Chapter Seventeen
"Playing with Fire"
The Palace of Westminster loomed up before us, as we raced over Westminster Bridge, the many panes of glass glistening gold in the light. The Doctor leapt over the concrete barricades and raced across the New Palace Yard with us behind him. Being what it was, naturally there were security men standing guard out front. The Doctor did not hesitate and rushed up to the doors of the Member's Entrance like it was the local post office. His way was instantly barred by the security.
The Doctor gave the police officer to his left an impatient look. "Move, now," he said with feeling.
The two men didn't budge an inch.
The Doctor's voice took on a layer of firmness of purpose. "Will you please move or-" he fumbled in his pocket and brandished his ordinary Phillips-head screwdriver like it was a dangerous blade. "Or will I have to use this?"
The officers didn't blink an eyelash. "Do you have a pass, sir?" the one on the left asked.
"Do I look like I do?" was the Doctor's curt reply.
Rockwell Ellison came up and tapped the Doctor on his shoulder. "Pardon me, Doctor," he said, "But you do realize this is where the members of Parliament enter, don't you? They don't let just anyone in."
"Of course I know it!" the Doctor growled at him. "I wasn't born yesterday, Rockwell Ellison, thank you! Please be quiet."
Rockwell Ellison stepped back with his hands up in defense. "Sorry, I was just trying to help."
"Help on your own time!" the Doctor snapped. He poked a finger at the officer in front of him. "Listen here, kid-"
The officer touched the small gun on his belt and pushed the Doctor back with the other. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave here."
The Doctor glared at him and shouted "In less then six minutes there won't be a here for you to guard, boy!"
The Doctor's forceful manner made both police officers remove their guns from their holsters. We all took a step back, the Doctor included.
Then Felicity looked up above our heads and gave a curious yip.
The Doctor pointed to the roof and said, "Oh?"
It was the oldest trick in the book and they fell for it. Everyone looked up, even the police officers. The next instant, the Doctor used his left fist and the officers were promptly knocked out on the ground. They never knew what hit them. The Doctor took one of the officers' badges to unlock the door and we leaped over the guards into the building. The entire place looked like a museum. First we darted through a large cloakroom, then on into what I decided must be the Member's Lobby. Our feet sounded like a clash of steel drums against the waxed floor as we raced up stairs and down the spacious corridors. As we ran, I lost track of how many rooms and staircases we had passed. Somehow the Doctor knew which halls to take and kept us out of sight of all other people. He had his sonic out, using it like a scanner. As it beeped, he followed it.
"Oh dear, oh dear, now we're trespassing in Parliament," Mr. Donovan muttered as he puffed along. "What exactly do you do for a living, Doctor?"
The Doctor skidded around a corner, glancing back at Mr. Donovan. "I save things, Mr. Donovan, that's what I do. People, planets. I will tell you more later, because now is not the most appropriate time for such a question!"
The Doctor unlocked each door we came to with the badge he had snatched. I knew the security would have to catch on soon. The name on the badge said Sergeant Nathaniel Perry and I just couldn't see the Doctor as a Nathaniel. His face also didn't match the photo on the badge. I would have laughed, but instead checked the time on my phone and all humor immediately drained out of me. We had less then five minutes total and I didn't see how we were going to find the deactivation device or whatever in that short range. We didn't even know what we were looking for after all. It could look like the plasma ball of a 0-9 transmitter or it could be in the shape of a blooming teapot for all I knew.
We followed the Doctor down a long and empty hallway to a pair of tall double doors. They were closed and a small lady in a starched suit with a clipboard was standing by it. Her name tag read 'Heather.' She looked up as we came to a hurried stop in front of her.
The Doctor paused and put away his sonic screwdriver. He flashed the lady a gleaming smile. "Hello, um, Heather," he said, reading her tag. "You are looking simply lovely today. I do apologize for being late, but here's my ID, and thank you so much."
He quickly showed her the badge and she hardly had a chance to utter anything in her surprise before the Doctor brushed by, pushed open the doors and charged right into the middle of a meeting. I inwardly cringed for the Doctor. His action was about the equivalent of marching into the Oval Office without a written invitation from the President.
There was a long conference table sitting in the middle of the vast room and every seat was occupied by rather important looking folks in smart business get-ups. They all stopped talking and turned to stare at us when we burst through the doors.
The rather distinguished-looking gentleman at the head of the table, whom I recognized as the Prime Minister, checked the clock on the wall behind us in an annoyed fashion and in a deep voice said, "And who might you be?"
The Doctor didn't answer the question. He barely gave anyone a glance as he began to dart around the room like a bloodhound on a scent. The only actual dog of the party stuck her nose to the floor and went under the table. Without knowing what we were looking for, Mr. Donovan and I attacked the coat rack and Rockwell Ellison inspected the carpet. Murmurs started at the table among the Parliament members. The Doctor was poking his head between the member's chairs.
"Excuse me!" a lady huffed, leaping from her seat. She took her account book and whacked the Doctor over the head with it.
