Chapter 25
Tosh and Ianto had stayed in Jack's office rather than decamp down to the main area of the Hub. Ianto had retrieved the pastries that Gwen had brought in with her and poured fresh cups of coffee for each of them.
"I thought Owen said you couldn't have coffee?"
"Yeah – and Jack said you should go home and sleep."
Ianto smiled at Tosh as she raised her mug to him.
"Well we do need to be awake and alert, don't we?" Tosh winked conspiratorially.
"Yep – especially as Jack's taking a ridiculously over-powered speedboat out into the Bay just as it's filling up with pleasure boats, not to mention the occasional tall ship."
"Oh yes – it's the Cardiff Harbour Festival this week isn't it?" Tosh's eyes lit up. "I'd almost forgotten."
"So, the marquees popping up all over the Plas didn't clue you in?" Ianto teased. "Or the decorations plastered to the water tower?"
"I've had my mind on other things." Tosh fixed Ianto with the sort of glare she usually set aside for Jack. "Like psychopathic blowfish and an apparently masochistic friend who seems hell bent on getting himself killed."
"Oh." Ianto looked suitably chastised. He should have realised that Tosh would have been worried about him. Looking sheepish, he looked over Tosh's shoulder and pointed at the monitor. "So… um… how are they doing then? Are they catching up with the signal?"
"Seems like they've got a fix on it – but they're not following it directly. Must be Jack behind the wheel – they're weaving in and out of other traffic, but gradually closing in on the coral."
"That makes sense, might buy them some time before they got spotted."
"You think the blowfish will know they're being followed?"
"It's their territory, Tosh. If Jack's estimation is correct, they've had a couple of hundred years to hide their position and avoid detection." Ianto shrugged as he put his emptied cup back on the tray on Jack's desk. He found himself reaching out to touch the coral without thinking and frowned as he felt a tingling sensation in his fingertips as he gently stroked the granular surface, surprised to find it warm to the touch.
"Then it could be a trap."
"What?" asked Ianto startled by Tosh's blunt statement. "A trap? But why? It doesn't make sense."
"None of this makes sense, Ianto. That's what's been bothering me." Tosh took her glasses off and rubbed the bridge of her nose, tired despite the caffeine boost. "The attack on the Tourist Office entrance, your kidnapping, asking you to steal the coral from Jack, threatening your family. There's no pattern to this."
"I see what you mean. It's like lots of pieces to the picture, but none of them fitting together – no demands made."
"Yet – no demands, yet. It's like we've been led on a wild goose chase. She's been toying with us, getting us to react – testing us-"
"Playing with us … I know what you mean. I spent enough time in her company to know that she's cruel, but not stupid. She's up to something. Call Jack – we've got to warn them that they could be heading into a trap."
"Yes, Tosh, it had crossed my mind," Jack stated tersely. He figured that she really must have been exhausted not to have figured that out any earlier. As for Ianto not working it out, it just confirmed Jack's suspicions that he was far from well. "That's why I didn't want company. But it's OK because I'm sending them back now."
"What's Tosh got?" demanded Owen.
"She says we could be heading into a trap." Jack grinned as he brought the Sea Queen to an abrupt halt in open water. "That's why you're going to take Gwen back to shore."
"And what do you intend to do? Swim?"
"Life boat," shrugged Jack. "It's got GPS – Tosh can guide me in-"
"Stop talking bollocks, Harkness. You said that any weapons we'll need are on this boat – right? Don't tell me you're going to transfer them all onto a rubber dinghy?"
"Jack?" Gwen yelled out from the cabin. "Tosh just called me – said something about the specs for this thing – said there's a remote submarine camera or something. She suggests we weigh anchor and send that out to follow the signal."
"There you go, Jack." Owen slapped Jack on the back. "Trust Tosh, the woman's a bloody genius, even with severe sleep deprivation."
Jack scowled unhappily. He had a very bad feeling about this whole business. His left ear lobe was itching, always a reliable sign that he was being conned. His instincts were screaming out to him that something was badly amiss.
"Well? What did she say?" Ianto asked anxiously. As soon as Tosh had sworn in Japanese about Jack, he'd prompted her to call Gwen.
"She said she'll tell Jack. How did you know he'd try to go it alone?"
"It's what he does. Let's us think we're all in it together and then does something heroic that usually ends up killing him."
"Of course." Tosh sighed, wondering how on earth Ianto put up with Jack's selfless sacrifices, and then realised that he was just as bad himself. "Anyway, if they deploy the remote underwater vehicle I'll be able to analyse the data stream it transmits back to the Sea Queen."
"You've already hacked into it haven't you?" Ianto looked at Tosh in awe.
"I was working on it as soon as I saw the specs – what do you take me for, Ianto?"
"An evil genius, Tosh and I really hope I never get on your wrong side."
"Then you'd better try harder to stay in one piece hadn't you?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"So – shall we transmit any information we gather back to the Hub, or do you think Tosh has already intercepted it?"
"Really, Owen and I thought you were getting to know her better." Jack winked lewdly.
