Cal and the Brotherhood of Mount Lœng is a rather belated follow up to the story called Mount Lœng which went online in December, 2006. In that story, Chrístõ climbed the mountain to visit his old mentor, Maestro, who leads the Brotherhood of Mount Lœng. As he does so, he remembers being a youngster for whom the journey was arduous and almost impossible.

This time, Chrístõ is the master who climbs the mountain easily, and Cal is the hesitant student. But in this case, there is more than just the mountain to fight.
As usual when there’s an assassination attempt, it is open to question who is the target – Chrístõ or whoever he happens to be with. The last time, it WAS Chrístõ – at his graduation. This time, Cal is the target. As the illegitimate son of the late Rõgæn Koschei Oakdae?e, half brother to the imprisoned Epsilon, he is the heir of the House of Oakdae?e, and that was certain to annoy some people!

But who was trying to assassinate him from the Brotherhood? Surely not one of the Brothers? Oh dear, corruption gets everywhere on Gallifrey. Does it seem like there are traitors everywhere on that planet? Funnily enough, every time it appeared on TV there was somebody betraying what Gallifrey stands for. Look at Deadly Assassin, Invasion of Time, Arc of Infinity, Five Doctors, Trial of a Time Lord – traitors everywhere. So why should it have been any different in Chrístõ’s time?

No wonder Hext needs so many cells!

A couple of readers picked up on the ‘two towers’ idea with the Brotherhood on their mountain and Hext’s Celestial Intervention Agency in the Tower across the plain. It was something I had in mind when I wrote this story. Of course, in Tolkein one of the towers was in the hands of the good guys and one in the hands of the enemy. Here, both belong to the good guys. But they are still opposites. The Brotherhood practice peace and harmony. Hext, practices torture in his own little Guantanamo Bay, Castlereagh Interrogation Centre – or at least Paddington Green High Security Police Station! Torture, incidentally, always seemed to feature in Gallifreyan justice – again recall Deadly Assassin. Amnesty International never seemed to make much impact there. Whether Hext is right or wrong in his methods is a debate with some Human implications when you think of his tower in the same context as the above mentioned detention centres that deal with terrorism on planet Earth. When, if ever, is torture justified? And does the fact that Hext is a heroic character make it less horrific? Chrístõ does recoil from the idea. But even he can’t completely condemn his methods, especially when he comes face to face with the one responsible for the attacks.

Die hard fans, of course, noted that this is the first mention of Savang installed in the Tower as Hext’s lady wife. There will almost certainly be a follow up story featuring Hext and Savang, but not just yet. Let them be for now.