BORUSA:
No.
TOM :
No what, Cardinal?
BORUSA:
The Story is not acceptable.
This is a very difficult, very delicate position.
We must adjust The Truth.
ENGIN:
In what way, Cardinal?
BORUSA:
In a way that will maintain
Public Confidence in
The Time Lords and
their Leadership.
How many people have seen
this ‘Master’ since His Death?
SPANDRELL:
Apart from ourselves, Hildred
and the two guards who took
The Body to the Panopticon vault.
BORUSA:
Then we shall rely on their Silence.*
We shall change the appearance
of The Corpse, Castellan.
We all know the posthumous
effect of a staser bolt.
Within the hour,
The Body will be charred
beyond recognition.
Our Story is going to be :
That The Master arrived in Gallifrey to assassinate The President, secretly.
Before he could escape, Chancellor Goth tracked him down and killed him, unfortunately perishing himself in the exchange of fire.
Now that's much better.
I can believe that.
ENGIN:
You're making Goth
into A Hero!?
BORUSA:
If Heroes don't exist,
it is necessary to invent them.
Good for Public Morale.
ENGIN:
And The Doctor's
part in all this?
BORUSA:
Best forgotten.
Of course, Doctor, the charge against you will be dropped.
TOM :
How kind.
BORUSA:
Conditional on your leaving Gallifrey tonight.
TOM :
Somehow, Cardinal, I don't want to stay.
BORUSA:
Good. I believe you know something of The Master's past.
TOM :
We've bumped into each other from time to time.
BORUSA:
Then before you leave, you can assist Coordinator Engin to compile a new biog of him.
It doesn't have to be entirely accurate.
TOM:
Like Time Lord History.
BORUSA:
A few facts, Coordinator, will lend it verisimilitude.
We cannot make The Master
into a Public Enemy
if there is no data on him.
ENGIN:
I can have an authentic seeming data extract ready by morning, Cardinal.
BORUSA:
I'll leave that to you then.
Later, Castellan, we must take another look at Data Security.
We cannot have Time Lord DEs simply vanishing from the records.
SPANDRELL:
I agree, sir.
BORUSA:
Well, I think that's all.
You'll attend immediately to the 'cosmetic treatment'?
SPANDRELL:
Sorry?
BORUSA:
The Body, Castellan.
(Borusa leaves.)
TOM :
'Only in Mathematics
will we find Truth.'
ENGIN:
What?
TOM :
Borusa used to say that during my time at the Academy,
and now he's setting out to prove it.
[* Well, that's 10th-Level STUPID to begin with --
You don't even know who these two men ARE, outside of their profession, so you are in no position (yet) to be able to estimate with any degree of confidence, reinforced with sheer blind faith, buttressed with a heroic dose of Sheer Dumb Luck (i.e., Hazard a Guess.) as to whether they will even be inclined to keep their Silence as to what they saw, what they think they
and what they know ]
