10.
Owen knew that it was too late to reconsider his decision when the cog door rolled open and Jack stormed into the Hub. His face was grim and determined as he headed for his office. He froze, however, when he saw what was on the floor next to Owen's desk.
Owen quickly lifted a dismissive hand. "Before you say anything: It's perfectly safe. It's secured and I'll always keep an eye on it."
Jack opened his mouth.
"And," Owen interrupted him quickly, "it's just a baby. It has spent the last half hour just lying there and my leg was within reach." He pointed at the Weevil baby that was tied to his desk with a dog leash and curled up in a dog bed.
Ianto came in next to Jack. He looked tired and a little pale, but – as Jack had said the night before – he seemed to be alright. He threw the Weevil baby a surprised look. "Where did you get the dog bed?"
Jack looked at him. "Yes," he said sarcastically, "that clearly is the most important issue at the moment."
Owen took a deep breath. Jack could call a stop to his plan and he was well aware of that. Weevils were dangerous predators and it was mandatory to keep them in the cells until they were set free in the sewers of the city. But after the baby still hadn't returned to its family and Anita didn't show any interest in it, Owen just had had to intervene. And he would do everything possible to convince Jack of his plan. "What is the most important issue?"
"What happened to natural selection?"
"Why trust in natural selection when there's baby food at the Tesco's down the street?" Owen asked. Jack raised an eyebrow. Owen sighed. "Okay, I don't want it to die. It's only for a few days. Until it has regained some of its strength."
"Owen," Jack said with a deep sigh. He crouched down beside the basket and pushed the bowl of baby food closer to the Weevil. The baby didn't react.
"It doesn't take the bottle," Owen said, crossing his arms. "I've already tried. I'm running a few blood tests."
"It needs its mother's milk," Jack said.
"I can't offer him any. If it was really hungry, it would take that milk. Maybe it's ill."
Jack straightened. "Alright. Only until it's back on its feet. We don't want to domesticate it."
Owen smiled. "Thank you." Then he looked questioningly at Ianto. "What are you doing here? It's not even eight."
"I couldn't sleep," Ianto answered vaguely and headed for the kitchen area.
Owen looked after him and then to Jack. "He could at least be honest. You arrived together. It's pretty obvious."
"Firstly, it's none of your business and secondly, nothing about this is obvious." He went to his office.
Owen sighed, annoyed, and focused on the blood tests. So far, there was no sign of any disease or other problem. Owen looked thoughtfully down at the Weevil. He startled when Ianto suddenly stopped beside him and offered him a cup of coffee. "Thank you," he sighed. Owen expected Ianto to move on, but he remained standing beside his desk. Owen tried for a moment to ignore him, but then he gave up. "What?" he asked.
"Would you mind if I develop my empathy?"
Owen looked up at him. "Would it stop you if I said 'Yes'?"
"Yes. Jack's right. It's something very personal and should be agreed to by all parties involved."
Owen sipped his coffee and took a moment to ponder the question. "So, when I'm feeling like shit and you realize that ... can I expect you to try to talk to me so I feel better?"
Ianto grimaced. "No. I wouldn't mention it to you or anyone else."
Owen looked at him thoughtfully. "Well," he finally said. "Then I see no problem." He turned back to his computer. Ianto stood beside his desk. Owen looked up at him. "Anything else?"
"No," Ianto said quickly. "Nothing." He turned away and walked back to the kitchen niche.
Owen smiled at the Weevil baby. "And that's how you surprise Ianto Jones," he said softly.
xxx
"A lot of work at the moment?" Rhys asked and his voice sounded unnaturally loud in the silence of their flat.
For the first time, Gwen became aware of the fact that there had been a time when Rhys and her had talked a lot while eating breakfast together. About her job with the police, about his work, about the rivalry of their two sets of parents. But since she had started to work for Torchwood, she couldn't talk about her job anymore and Rhys ran out of stories about his colleagues and it wasn't fun anymore to laugh about their parents when there were problems bubbling underneath the surface of their own relationship: Gwen's affair with Owen, Rhys's anger about the secrecy and the fact that they spent less and less time together. There were also the dangers of her job. Rhys's initial pride that Gwen had been promoted into a special unit had now given way to constant worry. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she'd come home with a gunshot wound a couple of months back. At the beginning, she'd been touched by his concern; now she was annoyed. And Rhys was irritated because she was annoyed.
Gwen looked up from her breakfast and at Rhys, who was sitting across from her at the bar that separated the kitchen niche from the lounge. "Pardon?"