"What's all this?" Gwen caught the end of the exchange between the two men as she'd returned from the compact bathroom. She hadn't had chance to go to the loo before setting off and the splashing of waves around the hull of the Sea Queen had reminded her that her bladder was full. If she'd thought the cabin with bed and toilet had been an extravagance beforehand, she'd changed her mind. "Owen – what does Jack mean? You and Tosh? But I thought you-"
"Gwen love, you may be under the impression that you're the only one who gets any between the sheets action and pity the rest of us poor sods, but you're not." Owen pressed a finger to Gwen's lips stopping her before she said something they'd all regret. "Live with it."
"Jack?" Gwen looked to Jack for support. She was horrified at the idea of Owen and Tosh being involved in some sort of physical relationship. She wondered what they did, how they did it … and whether or not it made Tosh technically a necrophiliac.
"Whatever goes on between consenting adults is fine by me, Gwen. Even the not-dead." Jack suppressed a grin that was threatening to break out. He'd never taken Gwen as quite so prudish. "And you shouldn't ask about other people's sex lives unless you want to join in or share. I bet there's plenty of Rhys to go round – how about it?"
"Don't even think it, Jack! Keep your filthy thoughts off of my husband."
"Oi – you two, quit fighting over Gwen's hunk of a hubby and look here – the ROV's got something!" Owen stabbed a finger at the read-outs on the onboard computer.
"Look, Ianto! It's found something. Sonar is picking up something beneath the sea bed and the signal is heading straight for it."
"What's that on the camera? – it almost looks like a dolphin, but there's no tail." Ianto was staring at the pale, streamlined object that was just visible in the murky water. Jack had not enabled the lights on the ROV, not wanting it to be detected too soon.
"Oh yes. Hang on, it's metallic." Tosh frowned as she interpreted the stream of data she was downloading from the ROV. "Not big enough to be manned."
"So we've got an unmanned vessel following another unmanned, or should I say un-fished, vessel?"
"Yes … this isn't good is it?"
"Can you detect what's inside it?"
"No – but it's turning. Oh my god – it's heading straight for the Sea Queen!"
"Jack – it's a fucking torpedo!"
"Yes and it's heading straight for us – quick – get to the life boat!"
"Jack?"
"Not now, Gwen – just run!"
As Ianto and Tosh looked on in horror as the object containing their tracker seemed to lock in on the signal between Torchwood's ROV and the Sea Queen, they heard sounds coming from the level below the office. A door slamming shut and footsteps on the metal grating.
"What the hell- ?" Tosh spun round automatically.
Ianto quickly clamped his hand over Tosh's mouth and indicated that they should both drop to the floor so they couldn't be seen.
"Office boy?" a female voice called out. "Come on out, I know you're still in here."
Ianto's blood ran cold. He'd recognise that voice anywhere. It was Clytemnestra. How the hell had she got inside the Hub?
"They left you all alone didn't they? I'm surprised they trusted you in here by yourself. But you told them, didn't you? It's alright; I know the coral is a fake. I'm not going to punish you. Not for that anyway."
Ianto pulled Tosh across the floor towards the open hatchway that led down into Jack's sleeping quarters.
"Go down there," he whispered to her. "You can lock yourself in and they won't get their hands on you."
"What about you?" Tosh demanded angrily.
"She knows I'm here," hissed Ianto. "But she doesn't know that you are – I can't let her capture you as well."
"Come out, come out wherever you are. I promise I won't bite… hard that is." Clytemnestra's voice rang out, sounding closer than before. "Don't keep me waiting. You don't want to make me cross now, do you?"
Tosh crawled closer to the hatchway and slid her legs over the edge, reaching out with her feet until she felt the rungs of the ladder.
"Ianto – promise me you'll not do anything stupid!" Tosh grabbed hold of Ianto's hand in a tight grip as she pleaded with him.
"I'll do whatever I have to do. Go – now!" Ianto leaned in to kiss Tosh on the cheek. The brief touch of his lips on her skin felt ominously like 'goodbye'.
Tosh took off her shoes and threw them onto the mattress below, before making her way down a few rungs of the ladder. The last sight she had of Ianto was as he gently lowered the cover. As he did so, she could see the electronic locking device that would only allow the hatchway to be opened from inside.
"Take care," she whispered, not knowing whether or not Ianto heard her.
Once she'd locked herself in, she sat down on the edge of the bed, not making a sound. It struck her that the room was probably soundproofed as she couldn't hear anything from above. She shuddered as she wondered what was happening to Ianto. She should have stayed with him, or forced him to hide as well. Jack would never forgive her if anything happened to him. Then it hit her – she had no idea what was going on out in the Bristol Channel. She'd been about to contact Jack just as they'd heard the sound of the intruders.
Jack had been deliberately lured out of the Hub. Whether it had been the real coral that Ianto had handed over or a fake one, it didn't matter, just as it didn't matter if Ianto had told Torchwood what he was doing or not. It had been an elaborate red herring and it had worked. The blowfish had got what they'd wanted all along. The Hub.