THE SOUND OF SNOW: PART 11
Matt looked up sharply when he felt a hand rest firmly on his shoulder, he drew in a quick breath as he realised it was Jack Harkness.
"Ianto wants to talk to you for a bit, but keep it short he needs to rest."
Matt got to his feet. "Thanks, and after we've talked I'll give you a de brief on what I know about this case, there's a lot to cover."
"We'll be waiting in the conference room for you." Jack pointed to it. Matt smiled his thanks and turned and walked across to the autopsy bay. Jack told the others to wait in the boardroom and he went to his office to watch the proceedings in Owen's space via the CCTV.
Matt strode gracefully down the tiled steps and went straight to Ianto's side. It was frightening to see how little the Welshman had changed in the four years since they had last seen each other. He still looked so young, though his eyes spoke a different tale. They embraced one another, tightly, automatically as if they had never been apart and Matt found himself burying his face into the familiar scent of the man he had loved to distraction. The moment didn't last as he pulled back suddenly seeing all the monitors and the IV line.
"Yanni what happened to you?"
Ianto settled back against the pillows and closed his eyes for a moment, gathering a response.
"I'm not sure, but Owen says I'll be ok. So tell me...the FBI?" He was smiling a little cheekily. "You always said you hated the Feds and the Inland Revenue. So what happened?"
Matt settled on the edge of the cot. "I went straight to Quantico. Stayed on when I realised I could make a difference and well, you know how it goes, sometimes you just can't let go of a good thing."
Their eyes met and Ianto understood the meaning only too well.
"I'm sorry Matt. It was the wrong time for me."
Matt clasped his hand. "Don't be sorry Yanni. I was lucky it worked out for me. I'm just sorry we lost touch. Torchwood One kept bouncing the emails I sent to you, I guess Hartman really did hate interagency communications."
Ianto looked away for a moment, but realised he could feel hard metal against his hand and he looked at Matt's fingers that gripped his.
"You got married?"
Matt laughed at his incredulous look. "Simon, we have a son too. Simon's sister and brother-in-law had a baby for us. I've never been this happy Yanni." He was pulling a photograph from out of his wallet and passing it to Ianto. There were two men with a baby sitting on the edge of a couch, all smiles. Ianto gazed at the image and tried to push down the deep swell of longing that suddenly rose in his chest. He passed the picture back and smiled.
"I'm happy for you." And he was too.
Matt put the picture back in his wallet and returned it to his jacket pocket.
"So you and the Captain, huh?"
Ianto blushed stupidly. "It's complicated, difficult and it frightens me half to death."
Matt reached out and tenderly brushed at his pale cheek. "You're happy, right?"
Ianto didn't know, he really didn't. "Yes, when I am with Jack I am happy."
Matt saw through the lie straight away but said nothing.
"I have to debrief the team and I was told you need to rest, so later we will talk and you are going to tell me everything."
Ianto nodded. "I'd like that." He rested his head back down and closed his eyes, overwhelmed by feelings he did not understand, didn't want to understand for fear of what they might reveal. "Thanks for coming Matt."
"You are always welcome Yanni."
Jack flicked off the monitor in his office and sighed heavily before lurching to his feet and heading for the board room.
A few moments later and Matt entered to the sight of four expectant faces gazing at him. He placed his bulging brief case down on the table in front of the vacant chair that Ianto usually occupied and pulled off his tailored jacket, hanging it over the back of the chair.
"My name is Matt Carter, I work for the FBI." He said as he began pulling a sizeable wadge of files from his case and spreading them out over the table.
"Ianto called me yesterday and explained that you've been investigating some deaths that have thus far been unexplained. I happened to be in England investigating the same deaths." He shoved one of the folders toward Jack. "So far we are looking at a total of 163 fatalities, victims quite literally from all over the world starting from just over 6 months ago."
Owen hissed. "Shit."
"The only connecting factor with these deaths is the use of the mobile phone networks. I've been working with our best profilers and tech guys and we finally found a way of monitoring and tracking the calls. It's the other reason I was so eager to come, the most recent on the list is Ianto's and I'm guessing that is why he is your sick bay right now."
