Chapter 25
"Is she coming to?"
The voice sounded to Rose like it was coming from far away, almost like it was coming from under water.
"I think so. It should be wearing off by now."
That was a different voice, Rose thought.
"It's about time. I don't have all night. And with the power out pretty soon we won't be able to see in here."
That was the first one again.
"Well, it's your fault. You're the one who wanted to give her that last dose. I told you not to."
Rose's mouth felt so dry. She tried to lick her lips, but realized she couldn't open her mouth.
Drugged. I must have been drugged, she thought. But when? Where was I? The staff meeting. She remembered seeing the Doctor talking to her dad and… Frank Collins? She just couldn't remember for certain. Her head was pounding.
"Come on! Wake up!"
Rose's body jerked as she felt someone slap her face. She winced in pain and forced her eyes to open. It took a moment for her vision to come into focus. Two figures stood before her. The first one was a man with sandy brown hair and was a little younger than she was. He seemed to be fairly tall, but she really couldn't be sure from where she was seated. His Oxford shirt and blue jeans didn't hide the fact that he looked like he spent quite a bit of time in the gym.
The other one was Lisa Hallett.
Lisa seemed to have changed out of what she had worn to the meeting, a dressy blouse and trousers, into jeans, a sweat shirt, and expensive trainers. As Rose realized that, the rest of her memories returned to her in a rush. Lisa had been acting suspiciously so she had followed her out to try to talk to her. There had been the confrontation in Bradford's lab and then Lisa had sprayed some sort of drug in her face. She had passed out, and when she had come to, Lisa had somehow managed to tie her up and carry her unseen to the car park. At least she must have done. All Rose really remembered was coming to while being shoved into the boot of a car and then Lisa drugging her again.
"You didn't need to hit her," the young man protested. Lisa Hallett ignored him.
So it had been Lisa who had hit her. Instinctively, Rose tried to swing her arm up to hit her back, but her arm wouldn't move. She jerked in her chair in an attempt to get up, but the whole chair moved with her. She looked down at herself. She was tied around the waist to an armless wooden chair, her arms uncomfortably forced behind the back of the chair and somehow fastened together at the wrists, ankles… taped to the front legs of the chair with what looked like some sort of heavy duty industrial tape. She wanted to call Lisa a filthy name, but her mouth still wouldn't open. She could tell it was taped shut, could feel the heavy tape sticking to her mouth and cheeks.
Lisa Hallett reached over and roughly ripped off the tape covering her mouth.
"Ahhhh!" Rose gasped at the sudden pain, and swore at her.
"Now, now, temper, temper," Lisa responded. "There's no need to be crude."
Rose looked around the room. From what she could see, it appeared to be either a small disused bedroom or office. There didn't appear to be much in the way of furniture, only the chair she was on and possibly a couple of others, not counting whatever was directly behind her. With a rush she remembered seeing someone lying on the floor earlier, but she didn't see him, or her, anywhere.
"Where are we? Why am I here? What's going on?" Rose demanded.
"I'll ask the questions if you don't mind," Lisa responded. "First of all, what do you know about my project?"
"Your project?" Rose stared at her in disbelief. "Your research project? The alternative energy project? That's what this is about?"
"Yes, of course," Lisa responded. "Come on now, I know you're not stupid. You and that friend of yours, John Smith was it, were discussing it at the meeting today."
"I don't know anything about your project," Rose lied.
"Come now. Of course you do. You basically said you did during the meeting. I just want to know how much. And you needn't lie. I shall be able to tell if you are lying."
Rose's eyes narrowed. "I saw your psi rating. You're good, but it doesn't mean you can just read my mind. Torchwood does offer some mind shielding training, you know. If you work there you must have gone through it yourself."
"Oh, you might be surprised at what I can do. But my psi rating is just part of the story," Lisa bragged. "My empathic rating is much higher. You see, I don't have to read your mind to see if you're lying. I can just read your emotions. For instance, right now, I can tell that despite you being angry, you are getting worried. Why is that, I wonder? Could it be you have something to hide?"
"No," Rose said coldly.
"No?" Lisa asked. "I think you do. I think both you and your friend, what was it again, John Smith? I think you both have something to hide. And if you want it to stay hidden, I think you need to cooperate with me."
"Director Tyler?"
At the sound of his name, Pete Tyler turned toward the door to the lab. Ianto Jones stood in the doorway. To Pete's surprise, Ianto was accompanied by Owen Harper.
On the surface, the two men from Cardiff couldn't have looked less alike. Jones, holding himself so straight that he was almost at attention, was dressed meticulously in a grey three piece suit and tie. Harper, wearing a black leather jacket over jeans and an open-necked blue Oxford shirt, was slouching in the doorway beside him. Those who knew them, however, would have been able to recognize a look of concern in Ianto's serious expression, and an identical level of concern underneath Harper's usual smirk.
"What's the meaning of this?" Pete asked Torchwood Three's doctor. "I asked Ianto Jones to come. What are you doing here?"
