18.
"That strapped down?" Blick sounded gruff as he got into the lorry cab, a rather beaten-up windowless vehicle with the remains of a bread company's logo on the side.
"Tight as a drum," Hodges said, giving one of the straps that held the converted tea-cart a final tug and climbing down. "Bring 'em over!"
Mr. Gorringe, holding a pistol, watched closely as Higgs and Hodges brought the Doctor and Jo out of their confinement, already handcuffed together.
They obligingly climbed up into the back of the low delivery truck and settled onto the back bench. Hodges took an additional cuff and snapped one end onto Jo's other wrist, the other to the metal strut of the truck canopy. He climbed back out, the back closed and the truck started up.
The Doctor considered the metal binding their wrists. "I surmise they've given up on mere ropes for you."
"I'll take that as a compliment," she said. "Just don't forget you're attached to me and go jumping out the back."
He considered the bundled, strapped tea-cart as they bounced out onto the roadway. She followed his gaze. "It will work, won't it?"
"Oh yes. I'm more concerned about the Brigadier."
"The Brigadier?"
--
"I know he doesn't want anyone to interfere, but they're risking Miss Grant's life," the Brigadier said firmly. "Is that radio still working?"
"Yessir," Benton said, bending his head close to the speaker. "But it sounds like they're leaving."
"How much noninterference do you think he meant?" Captain Yates paced across the room unhappily.
"We have a man following them," Lethbridge-Stewart said. "And I'm not convinced any contraption of the Doctor's is going to work, at least on the first try. Not enough to chance a young woman's life. I'm going to that quarry."
"Which quarry?" Benton asked.
"I don't know yet, demmit. But how many can there be? I want my jeep ready. I want a full backup, armed."
"Yessir!" Benton sketched a salute and headed for the door, then paused. "Though… your jeep is still in the shop…sir."
The Brigadier scowled slightly. "Blast, I'd forgotten. Whatever's available then. See, Yates, proof of why I can't just leave everything up to the Doctor."
"I missed this one. What happened?"
"The Doc used the Brigadier's new jeep as a battering ram," Benton said with a twinkle of delight to Yates, quickly hidden as the Brigadier turned back to him.
"Yes," he said shortly. "Off with you, Sergeant. Yates. I'm leaving you in charge here."
"Request to accompany you, sir," Yates protested. "I mean, I feel responsible that she's even with them, sir," he fumbled. "I'd like to be able to make it up somehow."
The Brigadier considered the young Captain for a long moment, then granted him a single curt nod. "Very well."
--
The quarry was a small one and dormant, the cold breeze rippling the half-dead wild grasses and weeds that had crept in to reclaim empty pits and gravel piles. The lorry lurched to a stop and the back doors were swung open.
"Now to see what sort of demonstration we'll have," Mr. Gorringe told them all by way of greeting. "Get that set up over there, by that pit," he pointed, then leaving the men to their work, he turned to his captives. "I'm afraid you'll just have to wait here. We've some explosives to lay first, of course."
"Of course," the Doctor nodded politely. "What do you say, Jo? Shall we just wait here?"
"I suppose so. I'm rather attached to this old lorry, after all."
Gorringe gave a snort and turned to help the others lift the tea-cart out.
The cold breeze swirled into the open lorry as they watched the men going back and forth, laying the wires for the dynamite that they'd placed in a wide circle around the tea-cart. Jo shivered and huddled into the Doctor for warmth. "Any sign of them?"
"Not from what I can see. Not that I can see much. They're probably… ah. There, up by that dead ash tree."
Jo squinted. "I can't see them."
"They've ducked back down. Let's hope they've the good sense to keep their distance."
"You think they will?"
"Once they see you in handcuffs? No."
"I could get out of them," she said helpfully, wiggling her wrists.
He smiled down at her fondly. "Yes, you probably could! But I think old Gorringe might not like it. Speaking of which…it looks like they've set up their test run."
