Chapter 25
Gwen swerved to the side of the road braking sharply, as Rhys urgently nudged her to stop her from driving straight past the place he'd indicated on the map earlier.
"What the fuck was that all about, Jack? What are those bastards up to?"
"I don't fucking know, Gwen! Tosh? Listen up – get on to whoever you can get hold of at UNIT. Access my files for their private numbers if you have to. Do whatever you can to persuade them that any information they receive on Ianto has been fabricated. Then use the emergency mobilisation procedure to have a force on standby to destroy an alien weapons facility. Got that? Owen, I want you to get your ass up here as soon as you can!"
"I'm onto it, Jack. Owen's on his way to the garage already. I've provided him with a back-up earpiece, he'll continue monitoring Ianto whilst he's on the road. Good luck, Jack."
Rhys had already made his exit from the back door of the SUV and was busy assembling the bags of gear they would need. He could tell from the faces of Jack and Gwen that the situation had just taken a nose dive for the worse.
"Which way?" Jack had appeared at his side and was swinging the largest of the back packs onto his shoulders, having checked that it contained the medical kit that Owen had put together. He barely registered Rhys' presence, it was obvious he was listening intently to whatever was happening below ground.
"Quarter of a mile along this track, until you cross a stream, then follow it to the north until it disappears into the hillside. It will be overgrown and not look as if there's room to squeeze through. From there a narrow crevice leads into the main chamber. It's narrow to start with, but opens out."
"OK – you and Gwen stay here, I want you standing by –"
"I'm going with you-" Gwen began to argue, but realised it was pointless.
"No. I'm going in alone. No arguments." His stony expression gave away little, but Jack had to do this on his own. He didn't want either Gwen or Rhys to witness what he would do if he found Morgan, or any of the others for that matter.
As he jogged along the muddy track, the heavy load jostling with each stride, Jack whispered what he hoped would be words of comfort to Ianto.
"Ianto – I'm on my way. Don't listen to those bastards, there's no fucking way I'm letting anyone arrest you. They're bullshitting you. Hang on, say whatever you need to - just stay in one piece, please…"
Gates had explained to Ianto that although his colleagues had successfully covered up any trace of Tanizaki's presence in Cardiff, they had evidently not had access to the full extent of the travel plans that Ianto had carefully made. Ianto grew increasingly alarmed as Gates proceeded to explain that Tanizaki had been working for them. He had been entrusted with discovering just how much of the Cyber technology they had seen Ianto smuggle from Canary Wharf was still functional. They had proof that Tanizaki had met Ianto in Cardiff because they had arranged for him to visit their facility afterwards.
Gates waited to see what impact his revelation had on Ianto before getting up out of his seat, walking around the table and placing the metal box directly in front of Ianto.
"Open it."
"I'd rather not."
"Why not? Do you think it's booby trapped? Maybe Harkness has sent you in with a bomb?"
"Maybe he has. It's just that I really don't like handling anything to do with the Cybermen."
"I bet you don't."
"Pulse now at 130 bpm, tachycardia ... becoming irregular," Barton calmly informed Gates that Ianto's heart rate had risen rapidly.
"Well, considering where it came from, I'm not really surprised."
"He's just guessing, Ianto – he doesn't know – he's bluffing… hang on in there…I'm on my way, not far now…"
"Before he disappeared so mysteriously, Dr Tanizaki made an important breakthrough on our behalf. His research suggested that Cyber power conversion cells display intelligent learning mechanisms."
"Really? That's fascinating I'm sure."
"Oh, there's more to it than that. There is a memory component within the cell that allows it to accommodate to new situations based on previous experiences. It would seem that in basic weapons it is limited to make adjustments to voltage and current settings, whatever is required to kill. Naturally the more sophisticated the Cyber technology that the power cell comes from, the greater its capacity for a range of memory inputs."
Ianto had begun to breathe shallowly and rapidly. Morgan was now standing behind him and had his hands firmly placed on Ianto's shoulders pushing him down into the chair. The two guards had moved from the door to stand either side of him, increasing the sensation of claustrophobia. He felt well and truly trapped, a fly in the web of a particularly sadistic spider.
"But I've saved the best for last. Before we lost our esteemed colleague, Dr Tanizaki designed an interface. Brilliant piece of technology. It allowed us to download the memory input from the power cells we had salvaged from Torchwood One. Unfortunately, all of them were damaged to some extent of other and until yesterday we had recovered no more than a few images of power discharges and dead bodies at most. Until now that is. The power cell in front of you was from a Cyberman wasn't it? Don't shake your head like that – lying is a waste of your breath now. So far we've managed to recover the last twenty minutes of memory input and converted it into audiovisual output."
"Oh my God, Ianto – I didn't know – I swear, I never knew…"
Gates reached across the table to remove the power cell from the box. Ianto watched with a growing sense of despair as the scientist connected the power cell to the interface. He felt detached from reality, his mind barely catching up with what Gates had said. It couldn't be possible, it had to be a trick and he wasn't going to give in. He took a deep breath to try to steady himself. In through the nose, out through the mouth… slowly. He tried to moisten his lips, but realised his mouth was dry.
"I think it's time we shared with you the last memories of the Cyberman this power cell came from."
"NO!" yelled Ianto, automatically panicking, no longer able to keep his feelings contained. He tried to struggle free, but the hands that held him in place tightened their grip.
One by one the images unfolded before his eyes: a tableau of horrific scenes that opened up like the gates of hell and dragged him in without pity. Cold, metallic blades, sharp and sinister looking, suddenly wet and glistening with fresh blood; flesh, pink and grey; skulls and faces disfigured, mutilated. Then the sounds bombarded him, screams, and pleas for mercy, shouting, machinery whirring, buzzing, cutting, slicing … then at the very last, gunshots. He stared at the last image, frozen on the screen, his own face gazing back at him, streaked with tears, snot and blood.
Ianto could feel himself falling forward, plunging into darkness. His vision faded from the edges inwards, the room folded in about him, and as he fell into the abyss, he thought he heard a howl of agony, but he made no sound himself, not until his head hit the table.
A/N - I could be persuaded to post the next chapter early ... just saying ...