The bell tinkled over the door to the tourist office. Ianto, busy filling a display rack with brochures for the National Museum Cardiff and other local attractions, smiled pleasantly at the man who entered. "Good morning, sir, and how may I be of service?"
The man, clad in a slouched hat and long overcoat against the rain, raised a metallic object toward the CCTV camera. A high whining noise pierced the air.
"Who are you?" Ianto said, his voice surprisingly calm under the circumstances.
"Never mind," replied the man. He pushed back the brim of his hat revealing a face too long and angular to be human. "You will deliver a message to Captain Jack Harkness. Do you understand?"
Ianto nodded, his mind racing furiously. Too far from the panic button and weaponless, he contented himself with memorizing every detail about the alien messenger. His long thin face with its slightly yellow-tinged pallor. The lips, blue and flat, that rimmed a misshapen mouth. Black, pupil-less eyes under a heavy ridge of brow. The alien pursed his lips but no sound emanated from his throat. Ianto's face went slack."Understand," he repeated dully.
The alien tugged his hat back into place and strode out of the office into the rain.
A moment later, Ianto blinked as if waking from a dream. He locked the door without flipping the sign to 'Closed' and went downstairs.
Toshiko bent over an ovoid metal box probing delicately with a pair of forceps. The device was her latest mystery, disgorged from the Rift along with several other bits of flotsam that seemed to be completely unrelated.
"Any clue as to what it might be?" Owen kept a wary distance. "Not going to blow up, is it?"
"The computer says no." Toshiko huffed fringe clear of her eyes before continuing to reply. "Not a bomb or any other type of weapon. It has an energy source, but it seems to be depleted."
"Just another hunk of trash then." Owen yawned and stretched. "It's bad enough we have to deal with our own rubbish, why do we have to be binmen for the universe as well?"
"But some of the gadgets are interesting," Gwen protested. "Remember the music box? All those pretty lights?"
"This isn't a child's toy," Toshiko said dismissively, too absorbed to reminisce about past discoveries. "Nor any other type of entertainment." She poked at an exposed circuit. "Hm, this is interesting. Jack!" she called to the Captain. He looked up, his expression impish, as he loitered near Ianto's workstation. "Come look at this."
Jack hastily pulled something out of his pocket and slipped it among the papers in Ianto's in-box. "What's up?"
"Take a look at this circuit." Toshiko continued to probe carefully. She hooked up a lead to one of the hand-held meters and attached it to the innards of the device. "It reminds me of something, but I can't quite put my finger on it."
Jack looked at the exposed circuit and the spiking needle on the analog meter. He picked up a second hand-held device and switched the output leads. Frowning in concentration, he took another set of measurements. "I see what you mean. It's almost like..." He shook his head. "No, that can't be right. The output should be feeding to an auxiliary port, not back into the main circuit." They slipped into technobabble, arguing back and as they poked and probed.
Over their heads, Gwen and Owen traded a meaningful glance. Owen tapped his watch and made a couple of hand signals. Gwen nodded and gave him a coy smile before returning to her desk and flipping through the waiting stack of files.
No one was paying attention when Ianto entered. "I have a message," he intoned in a flat voice.
"Just a minute." Jack, in the process of tracing a circuit pathway, failed to notice Ianto's oddly stiff cadence.
"I have a message," Ianto repeated, in the same flat voice.
"I said, just a minute," Jack replied impatiently, as he fitted the blade of a micro-screwdriver to what he was certain was a power coupling.
"Jack?" Gwen looked up from the file she was skimming, and noticed for the first time how glassy Ianto's eyes were and how rigid he held himself. She set aside the file and went to his side. "Are you all right?"
"I have a message for Jack Harkness," Ianto intoned for the third time.
Jack blew out a frustrated breath, his patience all but gone. "What is it, Ianto?"
"You must find the transport mechanism. You will surrender it when requested. If you do not comply, Earth will be in grave danger." Ianto collapsed, falling to the concrete in a boneless heap.
"Ianto?" Gwen said too stunned to do more than stare. She snapped out of her stupor with a jerk, and crouched to check for a pulse.
Jack dropped his screwdriver. In the space of a heartbeat, he was on his knees checking the stricken young man's breathing and gently thumbing back one of his eyelids. "Owen!"
Owen took one look at his fallen colleague. "Med bay," he snapped.
Jack scooped Ianto into his arms and with halting steps carried him into Owen's private domain.
Owen elbowed Jack out of his way and went to work. "He'll be okay," the medic announced to the rest of the team. "Unconscious," Owen muttered as he ran diagnostic scans. "His EEG is strange. Look at those alpha spikes!"
"Can you bring him out of it?" Jack gripped nervously at the rail of the catwalk.
Ianto groaned. His eyes moved rapidly under his eyelids, and he raised his hands as if trying to protect himself. "No!" he shouted and then his eyes opened.
Owen grabbed his shoulders and forced the bigger man down onto the exam table. "Shh. Take it easy, mate."
"Owen?" Ianto said weakly. He seemed to focus and sagged back onto the table.
Jack ran down the ramp followed closely by Toshiko and Gwen.
"Hey!" Jack said softly. "You're back."
"Was I gone?" Ianto allowed Jack to help him to sit up. "What happened? I was in the tourist office."
"Toshiko," Jack snapped. "Surveillance footage."
"I'm on it." She turned on her heel and went to call up the CCTV feed from the tourist office. She launched a window and the footage for the last hour started to feed through. Ianto pottered around the little office in quick-time, answering the phone, typing at his computer and doing other routine chores. The door opened and the footage cut out. Toshiko frowned as she ran a sub-routine used to recover deleted data. Her frown grew deeper. Fingers flying, she launched the most delicate of her data reconstruction protocols and shook her head. She sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest in defeat. "Completely scrubbed," she said softly. With a few more key strokes she captured the deleted sequence. "Jack, you need to see this."
They were convened around the conference room table. Jack took his place at the head. His anger was palpable as he regarded the rest of the team. "Talk to me, people. What just happened?"
