Chapter Seven
White Coat's look of disdain told the figures in front of him, what he thought about this particular breed of person.
He looked along the line of people, who laughingly called themselves mercenaries' and bounty hunters. To his mind they were murderers and rejects, cast offs from the military and civil law services.
But at this moment in time, they were a necessary if unpleasant evil.
He had to have his property back, it had something he needed, something he foolishly thought would be safe with his property, well inside his property.
"You have the description and the possible locations of the target. I hope you find the re-numeration satisfactory."
One of the men cleared his throat. "Why do you need us, by the looks of it, you have a whole army you could use?"
White Coat looked at the man, a rather large man, with a buzz cut.
"My army as you put it has other duties to perform, besides, this particular target needs your particular set of skills," he said, not hiding the sarcasm in his voice.
"He doesn't look like much of a problem," another said.
White Coat smiled. "Gentleman, the phrase wolf in sheep's clothing was created to describe the target, or should I really call him a snake. Yes, perhaps a snake, underestimate him at your peril, hence the substantial monetary enticement."
"If he's that dangerous, why do you want him alive?"
"That is my concern!" White Coat snapped. "Now get out of my sight."
White Coat waited until they had filed out of the room, before relaxing. He sat down and pressed one of the buttons on his comm.
"Dr Michaels, how are you progressing?"
The person on the other end sighed. "It's not like adding blue and yellow together to make green. I have to restructure the whole genetic sequence, it'll take time."
"I am well aware of that, but since that particular strain will no doubt now have an antidote. I need a new strain," White Coat said.
"I know, but it will still take at least six weeks to grow the cultures, let alone how long it's going to take to test the genetic sequence, be patient."
"Point taken, just keep me updated," White Coat said.
"Have our guest gone?" Sarah Michaels asked.
"Yes, but I don't hold out much faith in their retrieving my property. I fear not placing a control chip will be a very large mistake."
"You worry too much, all he'll be concerned with is working his way through Torchwood, slowly and terminally," Sarah replied.
"No, you don't understand, I need it back," White Coat said.
"Why?" Sarah asked.
"Because in my mistaken arrogance, that the conditioning would cause it to return to me, I used it to store certain data, certain genetic data."
Sarah let out a small gasp. "You put the virus inside it!"
"It was the best receptacle there was. How was I supposed to know it would be so un-trainable."
"But its unstable!!"
"I realise that, but I hope by sending those excuses for humanity after it, I will force it to come to me," White Coat said.
"You hope, you'd better hope that they don't have anyone clever enough to find it," Sarah said, and broke the connection.
White Coat sat back; it was no fun being hoisted by your own petard. He was beginning to think that keeping his property alive was more trouble than it was worth.
Martha checked the Doctor's vital again, pleased to see that they were normal, for a Time Lord anyway.
Both his hearts seemed to be functioning, and she marvelled at how he had recovered from what should have been a fatal chest wound. She looked at one of the monitors, the chip she'd implanted was working, and she hoped it would have the desired effect.
She wasn't happy at what they had to do, it was to her mind no better than the forced lobotomy's her predecessors had performed on schizophrenic patients. The only difference was that she'd used a micro-chip and not a scalpel, and however this ended she would make sure it was taken out.
She sighed and moved out of the med-room and into the small lab that was next door. She'd taken blood, just to see if there was a chemical imbalance or some kind of pharmaceutical reason for his descent into insanity.
She'd been waiting for the results of a DNA sample she'd taken. She walked over to the DNA reader, thankful that it was one that Jack had procured in his time at Torchwood.
She looked through the viewer and let out a sharp gasp...that wasn't right.
Jack jogged down the steps to the lab and entered, expecting to find Martha. She had called him, and had sounded anxious.
"Martha?" he enquired.
"In here," he reply came from the med-room.
He moved into the room, expecting to see the Doctor awake and hopefully sane. But there was no change, he was still out of it, the machines blinking and beeping in time with his breathing and heartbeats.
"You wanted to see me, said it was urgent?" he said, breaking her attention.
She was holding another vial of the Doctor's blood.
"Haven't you got enough already?" he said lightly, but stopped when he saw her face.
"I have something to show you," she said and moved back into the lab.
Jack stared at the image on the screen in disbelief. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes, at first I thought it was a problem with the reader, but it isn't. I know the Doctor has a triple helix, but when I saw this, I knew it wasn't right."
Jack looked at the image again, you couldn't see it, not unless you were shown, or knew what to look for.
Woven between the strands that were the Doctor's triple helixes was another strand, clinging to it like a parasite.
"That's another DNA strand, how the hell did it get there, and can you get it out?"
Martha looked at Jack, then at the image. "Firstly, I have no idea how the hell it got there in the first place and secondly, watch," she said.
She moved over to another machine and brought up a small screen.
"I tried separating it earlier, and this is what happens."
Jack watched in consternation as the foreign strand started to separate from the other, but as it did, the triple helix began to disintegrate.
"I try to remove it and it his own DNA starts to unravel, I'd be killing him," she said and switched off the screen. "The only person, who can remove it, is the person who put it there."
Jack let out a snarl of anger. "White Coat."
"Something else Jack, I want to disable that chip, having that extra DNA may interfere with it, or have side effects I don't know about."
As if to give her word prophetic meaning, a loud beeping rang out from the med-room.
Both Martha and Jack ran into the room, just in time to see the Doctor fall of the bed.
He was screaming hands clawing at the area Martha had placed the chip, like he was trying to dig it out with his bare hands.
"Doctor, no!" Jack cried and went towards him.
As he approached the Doctor lashed out, causing Jack to step back.
The Doctor continued pulling at his hair, and began screaming, but not in human.
"Innai! Shai mela istrai! Innai!" he screamed, before descending to un-intelligible screams.
"Christ, the chip!" Martha yelled. "I have to get it out now!"
"How, I can't even get near him!" Jack yelled back, as he tried to approach the Doctor again, but was forced away.
"I don't care how you do it!" Martha yelled.
Before Jack could reply, the Doctor gave a prolonged cry of agony and collapsed the silence deafening.
Jack moved over to the now still Time Lord and began to move him.
The Doctor fell forward in his arms, and Jack became alarmed...there was no sign of life!
Translation
Innai- Pain
Shai mela istrai- make it stop