"An entire Tolien Warship was sucked into the rift where it was broken apart into numerous pieces. The pieces have started to spin out of every rip, crack and fold of the rift and they are all aimed at Earth. As pieces of the ship are spat out someone has been going around collecting certain bits. They have been picking and choosing what they take and are ruthless to get what they want."

Jack sat at the head of the briefing room table with Ianto and Gwen on either side of him. Their morning coffee growing cold as they listened to him speak. "Three agents have died so far trying to retrieve artefacts. They don't know for certain what the thief has been collecting but an agent that survived the second ambush said they had found what appeared to be an anterior trigger. Part of an experimental weapon the Tolien's developed to be controlled mentally from great distances. UNIT, MI5 and various government agencies have joined forces to stop this organization. The problem is they have no idea who is running it or how many members there are."

Jack pointed to an aerial view of Cardiff on the monitor in front of him. "Late yesterday UNIT caught an energy fluctuation on the edge of a satellite scan and wanted us to do a little reconnaissance work for them. They believe this warehouse is where the organization is currently based. They wanted us to find out what is actually in the warehouse, how many people, and what kind of security they have. If there are any deliveries going in or out that could be waylaid and searched, or personnel that could be turned or used. There would be no back up from them, just the three of us doing a job meant for twenty." He stopped talking and looked between Gwen and Ianto giving them a chance to speak.

"Is this where you told them to stick it up their arse?"

Jacks lips twitched into an guilty smile. "Basically, yes."

Gwen slapped a hand down on the table. "And rightly so. I can't believe that they wanted us to go in without knowing what we were getting in to. With no back up even! We would probably have been killed and they wouldn't have cared except to mark off one way it didn't work." She leant back in her chair and crossed her arms looking disgusted. "Bloody bureaucrats."

Ianto cleared his throat. "It might take them a while to rethink their strategy and get a team down here." He looked at the other two and shrugged. "Maybe we should pop over to the warehouse and check out the set up. We'll probably be the ones that have to clean up their mess when they're done." Jack was looking at him, an approving grin lighting up his face.

Gwen gave a slow nod of agreement, a smile of her own starting to curl at the corners of her lips. "Maybe you're right. It wouldn't hurt to get a look at the set up."

Jack sat back in his chair looking thoughtful. "If there is alien tech being hidden in the warehouse you can bet that there will be alien tech used for the security system. We need a way to work around that."

There was silence around the table as the three considered this new problem.

"What if there was a way we could force an energy surge in the area? It might throw off the security system and get us in closer to run some scans."

Jack kept his eyes on Ianto. "Interesting idea, but how?"

"I was thinking about the orb we picked up yesterday." Ianto shrugged again. "I put it down in the sub level secure storage since it seemed to be acting as a lightning rod for rift activity."

"Dangerous?"

Understanding dawned on Gwen and she shook her head. "The rift spikes that we were reading were all very minor, just energy spikes, but there were a lot of them."

Jack nodded thoughtfully, making a decision. "Okay, here's what we're going to do." He leant forward, gesturing with his hands. "Gwen, I want you to try and get a picture of the person that was watching you from the CCTV footage, then go down to the scene and start asking questions, see if anyone saw anything. Hopefully we can get a good enough picture from the CCTV to jog someone's memory. Try to get more information about the people we're after." He looked at Ianto. "Ianto, while she's out asking questions I want you to make sure that orb you found is safe and if it will do what we need it to do. It plays a pretty important part in this plan." There was a keen look in his eyes. "While you two are doing that, I'm going to drive by the warehouse to see what it looks like, if there's anything obviously out of place. Check out the area, maybe take a few passive scans." He looked at his two team-mates. "Any questions?" He smiled as they both shook their heads silently. "Then let's go."

Jack had grabbed his greatcoat and was about to leave when Ianto stopped him and handed him his car keys. "We don't need anyone recognizing the SUV."

