Susan Finlay moodily stabbed the crust of her last toasty soldier into her boiled egg and tutted in annoyance when the rich yellow yolk spilled over the edge of the shell and trickled down the side of the egg cup, she swiped it up with her finger and offered it to Spike, the large black and white tom cat, who allowed Susan and Olivia to reside with him. Spike sniffed at her fingers but decide to reject Susan's offering; he was more interested in the smoked salmon Olivia was shredding onto her breakfast bagel whilst waiting for the kettle to boil to make tea. Susan leant back and snagged a small piece of salmon which Spike graciously accepted, it earned her a disapproving tut from Olivia, 'I've told you before about letting him on the breakfast table.'
Susan offered her partner an apologetic smile, 'sorry'
Olivia put the teapot on the table, gently pushed Spike to the floor and moved to stand behind Susan massaging her shoulders, 'You are carrying a lot of tension here' she murmured.
Susan snorted a short laugh, 'hardly surprising. If Tosh and I don't find out what this Jones bitch is up to soon, the whole city might go to shit. I won't let that happen...I can't'
'You 'll sort it out' said Olivia soothingly, 'You are brilliant at what you do and Toshiko is equally amazing from what you have told me. With the two of you on the case this bitch is as good as stopped.'
Susan sighed, 'yeah, I know. I just wish it was over, you know?'
'I know...but sweetheart there's more going on here isn't there? You have to talk to Captain Harkness'
Susan prodded at the toast crumbs on her plate and sighed, 'yeah I know that, of course I know that, but I can't say anything right now – he is traumatised, stressed and out of his mind with worry about Ianto and Carwyn. I'll do it when the time feels right, ok Livvy?'
Olivia threw her hands in the air, they had gone over this time and time again, 'whatever you say SuSu – it's your call, you know I'll support you whatever you decide.'
Susan turned to place a grateful kiss on Olivia's lips and sighed as her lover's hand slid subversively into her dressing gown, stroking and teasing, soft susurrations of arousal began to echo around the kitchen but the moment was broken by the insistent shrill of Susan's phone. With a long suffering grimace Olivia, removed her hand from Susan's breast and reached behind her to hand Susan her phone. Susan glanced at the caller ID and raised an eyebrow at Livvy
'Tosh. What's happening?'
Tosh's excitement was clearly audible over the phone, 'Susan, I'm sorry to call you on a Sunday; I know it's your down time but you need to get yourself to the Hub as soon as possible. I don't want to talk on an unsecured line but stuff is happening here and I really need your input'
Susan was already making her way upstairs. Livvy sat down and dangled some of her salmon in front of Spike's nose, 'looks like it's just you and me again Spike-a-doodle,' she said resignedly as she listened to her partner crashing around in the bedroom as she simultaneously attempted to dress and talk to Tosh on her mobile. Spike jumped up back up onto the table and pushed his face into Olivia's in a show of solidarity; Olivia sighed, 'thanks for the effort Spike' she said rubbing the cat behind his ears to make him purr, 'but it's not the same thing'
Tosh was typing furiously at her computer when Susan entered the Hub some fifteen minutes later. She waved a distracted hand at Susan, who made her way over to the workstation and rested her hand on Tosh's shoulder,
'What have you got?'
'I need you to look at this data' said Tosh, sending the data packet to Susan's workstation, 'tell me what you see.'
'OK' said Susan slightly mystified, 'what am I looking for?'
'Don't want to tell you,' said Tosh, standing up and stretching all over like a cat, 'I've been working through this stuff all night and I need to be sure that I am not seeing things that aren't there. I'll go and get us some coffee and Danish. I need some fresh air.' She pulled on her jacket and collected her bag from under her desk, 'anything specific I can bring back for you?'
'Mmm?' Susan was already deep in the data that Tosh had sent to her. Tosh threw an affectionate smile at the oblivious woman and made her way towards the invisible lift.
