A/N: Thank you everyone for your patience!
The Validium Takes Manhattan
Part Four
Jane's eyes traveled up to the top of the copper statue as they approached, feeling an unshakable sense of doom. This wasn't some aggressive spider infestation they were dealing with. This was a bomb. A real live bomb that could explode any second. If she had felt out of her element with alien spiders, this was in a whole different league. There was a part of her, however small, that felt slightly exhilarated as they entered the abandoned gift shop, but mostly she was nervous. Nervous and sopping wet.
The place was empty, and eerily dark, only the dim emergency lighting illuminating the half-eaten sandwiches and snacks that were scattered on the cafe tables.
"Ah, love a good shop," the Doctor said cheerfully, somewhat ruining the somber mood. "Respect the shop." He said very seriously to Jane.
"Alright…"
"You think it's in like a backpack or something? Maybe someone could have dropped it in one of the garbage bins." Officer Harris pulled a small flashlight from her belt and aimed it suspiciously at one of the metal waste bins sitting against the wall innocuously.
"Too obvious," he muttered as he bounced around the room. He plucked a green foam crown from one of the displays and wore it as he investigated. He shook his head, pulling the crown from his head and glaring at it like it was defective when it failed to provide any useful results. "Where are you hiding?"
"What about over here?" Jane spotted a gray metal door, 'Basement Access. Staff only' emblazoned in big red letters across it. There was also a coded lock keeping it firmly shut.
"Well spotted," the Doctor said with a grin. He rewarded her by placing the foam crown on her head and flipped the sonic in his hand once as he approached the door. Officer Harris gave Jane another skeptical look and Jane dragged the spongey trinket from her head and left it on one of the café tables.
"The code's probably behind the counter here somewhere," Officer Harris started to shuffle papers around at the gift shop register.
"Yes, you're probably right," the Doctor said as he aimed the screwdriver at the lock. It chirped once and the light on it flickered green. There was an audible snap within the door and when the Doctor twisted the handle, it swung open on silent hinges.
"That's an awfully handy laser pointer." Officer Harris said with a frown.
"Very handy." The Doctor winked.
"Didn't think homeland security had such an impressive research and development budget." Officer Harris grunted.
"You have no idea. Come along, Jane." He called over his shoulder as he disappeared through the door. The odds of her being any safer in the gift shop seemed pretty unlikely, so with a minimal amount of grumbling, she followed him.
The door led to a narrow stairway, their footsteps echoing loudly as they descended. Her own shoes squelched loudly, reminding her again that she was following the same madman who had thrown her into the Hudson.
"They've got the whole grid down here. Power and plumbing." Officer Harris said as the stairs opened into a large room with metal grated flooring. It was even gloomier down here, a single emergency light illuminating a series of pipes that ran through the room, as well as electrical boxes on the far wall.
"Ah," the Doctor said, crossing the room quickly. "You don't look local." He pointed at the cluster of rather large and ominous looking metal drums that were situated between a few of the electrical boxes, somehow wired into the circuit breakers themselves. The Doctor scanned the drums with his screwdriver, frowning. "They've hacked into the main power source to use the electricity to set it off, but why bother? Why not just trigger it on its own…" he scratched his chin as he crouched next to the drum. "That's strange…"
"I don't suppose you have a plan for turning it off?" Jane wasn't really in the mood to listen to his musings, especially not when she was trapped in a room with what looked like, a very large bomb.
"As of right now?" he shot her a guilty look. "No."
"I thought you were an expert?" Officer Harris looked equally uncomfortable.
"Yes, well, it's not an ordinary bomb." Jane had to roll her eyes, it was never ordinary with the Doctor. "This is Alkaicite. It's an extremely volatile metal, but incredibly rare. This quantity together is…well. This is very big." He said as he stood up slowly, taking a step away from the drums.
"How big is big?" Jane knew she probably didn't want to know, but for some absurd reason she asked anyway.
"It's, ah…Enormously big." The Doctor shot them both a worried look. "Seismic, colossal, tremendous-"
"Are you just going to go through every word that means 'big'?" Officer Harris gave him a look.
"Well…maybe not all of them." The Doctor said sheepishly.
"I get it."
"Right, well. I don't think this bomb was just meant to be local. I think it's meant for the whole island."
"It can take out all of Liberty Island?" Officer Harris didn't quite seem to believe it.
"Manhattan, actually." The Doctor said uneasily. "But it might be more accurate to say this could very well take out New York," he swallowed. "State."
Jane felt her breath whoosh out of her suddenly. In her mind, she was already screaming, running back up the stairs and taking flight by flapping her arms hard enough. In reality, she was glued to the spot, staring in horror at the metal drums. She consoled herself with the fact that even if she had been able to run, it wouldn't have really mattered. It wasn't as reassuring as she'd hoped.
"Well," Officer Harris sounded much calmer than Jane, though her voice was noticeably higher than before. "It's just hooked up to the boxes here." She pointed to the circuits in the wall. "If we shut that off, that should stop it, right?"
"Theoretically? Maybe." The Doctor said as he paced the room.
"You've got a plan, right?" Jane asked him in a tone that suggested he absolutely did have a plan, there was no alternative. He met Jane's eyes for a moment, and then resumed his pacing.
"Look, here's the main breaker," Officer Harris had opened one of the boxes along the wall, very slowly, and very deliberately. None of the wires were attached to it, so it looked safe to handle. "If we shut this down, it kills all the power on the island." She put her hand on the switch, looking to the Doctor questioningly.
