2: EPISODE 5
FLEET: No, I didn't know that. Shall we get out of here?
CLARA: Oh yes. Hang on!
F/X: Machinery flies away. Explosion.
SCENE 14
NARRATION: This extremely fortunate turn of events was put in motion a short while earlier, deep in the frozen abyss under the Thames.
CLARA: So if the Home Secretary and Chief Whitlock are behind all this, why did you kill Salik?
QUATERNIUS: We didn't kill Salik. Brother Salik was one of us!
CLARA: He was an Obfuscati?
QUATERNIUS: Obfuscatus! Why else do you think he had a notebook with all of our secrets written in it? Our work. His work.
CLARA: But one of your men burnt it!
QUATERNIUS: Salik was dead. The notebook needed to be destroyed to protect us. Plus it let us lead you here, where we were trying to keep you out of harm's way. I wish I could have done more to save Brother Salik, but he felt responsible.
The tower was his design, he made it possible to have the city we have today, the progress we have enjoyed. But at the terrible cost of placing such faith in the few who guard it. And the time came when they saw their opportunity. Salik went to the Tower to dissuade Whitlock, but it ended as we feared it would.
And this led to the trap set for Fleet, a trap we have been trying to save him from ever since.
CLARA: Then what now?
QUATERNIUS: We have failed. We must lick our wounds and regroup for the fight ahead.
CLARA: Regroup?
QUATERNIUS: We operate in the shadows. We make it so the world never even knows what might have been, but we cannot undo what has been done. There will be too many eyes now for our methods. And so I will rest here in this ice until my brothers formulate a plan. Oh what I would do not to have my organs spread about in this wall of ice, or indeed for a pillow.
CLARA: We can't wait for that! We need to act now!
QUATERNIUS: It is too late, Miss Entwhistle. The trap has been sprung.
CLARA: Can you not at least save Fleet?
QUATERNIUS: One man? What does it matter?
CLARA: It matters! You can still do something.
QUATERNIUS: Not without a quorum Miss Entwhistle, and scheduling a meeting is so troublesome, everyone is so busy.
CLARA: Then let me do something, let me go so I can at least try to rescue Fleet.
QUATERNIUS: Very well, Miss Entwhistle, though, as you don't have long, you might want to borrow Brother Gerald's flying machine. Now, if it's not too much trouble, would you mind retrieving that woolly hat from over there and putting it on my head. Immortality can be such a trial.
SCENE 15.
F/X: Machinery.
NARRATION: Meanwhile, back in the present, which is to say, slightly later that night in 1887.
CLARA: We're quite far from the blast now. Where shall we go?
FLEET: We? No, you need to stay far away from me. You don't understand!
CLARA: That Merrick and Whitlock are behind all this and they've pinned it on you?
FLEET: You do understand. But me surviving just means they have to hunt me down. Drop me off somewhere and go!
CLARA: But–
FLEET: If they find you with me they'll make you an accomplice.
CLARA: I refuse!
FLEET: You refuse what?
CLARA: Not to help you!
FLEET: Are you mad?
CLARA: You're innocent!
FLEET: It doesn't matter! No one will believe my word over the Home Secretary's, and if they find you with me, they'll put you in an asylum!
CLARA: I don't care.
FLEET: I care!
CLARA: What are you doing?
FLEET: Putting on a parachute!
CLARA: You doubt my flying ability?
FLEET: Yes! It's the first time you've ever flown anything, so yes! I do! A bit! But that's not why I'm putting this on.
CLARA: Why then?
FLEET: For safety.
CLARA: You just said–
FLEET: Not my safety, Clara.
CLARA: What?
FLEET: (SCREAMS, FALLING)
CLARA: Fleet!
F/X: Distant, booming horns.
Airships?
ANNOUNCEMENT ECHOES ACROSS ENTIRE CITY.
VICTORIA: My loyal subjects. Today is a dark day. We have been attacked at the Tower. Given the immediate internal threat, I have agreed with the recommendation of my Home Secretary Lord Merrick that the Yeoman Warders be given unrestricted investigative authority across the entire city until the emergency has passed. Albert?
ALBERT: The culprit is already known to us. Archibald Fleet, formerly of Scotland Yard. He has betrayed his position, betrayed us all. Such infa… Such inf… I'm sorry, I am overcome.
VICTORIA: Such infamy demands a mighty response. We ask each citizen to do what is necessary to prevent this villain from escaping the city or harming again. Be it proclaimed: a bounty on Fleet's head.
END
