Chapter 7

An Unexpected Ally

Yvonne Hartman was sitting at her desk in the glass fronted office, on the top floor of One, Canada Square, trying to find out what the hell was going on. A team from the electronics lab had managed to get a few radios working, and she was getting sporadic reports from agents around the building.

['McNab to control. Yvonne, all the entrances to the building are intact. A force may have used the electronics failure to teleport in while the inhibitors are out of action.']

'Yes Andy, I think you may be right. What do you think they are after?'

['It could be the tech we've got here, or maybe it's a rescue mission for some of the many people we've pulled in for questioning lately,'] Andy said with a hint of undisguised irritation.

'I know you don't agree with our new policy of aggressively seeking out alien insurgents Andy,' Yvonne said in a placating tone. 'However, we have very reliable intelligence that there is an impending invasion being planned, and we have been tasked by the Prime Minister to do our utmost to prevent it. Andy, I am asking you to trust me, and carry out your duty to the best of your usual outstanding ability.'

['Of course Yvonne. I have a team protecting the research labs, and I'm taking a team to the holding facility.']

'That's great Andy, Keep me appraised of the situation.'

['Roger that. McNab out.']

Yvonne put the radio on her desk and continued working. Several minutes later, five people suddenly appeared in her office.


Andy looked at the radio as though it was the little box that had told him to shut up and get on with it, rather than the woman who was the director of the institute. He put the radio in his top pocket and thought about what Yvonne had said. Of course he would do his job, he was a soldier. You can take the man out of the SAS, but you couldn't take the SAS out of the man.

And Yvonne was right, he did have outstanding abilities. After all, he'd been a member of the most elite fighting force in the world. However, he may have been a trained killer, but he was no assassin. If there was someone threatening the public, he would take them out without a second thought. But he would not harm or kill an unarmed person who had surrendered.

'Right. Duncan has taken Andre, Julia, Craig and Gwen up to the labs. We are going down to the cells to see if anyone is trying to break out some of our "guests".'

He led Stuart, Pete and Clive out of the Standby Room to the stairs and down to the basement, where they hurried along to the holding facility.

'Andy. The door's open,' Clive noticed as they approached.

'I was right. It's a break out. We need to contain them. If anyone comes out, I want short, controlled bursts against the blast door to keep them in there. No casualties! Is that understood?'

'Understood Boss,' they replied.

'Okay. Take up your positions.'

'Allons-y then,' someone said from inside the detention cells, and then they saw shadows moving in the gap of the doorway.

'Fire!' Andy commanded, and there was the rattling sound of SA80 assault rifles pinging bullets off the blast door. The shadows moved away from the door.

'Don't you dare!' a voice said from inside. 'If you really know me, then you'll know we don't use guns . . . Not lethal ones anyway.'

Andy frowned at this. Who were these people who infiltrated a high security building and didn't use weapons. He didn't have time to contemplate this though, as the blast door started to roll shut.


'Ugh. If that's travellin' through the Vortex without a TARDIS, yer can keep it,' Rose said as they appeared in a smart, tidy office.

'What?!' a woman in a smart trouser suit said from behind a desk.

'Hello again Miss Hartman,' Eight said with a charming smile.

Yvonne reached for the top draw of her desk, but River reached over and grabbed her wrist. 'Oh I don't think so Sweetie.' She opened the draw herself and looked inside, before taking out a firearm. 'Interesting office stationery you keep in here.' She handed the weapon to Rose as Yvonne twisted her wrist free.

'Browning nine millimetre,' Rose said. She popped the magazine out and dropped it in the waste bin. She then pulled back the slider and cleared the round from the breech, which also went in the waste bin, along with the gun.

['McNab to all teams. We have a force of unknown size which has liberated two detainees from the cells. They may still be in the building so start a search of all possible hiding places. McNab out,'] the radio squawked.

'That's Andy,' Rose realised.

'They've noticed we've left then,' Lucie said with a smile.

River looked around the glass fronted office. 'We're exposed here. Rose, with me. We need to defend the entrance.'

'Yes ma'am,' Rose said with a lopsided smile.

As they moved towards the door, John caught River by the elbow. 'Hand it over.'

'What?' she asked innocently.

John gave her a silent icy stare. River rolled her eyes in submission. 'Oh, all right.' She reached into her pocket, and took out the Heckler & Koch MP5SF which she had taken from the warder, and handed it to him.

John handed the weapon to Rose, and she made it safe as she had done with Yvonne's. She then drew her stun gun and went out into the corridor with River.

'Now then Yvonne,' John said with a cheeky smile. 'My friend here has had some personal items taken from him and he'd like them back please.'