--
Gorringe stood by the Doctor, still puffing slightly from the effort of walking back and forth in the quarry. "Now we'll know if it does what you say it will, or if it doesn't, Doctor Smith."
"Just 'Doctor' thank you."
Gorringe grunted. "Uppity chap, aren't you? I've half a mind to chain you out there as well, but we need you to fix it if it doesn't work. I know my men have taken a liking to you, but I warn you, I'm still watching." He gave the Doctor what he supposed was an intimidating look.
"Yes, so I see," the Doctor said. He tried to ignore his own handcuff, the other end of which now went to Gorringe's pudgy wrist. "Just be sure they wait for my signal before they set off those explosives. We need to be certain the dome is completely in place." He looked across the dry, grey gravel to where Jo stood, now cuffed to the converted tea-cart, her hair blowing in the breeze as she watched him for a signal to flip her lever on the battery. She looked very small, very vulnerable and very alone. He was grateful it was only a relatively simple force-field dome being tested, he would have hated this to have happened with a variable frequency force-wall or something more complex.
"Ready!" Hodges called from where he hunched over a detonator.
"Ready!" Blick called from the second one. Higgs had a camera, ready to take pictures of the results.
"Desist!" a man's voice shouted from the quarry's edge. All heads turned. The man was on the ridge, in a khaki uniform. Another man came up behind and said something to him, gesturing.
Gorringe response was to snatch his gun from his belt and raise it to shoot, though he found himself hampered by having cuffed himself to the taller man beside him.
The Doctor knocked his arm back down. "Don't shoot at them, you fool. There's probably a full backup surrounding this quarry, most likely armed. Let me talk to them!"
"They stay back," Gorringe said, his voice angry and cold, "Or we kill the girl."
"Then let me go to them," the Doctor replied with annoyance. He gave a light tug on their shared cuff. "Obviously you can come along, if you like. I didn't know they would be here."
Gorringe allowed himself to be drawn forward two steps then paused. "What are you planning on telling them?"
"To leave you alone and not interfere," the Doctor replied. "Though they'll only withdraw if you can grant assurance of our safety, of course, and only if I tell them to."
"Gorringe!" Hodges called. "What do we do?"
Gorringe turned to them. "Hold off. We're going over there. But if they take me out, you hit those detonators!"
"But, the girl…" Higgs protested.
"You heard me," Gorringe snapped. "Now come along." He gave an unnecessary jerk on the cuff. The Doctor ignored it, already pacing smoothly beside him so that he soon had to stretch his legs a little to keep up.
"Brigadier!" the Doctor hailed as they came to the bottom of the ridge. "I know you're up there. We need a parlay of sorts."
Lethbridge-Stewart's head and shoulders came into view above them. "We're coming down, but we're keeping you covered."
"Very kind of you, thank you," the Doctor replied. "Though I do need you to keep it peaceful; my friend here is rather touchy about explosives."
--
"Who's the bloke with him? Is he the ringleader?" Benton wondered as they made their way down the slope to the quarry floor.
"He's handcuffed to him," Yates pointed out. "You don't think it's coerced?"
The Sergeant gave a smile at that. "I'd say that puts the other man in trouble, not the Doctor. I wouldn't want to be cuffed to the likes of him, not if he was my enemy."
The Brigadier's mustache twitched. "A good point. I think he's up to something."
--
The Doctor considered them as they slid down the last bit of graveled slope. "I know you got my note as you sent the battery. Didn't I also ask you not to interfere? Mr. Gorringe, didn't my note say not to interfere?"
Gorringe, who'd been concentrating on looking intimidating, blinked at him. "Uh, yes."
"You read it, I presume, before you sent it off? Of course you did. And yet here I find you doing precisely that."
The Brigadier frowned at him. "You're risking that young woman's life, Doctor. I can't permit it."
"She's perfectly safe," he said dismissively. "But you could be endangering your men. There are live charges set for the field testing."
