Thank you to those who have read and reviewed the previous chapters your comments have been very encouraging and kind. Acts of Kindness: Part 5
'Show N Sell .com'
Ianto hauled in a steadying breath as he gathered up the half dozen manila files that he had on Gwen's desk. Holding them tightly against his chest he made his way up the steps to Jack's office. He tapped on the glass door as he entered and made a point of closing it behind him. Jack looked up from his report and sighed rather dismally when he noticed that Ianto had an armful of paperwork instead of a double espresso to give him. He smiled that ever charming and slightly shy smile that he only ever reserved for Ianto, but Ianto blanked it and the smile quickly faded when Jack realised this was obviously going to be a business chat and not the agreement to go on a date with him. Ianto was still avoiding giving him an answer and for once in his life Jack was prepared to wait.
"Is that more stuff I have to sign off?"
To Jack's relief the young Welshman shook his head as he carefully placed his burden on Jack's desk. Ianto was looking edgy and Jack leant back in his seat to watch him.
"Well?"
"Can we talk?"
Jack was smiling again. "What did you have in mind?"
Ianto huffed impatiently. "Not that, before you start." He responded sharply. Jack's eyes flickered with a brief flash of hurt at the tone.
"Ianto…"
"I'm serious Jack. This is important." Then he relaxed slightly. "Not nearly as much fun I appreciate." It was a poor attempt at an apology.
"Anyway this will take a bit of time."
Jack sighed. "Ok, What's up? And sit down Ianto you are making me nervous."
Ianto sat. "It's about one of my 'Projects'." He began, a little unsure of himself. Since Jack's return a few weeks ago he was finding it hard enough to face him let alone speak to him.
"Go on Ianto." Jack tried his best to sound encouraging but he couldn't quite pull it off, the last thing he wanted to talk to Ianto about was work.
"As you requested last year I've been tracking certain items on the internet, primarily through Ebay and another site called Show N . There is so much stuff out there Jack that is supposedly alien that I decided to keep a database of the whole lot in order to keep track of the buyers and sellers out there. To be honest it's a bit of a nightmare sorting out what's genuine and what's not, but some one out there has a much better idea than I do."
Ianto pulled open the top most of his folders and shoved a thick printed document under Jack's nose.
"That's a comprehensive list of stuff that wasn't accounted for after the destruction of Canary Wharf." Another document was placed on top of it.
"This is an inventory of all items stolen, lost or otherwise removed from UNIT over the last two years and not recovered. And this one." A final sheet. "Things missing from our own archive that I cannot account for. I believe most of these items went missing before Alex killed himself in 2000, but I can't be certain of that."
Jack was reading one of the lists as Ianto continued on opening up his second folder and placing a photograph of a middle aged Asian male on top of the lists.
"This is Ranjan Patel according to his Torchwood 1 personnel file. He's also known as Sergeant Rajiq Singh of UNIT and Dr Mishran Panjani of the RAF. He is the principle seller of said items which coincidently turn up on those lists and his Ebay ID is Josh Patel of 22, Barrington Gardens, sw19. His actual identity is Jordan Malik, born Pakistan Dec 14 1957…."
Jack raised his hands. "Ok Ianto stop. Where is this going?"
Ianto gave him a frustrated look. "Let me finish Jack."
"How long have you been working on this?"
"Ten months. Please just humour me for once?"
"All right. Carry on." Jack really didn't feel like listening to this.
Ianto placed a second photograph on the desk.
"This is the buyer. He has 49 separate Ebay accounts at any one time, he keeps changing them. His name is believed to be one Jason Murry. He's had known associations with the IRA, AL QUEADA, The Black Angel Group and Sheikh Fire. Aliases include John draper an Australian businessman, Gregorovitch Marx and Daniel Samson. This man has been systematically purchasing alien tech basically anything that looks like it could be used for something. Purchases included, meteors, shrapnel, parts unspecified, powders unspecified. And components unspecified. The are three associates that work with him, I've only been able to identify one of them." A third image was passed to Jack.
"I've no idea who she is but this was taken off our own CCTV footage. We had an attempted break in whilst you were away. This picture…." Ianto produced a fourth image. "I took that in Birmingham 3 days ago, the man she's with is Jason Murry."
Jack took some time to study the images. "I am not certain I am liking where this is going."
"I got Tosh to study my list of items from the Ebay sales. A lot of it looks like junk but put things together and she believes that weapons could be made or backwards engineered from some of this stuff. Jack there's Cyberman Hardware, in those lists. The point is this Jason guy is obviously being advised by some one like Tosh- some one who knows all about this stuff. If he's making weapons and selling them on to terrorist organisations he has to be stopped."
Jack saw no problem agreeing to that. "So lets do it."
"It's not that straight forward Jack. We can't just track this guy and take him out there's a bigger picture here. I've already spoken to Kev at UNIT intelligence…"
"Wait a minute, what?"