Rhys frowned. "I asked whether there's a lot of work to be done. You were home late yesterday."
"Oh ..." She nodded and smiled, hastily adding, "Yes, a lot of work."
"Lately, you work late into the night very often. You don't get enough sleep."
Gwen hesitated a moment and then looked up at Rhys. He seemed worried and she felt bad because she lied to him so often and so easily. Lately, she hadn't worked late nearly as often as Rhys thought she did. While Torchwood was a job that required late hours on a regular basis, she also met up with Owen sometimes. Gwen wondered sometimes why she kept on sleeping with him and had more than once decided to stop, but so far, she hadn't been able to. She put a hand on Rhys's cheek. "Don't worry. It's mostly just paper work."
Her mobile announced a text message and Gwen immediately reached for it. She noticed Rhys's annoyed look but she ignored him. There was a rule in Jack Harkness's team that should never be broken: never ignore texts and calls. But the message wasn't from Jack, it was from Unknown.
Apollyon, 7pm
Only a moment later, another message arrived – this time from Toshiko.
Did you get the invitation?
Gwen answered quickly.
Yes. See you in the Hub.
She stood up and slipped the phone into her jeans pocket. "Okay, I gotta go. I'll be home late."
Rhys sighed. "Of course."
She kissed him and left, like always worried that he wouldn't be there anymore when she got home.
xxx
"You gave them your mobile numbers?" Jack asked, stunned.
Gwen crossed her arms. "What should we have done? Jessica wanted the numbers, we want to belong. There was no reason not to give them to her."
Jack sank into the chair at the head of the boardroom table. "Now they have your numbers. Who knows what they'll do with them."
One moment it was quiet, then Owen said, "What's done is done. I'm with Gwen on this one. They had no choice."
Jack frowned. The door to the boardroom opened and Ianto entered, carrying a tray with coffee mugs. For the first time, Gwen noticed something she would have never realized a few days ago. A calm settled over the group and Jack relaxed a bit. Gwen noticed that her anger faded slowly. She stared at Ianto who put down a cup for her. He probably did it unconsciously but he was projecting that calm feeling. As he'd always done. She was fascinated.
Jack sighed deeply, "Fine." He nodded at Tosh.
She cleared her throat and glanced repeatedly at her laptop while she reported, "I used a facial recognition software to analyze the video. Unfortunately, not all the members have been filmed with the cameras but most of them have. And we know them. From Torchwood cases dating back to 1998."
Owen asked, "What's with that group leader – Jessica?"
"That's interesting." Tosh typed something and said, "Her name's Jessica Hilton. Her picture wasn't found in our case records. Nevertheless, there was a hit. She's considered missing since the year 2000. Her family in Edinburgh reported it. They say that Jessica worked for the government in Inverness and just disappeared."
Jack cleared his throat. "Inverness," he repeated slowly.
"Scotland," Tosh said with a nod.
Ianto sat down beside her and leaned in to look at the screen.
Gwen said, "The question is: Why doesn't she contact her family?"
Jack interjected, "Let's not focus on Jessica for the time being. We should-"
"Jack," Ianto said. It was unusual that he interrupted Jack during a meeting, so it wasn't just Jack who looked at him in surprise. Jack's face darkened immediately.
Owen seemed to notice that as well because he asked, "Okay, what's going on?"
"Jessica Hilton didn't work for the government."
"Ianto!" Jack said sharply.
"You said there wasn't enough evidence but now there is!" Ianto replied just as heatedly.
"What the hell is going on here?" Owen said.
Ianto stared at Jack challengingly. It seemed like there was a mute discussion happening between them, a wordless dispute, then Jack cleared his throat and leaned forward to clasp his hands on the table. His knuckles were turning white because he entwined them so hard. Gwen could only guess how much effort it cost him to stay calm. Jack didn't like to be challenged in front of everyone. She feared that Ianto would have to face consequences later. She knew this from personal experience.
Jack said, "Inverness was the location of Torchwood Four."
Gwen raised a hand. "Wait, does that mean that Torchwood Four is involved? Aren't they gone?"
Jack stared at Ianto while he answered, "I'm sure they are, that's why I didn't want to mention it in the first place."
Tosh cautiously said, "Let's say they're back ..."
Owen snorted. "Apparently, they aren't fans of us."
Gwen looked at him warningly. "We don't know that. Tosh and I are going to talk with Jessica this evening, see what we'll find out." She looked at Jack. "How long have you known that Torchwood Four could be involved in this?"
Jack looked back at her calmly.
"Would you have told us if Ianto hadn't forced you to?"
