The Doctor and Sherlock entered the North Wing. One set of stairs led to the maintenance, another led to an area called the Lockup, and one other led to the storage area. Sherlock tilted his head, "What's in the Lockup?"

"Don't know," the Doctor shrugged as he looked around. Sherlock crossed his arms, "Suppose we split up and meet back here, then? I'm plenty curious about this place."

"Are you out of your mind?" the Doctor eyed him. "It's not safe here."

Sherlock showed him the gun he carried, hidden in the back under his jacket. "I come prepared," Sherlock told him as he wielded it, it was a simple standard issue Glock commonly used in police work of all walks that Sherlock had procured from his previous endeavors. The Doctor eyed it and nodded, "You sure you want to go hopping around without me in the dark?"

"I'm sure I can find a flashlight in the Lockup," Sherlock said modestly. The Doctor tilted his head, "You didn't bring a flashlight with you?"

"I never said I'm always prepared," he heard Sherlock as he slowly descended the stairs toward the Lockup, his loafers faintly clacking in the distant until the Doctor scarce heard them.

Sherlock carefully reached the end and scanned the area. There was no light that he saw and Sherlock made do with carefully waddling through the darkness. He kept a hand on the wall as he used the other to sweep, ensuring he didn't bump into anything or anyone. Sherlock stopped when he felt a door knob and rattled it. It was unlocked and Sherlock took no time entering, inside was an office of some sort. To Sherlock's luck, there was a stack of flashlights and emergency products near a closest, he grabbed for one and found that to turn it on he had to squeeze the handle until he heard a click. The light came on and lit up the office, revealing to be a small office meant for one person's use, no one else's. Sherlock slowly moved the flashlight until he caught the glimpse of a weapon's locker, it was emptied, not even an unspent bullet was left. When Sherlock slowly moved the flashlight away from the weapon's locker, he found another locker. It looked out of place compared to the weapon's locker. It couldn't be the locker where the radios were, they were in a box near the desk.

As Sherlock neared the locker, he glanced to the bottom to find a box behind the locker doors. The locker doors opened without hesitation and Sherlock dragged the box toward the desk. The tape was yellowed, the box was dated, and when Sherlock opened it, there were cassettes and a cassette player neatly stacked in the box, untouched. Curious, Sherlock pulled out the cassette player to find it had a cassette already inside and all he would have to do is to push play.

Setting the cassette player down, Sherlock carefully adjusted the volume before he hit play. It was an instructional cassette, the narrator being a man in his late thirties and clearly was speaking off the top of his head as well as reading off a paper. He sounded quite nervous at the beginning before he seemingly calmed down and began to explain a job with the title "Keeper". Sherlock allowed the first tape to play as he went through the others that were in the box.

"Hello… uh… hello…! Today's your first day as a Keeper. I know it's got to be nerve-wracking to control a Subject for the first time. I just want to tell you that everything will go swimmingly well as long as you follow my directions. Uh, as part of my legal discretion I just want to tell you that the Hal Corporation of Science and Technology is not responsible for any horrific maiming, bodily injuries, or just anything that can and will go wrong. Yeah, they don't tell you this stuff when you first join, it's case by case. I don't mean that you will be injured on the job; I'm just saying that you have no legal standing if anything happens, but anyway now that you're here we can continue. Now, your control rod is immune to most environmental scenarios, so if you accidentally drop in a fish tank or… toilet… it'll work just as it did when your supervisor gave it to you. Uh, though speaking on the behalf of the Hal Corporation of Science and Technology, please clean that control rod if you ever accidentally drop in a toilet. Seriously, don't be a dick, I'm not kidding either, don't. Anyway, I'm just going to tell you this: whatever you heard about these Subjects, the rumors, they're all wasp and you shouldn't worry. These things aren't human and if Dr. Lamb says they're not human, then they're not human. Seriously, she's the head honcho for a reason. So, keep that in mind. Uh, back on topic… um since these messages are pre-recorded, I don't actually know what Subject you were assigned to, so your supervisor will gladly give you the tape in correspondence to the Subject that you were assigned to. Anyway, I want to begin to tell you about the control rod. The control rod is specifically programmed to be used with your assigned Subject, your Subject will obey commands and generally follow your around as you use the control rod. However, just want to tell you that they have a whitelist of acceptable commands. So if you're trying to take over the world like the Cybermen, you can't. And you're an idiot for trying. Anyway, I gotta go but I'm sure everything will be just fine and on the off chance it doesn't, I'm sure you paid up your insurance before heading into work. Um, see you tomorrow!"

Sherlock indeed found the cassettes of the Subjects that were referenced in the instructional cassette. They were labeled with the following: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon, even having the symbols in correspondence to the Greek alphabet. As Sherlock looked at the cassettes, Side B of the instructional cassette began to play.

"Hello… uh… hello…! See, you're a natural at this. Second day on the job, you're getting there buddy. I'm sure it's very weird seeing a big hulking Subject follow you around and do whatever commands you give it. You'll get used to it as the week goes on, I promise you. Now that you learned about how to use a control rod, I'm to inform you about the Subjects themselves. They're very expensive, government property, and can rip apart a Cyberman within three minutes, so keep that in mind. I just want to tell you that they're not going to break if they should fall down the stairs or whatever, but remember, they're reliant on you to give the commands. They can't walk around on their own or anything without your control rod, so if you're worried or just downright scared about the Subjects going on a rampage, please know that with a flip of a switch, the control rods won't work anymore and the Subjects can't move or do anything. Oh and also, as you learn you have to turn in your control rod after every shift. Legally, if you're caught with a control rod on your person long after your shift is over, I don't know the specifics, but you're going to be doing some time. These are government property as I aforementioned and theft counts as treason, so, do with that what you will. Not saying you're thief or anything, honest, I have to cover my bases as I go, so as long as you follow the rules and my tapes I'm sure nothing will happen to you. So, keep that in mind. Anyway, the Subjects will be placed in the lab for your next shift and then some. So after you turned in your control rod, your Subject will be led with the others with a specially made control rod afterward. Um, I gotta go, but don't worry, it'll be like walking a puppy, a very big, very scary, very expensive puppy. Anyway see you tomorrow, bye!"

