~Continued from the previous site~
They had been walking for what was probably an hour. Cassie had regained some of her strength sleeping in the Silurian base but by now her feet were hurting and she was trying to ignore the emptiness in her stomach. She was starving, she wanted to take a minute to rest without Adrian having some sort of fit that had been them all on edge, she wanted to not be tired anymore. But Cassie kept her mouth shut and just kept moving along with Adrian and Akana. They hadn't shown any sign of weariness or hunger in the last hour and she didn't want to show how human she was compared to them. She didn't want to them to think of her as the trio's weakest link. Even though it had probably crossed their minds. Cassie mentally shook those thoughts out of her head and continued to walk, ignoring the protesting pain in her legs.
After what seemed like a life time she was finally looking up at the Tower of London. She had been here before, of course. She had lived in London her whole life and had gone on multiple school trips to this place. Although now she was looking at it with the knowledge that a secret government headquarters operated out of the building. Gave her a brand new perspective as she looked at it. She looked over at Akana when she commented that it looked like a fortress and felt herself smile a bit. The three of them stood there and she realized that they were at a bit of a loss at what to do. They had Dr. Taylor's pass, but had no idea how to use it to get into the place. There were the normal guards and the tourists that were out in plain sight, but there were surely other guards, UNIT guards, in the Tower's other, more secret areas. Adrian commented that they should wait for dark, but Akana shot that idea down with the logic that it would be less guarded during the day time. Cassie looked away from her companions to the building she had known her whole life and exhaled. Adrian suggested a side door, a suggestion that received no objection, and then they were off. Just a few more tourists visited this historic London attraction.
Cassie wasn't sure how long they had wandered around the Tower until she spotted a man who was wheeling a cart carrying a few oversize packages. Seemingly ordinary, but she couldn't help but think how the mail man seemed to be moving outside of the normal line of vision, and he was glancing around, as if trying to go unnoticed. If she hadn't been searching for a secret door or suspicious activity she wouldn't have spotted him. Someone delivering new souvenirs for the Tower's tourist business wouldn't be trying to to so inconspicuous. Maybe it was nothing, just her over active imagination. But she had a hunch. "This way," she said, taking Adrian's hand and pulling him after the suspicious looking mail man. She glanced back to check if Akana was following, then searched for the man with the packages. She thought she had lost him until she saws him swipe a card and enter through a door she hadn't noticed. It looked fairly ordinary when it was closed, but maybe a bit too ordinary when she really observed it. Smiling a bit, she looked back at the other two. "Secret entrance to a secret UNIT base?" she asked, gesturing towards the door.
Within minutes Adrian had swiped Dr. Taylor's pass and they had entered the Tower through the door. Cassie couldn't help but smile, despite the fact that she was breaking into a government facility with a couple of aliens. Surely this was breaking so many laws. But it was a bit exciting at the same time? When Adrian asked who's idea it had been to follow to suspicious mail man, she looked back at him and matched his grin. "Mine of course. You couldn't function without me, to be honest." She poked her tounge through her teeth for a moment before looking back at the hall. "Riiight. So if I were working in a top secret government base under the Tower of London, where would I stash a wrecked spaceship?"
~~~
When Malcolm had gathered up his nerve and grabbed onto him, Jack had grinned. "Right then. Welcome aboard, Doc. Next stop, UNIT." He was, of course, very aware of the base inside the Tower of London. He had, of course, run the Cardiff branch of Torchwood for a long while. He doubted UNIT officials would be very pleased with how much he knew about their base, although there were some areas he couldn't get to. He doubted even the Doctor, the real one, could get to with his TARDIS. But an innocent broom closet? No problem for a vortex manipulator at all. He tapped the buttons on his wrist, punching in the coordinates, and with barely even a zap they were gone.
The particular closet he had taken them to was sizable. Big enough to let Malcolm recover from their little trip. Even a second vortex manipulator trip was tough. Jack, a seasoned professional, leaned back casually. "I brought us a few hours into the future. Hopefully Adrian and Cassie have made it here by now. Or will make it here soon. Although our impostor might be back as well. We'll have to be clever to avoid him until we figure out how to expose him. But we need Martha. We need to find her now and convince her that they've all been taking the monster's orders this whole time. She can get the rest of UNIT on our side." Jack tapped his fingers on his arm for a moment before standing up straight. "Any ideas on where she'd be?"