"Now look here, Doctor…"
"And this is none of your business," Gorringe put in loudly. "I'm the one you need to be talking to. We have a mission, and you'll thank us when you are freed from your oppressors."
"Oppressors?" Yates wondered, subsiding at a look from the Brigadier.
Lethbridge-Stewart faced the red-faced man with a perfectly serious face. "Very well, sir. My men will not interfere with your 'field testing,' as the Doctor put it. But it is only because I know the Doctor to be a trustworthy man who would never stoop to the lower activities of your cohorts here unless he had a damn good reason."
Gorringe looked at the elegant man to his left. "You're with us?"
"I am," he asserted mildly.
He looked back at the Brigadier. "But how do I know you and your men won't try something anyway? What's that girl to you?"
"I give you my word," the Brigadier said with dignity.
"Not good enough. You're a part of the government. Just to be sure there's no funny stuff, I want one of you over there, with her." Gorringe pulled his pistol from its holster again.
There was a movement beside him and suddenly he found himself with his left arm painfully twisted up behind him, the handcuff adding leverage.
"I said not to shoot at them," the Doctor told him calmly, giving the arm an emphasizing nudge.
"Ow," Gorringe complained. "All right!"
"See?" Benton whispered to Yates.
"Put the gun away."
Gorringe scowled and slid the gun back into its holster. The Doctor released his arm, which he rubbed at unhappily. "You could've broken it," he accused.
"And you might have done far more damage that that," his supposed-captive rebuked. He turned to the UNIT men, who were busy pretending none of it had happened. "I'm sure you don't need to use threats on these men. They're soldiers, honorable and used to danger. One of them would most likely volunteer…if you asked nicely."
They looked at one another. The Brigadier and Yates both drew breath, though what they were going to say was cut off by the tall Sergeant who almost shyly stepped forward. "I will."
--
"Hello, Miss," Sergeant Benton said as he reached Jo. He touched his beret politely. "Care for a little company?"
"What are you doing coming out here?" Jo said. "There's explosives…"
"It's all right. The Doc said that force-field tea-cart gadget of his will keep it safe." He looked down at her wrist, chained as it was to the cart. "Sorry to see they cuffed you. Did you see the trick the Doctor did with his, twisting that man 'round like that?" He briefly smiled, then considered it again. "It doesn't hurt you, does it?"
"It's all right," she said. "I could probably get out of them if I really needed to, but honestly I think I'm safer here. They didn't make you come out here, did they?"
"I volunteered," he said. "They been treating you all right, Miss?"
"Well enough," she said. She looked down and worried at the handcuff then looked back up at him with her big eyes. "They haven't really hurt me. I admit I was a bit frightened at first but since the Doctor's been there I've been all right."
"Well, that's a relief to know. We were fair worried about you back at HQ."
"You think we would be used to things like this by now," she smiled, then suddenly gave him a brief one-armed embrace. "Thank you for being here with me."
"Glad to be of service, Miss."
She looked up. "You know, I don't really know how tall this thing will be," she admitted. "We better get down."
The Sergeant promptly knelt down on the gravel as she hunkered by the tea-cart. "What would happen if part of us got outside it?" he wondered, looking up.
"I don't know that either, but I'd rather not find out it was something nasty," Jo said, watching for the Doctor's signal. Benton's open, honest face wore a bravely nervous expression made her suddenly want to reassure him. She patted one of his big hands with her small one.
In the distance, the Doctor waved his free hand at her and gave an emphatic nod.
She flipped the lever on the battery and with a sizzling whumping noise, a thin half-bubble of shimmering light formed around them. Outside they could still see the quarry, only slightly distorted as if they were near the surface of a fishbowl.
Benton pulled his beret off and twisted it in his hands as he looked around, the static making the stray hairs on his head lift and float. The bubble was tall enough he cautiously stood. Jo reached out to him and he awkwardly let her shelter under his arm as they waited. They didn't have to wait long.
