Everyone was gathered around Gwen's desk, looking at the footage. "We didn't have anything for facial recognition but I realised that we did have something." She tapped at her keyboard, bringing up the symbol on the blanket. "We have this. And if it appears on that blanket, it probably somewhere on his other clothes."
"Well, aren't we all blind idiots," Ianto lamented. They'd all missed the obvious.
"Tosh, bring up the facial recognition results," Gwen said and Fish shifted nervously.
While Ianto and Gwen knew about his use of Toshiko Sato's image and voice for the artificial intelligence interface for the mainframe, Jack was ignorant. Fish hadn't told him because he'd been unsure about what Jack's opinion would be. He'd forgotten to mention to Gwen and Ianto that he hadn't cleared the use of Tosh's face and voice with Jack. They'd probably assumed Jack knew.
The pretty Asian face appeared on Gwen's workstation and Jack gripped the back of her chair. "Tosh…"
"Look, Jack…" Fish began but Jack cut him off.
"We'll talk about it later, Fish," Jack said, his voice tight. Fish couldn't tell if he was in trouble or not.
"Oi! You go easy on him, Jack," Tosh said, waggling her finger at him. She cleared her throat and put on her glasses. In a mechanical tone, she said, "Filtering… Cascading display."
She was switching too abruptly between her personality and functional modes. Fish made a mental note to make some changes to the program… if Jack let him continue using it.
"First she found the symbol on the clothing but…" Gwen tapped away at her screen and an enhanced image popped up. "He's also got it tattooed on his face."
"This will make him stand out a great deal," Henry said, leaning in.
"All facial and identifying characteristics entered into search parameters. Notifications set," Tosh said, mechanically.
Fish made another mental note to tweak the functional mode to express more personality.
"This is good work, Gwen," Jack said, nodding.
"Ahem," Tosh said, clearing her throat.
"Only a matter of time before he shows up on the CCTV network," Jack said over the loud throat clear.
"Ahem!" Tosh repeated, louder.
Jack gave Fish a piercing look. He pointed at the screen. "Is that thing serious?"
"Excuse me!" Tosh cried, loudly. She sounded offended now.
"Fish… artificial intelligence is risky," Jack warned.
"She's not bloody Skynet," Fish said, defensive. "I used Tosh's data mining programs to create the interface. The whole program is from her algorithms. Give me a little credit, Jack. I wouldn't have done if I thought she was going to take over the world or start a nuclear holocaust."
"My ethical programming is quite stringent," Tosh interrupted. She folded her hands over her chest and pouted. She blinked twice and then unfolded her hands. Mechanically, she said, "One result. Prior time index."
A window with the appropriate video footage appeared on Gwen's screen.
"Bugger," Fish swore. He pointed at the time index. "This was over an hour ago."
"Is that one of the sewer entrances?" Cameron asked.
"We can't follow him down there. No surveillance and the Weevils'd shred us to pieces," Fish said, frustrated.
"What's a Weevil?" Cameron asked, confused.
"Nasty buggers," Fish replied but then looked at Cameron, surprised. "Jack hasn't taken you downstairs to meet Janet yet?"
"Janet? Nevermind, I don't want to know. I've had enough mental shite today," he said with a sigh. He massaged his temples with his fingertips. "Do you think he knows those Weevil things are down there?"
"It's safer for him to go to deep, out of sight," Jack pointed out. He waved at the screen. "A lot of developed worlds have camera systems."
"Joe? Can you back that up a bit? Slow it down?" Cameron asked. "Actually show me how you're doing it too."
"Sure, Cam," Fish said. He showed Cameron the appropriate commands and keystrokes.
Cameron paused the video. "There. You see that?" He pointed at the screen, outlining a hump on the man's back. "Is he wearing some sort of rucksack? You said he had a standard kit. He came through with more than just a blanket."
"He might not surface for a while assuming that kit has food and water," Miranda said. Everyone turned and looked at her. She'd been so silent, they'd forgotten she was there.
"I don't think it's worth you four going down into a Weevil nest, Jack," Fish said, reading the immortal woman's mind. Miranda was always so quick to throw herself to the wolves these days.
"Bring up the schematics, Fish, I want eyes on every possible exit from where he went down. I want to know the ones that don't have cameras so we can stake them out ourselves."
"Applying search parameters. Filtering. Please wait," Tosh said. She pushed her glasses up onto her face. "Map overlay."