When Tosh returned some twenty minutes later, Susan was seated on the scruffy old sofa that passed as a relaxation area in the Hub, a laptop balanced on her knees and Captain Jack Harkness pressed close to her side reviewing the data that Tosh had sent her. With a smile, Tosh set down the three coffees she had brought, Jack raised an eyebrow.
'Knew you would be around somewhere' explained Tosh, as she settled herself on Susan's other and tipped the selection of pastries she had bought onto Gwen's copy of "Vogue" that she had left lying on the coffee table. She snagged a custard Danish for herself, 'so, Susan. What do you think?' she asked through a mouthful of crumbs.
Jack smiled to see his usually neat and precise tech genius speaking with her mouth full, so intense was her concentration. Susan opened a screen, 'based on what you have here,' she said, 'it look as though Baxter had been setting up a secure site, I wasn't sure what it was for at first but I can tell you these are levels of security I haven't seen since I was consulting for the European Security Agency.'
Jack frowned, 'the European Security Agency?' he queried, 'never heard of it'
'Imagine that.' murmured Susan, 'a high security intelligence agency that has been created in direct contravention of every European and international treaty you can think of, an agency that, if its existence were discovered, would completely reshape the political landscape across the planet and could conceivably trigger a world war. Why would they keep something like that quiet?'
Jack reached across and stuffed a raspberry Danish into his mouth, 'Ok, good point' he conceded in a muffled tone, waving his hand in a "please continue" fashion.
'Thank you' said Susan, she turned her attention back to Tosh, 'from the data you have her it looks like Baxter has set up a secure auction site to accommodate whatever it is Jones is planning. There is a countdown clock on the site which implies that the auction will take place on Wednesday but what is that is being auctioned I can't tell from this.' Susan tapped on the laptop keyboard and opened another window, 'so far, I have followed in your footsteps to validate your findings,' she said, and both Tosh and Jack nodded approvingly, ' but whilst you were out I took your next step for you and using the data you had found I traced this secure e-mail account to Steven Baxter, he is good as far as hiding his activities in cyber-space goes, I can see why Lisa finds him so useful but he isn't as good as Tosh' with a flourish of typing an e-mail inbox appeared on the screen, 'or me' she grinned.
'Nice' said Tosh appreciatively
Jack leant forward and, reading the e-mail addresses, let out a low whistle, 'this is a who's who or most of the large criminal organisations on this planet' he whispered in awe.
Susan tapped some of the other names with her fingernail, 'I know these names' she said, 'she is NSA, he works for The Kremlin, this woman is MI6 , this guy is Chinese counter-terrorism and...shit...this guy is North Korean!' she opened one of the e-mails, it consisted of a single word, "in"
'In?' frowned Jack, 'In what?'
Tosh switched to the sent items folder tutting in annoyance when it proved to be empty, her annoyance increased as she realised that trash folder was likewise empty. She lifted the laptop from Susan's knees and repositioned it on her own. 'Baxter has run a terminator programme to destroy all his sent e-mails, he thinks he is clever,' she told her colleagues as she typed angrily, 'but he is wrong' she finished triumphantly as one of her archaeological programmes retrieved Baxter's deleted e-mails and slotted them neatly back into the appropriate folders. Tosh opened the most recent item
From ; Cro.O
To; Interested parties
Ladies and Gentleman, the date for the auction to which you have committed is changed –
FROM Wednesday 14th
TO Monday 12th.
All other details, time, log-in number etc remain unchanged. We apologise for this late change of arrangements, which are necessary for security reasons, but the possibility of gaining control of the Cardiff Rift and obtaining a complete set of access codes for the Torchwood Three base situated under Cardiff will, we hope, alleviate any inconvenience. To signify your continued involvement in this auction, reply to this e-mail with the single word "In"
The three Torchwood agents slumped back aghast, 'She's selling Torchwood to the highest bidder' whispered Jack.
