The man known as Hart glared at them at the table, devoid of masks and gloves now. "You're not going to believe us," one said. "It's crazy."
"Believe what? That you botched the job again? That's not so unbelievable." Hart crossed his arms. "Tell me what happened this time."
"Honestly, we had her. I don't know who or what that was, but it was unnatural. You know the policy. We ran as soon as we were discovered. You would have, too."
"I sincerely doubt that." Hart was torn. These men were supposed to be the best of the covert operators. If he got rid of them, as he should do, he'd have to recruit from local talent and he wasn't particularly interested in training up such raw recruits. He spared a moment's thought on what it would be like to have actual officers with him, under his command. They'd make short work of this and the woman would be safely tucked back in his home dimension. He would be rid of this backwater planet and this primitive time.
Alas, not to be – at least until Hart successfully brought back the goods. That would win him a seat on the Military Council and his ambitions would be fulfilled, at least for now. Their tame Time Lord had told them that at least part of the secret of immortality began here with Toshiko Sato in this untouched dimension.
Now, the lady was proving elusive. No matter. He'd find her and bring her back to the Agency.
With a sigh he returned to the question at hand. Should he ditch these men and recruit others? Or should he let them try again? He might as well. Incompetent help was marginally better than none, and there was nothing better to hand here and now.
"All right, back to surveillance. You lucked onto Sato this time. She'll be a lot more cautious now. Anything on Jones?"
"Not a thing." The man shook his head. "He never slips. Always in sight of someone else or locked in that fortress he calls a flat. Unless we go in with a giant wrecking ball, there's no way to get him out of there. You said we can't have witnesses, so unless he goes off alone somewhere, we're never going to tag him."
Hart would have to think of something else.
When Rhys returned, a frustrated Jack went back to Harkness Manor. He'd remodeled as soon as he'd arrived. What had once been an aging eyesore was now a showplace. At the same time, some workmen had made alterations that they no longer remembered. Jack and Rhys entered the lift to the basement to find the rest of team Torchwood. Jack had chosen the name for whimsical reasons – it was an anagram of the question his mentor had been asked when they had gone to other planets: "Doctor who?" Well, he was the one who told Jack to choose a name, after all.
Suzie sat at her computer, reading something on the screen. Owen was in the medical bay, no doubt searching for something he'd misplaced. Gwen saw them come in and ran over to give Rhys a kiss on the cheek. Turning to Jack, she asked, "Did you find anything?"
"Yes and no." He gave her a somewhat grim smile and went to Suzie's station. "Something had definitely been there, but it was gone by the time I arrived. Oh, and I rescued a damsel in distress. Suzie, look up what you can find on Dr. Toshiko Sato."
"One thing I don't have to look up," Suzie said in her acerbic fashion. "I already know she's a guest lecturer at Cardiff University. She's a physicist, top of the line. Her research has mostly to do with time, interestingly enough."
"And how do you know all that?"
"I was planning to go to one of her open lectures next week. It's my night off. Rift permitting, of course."
"Right. See what else you can dig up. She was my damsel and something about her felt funny."
"Funny odd or funny ha-ha?" Owen sauntered over to the group. He was a short wiry Londoner who could almost outdo Jack in cockiness.
"Funny odd," Jack replied, patting him on the head. Owen hated that. That was why Jack did it. "There was something peculiar about her, as though she had once been through the Rift. She was apparently being abducted by four unsavory characters. I released her from their evil clutches, but they all disappeared very quickly. Their trail went cold at a road at about the same spot that all traces of the Rift energy went away."
"Funny coincidence, that," Gwen remarked. "Not funny ha-ha, Owen. Did you send her home with Rhys?"
"Seemed the safest thing to do."
"Then we have the address. I'll start with that."
"Okay, kids, conference in thirty minutes. Owen, rustle up some sandwiches or something. Being a dashing hero takes it out of me."
"Uh huh. Right. You want to give us a hand, Rhys? I'm not sure I can carry a tray with enough sandwiches to stuff the Captain's big head."
