Chapter Twenty-Five
Martha ducked again as another bullet bit into the wall above her, and she flinched when Ianto and Gwen returned fire.
She heard several cries as their bullets found their marks, and was moving before their cries died away.
The trio moved as fast as they dared down the steps, unsure of what they may encounter on the way down.
They all froze when they heard a gunshot and someone's cry.
That sounded like..." Gwen began.
"The Doctor!" Martha finished and began speeding down the stairs, followed seconds later by a startled Ianto and Gwen.
"Martha, wait!" Gwen shouted, acutely aware that the cry they heard could have a myriad meanings.
She risked losing her footing in an attempt to catch up with Martha, whose speed was fuelled by finding the Doctor.
She rounded a corner at sped and nearly fell over Martha, who had stopped.
It wasn't until she got her balance back and had moved round the very still Martha that she saw why Martha had stopped.
Sprawled over several steps was the lifeless body of Jack, a pool of blood slowly oozing its way down the steps.
She was pushed aside roughly by Ianto, who fell to his knees in front of Jack.
"No!" he cried and gathered Jack in his arms, ignoring the blood that seeped onto his clothes.
"I'll kill him. I'll kill him," he kept repeating.
"He couldn't have, not Jack," Martha said quietly, not taking her eyes of the weeping Ianto and the pooling blood.
Gwen carefully stepped past Ianto, not wanting to look at the gaping hole in Jack's head.
She narrowed her eyes when she spotted something.
On the steps below were bloody shoeprints and bloody footprints. She looked up and saw bloody handprints on the wall.
"Ianto, the Doctor didn't kill him. There are two sets of prints, there were three people here, and one of them was barefoot, and I don't think it was our white coated friend who was barefoot."
Ianto looked up, his eyes glistening with tears. "The Doctor, he was here and White Coat. Jack must have been trying to..."
Jack suddenly stiffened in Ianto's arms and took in huge gasp of air.
"No!" he cried out as he came rushing back to life, and found himself in someone's arms.
"Sssh, it's alright, it's me," Ianto said softly as Jack tried to pull out of his arms.
Jack struggled up and looked round wildly, seeing Martha and Gwen but not who he wanted to see.
"White Coat, he's leaving, he taken the Doctor," he said.
He tried to stand but his legs wouldn't co-operate, he frowned...why not.
"Easy," Ianto said, supporting him as he stood. "White Coat shot you in the head, it might take a while to get right."
Jack's frown turned to a scowl.
"The bastard, he made me put that dammed control collar on him," he snarled. "Now I've lost him."
"No, hang on a second," Ianto said and took out the schematic device the Cynrog had given him.
They all crowded round Ianto, trying to see the small screen.
"These stairs only go to what look like a laboratory, so they couldn't...no wait, there's another area...a hangar!"
"Of course, that snake would have his own escape route, that's where he's taken him, he's running," Gwen said.
"The hell he is," Jack growled and took off down the steps, the others not far behind him.
White Coat's patience was running out. His property was still struggling to escape, despite having had several more painful reminders to obey him.
He sighed when they finally managed to drag him into the small hangar that held his personal shuttle
His property was only silenced when he was thrown onto the floor and one of the guards knelt on him.
White Coat crouched down beside the pinned down figure and roughly took hold of his head and prised one eye wide.
"Hmm, the sooner I get that out of you, the better. You're no good to me blind. Chain him up in the hold, make sure he can't move."
He watched as his property was man-handled into the shuttle. "Now, where is Dr Michaels?"
Sarah Michaels had slipped past the large lizards that were patrolling the corridors. She had to be outside in less than five minutes, her own escape was due to pick her up.
She carried a small container; the contents were going to make her very rich, beyond rich.
For a fleeting moment she felt a little guilt, not a double-crossing White Coat, but at having to poison the donator of the contents of the container. It had pained her to destroy such a unique individual, but sometimes personal revenge outweighed scientific matters.
She stepped out of the base and saw that her transport was already descending, and with a satisfied smile, she walked towards it.
"What is going on, get this shuttle airborne!" White Coat snapped.
The pilot, who was pushing buttons frantically, shook his head. "No can do sir, it looks like the propulsion engines have frozen, we not going anywhere."
White Coat let out a snort of disgust and climbed out of the shuttle and opened the door to the hold.
"Get that out, we have to get to the main hangar."
He stood to one side as his property was unchained and dragged out of the shuttle, its only protest a whimper of fear.
They all jumped when the door to the hangar burst open and a bloodied angry captain appeared in the doorway.
"Don't move or so help me I'll kill you where you stand!"
White Coat reacted in a way that Jack hadn't expected. He'd expected him to order the guards to open fire, but he didn't.
Instead White Coat grabbed hold of the chain attached to the Doctor's collar, and dragged him in front of him.
Jack saw the glint of something metallic...a blade.
"Enough captain!" White Coat shouted. "Move any further and I will slice it open!"