Part Three
The base of operations for Commander Drake and the
resistance against Urodela’s empire was an underground bunker beneath a bamboo
thicket; the door constructed as a section of grass with a fake rock that
functioned as a doorknob. Lindsay found it to be a clever ruse. If she hadn’t
known it was there, she would’ve walked right by it. Its inside was even more
impressive: a seemingly endless space filled with personnel and advanced
equipment, from guns to computers.
Drake led Lindsay, the Doctor, and their companions to
the briefing room, which was a bit cramped with so many personnel stationed at
computers that kept watch over Urodela’s every move. They stood around a table
that projected small holographic models of Urodela’s castle fortress and the
people in and around it.
The Doctor shared his idea of Lindsay posing as Urodela
to infiltrate her castle and find out where she had been keeping Zoe. “And
don’t forget about the kiddies,” Lindsay stressed.
“Yes, of course,” the Doctor acknowledged.
“Absolutely not!” Drake bitterly objected, to no surprise
of Lindsay. “Yeah, she’s a dead ringer for Urodela, but it’s risky to leave our
operation at the hands of a civilian! Urodela’s got DNA scanners installed
throughout her fortress, capable of detecting everything about a person – your
blood type, where you were born, and even your dental records!”
“I counted on that, Commander,” the Doctor noted, “and I
have just the solution.”
He reached into his coat, retrieving a usual-looking gun
with a long needle where the barrel should’ve been. Without her consent, he
stuck the needle into Lindsay’s right arm and pulled the trigger. She jolted at
the intense and painful injection that she received.
“Ow!” she exclaimed. “What the heck, Doctor?!”
“Sorry,” he bashfully said. “There wasn’t time to prepare
you. But I just injected you with a prototype DNA re-sequencer that will make
your DNA signature compatible with Urodela’s.”
He proceeded to move towards Toby, who backed away in
reaction. “Whoa, whoa,” she exclaimed. “Why’re you gonna inject me with that thing?”
“Not just you, but Jamie as well,” the Doctor told her.
Hearing this, Jamie himself reacted in question. “Eh?
What’re you goin’ on ‘bout, Doctor? You’re not gonna stick me with that big, scary needle!”
“Oh, come now, Jamie,” the Doctor said. “You of all
people aren’t scared of a little
needle like this one?”
“No,” Jamie remarked. “I’m scared of a big needle like that one!”
The Doctor groaned in frustration. “It’s imperative that
you and Toby accompany Lindsay on her mission. Urodela will be expected to
arrive with an entourage, and you two are the only reliable candidates we
have.”
“What about me?” Greg spoke up, barely visible behind the
holotable.
“No, sweetheart,” Lindsay denied. “I’d be happy if you
stayed here with your brother and the Doctor, where it’s safer.”
Greg huffed, not all that pleased with this decision
Lindsay made for him; he was subsequently escorted out of the briefing room,
along with Wirt.
Commander Drake shared in his displeasure. “I don’t like
this plan,” he grumbled. “But I’m willing to go along with it, since it doesn’t
matter to me whether you live or
die.” He pointed directly at Lindsay.
After Drake stepped out of the briefing room, the Doctor
injected Toby and Jamie his DNA re-sequencer. They also departed from the
briefing room to be fitted with uniforms for their infiltration.
Lindsay finally had a moment alone with the Doctor, using
that opportunity to get answers to questions crucial to her mission. “Doctor,
I’ve gotta ask… what happened to
Urodela’s father, Ramόn Salamander?”
The Doctor hesitated on his response. “It was…I-It was an
accident…b-but it was a necessary
accident. Salamander tricked Jamie into bringing him into the TARDIS, making
him believe that he was me. Fortunately, I made it back in time to expose his
treachery, but he then overpowered us and tried to sabotage the TARDIS. Only he
didn’t sabotage it, he dematerialized
it back into the time vortex. Salamander died when he was sucked out into the
vacuum of the vortex itself.”
As haunting as they were, these details that the Doctor
recalled gave Lindsay the clarification he desired. “Wow,” she uttered. “I can
see why Urodela grew up to be more malicious than her father.”
“So can I,” the Doctor solemnly
concurred.
----------------
With Toby at the wheel of a black jeep, Lindsay arrived at Urodela’s fortress with her “entourage.” According to Drake, the real Urodela was out on her morning hunt, so Lindsay had to be fitted with hunting attire that mimicked Urodela’s. There was a small window of time for them to look for Zoe, free the children, and get out while they could.
It was disheartening for Lindsay to see everyone at the
fortress treat her with such fear and caution, truly believing her to be
Urodela. Not since the Time War had people treated her such a way, like she
would kill them if they so much as breathed the same air as her; it sickened
her even then.
Nonetheless, it was the effect she hoped for.
Prior to leaving the resistance’s underground base,
Lindsay spent an hour watching clips of interviews with Urodela. She mastered
her Asian accent and worked on mirroring her cold, callous personality for an
Oscar-worthy performance.
The second she, Jamie, and Toby walked into the busy
entrance hall of her castle, they witnessed firsthand the true cruelty of
Urodela’s life. One of the guards brought one of the slave children – a little
boy, no less than seven years old, dressed in rags – in Lindsay’s presence.
“Your Excellence,” the guard addressed. “This child was caught trying to steal
food from the kitchen. He knew the penalty for such impudence.”
The guard handed a bullwhip over to the stunned Lindsay.
She held it in her hand, feeling its mighty heft and
noting its length, which was a lot
longer than the child that it was meant for.
Her hearts raced in panic while her stomach twisted in
knots of disgust.
The guards patiently watched on, expecting an
entertaining torture session. Toby and Jamie looked on disconcertingly,
wondering how Lindsay was going to get herself out of this situation.
“Your Excellence! There you are!”
Beyond the guards was a young Caucasian male of thirty
years age donned in a lab coat and carrying a beaker filled with some type of
liquid. Lindsay recognized him from Drake’s notes as Dr. William Madison,
Urodela’s scientific advisor. His dossier categorized him as a brash type of
person.
Lindsay could not have been more thankful for that
brashness as it tore her away from the revolting punishment she was nearly
forced to inflict on the little boy; unfortunately, it left him at the hands of
the barbaric guards.
There was nothing Lindsay could do for him – not now, at
least.
“Your Excellence,” said Madison, as he guided Lindsay,
Jamie, and Toby through the halls of the castle. “I have made a miraculous
breakthrough in my research! If my calculations are correct, I believe I’ve
connected the dots in your father’s mysterious disappearance, seventeen years
ago!”
Distracting as it was to their primary objective, Lindsay
was admittedly intrigued.
She, Jamie, and Toby followed Madison into his laboratory,
which consisted of multiple monitors and computers – just like those in the
resistance’s underground bunker – that kept surveillance all over the Eastern
Asia coastline.
“What have you found, Dr. Madison?” Lindsay asked through
her spot-on impersonation of Urodela’s accent.
“Extraterrestrial energy,” Madison relayed. “I’ve
pinpointed to this one spot on the beach just twenty miles from here.” He
indicated one of the monitors that displayed live footage from a helmet cam. “I
sent some boys over to bring it back.”
“Bring what
back?” Lindsay inquired.
“That, Your Grace.”
Madison tapped on the monitor screen, directing Lindsay’s focus on a familiar
black rectangular solid that stood alone and erect along the shore.
Her Type-Z TARDIS.
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