A/N Thanks again to my lovely beta Shelley who gets me to write on time. Enjoy and please remember, reviews are love, and we need all the love we can get.
"Jack, we have a problem," Ianto called.
"Just a second," came the reply and he could hear the change as Jack switched him over to the main speaker. "What do you have?" he said. Behind him, the sound of keys tapping and muttering in Gaelic told him Patrick was back up and at his work station.
"The scans of the inside of the control device are missing, the hard copies, as well as a schematic of the emotional inhibitor chip. Probably thought no one would go looking for them or assume they were lost. He wouldn't know there are complete lists of everything kept in a red flagged file."
"That's my man," Jack said with pride. "Anything else missing?"
"More files, he must have found them while looking for other things. More of the same really, mind control, emotional control, weevils, along those lines. It would have been easy enough to find some of these files, cross referencing, category log…"
"Got it, see what's missing from those files as well. What else do we know people?"
"His laptop is still down here, Jack. Shall I bring it up?"
"I'll take it on when you get it to me," Patrick called out. "I want to see what else he has tried. Asked me for the code to secure archives, he did, trying to be casual like. I told him he would have to ask Jack for that one, and need your approval. He wasn't all that keen after that, tried to hide it but he was furious. I'm just tracking now to see if he tried to hack it himself."
"You didn't mention this before because?" Jack asked, an edge in his voice.
"Didn't seem important, figured he was just testing. I thought I put him off, discouraged him." Patrick was obviously irritated with himself, his accent getting thicker as he did.
"You did fine," Jack reassured him. "He was sent here to get specific information. I will know more when the Brigadier gets back to me. Anyone else?"
"Oi, I looked at this stuff you sent me. Nasty piece of work, that one, but then I figured him for the mad scientist type. He tried to make up to me, all doctors here, chummy like but I sent him off that quick. Bloody nosey parker he was. But this... this is beyond…" the doctor trailed off into a string of expletives in her heavy northern accent that blurred it into nothing but white noise in the background.
"Anything on the CCTV?" Ianto called out, trying to be heard over the noise above.
"Tish?" Jack asked.
"He hasn't come up the Plass, but I'll keep watching."
"Patrick."
"I tracked him out of the office and down the Quay, up pass that pizza place we used to order from. He caught a cab just past the corner there. I am trying to follow where it went but it got a lot more difficult. You know how hard it is to find one taxi up on St. Mary's on a busy day? I am enhancing the visual images of the passengers, but I have to do it one at a time, it will take..."
"Ok, I know you can do it," Jack said. "I have complete faith in you." Ianto smiled. No matter how hard they appeared, that kind of praise from their Captain was enough to convince them they could fly off the Millennium Center if he would ask them.
"How sweet, what's next? Group hugs and sing songs or have you finally decided to take me up on that orgy?" That voice was also familiar if unwelcome.
"Busy right now John, why don't you take yourself off back to bed like a good boy?" Jack said, his voice instantly tight. They were far too busy to add this complication to the lot.
"You going to come tuck me in? Or maybe you could send your little secretary, he's still quite tasty." John said. Ianto wondered exactly how it was possible that he could hear the leer.
"Not now, John," Jack said with that hard voice that everyone, even John knew not to question. "Why don't you get back to bed?"
"I'm fine. I'm tired of that bloody bed."
"I've never known you to be sick of a bed of any sort," Jack said, trying to lighten up.
"But this one is empty and none of your little playmates seem to want to play."
"Not likely," Chris said. "You need to be off back to bed."
"Goodness no, I am bored, please…" His tone was almost desperate and Ianto could feel just a little sorry for him. In some ways, John was much like Jack, completely unable to just rest. He wasn't all that keen on it himself.
"Alright," Jack capitulated. "Grab a work station. Patrick, send him that CCTV footage, he's always been good with faces. But you will stay sitting at the desk, keep your mouth shut and your hands to yourself, understand? Chris, if he so much as looks like he is tiring himself…"
"I'll have him back in bed before he realizes the chair isn't still under him." She said. He wished he could see the look on their faces. Maybe it was time to go back upstairs, he thought, having double checked all the files and secured the ones with missing materials. He piled the files neatly, closed the laptop in preparation for a return upstairs, and began putting the rest of the files away, listening to the background chatter from above in his ear.
"Jack, I've got him on camera," Tish called excitedly. "He's down on the corner, next to the kebab shop."
"Ok, everyone, act normally." There was a laugh and some indistinct comment before he heard Jack again. "Ok, as normally as any of you ever act. Jake, I want you up in the tourist office, I don't want Tish alone."
"Jack," she objected.
"He can go into Ianto's office. I'm not exactly expecting gun play but I'm not leaving you alone. I don't want to explain it to your mother if something happens." Ianto smiled at that, none of them wanted to incur the wrath of Francine Jones.
"Wait, he's stopped, pulling out his phone… now he's looking up. Jack I think he knows something, he's turning around, heading down the alley."
"Ok, Patrick, do you have him on camera? Jake, with me, lets go see if we can bring the prodigal scientist in," Jack called. "Tish, close up the shop. If he knows we're on to him, I don't want him trying to come back in that way." The rest was all orders. Ianto left his com on the main channel to keep the traffic clear. As much as he would love to be part of the chase, he knew there was no way he could get up there in time and besides there would be more to do when they brought him back. Ianto had a brief but pleasant thought of housing the obnoxious man next to Janet; that should make his evening. With that thought to keep him company, he finished going through the files and double checked the contents before putting them away.
"We've lost him, Jack. Hang on, while I look at the other cameras." Patrick was still directing the pursuit when Ianto came in. He put the laptop down on one of the many piles, one that looked somewhat stable. The Irishman nodded at him and returned to his cameras. He dropped the files off at his desk and went to make coffee. It was obviously going to be a long afternoon.
The two of them came back discouraged and not a little dirty. "Jack, what?" Ianto started taking his coat from him and looked with distaste at the cuffs of his trousers and the greasy smear down the back of the coat. Jake was not looking any better and smelled like he had gone for a roll in the rubbish tip. He excused himself almost immediately, pausing only to take his coffee with him.
"Weevil," Jack said simply. "That alley where we lost him obviously has a problem with its bins; we turned the corner and the only thing there besides about three months of garbage was a very upset weevil who was as surprised and delighted to see us as we were to see him. He pitched Jake into one of the bins."
"Where is it? Do we need to do a retrieval?" Ianto asked, sorting out when he was going to clean Jack's coat.
"No, he ducked into the sewer while I was helping Jake out of the bin. I don't think he is going to be heading up any time soon though. He was pretty young. I think we scared him back underground for a while. Now, Patrick, I need you off the CCTV and on that laptop; when Jake comes back, get him on the footage. He might have a good idea about how Tarleton got out of that alley. John, if you are still feeling up to it, we have more footage; let's see where he has been." The older time agent just nodded before returning to screen along with some popcorn he had managed to scrounge up. With everyone settled down to work, he motioned for Ianto to join him in the office. They still had a phone call with UNIT to get through.