Section 4: Puff the Magic Dragon
Torchwood Nova Scotia; Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada
Luc Sarkisian eyed his neglected lab and mentally started a list of tasks. Re-establishing security and testing the system had been their first priority. The maintenance bots repaired the structural damage. The computers and scientific equipment would have to be reviewed, tested and repaired by hand or replaced. The irony hadn't escape him. Aman from the future was responsible for the damage. The Aman from the present was helping him re-establish.
"Luc." Eryn sounded uncertain. She was having a problem with the move, but wouldn't tell him what it was.
"Hey." Luc said. "What's wrong?"
"I need to go to the store. Groceries, personal stuff."
He hadn't thought of that. "Make your list. I need to check in with Jack. Then we can shop."
Eryn looked uncomfortable. It was a lot more than having to ask a guy for personal stuff.
"Show mercy on the clueless guy. What is it?"
"Money." She was looking at her shoes.
"Nova Scotia has accounts. The same as Cardiff. Purchases will be general expenses until the system is able to handle payroll." That was obviously not the problem. "Is this about your salary?"
"What?" Eryn looked at him.
"The PR job I mentioned. You will get paid for it."
"I didn't realize."
Luc felt an idiot. He hadn't asked the right questions. "Are there any women in your father's organization?"
She look down and shook her head slightly.
"Torchwood has employed women in non-secretarial positions since Victorian times when it started. My mother and her mother were scientists." Luc stepped forward and reached for her slowly. He tipped her chin up. "Are you afraid to ask about money? Or that it has strings?"
"Yes."
"You don't have to worry about me." A beat. "When I asked you to coffee, I meant coffee. The same with the mall." Luc hadn't considered the possibility he needed to explain it. "You don't owe me anything."
Luc needed to get the payroll up and running. He never wanted to shop with a nervous female ever again. She expected everything to embarass him, and had to be encouraged to shop. He felt guilty, and wished more than anything his mother was still alive. Ruthie Sarkisian would have known what to say and do and everything.
Kailen motioned him over after Eryn disappeared into her room.
"What's wrong?"
"Part of the computer system was disabled three years ago."
"Yeah. The section was bad. I took it off-line." The biomechs weren't as determined to cause damage as the easier attackers.
"I used one of the miniature bots we brought from Cardiff." He hesitated. "The section has information of your mother's."
"Say it."
"Your mother knew about CN. Her parents developed it."
"No. CN is new. My grandparents died more than twenty years ago."
Kailen shook his head. "No. Ronald Beaupre is still alive. He's an interrogator."
"That doesn't make sense."
"We have a lot to review. We can't reconnect the newly repaired section to the main computer. There is a program from your mother's files that would either delete or conceal information. I don't know what the program's criteria is yet."
"No."
"What did your mother do for Torchwood?"
"Exobiology."
"Why would Torchwood need a biologist? They killed aliens. They didn't study them."
"Why would a Canadian biology student be sent to the Carribean to examine reptiles for the London Institute?" Luc closed his eyes. Mom.
New Torchwood Institute; London, England, 2039
The bunker was rarely used. Having survived more than a few attacks on Torchwood, and knowing the original London Institute was destroyed, she had reason to be paranoid. It also offered the option for meetings with multiple people in different locations.
"I have the com networked. Video doesn't network so well. Jack is back in Cardiff, Aman and Miriam in Nigeria, Luc in Nova Scotia, Keara and General Williams in Dublin, Trefor and Ianto are here with me." A beat. "Does anyone know what's going on?"
"One of the original corporations that conspired with Moss-Probert," General Williams said, "Is trying to distract us. Gordon-Glenn was a custom genetics company in my time. They focused on improving the human race. Their ideas were out there. They previously attempted to recreate the genetic anomaly that allows certain people access or control of the Rift. They found creatures similar to the reptiles that are used to create CN and infused humans."
"No one is messing with the Rift."
"Dael had connections with an old organized crime network in Africa," Aman said. "I have no idea what Hart told that woman about himself, but he was abducted with the intention of extracting information. He used a portal device to escape."
Keara continued. "The drug reacted badly to the portal device and the Rift. He's in 2020."
"With John missing, London in pieces, and Jack in China, an attempt was made to remotely access Torchwood Three. Presumably for the Rift device." Luc sounded tired. "Kailen was holding the fort and doing repairs. He traced it back to a facility in Scotland. I sent Puzzo."
"The explosion was equivalent to a shallow earthquake," Ianto commented. "The company is being accused of undisclosed, dangerous research. Arrests have been made in the destruction of a commercial district."
"Did any of the scientists survive?" Miriam asked.
"No," Luc said.
"General," Anwen said, "We need to check the status of other previous offenders. Dublin will coordinate, if he needs help."
"I need details on Gordon-Glenn's genetic research. We have had a few people with genetic connections to the Rift." Jack said.