When he saw the paper, he knew he couldn't run from it anymore. He would have to let the Doctor slip through his fingers. Jack stared coldly at the picture of Margaret Blaine and saw only the Slitheen in a dead woman's skin and chuckled at the headline "New Mayor, New Cardiff", oh if only they knew. He couldn't think about that at the moment, he had to put his plan into action.
He had been preparing for this day since he took over Torchwood and had grown anxious since the announcement of the Blaidd Drwg project and had to steer his team away from investigating several times. He had been counting the days until it had finally arrived and his heart fell knowing the Doctor was on his doorstep but still out of reach.
Walking to his office door Jack scanned the hub for his team. He saw Toshiko hard at work translating alien languages with the help of some new tech that had fallen through the rift. Owen was currently dissecting an unknown alien and had removed a particularly disgusting organ and was threatening Suzie with it. Jack walked over to the cog wheel door and initiated lockdown procedures. The lights flickered and all the computers began to re-start. Tosh looked over at Jack whose hand was still on the lockdown button and was shocked when he just winked and walked back to his office.
At that point Suzie and Owen noticed what was happening and after a few exclamations of surprise they joined Tosh in the main area. Tosh, not knowing what else to do shrugged her shoulders and pointed to Jack's office and the three converged on it without a word.
"What the hell are you up to Harkness?" Owen demanded. "Hmm?" Jack looked up feigning innocence. "We know you put us on lockdown, why? And why wasn't I told. I'm supposed to be second in command here." Suzie said putting emphasis on supposed. Jack picked up his coffee and after taking a sip replied "it's just something I need to take care of, or did, will… timelines are a bit mixed up." Jack trailed off mumbling the last sentence. Suzie recognized the tone in his voice and knew he wasn't going to say anymore on the subject.
"Fine, have it your way, don't tell us." Suzie said in exasperation and left to do what work she could while she waited for her computer to come back on.
Owen, with a defiant look in his eyes declared, "I will find out what you are up to Harkness." With that Owen returned to his alien leaving Tosh standing there alone.
Quietly she said, "Jack just promise me this is for a good reason, something that is worth missing rift alerts today." With a smile Jack replied, "Don't worry, those are covered today." With another wink Jack sent a confused Tosh off to get her computers back up and running.
