Half way through the story and a glimmer of hope emerges …
Five Go Mad in 1969
Chapter Twenty
The night was seemingly endless for Enid Jones.
She sent Rhiannon home – David and Johnny needed her – and sat in the living room, the door open so she could hear the telephone better. The old photograph albums came out and she leafed through them, lingering over shots of Ianto as a baby. He had been a content baby and a loving little boy, no trouble to raise. As an adult, he had been a constant support to her, especially since he moved back to Wales. He had found love with Jack and she was happy for them both, smiling at the many snaps of them on holiday. She fell asleep looking at a photograph of them taken on a camping trip in France.
The ringing telephone woke her at seven and she rushed to answer it. It was Rhiannon seeking news. They spoke for only a few minutes, not wanting to tie up the line. Rhiannon offered to come over once David was ready but Mrs Jones put her off until later. She was going out. It was Sunday and Mrs Jones intended to attend the early service at the Methodist Church. God would answer her prayers for Ianto, she just had to have faith. Three quarters of an hour later she was in the sacred building listening to the choir and praying silently.
-ooOoo-
Jack was not at the hotel. They checked every room, occupied and not, and looked in the service areas and cellars. No one had seen him leave – there wasn't a night porter – so his friends couldn't be certain when he had left. Definitely after one when Owen had still been awake. Jack had up to six hours' head start. Although Owen pressed for immediately starting a search, Mr Sato's wiser counsel prevailed. They all needed to freshen up and have some food. After that, they would see what could be done to find Jack and start on all the other tasks awaiting them, including following up on Gwen's information. Personally, Mr Sato would have liked another few hours' sleep – he was not as resilient as these young people - but knew that was out of the question.
They quickly ate breakfast and drove to Canary Wharf, arriving before nine o'clock. The atmosphere in the car was strained. Each member of the team was dealing with the grief in their own way: Mr Sato, punctiliously polite; Toshiko, snappy; Suzie, attempting to be normal; and Owen, worrying at the disappearance of Jack. All were trying to take their minds off the loss of Ianto.
"Unless you need me for anything else, I'll follow up this lead of Gwen's," said Suzie.
"What about the search for Jack?" asked Owen. He felt he was the only one taking his disappearance seriously.
"I'll start on that," said Toshiko. "I'll check bus and rail stations, see if he left a trail."
"Send out one of those bulletin thingies. You know, so ticket inspectors look out for him," he suggested.
"I was going to." She knew her job and didn't need to be told how to do it.
"Go with Suzie, Owen. I would like you to assess the survivors' mental state. Their families are anxious to visit," said Mr Sato. Before any meetings were allowed, he had to be sure the survivors understood the need for discretion.
"You'll let me know about the search?"
"Yes, Owen. Go!" Toshiko got out of the car, one of a fleet kept by Torchwood London. She and her father went into the building without a backward glance; they had a lot of work to do.
Owen, resigned to leaving Toshiko to initiate the search, moved to the front passenger seat and sat wedged sideways so he could look at Suzie. "Tell me again what Gwen's come up with."
"It's Deborah Ford's statement, the one who saw Ianto. She was hiding from the metal men. Do you think we should start calling them Cybermen, like Martin says?"
"Sounds cooler."
"Yeah, does. Surprised he came up with it." She slowed and checked the road before turning left. There was not much traffic and she was making good time. "Anyway, Ford was captured eventually and taken to the seventh floor with someone called Idris Hughes. That's corroborated by Keith Garner, an HR survivor." She negotiated a corner. "Strange how it's the admin people who survived."
"Not really. The operatives would have gone to confront the met- Cybermen," he corrected. "They'd have been taken first."
"Guess so. Anyway, what Gwen's pointed out is that no one knows what happened to this Hughes bloke. He was with Ford and Garner who both survived; why didn't he?"
"They push him in to save themselves?"
She snorted with laughter. "You are so cynical."
He shrugged. "Realistic."
"If you say so. It's nothing really, a minor inconsistency, but I'd rather be doing something than hanging about waiting while Tosh does her stuff."
"Yeah." Owen felt just the same way. "Any idea what's going to happen in London? Mr Sato going to staff up a new branch?"
"Don't know. As long as he doesn't ask me to move I don't mind. How about you? This is your old stomping ground."
"I'm happy in Cardiff. Besides, me Auntie Enid's going to need me."
"Oh. Yeah."
Sobered, the conversation lapsed and they drove on in silence.
-ooOoo-
It was inevitable. The inflatable life raft wouldn't deflate. Rhys tried everything and finally resorted to jumping on it. He got red in the face as he jumped ever higher and Gwen, standing watching, giggled then laughed out loud. He was an ass sometimes and she blessed him for it; she needed the distraction.