Jack caught the quick glint of apprehension in Ianto's eyes before it was carefully hidden away. "Don't worry. I'm just going to look at the place, and a passive scan won't trigger any alarms."

"Something is telling me that there is more to this mission than we think there is so use some caution." He gave Jack a small smile. "And be sure to bring my car back in one piece this time. Fenders and bumpers still in place and no speeding tickets."

Jack pouted. "Hey, I'm a great driver. That last time wasn't my fault."

Ianto laughed and just shook his head as he pushed Jack towards the door.

***

Kat pulled the overhead light down over her work bench trying to get a better view of the delicate strands of light she was working on. The coolness of the warehouse eased the sweat on her brow as she carefully fused two more strands of the fibre-optics. She set the mechanism down and hooked up a power converter to it. Time to test her work.

The glow from the strands increased and the computer readings levelled out. Her eyes narrowed with triumph as a satisfied smile started to cross her face.

The unexpected power overload caused her to jump back as tiny sparks shot up into her face, and her good mood came crashing down. "Damn it!" She threw her tools down on the work bench in frustration. She needed the Tolien focusing key. There was no way she could create one out of the junk she had available to her.

Turning to her computer she pulled up the rift activity prediction program she had been developing. She hadn't perfected it yet and there were still a lot of bugs in the system but it was better than nothing. The stream of numbers passing across the screen would mean nothing to most anyone but to Kat it showed that the rift was acting up a bit today and chances were good that something would be coming through soon. She gathered up some equipment and packed it in her messenger bag. Better to be ready just in case.

***

Jacks trip to the warehouse was delayed when he had to make a detour to catch a weevil that was running loose in the park. As usual, the occurrence had to be dealt with quickly, but within two hours Jack had the weevil down in a holding cell and was currently standing behind Gwen at Tosh's computer station. "Have you found anything yet?"

"I can tell you that it's a woman with short dark hair, between 160 and 165 centimetres tall." She pulled up a blurred, grainy picture on the monitor. It had obviously been taken at a distance, enlarged and enhanced to try to bring out more detail. "This is the best shot I could find and I doubt that we will be able to find anything more. She must have been using some sort of scrambling device." A string of video shots scrolled across the screen. "I can follow her path for a short while by following the CCTV footage that is static filled and corrupted, but then we lose her trail."

"Well, a description and general area is better than nothing and we're running out of time. Gwen, go see what you can find out." He tapped his comlink to call down to the archives where Ianto was still working. "Ianto, let's leave the orb until later and have you come with me. I could use an extra set of eyes when I check out the warehouse."

***

Kat reset the perimeter alarm, again, and turned away from the security monitor with a scowl on her face. The number of homeless people living in this area was minimal but they still managed to trip her security at least twice a day and today she was in a bad mood.

A cold smile graced her lips as she reached out and ran a caressing hand over the Tolien Atomizer. The weapon gave a low thrum when she activated the power cylinder before becoming silent and she pulled up the view outside her warehouse on it's viewer screen looking for a little target practice. The perimeter alarm beeped again and Kat toggled the viewer to watch two men stagger against her warehouse. The actual Tolien viewer had been damaged beyond repair so she had wired together parts from a computer monitor and television screen, but the picture came through strong and clear as she watched the men sit down next to an adjacent warehouse.

She focused the directional point in on the two men, watching as they passed a bottle of something back and forth. The viewpoint levelled out and she pressed a button. Nothing happened. She pursed her lips and frowned. The focus was drifting. She pulled up the directional point again.

The two men had finished their conversation along with their bottle, and one had gotten up to leave. Kat continued to try to focus in on the man still sitting against the warehouse. She kept adjusting the viewpoint and pressed the button as soon as she thought she had a lock. The man sitting against the warehouse was still there but his companion had disappeared completely. She grunted to herself. At least she knew the Atomizer worked but it also proved that the focusing key was vital to her. Nothing else mattered. She turned away to pull up the rift activity prediction program and was soon deep into adjusting and updating it, hoping to increase it's accuracy to one hundred percent. She didn't notice the black sports car being driven casually down the street as the two men inside looked around the area.

