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chapter thirteen. the department store heist
❝i'm in your company, everything is dangerous❞
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THE PAIR ATTEMPTED to find the elevators in order to get to the bottom of this situation for themselves. As the Doctor continued to move his friend mentioned their situation previously with the family as she was still confused on how he was able to pass off the lie. "What'd you show them, the family? Unless you're judging hiding name tags in your pockets to pull out whenever you need to."
The Doctor smiled and took out the slip again to wave it in his hand. "Psychic paper. Shows the person exactly what it needs to." He looked at it again as he tucked it away. "Doesn't always work since it's based on perception but it's handy."
Eyeing it he noticed her doing this and gave her a look to indicate she wasn't going to have a chance to use it for herself. Letting out a sigh she attempted to look through the various heads in the store. "Think we're close?"
"Just about." He pointed it out for her to follow his hands to the steel towards. Nodding to one another they went in the direction of them before being stopped by one of the clerks. The android looked to the two of them with their arms outstretched holding a kitchen appliance.
From their face they were perpetually grinning, causing for Natalie to have an eerie sense of their situation as she looked over to the Doctor. "Would you—"
"That's quite alright, we were just leaving to the next floor." Attempting to move forward the two were stopped by the clerk blocking their path. The Doctor stopped to smile to the android curiously. "Yes?"
"By our calculations you have seen only 10% of this floor. Should you move to another floor you would have missed the various other sections within the store including, but not limited to, kitchenware, home decorations, and outdoor refurbishments."
Natalie gripped the Doctor's hand as he moved attempted to move forward. "Sure we'll catch it on the way back, shouldn't be too bad," The Doctor said before squinting to the mechanism with interest, "Unless of course this is going to be a problem."
The android didn't say anything at first leaving her to worry they had already gotten in trouble before their search even began. After a few moments the android buzzed to life again and stepped away to clear their path. "Of course. Thank you for shopping with Pournelle industries."
Quickly leaving before there was a change in the mind of whoever operating, Natalie turned back as the Doctor continued to push them forward. "Think that's gonna become a problem?"
"Probably." She pushed the buttons for the doors to open rather quickly, shutting behind them immediately as they stepped inside. Leaning against the panel she watched as the Doctor took out his sonic to direct it towards the buttons designated for each of the floors. "Going down."
By his influence the elevator car now pushed them downward rapidly for Natalie to clutch on the railings. The Doctor only let out a laugh over the ride while she looked over to him wide-eyed. "This isn't funny." Landing at their floor and the doors opening in front of them she stood there for a few moments longer as he leaned over to examine her. "Could've given me a warning."
"That's only if it's something dangerous."
"I'm in your company, everything is dangerous," Natalie told him, follow walking beside him to the basement levels they had landed in. The pair stood for a moment looking down the long corridor as the elevator shut behind them. Walking ahead she looked up to him with interest. "Think this was their plan? Get humans cooped up into a department building perpetually spending. If they're even perpetually spending, they'd run out of money eventually."
The Doctor played with this thought for a moment before snapping his fingers at the suggestion. "Hadn't thought of that, the spending. Unless they're not after the money of course. Could be entirely possibly anything of monetary value ceases to be as great of importance in the economy," He explained, though more so to himself as he had spoken in almost a murmur as he rationalized the idea to himself before addressing her again, "When you're spending, shopping, the emotions that come up."
Not helping to laugh over this he looked back over to her confused. "You think they're draining people's lives from shopping?" Meeting his eyes she became serious herself for her to look to him worried instead. "I was only kidding? They can't really do that can they."
"Just an idea. Could be wrong." Noticing Natalie already ready to disagree with this he stopped her. "Have been wrong before, I'm perfectly capable of being wrong."
"Sure, but it's also not so likely." Looking around as they roamed aimlessly through the corridors without any sort of cover she turned over to him again. "We found the floor, it's pretty abandoned, what is there now?"
He pointed a finger quickly into a sharp turn without answering her question. Natalie only followed closely behind him as they continue in this direction. The basement area was cold, damp, a stark contrast from the brightly lit and furnished floor they had first started in. Noticing them coming upon a dark marked as Storage the Doctor let out a laugh proudly to open the locked door with ease.
Within the contents of the room the loud rumbling of the machine situated below the grated platform they stood on came to life. The pair leaned on the railing to watch this play out before them in confusion. Several tubes extended out of the machine in quick motions with a schematic detailing where each one was sectioned towards.
Taken aback by the display, Natalie couldn't find herself taking her away from the realization. "This is insane. I mean they can't really have had this kept away and no one noticed."
