THE INVISIBLE HAND

CHAPTER FIVE

“I haven’t a clue,” the Doctor replied, when asked by P.C. Navalatamay who the Doctor might think stole his blue box.

They were sitting in an out of the way cafe, sipping googlajuice and going over what the diminutive policeman had discovered. Which was essentially nothing. A few of his friends had seen the police box, but only while it was still in the alley. None of them had seen it being shifted to somewhere else.

“What about my friend, Donna?” The Doctor asked tensely.

“Navalatamay question shop staff. They all say same. Big flash, no Donna. She out the door. Gone.” The policeman slurped his drink through his straw, and looked down sadly. “Navalatamay let Doctor down. Navalatamay sorry.”

“Now,” the Doctor consoled, absently swirling his straw in his drink, “don’t be so hard on yourself. You did your best, you tried to help, that means a lot to me, Navalatamay.”

The policeman looked up from his glass of juice, and gave the Doctor a shy smile.

“By the way,” the Doctor asked, “I don’t suppose you have a nickname, or at least something shorter than Navalatamay?”

“No!” Said the policeman firmly. “Must say whole name. Very rude otherwise. Like swearing.”

“Ah.” Said the Doctor, with a nod of understanding. “Right. Sorry.”

Bending his head to take a sip from his straw, the Doctor’s head suddenly jerked up.

“Wait a minute, hold on. Navalatamay, you said she was ‘out the door’. But, if she disappeared in the flash of light, how could anyone have seen her leave by the door? I was standing right there, I think I would have spotted her in the crowd.”

The conker-headed policeman shook his head, and suddenly looked sheepish.

“Navalatamay forget, Doctor. Navalatamay sorry.”

The Doctor waved the policeman’s apologies away impatiently.

“Never mind that! Navalatamay, what did you forget? I need to know. It may be very important!”

“The light.” the policeman said. “Retrosaurous woman say it was shaped like doorway.”

Without warning, the Doctor suddenly shot up out of his chair, and tore at his hair, seemingly angry with himself. Navalatamay wondered if all the stress was driving the Doctor mad.

“Oh, I’m so thick! Thick as a summer pudding!” the Doctor cried out. “I must be having Galafreyan male menopause! How could I not think of that?”

“Navalatamay not understand.” the police man said, confused. “Why Doctor angry with self?”

The Doctor, instead of answering, suddenly ran off in the direction of the part of the shopping mall Donna disappeared in.

“Come on, Navalatamay, I’ve got to get to that shop before it shuts!” He shouted, as Navalatamay untethered his pony, mounted, and trotted off in the Doctor’s wake.

The staff was about to close up shop for their tea time break, but the Doctor and P.C. Navalatamay convinced them to stay open a little while longer. Inside, the Doctor re-questioned the Retrosaurous woman, whose name was Sipar, to find out the exact spot where the ‘doorway’ appeared.

In seconds, the Doctor had out his sonic screw driver. Walking in a circle, he held out the sonic in front of him at arm’s length. It gave off a bland, monotone buzzing sound—until it entered an area between the jewelry counter and the spot where the Doctor was standing. Then, the sonic suddenly gave an electronic squawk, which changed to a high-pitched vibration.

“Whoa!” the Doctor exclaimed, putting on his dark-rimed eye glasses and checking the readings on the sonic screwdriver. “That’s a huge amount of arkon energy residue. Unbelievable amounts. Almost off the charts!” He shook his head, “No wonder someone was able to snatch Donna so quickly, without my noticing.”

“What’s arkon energy?” Sipar asked the Doctor. “It’s not dangerous, is it?”

The Doctor shook his head, removed his glasses and tapped them in the palm of his hand.

“No, it’s fine, you’re all perfectly safe. Arkon energy is generated by focusing individual hapson particle beams into one tight pattern, then beaming it through a plasma generator to create an ultra-powerful transmat beam.” The Doctor rapidly explained. “One so powerful, that, given the right particle dispersion, it could even transcend time and space itself.”

The Doctor’s eyes darkened. He pocketed his glasses and screwdriver, and began to pace the room, his mind racing through the implications of his discovery.

“What means this, Doctor?” Navalatamay asked, standing just inside the shop’s doorway, observing everything.

The Doctor whirled around, his features afire with renewed hope.

“It means, that I may have not only found how Donna was kidnapped, but also how someone managed to steal my Tardis without anyone seeing it.” He rattled out excitedly.

Sipar politely interrupted the Doctor, asking if she and her fellow staff members could shut the shop. The Doctor apologized and thanked them for helping him.

“I do hope you find your friend. I think she’s one of the most interesting humans I’ve ever met.” Sipar said to the Doctor, as she locked up and left to have her tea.

Night was falling on that side of the planet, and shop staff and shoppers alike, were off to have their evening meal. In minutes, the mall was completely deserted. Staring off into the night, his mind whirling with questions, the Doctor felt a sudden tug at his coat.

“Ey? What is it?” he asked in a preoccupied tone.

“Navalatamay wonder what this mean, Doctor?” the policeman asked.

“It means,” the Doctor said, looking down at his friend with a slowly spreading smile, “that I can use my sonic to track down the source of the transmat beam—if it’s on this planet, at any rate.”

“Good! Navalatamay go get pony, help you find your blue box and your friend.” the policeman said excitedly, as he ran off to the place where he’d left his police mount.

The Doctor barely heard him. He had taken the sonic out of his pocket again, made a quick adjustment, and was holding it up in the air. In a matter of seconds, he picked up a faint signal, and followed it. But, soon, the signal began to play out, as the bleeping got fainter…then stopped altogether.

Standing there with his arms down at his side, the Doctor gave a growl of frustration. Suddenly, the bleeping started again, this time stronger than ever. Puzzled, the Doctor looked down. He was holding the sonic pointed downwards, right at the grate of a storm drain.

With a shout of delight, the Doctor knelt down and used the sonic to help him pry open the drain. Without warning, a wave of burning green light enveloped him. The Doctor gave out a single cry of intense pain, before collapsing in a heap on the floor.

Just before he lost consciousness, the Doctor felt the sonic screwdriver drop from his nerveless fingers, down into the sewer below.

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