Yvonne Hartman walked along the corridor at a steady pace, her heels clipping lightly on the floor. She looked for all the world like she was on her way to an ordinary board meeting. Except that nothing was every ordinary in Torchwood. She stepped into a lift, and tapped her foot impatiently as it took her down into the lower levels of the Torchwood Tower. Waiting for her at the bottom was an extremely sour-faced Robin Spence.

"Well?" she asked with a primness that was entirely unsuited to her.

"He's admitted helping them. Still insists that Adams wasn't involved, but I know he's lying. It's only a matter of time before he breaks."

She passed him without another word, moving down the corridor at a speed that shouldn't have been possible, given the delicate high heels she was wearing. They entered a room at the far end of the corridor, and Yvonne calmly approached the bloodied and battered figure that was tied to a chair in the middle of the room. There she stood, observing him with detached interest.

"Mr Dyer. You've been extremely disloyal to the institute. You owe us far better than this betrayal."

Tomas gazed up at her through bruised and swollen eyes. He had taken quite a beating prior to her arrival, and he could barely concentrate on what was being said, let alone reply coherently.

"Fuck you. Don't owe this place anything."

"You owe it everything. Torchwood literally recruited you off the streets, got you cleaned up and sorted out. You'd be dead by now, if not for the institute."

"Like I said… Fuck you."

She sighed, sounding disturbingly like a long-suffering parent who had finally come to the end of her patience.

"I had hoped that you might have seen sense by now, and proven to be a little more cooperative. You know that all you need to do is tell us the whole truth, tell us who was involved, and we can all get back to our usual routines."

Tomas smiled a particularly bloody and somewhat predatory smile that was made all the more gruesome for the fact that he was missing at least three teeth.

"You think I'm dumb enough to fall for that? I know you're going to kill me. I knew that when I took Ianto and Joe out of this fucking hell hole. I'm a dead man, so why don't you just do whatever you're going to do, and get it over with?"

Yvonne looked down at the young man like he was a particularly interesting type of bug.

"You're really prepared to die for that freak. Interesting."

"He's not a freak, you demented bitch," Tomas slurred angrily. "And he deserves better than this place. So yeah, you can kill me. I don't give a fuck. I'm glad for what I did, and I'll be damned if I help you get him back."

"You are right," she confirmed passively. "I am going to kill you… or at least, have you killed. How painful it is, though, is entirely dependent on you. I'm giving you one last opportunity, Mr Dyer. Tell me who aided you."

Tomas let his breath out in a rush , blood bubbling out through his lips. The beating he'd suffered had cracked a rib, which had in turn pierced a lung. He was already dying, and there was little Yvonne could do to him now that could possibly make it worse. He hoped…

"I got a call in the night from Ianto. He said he'd already tried to call Gage, but couldn't get a hold of him. He said he needed help because Joe had done something. He wouldn't say what over the phone. When I got there, Bourke and Branton were both dead. Ianto said that they attacked him and Joe, and that Joe killed them to protect him."

"And you believed him."

Tomas glared up at her, and had to resist an urge to spit at her.

"I didn't have any reason not to. He called me because he didn't know what to do. We went to see what was on the CCTV footage, and that was when we found those two idiots had turned off the CCTV footage for all of the Secure Archives. It was then that I told Ianto that he should get Joe out of there."

"You're telling me that it was your idea? Not Mr Jones'?"

Tomas snorted, and then coughed painfully.

"Yes! It was my fucking idea! All that dumb kid was worried about was what you'd do to Joe for killing Bourke and Branton. The idiot couldn't see the opportunity that was staring him right in the face. So I took them out, gave them my car and told them to get as far away as they could. With any luck, Ianto got air tickets before you froze his bank account, and they're halfway to America by now."

Yvonne tapped her foot lightly on the floor, the only sign of her irritation.

"That was very noble of you, Mr Dyer. Stupid, but noble. I do believe you, though, if only because I don't think Gage Adams would have been foolish enough to show up to work today if he had been involved. So, it's all down to you."

Tomas stared back at her in tired resignation.

"It's down to me. So what're you gonna do?"

She turned abruptly to Spence.

"Kill him. Be quick about it, though. I need you back in time for the first tests."