***

"That's the warehouse." Jack looked around from the drivers seat of Ianto's car. "Everything looks normal. No obvious alien tech. Nothing out of the ordinary at all." He looked pleased. "Maybe the great UNIT was wrong after all. What are you picking up with the passive scan?"

"There is an increased EM field around the warehouse, but nothing that is completely unusual. There are no alien chemical compounds in the air and there are no life signs coming through but then this scan is pretty mild." The two men followed the road along the side of the building to circle around the back before heading towards the exit. Ianto quietly pointed to the large number of security cameras mounted to the sides and corners of the building that seemed to have a strange number of antennas coming out of them.

Jack grimaced "Okay, so we may have a problem. Can we tell where they feed to?"

"With some luck we may be able to pick up it's signal but that would take the use of Tosh's computer and more than a passive scan."

"Lets regroup back at the hub. Call Gwen and have her meet us there when she's done."

The car engine gave a low growl as Jack shifted gears and started to pick up speed.

Ianto felt a little itch in the back of his mind as he pulled out his phone. Something felt wrong. He watched as a drunken man crawled around in a circle patting the ground. "Charlie? Where'd ya go?" Jack shifted gears again and careened around a corner towards the exit. The strange actions of the man were lost from sight leaving Ianto to wonder about Charlie.

A hand sliding across his shoulder and caressing his neck distracted him from his thoughts after talking with Gwen . He firmly pulled Jacks arm away from him and pushed it back towards the steering wheel earning himself a pouting glance. "Two hands on the wheel, please."

"You're no fun."

"Work to do." The quiet reminder was delivered with a small smile and Ianto kept his attention on the buildings around them until Jacks attention was back on the road. He soon put his own arm along the back of the seat to tug at Jack's earlobe and run his fingers through the short hairs tickling the back of his neck. Jacks lips curved into a smile as his hand left the steering wheel and strayed to Ianto's thigh. It was quickly swatted it away and Ianto stopped his caresses until the hand was once again firmly back on the wheel where it belonged before resuming his touch. Jack gave him a low frustrated growl but Ianto only smiled at him.

***

Gwen put her phone away after Ianto's call. Frustration gnawed at her at the lack of response to her inquiries but there was one more place she wanted to check. She had told Ianto she would meet them back at the hub in a couple of hours so with a quick glance at her watch she decided she had time to stop at the grocery she was passing before trying the pub on the next street.

As she pulled open her wallet and started digging for a few coins to pay for the bottle of water she had picked up, a picture slipped out and landed on the counter. It was a picture of Rhys with his arm around her and Tosh taken last year at the pub.

"Is she a friend of yours? Tell her I really like her hair cut."

Gwen looked at the girl behind the counter. "Who?"

The girl pointed to the picture of Tosh. "I saw it when she was in here last night but she left so quickly I didn't get a chance to tell her."

Gwen gave the girl a blank look. "You saw Tosh? This woman?"

"Yep. She used to come in all the time. Hasn't been in for a while though."

"What time was that at?"

"It was around nine thirty." The young woman was looking at her with worry.

"Did she say anything? Did you see which direction she went?"

"She just said I had her confused with someone else. I didn't know she was American." The girl looked at Gwen in confusion. "Is she in trouble or something?"

Gwen paused, shock and disbelief clearly written on her face. "You're sure it was this woman?"

The girl nodded again, starting to look irritated. "Positive."

Gwen pulled out a card with her mobile number on it and gave it to the girl. "If you see her again would you give me a call? Thanks," she murmured as she hurried out of the store leaving the water she hadn't paid for and forgetting the picture. She needed to get back to the hub right away.

