By the time the Doctor returned to the safe district, more and more Elite Police were appearing. They were everywhere. People didn't seem to be smiling as they went past now though.

"My husband... he was with the police, but he didn't come home after his shift. It's been hours! But he wouldn't sign up for one of those Elite things, would he?"

"My daughter... have you seen her? She was at Police HQ not long ago..."

Full mobilization of the city was beginning. Most of the brains and body parts the cybermen had previously salvaged were incompatible; cloned material. Usually when a recovery party was sent out, it was of military police elements. They were only clones after all.

The Doctor felt extremely uncomfortable with so many cybermen around - but there seemed to be the stirrings of rebellion in the people. They didn't realize it'd be them being promoted to the Elite Police. A few had already set up camp outside Police HQ, demanding answers.

When the Doctor and Jamie approached, the Elite Police - or rather, cybermen - were trying to get the citizens off their turf. The Doctor flashed his physic paper and the human guards let him through. Just as the heavy doors of the entrance hall slammed shut, Jamie was sure he could hear screams and gunfire.

They were going deep into enemy territory. But the Doctor wanted to persuade Doctor Cowling and his team. He knew it may have already been too late, but he was determined not to spill blood. He did have a Plan B, but he didn't like it. Not one bit.

When he finally reached C Division, there was a shutter open, behind which a number of police personnel were being rapidly 'promoted'.

"Doctor Cowling! It's Doctor Smith... where are you!?" The Doctor shouted impatiently. He was hoping very dearly that the horrible man had not been promoted, in which case they were finished.

"Ah yes. Hello Doctor Smith."

The Doctor relaxed slightly.

"Have you been aware of a space station orbiting your planet?"

Doctor Cowling sighed.

"Doctor Smith, that is the monitoring probe sent by Earth when this ghastly plague started. They couldn't let anyone slip past the quarantine, you understand?"

"Enough with the quarantine! I bet you there never was one. And I'm sure this infection never existed! That thing you call a probe is actually a cyberman monitoring station. They have transmitters dotted all over the place. Can't you see? I heard that your boss, Mr Kasper, has already been turned into an Elite Police unit! They're taking over!"

"Doctor, two things. First of all, I ordered Darrus Kasper and his little assistants to be promoted. They are far more useful now. I am taking charge-"

"But they'll come for you as well, eventually!" Jamie interjected.

"- as I was saying, I am taking control of the situation. Second of all, yes, the infection definitely existed. Down at G Division, our biological experts still have a canister of the culture."

"You're lying!" Jamie shouted.

"Calm down Jamie," the Doctor said, trying to temper himself, "I would wish to see the culture... study it, you know. Because I think you'll find it's entirely harmless."

They trudged over to G Division, a few rooms away from C Division, across the underground fortress. Doctor Cowling opened up the door. There was nobody there.

"Where is the G Division staff? I want to discuss something with them..."

"They were promoted, Doctor Smith. But you can still have a poke around. I should send a unit to keep watch over you, though."

"Oh, that won't be necessary!" The Doctor said, hurriedly. If a cyberman was sent down, with the Doctor and Jamie alone, they'd be killed. "Keep him busy, Jamie." The Doctor said under his breath, as he rushed over to the canister marked 'infection x'.

Jamie complained and moaned to Cowling, and when that started to wear thin he asked him about his work, to which Cowling was more than happy to start a lecture about.

"Let's see..." The Doctor studied the strange blobs and strings that slowly vibrated under the lens of the microscope, "Well, it does seem like it was deadly... yes... but it is short lived in humans, too. Everyone should have an immunity now. Hmm..."

He picked up a nearby sample of the liquid used to preserve the brains of the Elite Police units that G Division had been working on. And sure enough, it was exactly as he suspected.

"The liquid has the cure to the infection integrated into it... So, perhaps..."

He pranced over to a bank of machinery and interfaces, and slid the petri dish containing the infection into it. He put some of the preservation liquid into a dripper mechanism, and fiddled with the controls.

"An hour from now the infection will target cyberman blood and preservation liquids. But they'll be here before then..." He whispered, glancing at Doctor Cowling who'd finished his lecture and was becoming suspicious of the Doctor.

