The next day the Doctor and Jamie were sitting outside the last café open in town. The Doctor was looking uncomfortable, yet again plotting on how they were going to get back to the TARDIS. But, unfortunately, the chances of them escaping seemed bleak. Every exit from the last, fortified district was heavily guarded. And nobody was let out, well, civilians at least.
"Doctor... What are these clone things... and they all have no left hands!" Jamie whispered, glancing towards a couple of military police, "Are they robots?"
The Doctor's face darkened as he noticed them walk by.
"No. They were bred, in biological facilities on Earth. Their hands are surgically removed and some sort of pressurized air gun in stuck into their flesh... and they're all zealous for their cause. If they're used in battles, they are often cannon fodder. Highly immoral." The Doctor replied.
"Hey!" Jamie shouted, over at the military police, "What're you doing?"
"Don't, Jamie! Don't provoke them!" The Doctor hissed, but it was too late.
The two military police ambled over.
"Trouble, citizens?"
"I was just wondering where you're from."
They exchanged looks.
"Classified. Is there a problem you need police help with?"
They sounded fairly blank, as if they had no emotions. The Doctor remembered something he had been meaning to ask at Police HQ, but felt he should now.
"Have you ever seen any...of these infected? I mean,actually seen one?" The Doctor asked, brow furrowed.
"No. No infected. But they're out there. We lose men every few days to them."
"But do you hear their screams? Their struggles? Anything over the radio even?"
"The only people who see the infected are police squads sent to try and recover districts or recover a few streets. They are far away, we cannot hear them. But we are low on men. We are now using alternative methods."
"Alternative?"
"The Elite Police units will be deployed sometime tomorrow. They will enforce the population which is becoming nervous and attempt to recover a district South of here."
The clones walked off on their patrol route again, and when they were out of earshot the Doctor snapped around to Jamie.
"There's something going on here. Didn't you hear? They've never seen infected. And we didn't see any. What, there must be about five percent of the original population living here now? So where are all the infected people?" The Doctor said, "And why do squads keep go missing? Nobody can hear their screams or gunfire in neighbouring districts, yet when we were at the other end of one we could at least vaguely hear soft noises, like people speaking and cars moving."
As he said this, a police van rumbled by, the sun glinting off it's dark blue gloss paint.
"It's like the police rule this town..." Jamie commented.
"I think they actually do... Well, you know the government collapsed here. The only forces left were the police, so they just took over where the government left off."
"And who are these Elite Police? What'll make them different?"
"I'm not sure. Perhaps it's some sort of special training? Either way, this is looking very suspicious. These people are getting very desperate, after all..."
"Should we go to Police HQ? Pose as inspectors or something?"
"That may be a good idea, but unfortunately the quarantine means that no inspectors would be coming here to... inspect."
Jamie looked disappointed, but kept on thinking. He was curious to see what the Elite Police were. Some said they would be the saviour of the city. But how? What would they bring to the table that would change things?
Then suddenly an idea sprang to mind.
"Why don't we say we are inspectors, but we've been under cover? The quarantine is about to be lifted, but we wanted to make sure that everything was okay!"
The Doctor leapt to his feet.
"Excellent idea! I had the sense to take the physic paper with me this time. Quick! Where's Police HQ? Ah yes, that big castle thing on the horizon! Onwards, Jamie!"
The Police HQ was a hulking, fortified building; it did indeed look like a castle or fortress. It had wall gun emplacements, and a perimeter chain link fence that had signs screaming 'ELECTRIFIED' and 'KEEP OUT'. Luckily there was a front entrance with some guards. After the Doctor waved his physic paper and told them the quarantine would soon be over, they were more than happy to let him and Jamie past.
"We're here to see the new Elite Police models, could you take me to them?" The Doctor asked the secretary.
"I'll take you to C Division's lab, this way please."
She led them down a flight of stairs, below ground level. The castle was only a tiny part of the Police's base; a subterranean fortress fanned out for nearly a kilometre underneath it. Eventually the stairs ended and they entered a large, sleek corridor. A massive contrast from the dilapidated brick housing of the city. The interior was a shiny white, with yellow and black stripes at the edges of the large corridors for no apparent reason.