A map of Cardiff appeared on Gwen's screen and dots began to spring up.
"That's a lot of ground, Jack," Fish said, waving at the monitor.
"We can't possibly watch each of these areas constantly," Henry said, waving at the screen. "There are simply too many."
Ianto shook his head. "I don't know if getting the locals involved is a good idea. This is personal. They might not listen if we tell them to not approach. Or worse, once they figure out he's down there, they may go in themselves."
Henry had assisted the team on more than one difficult Weevil hunt and he shuddered. "An unknowingly foolish prospect. Perhaps Mao-Lin is correct, we should go after him."
Ianto turned to Jack. His chin was tucked into his chest. "Jack?"
By and large, Weevils were unstudied. Jack only had his own experience to go on. Weevils in general were aggressive predators with a pack mentality. Disturb their nest, and they became viciously territorial. Weevils that surfaced at night were normally restless individuals. It was usually repeat offenders walking the streets and eventually returning down to the sewers on their own or after a time out in Torchwood's cells. Of course, day surfacers were a different story.
It might not be complete suicide for the immortal members of the team but there was some risk. Weevils were strong… and carnivorous. It could be disastrous if one of the immortals were killed and dragged off. Jack saw too many variables and danger. He shook his head. "We're not going down there after him. I'm not risking one of you getting your head ripped off."
Everyone turned to stand in a circle and began brainstorming. They needed a way to get the soldier to surface on his own and where they wanted him. They tossed around a few ideas, mostly dismissing them. Ianto said, "What about that weather control satellite you and Mandy found at the turn of the millennium?"
"What about it, Yan?" Jack asked, not understanding.
"We could make it rain," Ianto replied, simply.
"I don't know if that's a good idea, Ianto," Gwen said, seeing his idea. "The rain makes the Weevils restless."
"It might do our work for us," Cameron said, "if these Weevils are as dangerous as you say."
"But it's also going to mean more Weevils on the surface," Fish pointed out.
"And we could end up running ourselves ragged after Weevils instead of our quarry," Miranda finished.
Henry politely knocked on Gwen's workstation and said, "What if-"
He broke off at the sound of an alarm. Fish turned and bolted, nearly knocking Ianto over.
"FUCK ALL!" he cried. To everyone's surprise he wasn't running for his workstation but for the water tower. He leaned, shoving his arm into the equipment.
"Talk to me, Fish!" Jack asked, not knowing what the alarm was for.
"Give me a fucking minute, Jack," Fish snapped.
"Fish…"
He continued to frantically paw at the equipment, flipping switches and turning dials. He jogged back for his workstation and began bringing up programs. "I can explain or I can do this, Jack. Fucking pick one!"
While their technician madly typed and clicked, the rest of them waited. Fish kicked his chair in frustration. "Bugger!"
"FISH!" Jack barked.
"Sorry, Jack," Fish said, running his hand through his hair. "I think I've got it under control now. It's part of the security system. Someone's scanned us."
With a level tone, Jack said, "Fish, you know I appreciate when you upgrade the systems but you have to tell me. I don't like alarms going off and not knowing what they're for."
Fish rolled his eyes. "I did, Jack."
"You did?"
"After that bollocks with the Nepanthian signal," Fish reminded him.
Jack furrowed his brow, trying to remember. He turned to Ianto with a leer on his face. "Oh, I remember that night…"
Ianto rolled his eyes at his husband and Fish blushed scarlet. "I think Fish is referring to the signal from the Nepanthian ship, not you streaking through the Hub, Jack. He did submit a report on the changes to the security system. Double short klaxon means signal detection."
Fish cleared his throat. He turned back to his workstation and began running some programs. "Anyway, after that bollocks with the Napanthian signal, I changed the scanning protocol for the internal sensors to include a wider range. It picked up something scanning us."
"We don't need this right now," Jack said, leaning over Fish's shoulder.
"I've got everything blocked for now. Whether or not they got any information is a guess," Fish said, jerking his head at the water tower.
"Can you tell what they were scanning for?"
"Not straight away. It's running through the database now."
"They're in your computer system?" Henry asked, alarmed.
"No," Fish said, over his shoulder. "I'm trying to figure out what they're looking for and who they might be. Scanning generally uses some low level form of energy to obtain its information. The type of energy used will vary depending on what information is needed. Even the make, model and time period of the scanning device will be different."
Ianto looked over Fish's shoulder. "This was low level and diffuse. Could be local."
