Tosh's hunch turned out dead on about the ex-boyfriend. Emphasis on dead. Not only were we too late to catch Carys, but now we had no idea where she would head next. Despite what I told Gwen, Carys' short romantic history was a factor working against us. A longer list of possible victims might have given us a clue to where she was going. We regrouped with Tosh and Owen, who temporally abandoned the spare car in the lap dance club's parking lot. Their investigation had turned up nothing, although according to Tosh not for lack of trying on Owen's part.
"For the last time Tosh, I was gathering information."
"I was able to interview the bouncer without having him straddle me."
"I was being polite. It's rude to interrupt someone while they're trying to earn a living. I figured there was no harm in letting us both do our jobs at the same time." Amusing as this was, it was time to cut this conversation off. Not that this wasn't an important discussion, but we needed to get back to the slightly large issue of the killer alien.
"So what's our next move?" Got to hope somebody in the car had a better idea than I did.
"Stop the entire city of Cardiff from shagging?" Brilliant solution Owen. About as easy a task as creating world peace.
"Hm. Put bromide in the water supply." We'd gone the chemical route last time when we were dealing with the aliens trying to spawn their next generation using women as incubators.
"No, too hit and miss." We'd learned then how irregularly some people in Cardiff shower and wash their hands. It was a little disturbing.
"Yeah. The water company got pissed off last time we did that." Between the little tyrannical man who ran the treatment plant and the creatures that had been ripping themselves out of the women's wombs, I'd face the creatures again any day.
"It could have used any body in Cardiff. Why her?" Tosh had a point. Even if it couldn't get to us through our gas masks there was still a whole camp full of soldiers, both male and female, a whole lot closer than Carys.
"I just assumed it was random." But it wasn't. I should have seen this before.
"It's mining Carys' life to get what it needs." The ex-boyfriend taught us that. The key to finding next victims is somewhere in that stack of papers Gwen accumulated.
"So, what else do we know about her?" I can remember exactly the way Gwen had looked at me when she said we should be helping Carys, but when it came to the details of her presentation I drew a blank.
"Anything you can think of?" Please let Gwen remember something useful.
"What are you all looking at me for?" Because you're the only one who bothered to find out anything about our victim/target.
"You did all the profiling!" While we were off having Chinese.
"I don't know. Sorry." Fair or unfair, first day or not I can't let her off the hook when she's our best bet of finding the girl.
"She's really great under pressure." At this point Owen's unpleasantness barely registers on my radar. Gwen is the priority.
"There's gotta be something. What did you say Carys' job was?" That had to be relevant, even people who didn't work for Torchwood spent most of their lives doing there jobs. God knows how they did it, the same dull things day in and day out. If I had a job like that that I'd probably shoot myself in the head for amusement every day.
"She's just a temp. Receptionist." Hard to see how that would interest the alien, unless Carys had an inappropriate male boss. Sexual harassment was still a pretty touchy issue in this century. Only way to find out is to track down the boss.
"Where's she working at the moment?" Please say somewhere close by.
"I can pull her employment files up. Conway Clinic." And the address is….
"You're joking." I can't really see how any of this is funny.
"What's the problem?" Please let Owen be contributing something useful for a change.
"It's a bloody fertility clinic. Sperm donors. An unlimited supply of orgasmic energy without all the build-up." Ladies and gentlemen we have a winner. Enter Conway clinic into the GPS and bingo we've got her. Maybe twenty minutes away from our currently location. Let's see if I can't make it in ten.
"Owen." He didn't need to ask what I wanted, we done this too many times. Owen opened the weapons case and passed back firearms to Toshiko and Gwen. The alien was too desperate and out of control for me to justify denying Gwen the right to protect herself.
"What's this for?" You'd think a former police constable would understand the concept of a gun.
"Need a diagram?" Fairly simple really, pull the trigger, the bullets go into the other guy.
"I've never used a gun." She's kidding right. Please let her be kidding.
"You were in the police!" I may not be that familiar with the inner-workings of law enforcement, but I at least assumed they carried something besides badges to stop escaping criminals.
"I was on the beat!" And that means what, any armed criminals that came her way wouldn't be threat to her because she hadn't made desk-sergeant yet? Who the hell were the Cardiff police to endanger Gwen by sending her out on the street without any protection?! Clearly not an organization that ever deserved her.
"Carry it. I'll make sure you don't need to use it." I at least am responsible enough to protect her.
"What do we do if we find her? How are we going to get it out of her?" Good question.
"Judging by the test results, the gas needed a host because prolonged exposure to our atmosphere is poisonous to it. But our bodies are the perfect environment." See I knew there was a reason we spent so much time on the science.
"So, if we isolate it from Carys' body ..."
"It won't survive for long."
"Sounds like we have ourselves a plan." Alien dead. City secured. All in a day's work.
"Force it to die." I wonder what's going through Gwen's mind right now. I can't imagine someone who's never held a gun has a whole lot of experience with killing, let alone killing sentient creatures.
"Just like it did those poor blokes." They are the real victims, the ones to remember, them and the future victims won't even know they've been saved.
"What about Carys?" I wish I could say something comforting right now, like 'we'll save her' but I have now idea how this will play out.
"Better start praying we get to her in time." Praying, now there's something I haven't done in a few decades. Maybe it was time to make an exception. It hasn't happened often in Torchwood history and but occasionally there have been recruits haven't lasted past their first Torchwood assignment. Some are too horrified by what they see. Some are too horrified by what we do. Some die. Like I said, it doesn't often happen, but it does happen. Since I took over Torchwood less than a decade ago I haven't lost anyone. I'll damned before I let Gwen become my first.