When they reconvened, both Gwen and Suzie were wearing smug expressions. Reaching for a sandwich, Jack said, "You two look ready to burst. So who's going to start?"
Suzie pressed the button with a flourish as she said, "Meet Dr. Toshiko Sato." A picture of a lovely Japanese woman appeared on the large screen. She did not look like an average physicist, at least to Jack.
"That's my damsel," he confirmed. Even in this posed shot, she looked as though she carried a great weight on her tiny shoulders. Considering that she was a target for abduction by men with a trace of time energy that might very well be the case.
"This picture was taken six months ago when Dr. Sato was a guest lecturer at the University of Ottawa. Since her father's death, she has moved five times to different countries. Started from Sydney, Australia, then to Osaka in Japan, then to Athens. From there she went to Moscow, then to Ottawa, and then moved here to Cardiff. The length of stay varies. Interesting fact, though – she and her step-brother always have contact with the police before they go. The files on that are tougher to get and it may take me a while to access."
"Step-brother?" Jack inquired.
Suzie turned to Gwen and nodded. Gwen took up the narrative. "His name is Ianto Jones," she said, bringing up a picture of him standing by Dr. Sato. "Pretty good-looking, I'd say."
Jack agreed, looking at the image with more interest. Jones was younger than his sister – Jack estimated five years between them, if not more. He was also tall, at least six feet. He had a trim but muscular figure, but that was not riveted Jack's attention. Classic features with blue eyes defined his face. He had the pale skin that Jack admired in the locals and there was a faint blush coloring his cheeks. The shot was a candid one and he seemed to be scanning the crowd. There was a slight bulge just under his left shoulder. A holster?
Gwen winked at Jack and Jack returned it. His team knew that he was attracted by both men and women, but privately Jack had a bias toward male lovers. Looking at this man, he thought he looked almost too good to be true. Probably one hundred percent straight, though. Jack repressed a sigh.
"Oi! You're not in the market, lovey." Rhys reached across the table and shook his finger playfully at her. They'd been newly-weds when Jack recruited them and still behaved that way.
Gwen stuck her tongue out at Rhys. "I'm not dead yet. Anyway, he and Dr. Sato aren't exactly related. His mother married her father. Both parents died in that freak storm that hit Sydney a couple of years ago."
"That Sort-of-a-Rift mess?" Owen asked. They had as a matter of course investigated that phenomenon. Jack and Suzie had flown down under to take readings and measurements after the fact. Apparently a large Rift had appeared and then disappeared in a short time, but not before causing massive destruction. The body count stood at one thousand three hundred and forty-six, nearly two hundred were still on the missing list, and only twenty-seven known in the area were had survived.
"Yeah. He and his sister were among the survivors. He was on shore leave from the Royal Australian Navy and they were in a car when the storm started. Not a lot of detail in the reports. He was in a coma for four days. Not a visible injury on him, but something must have happened. There's nothing in the medical records about cause. He was honorably discharged along with several others to pick up the pieces after the storm."
"Rank?" Jack asked idly.
"Lieutenant. He'd just been promoted and was waiting for a new assignment. Went to Cresswell and it looked like he was going to make it a career. Now he works as a librarian, of all things."
"Good librarians are hard to find."
"Or do you mean hard librarians are good to find?" snickered Owen.
Jack grinned. "You never know unless you look." He went back to Suzie. "So what is Dr. Sato working on exactly?"
"The physics of time. She's continuing the work that her father started in Sydney. He was well-known in academic circles. Several patents, some lucrative."
"Hmmm." It was too much of a coincidence that they had both a physicist researching time and kidnappers that left a time energy trail. "I think this warrants more investigation. Keep digging, ladies. I'll work on it from another angle. Dust off your chauffeur uniform, Rhys. We'll need the limo to show that man-about-town image."
"Great." Rhys sighed, rolling his eyes. "Love spending hours waiting around for you while you live the good life."
"I'll bring you a doggie bag."