Toshiko exchanged a glance with Owen, a silent debate over who would deliver their bad news first. Toshiko sighed and tapped keys, lowering the lights and bringing the central display to life. "The CCTV from the tourist office was completely blank. Not just deleted, obliterated." She held up a hand, stalling Jack's protest and tapped more keys. "I did a sweep of the cameras for a half mile radius and recovered this." On the display a low resolution image appeared. Toshiko ran a filter over the image making it considerably sharper and then played the sequence. A tall man, his face away from the camera, appeared. The air in front of him blurred and then a second later he was gone.
"What was that?" Gwen stared at the screen.
"There was a significant burst of Rift energy that corresponded with that location," Toshiko replied.
"A Rift-jumper." Jack contemplated the screen. So tantalizing a clue, yet without a face, so useless. "The only image?"
"I tried, Jack," Toshiko said. "I'm sorry."
Jack took a breath to get his frustration under control. "No, it's a good start." He turned to the medic. "Owen?"
"The good news is there's no permanent brain damage." The display changed from the Cardiff street corner to the outline of a human head and the brain within. "The initial brain function scans indicated an altered mental state. His EEG showed abnormally high levels of alpha waves. However, once he returned to consciousness, everything looked perfectly normal."
"What could cause such a state?" Gwen cocked her head trying to make sense of the medical readouts. "Was he drugged?"
"No sign of any chemical compound in Ianto's blood or tissues," Owen replied. "The blanked out footage from the tourist office suggests it happened very quickly."
"Some type of alien device," Jack said, his voice cold with anger. "Is there anything to suggest the state could be re-triggered?"
Owen shrugged. "In my medical opinion, he should be fine. But my gut says, keep him under wraps until we figure out what's going on."
Jack nodded, unhappy, but forced to agree with the doctor's assessment. "Then we better find out what this transport mechanism is and figure out why our mysterious alien friend wants it so badly."
"Jack!" Toshiko put a map up on the display. "Something's come through the Rift."
Jack looked down toward the conference table and back at the monitor. "Right, here's what we do. Tosh, Gwen, with me. Owen, you stay here and keep an eye on Ianto. Come on, let's move."
Ianto woke. He had a raging headache and there was something cold and slightly damp obstructing his vision. He fingered the nubby cotton of a tea towel and realized someone had placed it over his eyes to mute the light. He squinted against the inevitable stab of pain, and peeled the towel off his face. Cautiously, he opened his eyes and immediately closed them again. He rested for a moment, one hand splayed against his temple and then tried again.
The second attempt was better. Gingerly, Ianto sat up, blinking against the disorientation and headache. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, taking stock of his situation. He was in the medical bay, missing his shoes, jacket, tie, and waistcoat. There was a knot on the back of his head, but other than the dull ache that throbbed in time with his breathing, he seemed to be whole and unharmed. "Owen?" Ianto called. "Anybody?"
"Who told you you could get up?" Owen said crossly from his workstation. He set down the file he was reading and looked up at Ianto.
"No one said I couldn't." He looked around the empty room. "Where is everybody?"
"Rift alert," Owen replied. He got up from his desk and gave Ianto a cursory once over, waving a finger in his face and looking closely at his pupils. "How's your head?"
"Sore." Ianto touched his temple gingerly. "May I have something for it?"
Owen gestured toward the couch. "You sit. I'll get it."
Ianto waved off Owen's attempt to help him off the table and hobbled unassisted to the couch. He leaned back against the cushions and tried to remember how he had ended up in such a state.
"Careful, that's hot."
Ianto opened his eyes again. Owen had placed a mug of tea, probably strong and sweet, on the table in front of him. There was also a bottle of water and a couple of white tablets. He swallowed the pills dry and then chased them down with several swallows of water.
Owen picked up his cup and took a hearty swig. "My gran put great faith in the healing effects of a nice cup of tea."
Ianto offered a weak smile and took a polite sip. It was, as he suspected, overly sweet, but oddly revivifying, so he kept the mug close to hand as he asked, "What happened to me?"
"Suppose you tell me. What's the last thing you remember?" From his lab coat pocket, Owen produced a digestive biscuit and began to munch.
Ianto looked down at his cup. "I was in the tourist office refilling the displays. The bell sounded and then I woke up on the table."
"You don't remember seeing anybody or coming downstairs?" Owen asked around a mouthful of biscuit.
Ianto frowned and gingerly shook his head. "Complete blank." He set down his cup and stared into his folded hands. "So are you going to tell me how I ended up in the med bay or not?"
Owen looked uncomfortable. "Not. Jack will debrief you when he gets back. You're offline and confined to base until further notice." He gave Ianto a sideways look. "Jack said you could doss in his bunker."
"But why?" Ianto's frustration at being kept in the dark spilled into his normally reserved tone.
"I'm just the messenger," Owen replied with a shrug. "So finish your tea and go put your feet up. And why are you whinging anyway? I'd think being confined to the Captain's quarters would be one of your fantasies."
Ianto heaved himself off the couch. "Shut up, Owen," he snapped automatically even as some of the tension loosened in his chest. If Owen was comfortable riding him, the situation couldn't be that serious.
Jack was somber as he motored out of Cardiff. He glanced occasionally at the GPS unit mounted on the dash, but otherwise, kept his attention focused on his driving, not even bothering to attempt his usual cheerful banter. Toshiko was equally silent, communing with the on-board computer as she monitored for additional Rift activity.
Gwen attempted to lighten the mood. She grinned as the city gave way to a rural landscape dotted with sheep and green pasture. "I can just hear Owen. Bloody countryside," she said in a poor imitation of his London accent.
Jack gave her a courtesy twitch of his lips that might have been a smile, but otherwise, said nothing. Gwen frowned, slumped into her seat back, and scowled at the sheep.
"We're approaching the location in one hundred meters," Toshiko announced a short time later.
"Got it," Jack replied. He braked, slowing abruptly so as to not overtake their destination, and pulled onto the roadside adjacent to an empty field.
