"Daleks?" Lindsay echoed. "Here?"
Before the Doctor could respond, another voice interrupted him. "Excuse me, sir, but could you please evacuate the building?" Everyone turned to look at the police officer standing behind them.
The Doctor stood up, slipping the projector into a jacket pocket that looked much too small for it and producing a thin wallet, which he opened and showed the police officer, from another pocket. "Sorry I'm late, officer," he said. "I came as fast as I could."
The police officer studied the wallet and frowned. "I'm sorry, Inspector, but I really do have to ask you to leave. Once the campus K-9 units have finished clearing the building, you may conduct your own investigation." The Doctor nodded; at the mention of K-9, his eyes lit up.
Let's go, Inspector," Russell urged. "We don't want to take up any more of their time."
"Hm? Oh. Right. Let's go." The Doctor spun around and set off in a random direction. Lindsay, Lily, and Russell followed.
"You know when he said K-9, he meant real dogs, right?" Lindsay pointed out.
"Yes, of course I know it's real dogs," the Doctor responded irritably. "Let's go this way." He darted into a stairwell, and everyone followed, just as three cell phones rang in unison.
Russell and Lily barely glanced at the identical text messages they had received; Lindsay scrolled through hers, puzzled. It read:
PITT ENS ALERT: A general bomb threat has been issued for the Cathedral of Learning, location and time of threat not specified. Please evacuate the building. If safe to do so, please warn others of this message.
"How did I get this?" Lindsay asked. "I'm not—"
"No, but you will be," the Doctor called from the next floor up. "And your future self probably has the same phone number, so you both get the same alerts while you're here. Now come on, let's find the Daleks!"
On the thirty-fifth floor of the Cathedral, a lone Dalek stood in the wreckage of an office, examining a three-dimensional map of the building. A cluster of lights blinked near the bottom.
A second Dalek entered the office. "THE PREPARATIONS ARE COMPLETED. IS THE BUILDING CLEARED?"
"NO," said the first Dalek. "THERE ARE FOUR INTRUDERS IN THE EASTERN STAIRWELL. THEY MUST BE ELIMINATED FOR OUR PLAN TO PROCEED."
"I WILL INTERCEPT THEM AND EXTERMINATE THEM," said the second Dalek. It left the office, glided through the Honors College foyer, and disappeared into the stairwell, which no longer had a door.
Lily had asked to take a break on the sixth floor, and by the eighth, Lindsay and Russell were in earnest agreement. They collapsed on the stairs while the Doctor paced the landing, thinking aloud under his breath.
Lindsay's mind was racing as well. "But I can't be a student here! I'm going to Harvard."
"Yeah, you did mention that," said Russell, shaking his head. "Will mention. See, what you're going to tell me—last year—is—"
"Spoilers, Russell!" the Doctor shouted. "Don't tell her her future. And be quiet while I'm thinking!" He paced off again, still muttering.
Russell leaned closer to Lindsay and whispered, "Think about it. I already know you. How did that happen, if you never came to Pitt?"
Lindsay was stunned by the question. She racked her brain, looking for the Doctor in a similar situation. Before she could come up with anything, though, she received another shock: a gravelly mechanical voice somewhere above the landing she was sitting on.
"INTRUDERS DETECTED! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINAAATE!"
A/N: Of course the Doctor has dealt with this before; it's a stable time loop like those in "Blink" and "Time Crash." But those are, of course, New Series stories, and I can't think of any stable time loops from the Classic Series at the moment. If any of you can, it would be appreciated.