"Don't!" The Doctor blurted out suddenly, sending Jane almost three feet in the air. "Seriously, whatever you do, don't do that."
Officer Harris' eyes had widened, and she was careful to remain very still. "Why not?" Her voice sounded dry.
"Well, because you might just set it off. I don't know why they've attached it to the wiring, disconnecting it could be the very thing that makes it go boom," he gestured with his hands, in case they had forgotten how bombs worked. "Remember, incredibly volatile metal. One spark, one volt, a single static shock and-" the Doctor snapped his fingers, causing them both to flinch. "You'll have a crater deeper than the Grand Canyon where the east coast used to be. Just…just step away. Slowly."
"I…I can't." Officer Harris said, fear suddenly clouding her features. Jane couldn't blame her, if the enormous bomb hadn't already frightened her to death, the Doctor's pep talk would have done it.
"It's alright," the Doctor took a step closer. "You haven't done anything wrong, just-"
"No, I mean, I can't move." Her eyes shifted toward the wall where her hand was still pressed against it. But her brown skin had been replaced by the same gray metal color of the electrical box she was touching. "What is that?" She asked, her voice a tight whisper.
"Never mind that," the Doctor said with a smile. "What was your first name?" He crossed the room and scanned her hand quickly with the screwdriver.
"M-Mary."
"Ah, that's a lovely name, Mary. Knew a Mary once, she was a right firecracker." The Doctor said grinning as he pinched her chin. "I need you to stay completely calm. I'm absolutely going to sort this in just a moment. Can you do that for me?"
Jane watched as the gray color spread across her hand, slowly creeping up her arm. She plastered a smile on her face as the officer's eyes darted her way nervously.
"I think so," she tried to nod, but her neck wouldn't cooperate.
"Good, that's excellent to hear. Now I'm going to try something, it might pinch a bit." He waited for her to respond, but she said nothing. "Mary?" His attention turned from her hand back to her face. Officer Harris stared forward, her eyes focused at some point in the distance. She didn't move, or blink, or even breathe.
Jane watched as the gray, which had disappeared beneath her sleeves, finally made its way back out, enveloping the remainder of her skin. Officer Harris was left as a stony looking metallic statue, frozen in place.
The Doctor took a step back, letting out a growl of frustration.
"Doctor?" Officer Harris suddenly spoke again, her mouth moving slowly and deliberately to form the words which echoed in the utility room.
"Yes, yes it's me. It's the Doctor. Can you tell me what's happened?" The Doctor searched her eyes desperate for some sign of life.
"It's been ages, Doctor. I had not anticipated meeting you again." The voice was stiff, and while it still had some similarities, it sounded nothing like Officer Harris. Jane took an involuntary step backward.
"Who am I speaking to now? What's happened to Mary?"
"I'm afraid Mary is quite occupied just now. Has it really been so long that you do not recognize me?"
"Yes, I've gotten a bit dotty. Do an old man a favor and remind me, would you?"
I believe you last knew me as Nemesis." Jane shivered, as far as nicknames went, it wasn't a promising one. "The Time Lords of old named me. I am Validium." The Doctor's face blanched as he too took a step back, shooting Jane a look to warn her away.
"Time lords?" Jane thought she'd heard the Doctor claim to be one, but she was pretty sure he had specified that he was the last.
"Ah, yes. The living metal." The Doctor ignored her questions and instead focused on the thing that had taken over Officer Harris. "It has been a long time. Tell me, Nemesis. Why've you got a bomb?" He sounded angry.
"I serve to protect Gallifrey." The thing spoke mechanically.
"Right, greater good nonsense." The Doctor muttered. "But you were an accident. A mistake. You should have never left Gallifrey at all. Why do you keep returning here?"
"Accident?" Jane felt her skin crawl as it almost sounded like the voice was smiling, though Officer Harris' features had still remained frozen. "Don't be so naive, Doctor." The Doctor opened his mouth to argue, and then shut it again quickly. His jaw tensed a few times before he finally responded.
"Whatever it is, it's done. I've got some rather bad news, I'm afraid. Gallifrey is gone. It's destroyed. You protect a planet and a people that no longer exist. You are utterly useless." His voice was clipped and dangerous, Jane took another uneasy step back, but this time the Doctor's fury was the cause. "So why don't you just go."
There was a long pause before the thing responded. Jane wondered if that meant the Doctor's scary speech had worked, because it had certainly worked on her.
"You are lying." It said uncertainly.
"I most certainly am not. Go ahead, you've no doubt hacked the receivers. There's loads of satellites you can use to check up on the latest galactic news. Gallifrey is no more." He said hollowly. "Now, what have you done with Mary?"
"This is renegade trickery of yours." It finally said, dismissing his claims. "Mary is a part of us now. She lives in the metal."
"Right," the Doctor said sharply. "Then you've just made a rather large mistake. The kind that you're going to regret." He turned on his heel and grabbed Jane's arm as he marched past.
"Where are we going?" Jane stumbled, trying to keep up with the Doctor's deliberate steps.
"We're going upstairs to meet Nemesis. And to have a little chat about manners." He said in a dark tone. Jane quailed under his stony glare and did her best to keep up as they climbed back up to the gift shop. "And Jane?" His fury melted briefly into a look of concern. "Don't touch the walls."