Ianto hesitated nervous. "I had to Jack. You weren't here." They held one another's gazes for a long uncomfortable moment. It was Jack who finally backed down from it.
"Go on, what did he say."
"He believes that there are at least a dozen people involved in the marketing alone. He's pretty certain that they have some kind of Lab out in the Middle East. It's huge Jack but so far they've made zero progress trying to shut the operation down, they can't get access, they've been trying for months. They had some one posing as a buyer and he was exposed a month into the op."
"What happened to him?"
"Bits of him turned up in the Thames near the Chelsea Embankment. The thing is Jack I think they've been going about this the wrong way. We have to get some one in there soon though because a lot of merchandise has changed hands and the buying and selling suddenly stopped two days ago." Ianto 's gaze was fixed intently on Jack. "We have to do something Jack, we've got to recover the stolen Tech before people start getting killed with it."
Jack took a long time to digest all of the information and continued to look over the lists that Ianto had given him.
"What do you suggest we do?"
Ianto shook his head. "I don't know Jack. I guess we need to infiltrate Jason Murry's team some how try to find out where all the money is coming from to fund all his collecting. There has to be an organisation of some kind be it corporate or government or some other random thing."
"And there's no the way to trace the payments for the items bought via the internet?"
"They've covered their tracks very well, everything has been paid for in used cash of varying currencies ranging from New Zealand dollars to the South African Rand. I tried getting into the banks databases to see if there was any way of following the cash trail, but it can't be done with out the co operation of the banks and coding a hell of a lot of foreign currency." Ianto explained.
"Ok, so why is this the first I've heard about it?" Jack's tone darkened considerably.
Ianto baulked. "Because this has taken me the best part of a year to collate, in my spare time between cleaning up everyone's shit and you running off, why the fuck do you think? Sorry Jack it's not like I get any help around here." He was trying desperately not to yell and failing miserably. Jack just sat there, impassive and waited patiently for Ianto to calm down.
"Then I take it the others do not know what you have been doing?" He asked.
"What?"
"Just answer me Ianto."
"The others don't know. No one's especially interested in what I do unless the coffee runs out." He responded caustically.
"Ok. Keep this to yourself. I want you to pull out some high profile stuff from the archive and advertise it for sale."
"I beg your pardon?"
Jack smiled at the look of utter confusion on Ianto's pale face. "We are going to nail these guys and you Ianto Jones are going to be my eyes and ears out there. You see what I am saying?"
Ianto looked straight at him completely unable to hide his surprise. "You really want me to do this?"
Jack nodded. "You know all the Intel and I know you are more than capable in the field, Gwen's reports of recent months are enough to tell me that. Lets try to get you in there, see what you can find."
Ianto was looking mildly horrified. "I'm not exactly James Bond material Jack."
Jack leaned forward. "You've done excellent ground work here, this is your bag, see it through. I know you can do this."
"What about the others?"
"We can't tell them Ianto. If this thing really does go as deeply as you think it could, the moment you make any serious contact with these people you'll be watched, they'll bug your house tap your phone calls and emails. I can track any of that from here. We'll need to work out a sensible plan, but a disgruntled Torchwood employee with access to loads of working alien tech will be too tempting I hope for them to ignore. This is going to take time."
"It already has."
"And it will be very dangerous." Jack warned him.
Ianto accepted that. "Jack, I have to feed that dam dinosaur everyday…"He replied gathering up his research.
Jack reached over and grasped his hand. "Yan?"
Ianto froze.
"Are you ok with this?"
Ianto looked into Jack's oceanic eyes. "No, but you're right. I know all the Intel. I'm the obvious choice…I just don't want to…" He trailed off.
Jack's expression demanded an explanation.
"I just don't want to have to lie to my friends again."
Jack gently squeezed his fingers. "I know, but the less the others know the safer you will be and I promise. I will be watching your back you have my word."
Taking hold of both of Ianto's hands he stepped around the desk and knelt down in front of him looking up into his stormy eyes and smiling tenderly. Ianto felt his heart skip a few beats.
"I am very glad I met you Ianto Jones. I will keep you safe. I promise." Jack assured him.
"That's a promise you can't keep Jack. Just make sure we get them before they hurt anyone, that's more important." Ianto responded pulling his hands away.
"If that's a promise I can't keep then why are you doing this?"
"Because you asked me to, because it's what we do isn't it? Protecting people? You told me once I had to make Lisa's death count for something. This is me counting. I just hope I can do this." They both stood up and Jack rested his hands lightly on Ianto's hips.
"You'll do just fine, because you are brilliant, just be patient, be careful and kiss me."
Ianto stood there poised in indecision. He stepped back. "Stop flirting with me Jack. I've work to do."
Part 6 to follow sortly