"Doctor Smith, I hope you aren't trying anything funny over there, eh?"

"Nope, sorry! Yes, I seem to have been quite wrong!" He said, whipping around.

"I think Jamie and I will just wander around the laboratories a bit... Is there a bank anywhere?"

Jamie looked confused, what was the Doctor thinking of doing next? Buy his way out of the bleak situation? And then he started to become angry. Why, when they had got out of the district, had they not ran back to the TARDIS? They could have escaped, which is what they were planning all this time!

"A bank? Oh no, no no no, our last bank was two districts away. But we do have a cache of money for police purposes and the like..." Doctor Cowling said in a patronizing tone.

"Any gold? I mean, I'm just terribly interested in the economy and all."

Doctor Cowling looked suspiciously at the Doctor. What was he playing at now?

"Well, yes... a stack in the vault at the far end of the underground section of the HQ, along that way." Cowling replied, thrusting his finger down the way they'd come from C Division.

"I see..."

They parted their ways. Doctor Cowling wanted to check on the Elite Police in the city, so he went towards the flight of stairs that led back up to HQ.

The Doctor and Jamie, meanwhile, went over to where Cowling said the vault of gold would be.

There were no guards. Why would there be, with all this promotion business going on? Once everyone was an Elite Policeman, there'd be no need for money.

He hovered the sonic screwdriver around the middle of the squat, round metal door that led into the stash of gold. After about a minute, it opened, sliding sideways into a cavity in the wall.

"Ah-ha! Here we are..." He turned to Jamie, "Gold kills cybermen, it suffocates them, if it covers their chest units at least. Nobody knows why."

Jamie just thought it sounded like a lazy plot idea for some budget science fiction series, like the ones he'd seen in far away planets in the future during his previous TARDIS travels. Why the hell would gold kill something through suffocation if it never apparently needs to breathe?

Finally, after the Doctor had inspected the gold bars, Jamie aired his question.

"Why didn't we go back to the TARDIS when we escaped the district? Why aren't we back into the time continuewhatsit? We're probably going to die now!"

The Doctor looked concerned.

"I feel it's my duty to save these people."

"But you were going on about escaping all day just yesterday!"

A short pause ran through the stale air.

"Yes... but... seeing all this unfold now... it's upsetting. I really feel I need to help out. Now it's not just this planet at risk, it's the entire Earth Alliance, billions of people across the cosmos. We can't let them down when only we have the power to stop the cybermen. Earlier I was sure somebody else would step in, but after they promoted Darrus Kasper, who was first in command here, it seems unlikely."

Jamie looked a little sheepish, and the Doctor firmly patted him on the back.

"Forget about it. We'll make it through this. I don't think I'll be using the random button much again... It's only ever led to trouble. Anyway, let's move. Help me pick up these gold bars, don't worry, they're quite light..."

The Doctor and Jamie hauled as many gold bricks as they could, over to J Division - mining and building team. They had a large grinder that could turn granite to dust. The Doctor and Jamie dumped the gold blocks in the top of it, a large, upside-down, hollow cone. The Doctor switched it on, and the bars slowly sank down into the machine, appearing as dust in a transparent container at the bottom of the grinder.

"Great. Now we need some guns."

They fetched some guns from the armoury. But the Doctor was concerned; nobody was guarding the place. The cybermen were obviously concentrating their forces on getting ready to promote the citizens. Sweat glistened on his brow as they poured gold dust into the clips and magazines of the traditional weapons. The Doctor slipped around thirty hand guns into his anti-gravity pocket and an ancient AK-47 into his gravitated one.

He was using Plan B - to rally the citizens against the cybermen, because he knew they were watching him. With their anti-cybermen guns, they'd hopefully stave them off until the big weapon was finished. A plague suffered only by the cybermen! A detachment were probably being sent down to Police HQ right now, though, and time was running thin...

"We have to advance plans further the Doctor has discovered a weakness we must destroy him destroy his new plague destroy his weapons we must advance our plans!" The cyberplanner spoke in a hurried way, as if it was worried on the disabled star ship that orbited the dying world.

Eight cybermen turned away from a riot - many of which were now boiling up on the surface - and started marching towards Police HQ. Time was indeed running thin.