Author's Note:
This is a complete story to be posted in around 11 chapters. It is written, and I am posting as I proof read and make little tweaks. Total length is around 50k words. I own nothing so the usual disclaimers apply. I am happy to receive constructive criticism if you would like to offer it, but please remember to take a leaf out of the Doctor's book and be kind.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. CG
Chapter 1
"I still don't think this is a good idea."
Max Bryant scowled across the office with dark brown eyes, recessed in the shadows of high cheekbones, smoldering with anger.
"Then it's a good job no-one asked for your opinion or cooperation." The rebuke came with a cynical smile and a wink from principal scientist Eleanor Parks. Her attention focused on four oversized computer monitors, all of which held different information and images.
The door to the large office opened and a broad-shouldered man with a well-kept beard strode in, carrying three mugs of coffee and a newspaper tucked under his right armpit.
"Max's right, Ellie," he said placing the mugs on a central table and pushing one towards each of his companions. "We shouldn't be stealing from our own people. It's unethical."
Ellie rolled her eyes but did not lose focus, "How long have you worked for Torchwood, Darijus?"
Darijus smoothed his beard and twisted a little wax into his mustache, "14 years. Long enough to know ethics have surprisingly little to do with business."
Still scowling, Max turned to Darijus. "I didn't know they were recruiting in Eastern Europe that long ago."
A rough bark of laughter growled from Darijus's throat, "Recruited is a euphemism. Let us just say I could not refuse the offer given to me. The Lithuanian government did not sanction my creative use of DNA and my removal from society had been organised. Torchwood rescued me, in exchange for my services."
"Torchwood got a lot of staff that way," said Ellie, with no indication of her personal feelings on the matter. "Some good, some with moral codes about as antiquated and abhorrent as Jack the Ripper's. But they've found talent, and the Cardiff hub is awash with it. Frankly I'd rather work with Ms Sato than steal from her, but those are our orders, and I'm not going to piss off Colonel Garde by ignoring them. Now shut up both of you. I'm trying to concentrate."
Max and Darijus feigned insult and Darijus turned his attention to the newspaper, the black and white print broken by pictures of Euro 2008. Max picked up a coffee mug and sauntered over to Ellie's computer, standing behind her and watching the screen which displayed the Cardiff hub's security monitor.
Torchwood Three was half lit, only a few computer screens flickered and strip lights partially illuminated an industrial style building. Max's eager eyes searched up and down the screen.
"I heard they have a pterodactyl. I would give anything to see that."
"Jesus, grow up, Max." Ellie snapped, "Do you believe every bloody myth they spread about that place?"
Max grinned and extended a long, slender finger over Ellie's shoulder deliberately close to her ear, brushing her dark hair with the top corner of the second monitor darkened as a shadow of a something huge flapped across the screen.
"Go on, pan up for a second. Let me see it, please?"
Max felt an elbow thrust back and stepped aside just before it made contact with flesh and bone. "Okay, okay!"
Ellie's attention was on another screen, one that mirrored Toshiko Sato's main computer. Streams of code poured across the monitor, green text on black, and Ellie bit her lip and leant closer to the screen as she fought to keep up.
The computer speakers clicked with the sound of a door opening and Max jumped back to the monitor scanning for the source of the noise. Max grabbed a secondary control and shifted the view to the main doors as they closed behind a trail of four people, all covered in what looked like biological matter.
"I am never going to be clean again!" Gwen Cooper's Welsh tones rang through the room.
"Throw the entrails into Myfanwy's feeding trough and get a full decontamination," ordered Jack Harkness, the tail of his coat just visible as Max panned sideways."And then get yourselves a stiff drink. My office, 30 minutes."
Darijus appeared at Ellie's other shoulder, "Abort. Tell Margaret you couldn't do it tonight. We'll try again next time they get a call out."
"I can't abort." Ellie snarled at him, "If I stop now the intrusion will show on their system. We're at ninety two percent."
"Sato is guaranteed to check her computer before she hits the shower," Max warned and pulled the camera in a slow rotation to Sato's desk, wary of drawing attention to the camera with a sudden movement.
"If you can't say something helpful, shut up." Ellie snapped, sweat breaking across her forehead.
"Are you sure Myfanwy can eat this stuff, Jack?" Ianto Jones stepped into view, his face a grimace as he scooped flesh and other body components from his pockets. "It is alien protein after all."
The pterodactyl swooped down through the centre of the building and shrieked in disapproval.
"She'll enjoy the change from sheep." Jack responded from a distance, his voice quiet but his cheerfulness still evident.