"I wish I'd worn my wellies." Gwen frowned as they clambered out of the SUV, over the three wire fence, and into the muddy pasture.
Toshiko shrugged and pulled her collar tighter against the foggy chill and drizzle, then began to scan the area for energy readings using a hand-held meter.
Gwen moved further into the field, watching her footing carefully as she navigated tufts of grass and pools of water. She peered at a blackened rent in the pasture and the smoking hulk of metal about five feet long and half as wide, that lay at the apex of the trench. "Is that it, then?"
Jack dug a miniature video camera out of his greatcoat pocket and tossed it to Gwen. He stepped closer to survey the wreckage. "Record the scene."
"Energy readings are within safe limits," Toshiko reported. "We can move closer."
"This looks familiar." Jack knelt at the edge of the trench and studied the object. "It looks like a transport pod, mid 28th century. Used mostly for moving packages and mail between space stations or other short hauls. We'll need to open it up to find out what's inside."
There was a clap of thunder and the rain began to pour down in icy torrents. "Back to the Hub, then?" Gwen asked. "Or should we set up a tent and open it here?"
Jack gave the sky a sour look and tossed her the keys. "Get the tent."
She trotted to the Range Rover, camera in hand, then paused halfway over the fence as a trio of vehicles: a lorry and a pair of black cargo vans, closed on their position. "Jack!" Gwen shouted over the rain.
Jack looked up. "What the -" He stared in disbelief, then blinked and shook his water out of his face. "Look alive, people. We've got company." He drew his Webley and held it close to his side while Gwen and Toshiko hastily stowed their equipment, drew their own guns, and moved into a defensive position near the crater.
Tough, efficient looking men dressed in long leather dusters tumbled out of the convoy. One of them used a pair of heavy duty wire cutters to open a rent in the fence. He pushed it aside allowing the lorry to back onto the field on the opposite side of the trench.
"Who the hell?" Jack stomped toward the lead van. "This is a restricted area. Get these people out of here now!"
Toughs took up positions guarding the the lorry as more men jumped out of the back, pulled ramps into place, and began to maneuver the transport pod out of the rent in the earth.
Jack raised his Webley. Gwen and Toshiko followed suit, each targeting several members of the convoy. "I'm not going to warn you again!" he said, coldly.
The toughs pushed back their coats revealing black, snub nosed guns of non-terrestrial origin. Jack paled and took a step forward. Six gunmen drew their weapons and leveled them at the team.
"Stand down," Jack ordered. He lowered his hands and holstered his revolver.
"Jack, no!" Gwen shouted. She fanned her gun from target to target, trying to calculate how many she could take down before she was hit.
"Gwen," Toshiko cautioned softly, even as she shoved her gun into the waistband of her trousers.
"Now is not the time." Jack stepped aside and made a 'it's all yours' gesture toward the lead hijacker.
The men in black loaded the pod onto the lorry while team Torchwood looked on in dismay. Surreptitiously, Gwen pulled the video recorder out of her pocket and resumed filming.
The back door of the lorry slammed shut. The men moved with military precision, falling back to their vehicles while keeping Jack, Gwen, and Toshiko in their gun sights. The last of the hijackers got halfway into the lead vehicle, looked at the SUV, and shot out the back tires. Jack yelled in outrage as the convoy moved swiftly away.
The team broke from their positions on the field. Gwen ran, camera in hand, to record the hijackers' getaway, as Toshiko slid into place behind the computers. She tapped impatiently at the monitor's screen as her mobile workstation came to life. "Come on! Come on!"
Jack kicked the fender in impotent rage, then opened the hatch to ferret out the tools to change the tires.
Jack!" Gwen shouted. "Look!"
"The hell?" he muttered in response.
The air shimmered around the closest vehicle. It made the fog glimmer black and silver in the rain. The lorry vanished.
"Did you see that?" Gwen's voice was reedy with surprise. She hit the playback button on the recorder and stared at the display, not believing her eyes. "It just disappeared!"
"Rift energy is off the scale," Toshiko called out. She typed furiously, adjusting the sensors and tracking equipment, and then shook her head. "Gone. No way to trace them."
"Do a sweep," Jack ordered. "Any and all residual energy signatures. Gwen, look for footprints, tire tracks, anything we can use to trace these bastards."
"What good is a tire track if they can disappear into the Rift?" Gwen asked.
Jack glared, tapping a spanner against his thigh.
"Fine," Gwen conceded, holding up her hands in a surrender pose. "I love casting tire tracks when it's pissing rain."
The computer came up with another 'no result' response to his query. Owen shot a rubber band at his monitor and rocked back in his chair. Nothing in the Torchwood database to match Ianto's hypnotic attack, and nothing in the NHS archives either, though there was an alarming uptick in mass trance-like incidents over the past two years. It seemed that taking control of segments of society was becoming a popular way for aliens to get attention.
The proximity alarm sounded. A moment later, Gwen, followed by Toshiko, squelched through the gate. Both women had wrapped silver emergency blankets around their shoulders like space-age shawls, and though it seemed the heater of the SUV had done its best, they both appeared as if they'd experienced a thorough dowsing while out in the field.
"Nice time was it?" Owen inquired cheerily, glad his wasn't the only day that had gone completely to shit.
Toshiko glared as she dumped her handbag on her desk and spread her coat over her chair to dry. "I'm going to go change." She balled up the emergency blanket and thrust it at Owen on her way out.
"Touchy, isn't she?" he said.
Gwen looked around for Ianto, remembered he was offline, and pushed her blanket off on Owen as well. "Jack will need your help in the parking garage." She followed in Toshiko's wake down to the lower levels.
Owen dropped the blankets onto the ground, considered the dour moods of his female colleagues, and came to the realization his boss would likely be in a similar frame of mind. He picked up one of the Mylar sheets and was in the process of carefully refolding it, when Jack stalked in carrying an evidence box.
"I want this processed," Jack shoved the box at Owen. "And see what you can do about lunch."
Owen bit back the obvious question of why hadn't Jack picked something up while he was out. "Is pizza all right? Or do you want something else?"
