The team is try to make sense of things ...
Getting Even
Chapter Six
Gwen arrived in the boardroom first and selected a seat with unprecedented care. Sitting in the middle of the long side of the table put her at right angles to the plasma screen which meant she didn't have it in view all the time. If she was to get the team through this, she had to block out everything that could divert her attention. She was ordering her papers when her mobile rang: Rhys. Should she take it?
"Hey, love. Sorry, not got much time," she said as soon as the connection was made.
"Just wanted to check you were okay. Emergency sorted?" He was in the car on his way to work and concerned for Gwen who had shot out of bed like a scalded cat at three that morning.
"Yeah. Well, under control anyway." She looked round when Owen and Toshiko entered. "Gotta go. See you later, sweetheart. Bye." She ended the call and jumped up. "Let me help you, Tosh."
"I can manage." Moving with exaggerated care, Toshiko sank into the nearest chair, Gwen hovering over her.
"You should be at home, resting," said Owen. He put bottles of beer on the table and sat next to Toshiko. His experience with Torchwood had expanded his medical knowledge a hundred-fold but he was the first to admit that mental illness and neurological problems were still a weakness.
Gwen retook her seat. "Beer for breakfast?" Owen had opened a bottle and was drinking thirstily.
"Coffee boy's got better things to do." His eyes flicked to the screen which showed the medical bay where Ianto sat beside the examination table on which lay Jack. He looked away again wishing he'd chosen another seat. "Let's get on with this."
"Right. Ianto, can you hear us?" Gwen steeled herself to look at the screen.
"Yes." His voice was loud and had an echo, probably because of all the tiles in the medical bay.
"Good. I'll just run through what we know then we can decide what we do next." She gratefully turned back to her notes.
"Pray?" suggested Owen.
She ignored him. "Chip in if I miss anything, Tosh. Okay. When Tosh left the bar last night she was attacked in the car park by an older man and forced to let him into the base. She was tied up and knocked out. According to the CCTV, the man went downstairs a couple of times and into the armoury leaving with a number of weapons."
"He knew the Hub," put in Toshiko. Her voice sounded dredged up from a deep place within her. Still in shock from the initial attack, her mind had shut down in the face of another, potentially much more serious, assault. At the first intimation the Krittenack was heading her way, she had curled in a ball under the desk and closed her eyes tight with her jumper pulled over her head. Owen had found her there, unable to move or speak. A shot of lorazepam had brought her back to awareness but she was still well below par. "He knew where to go, how the locks worked."
"Probably worked here then. Let's hope the computer can clean up that CCTV image and give us a match." For most of the time he had kept his face averted from the cameras, but there was one clearish shot. "We need to find him and those weapons fast. Did he say anything, Tosh, anything about what he was going to do?"
"No. I … I don't think so." She was confused and anxious, her normal recall of facts beyond her current capabilities.
"Don't strain to remember, Tosh," warned Owen. He rubbed her back soothingly. "Like I said, take it easy." He glared at Gwen. "I told you not to press her."
"I wasn't, I just asked."
"Well, don't."
There was a moment's silence as Gwen struggled to keep her temper. How were they going to find this man – and the Krittenack – when Toshiko was traumatised and Jack ... indisposed before he did something catastrophic? Her notes included details of the weapons taken. The AK47 was bad enough but the others could take out the side of a house; human flesh stood no chance. With that kind of firepower and the grenades the man could hold Cardiff to ransom. What was he planning?
She cleared her throat and continued. "Before the bloke left, Myfanwy attacked him and in seeing her off he sprayed the base and cut off power to the lower levels. Part of them. The Krittenack got loose and … attacked Jack. What's his status, Owen?"
"Mad. Like the others, the ones in Providence Park. The Krittenack fried the neutraltransmitters in his brain. He's a –"
"He's sick," stated Ianto loudly. "He's sick and is going to get better." He stared straight at the CCTV camera.
Owen shrugged and Gwen sighed. It was clear that Ianto was not going to give up hope any time soon. Jack needed someone fighting his corner but it meant the team was yet another member down as Ianto was not going to leave their boss's side.
"How does his not dying thing affect this?" asked Gwen. "We know his body mends, what about his brain?"
"I have absolutely no fucking idea," replied Owen. "He recovered from Abaddon, maybe he can recover from this. I don't know."
"That took three days." She had spent a large proportion of them by his side, waiting and hoping for a miracle which had finally come. "So it could take that long again?"
"Didn't you hear me! I said, I – don't – know." Owen's frustration was evident.
"However long it takes, we do not give up on him," asserted Ianto. He had deferred to Gwen after Abaddon but not this time. He was closer to Jack than any of the others and that gave him the right to determine what happened.
"Okay, Ianto, okay. We're not pulling the plug or anything," said Gwen quickly. "Although … would he recover quicker if we … killed him?" She looked across at Owen then at Toshiko and finally Ianto. "I'm not advocating it, just wondering."
"It's possible," admitted Owen eventually. "But we're a long way from making that decision."
-ooOoo-
Nothing went right for Andy Davidson that morning until he arrived at Tesco's.
He had finally got to bed around midnight, the bollocking by Inspector Pugh still a vivid memory. The murder investigation was going nowhere, he needed someone to blame and Andy was the obvious choice. After tossing and turning for hours, Andy had dropped off an hour before his alarm had sounded at six. Hoping for a few extra minutes, he had turned over and woken over an hour later. Late for his shift, he had been bawled out by the inspector yet again and handed over to the desk sergeant.
After a second telling-off, he had been sent to follow up a report from one of the city centre Tesco supermarkets of a suspicious man. It was a footling job that would normally have gone to a cadet or PCSO but Andy accepted it and got out of the station as fast as he could. He hadn't been officially removed from the murder team, not yet, and a bit of distance might hasten his return. Entering the store, he was immediately taken to the manager.