***

Gwen hurried into the hub to see Ianto coming out of Jacks office. "Ianto, we may have a lead." She absentmindedly straightened out his lapel that was turned to the inside of his suit coat, not noticing or perhaps just ignoring the slight flush on his cheeks.

Digging through a drawer at her desk she continued talking. "I stopped in at a store to get a bottle of water."

Jack came out of his office just as she found what she was looking for. She held a picture of Tosh in front of the men's faces. "This is the person we are looking for."

The two men glanced at each other then back at her. "What do you mean?"

The identical looks of confusion brought a smile to Gwen's face. "The market, it must have been the one that Tosh would shop at because the check-out girl recognized her from a picture that fell out of my wallet. She said to tell her that she really liked her new hair cut." Understanding was dawning on both men now. "This woman was in the store last night, and she had an American accent."

Without a word Ianto moved to the nearest computer and started pulling up Tosh's Torchwood employment file. He quickly scanned the contents with a worried frown on his face.

Jack and Gwen followed to stand behind him. "What are you looking for?"

"Tosh's family background check." Ianto stayed intent on the screen, pulling up file after file of information. "There seems to be some information missing."

Just then the rift alarm went off. Ianto quickly pulled up the rift monitor. "Three, make that four life forms, small. Over on Ty-mawr Road. Sending the coordinates to the SUV."

"Okay. Gwen, you and I will go check it out. Ianto stay here and let us know if you find anything." Ianto had already turned back to Tosh's files before the other two had even left the hub.

***

Sometime later Jack and Gwen made it back bringing a couple pizzas with them. "Those were sheep?" Gwen voice was full of disbelief as she looked at Jack doubtfully. "Orange and black striped wool with a sabre-toothed head."

"Tolien sheep. War like race, remember? They thought the sheep were cute and also enjoyed the fight for their next meal." He walked over to lightly massage Ianto's shoulders where he was still sitting at the computer but now surrounded by a stack of written files as well. "Have you found anything?"

Ianto pointed to the screen as Gwen walked up on his other side. "There appears to be information gaps in the computer files and I don't understand how they got there. I pulled the written files to crosscheck the information and came across a number of discrepancies." He turned to look at them both. "Long story short, Tosh has an American cousin that apparently looks exactly like her."

Gwen looked surprised. "And there's no mention of this in any of the computer files?"

"Nope. I came across a few more inconsistencies and have started reading through the back up files to see if I can fill in the holes."

Jack squeezed his shoulder. "Nice work, Ianto. What have you found out about this cousin so far?"

"Nothing. She doesn't exist."

"What do you mean?" Gwen never understood how he did it, but found it was truly amazing how Ianto managed to pull random facts on anything out of seemingly nowhere. That he couldn't find any information on this woman was beyond belief, impossible.

"I've only just started, but haven't been able to find any computer records on this woman at all." Ianto turned back to the computer with a frustrated but determined look on his face. "Everyone has a computer trail of some kind. Phone records, credit cards, school records. But I can't even track down this woman's name."

"Birth records?"

"Nothing."

Jack could almost see the thoughts whirling at top speed through Ianto's head as he stared at the computer screen and knew that Ianto would work non-stop until he solved the mystery. "Okay, but come and eat something before you continue digging." Jack pulled a reluctant Ianto out of the chair and drew him towards the coffee table where they had set the pizzas.

***

Kat whipped around and stared with surprise as a musical tone chimed from a computer sitting in a darkened corner of the work area. It was set to warn her if it detected the same energy signature as the low velocity scan she had monitored last night that Torchwood was using. She hurriedly pulled up the display to see where the reading was coming from, scrolling through the readings with a sharp eye before sighing with frustration. According to the readings the scan was coming from the computer system itself. There must be a glitch in her programming but she didn't have time to track it down right now, it was already past midnight. The Tolien Atomizer wasn't going to repair itself and she needed it to reach her goal.

Kat turned back to her workbench ignoring the little flash signalling the scan detection.