Jack finds out what Hart and Grey are up to.
This chapter rated PG-13. Comments, questions, and suggestions are always appreciated!
tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw
"Any news from the police?" Owen asked Gwen as they walked to the conference room for the status meeting.
"Nothing even remotely strange reported yesterday or this morning," Gwen replied sounding frustrated. "Whatever Hart is up to, he's managing to keep under the radar for now."
"Hopefully the others have something useful to report," Owen said opening the conference room door for Gwen. "Or not," he added spotting Jack and Ianto in each other's arms. "Oi, should we come back later?" Owen asked. Gwen giggled as she watched Jack and Ianto pulled apart.
"No, no; I was just getting a cuddle from my life mate," Jack replied with his usual grin while Ianto rolled his eyes. "Where's Anian?"
"Anian and Harold will be here in a couple of minutes," Gwen answered as she, Owen, and then Tosh walked into the conference room. Everyone helped themselves to coffee and biscuits Ianto had placed on the table.
"Sorry we're late," Anian said striding into the room with Harold. Everyone sat down. Ianto felt a bit uncomfortable sitting at the head of the table while Jack sat to his right, but Jack had insisted.
"Harold, thank you for joining us at short notice," Ianto said. He'd briefed Harold on the situation yesterday and wanted Harold to come in as an advisor. Jack was pleased with Ianto's decision.
"Always a pleasure to help whenever I can," Harold replied.
"Right then; Tosh and Anian were you able to deploy the miniature surveillance robots?" Ianto asked.
"Yes, deployment went fine," Tosh answered. "Anian did a great job setting things up near the abandoned building and I was able to fly the robots in undetected. There was no activity yesterday and most of today until we captured some footage about ten minutes ago. I haven't had time to go through the footage, so I'm not sure what's on it, Jack," she added.
Jack and Ianto both realized the footage could reveal Hart was setting a trap for Jack using his brother, Grey, as the bait or worse. Jack closed his eyes, breathed deeply, opened his eyes and nodded at Tosh. Ianto and Jack held hands under the conference table supporting each other. Tosh hesitated briefly before she punched in a couple of commands on her keyboard and the conference room screen sprang to life. They all watched as Hart and Grey teleported into the warehouse. Hart held a bag in his hands and almost stumbled as Grey shoved him forward.
"Plant the last of the bombs in each corner of this floor and be quick about it," Grey commanded.
"You don't really want to do this Grey," Hart said quietly.
"Don't tell me what I want or don't want," Grey snarled as he backhanded Hart across the face. "Now get to work."
Hart placed the last two bombs at opposite ends of the floor before returning to Grey.
Grey smiled and said, "Now that wasn't so hard to do was it?" Grey slung his arm over Hart's shoulders and everyone saw Hart flinch. "I'm so grateful you rescued me Hart, even though it was for your own selfish purposes. Now I can make my brother pay for all the torture and abuse I suffered as a slave because he didn't protect me like he promised."
"He searched for you for years Grey; I only found you by pure chance," Hart tried to explain, but Grey grabbed Hart by the throat and slammed him against a wall.
"He may have searched for me, but he didn't find me, did he?" Grey said. "But you Hart, you found me and I am truly grateful. In fact, I'll let you live and even let you go once I have my hands on my brother. All you have to do is follow my orders; otherwise I'll set off the explosive device I've attached to your wrist strap." Grey mockingly kissed Hart's forehead. "Now, we have to plant the rest of the bombs and put the signal devices in the sewers so I can control the Weevils. Torchwood and Cardiff will never know what hit them." He released his grip on Hart's throat. Grey punched some buttons on his Vortex Manipulator and the two men disappeared into the light from the rift opening.
Tosh quickly turned off the video. "I'm so sorry, Jack," she said.
Everyone looked at Jack. His eyes were bright with unshed tears and he felt absolutely gutted. "It's all my fault," Jack said. "Because I let go of his hand during the attack he was captured and tortured. And now he's going to destroy Cardiff because of me. Maybe if I surrender to him, he'd leave the city alone."
"Surrendering to your brother is not the solution Jack," Ianto replied.
"Ianto's right Jack," Harold agreed. "Obviously the abuse Grey suffered as a slave has driven him mad and in order survive, his damaged mind transferred all the blame onto you letting go of his hand which we all know is utter nonsense. Surrendering to him won't stop him from attacking Cardiff. Don't let your childhood guilt cloud your mind, Jack."
Jack thought about it and had to agree with Harold and Ianto. "Alright," he said, "I won't do anything right now. Ianto, you're in charge – what do we do?"
Ianto wanted to be alone with Jack and comfort him, but now was not the time. He squeezed Jack's hand briefly to reassure his life mate before addressing the others. "We've got a couple of things in our favor right now; one, Grey and Hart don't know we're aware of their plans and two, they don't know about Pack Security working with Torchwood. Here's what we're going to do . . ."
tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw~tw
Note from socalrose: Sorry, to leave you hanging, but this was the right spot to end the chapter. What do you think of this chapter?