AN: My RL seems to be normalising itself now so the next chapter should be up in a week.

Thanks for all your support. And a big thank you to Persiflage for beta reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.

Chapter 8

Anres picked up a long, silver object from the table in front of him to get a closer look at it.

"What is it?" a voice asked from behind him and Anres turned around to see Giranlo standing next to a stasis capsule.

"I think it's a sonic device," Anres answered him as he turned back around to lay the device back on the table. "Nothing special, but at least more valuable than the rest of this rubbish." Anres gestured towards the table where he and Giranlo had put everything they had found in the Doctor's dimensionally transcendental pockets. That task had taken them hours and they hadn't found anything interesting.

"Why would anyone want to carry all this around with him?" Giranlo asked as he walked towards the table and picked up a yo-yo that was lying there. "I don't even know what this is."

Anres let his gaze wander over the objects on the table one last time before he turned away. His gaze came to rest on the stasis capsule.

"Is everything alright with him?" he asked Giranlo.

"Yes," The fishman said, putting the yo-yo back on the table. "He is perfectly fine. He can stay inside this capsule for centuries without ageing and in exactly the same condition."

Anres smiled as he regarded the Time Lord inside the stasis capsule. He was the most precious part of his collection, together with his TARDIS. The time and spaceship had been brought from the hill where they'd found it to the museum at Anres' orders. He hadn't been able to get inside, even with the key but it was still a precious possession.

"Did you hear anything about his girlfriend since she left the TARDIS yesterday?" Anres asked, without taking his eyes off the stasis capsule.

"No, but I was here most of the time."

Anres turned his head to look at Giranlo. "Then check if she's been in the museum today. I don't want her snooping around and trying to find the Doctor. Check all the footage from the CCTV cameras."

Giranlo gave him a short nod and made to leave. Before he could reach the door Anres stopped him. "And look especially at the footage of the corridor. We can't have anyone finding the door to this area."

...

Martha and Firala had been spending all day trying to find out more about Giranlo. Firala had called in a favour of one of her friends who worked at the local residents' registration office to get information about him, but all they could find out was that he wasn't officially living on the planet, nor was he officially working for Anres.

After hours of searching they finally found out that he lived in a small apartment that was owned by Anres.

Finding information about the owner of the museum himself was considerably easier. He lived in a big house right next to his museum. After talking to a journalist Firala knew because she'd been writing an article about her museum some time ago, they learned that Anres had been subject of two investigations by the police about missing tourists on the planet in the past, but they hadn't found anything. According to the journalist, Anres had paid the police a neat sum of money for stopping those investigations.

But nothing they'd found out so far helped them in finding a way to save the Doctor.

"Maybe we could force Giranlo to help us get through that secret door," Firala said as they left the building where Giranlo lived. He wasn't at home and the two of them hadn't been able to open the door. Martha wished, for what felt like the hundredth time that day, that she had her own sonic screwdriver. Maybe she should ask the Doctor to build her one when this was over.

"I don't think we could be much of a threat to him. He probably has a weapon and we don't. I don't want to use violence anyway," Martha answered.

"Maybe we won't be able to save the Doctor without using at least a bit of violence," Firala said. Martha nodded. She had been thinking about that, too. But she wasn't ready to consider violence unless they really had no other option.

"Let's try to find out more about this museum. Maybe we will find another way in, or someone who is willing to help us."

"I hope you're right," Firala said unconvinced.

Martha took a deep breath. She had been in many situations that were far worse than this one since she'd met the Doctor. She had walked the Earth on her own for a year. And now she would find a way to save the Doctor. She had to believe in that and keep trying.

...

Giranlo sat up straight. He had spend the last hour in front of a computer screen in his office, looking at footage of the entire museum and now he had finally found what he'd been looking for. He could see Martha Jones entering the museum, together with a female Durelian.

Following their way through the museum was quite easy. They had gone straight to the room where the Doctor had met Anres. But then they left the part of the room the cameras covered. And the next time they showed up on the footage was nearly an hour later. Giranlo didn't need to think long to figure out what they had done in the meantime. The door to the corridor that let to Anres' secret door was in that part of the room. They must have been there.

Giranlo used his password to call up the footage of the corridor of the time Martha Jones and her Durelian friend had been there. But it showed no one in the corridor to that time.

He considered the possibility that the two women hadn't been in the corridor after all. But something felt wrong. The footage showed no one in the corridor for an hour. There should have been at least one security guard in that time.

...

Anres turned around in a small circle, taking in the entire room, a big smile on his face. He was in the room where he stored the most precious pieces of his collection. All the sheets he had put over the glass cases before he had lured the Doctor down here were gone. The stasis capsule he'd put the Doctor in was now standing upright next to the TARDIS. He wasn't the only person in his collection. Three others were in the room, all of them the last survivors of their species. Anres had been able to capture two of them on Durelia. It was the most popular planet for holidays and had many new visitors from all over the galaxy every day. That was one of the reasons why Anres had chosen this planet to live on. And he knew that the Doctor had been on Durelia many times before. Anres had been trying to find him since he'd first heard of the last of the Time Lords.

In that moment one of the computer screens on the wall beeped to let him know that someone wanted to contact him. He walked towards the screen and switched it on. Giranlo's face appeared on the screen.

"Have you found anything?" Anres asked.

"I have," Giranlo answered. "Martha Jones and a female Durelian have been in the museum today."

"Who was this Durelian?" asked Anres.

"I don't know. I didn't recognize her, but Durelians look all the same to me. I'll send you a picture later," Giranlo told him. "Anyway, the two of them have been in the corridor that leads to the secret door. But someone has deleted the footage and replaced it by some of an empty corridor. And this person was very clever about it. It took me hours just to confirm that the footage was deleted and I can't recover the real footage. But," he continued quickly when he saw Anres face turning into an angry mask. "I have been able to find out who was responsible for it."

"So? Who was it?" Anres asked, trying to keep calm.

"It was one of the security guards. His name is Kilas."

Anres stayed silent for a couple of seconds. Then he said: "Make sure Ms Jones doesn't get into this museum again."

Giranlo nodded in confirmation. "And what about Kilas?" he asked.

"Kill him," Anres ordered. Then he turned off the screen.

AN: Please let me know what you think.