"Sandwiches and coffee," Jack replied before he climbed the stairs to his office. Halfway up, he paused. "Be sure and get some soup or something for Ianto." He strode the rest of the way into his office and shut the door behind him.
Owen scowled, then went to peruse the collection of takeaway menus.
"Jack?" Ianto climbed the first three rungs of the bunker's ladder and nearly got a foot in his face for the effort. He hastily scrambled backward and off, his nose wrinkling at the scent of sodden wool. "Here, let me help you with that." Automatically, he moved into position and accepted the weight of the greatcoat.
"Thanks." Jack began to strip out of the layers underneath, pushing his braces down his shoulders as he crossed into the bathroom and started the shower. The pipes clanked and groaned, but soon steam began to rise in the stall. Jack dropped his trousers and undershorts in a heap and followed them with his socks before stepping inside and bending his head to the water. "Oh, much better." He was quiet for nearly a minute before he remembered Ianto. "How are you feeling?"
"Better, sir. Thanks for asking," he replied absently as he examined the disreputable state of Jack's trousers. "Is this axle grease on your left knee?"
"Probably, I had to change the rear two tires. Which reminds me, we'll need a couple of new spares, there's no repairing the old ones."
The water cut off and Ianto handed a towel over the top of the door. "Can you find the maintenance requisitions or will it keep until I'm allowed back to work?"
Jack stepped out of the shower, vigorously buffing himself dry. "I think I can manage to order a couple of tires. It's a 47B, isn't it?"
"Only if you want them to do a radiological decontamination as well. 47A is special maintenance of standard equipment."
Jack, one leg into a pair of dry trousers, stopped what he was doing and looked properly at Ianto for the first time since entering the bunker. Despite the return of his trademark dry wit, he seemed paler than usual. "You shouldn't be up." Jack slid his arms into a royal blue dress shirt, but left it open. "Go sit down. The laundry can wait." To emphasis his point, he put his hands on Ianto's shoulders and guided him back into the bedroom.
"Jack, I'm fine," Ianto insisted. "Don't fuss."
"I'm the Captain," Jack gave Ianto a stern look. "I can fuss if I want to."
Ianto sat and looked down at his bare feet. It was almost as if Jack really cared about him, not just as an employee with benefits, but as something more. He pushed the unproductive notion aside. "Fine, you can fuss. But please, Jack, tell me what's going on? What happened to me?"
Jack paused doing up his shirt buttons. "Did you try and access the computer system?"
Ianto nodded. "I was locked out. I considered using a secondary access code, but I figured if you thought I'd been compromised, that would only confirm your suspicions. So, like a good boy, I waited for you."
"Smart decision." Jack draped his arm over Ianto's shoulder. "You were attacked this morning in the tourist office. An intruder, possibly alien, used something to place you in a hypnotic state. Then you came downstairs and played messenger boy, minus the cute little cap." He glanced at Ianto. "Is this ringing any bells?"
Ianto shook his head and winced as a fresh wave of pain cascaded over his skull.
Jack raised his free hand to Ianto's face, cupping his chin and examining him closely. "You hit your head pretty hard when you collapsed. Are you sure you feel all right?" He winced in sympathy as he found the knot at the back of Ianto's head and probed it with careful fingers. "That's quite a goose egg."
Ianto pushed his hand away. "It only hurts when some well-meaning person pokes at it." He gave Jack a small smile to soften his words. "I promise, I'm fine."
"Humor me," Jack said, as he leaned in and gave Ianto a brief kiss. "Take the rest of today off. If Owen okays it, you can go back to work tomorrow." Jack rose and pulled a dry pair of boots out of the wardrobe. He finished dressing, hastily finger-styling his still damp hair without bothering with the mirror. "I'll come check on you in a little while and bring you something to eat. In the meantime, relax. I've got some new videos you might find educational." Jack smiled and winked at Ianto over his shoulder as he mounted the ladder.
Ianto returned it weakly, not sure if he was up for anything Jack considered educational. He ignored the pounding in his head as he flopped back down on the bunk and stared up at the ceiling.
"Give me some good news, people." Jack looked around the conference table. It was some hours after the failed recovery mission and they had been working flat out analyzing the data from the scene.
"I've got video and energy readings from the site," Toshiko said. "We were lucky we got as much footage as we did." Unsteady camera work flared to life on the main screen. "There was a surge of Rift energy that corresponded with their arrival approximately a mile before they appeared on the motorway and a second as they disappeared."
"Riding Rift energy," Jack sat back in his chair. "Yeah, so I noticed. Just like Ianto's visitor earlier."
"Do you suppose that was the whatsit the intruder was talking about?" Owen said. "The one we were supposed to go after?"
Jack stared at the monitor watching again as the convoy disappeared in a ripple of fog and light. "It could be." He sounded doubtful.
"There's something else," Gwen gestured at the screen. "Show him the photos, Tosh."
The display changed. Two stills appeared on the screen; slightly blurred images of men drawing down on an off screen target. Toshiko manipulated the images and police identification photos appeared along side.
"Jacob Marston on your left," Gwen said. "And that's Tony Small on the right. Both have form for assault and other violent crimes. But that's not the interesting part."
"Yeah?" Jack said absently, studying the photos. "What makes these two so special?"
"Tony Small and Jacob Marston are both presumed dead. The fifteenth of January 2005, a building they had just entered exploded. Police were already in the area due to an unrelated matter and witnessed the entire incident. It was later determined the building had been booby trapped. Two bodies were recovered, but they were so badly damaged the coroner couldn't confirm the identities."
"How does that help us?" Jack asked.
"Small and Marston have been tied to this man." A new photo: that of a balding dandy in his mid-forties, appeared on the display. "Bela Tullis. His CV is completely above board, but he's a suspected money launderer and fence for art and other difficult to move items."
Jack sat back in his chair, thinking. "What are you saying, Gwen? That Tullis is branching out? Instead of fencing alien tech he's decided to cut out the middlemen by recovering it himself?"