'No she fucking isn't' said Tosh. Jack and Susan looked at her in shock; rarely did Tosh resort to swearing. Tosh returned their gaze with a huge smile, 'we know who their clients are, and we can easily trace their log-in details for this auction. C'mon! Why aren't you two thinking what I'm thinking?' A slow smile began to blossom on the faces of both Jack and Susan as they caught up with Tosh's thought processes, for a brief second the handsome Captain and the plain intelligence officer looked uncannily similar.
'We can use this information to hack into all the computerised systems of their clients' said Jack
'We can send information on the subversive and illegal activities of all participating security services to the liberal media' put in Susan
'We can supply the police with evidence to close down the criminal gangs across Europe, hell all over the planet,' agreed Jack
'I can hack their secure auction site and change all the login details of their clients' giggled Tosh, 'the participants won't be able to access the auction but we will be able to by using their original passwords and then we can attend the auction in their stead. We can push the bidding sky high; greed will make Jones and Baxter reckless. They will be handing our own information back to us and they won't get a penny for their efforts.'
Jack jumped to his feet, pulling Susan and Tosh with him and engulfing both of them in an affectionate hug, 'my clever, clever women,' he laughed delightedly. He turned to Tosh, 'what do you want us to do?' he asked
Tosh blushed unaccustomed to being in a leadership role, 'We can infect the sites of their participants with my Raffles virus, once it's in it will perform a total data dump to our mainframe and then, Susan, you can use your contacts to send the data to the appropriate authorities. Jack you can help with that. I'll hack the auction site, download the I.D and password details of the auction participants for our use and replace them with new ones so they won't be able to access anything. Then tomorrow we can attend the auction and have some fun!'
An even wider smile crawled across Jack's face as he realised that, thanks to Tosh and Susan's brilliant work, he would be able to extricate Ianto and Carwyn from Lisa's grasp forty-eight hours earlier than he had anticipated. He pulled his mobile out of his pants pocket and waving it at the two women mouthed, 'gimme a moment' as he dialled Ianto's number.
In the bedroom of the house she shared with Ianto, Lisa hastily muted the ringtone of Ianto's phone then gave a wry grimace at her unnecessary caution. The Efarant Sedation Collar she had fastened around her soon to be ex-husband would ensure that he would remain unconscious until such time as she saw fit to remove it, the sleep the collar induced would not be broken when she and Baxter transferred Ianto to the place she had prepared for him and the child, it was unlikely that ten seconds of the Bond theme would disturb anyone. Ianto moaned in his sleep, 'Jack' he whispered, 'Carwyn' he struggled to move but quickly lapsed back into his unnatural sleep. Lisa stood watching him for another couple of minutes before slipping over to Carwyn's room to check on the little boy who was likewise restrained. She shook her head marvelling at the skill of Steven Baxter, who had not only found the Efarant Sedation Collar in the archives of the Hub but had also used his contacts amongst the alien underworld of Cardiff to source a child sized collar for the brat. Baxter had expressed some concern about a society that had developed sedation collars for children and she had scoffed at his scruples. Carwyn was sprawled across his small bed; that stupid plush plane of his held tightly against his chest as if, even unconscious, he was scared someone would steal it from him.
Lisa made her way back to Ianto's room and collected his phone from the bedside cabinet where she had left it. She had to placate Harkness, she knew Jack would continue to phone until his call was answered, the last thing she needed was a concerned lover turning up on the doorstep. She but her lip as she composed a message in her head and then quickly found Jack's number and keyed in a text –
Have taken Car to his nain's cottages in the Brecon Beacons. No phone coverage there. Will be back by Tuesday for our happy ever after. Love you xxx
Turning Ianto's phone off, Lisa reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out her own mobile she dialled Baxter and began speaking as soon as the call was connected. 'They're both out of it. We are good to go. Bring the van.' Without waiting for a response she ended the call. Lisa leant down to gently Ianto's face, 'I knew you would come in useful to me one day' she said with a sinister chuckle, 'and you are going to be very, very useful indeed.'
