Long Shot (audio story)

 was the third and final story in the audio anthology Lady Christina: Series Two, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by John Dorney and featured Michelle Ryan as Lady Christina de Souza, Warren Brown as Sam Bishop, Tracy Wiles as Jacqui McGee and William Gaminara as Lord Alfred de Souza.

Publisher's summary
Royal Northcote: highlight of the racing calendar. Lady Christina hopes for a win, as do Sam Bishop and Jacqui McGee, looking into some mysterious deaths. With secret agents and rogue family members on the scene, an assassin closes in on their target. But Lady Christina is at her best when the odds are stacked against her.

Plot
Jacqui hears from Mike that illegal bookies owed money by Alfred de Souza have been vanishing across London, leaving behind piles of jewels, and informs Sam. He finds the evidence circumstantial but takes her list of people to whom Alfred owes money, promising Jacqui an exclusive. Later, Steven tells her that the 200 was seen landing near Troubadour Film Studios and she goes and finds Christina, but, having committed a robbery, Christina runs off. Jacqui meets with Steven at a pub and spots Sam on the television, posing as a waiter at the Royal Northcote Races. She leaves and tries to get into the races without a ticket.

After leaving Jacqui, Sam calls Christina and meets with her at her hotel, telling her what Jacqui said. He promises that he does not want to kill Alfred like he killed Eugenia in the Outback, but she refuses to help and leaves. He meets Messingham, one of the last bookies remaining, and is thrown out by his security. He sees Alfred outside and gives chase, following him in a UNIT vehicle until Alfred charges at him and shatters the vehicle with his touch. He explains all of this to the General, who tells him that UNIT have tapped Alfred's mobile phone and know that he will be at the races. On the day of the race, Christina pulls a gun on her father.

Christina, after pretending to be a French spy by the name of Madame Collet, meets with Ivo Hislop-Cannon and offers to return a stolen diamond and get back into his superiors' good books in return for his assistance. Having taken Sam's fingerprints from his glass at the hotel restaurant, she gives Ivo the means to steal something of Sam's and afterwards uses a face scrambler to pretend that she is a prostitute to avoid Jacqui. Posing as paramedics in a stolen ambulance, Christina and Ivo get into the races and, after Christina apparently shoots Alfred, Ivo gets Alfred into the ambulance and takes him away to the 200. Alfred wakes up and wonders where he is.

Having placed a bug on Sam in the hotel restaurant, Christine hears that he is going to meet Messingham and heads there herself, seeing Sam get thrown out and chase her father. She follows them and, after the chase, goes to her father in a hotel, but he tells her to leave after he begins to succumb to his affliction. She then decides to go to Plan B and contacts Ivo, getting him to steal an alpha wave gun which she uses to stun her father, something that she does again at the races to fake his death and keep UNIT from looking for him. She is unsure of what she will do with her father in the long term but, for now, he is to be kept sedated in a private facility.

Sam finds Christina at the hotel and tells her that he got the charges against her dropped, but that, privately, he does not believe that Alfred is dead given the theft of the alpha wave gun. Not having wanted to assassinate Alfred, he keeps it a secret and later goes up to Christina's penthouse where Jacqui gets a compromising photograph of him and Ivo. Christina flies away in the 200, leaving Sam and Ivo embarrassed and without the answers and diamond that they wanted.

Cast

 * Lady Christina de Souza - Michelle Ryan
 * Sam Bishop - Warren Brown
 * Jacqui McGee - Tracy Wiles
 * Ivo Hislop-Cannon - Joseph Kloska
 * Steven / General / Announcer - Clive Hayward
 * Mike / Messingham / UNIT Trooper - Delroy Atkinson
 * Lord Alfred de Souza - William Gaminara

Worldbuilding

 * Jacqui mentions Paul Daniels and Sam asks her if she has a sister called Debbie.
 * Mike is a police officer and Jacqui's ex.
 * Sam calls Jacqui Columbo.
 * Christina drinks champagne and gets an orange juice for Sam.
 * UNIT have alpha wave guns and somnospheres.
 * Messingham mentions the House of Lords.
 * The Queen attends the Royal Northcote Races.
 * Sam says that "for Queen and country" is the motto of "the other lot".
 * Christina had her dress imported from Italy.
 * Christina stole a face scrambler from a crashed Felani spacecraft.

Continuity

 * Christina and Sam talk about Eugenia de Souza's death. (AUDIO: Outback)
 * Christina and Ivo talk about what happened in Nice. (AUDIO: It Takes a Thief)