Doctor Who: Surprise Holiday

Chapter 12: Confrontation

Rough hands pushed Clara into a chair. As her arms were held down, someone used padded restraints to bind her wrists to the arm rests, then bound her ankles to the chair legs.

"Don't want you stumbling around blind," Clyde Moon said. "You could do yourself an injury. I'll be in consultation with the Doctor, then we'll get right back to you. Now don't go away! Doctor?"

Clara could hear two pairs of bare feet quietly walk away through a thick carpet. The sound was quickly gone. Nearby, she could hear the sound of breathing.

"Is everyone okay? Is everyone here?" Clara said.

"I'm here," she heard Sophie say. Her voice came from her left.

"Me too," said Hans. His voice came from behind.

"So am I," said Rebecca. Also from behind.

"I need to pee," said Nils, to her right.

Everyone chuckled at that. It quickly died down.

"Who else is in here?" Clara called out. There was no answer. "Hey! I can hear you breathing, somewhere in front of me and to my left. Who else is here?"

Instead of an answer, she heard the sound of music start up, from the same direction as the breathing. It sounded like a game. Whoever it was, they were clearly ignoring her.

"Right. Be that way," she muttered, mostly to herself. She tried testing the bindings. They were relatively gentle—kinder than a rope or zip-tie—but unyielding.

Now that they were in a room with light, things were no longer completely dark—the effect was more of a mid-level gray. When the Doctor and Clyde Moon walked away from her earlier, she could just make out slightly darker gray shapes moving against a general gray background. Even in very bright light, Clara suspected it wouldn't be much better, just lighter shades of gray. As Clyde had said, linx on standby made for an effective blindfold.

It had never occurred to Clara, when she walked into that linx boutique all those months ago, that her linx could be used against her. And judging from the reactions of her friends, that thought had never crossed their minds either. Things like this simply didn't happen. Not on Neuesonne.

Her linx were quite comfortable, designed to be worn continuously, and in fact the recommendation at the time was to not attempt to remove them herself, but to leave removal to the professionals. Now she wondered: what would it take to get them out of her eyes? She didn't think to ask at the time. Could they be removed like ordinary twenty-first century contacts, or was there more to it?

Clara went on the alert when she heard a faint, "Thank you, Doctor." She strained to hear. Yes, at least one person, maybe two, were walking towards her. Then she perceived two gray shapes moving. Once the shapes stopped, it was nearly impossible to distinguish them from the background.

"Well?" Clara heard the Doctor say.

"I'm a man of my word," Clyde Moon replied. Clara rolled her eyes at that, then wondered if anyone looking at her could tell she had rolled her eyes.

Clara heard something click. She blinked away tears in the sudden light as her eyes slowly adjusted. She was tied to a dining room chair, facing away from a large table, in a spacious hotel suite with off-white carpeting. In a similar design to the Grand Germania, floor to ceiling windows and a sliding door opened out onto a wide balcony, with a view of New Berlin's nighttime skyline.

Off to one side on Clara's left, a man wearing a gold chain was seated on an off-white sofa, playing a game on a hand-held device. He was positioned so that he could easily keep an eye on her and her companions. Directly in front stood Clyde Moon and the Doctor.