Sarah Jane Smith

Depending on how the rest of that family acknowledges it, it might provide as a clue as to what's happening here.

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Sarah! What are you doing here?

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[Now there' a voice she wasn't expecting]

Doctor? I think the question may be what are you doing here?

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I'm not the Doctor - not exactly, anyway, I'm the other one. Do you remember, from the thing with the Daleks? I go by Dexter now. And I've no clue what I'm doing here, actually, I only turned up a few weeks ago.

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Oh, yes, I remember that. I've been here for over half a year now and I'm still not sure what I'm doing here.

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I've been trying to think of something, but I still haven't figured out how it works in the first place.

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It's a peculiar problem. Nothing I have has been able to pick up anything unusual about the town... except my eyes, of course.

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Oh, so you've gotten your stuff back? Lucky you, I've been having to make due with what I can scrounge up.

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The town occasionally returns items after major events. The sonic lipstick is probably the most useful. I have the watch, but it hasn't been able to detect anything at all. Last time, it was a picture of Luke.

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You're better armed now than I am even back home, I'm afraid. I haven't been able to get my hands on the right supplies for a sonic of my own.

[It's a partial truth - he might be able to if he tried hard enough, but he can't quite remember how to do it, either.]

But the thing with the Smiths, that did seem significant. I take it that was odd even by Mayfield standards?

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I'm sure your Torchwood will turn something up sooner or later, if it's anything like on our side.

Most of the time, the Smiths follow the same strict script the drones do. Particularly the mother.

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But then she just... changed somehow? I've heard rather scattered things about her having some other identity, being younger than she seemed, that sort of thing.

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I think I came across the wife.

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In the park?

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Nah not in the freaking park, just around town.

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In the past few days? That's even more inconsistent.

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Yeah, she was really freaking out too.

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Oh, so before the second incident? What happened?

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Told ya, she was having some sort of fucking meltdown.

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I've only seen Jane's--Samantha's corpse in recent days. But no, I can't imagine that this was part of anyone's plans at all. It sends a message, sure, but why send that message through a so-called "model citizen" like her?

Something must have happened. I'd like to see what Lucy does with this.

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This seems too big for them to just stick to the script indefinitely. The trick is going to be to catch whatever's about to happen.

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Exactly. We need to keep our eyes peeled

I'd suggest visiting the home under the guise of neighborly courtesy, but... well, the last time I tried infiltrating the Smith home, it ended very badly.

[Pause.]

Which gets me thinking. Have you seen Grady recently?

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And their defenses are likely to be tighter right now.

[Pause]

Now that you mention it... not in the past few days. Usually he's everywhere.

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That could be our first anomaly. Especially considering that he's usually on top of keeping us all in line when things go awry.

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If he was following the script, he'd be making a big show of investigating this shocking development. Most likely ending with accusations against "Communist Spies". The timing is too close to be a coincidence.

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