"Unless of course no one cared to notice or stop it," The Doctor mentioned as she turned over to him, "Business is booming, customers are happy. Who would be any wiser knowing something was wrong."
"Us, obviously."
"Lucky for them that's the case." He fixed his jacket as he took a deep breath and took another glance at the machine. "Need to get down there to get a better idea as to how we can get people out of their trance safely and quietly."
Leading the way, Natalie followed as they drew closer to the machine. "Mind-control? Is that what it is?"
"Or forced perception. Hypnotic trances. Lots of things could be going on."
"For financial gain."
Jumping down onto the last step the large machine towered over them now. Looking at the screen he put on his specs to review the diagrams drawn up for himself. Illustrated was the floor where the mechanism was being used on as well as the number of participants in each designated sector. From the numbers the people were well into the thousands, some having been here for months on end judging by the readings.
Looking at this with her mouth agape, Natalie stood there in shock of the amount of people in the one building. "What's going to happen once they've realized what's gone on?"
"You two!" Emerging from the shadows was a small group of four consisting of two androids as the pair had previously bumped into as well as two individuals in business attire.
The Doctor straightened out towards grin towards the pair opposite them and was prepared to take out the psychic paper before one of the partners raised their hand to stop him. "We have an account on every individual that comes through those doors and you and your friend here were listed as unknown."
Following along with them, the individual beside them continued on. "Everyone here has an account, timelord. You've skipped through all the department to get to here."
"Bit invasive for you to tell where we're from. Sure there was no consent form to that," Natalie told them, folding her arms as her friend smiled amused beside her.
"Oh it's our job to know. We need to know what people coming in for want. What their targeted ads may be for our androids here to push onto them," The first of the individuals spoke.
Patting the shoulder of one of the androids in question the other followed quickly after again. "Attesting to the highest standard of a shoppers experience. That's all we want."
With that the Doctor pointed back towards the machine they were standing in front of. "What exactly is this then? Goes above and beyond simple analytics if you ask me."
"We here at Pournelle industries seek to take the highest priority in customer satisfaction. What better way to do that than to have everything they could ever need at their disposal," The individual spoke and raised their hand towards them, "Our family is built on the foundation of the success of our customers."
Nodding knowingly over this, Natalie turned over to the Doctor having followed along. "Pournelle and Pournelle, the sibling duo of the new millennia." As they smiled pridefully to him he turned back towards the machine with interest. Going to the panel on the opposite side he scanned the buttons to turn to the associates whose smile turned down at the realization of what was to occur. "Could do that without forcing people into the building don't you think? Wouldn't be the end of your reign, would it?"
From the Doctor's action the machine whirred and began alerting the closest personnel and staff of the malfunction. Grinding widely he looked over to his friend giving him a wide-eyed gaze over the lack of warning. "Did you shut it off?"
"I shut it off." Quickly grabbing her, Natalie was taken by surprised not having realized the androids with the siblings had attacked them instead. Having her carefully around him the Doctor maneuvered themselves away to take out the sonic and direct it towards the androids directly. With that they lunged towards the sibling both looking panicked by the switch in behavior. "Should buy my friend and I time."
Natalie looked up to the diagram to see the several dots having once indicated individuals on the floor faded along with the numbers lowering. Watching this happen in real-time, her friend wasted no time in moving on to the other machines to release the rest of the individuals on each of the floors.
The Pournelle siblings, having been restrained by the androids meant to attack them, looked to the pair in frustration as they stayed trapped in place. "What are we doing with them?"
Standing beside here he looked to them unsatisfied. "Leave them, they're harmless. Everyone is free which is the most important thing."
Leaving them just like that, Natalie continued to stand there confused and waved a hand to the individuals. "What if they do it again?"
"They won't."
"How do you know that?"
Already standing at the first step as the emergency sirens continued to blare, the Doctor looked down to her. Tensing at the look he gave she nodded in understanding and gave a final look at the scene before following behind.
Was that how he settled things? Leave the villain trapped and have it sorted by the next person that passes. There was no trace he would have been there if it was done this way, which Natalie assumed was the main reason behind the tactic.
Still, she continued to keep a wary watch on her friend as they made their way to the TARDIS. The satisfaction of the individuals freed from their escape dissipating the longer she wondered about her friend's morales. The Doctor had told her he did not intend to save people, that he didn't think of himself as a good person. Now she started to worry why that was.
A/N
me whenever the doctor gets a lil angry 🧎♂️ okok talk soon & much love byeee
~j.s.