Back at UNIT headquarters the Doctor was still taking time to process the tragedy. He never gave a thought to the remains lying in the UNIT mortuary waiting to be examined. Of course a present day autopsy would fail to discover the boy’s true cause of death.
The Doctor had already viewed cells taken from the boy’s arm and the slides had showed something astonishing. The boy’s DNA had mutated! Some unknown form of psionic energy had irradiated the cells turning the boy into a perfect killing machine. And what was worse, a killing machine that was impossible to kill, now its organs no longer depended on their original host. The Doctor considered the boy’s “vanishing act” live on stage. The Doctor suspected that while the audience believed it was watching the Indian Rope Trick the Illusionist’s assistant had somehow vanished into Spacetime itself. It must be the anomaly! Only that could explain how a boy could vanish on top of a rope. Only to return six months older possessed by forces hostile to mankind.
The guard outside the mortuary didn’t stand a chance, when he caught the organs making their escape. His screams went unheard, just as his body lay undetected until the end of his shift. By the time the next guard came to relieve him, the remains were back with their master.
At first Ophelia took out her fury on the Doctor, blaming him for everything that had occurred on his watch. The Doctor was happy to accept the blame but when the poor woman started blaming herself, both his hearts broke.
“Why wasn’t I there, Doctor? Why did I have to go to that damn conference instead? If only I’d been there. She would still be alive now. I would gladly have died instead.”
Knowing Ophelia would reject a paranormal cause of death the Doctor told her a half-truth she would more easily accept. He told Ophelia, Chakra’s mind had been fatally affected by the Indian Rope Trick. The inexplicable mysteries she beheld was too much for her. The fear had killed her.
To take his mind off events, the Doctor decided it was time he took a trip in the Tardis. John Symonds’ biography of Madam Blavatsky had aroused his curiosity and 19th century India was worth a look. As he set the Spacetime co-ordinates, it wasn’t too much of a surprise to discover that the “Old Girl” had beaten him to it, yet, again. She had already traced the beginning of the anomaly to Madras, India 1884.