Darijus jabbed the left side of the CCTV screen. "They have a drone. Max, can you get control of it and make it move just enough to draw their attention, if we need a diversion?"
Max nodded, "Yes, but I can better that, and be less conspicuous. I can trigger the fire alarm. There's a sensor over the computer in the far corner of their office. All I have to do is make the sensor think the temperature has gone up and…"
"Not yet," Ellie barked. "Ninety six percent. Don't do anything unless absolutely necessary."
"Owen?" Tosh entered the room from the door below the security camera. "Did you turn my computer on? How many times do I have to tell you to leave my workstation alone?"
"Shit!" Max and Ellie cursed in unison.
Max battered the keyboard with swift, nimble fingers and a small temperature gauge at the side of the screen rose like a thermometer in a mug of hot tea.
"I didn't touch anything." Owen's voice was faint over the speakers,"Am I your favourite whipping boy at the moment? For God's sake go out and get yourself a boyfriend, or a girlfriend. I really don't care."
The progression marker on Ellie's screen flipped over to green as the download reached one hundred percent. With a flourish she snapped closed the programme and sent a stream of code to cover her tracks. Torchwood Three's fire alarm blared making the speakers crackle with the sudden increase in volume.
"Jack! I think our firewall's been hack…"
There was a soft click as the audio cut out and one brief glimpse of Toshiko Sato's face as she looked up at the security camera, eyes narrowed with suspicion.
Darijus slapped Ellie on the back and laughed with relief and pleasure, "That was close! I do not like to think what Margaret would have done to us if you'd been caught."
"If I'd been caught?" she shoved him away from her console with mock anger, "That was a team effort."
Darijus sidled away, scooping up his paper and making for the door. "I am just glad I will not have to conduct your autopsy today."
At a computer station on the other side of the room Max was flipping through the Torchwood personnel files. Gwen's profile filled the screen and Max regarded her with interest. Darijus glimpsed the screen before he crossed the threshold and hesitated in the doorway.
"Do you have a new crush, Max?"
Max shrugged, "There's something about her…"
Darijus wolf whistled and Ellie skated her chair across the floor to join Max at the computer.
"Mind you," Max's voice was wistful, "There's something about Owen too. Maybe I like the accent."
"You'd have more luck with Harkness," Ellie sniffed, turning back to her work, "I hear he'll screw anything, whatever gender it is - or isn't."
There was a sharp crack as Max's chair launched across the room and collided with Ellie's work station sending coffee across her keyboard. Darijus swung back into the room in one smooth motion dropping his paper onto the central table and placing himself between Ellie and Max. Darijus's huge hand landed on Max's slight shoulder and Ellie smirked as her colleague simmered with anger.
"What the hell is going on in here?"
In the doorway stood the diminutive figure of retired Colonel Margaret Garde, dressed in her habitual olive green. Though she carried no firearms, at least in the hub, she ran Torchwood 4 like a military operation. Every member of the team feared and respected her in equal measure. Colonel Garde appraised the situation, observed the discarded chair, the dripping coffee and drew her conclusions. These scenes were not uncommon and the culprits always incriminated themselves.
"Parks, this is the last time I warn you about baiting Bryant. This isn't a military posting so we abide by the regulations of Human Resources. You will accept Bryant's differences and learn to live with them. I know exactly where Torchwood found you, and we could put you back in a deeper, darker hole if you don't start showing your colleagues some respect."
Ellie found it within her to look chagrin and nodded a curt, unfriendly, acknowledgement of Garde's order.
"And for pity's sake Bryant stop giving her ammunition. You work with five people in this bunker, learn to deal with them. God knows if you get thrown into Civi Street you'd be eaten alive."
Max shrugged off Darijus's hand and snapped, "Yes, ma'am."
Garde looked at her team with a mix of disdain and disbelief. Five years ago she had been in charge of soldiers, there were no niceties then, less Human Resources rules to follow and it wasn't unknown to solve issues by physically banging two heads together. Torchwood, as cloak and dagger as it was, still kept up the pretence of being a government agency, along with most of the regulations.
"Were you at least successful, Parks?" Garde cut through Ellie's look of superiority which she was firing at Max, her head cocked and eyebrows raised challenging her subordinate to cross her again.
Ellie gestured to the computer which was dripping with cold coffee. "We obtained the programme..."
"...but we were noticed." Max jumped in.
"Bryant, when I want your report I will ask for it." Garde snapped. She turned back to Ellie who was inching away from her colleagues, disassociating herself from their existence. "Were we compromised?"
