Genesis Of The Doctor - A Doctor Who Story

15 - Break-in

When he awoke the next morning, Smith found that the visitors had all left, including, to his disappointment, the Colonel.

Margaret came into his room, opening the curtains while balancing a tray loaded with breakfast food and two steaming mugs of tea. "Morning!" she called out cheerily.

"Yes, it is," replied Smith.

Margaret looked at him quizzically and then shrugged.  "Listen," she said. "We all talked last night and we would like to help you to find your friend.  To free your friend if necessary."

John Smith's young face looked so grateful that Margaret felt her heart jump.  "Really?" he asked.

"We have an ulterior motive," Margaret confided.  She didn't wait for him to quiz her on what she meant and carried on, "We... I... well we, are part of a group, a sort of... well I suppose a political group.  Though we are opposed, I suppose, to politicians.  In a way..."  She did not quite understand why she was having so much trouble explaining what was basically her job to this strange young man.  She supposed she hadn't had to explain her job to anyone in a while and perhaps she had been spending too much time just with her cronies. 

She tried again, "Our group is trying to stop the government, well all governments I suppose, from... erm... blowing us all up with nuclear bombs!"  She blurted this last part out in a rush.  Smith looked nonplussed.

"Anyway," she continued, "we go on protest marches and sometimes we investigate places that we think the government is trying to keep secret.  We think this 'C19' setup under the hospital is exactly the sort of place we want to investigate; something called a ROTOR station.  If we explore this place while looking for your friend it will be two birds with one stone, so to speak."

Smith waited for her to continue.  When she didn't he said, "I am grateful that you will help.  When can we do it?"

"Well," she answered, "we thought we might have a go tonight."

Smith spent the day in excited expectation and found it difficult to concentrate on anything.  Over the course of the day visitors from the previous day returned to the house, one by one.  When the Colonel appeared at the door he ran to Smith eagerly and they spent much of the afternoon playing in the garden before joining the others who had assembled in the Margaret's kitchen to discuss their planned raid.

The plan, it turned out, was simply to turn up, force the door and then to hope for the best.  They had a rough map, part of which had been supplied by Smith from memory.  They were not aiming to follow the route he had taken and instead were planning to approach from a subterranean entrance that they believed was much nearer to Margaret's house.  An entrance that they hoped would not be guarded.

Once the "plan" had been agreed, the group spent the remainder of the afternoon eating while recounting tales of past glories including protest marches and breaking into other government buildings.  Much time was spent with Margaret bemoaning how "Duncan Disorderly" (as she seemed to be calling him) had ruined an important annual march by persuading many of the participants to join him in a similar raid to the one they were doing today.  This had obviously displeased Margaret at the time and she had been reluctant to take part in another foray - even one as close to home as this one - until Smith's plight had piqued her interest.

As it began to get dark the seven would-be 'bunker busters' donned dark clothing; layering up against the cold of the winter night.  Duncan carried a small brown cloth bag containing tools, while the rest brought various things that they thought they might need such as torches, penknives and even a flask of hot tea.  They left The Colonel behind.

As quietly as they could, the party stole up the hill and navigated their way to a small cottage that had obviously once been the gate house of what was now Cranleigh Manor Hospital.  At the front of the building was a plain, grey-painted door with a lock and a small handle.