'Oh I bet he would,' Yvonne scoffed. 'So that you can use it to start the invasion.'

Eight shook his head. 'You really are deluded, aren't you?' He sat on the edge of her desk and looked intently at her face. His smile was charming, or creepily sinister, depending on your point of view.

'You're too late. It's all in the vault. And the vault is inaccessible at the moment due to an interruption of power,' Yvonne told him smugly, staring defiantly into his eyes.

But Eight was staring back, and he was staring for a reason. Yvonne was good. Her poker face was a professional, impassive mask. But the human face gave momentary, almost imperceptible clues as to what the brain was thinking as the mouth was speaking. Normally, they had to be filmed with a high speed camera and watched in slow motion. But Eight was a Time Lord, and he experienced time at a different rate to everyone else.

'So, is my property still in this office then?' Eight asked.

And there it was, her "tell" as the poker players called it. There was the briefest twitch of her mouth and blink of the eyes. He had completely ignored her lie about the vault and asked a question which told her he knew it was a lie.

'I've just told you it's in the vault,' Yvonne repeated.

'Yes you did . . . Is it in one of the desk drawers?' Her "tell" told him no. 'The filing cabinet maybe?' Her "tell" was getting easier to read as he started to get her rattled. 'Oh I know. The office safe.'

Bingo! Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. He didn't know she had an office safe, but it was a fair bet that she had. She was a paranoid xenophobe. Of course she'd have secrets, and have somewhere to hide them.

'So you do have a safe. I wonder where it is?'

'Here, let me,' John said, reaching into the breast pocket of his uniform and taking out his sonic screwdriver. He adjusted the setting and started to scan around the walls and floor. He stopped at a painting and looked at the holographic projected display on his sonic.

'Really? Behind a painting?' Lucie asked Yvonne. 'That is such a cliché.'

The painting was on a hinge, and John moved it as though he was opening a door, to reveal a safe with a handle and keypad. 'I don't suppose there's any point in asking you for the combination, is there?'

Yvonne scowled at him. 'Nah. Didn't think so.' He adjusted the sonic again and ran the blue light over the keypad. After a few seconds, the lock clicked, and John twisted the handle to open the door. He took out a plastic box and handed it to the Doctor.

'Ah, there we are,' Eight said with a smile as he started loading his pockets. He picked up a small, white paper bag and rummaged inside, taking out a jelly baby. 'Jelly baby anyone?'

'Oh I haven't had a jelly baby for ages,' John said as he helped himself to a sweet. 'I love jelly babies.'

'Me too,' Lucie said as she took one as well.

Eight offered the bag to Yvonne with raised eyebrows, but she just gave him an icy stare. 'No? I'll have yours then,' he said and popped another sweet in his mouth.

'John, are we done here?' Rose asked from the doorway. 'The longer we stay here, the greater the risk of gettin' caught. And Miss Bossy Boots is gettin' jumpy out here.'

'Yeah, we're . . .'

['Prescott to McNab. Andy, we were searching the isolation ward on the hospital floor when we found something. Over,'] Duncan Prescott announced over the radio.

['Duncan. What have you found? Over,'] Andy replied.

['We're not sure. Bodies I think. But they're covered in tendrils . . . vines of some sort.']

John and Eight gave each other knowing looks. John grabbed the radio and pressed the talk button. 'Duncan. What colour are the tendrils?'

['Er, reddish brown.']

['Who is that?'] Andy asked.

John ignored him. 'And are the tendrils held together with a membrane that cover the head?'

['This is Captain Andy McNab. Identify yourself.']

There was a pause as John presumed Duncan checked the bodies.

['Andy. Whoever that is, he's right about the tendrils,'] Duncan reported.

'We're on our way,' John said and put the radio in his pocket. 'Come on, we need to get to the second floor.' He hurried out of the office. 'RIVER. Set your manipulator for the second floor.'

As Lucie walked past the desk, she picked up the waste basket and took it with her. They found River was by the double glass doors that led onto the main corridor. John saw the waste basket and gave Lucie a questioning look.

Lucie smiled at him. 'Well, we can't leave Lady Nut Job with two weapons that she can reload, can we?'

'Oh I like her,' River said as she held out her arm. 'Right. Everyone hold on tight.'

'Oh, do we have to?' Lucie asked, not keen on having her atoms twisted into the fourth dimension and back again.

'Unless you want to run down forty three floors,' John said.

Lucie sighed, held onto River's wrist with everyone else, and disappeared from the top floor to reappear in the reception area of the hospital. 'Ugh. That is unpleasant.'