All around them, the ground erupted into dust and rock as the dynamite detonated. The tea-cart rocked and jumped, and Jo gave an uncertain little squeal, grabbing onto Benton's khaki jacket. He braced both her and the cart, to keep them from tipping. Both of them winced as chunks of rock and gravel hurtled at them, only to bounce off the field. Clouds of dust washed around and over them, gravel bits that had been blown upward descended in a rain of debris that slid down the sides.
Slowly, the clouds settled. Untouched, they looked out at the new roughly hewn moat that had been blown around them in the quarry flooring. Far off, they could see the Doctor and the others emerging from various sheltering boulders, Higgs clicking away with his camera over at the lorry.
"That was something!" Jo said. She reached over and flipped off the switch.
"I'll have to buy the Doctor a drink for that one," Benton agreed with feeling. "Maybe several."
--
Across the quarry, the Brigadier hadn't moved, his hands still clasped firmly behind his back, but Yates looked like he was very much in need of a drink. "Thank God, they're all right," the young Captain muttered.
"Of course they are," the Doctor said.
"Completely impervious!" Gorringe was saying, triumph in his voice. "Doctor, you're a genius. Nothing can stop us now." He turned to the military men. "You will thank us for what we're doing."
"He keeps saying that," Yates observed quietly. "Somehow I doubt it."
They watched as Higgs brought the lorry around the perimeter, picking up the other men along the way. They all picked their way through the newly blown 'moat' to the tea-cart where a sternly protective Benton supervised their bringing Jo and the cart back before doffing his cap to her and reluctantly rejoining his superiors.
The lorry came to where they still stood, squeaking to a stop before them. "Mr. Gorringe?" Hodges asked from the driver's seat. "What's with the military men? Will they leave us alone?"
"They better," Gorringe said. "We still have their friends, after all. Now you remember that promise of yours," he shook his free hand at them admonishingly. "You keep your distance. Your man here knows what we're doing, and he's helping us, see?"
They all looked at the Doctor. He met the Brigadier's eyes and his eyebrows said something Alistair couldn't decipher. "We'll leave you be, as long as no one is hurt," the Brigadier stated, watching his advisor's face for unspoken confirmation that this was the right course of action.
"Let them carry on with it," the Doctor said firmly, with a nod. "All of it." He looked like he would have said more, but the proximity of members of the radical group in question prevented it. He took a breath, let it out and gave them a resigned look. "Go on now and don't worry about us. They're perfect gentlemen."
"Gentlemen with handcuffs and bombs," muttered Yates.
They watched stonily as their scientific advisor allowed himself to be cuffed to Jo again. He handed his young assistant into the back of the lorry then followed her in. One man joined them, and the last man swung the doors shut and backed toward the cab, a gun ready in his hand. The UNIT men didn't move.
"Let them just carry on with it? With bombing Parliament?" the Brigadier frowned as they watched the battered bread lorry trundle back out of the quarry. "What the devil can he be up to?"
"You don't think he's really gone in with them, do you?" Yates wondered reluctantly. "Though I would think he'd be on the other side of that scenario, on the alien's side, I mean."
"Of course not," the Brigadier snorted.
"So now what do we do?" the Captain asked, obviously frustrated.
"I'm assigning you to deal with this second branch of the group. We know they exist, and that they're planning on kidnapping the Prime Minister. That's a start."
"Yes?"
"The Doctor apparently wants them to be able to really carry off a kidnapping, or at least to carry off someone they think is their target. I need you to arrange with the Prime Minister's staff. I expect they have a double for the Prime Minister who can play the part of kidnapee. Of course, UNIT men will also need to replace part of that staff temporarily, to be sure no one is hurt and to keep the kidnappers under surveillance."
Yates nodded. "Yessir. And Parliament?"
"We're already in some communication with them. I may not be sure what the Doctor is doing, but I'm not willing to just stand by and leave everything to chance."
--