"What tests?" Tomas asked hoarsely. He didn't especially like the look in her eyes as she spoke, but at the same time he felt an irresistible tug of curiosity. She smiled down at him.

"A potential new power source, Mr Dyer. We're living in very exciting times. It's a shame you won't be around to witness it."

With that, she turned on her heel and stalked out of the room. Tomas watched blearily as Spence took her place in front of him, gun in hand.

"Go on," Spence said with an ugly sneer. "Beg for your life."

"Fuck you," Tomas mumbled, his head starting to droop. "Just do it."

Spence leaned in a little, grabbing him by the chin and forcing him to look up.

"You, my lad, are going to be an example to everyone in Torchwood. An example of just what disloyalty gets you. The next time someone gets cocky and starts thinking they're outside the system, it'll be your name we use to scare them back into line."

"Can I say something, Doc?" Tomas asked in a raspy whisper. It was getting hard to breathe, now, and he could feel his damaged lung filling with blood. Spence leaned in closer still.

"You going to tell me where they are, Dyer? C'mon, be a smart boy. Tell me, and I'll end it for you with just one bullet."

"If I don't?" Tomas asked.

"I might just miss, and have to leave you here to bleed out. Your choice, you little prick."

Tomas coughed, and tasted blood on his lips. He suspected he was going to drown in his own blood long before he had any chance to die by exsanguination.

"Can't… Can't tell you what I don't know. But can tell you this…"

"Yes?" Spence asked eagerly. A second later, he reeled backwards as Tomas head-butted him in the face, effectively smashing his nose and mouth.

"You're a fucking sadistic bastard, and I hope to God that Joe comes back one day and breaks your fucking neck," Tomas spat, glaring at Spence through a haze of blood. Spence howled in rage and pain. Lifting his gun, he fired not one, but multiple bullets into Tomas's head and torso. He was dead almost instantly.

Wiping blood from his face on the back of his sleeve, Spence glowered at the young man's lifeless body before walking out without another word.

"Tomas is dead."

Shocked silence descended over the group in the Secure Archives tea room. Enid had delivered the news, and her normally pale face was flushed red and her eyes swollen from crying. She stumbled over and sat down with a thud, her hands over her face as she began to cry afresh.

"How do you know?" Tristan asked in dismay as he wrapped a supportive arm around her shoulders. It was well known amongst the Secure Archives team that Tomas and Enid had been dating for nearly eight months, now, and their relationship was just beginning to get serious.

"Alison Tate told me. She said she had to help collect his body for storage. She said he'd been beaten… and shot. That… that it was punishment for helping Ianto and Joe to escape."

Several pairs of eyes automatically turned to Gage, who was looking thoroughly sick to his stomach.

"That should've been me… I should be the one who's dead. Not Tomas. I was the one who… Mmff!"

He got nothing more out before one of the other men clamped a hand squarely over his mouth.

"Don't," Alex Sutton growled in a low, threatening voice. "Don't you dare disrespect Tomas by giving yourself up now."

Gage pulled away, and scrubbed his hands over his face.

"He didn't deserve it," he said shakily. "He deserved a goddamn medal, not death by fucking Torchwood! Damn this place to hell!"

"Let's just hope that Ianto and Joe are safe, wherever they are," Tristan whispered as he held Enid while she wept. "Because Hartman will tear this city apart trying to find them."

"I'm not so sure about that," Alex murmured. "After today's tests, I heard her priorities have altered slightly. Word is that she wants Joe back, but he isn't exactly top of her to-do list right now."

"What are these tests?" Gage asked. "Is it anything to do with that giant sphere in Vault Three?"

"No, this is something else. You know my sister works in Regular Archives? Well, Tam is friends with someone who works up in the top of the Tower, where these tests are happening. I think her name's Adeola, or something like that. Tam said that her friend couldn't tell her exactly what it was all about, but she did say that the power that was generated by today's test caused some sort of apparition to appear. Apparently Hartman plans on running the same tests every day in about a month's time, and boosting the power a bit more each time to see what happens."

"I hope that crazy bitch knows what she's doing," Gage muttered, his mind still consumed with thoughts of Tomas. "Although, if it takes her attention away from finding Joe, then great. As long as Ianto and Joe are safe. That's all that matters."

to be continued...