Jack nodded as he perused the extensive file in front of him, a list of the dead and descriptions of how they had died.
"So what have we got here? Weapons experimentation and controlled research? What?" He looked at Matt and was somewhat disappointed by his reply.
"We believe we have a serial killer with no obvious agenda that is politically or otherwise motivated. We have no idea how or why the victims are chosen, whoever is doing it is certainly keen to remain detached in every way and doesn't like getting their hands dirty." Matt went back to his brief case and pulled out what looked like a wireless router for a domestic internet supply.
"This is where I come into to the investigation. I've been tracking these calls and in each case we have located it to the source and found one of these. I'm not certain yet but I believe each new case represents a new device used to scramble to original source of the trigger signal. I haven't been able to get passed this device to find the signal origin. I have found these devices in Tokyo, Sydney, Stuttgard, Glasgow, London..... the list goes on. This guy has been one step ahead of me the whole way, each time I've located one of these relays the transmissions have moved to the next one. This one." He passed it to Toshiko. "I found in Birmingham in a self storage facility, yesterday afternoon. It was the one transmitting to Ianto's mobile."
Tosh was turning it over her hands, admiring the workmanship. "This is well made." She commented.
Matt nodded. "They all are. I have personally taken apart three of these and found no forensic evidence what so ever, I can't even tell you where the componenants were made, it is entirely home built by someone extremely skilled. I have two units for you to analyse Miss Sato."
Tosh passed the device over to Jack who was frowning at it intently. "I've seen one of these before." He muttered.
Matt and Tosh were both watching as he carefully prised the casing apart with his fingers and peering at the guts of the device.
"This is Cyber technology. Tosh look at this, remember from the clean up at Canary Wharf?" He handed it back to her pointing at a group of circuits within the device.
"That looks like the emotional inhibitor."
Matt watched with interest. "Jeez, I wish I'd been allowed to come to you guys sooner."
Owen broke the moment. "You were saying that that is the device used to transmit to Ianto's phone. Does that mean he is out of danger?"
Matt swung round and smiled at the medic. "Yes, so far as I know, one device, one victim, but this is only the tenth one I've tracked. It took me a long time to figure out how to locate them, but the last ten.... that's how it's been. It's still not good enough though. The only trackable signal is the one used to kill, the other signals used to activate whatever it is that happens in the brain, well they don't even register, the only reason we know about them is because of the mobile phone records listing withheld numbers and that's only on the handsets, not the company records."
"So when you get the next signal the person is already dead?" Gwen stated the obvious..... "But Ianto?"
"Got lucky." Owen answered.
Jack looked at his medic, fully acknowledging the fact that it was Owen's quick thinking that had saved Ianto's life he mouthed a silent thank you at his doctor and nodded with understanding. Matt didn't fail to notice the private exchange and smiled quietly to himself.
"So, where do we go from here?" Owen asked.
Matt sat down and shrugged. "I'll be honest, I don't know. I was kinda hoping you guys would be able use what I have to help me catch this guy."
Tosh sighed. "Is it someone from Torchwood One? I mean is it possible one of the survivors did this?"
"Cyber technology is turning up all over the world. We manage to track and intercept most of it with UNITs help, but I'm guessing whoever has it, knows what they are doing with it, but they must also have knowledge of the sound technology used to make these bad things happen as well." Jack was looking thoughtful.
"More than one or two people then?" Owen surmised.
"That was the consensus at the Bureau." Matt added.
"Ok." Jack rose to his feet and looked out of the window for a moment. "Tosh work with Matt in examining the device and see if there is any way of tracking the weaker signals. Owen and Gwen I want to go through all of these case notes, I cannot believe that these are random victims, see if there is anything.... you know the drill.... make good use of our special access. I'll talk to Ianto about the Canary Wharf survivors club." He turned to Matt. "I gather you'll be sticking around for a while."
Matt nodded. "I've got a hotel room here in Cardiff. I want to see this through to the end and I've been given free reign on this by my superiors."
Jack nodded. "Good." Knowing full well he was intending on Retconning the guy when all was done. They each got up and left the room and Matt followed Tosh who still had the device clutched in her hand.