone over like gang busters!" Jason replied defensively. "You're the one who thought I was about to kill you."

"Your actions were hardly conducive with benevolence."

"Look who's talking," Jason shot back, rubbing his bruised collarbone. His voice became light, dripping with sarcasm at the same time. "Okay, Doctor, here's the deal. I know you think I'm about to kill you, but that's not the worst of it. I've just discovered a small bomb in your chest. I'm going to have to strap you down so I can reach in and pull it out before it goes off and kills you. Oh yeah, and it's gonna hurt like hell when I do it. What d'ya say?" He paused, adding, "You'd've jumped at the chance, wouldn't you?"

The Doctor gave him a dark look, rubbing his chest. "The least you could've done was use an anesthetic."

"It wouldn't've helped. Not with the molecular bond pulled apart like that," Jason replied matter of factly. "Just be glad I'm in the First Circle. Otherwise I'd've had to cut you open to get that out."

The Doctor looked at the deadly device in his hands and then Jason's remark struck him. "Hang on, did you say you'd just discovered this?"

"Yes, I did," Jason replied firmly. "It wasn't there when you touched me at Tri Global. But when you did your little paralysis trick…"

"You scanned me even then?"

"You're joking, right? With that time aura, it's automatic. Anyway, it helped me find mine." The Alterran picked up a glass from the floor beside him and held it out. "Here, drink this."

The Doctor gave him a skeptical look. "Now who's joking?"

"It's just water!" Jason cried in exasperation. He took a sip and offered the glass again. "There. Do you think I'm trying to poison you now?"

"I haven't the slightest idea what to think," the Time Lord replied truthfully as he took the glass. "One minute you're a raving lunatic, and the next you're in Healer mode. You've explained nothing. You've tried to kill me at least once. And now I'm to take everything on faith. Well, I'm sorry, Jason, but I can't do that. Not any more."

Jason sat silently a moment as he considered this. "Fine, whatever," he said, waving a hand in the air. He turned and plucked the Doctor's coat from the pile on the floor and searched through the pockets, pulling out a small blue disk. "There it is," he whispered triumphantly and held the object up.

"It's your recall disk," the Doctor admitted somewhat guiltily. "I picked it up before I—" He caught his breath. "That's how you found me!"

"You got it in one."

"And the rest of it?" the Doctor practically demanded.

Jason scowled. "Rest of it?"

"Why did you follow me in the first place? Surely it wasn't for philanthropic reasons."

The Alterran sat back and studied him a moment. "You didn't sign off the computer when you left. It wasn't too great a leap to figure out where you'd gone."

"Of course," the Doctor moaned, suddenly feeling incredibly stupid. "I left the map of the Sanctuary on the screen."

"Yes. I don't know about you, but I've a few questions for the Benefactor. And not just about these," Jason said darkly, holding up the pacemaker. He crept to the door and listened. "Good. He's finally gone." He looked at the Doctor and grinned. "I think you scared him off."

"I'm not sure how to respond to that."

Jason scooped up the Time Lord's clothes and tossed them to him. "Here, get dressed. If I know you, you'll come up with something later."

oOo