"Boys and their toys," Gwen replied. "I've never met a bloke that didn't love something shiny and new."
"You're suggesting he's a gadget junkie?" Jack considered that idea. He nodded. "It's possible. But what about the hypnotist? How does he fit in?"
"Underling? Rival gang member?" Owen suggested. "What if we've got a turf war brewing?"
Jack scowled at the suggestion. "All right, Gwen, you dig up whatever you can on this Tullis guy. Operations, legit and otherwise, background, the usual. Let's see what he's been up to." He looked at the others. "Go over everything again and make sure we're not missing something."
Ianto awoke with a muffled exclamation. The book he'd been reading, borrowed from Jack's shelf, slipped off his chest and onto the floor.
"Careful with that," Jack said. "That was a gift from Papa Hemingway."
Ianto blinked and yawned. "I must have dozed off." He used his elbows and pushed himself higher on the pillow, rubbing his eyes dozily as he looked at Jack, clad in his greatcoat, and the empty coat hanging where he'd left it to dry near the radiator. He took another quick look from man to hanger and said, "I see. Or rather, I don't. But I don't suppose that's important."
"It'll make sense, eventually." Jack gave Ianto a long, searching look, then thrust a cylindrical metal object into his hands. "I need you to give this to me."
There was movement in the office above. Jack glanced upward. "That's your supper." He dipped forward, kissed Ianto until he was breathless, then his expression turned serious. "Be sure to give me the tube before you pass out." He glanced upward, then retreated rapidly into the bathroom, stopping long enough to give Ianto a boyish grin."You're so cute when you're confused."
"Good to know," Ianto said dryly. He glanced toward the now empty bathroom as Jack's boot hit the first rung of the ladder with a thump. Ianto set the tube on the nightstand then picked up his book and pretended to read.
Jack climbed down the ladder carrying a plastic bucket looped over his left arm. He made space on his desk and began to unload a variety of covered containers. "There's soup, a sandwich, a couple of flapjacks, and a flask of tea for you," he announced with a flourish that suggested he'd cooked the meal himself.
Ianto set the book aside again. He smiled at Jack and hoped they'd ordered from Alun's, the new takeaway near the bookstore. "Thanks. Have I missed anything?"
"Not much." Jack unwrapped a sandwich and took a large bite out of it. "Come on," he said. "Eat before it gets cold."
Ianto sat down at the desk and dipped a spoon tentatively into the container of creamy vegetable soup. He took a bite and then realized he was in fact, quite hungry now that the headache had all but disappeared, and plied the spoon more eagerly. Seized by a sudden thought, he looked up at Jack. "You weren't planning on retconning me, were you?"
Jack crammed more sandwich in his mouth, attempting casual and failing."We talked about it."
"And what did you decide?" Ianto said before tucking into the other sandwich.
Jack lay his hand on Ianto's shoulder. "Minimum dose."
Ianto looked at the flask. "It's in there, isn't it."
Jack shook his head. "Nope. It was in the soup. Just enough to wipe today clean."
"Jack." Ianto dropped the sandwich and pushed the bowl away as the drug took hold. "On the nightstand," he slurred and then slumped forward onto the desk.
Jack half carried, half walked, Ianto back to bed and settled him carefully before glancing over at the nightstand. "What the..." Jack said as he spied the messenger tube. He tried to open it, but it wouldn't yield. "Time locked," Jack muttered in disgust. He jostled Ianto's shoulder trying to rouse him back to consciousness, but it was too late. Ianto rolled onto his side and buried his head into the pillow.
Jack swore softly as he stared down at his sleeping lover. He pulled the spare blanket out of his footlocker and tucked it over Ianto, then took a look around the room to see if there were any clues as to the sender of the brass tube. Finding none, he cleared away the remains of Ianto's meal, wrote a note, and propped it between the flapjacks and the tea flask in case Ianto woke before he returned.
Gwen leaned forward cupping her chin in her hands as she stared at the evidence board she had assembled in the conference room. On it was a time line covering the previous thirty days listing the artifacts recovered, Rift spikes, dry runs, the attack on Ianto, and the hijacking. Along the edge of the board were photos of the mysterious hypnotist, Tony Small, Jacob Marston and Bela Tullis. Gwen sighed. It was sod all, but it was all they had. She tapped at the keyboard with the cap of her pen, and decided to tackle Bela Tullis, his personal life, and his legitimate business interests first.
It was much later. Everyone, save Ianto, had cleared out for the night. Jack sat at his desk, a cup of Starbucks coffee at his elbow, scanning the evening newspapers. He had worked his way through the broad sheets, glancing over the hard news, the business sections, and articles about local government, and was currently skimming the tabloids, looking for news of the weird type articles that might actually be legitimate alien encounters.
Normally, it was one of Ianto's tasks, but he was still sprawled across Jack's bunk sleeping the sleep of the drugged. He clipped an article about shiny doorways that went to mysterious places and added it to a pile of similar reports, folded the newspapers roughly back into shape, and decided to call it a night. He took up the messenger tube, examined it closely one last time, and put it away in the safe.
"That's lovely," Gwen said, taking a sip of tea from an I Love Wales coffee mug. "Just right." She set the cup aside and looked intently at the slightly dotty old woman wrapped in an oversized and multi-colored cardigan. She had reported seeing a disappearing man in the car park of the local supermarket.
It was the third such call of the morning and Gwen was beginning to get the idea that Jack was grasping at straws by following up the tabloid reports. Still, it was the assignment he had given her, so she fixed a polite smile on her lips and made notes as the old woman talked.
"So you see, dear, there I was, just come out of the market after doing the weekly shop, and right in front of me there's this flash of light and a man, an odd sort of a man, I must say, appeared right in front of me. Took ten years off my life, he did."
Gwen looked up from her notepad. "When you say an odd sort, just what exactly do you mean?"
Mrs. Bennett poured them both a bit more tea and fussed with a lace doily on the arm of her chair. "In the old days I would have thought he worked for a circus side show. Tall, unusually so for these parts. Long face, horsey like. Funny color. My nephew Paul turned that shade of yellow when he had the jaundice. Oh," she added while Gwen scrawled on her notepad. "his eyes. Black as coal they were."
