PART FOUR

Ianto's mouth dropped open in disbelief but not a sound came out. He heard Mal gasp with shock from behind Archie and Yasim sucked in a surprised breath.

"You can't do that!" It was Yasim with broad Birminham accent that lurched Ianto into speaking himself.

"I.... You want me to die, you want me to...... Oh God." He mumbled and looked from Archie's taught face to those of the others. The Jones child oblivious, had toddled over and proffered a soft toy at Ianto. Startled Ianto looked down at her, dark, wide, innocent eyes blinking up at him. Ianto swallowed. Archie started speaking again, over Mal who was now joining in with the protest. Then suddenly everyone was talking and voices were raised. Ianto said nothing just let the yelling wash over him as he sat there totally numb. Finally someone yelled.

"Shut the Fuck up!"

The voices died down and all eyes were drawn to the young Welshman who hadn't said a word.

Ianto felt the warmth of Archie's large hand on his knee and Ianto looked into his eyes.

"We need you laddie. The human race ends here unless we act. The Doctor and Captain Jack cannot help us this time. UNIT cannot.... everyone is under Saxon's control. If we can take him down then maybe, just maybe we can stop those metal devils before it's too late. I have no idea if there is anyone else out there with the required fire power or technology. We know Martha Jones has some magic bullet, but the last report we got was that she died in Japan......"

Ianto sighed. "Archie I...... Is it why you sought me out?"

The Scotsman nodded. "I know about your relationship with Jack because Saxon knows. He had some serious intel on Torchwood and UNIT and I have no idea how he got that......"

"How is it we're not affected by the archangel network?"

"I my case training Ianto. You understand what I am asking of you."

Ianto and Archie both stared into one another's eyes and the rest of the people in the room remained silent, holding their breaths.

"I don't want to die Archie and I don't want to kill Jack and the Doctor. If the Valiant goes down then......"

"Jack will survive...... trust me, I know. We have to take down that ship. It's a symbol of his control over us, if enough people see it die there may be enough resistance for a full scale revolt."

"Or a full scale retaliation." Mal interjected angrily from over Archie's shoulder. "I can't believe this, we're not terrorists and Ianto shouldn't have to make that choice."

"I agree." Yasim stepped closer and knelt down in front of Ianto. "You do not have to do this. I did not patch you up, just have you blown to pieces again."

Ianto fixed his gaze on the medic and then slowly looked into the other faces around him.

"You knew about this?"

Patrick, Joseph and Simon nodded.

"We decided the plan, and then extracted you." Patrick said without apology.

Ianto appreciated his honesty. He looked down at the ruined fingernails of his left hand, poking out from the end of bandaging.

"Ordinary explosives won't cut it Archie, the Valiant has state of the art scanning technology of non terrestrial origins." Ianto informed him.

Archie nodded.

"Ay lad, we know. We can get round that."

Ianto wasn't surprised and he sat there, afraid and lonely with tears leaking from his eyes. "Do I have a choice?"

No one answered him but the look on Archie's face was answer enough.

Finally he nodded.

Mal hissed out her disapproval and Yasim's hands went to her mouth in horror. The Jones couple just looked at him and then Leo spoke to him, reaching out a hand and Ianto leant back from it, not wanting the contact.

"My sister and parents are on the Valiant Ianto. If there is any way to save them......"

Ianto's gut turned to lead and he closed his eyes. "I don't want to die and yet you are asking me.... no telling me....." He faced Archie. "You have a plan then?"

The Scotsman nodded. "Ay, we have a plan. Come on, let me show you the lab."

Archie instructed the others to wait where they were and as he led Ianto out of the room the arguing started in their wake. Ianto chose to ignore it as he followed Archie to an adjoining room. In complete contrast to the other one it was brightly lit and they had to pass through an airlock to enter it. A clean room and containment area, typically Torchwood. Archie strode purposefully over to a locked cabinet and opened it with a key attached to a chain that was hung about his neck. He removed a glass vial and held it up.

"This is 'Thorun 32'. Thorun was the name of the scientist here who discovered what this stuff could do. It was salvaged from a downed space craft during the Vietnam war and brought back here."

Ianto looked at the luminous viscous fluid that appeared to move of its volition in the vial.

"It looks alive, what is it?"

"I have no idea what it actually is, but I do know how to use it and what it does. The team here left extensive notes and I was part of the original research team assigned to this stuff back in the eighties. This liquid is injected into the human bloodstream. It's totally harmless until such time as one activates it. Once activated it goes through an extreme molecular change the result being an explosion. There's about enough here equivalent to the explosion at Chernobyl. The stuff literally vapourises anything with in the blast radius, depending on how much you use. Naturally we're not planning on using it all on you, just enough to blow up the Valiant."

Ianto watched as Archie replaced the 'weapon' back into the cabinet, quietly processing what the Torchwood 2 leader had told him.

"Its been tested on live subjects then?"

Archie nodded.

"Jesus Christ. That's sick!" Ianto practically gagged on the notion. "How many people? How many?" He demanded.

"According to the database, 23. All of them were prisoners serving time for multiple murder and child sex offences."

"Oh and that makes it alright, does it?"

Archie sighed. "No Ianto it doesn't. I am not responsible for that and right now we cannot afford to be concerned with our morality."

Ianto hands raked over his scalp. "Fuck, fuck. I can't believe this. I can't believe this. What have we come to?" He paced about and Archie's words stopped him in his tracks.

"The end of the world Ianto, the end of the world."

Ianto gaped at him. "And look at how we got here. Oh God." He slumped back against a desk and hugged himself, instinctively bringing his injured arm against his chest and holding it there. He breathed heavily, overwhelmed.

"Ianto I....."

"Don't Archie. I don't want to hear it. Just tell me what you want me to do, because if this is all that's left of humanity I do not want to be a part of it."

AN: I will be away now for three weeks filming Casimir Effect so won't be updating for a while unless I can get some internet access whilst in the wilds of Cardiff..... Thank you very much for your reviews so far...

Deeta.