He stopped jumping and looked over at her. "I'm about to have a heart attack and you're laughing!"
"Only you, Rhys, only you," she spluttered.
"What are we going do with it?" He stood forlornly, the corners of his mouth drooping down; his great idea had backfired.
"There's plenty of room." She gestured to the rest of the Hub. "Let's shift it."
The raft was awkward and they caught one of the monitors as they lifted it over the desks and threw it down to the lower level. It flopped over and landed at the edge of the pool.
"Going for a sail?" Martin had entered without them noticing and was standing at the bottom of the steps.
Gwen pointed at Rhys. "This silly bugger might. What's the news on Mac?" She straightened the monitor; no harm done.
"He had a good night and is doing well." He waited for Rhys to descend before climbing the steps. "Sandra around?"
"Not yet."
"Good, that's partly why I came in early. She had a bad turn yesterday. With everything else that was going on, I think we forgot about her. I want to give her a full medical before she starts work and if she's not up to it, I'll pull rank and insist she goes home."
Gwen was concerned. Sandra had helped in those first few weeks when she couldn't seem to do anything right and deserved their best care. "Sure. Her health comes first. We'll manage somehow."
"Thanks. Okay if I borrow the office to go over my notes from the Cyberman autopsy?"
"Yeah. I'll see how Captain Pugwash is doing."
"I heard that!" came from Rhys.
"You were supposed to!"
-ooOoo-
The nursing home was a large Georgian house set back from a quiet leafy street. The lawns were well-tended and looked at their best in the early morning before the hot sun dried them out. Suzie parked to one side and she and Owen walked to the imposing entrance. The well-proportioned hall was cool and inviting with black and white chequerboard tiles and a William Morris print wallpaper. No one was at the reception desk so Suzie went in search of a member of staff. Owen wandered round, examining the pictures on the walls. Stepping back to admire a view of Venice, he bumped into a young woman.
"Sorry," he said, stepping to one side.
She stood looking at him in something like awe. "Your face is appalling."
"Thanks!" He was making sure not to look in mirrors too often. His eyes were still puffy and the purple, black and yellow bruises obscured his other features. Luckily his missing tooth was at the side and wasn't too obvious. He made a mental note to get to a dentist as soon as he could.
"I'm sorry. That was so rude. I didn't mean that –"
"It's okay. I know it's a mess. Believe it or not, I'm quite a handsome bloke really." He grinned.
"Get away with you! Suppose you can say that when I can't see for myself." Her tone was jokey, almost flirtatious, and he responded in kind.
"Now I am offended. Here, I'll show you." He reached for his wallet and flicked it open. Behind a transparent cover was a photograph of him, Ianto and Jack taken at the latter's birthday party. He pointed to himself. "There, get a butcher's of that handsome mug."
She took the wallet and studied the photo closely, making a lot of checking the reality with the image. "Well, it is an improvement."
"You're hard to please."
"Not really. You look all right, under all that." She smiled and handed back the wallet. "You Torchwood?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"Jack and Idris. We all know them! Such a waste to womankind." She sighed theatrically.
It took him a moment to realise what she had said. "Hang on, Jack and who?"
"Idris. Idris Hughes." She pointed to the photograph. "Can't make my mind up –"
"Ah, Deborah, glad I found you. Can I have a word?" Suzie crossed the hall and joined them.
"Not you again. I told you all I know, why won't you believe me!" The woman crossed her arms and glared.
"You're Deborah Ford?" asked Owen.
"Yeah, so what? You going to start interrogating me now!" All signs of flirtation had disappeared.
"Tell Suzie who this is." He held up the photograph so Suzie could see it.
"Idris Hughes. You're the one in the photo with him, surely you know who he is!"
"I know exactly who he is, sunshine. That is my cousin, Ianto Jones. The man you said was killed yesterday." He glared at her then turned to Suzie. "Tell me you showed her a photo of Ianto."
Suzie wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. How had she made such a rookie mistake? "She was so certain …"
"I don't believe this! She identified the wrong man!" Owen grabbed Deborah's arm. "You're coming with us and we're going to get this sorted once and for all." He walked with her to the door, hope beginning to replace grief.
"What about my breakfast? I'm hungry," she bleated. She couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.
"Shut up," said Owen and Suzie together.
-ooOoo-
The church service bolstered Mrs Jones leaving her confident that good news about Ianto would come soon. She felt refreshed even though she had barely slept the night before nor eaten for many hours. Walking up the garden path, she was surprised to find Mrs Cooper waiting for her.
"Mary, have you heard something?" she asked urgently.
"Nothing definite. Just a short call from Gwen saying the position is still confused up there. She asked me to come round and check on you as you didn't answer."
