Struggling To Adjust (Book Three of The Bad Wolf Chronicles)

The Sound Of Drums

Jessie concentrated, and the power surged from the lights into her, and she shot a stream of electricity over Natasha and to the Futurekind. They screamed and fell back, and the Doctor rushed to Jack, pulling one of his arms off. "Hold still!" he ordered, using the sonic screwdriver on his Vortex Manipulator. "Don't move! Hold it still!"

"I'm telling you, it's broken!" Jack insisted. "It hasn't worked for years!"

"That's because you didn't have me," the Doctor replied snarkily before nodding. "Martha, Natasha, Clint, Bad Wolf, grab hold, now!"

Jessie reached over and clasped down, and the others followed suit, and the Doctor triggered the Vortex Manipulator.

The floor disappeared under Jessie's feet, and her head spun before she was tossed onto an alleyway street. "Ow!" she shouted, wincing and rolling over.

"Oh, my head," Martha groaned.

"God, we are never doing that again," Natasha told Jack.

"Time travel without a capsule," the Doctor commented, wincing and sitting up. "That's a killer."

"Still," Jack commented as they headed for the streets outside. "At least we made it. Earth, twenty-first century, by the looks of it. Talk about lucky."

"That wasn't luck," Jessie grumbled, rubbing her head as they walked. "That was him."

Jack swatted her. "The moral is, if you're going to get stuck at the end of the universe, get stuck with an ex-Time Agent and his Vortex Manipulator."

"But this Master fellow," Clint said. "If he's got the TARDIS, he could be anywhere in time and space!"

"No, he's here," the Doctor replied. "Trust me."

"Who is he, anyway?" Natasha asked.

"And that voice at the end, that wasn't the Professor," Martha put in.

"If the Master's a Time Lord, then he must have regenerated," Jack mused.

"What does that mean?" Martha asked.

Jessie stopped. "I told you."

Martha blushed. "Oh, right. Sorry. But how are we going to find him?"

"I'll know him the moment I see him," the Doctor replied. "Time Lords always do."

"But, hold on," Martha said slowly as they looked around. "If he could be anyone . . . we missed the election! But it can't be!"

Jessie stopped short and her jaw dropped. "Um . . . I found him."

They all looked up at the TVs on lamp posts. "I said I knew that voice!" Martha blurted. "When he spoke inside the TARDIS! I've heard that voice hundreds of times! I've seen him!"

"We all have," Clint told her.

"That was the voice of Harold Saxon," Natasha agreed.

"That's him," the Doctor gasped. "He's Prime Minister! The Master is Prime Minister of Great Britain." He blinked when the man kissed the pretty blonde walking with him. "The Mater and his wife?"

"Says the Time Lord that's currently engaged," Jessie pointed out.

"Well, that's different," he sputtered.

"This country has been sick," the Master reported to the cameras. "This country needs healing. This country needs medicine. In fact, I'd go so far to say that what this country really needs right now . . . is a Doctor."

Natasha muttered something dark in Russian, and Jessie grinned when the TARDIS didn't translate. Jessie couldn't help but snicker as they headed back down the street.