"Perhaps. I have erased everything that would lead them back to us and left a fake trail which would lead them to North Korea if they suspected anything. Max set off their fire alarm as a distraction but Sato looked directly as the security camera. They knew they had been hacked and were being watched."
"We can always claim we were conducting a penetration test, and they failed." Max offered in a terse but polite tone.
With the immediate risk of violence abated Darijus released the tension in his neck with a roll of the head. Pulling out the sports section of his paper he dropped the rest of the paper into the puddle of coffee pooling under Ellie's desk and crushed black-and-white photo of the Prime Minister into the floor with his shoe.
"If you do not require my presence, I have analysis of my own to attend to." Darijus excused himself, "I will ask Arjun to bring you the mop and bucket."
Garde inclined her head with a silent acknowledgement of Darijus's departure. Of all the team Darijus's was the easiest to manage, he knew he was better off in Britain than Lithuania, and he would not jeopardise his position for any minor issue.
"What can you tell me about the programme?" Garde asked, forcing Parks and Bryant to flank her, left and right, at Park's computer.
Ellie opened the download folder and dragged the application across the sandbox window and into the live environment. The screen turned dark for a moment and the lights in the hub dimmed, flickered and a bulb across the room exploded.
"Power drain," Max's face darkened with a deep frown. Taking a seat at another station Max pulled up the system monitors. "Whatever that programme does it's causing a massive power surge in Ellie's computer, all the juice is being sucked into that one machine."
"Shut it down," Garde barked, "We will black out half of London at this rate."
A humourless laugh escaped Max's lips, "Too late for that. Power is fluctuating between Southampton and Norfolk."
"Bryant, get me a line to the Prime Minister."
"I can't," Max replied, "Something has fried our exchange box."
Colonel Garde bit back a series of profanities. "Fix this, both of you, I'm going up top to get a mobile signal."
As the door closed behind the colonel Ellie and Max exchanged bitter looks and refused to move from their respective seats. The lights dimmed and crackled again, another bulb burst nearer to the desks, showering them with glass.
"Oh for God's sake," Max exclaimed in frustration and held out a hand as a peace offering, "I'll be the bigger man."
Ellie snarled, "So you're a man now are you? Come on, we've all seen your birth certificate."
Two more bulbs blew leaving a single strip light to illuminate the room with the help of the computer monitors. Electricity arched across blown bulb sockets.
Max's hand didn't waver, "You want my help to fix this, take my hand and promise you won't use my identity against me ever again."
Poker faced, Ellie ignored the proffered hand and turned to her console. Her eyes scanned the scrolling green text and her a sudden sweat broke across her forehead.
"Stop it, Max. Get up here and help. This is some kind of time manipulation software and it's overloading every system we've got."
Ellie glanced back at Max who was remained still, hand outstretched.
"Now, Max! I'm not making this up!"
Max held position, a small, slight smile visible in the low light.
"Fine!" Ellie yelled, grabbing the extended hand and pulling upwards, "I swear I won't take the piss of your he/she identity any more. Just cut the damn power before this blows up on us."
"I'm not a he/she," Max countered, taking a seat and starting the shutdown processes. "I'm androgynous. Not male or female. I'm neutral - like Switzerland in World War Two."
"Whatever," Ellie snapped back, "You're still a fricking pain in my backside and I still don't like you."
Max cut the power to the air processing unit. "Feeling's mutual."
There was a low moaning sound that seemed to creep up from the earth. It rattled the walls sending cracks streaking up through the white painted plaster, and shook the ceiling until the tiles gave way, wire began to fall, and dust filled the air.
"The surge is just getting bigger," Max yelled above the din. "It doesn't make sense. It's like its drawing power from somewhere else."
Darijus barrelled through the door which rattled on its hinges before collapsing under pressure from above as the ceiling stay fractured.
"Get in the emergency room!" Darijus shouted, grabbing both Ellie and Max by the arm.
Max shook Darijus off and dove back to the computer, "There's something wrong with the shut off switches, they are locked open."
Another ceiling panel fell, this time landing on the computer just as Darijus dragged Max away for a second time. The whole room shook with the force of an earthquake. The remaining lights flickered and went out, a tiny emergency green light dangled precariously over the emergency room door.
With another shove Darijus hurled Max into the small, steel lined room. Behind them half the ceiling collapsed and dirt from the ground above covered the floor.
There was a violent crack as the electricity arced around the ceiling. The ground rocked. Dirt fell, and the world turned black.