4
Evan Jamason, the 350 lb. driver who shot Ianto in the shoulder exits whistling to himself, gets behind the wheel of a Fiat 500. Unaware he's being shadowed by a man on a Harley Davidson as he swings around the small child at the crosswalk, the child was holding it's mother's hand but the little eyes were firmly fixed on the man and the tiny head swivelled to watch him pass followed by the thrumming motorbike.
Jack.
As the Fiat comes to a stop. Evan gets out. The Harley Davidson purrs in the background as Evan crosses the street and enters a public building. Two children as walking hand in hand home from school, their little backpacks bright in the sunlight as they stop walking to watch him enter, then they look at one another before continuing to walk, a glance back at the motorbike.
Jack watches and waits.
Evan exits the building still trying to get the last button of his Heddlu uniform closed. He's a cop. He struggles to get behind the wheel of the Fiat. The car is tiny.
Someone's getting in on the passenger side.
As Evan starts to protest, Jack rams his Webley into his gut. At the same time, he takes Evan's gun from its holster.
"Drive."
Evan is incredulous "Do you know who I am?"
"You are Evan Jamason" Jack snarls. Jack jams him in the gut again. "Drive."
Evan starts the engine.
He eases out into traffic. They pass motorists with children in their cars, more than one stopping their activities to turn and watch the men pass before resuming and more than one parent pulls over to see if there was something wrong with the sudden change in their child.
Jack directs him to a nearby abandoned quarry. A car graveyard sitting on top of a 300 foot cliff overlooking a manmade lake. Gravel crunches under the Fiat's tires as it drives to the edge of a cliff.
"Stop here. Turn off the ignition." Jack speaks in a monotone. Evan does as he's told. Suddenly the Webley comes down hard. WHACK! As Evan's vision explodes...
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.
"Shit" Ianto sits up and reaches for the drink he can see, Gwen moving to help him reach it.
"There you are Pet" she croons, "Feeling better then?"
"Any news?" Ianto asks with growing awareness.
"He is talking to someone now" Gwen said as she gently pats his arm, motherly and concerned "Any time now love."
Ianto nods and grimaces, sliding back into the pillows as his head throbs. It's like a thousand voices all talking at once in there. Loud and excited, angry and vengeful.
He hopes he takes someone's balls off.
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..
Still in the driver's seat, Evan wakes. The first thing he sees is that his hands are taped to the steering wheel with his pudgy white fingers exposed. He is naked.
"Can you hear me?" Jack asks.
Evan nods, the pain in his head blinding.
"I am going to ask questions. If you don't answer, fully and truthfully, you will suffer much more than you have to." Jack warns as he opens Ianto's notebook to a blank page near the end. He clicks open a pen.
Jack presses in the car's cigarette lighter. Then he opens a buck knife. Evan winces at the sound of the blade locking. Jack says conversationally "I'm going to cut your fingers off. One by one. If I have to."
The cigarette lighter pops back out.
"That's to cauterize the stubs." Jack points with the pen and smiles.
Holy sweet Jesus... Sweat drips down Evan's forehead. He tries to master his fear. Swallows dry.
"Do you know who I am?" Evan repeats.
"Who are you?"
"I am a senior Heddlu Officer, I am …" Without warning Jack reaches up with the buck knife, a flash of steel. The big man howls, his left ear suddenly missing, starts an epic struggle, practically breaking the wheel off the steering column. He is like a bucking Rhinoceros.
He howls as Jack sprays his face with pepper spray.
The passenger side door opens and Jack stumbles out.
Some of the pepper spray has gotten in his face as well.
Jack wipes his tearing eyes. And then he turns.
Hefting the knife in his hand, he marches back toward the car.
"No! No!"
And then a terrible SCREAM. BLOOD squirts against the inside of the windshield. The car rocks on its shocks. And then another terrible SCREAM.
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.
"But you need to rest" Gwen argues as Ianto shakily pulls back the covers.
"Jack will be home soon with Max, he will be scared and tired and hungry. I was not there, I … I need to be here now. He needs to come on and see that I am OK. The bad thing that happened did not take me away like last time. He lost his parents, do you not remember that? He's seen his Da die in front of him. I do not want him dreaming of me the way he still dreams of him."
Gwen nodded, understanding as she helped him into his robe, "well … maybe you can settle on the sofa with a rug, yeah?"
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.
Evan stares at the stump of his right forefinger, smoke rising up off it. Jack sticks the lighter back in its hole. And Jack looking at him, devoid of emotion.
"Wh- wh- what do you want to know?"
It takes a moment for Jack to come back. He picks up the pen and notebook. "The kidnapping. How did it work? Who authorised it?"
"I don't know. We were just given instructions to take him."
"Ordered by who?"
Evan hesitates. As Jack sets the pen down...
"I don't know."
Jack jerks back Evan's middle finger, raises the knife.
Evan is babbling a mile a minute "I don't know! We work in parts. A voice calls in a kidnapping. We deliver the target to the guardians. We don't even know them. We are just told to take one here and there, hand them over to other guardians. The bosses don't even see the target. They just make the deal! Hand them on to the Pharm"
"Who ordered it?" Jack frowns as he tries to work out where he knows that name from. Pharm?
"The Boss"
"Where do I find him?"
Evan shrugs; terrified "I don't know. No one knows."
A shrill scream, as the knife comes down. Jack tosses the finger out the window, wipes some of Evan's blood off his cheek.
"I don't know, I swear."
After a beat Jack sighs "I believe you."
Jack looks like he'll kill him on the spot. Nuzzles his Webley into the palm of Evan's right hand. "Who's he?"
"I don't know, but I know his face."
Jack cocks the trigger.
"Wait, wait! My phone, a picture. Please!"
Jack considers.