"There was a small rift spike earlier this morning we haven't seen to yet," Miranda said. She turned towards the autopsy bay. "It could be something that fell through that spike."
"Stay put, Will," Jack ordered.
"Can you triangulate the scan?" Ianto asked.
"Program's working on that now. Give it… just… a few… seconds… Got it," Fish said pointing at the map. "You're right, Ianto. It is local."
Ianto squinted at the screen. "The Wetland Reserve? That's on the other side of town from that spike Mandy was talking about and that spike wasn't large enough to have dropped something through."
"Could it be the soldier?" Cameron offered.
Jack turned. "What?"
"The soldier. You said they're intelligent and that they had a standard kit. I mean, he's from the future. That kit's got to have more in it than food and water and medical supplies," Cameron suggested with a shrug. "He's got to have equipment for his own defence and survival. You said that they threw a lot of resources at these soldiers, Jack. Sure, they were on suicide missions but they needed to be clever and equipped enough to survive to complete them. He's got to live long enough to be useful."
"He's got a point, Jack," Fish said, pointing at the screen. He tapped his workstation. "Looks like he was scanning for certain types of radiation, the kind the rift manipulator emits."
Cameron edged away from the water tower. "You mean this bleeding place is radioactive?"
Fish shook his head. "No, it just needs to scan the area to tell us about the rift alerts. It's not harmful."
Cameron looked up at the water tower. "He wants to go home."
"What?" Jack and Fish both said simultaneously, turning to Cameron.
He looked at the rest of the team, wondering why they were all being so thick. It was obvious, wasn't it? He explained, "Why else would he look for this thing? If you're stranded somewhere and you didn't know where or when? What would you do? He's a soldier. He's trained in a rigid set of standards. He's used to being told what to do, having his life structured. He's trying to get back to where things make sense to him. He wants to go home. Could the manipulator do that?"
"It doesn't work that way-" Fish started but Jack interrupted.
"We could send him back into the rift but whether or not he'd end up exactly where or when he came from is a slim to none chance," Jack said, waving upward.
"Turn it off," Cameron said, waving at the water tower.
"WHAT?" the whole team shouted at him.
Again, Cameron thought they are all being thick. "You said you're blocking him from scanning us, from knowing the equipment is here. It's what he's looking for! If you turn it off, we won't have to chase him down. He'll come to us! He won't be out there hurting people! Home pitch!"
"He's right, Jack," Ianto said. "It would bring him to us and keep the public out of danger."
Jack stood there for a moment thinking. "I don't like it."
"What is there to like about this whole bloody situation, Jack?" Miranda asked.
"Point taken, Will. All right, we're going to need all hands on deck," he said loudly. Then he looked at Gwen. "Not yours."
She started to loudly object, "But Jack-"
"No, Gwen, Jack is right," Miranda said, turning.
"I can help with-"
"This is too dangerous, Gwen," Ianto chimed in.
"At least, I could-"
"That is most ill-advised," Henry interrupted.
"But-"
"No, Gwen!" Fish insisted.
Miranda gave the other woman a stern look and said, "Don't make me call Rhys to collect you."
Jack saw Gwen winding up for a louder and stronger objection. He walked over took her hand in his. "You're pregnant."
Gwen hesitated but only for a second. She leaned down and opened the bottom drawer of her desk and took out her purse. She hugged and kissed each of them in turn.
"We'll ring as soon as this is over," Cameron promised her.
She gave them a tight smile and walked out towards the Hub garage. Jack sighed with relief once she was out of sight. He turned to Cameron. "Cam, Gwen said you did good on the range. But you're sitting this one out too. You don't have field clearance or the lay of the land yet."
Cameron wasn't about to argue. "I don't have a bloody death wish, mind, but I want to help. The rest of you can have fun storming the castle."
Jack nodded. "Will? I want to meet really quick and talk strategy. Everyone else? Go get some rest."
The minute Jack and Miranda walked away, Cameron touched Ianto's arm. "I know it's not Torchwood business, mate, but could I borrow the SUV?"
"What for? Can't it wait? Jack wanted us to get some rest," he asked.
"Jack said he didn't mind my living downstairs for a wee bit," Cameron said, giving him a nervous smile. "I don't have much. It won't take long at all, just some clothes and things. Honestly, mate? I'm too wound up to sleep."
Ianto reached into his trouser pocket and handed him the keys. "Do you want me to go with you? It'd go faster with two."
"Sure," he said, brightly.