Finally they got to C Division. Their laboratory was just off one of the large and brighter corridors, and the secretary abandoned them as soon as the Doctor and Jamie stepped inside.
"Hello? Anybody home? We're inspectors, from Earth. We want to see your plans for the Elite Police!" The Doctor shouted.
Suddenly Kertin came out of a side room.
"Inspectors? Is the quarantine being lifted?"
"Em... Soon. We just need to... inspect a few things first." Jamie replied, casually.
"Oh! Of course. Come this way... You said something about the Elite Police?" He said as he led them through the warren-like labs of C Division, "Well they are almost complete! With their power we shall destroy the infected and bring peace once more to this world!"
"Are you planning on integrating the Elite Police into the main force?" The Doctor asked.
"Oh yes! They have been shown to be highly effective at both military purposes and civilian control in testing, after this ghastly quarantine is lifted we'll ask permission to ship them off to Earth and the Alliance colonies immediately." He ranted in a proud tone, "They will be the envy of the other races! I understand the Plurgons from the moon of Zoniaz were trying to develop something similar."
"So what are they exactly?" Jamie queried, nervously.
"By any definition, semi-biological mechanical component self controlled units."
"In English?"
Kertin glowered at Jamie.
"Well, plainly: half mechanical half biological. Well, you'll see in a minute. Oh, and we haven't told the public that yet. They just think they're robots or something. That'll soon change!"
The Doctor and Jamie exchanged nervous glances. Half mechanical, half biological? It sounded eerily familiar.
"Gentlemen, Ms Port, our mechanical engineering chief, Doctor Cowling, our project leader and biological/mechanical integration specialist, and our latest Elite Police unit!"
Ms Port and Doctor Cowling nodded and said hello, but the Doctor and Jamie weren't interested, for behind a reinforced glass wall, attached to some pipes and wiring that went into the ceiling, sat a cyberman on a chair. It stared blankly into the middle distance, unphased by the arrival of it's race's greatest enemy.
"That... that's... no, this is being decommissioned!" The Doctor whipped around to face Dr Cowling, "You have to discontinue this immediately!"
Dr Cowling and Ms Port exchanged worried looks and Kertin looks openly offended.
"Well, this technology was ordered to be developed by Earth High Command..."
"What? Well, interests have changed!" The Doctor shouted, and leant in close to Dr Cowling, "What you are doing is immoral and disgusting! And anyway, these are not of human creation..."
"Excuse me? I was there when the first prototype was assembled."
"You may think that... but it wasn't the first one... these look like Mark II or Mark III models..."
"Inspector, these aren't even the final version. I don't know what you are playing at."
"Switch it on and I'll show you what I mean!"
"It is on. Ask it something, there's an input panel over there." Doctor Cowling gestured to a screen posed at an angle on the glass wall.
The Doctor furiously pressed a button and barked into the microphone.
"Look! It's me, the Doctor! Yoo-hoooo! Anybody home?"
The cyberman slowly looked up and replied in it's grating voice.
"Doctor. You are an unidentified worker. Doctor, who?"
"Oh stop playing that game! You know who it is, so stop acting! Just kill me now you have the chance!"
The cyberman stared on blankly, returning it's metal head a few inches back to it's original position.
"Doctor... Sorry, what is your name?" Said Kertin.
"What was it again... ah yes, Doctor Smith. What is it?"
"Well, Doctor Smith, this model isn't complete. See those wires? It's hooked up to a central mainframe computer. It's just an interface now. When we insert the subject into it, it will not need the computer to aid it."
The Doctor calmed down a bit, but he still had his guard up. Perhaps this cyberman truly was wired up to a central computer. But he doubted it. Despite having no emotions or morals, the cybermen were damn good at acting.
"The Elite Police with... biological components will be implemented into service tomorrow at noon. Come to the town square for a demonstration. We only have five models, including this one, and five... biological components as of now, but we hope to change that!"
The Doctor stormed out, "Let's go, Jamie... leave these rats in their stupid tunnels!", trying to think of a way to show these people the truth. And he was suspecting there was no plague, and that the people missing weren't... entirely dead.