Gwen pulled out Torchwood's version of an Ident-kit. She worked quickly, selecting buttons to match facial characteristics. "Did the man you saw look something like this?" She showed Mrs. Bennett the mock up.
"Very much." Mrs. Bennett frowned. "But the chin, it was more pointed. And the eyes were wider apart."
Gwen made the adjustments and hit 'update'. "How about now?"
"That's him to a T," she said with a nod. "I'm sure of it. Funny sort of a fellow."
Gwen gave her an encouraging smile. "You're doing beautifully, Mrs. Bennett. Did you see where he went?"
The old woman's gray curls bounced as she shook her head. "I'd dropped my shopping bag, you see. By the time I picked everything up, he was gone."
"Jack, we've got a surge of Rift energy." Toshiko's fingers flew over the computer keys bringing the area CCTV cameras to bear. "It's the convoy. They've just come through near an industrial estate." She crossed referenced against the property tax rolls. "It's one of Tullis' buried under half a dozen shell identities."
"Great work." Jack hastily set the circuit assembly he was analyzing aside and crossed to join Toshiko. He glanced at the monitor, then plucked Toshiko's jacket off the back of the chair. "Come on, let's go get a closer look at this guy's operation."
They were halfway out the door when Jack's phone rang. "Gwen. Slow down. Skip that. Send me that description now." He stared as the Ident mock up that came over the computer display."Wait a minute," he said. "You're sure?" He listened some more and then said, "We're on our way to scope out one of Tullis' businesses. I'm sending you the address. Meet us there."
Jack rang off. He pursed his lips and scowled, "I know this guy. His name is Arlo Drax. He's about as straight an arrow as you'd hope to find."
"Not the sort to make veiled threats?" Toshiko said as they hurried down the tunnel toward the parking garage.
Jack shook his head. "No. Not his style. I wonder how Arlo is mixed up in all of this?"
The industrial estate was only a few minutes drive from Mrs. Bennett's supermarket. Gwen considered this bit of information as she parked a discrete distance from the Sun Powers Industries warehouse and got out of her car. There was no sign of Jack or his SUV, but there was a black van visible in one of the cargo bays. Gwen moved closer, her blood singing as she touched the gun in its holster at the small of her back and smoothed her leather coat over it.
She moved carefully, hugging shadows and corners until she found a vantage point near the secondary loading dock. Four burly men wrestled two large paintings out of the back of the van and disappeared out of view. Taking a deep breath to nerve herself up, and taking one last frustrated look around for Jack, Gwen sprinted around the corner to a window and took a quick peek inside before dropping down to her knees.
She popped up to look again when she felt a presence. "Jack I-" She clamped her jaw shut. The tall, rangy man who stood menacingly over her wasn't Jack. She fluttered her eyelashes and gave the man a coy, yet apologetic, smile. "Sorry, I was checking up on my bloke. He works here you see... Told me he's been doing a lot of overtime. But I'm not seeing it in his pay packet..."
The goon wasn't buying it. Gwen kicked out desperately, but her opponent sidestepped, grabbed her by the neck with one meaty paw, and squeezed. She batted ineffectually at his hands as blood roared in her ears, and then she went limp.
"No! No! No!" Jack grimaced and wrenched at the door release as he watched Gwen's attempt at a take down. "Go for his eyes!" he shouted as he watched Gwen go limp under the hands of a big man dressed in brown coveralls. He slammed his fist against the dashboard of the SUV, his frustration plain for anyone to see. "Damn it! Why didn't she wait for us?"
Several equally large dockworkers jogged out of the loading bay at the first man's sharp whistle. They conferred briefly over Gwen's body and then carried her inside.
"We can't rescue her now," Toshiko said sharply even as she pulled her gun out of her handbag. "There's too many of them."
Jack wavered. He pushed the driver's side door open a few inches and closed it again.
"She saw an opportunity and decided to take it," Toshiko reasoned. "It's what any of us would have done." She put her gun away and went back to her computer and sensors. "She'll buy us time. And she's given us confirmation that Tullis is not the upstanding citizen he makes himself out to be. We can work with that."
Jack took a deep breath through his nose and let it out slowly. "You're right. And now we know Arlo Drax is mixed up in this. We need to find him." He gave the warehouse a long, searching look and said, "Come on, let's get back to the Hub."
Ianto was back at work in the tourist office. He still felt disoriented and a bit muzzy over what had occurred, but Owen said that was common with some head injuries. Ianto decided to take him at his word. Still, he couldn't imagine doing something so daft as to slip on an errant brochure and crack his head on the counter, although Toshiko had shown him the CCTV to prove it when he'd asked.
The bell sounded musically and he looked up from his reverie to see a very inhuman face. "May I help you?" he asked, reaching for the panic button.
"I've come to see Captain Harkness. It's quite important that I do so." The alien removed his slouched hat and leaned over the counter examining Ianto closely. "You suffered no permanent damage. I am grateful."
Ianto stared back. He blinked rapidly several times and remembered everything as the weak dose of Retcon failed. "You. You attacked me," he stuttered. He looked around the office and wondered why he didn't keep a gun or at least a length of lead pipe some place handy.
"I did not attack," the alien corrected mildly. "I blinded you to my presence to protect you."
"Yeah, and see how well that turned out." Jack stood in the mouth of the tunnel, his gun leveled at the intruder. "How are you, Arlo?"
"You know this..." Gender and pronouns always got a bit dicey around non-humans, Ianto thought with a sigh. "person?" he finished after a beat.
"Arlo Drax, bounty hunter, last I heard," Jack introduced.
Arlo Drax inclined his head in acknowledgment. "I am that still. Persons and property lost will be found by Arlo Drax."
"So what brings you here, Arlo?" Jack still hadn't lowered his gun.
"A lost item came through the Rift. I traced its energy signatures here."
"Signatures, plural?" Jack repeated.