The control rods were nowhere in the office that Sherlock saw, which meant they were either destroyed or moved elsewhere. Sherlock glanced at the cassettes of the Subjects and found that they wouldn't work with the cassette player on the desk. They were smaller, compact, and looked to be in a design that wouldn't allow normal cassette players to play them, leading Sherlock to believe that these Keepers had their own person cassette players that they used.

Sherlock rubbed his chin as he pieced together the idea in his mind. The Keepers role was to guide the Subjects around and command them. It made sense, at least in Sherlock's mind, the Subjects role was to destroy Cybermen and keeping them in place was beneficial for the Keepers. He was curious as to why there was a need for a separate set of cassette tapes for each of the Subjects. With no other cassette player in sight, Sherlock wouldn't be able to learn.

With flashlight in hand, clues written down and filed in his mind, everything put up as they were before Sherlock found them to hide his trail, Sherlock exited the office and looked around the Lockup. The office he was in belonged to a Keeper Commander named Rufus, which led Sherlock to believe that was the voice he heard on the cassette tapes.

Sherlock edged his way toward a wall where there were advertisements for the Keeper positions. "Keep them in line!" was the tagline underneath the picture of a faceless set of men wearing what looked to be security uniforms.

"Peculiar," Sherlock muttered under his breath. He glanced at a door to the Guard Station as it read on a plaque beside the door and made his way over there. The door was locked unlike the other and Sherlock wasn't someone who was deterred by locked doors. With a few tricks up his sleeve, Sherlock began to pick the door.

He gathered that likely there were guards on duty to keep unsavory folk from causing problems or that there was a system of trust, presumably it had to been the former.

When the locks fell into place, the door slowly slid open and Sherlock was met was a large room. There were empty weapon's lockers that lined an entire wall; there were coat hangers with vests still on them. Sherlock went around the room, he found where the lavatories were for both sexes and found the segregated locker rooms. There was a room for the Lieutenant, he had a love of boats, and Sherlock found several ships in bottles of various types, with one of them being a ship used in the Armada. In the Lieutenant's desk there were applications, people were applying for the positions and the Lieutenant had been going through them daily. In another drawer, there was another set of applications, this time it was for something else. These applications were meant for something called Project Alpha, evident by the general penmanship. In these sets of applications, there were files of people, some ordinary and mundane and those of military or even political in nature. The files detailed everything about each person, from his or her likes and dislikes, to where he or she goes after work. Sherlock concluded that these files were surveillance logs, for why the Lieutenant and the Corporation wanted them he shuddered at the thought.

What else Sherlock found only made him cringe further. He was familiar with fake evidence, he dealt with it daily, from lies to forgeries, but these took the scones. There were separate files in additional to the surveillance logs, with detailed logs of the creation and usage of fake evidence in correspondence to each person. These fake evidences were used for reasons Sherlock was uncertain, but they were well made fake evidences that anyone could've mistaken them for the real thing. There were false evidences of drug abuse, fidelities, anything that could be used at a whim and Sherlock came across from. It was a fake application to marriage counseling, but this copy was apparently sanitized by the Corporation, blotting out names and the like.

At the bottom of the application were handwritten notes, presumably made by the Lieutenant.

31.10.76

Applicant Name: J. Hudson

Referrer: M. Hudson

I was told to refer here by [REDACTED]. I just want to get this out of the way, [REDACTED] is the best father our kids could ever hope for. So is Bill. I'm not proud what I did, but what was I supposed to do? [REDACTED] is nothing more than a goody-goody two shoe!

He's an excellent father and husband, but he's just too damn happy! He's dull! At least with Bill I had different spices that Mr. Bland couldn't have ever provided even if he tried!

I wanted to divorce [REDACTED] but I couldn't tell him upfront. Look, I communicated with my husband my needs and he skirts around what I wanted. I want a spice rack, not packaging peanuts!

Bill will be a good father to the kids, but I just can't think of any better ways of doing this.

P.S.: And if you see [REDACTED]. Tell him, I'm sorry.

22.12.76

Inquiry: Whereabouts of M. Hudson

There had been a murder that occurred in an apartment complex. A woman had been thrown out of her kitchen window and plummeted to her death. It was ruled as a homicide but no one could find the suspect. It was said that her ex-husband had gone missing two months ago and that he might've been involved, but reports indicate that police have been unable to find him, still. The woman's husband, Bill, was also killed. It appeared as if something grabbed him and crushed him as if he were nothing more than a toy. In both crime scenes, written in the victim's respected blood, was the message: NO HARD FEELINGS. The couple's children are expected to live with relatives for the remainder of the investigation.

The wife was killed, Sherlock read, and it was apparent that the idea was to make the husband the culprit. It was a perfect crime, if the husband disappeared after the death of his rival and cheating spouse, it meant that he was guilty and then some. However, why the Corporation wanted the husband in the first place, was something Sherlock didn't understand rightly, but given what happened the year before, Sherlock was willing to hedge a guess.