He crawled out with a hand clasped to his forehead. "Do pardon me, madam," he said. "I was not interested in the hemline of your skirt."
This remark was in bad taste and she hit him again.
The Prime Minister at the head of the long table got to his feet and bellowed out, "Heather! Call security!"
Heather stepped in with her hand poised over a button on her headset.
"Please don't do it, Heather," the Doctor pleaded.
"Do you know him?" the Prime Minister asked.
"Please don't," Rockwell Ellison echoed.
Heather looked from the Prime Minister to the Doctor to Rockwell Ellison and back to the Prime Minister. She pushed the button. Almost immediately, we were joined by a team of reinforcements, two of whom were the police officers the Doctor had knocked out at the entrance.
"That's them!" one of them cried. He was wearing a black eye from the Doctor and had a scowl on his lips.
The Doctor had his sonic out. Rockwell Ellison and Mr. Donovan both automatically raised their hands. For some reason, I didn't. I couldn't tell you why I did, but something just came over me. I jumped up on the conference table and stood in the middle of it.
"Quiet," I said. "Will everyone just be quiet, please!"
The Prime Minister gave me a withering glance and said, "Young man, remove yourself from the table. This is not the display at Piccadilly Circus."
The next instant, I heard the click of an air rifle and a row of holes appeared on the wall behind me. I spun and all in one move, took a flying leap and tackled the Prime Minister. He fell sideways, his chair went over backwards and we both hit the carpet.
"What on earth…?" the Prime Minister started.
"Get the man!" the Doctor cried. He darted to the side of the room where the shots had come from and swept aside a massive curtain on one of the tall windows, revealing one Crimearian guard and air rifle. His boots had given him away. The guard was too startled to shoot and the Doctor wrenched the air rifle away from him. As the Doctor threw the gun, the soldier grabbed him.
Rockwell Ellison lost no time and the three of them were in a heap the next moment. That got everyone out of their seats and the security guards snapped into action.
There was confusion as the Doctor and Rockwell Ellison wrestled with the Crimearian and dozens of hands were working to get me off of the gray-haired Prime Minister. Somehow, the Crimearian got knocked out, and the Doctor wriggled himself free from under him. Rockwell Ellison and Mr. Donovan managed to drag me out of the mass of people.
The Doctor checked his watch. "One minute, everyone! We have one minute!"
He was almost not heard over the din of confusion. Felicity howled for all she was worth, but the people didn't quiet down. The Doctor grumbled, then he leapt up on the table in the midst of everything and hollered a very commanding "Stop!"
Everyone froze where they were, the Prime Minister in mid-air with about five or so people helping him up.
"That's better." The Doctor got to his knees and reached down among the chair legs and feet. On the table he placed the Prime Minister's briefcase. A quick twist with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver over the lock and the case clicked open. From this he withdrew a small flat object that looked something like-
"Now, that, sir, is my phone!" the Prime Minister barked.
The Doctor didn't pay him an ounce of attention. He did something I couldn't see and the phone changed shape from a rectangular piece of plastic to a large glowing orb. It was octagonal, the same size as the mega bombs I had carried. We all stared at it slightly in awe. The Doctor turned it around in his hands and I saw his fingers touch certain places in a sort of pattern, similar to entering a code on a keyboard. The Doctor set the orb carefully on the table and slowly got to his feet and backed away from it.
"Five to zero- everyone, take cover!" he cried and dove under the table.
Each and every person in the room hit the floor, most going under the conference table. Felicity hid under a chair.
Five long, agonizing seconds passed and the end of everything engulfed the planet.
That was what it felt like. The entire building shook on its foundation. Everywhere across the earth the ground shook violently, back on the Cape and along every shoreline massive waves crashed up over the high tide marks. Rocks tumbled from mountain cliffs, statues of historical figures lost their heads, empty buildings crumbled into piles of rubble and in some places floods broke out with fury. And everywhere from Tokyo to Manhattan, people were clinging to door frames and table legs.
However, Zeno's party had succeeded in their mission: all of the people were safely inside.
I held onto a leg of the conference table with one arm and pressed the other over my head. It felt like every bone in my body was rattling against each other, my teeth were chattering and I pressed my face into the carpet to hopefully prevent them from all falling out. I looked up at the others, all flattened on the floor as it bounced up and down. One lady's heels had been knocked clear off her feet. All I could see of the Doctor were his boots sticking out from under a chair.
In spite of their previous serious demeanor, each person in the room was now at the same level. From Rockwell Ellison and Mr. Donovan to the government secretaries, the police officers, and even the Prime Minister himself, were hanging on with all they had and unmasked fear was displayed publicly on each and every face. I knew we were all thinking the same ugly thought inside, the same fear.
Was this the end?