"The item was a prototype of a sensitive nature. It was stolen." Arlo Drax looked at Jack, his expression weary. "Please. May we go someplace more secure to discuss this?"
Jack pursed his lips and noted Ianto's skeptical expression, but nodded. "My office. Ianto, break out the decaf. Arlo can't ingest caffeine."
"I'll just pop out, then. Shall I?" Ianto gave Arlo Drax a frosty smile and went to the shops.
"So you're saying that this is a portable gateway?" Jack looked at the alien tech spread across the work table and frowned.
"Such crude terminology," Arlo Drax said with a disapproving scowl. He clicked something in an alien tongue. "It's far more complex than that. This is only part of the device. For safety reasons it was broken down into modules, each portion transported separately. But there was a series of..." An even more guarded expression shrouded Arlo Drax's features. "unfortunate events and some of the components ended up here. Tullis has the transport mechanism. This is the stabilizer. I have already recovered the temporal displacement unit. Using the transport mechanism without the other components causes micro tears in the fabric of space-time."
"Every time Tullis' men use the device, they're causing damage?" Toshiko frowned. She went to her computer and opened the Rift monitor protocols. She typed for several minutes, working with a program that modeled projections and predictions. "Oh god," she said softly, as much a curse as a prayer. "Jack, we're less than ten jumps away from total chaos."
Jack's cell phone rang on his personal line. He answered it harshly. "What?"
"Jack?" Gwen's voice was plaintive. Hastily, Jack switched to speakerphone mode.
"We're here," he replied. "Are you okay?"
"I've got a message from Mr. Tullis. It seems we have a gadget that he's interested in. He wants to trade."
"We know." Jack bit back his frustration. There was no way they could storm Tullis' installation without risking Gwen, so the swap would have to be on Tullis' terms. "We're willing to meet. Where?"
There was a silence and then a new voice, smooth and powerful, came over the line. "I'm so glad you've decided to be cooperative, Captain Harkness. It is Captain, isn't it? It's just the records are a bit fuzzy where you're concerned."
"That's not important right now," Jack said through gritted teeth. He swallowed his frustration down and modulated his tone to something a shade more pleasant. "Let's meet and discuss this, like gentlemen. I'm sure there's no reason for things to get ugly."
"Quite right," Tullis agreed. "This demands a celebration. And it just so happens the Lord Mayor is throwing a party. Let's do the exchange there, shall we?"
Ianto handed his carefully forged invitation off to the gloved and bewigged footman before accepting a glass of champagne from one of the circulating waiters. He began a slow circuit of the room, feigning nonchalance he didn't really feel, as he took in the elaborate table decorations, sculptured ice swans, and complicated floral arrangements. He imagined himself in some 1930's spy thriller. It wasn't difficult considering the retro look of the evening wear and the even more retro sound of the jazz band.
He had completed two thirds of his circuit, exchanging greetings mostly with complete strangers, though he did see a few familiar faces connected with either the Mayor's office or the local constabulary. They greeted him with vague pleasantness in return, unsure as to why he would be attending such an exclusive affair.
Ianto glanced toward the front of the room and there was Jack, smiling his million-watt smile as he chatted with a plump, pretty faced woman from the Council. She giggled and hid her face behind her hands like a schoolgirl. Ianto knew how she felt. Sometimes, Jack's brand of charm could be a heady thing.
He turned to greet the Mayor's special adviser on sewage and waste disposal. The short, burly man gave Ianto a worried smile in return. "Not bringing work with you tonight?" he asked, referring to the weevils.
Ianto gave him a reassuring smile. "Purely a social event. Have no fear." The lie fell easily from his lips and he began to relax as a waiter offered a fresh glass.
The special adviser became positively garrulous as he propounded on his latest scheme for waste reduction and recycling. Ianto listened, filing pertinent information away as he watched the rest of the room with a casual eye. Jack had nearly completed his circuit, leaving a string of women, and a few men, blushing in his wake. There was still no sign of their target.
A waiter offered canapes. Ianto used the opportunity to excuse himself from further discussion of green initiatives, and sauntered towards a fresh observation post. A few moments later, Jack was standing at his side.
"You've made quite the impression," Ianto commented dryly. "You know, I believe that's the first time I've ever seen somebody swoon. And here's me thinking that only happened in movies."
Jack's expression shifted from pleasant to peevish and back again as he realized he was being teased. "Just playing my part, Mr. Jones. What about you? Anything interesting to report?"
"The new plan for upgrading the sanitation system will likely impact the weevil colony in the north-east section of the city. We're going to have to relocate them before they start the renovation."
Jack frowned. "Great. There's something to look forward to. I don't suppose there's any chance of having a quiet word and getting them to move peacefully?"
Ianto shrugged. "Hard to say. Owen and Tosh have been working on a translation program. It couldn't hurt to try it out before we go in there with our jackboots and batons."
Jack started to reply, and from his expression, Ianto could tell it would have been equally sarcastic, but instead he said, "There's our guy, but there's no sign of Gwen."
Ianto followed his gaze. A fresh crowd of party-goers were presenting their invitations. "You're sure?" The man at the center of the group turned towards them and Ianto got a clear look at his face. "Got him. So now we go into our act, yeah?"
Jack smiled a party smile and nodded. He reached down and gave Ianto's hand the barest of squeezes. "Don't worry, everything will be fine. Just stick to the plan."
"There's a plan?" Ianto replied, his voice innocent. Jack gave him a sharp look. "I'm kidding." He took a deep breath and crossed the ballroom, pausing to liberate a tray of champagne from a waiter as he went to meet their mark.
Jack watched as Ianto closed on Tullis. "Owen. Toshiko?"
He received twin replies of "Ready, Jack." Owen's voice came through the tiny microphone clearly. Toshiko sounded slightly muffled.
"Arlo?"
"I too, am ready, Captain."
Ianto handed Tullis a glass of champagne. He nodded towards a small anteroom off the main ballroom and with a brush of his fingers indicated that Tullis should accompany him.