"Come in, Officer, come in. Sorry for the mess." The manager was a short, stocky man in his thirties. The office was cramped and already held a sullen young woman.
"That's all right, sir. Now, what's this all about? Seen a terrorist, that right?" It was a preposterous idea but every call had to be taken seriously – or be seen to be by the public.
"I'm not sure about that, not sure at all, but Head Office insists we pass on anything of this kind to the police. Absolutely insist on it." The manager smiled sheepishly, already regretting following the rule. "I'm Mike Hughes by the way, Branch Manager." He held out his hand.
Juggling his notebook and pen, Andy shook the hand. "Constable Davidson. Now, what happened?" He looked pointedly at the young woman who had not been introduced. Was she here for a reason? If not, he wanted her gone.
"Oh, sorry, this is Elizabeth Jones, one of our cashiers. It was her that saw him and raised the alarm."
"Liz," said the woman. "It's Liz. All this fuss, starting to wish I hadn't bothered." She sat with her arms crossed and glared at both of them. "This gonna take long? I want my bed."
The manager attempted to pour oil on troubled waters. "Liz is on the night shift, finishes at seven. That's when she came to me with her story."
"It's not a story! It happened."
"What did?" demanded Andy.
"This bloke. He came in at three thirty or thereabouts and filled a trolley. I was the only cashier, don't get many people at that time, and so I served him. He had some really weird stuff." She was interested now. Possibly as she was the centre of the attention or maybe because she really did think it worth reporting.
"What exactly?"
"Tins of food. Bottles and bottles of water and cans of beer. Torch and batteries. Lots of batteries, enough to see him through to Christmas! Eight of the car blankets that are on offer. Couple of washing lines. A knife, a big one. Shoe polish and three packs of sanitary towels. The ones with wings." She sat back watching Andy closely.
Andy wrote this down, taking a moment to think. "And what made you think he was a terrorist?"
"What he bought, and the way he looked. All furtive like and … starey eyes, like you see on the telly. And what bloke buys sanitary towels!"
"I see. This was three thirty this morning and yet you didn't 'phone the station until seven thirty." Andy looked from Liz to Hughes. "Why the delay?"
"I come on duty at seven," explained Mike Hughes. "During the handover, Liz mentioned what she'd seen and we took a look at the security tapes. He does look suspicious so I called. Like I said, it's policy."
"I'd like to see that tape."
"It's all set up. Take my seat." They exchanged places, shuffling around the desk which took up most of the room. Hughes pressed the play button. The recording was surprisingly clear and gave a good view of the store from a camera set high on the side wall. "That's him," said Hughes, pointing to the back view of a figure. "You get to see his face later."
Still watching, Andy asked, "Any chance he paid by card?"
"It was cash," put in Liz Jones. "That's another reason I thought he was funny. It all came to close on a hundred pounds."
Andy did not hear her. He had got his first glimpse of the man's face, it was one he knew.
-ooOoo-
The Hub was deathly quiet. Toshiko lay sleeping on the couch. She had functioned sufficiently to double check the security of the base and set up a sweep of the city for traces of the ploinine energy before tiredness overcame her. Owen was with Jack, running tests that would only confirm what they already knew; his brain synapses had been fried leaving him a vegetable. He retained control of his bodily functions, including breathing, but he didn't react to visual or aural stimuli. Gwen was walking through the lower levels checking all was secure. She had a Glock in her hand and an open comm link but was still relieved when she could retrace her steps and return to the others. She joined Ianto at the coffee machine.
"How are you holding up?" she asked quietly.
"I'm okay. Whatever you say, I'm staying with Jack." He met her gaze steadily. No one seeing his calm, business-like demeanour would have realised the emotional strain he was under.
"That's what I want you to do."
They walked to the work area with the coffees. Gwen took one to Owen as Ianto sat at Toshiko's desk. He sipped the strong brew and watched as the facial recognition program did its work. Frowning, he put aside his mug and tapped in a new instruction.
"What are you doing?" asked Gwen, leaning over his shoulder.
"If he worked here it must have been some time ago. He'll have aged since then -"
"- so you're extrapolating from the photo what he looked like as a younger man. Good thinking." Seconds later they got a match.
"John Graham Wallswell, known as Wally," read Ianto. "Worked for Torchwood Three between 1980 and 1982. Ex-Army, only specialist skill noted is marksman."
"He'd know what to do with weapons. What does this mean? 'Released, 1982'."
"They got rid of him." Ianto flicked through more screens and brought up Wallswell's full personnel file. "Yes, as I thought. He was taken out of Cardiff and given Retcon."
Gwen was reading the entry too. "By Jack presumably. So he got rid of him." She straightened up.
"No. Jack wasn't in charge then a … Karen Wriggler was."
Gwen was not listening. Wallswell had been given Retcon and left to fend for himself with missing memories. What a caring employer Torchwood was! But now, twenty six years later, this man had returned to Cardiff, found a way into the Hub and removed heavy duty weapons. Why? "I'm going out, need to think."
"Okay. Bring back something to eat, doughnuts or something." Ianto stood and, taking his coffee, went into the medical bay.
-ooOoo-
Andy came out of Tesco as Gwen went in. Both were in a hurry and exchanged only brief greetings. If they had taken a moment to compare notes they would have saved a lot of trouble for themselves and a dozen families from mourning dead loved ones.
Please forgive me if the description of Jack's condition does not stand scrutiny, I didn't want to make it too clinical. And so it was Wallswell who took the weapons. Where is he and what's he doing? Find out in the next chapter ...
PS: did you get a story alert on the last chapter? I didn't and I'm wondering if it was just me or FF generally.