"Torchwood Four is no threat to us."
"You might think so but you could be wrong, Jack. You're only human."
Owen added, "I'm tired of all this secrecy."
Jack stood up abruptly. "This is still my base, my team, my decision! Torchwood Four is gone, at least I thought ..." He swallowed. "... hoped so." He folded his arms. "This isn't about secrecy, it's about protection. I wanted to protect you."
Gwen asked, "From what?"
"Torchwood Four doesn't have a conscious. The fact that they have found a way back from exile proves that they're more intelligent than we would ever have believed them to be. A dangerous mix."
Owen frowned. "Wait a minute ... exile? Did you make them disappear or something?"
Jack looked at him earnestly. "Or something," he answered. "I, Torchwood One and Torchwood Two, UNIT and the Queen."
Gwen put a hand over her mouth. "Oh, my God," she murmured.
"None of them should be here," said Jack.
It was quiet and Tosh said softly, "Okay. How about I compare the Torchwood Four personnel files with national and international databases? If the facial recognition software found Jessica, then perhaps the others as well."
"The personnel files contain no pictures," Jack said. "We never had any. Torchwood Four was an anonymous unit and only the directors of the institutes knew their faces."
Owen leaned back in his chair and sarcastically said, "Oh, wonderful. So one of them could already be sitting at the table with us." He looked at Ianto with a wry grin. "And you're really from Torchwood One?"
"Owen!" Tosh said, shocked.
"Just a joke. Calm down, would you?"
"A cruel joke."
"Quiet!" Gwen said loudly and stood up, both hands raised. "Let's calm down." She rubbed her forehead.
For a moment, there was silence. Then Jack put his hands on his hips and quietly said, "You want a reason why I didn't tell you." He looked around. "Fine. I was scared. Inverness was the pride of the Torchwood Institute and it became the black sheep. They went too far." He sat down again. "They were scientists – a joint venture of Torchwood and UNIT –, responsible for drawing medical benefits from alien technology. Torchwood One had a department for it but they were merely assistants to Torchwood Four." He sighed. "Torchwood Four was successful. Very successful. The best in the world worked for them. And they wanted it all. They found a way to equip people with supernatural abilities – telepathy, empathy ... they wanted to use these powers to give Torchwood more influence, to form their own government which eventually ..." He smiled bitterly. "Would control the world."
Owen snorted. "World domination? Very original."
"We had to intervene. We used alien technology to banish them."
Gwen's eyes narrowed. She wondered where one could banish a group of people to so that they never returned and she didn't find an answer. At the thought of the things Torchwood and UNIT had at their disposal, she had to know the answer or she would forever think about it. "Where to?"
Jack looked at her, his blue eyes sad. "The gap between time and space - the Void. There's no return from there."
Owen raised a hand. "Yes, there is, when one of them is here, that could mean-"
"One of them," Jack interrupted him impatiently. "That doesn't mean that the others are here, too."
Gwen cleared her throat. "Okay, let's use that. We focus on Jessica."
Jack nodded. "They seemed to have accepted the both of you."
Tosh nodded. "We should find out why they only recruit members that are associated with Torchwood. I'm surprised that they let me and Gwen in."
Ianto replied, "I'm not." Everyone turned to him. He seemed surprised by the attention – or even by the fact that they didn't know what he meant. Ianto was often one or even two steps ahead of them. Gwen liked that about him. She wasn't sure if he knew how smart he was. "The group's interested in Torchwood," Ianto said. "The probability that they know us is very high."
Gwen frowned, worried. "Where from?"
Tosh answered, "Mary knew us. She mentioned collectors of alien artifacts who are in contact via the internet. I checked and it's true. Many of these people may only be conspiracy theorists, but some aren't so far off the truth. They know officials from UNIT and Torchwood and there are mentions of the Doctor."
Jack added, "And then there are alien artifacts. We know that there's a black market, so of course there are collectors. We know only a few of them."
Gwen leaned back in her chair. "Why don't we just go in and get their artifacts?"
"Because they don't make it public. As long as they don't do anything that might endanger someone, UNIT and Torchwood overlook what they have. It would only call for unwanted attention, if we'd take action against them. Plus, it's difficult to get hold of their collections. And as long as there are collectors we can identify, we have links to the black market and maybe we can follow them one day. The black market is more interesting than the collectors."
Owen sighed. "The point is that Gwen and Tosh will go there in the assumption that these people know exactly who they are?" He folded his arms. "That sounds like a trap."
"Not if we know that it is," Jack replied.