"Go!" Jack whispered as Ianto opened the door for Tullis and shoved him through. No one in the ballroom saw the air ripple or Tullis disappear.
"Good evening, Mr. Tullis," Owen said pleasantly. He raised the lights giving the man enclosed his first view of one of Torchwood's dingier cells. "I am Doctor Owen Harper and I'll be your host this evening."
"Jailer, you mean," Tullis snapped back.
Owen shrugged. "As you like. It seems you've been a naughty boy, dabbling in things that shouldn't concern you. Tsk. Tsk."
"Where's Harkness. We had a deal!" Tullis flinched as Janet started to bay. "What was that?"
"Nothing you need worry about, if you mind your manners." Owen pressed a button and a door opened in the alcove where Tullis stood revealing Janet chained loosely in a much larger cell. Tullis paled and some of the confidence seeped from his posture.
"Oh that's right," Owen said in mock-realization. "You don't like large animals, do you, Mr. Tullis. Something about an incident on a school trip when you were seven. What was it? Oh yeah, I remember, slipped into an enclosure and upset a gorilla."
Tullis paled. Janet dropped to her knees and gave him a vaguely simian leer.
"Where is Gwen Cooper?" Owen said mildly. Janet sniffed the air and leaned curiously toward Tullis. "If you're wondering," he added in a conversational tone, "weevils love fresh meat."
Sweat bloomed on Tullis' forehead. He pulled nervously at his collar and then crumbled utterly as Janet pawed at the air. "She's in a van, in the car park. It's black, third rank on the top level."
"See how easy that was?" Owen cocked his head, listening to the chatter in his earpiece. "Yes, yes. All right." He turned his attention back to Tullis. "Now, where's the device you've been using to jump about?"
"There's were two of them. The master unit is at the warehouse. The slave is mounted in the van." Tullis cringed against the wall as far away from Janet as he could get. "Please, get me away from that thing!"
"Sorry, love," Owen said to the weevil. He leaned toward the Plexiglass that divided them and tilted his head. Janet responded in kind and crouched at his feet.
Owen tilted his head again. "Yes, Ianto. Safe as houses? That's a shame. Janet was hoping for a nice snack. Tell her don't give up, you say?" Owen nodded. "Fair point. See you in a few."
"What do you mean, tell her don't give up?" Tullis said, while mopping his brow with a silk handkerchief.
Owen gave Tullis a cold smile. "My colleague merely reminded me that there are certain items that must be recovered from your warehouse. If anything untoward happens, we can still feed you to Janet."
It was a strange crew that descended on Bela Tullis' warehouse. Two men in evening dress, a Japanese woman in black leather jeans and jacket, an angry young Welsh woman in a long sleeved tee-shirt and jeans, and several persons of off-planet origin, took up positions outside the building. They pulled respirator masks over their faces.
"Go!" Jack said. He tossed a pair of canisters into the open doorway. There was a sharp popping sound and smoke began to fill the building, hovering just below the sensors for the fire suppression system. There were cries of confusion and outrage. Random bursts of gunfire echoed off the concrete walls. Pulse weapons discharged and men screamed in pain. The fight ended as abruptly as it started.
"Come on, Arlo," Jack said, "let's finish this."
They worked their way through the murky haze, stepping carefully over the bodies of unconscious men until they came to a pair of steel doors locked with a heavy duty hasp.
"As simple as this?" Arlo Drax fired his pulse pistol and the metal sheared. Inside the room was a treasure trove of alien technology and several terrestrial works of art.
Jack clucked his tongue in amazement and knelt near a Illish vase worked in hammered gold. "I guess some of those dry runs weren't so dry after all."
Toshiko looked bitter. "How can this be? I thought we had the most state of the art technology for detecting Rift activity."
Jack shrugged and pointed out a device hooked up to a console. "State of the art for this century. Tullis was cheating." He ran his hand over another device, one with rhythmically blinking lights and a complex display panel. "Arlo, I think this is what you were looking for."
"Indeed, Friend Captain."
Arlo Drax gestured to one of his associates, a creature with orange skin and a broad, hairless skull. It removed several tools from pouches belted to its waist and began to remove the device while Toshiko looked on with interest.
"So I got back mine." Jack glanced fondly at Ianto and Gwen. "And you got what you came for. But why all the subterfuge, Arlo?"
"Your time line and mine are in a delicate phase," Arlo Drax replied. "To protect the future, I had hoped to avoid you in the now."
"That's all the explanation I get?" Jack asked. A sour expression pulled at his mouth. Time lines and their permutations could be a real pain in the neck. "What about that business with Ianto?"
"Your young friend was meant to deliver my message and relieve you of the stabilizer. Had he succeeded, possession of the device would have been erased from your memory."
"How?" Jack shot a worried look at Ianto, currently working with some of the aliens to move Torchwood's portion of the gear out to the van.
"It is no longer relevant. What of the man, Bela Tullis?" Arlo Drax said. His abrupt change of subject a sign there could be no further discussion. "What will become of him?"
"We'll change his memory then fit him up with a crime the local authorities can deal with." Jack gave Arlo Drax one of his wolfish smiles. "Since you're so keen to mess with people's minds, you wanna help?"
A pinging sound began to emanate from the breast pocket of Arlo's coat. He withdrew a round disc and shook his head. "I regret it is time for us to leave." Arlo Drax signaled his people and they gathered around a pile of contraband technology. "Until next time, friend Captain." A moment later, Drax and his party had vanished.
Jack tossed off a salute at the empty room as Ianto approached clipboard in hand. "We're finished here, sir."
"Then let's blow this pop stand." Jack gave Ianto a tired smile. In silence they walked out of the warehouse. Jack paused near the door of the SUV and looked up at the night sky.
"Your friend, Arlo Drax," Ianto said hesitantly. "He was a time traveler, like you."
Jack shook his head. "Nah, Arlo is a good guy. Always has been. Always will be. Not like me at all."
Ianto shrugged. "I like all the versions I've met."
Jack stared, his mouth open like a fish, as Ianto went to help Gwen and Toshiko load the last of their gear.
/ /The End /