"Director Tyler," Owen said, "you can't think we'd all just stay there and sit around while Rose is missing. I've come to help."
"With Gwen Williams pregnant and the two of you here, that leaves Torchwood Three severely understaffed," Pete said pointedly.
"Director Tyler," Owen replied, "with all due respect, Cardiff can just sod off for a bit."
Director Tyler raised an eyebrow at the Torchwood doctor. "Dr. Harper, that really isn't your call."
"No, it was Gwen's," Owen answered curtly. "She's currently the head of Torchwood Three, and she agreed that we both should come. The rift has been fairly quiet recently, the weevils haven't been causing trouble for a couple of weeks, and Rose is in trouble. We're needed here."
"And Owen's right," Ianto said, amazed that he would ever utter those words in his lifetime. "Cardiff can sod off while we get this straightened out."
Pete looked from Owen to Ianto and back again. "As Torchwood's Director I have to object to leaving the Cardiff office so understaffed," he said, pursing his lips. "But as Rose's father… I thank you for coming." Pete turned and surveyed the controlled chaos of the room. "Doctor, Jackie," he called. "This is Rose's mother, Jackie," he said, introducing her to the two men from Cardiff. He put his arm around his wife.
"Thank you both for helping us try to find my daughter," she said.
The Doctor turned when he heard Pete call him. When the Doctor spotted Rose's friends in the doorway, his face lit up and he crossed over to them.
"Thank you for coming," he said sincerely, shaking Owen and Ianto's hands in turn. "I know how much it will mean to Rose that you came."
"We will both do whatever we can to help," Owen said.
"Brilliant!" The Doctor said in relief. He could use the help, especially from people Rose trusted. "Ianto, I need you to look into the backgrounds of Richard Bradford, Lisa Hallett, Michael Fields and Sean Callahan. They were all involved in an alternative energy project here. In fact, the lab we're in is Bradford's lab. I need to know anything you can tell me about them, anything at all."
"Yes," said Pete, "right after we question you about Lisa Hallett."
Ianto looked uncomfortable, but nodded.
"I also need to narrow down our search parameters to locate Rose," the Doctor said.
"I can help with that as well," Ianto said. "Tosh and I were discussing this before we left, and she gave me some ideas."
"What can I do?" asked Owen.
"How well do you know London?" the Doctor asked.
"I grew up here," he answered, and the Doctor grinned.
"Then I need you to analyze the data on these maps here." The Doctor waved his hand at the wall. "All the recent disappearances have been charted on them. Bradford built some energy collectors as part of an alternative energy project and I have reason to believe that those energy collectors may be related to the disappearances. I need you to figure out where they are. And while you do that… I'm gonna build a new alien detector."
Rose stared at her, trying to keep her emotions under control so that Lisa wouldn't be able to sense them. "I don't know what you think you know," she said, "but my friend John and I aren't keeping any secrets."
"Really?" Lisa asked, amusement in her voice. She walked behind Rose. When she came back in sight she was carrying another chair. She moved it in front of Rose and sat down on it. "What about that trip to Cardiff that you just took? You see, I know all about it. I know that your friend John had Owen Harper examine him, and I saw the results of that examination. Quite… enlightening. But what I found really interesting is what I read in a quite different file entirely." Lisa smirked at her. "It wasn't about a John Smith at all. It was about someone called, what was it, the Doctor?"
Rose tried to remain completely motionless, but despite her best efforts, her breath caught and she felt her heart rate speed up. The other woman's mouth twisted into a cruel grin and her eyebrow rose.
"There we go. The autonomic nervous system. Look at you. I just mention the Doctor and your heart rate is going up. You're feeling nervous, scared even, and… something else." Hallett's eyes narrowed. "What is that? Could it be attraction? Ooh, I think it's more than that. So he isn't just your friend, is he? I didn't think he was. And I don't think you want everyone to know what I know about him."
"You know, this is all very fun, but I don't know what you're talking about." Rose tried to sound bored. "And I don't know anything about your project."
"You know you're going to have to answer my questions eventually," Lisa told her. "I'm playing nice now, but I don't have to. I can play a bit rough instead if you like. And Torchwood has such interesting drugs these days. Veratised, Ret-Con… And of course, perichloridol. You've had several doses of that already, haven't you? And those are just the nice ones. Some are positively nasty."
"We don't have any Veratised, Dr. Hallett," Rose heard a voice say from somewhere behind her. "We'd have to sneak into Torchwood Four to get some."
Rose turned around as far as she could. In the corner, she saw the man from before. He had been so quiet she had forgotten he was there.
Lisa swore. "No," she said finally, after a long pause, "there is another way. Sean," Lisa said, "I think it's time to show our guest to her room."
So that must be Sean Callahan, Rose thought. Wasn't he supposed to be at Cambridge?
And as Sean moved toward Rose, Lisa sprayed her again with the perichloridol.