I pushed the idea out of my head and focused on keeping all parts of my body intact. I was not going to lose any limbs on the way to the afterlife if I could help it. My ears were spitting from the sounds of the earthquake, of brick crumbling from walls, glass windows shattering to pieces, and wooden furniture being splintered in half. The entire building felt like it was heaving. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a long cylindrical object fall from the table and hit the carpet. I eased my body across the shaking floor and hastily grabbed at the object as it bounced up again. It was the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. I clutched it to my chest and held on tightly to the table leg.
Just when I wasn't sure just how much more of hitting my head on the underside of the table I could take, the upheaval ceased and all was still. That's the funny thing about quakes. They can last for hours or only a few seconds, then disappear like they never happened.
I untangled myself and peeked out at the room. The quake had left the most awful mess. The room now strongly resembled a war zone. Slowly, everyone crawled out from their hiding places and stood up. The lady found her missing shoes and shook bits of broken glass out of them.
The Doctor was the last to surface. The large bump and smear of blood on his head told why. He explained that he had been hit by a falling picture frame. The Doctor seemed to be prone to getting hit on the head. In spite of this and other injuries, he seemed perfectly fine. He slowly eased himself up from the piles of broken glass shards and plaster. He picked some fragments out of his hair and looked around at the faces in the room, all of whom seemed to be waiting for him to speak. He shook his head and a small grin spread across his bleeding lips.
"We did it."
It was as if a fresh supply of oxygen was poured into the room and all the stuffiness lifted, leaving the air clean and clear.
"We're alive?" Mr. Donovan asked, hands patting his head. "You mean the world is still here?" The frame of his glasses had been twisted and sat perched sideways on his nose.
"Exactly, Donovan!" the Doctor cried enthusiastically, throwing his arms up in the air. "The world didn't end. Nothing exploded into oblivion. Grimwarr's plan has been foiled and I should thank all of you. You saved the world. I don't know just how I would have done any of this alone."
Mr. Donovan, Rockwell Ellison and Felicity all broke out into relieved smiles and I could feel the beginnings of one on my own face as the warmth returned to my cold limbs and feeling came back to my fingers. I realized I was still clutching the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
"Hey Doc, heads up." I tossed the sonic to him. He caught it and smiled, saying not a word about the nickname.
An urge came over me to leap on the conference table again and break out in dance moves. I thought about it for a couple seconds and decided it would be unnecessary. Felicity was already doing a dance of her own on a clear spot of the carpet. Everyone else was ignoring her and talking all at once.
The Crimearian soldier had been forgotten and it was I who saw him sit up and dash out the door. I grabbed the Doctor's sleeve and whispered the news in his ear. He twirled his sonic in his fingers and assured me it was fine to let him go.
"He can do no harm now," the Doctor had to shout.
The air was so filled up with words as everyone started talking at once, it was worse than a traffic jam on a Friday evening. At last the Prime Minister was able to make his voice heard above the clamor. He hammered his fist on the table to call for attention. The room quieted down.
"That's better," he said, fixing his tie. He was a bit rumpled and dusty looking. His suit no longer had the appearance of being freshly pressed. He placed his palms on the table and looked important. "This has been the craziest day. Talk of invaders and bombs and not to mention an earthquake. Now, is there anyone here who can tell me what has been going on? Anyone?"
The question really only seemed to be aimed at the Doctor.
The Doctor stepped forward. "I must apologize greatly for the disturbance, sir, it was rather bad manners, I know."
The Prime Minister grunted.
"It was necessary, however, to save countless lives and in view of such, I hope you'll forgive us the mess."
"What exactly did you 'save' us from?" the Prime Minister asked.
"That was one nasty quake, I must say," Rockwell Ellison said.
"It was only the aftermath of diffusing the explosives," the Doctor replied.
"But where did those explosives come from?" the Prime Minister barked. "Why did it happen at all? I'm going to need some answers to tell the government, gentlemen!"
The Doctor bowed his head and rolled his sonic in his fingers. I caught the hint of an impish smile start on his face.
"Just tell them it was the work of a revenge-bent military genius and his alien army who was stopped by a team of unlikely allies; three humans, a dog and one certain madman with a blue box and a sonic screwdriver."
The Doctor flipped his sonic up in the air and caught it artfully.
"I can't tell them that!" the Prime Minister sputtered. "It sounds completely daft, balmy, completely absurd, it- it's pure fantasy, why they'll think I'm touched!"
The Doctor leaned over the table towards the Prime Minister and grinned. "Exactly," he said softly. "Oh,by the way," he produced a small slip of paper from a pocket and placed it in the Minister's hand. "Here's my card, in case you ever need me. Please give her Majesty my regards. We're old friends."
The Prime Minister was left staring at the card as the Parliament members started to argue among themselves over whose job it was to explain the events to the Queen. Not one of them saw the Doctor, Rockwell Ellison, Mr. Donovan, the dog or myself slip out of the room and head back to the Tardis.
The London streets were filled with piles of rubble and overturned cars, broken windows of flats and shops and crowds of people slowly venturing outside. We walked easily through the mess and the door of the Tardis closed behind us without even the hurrying policemen taking notice of it.