John led them past the startled nursing staff and headed down the corridor towards the isolation ward, where he pushed through the double doors.

'What the hell?!' Andy said as he spun around. 'Freeze!'

Half a dozen SA80 assault rifles turned in their direction. They raised their hands, all except John. 'Sorry Andy. Don't have time for that nonsense,' he said. 'As always, I'm unarmed. So, you can shoot me if you've had your integrity surgically removed, or you can show me those bodies.'

For once in his career, Andy was completely stumped. When he told people to freeze, they froze. The threat of a gun pointing at them being usually enough to get their cooperation. Not only had this man completely ignored him, he had implied that he knew him, and knew that he wouldn't shoot an unarmed man.

'Who the hell are you people?' Andy asked as John and Eight walked down the ward towards one of the bodies on a bed.

'I'm John Smith. I used to be him,' John said, pointing to Eight with his thumb. 'He's the Doctor. The cute blonde is Lucie. The even cuter blonde is my wife Rose, and River is . . . Well, she's just River.'

'That's Rose Tyler!' Gwen O'Toole said.

'No, I'm not,' Rose told her. 'Well, yes I am, sort of.'

John and Eight were scanning the tendril covered body with their sonic screwdrivers. 'Still alive,' Eight said.

'As to be expected,' John replied. 'Shall we find out who it is?' They started to pull at the tendrils holding the body to the bed.

'Stop right there,' Andy commanded. 'At the moment, you could be doing something incredibly dangerous for all I know. So if you don't stop, I will shoot.'

John and Eight stopped. Andy had just told them that he had made a risk assessment and needed information. John and Eight fixed him with an icy stare. 'Trust me Andy, we are not your enemies. The aliens who did this to these people are your enemies. The Earth is under threat, and we are your best chance of stopping it,' John told him.

'Trust you. Why should I trust you? And how do you know me?'

John sighed. 'I know you in a different universe. There are parallel worlds, Andy. Every single decision we make creates a parallel existence, a different dimension where things can be the same or different.'

'Oh come on,' Andy said. 'You're going to have to do better than that.'

'Andy,' Rose said. 'I AM Rose Tyler. That was my maiden name in my universe. There is another Rose Tyler in this universe. A Rose Tyler who had a different life to me. Different chances, different choices. The Andy McNab I know, is my commandin' officer where I come from. He is one of the most inspirational leaders I have ever met.'

'And would he believe a bunch of terrorists who infiltrated a secure building and told an outrageous tale?' Andy asked.

'No, probably not. Not straight away anyway. But come on. You work for Torchwood. You know how weird things can get. The Andy I know would gather intelligence, collate all the available data before makin' any rash decisions.'

'Well, I'll give you that one. But why would he trust those strangers?'

'You want me to give you proof that the other you trusts me? Okay.' Rose hesitantly looked over at John before she continued. 'A few years ago, Me and John were on a mission that went wrong. I was captured by a group of thugs and . . .'

John walked over and held her hand in support. 'And I was nearly raped. I wasn't handlin' it well. I thought I should have been better than that. Andy helped me by tellin' me about a mission that went wrong when he was in the SAS. His team were captured and he was interrogated. He told me all the details of that interrogation . . . Y'know, when he was tied to a table.'

Andy lowered the rifle. 'I've never told anyone about that outside of my old unit.'

'Neither have I,' Rose replied quietly. 'He didn't ask me to keep it private. But then he didn't have to, because he trusted me not to tell anyone.'

'Andy?' Stuart Sinclair asked. Surely he didn't believe this crazy story.

'What? Even Gwen said she was Rose Tyler.'

'There is one way to resolve this,' John suggested. 'Take this webbing off the face and see who is underneath.'

Andy looked at John and the Doctor, and then looked at each of his team, trying to assess their reaction.

'You're not thinking of listening to them are you?' Julia De Graff asked him.

'I don't see as we have much choice. They get in here without any weapons . . .' Andy started.

'Er, that's not entirely true,' Rose said sheepishly. 'We do have stun guns.'

Andy smiled at her honesty. He could see why an Andy McNab in another universe would like her. 'Without any lethal weapons. They claim that someone is preparing to invade our world. They also claim that this body will prove that they are telling the truth. I say we have a look. If they are lying, we arrest them.'

'Thank you Andy,' John said, and they started to pull the rubbery tendrils off the body. Everyone gathered around to see who was underneath. John, Rose and River doubted if they would know who it was, being from a different universe.

'Hang on,' Pete Davies started. 'That's . . .'

'Harriet Jones. The Prime Minister!' Gwen finished for him.

'Yeah. We know who she is,' John and Rose said together.