Mrs Jones tried to hide her disappointment. "Come in and tell me what she said. The news from up there is pretty bad." The radio news bulletins were full of details of the terrorists who had put drugs into the water supplies creating the mass hallucination of an alien invasion. London had been worst hit, with the drugs leading to many deaths as people were driven temporarily mad.
Mrs Cooper followed her friend into the kitchen. "It's not a lot, I'm afraid. Gwen can't get a 'phone line for long. Jack is searching the hospitals where people from this car accident were taken. A lot of them haven't been identified yet so she says to keep on hoping."
"I'll never give up on Ianto."
"Of course not." There was a moment's awkward silence. "Is there anything I can do, Enid? Would you like to come us for a bit? I've got a chicken for lunch and you're very welcome to join us."
"Thank you, but Rhi's coming round later. With David. He'll keep me busy." She smiled bravely. "And Michael will be back too." The lodger had stayed in hall overnight checking on friends.
Mrs Cooper was not fooled. Mrs Jones was wearing the same clothes as the previous day, her hair was disarranged and she looked ten years older. "You need to rest. You have to keep your strength up for when Ianto comes home. Now, you go and freshen up while I put the kettle on. Have you had breakfast?"
Being told what to do was a relief. Mrs Jones meekly went upstairs to run a bath. Forty minutes later she was sitting at the kitchen table eating a boiled egg and toast. Mrs Cooper stayed until Rhiannon arrived at just gone eleven o'clock.
-ooOoo-
Alerts were issued to all ports, airports, bus and railway stations in London to apprehend anyone looking like Jack Harkness. The Metropolitan Police had been advised to look out for him too in case Jack went to ground in the city. Toshiko crossed her fingers that they were not too late to trap him in the net. He may feel alone but he was not. His friends loved him and whether he acknowledged it or not, he needed them now more than ever. Then Owen and Suzie arrived with the startling news that Ianto may not be dead, which made the search for Jack even more urgent. He could be running away from a disaster that had not happened.
Bringing to bear all her skills, Toshiko began a new search - for Ianto. If he was alive, he must have got away from the building- they just had to find him. She checked police and ambulance reports for any incident within five miles of Canary Wharf. All such reports were routinely passed to Torchwood London, normally entered into the computer by ranks of data entry clerks. The ones Toshiko needed were still on paper. Owen checked with the UNIT forces maintaining security and returned with more envelopes and pouches which had been delivered overnight. There was a lot of information to sort through and Toshiko quickly scanned it for details of anyone matching Ianto's description. Owen helped and together they worked their way through the pile.
Suzie took a tearful and contrite Deborah Ford back to the nursing home. When Suzie got back, she stayed outside checking with UNIT. Mr Sato found her there when he came out for some air.
"News?" she asked.
"No. Not of Jack or Ianto. You should not blame yourself."
"Yes I should! We could have been searching for Ianto yesterday and Jack wouldn't have gone off. This is all my doing." She kicked the ground in disgust.
"Miss Ford was convinced she was telling the truth. She did not know that for years she has confused the names of two Welshmen who both worked in Archives. Their names are similar and they even look alike." Photographs of Idris Hughes and Ianto laid side by side had shown how alike they were.
"I made a basic error. Even Gwen wouldn't have been so dumb!"
Mr Sato let that pass. "Blaming yourself will not help find him. If he is to be found. Miss Ford may not have seen Ianto enter a booth but that does not mean he escaped."
"But he might have done! It explains why his jacket was by that open window. In the confusion, he could have got out."
"There is a chance, a slim chance, that he left by that window, got onto the roof of the annex and made it to the ground. But UNIT have searched all around and cannot find any evidence of that."
"If we'd started looking yesterday we might have found him. I'm sorry, Takahiro, I know you're trying to make me feel better about this but I can't."
He sighed. "I can see that. Do you intend to skulk out here for the remainder of the day?"
"No. No, of course not. What do you need?"
"Your advice. Her Majesty is of my mind that we should learn from this … disaster. Too much power was given to Director Hartman and she misused it. To her cost." She was confirmed as among the 467 dead or missing. "Torchwood London is no more."
"What about Cardiff? And Glasgow?"
"They will continue. We are needed to monitor the Rift. Glasgow does important research. Both will remain small and secret."
"Wow. That's going to be different." It was a lot to take in and Suzie took a moment to consider life without London. No more arbitrary decisions. No more bureaucratic paper shuffling. No more internal secrecy. She grinned. "I think I'm going to like it."
"Before you get carried away, we have to wind up matters here. What do we do with this place and all it contains?" He looked up at the building knowing there was almost as much below the ground as above. It was a very large problem.
Did Ianto escape? Will Tosh and Owen find him if he did? And where's Jack?