Chapter 26

Jack had dropped to his knees at the side of the stream. The impact of what he had heard had dealt him a blow as if he'd been physically struck down. Those bastards had achieved psychologically what Morgan had failed to do physically. They had violated Ianto's mind, what would he do if Ianto was damaged beyond repair?

He would destroy them for this.

But what hurt most was the fact that he, himself, had provided them with the weapon with which to wreak such destruction. Fuck, he'd actually sent Ianto in with it. Whatever happened next, he was as much to blame as they were. If he'd only have found a way to destroy every single part of the Cyberwoman's body – if only he'd have known that they were after Ianto in the first place.

Jack berated himself - his own damned arrogance and foolhardiness had come with too high a price tag this time, and it may have cost Ianto his very sanity.

It suddenly became all too clear that although he'd used Ianto as a pawn, all along, he was the piece they had most wanted to steal. But why not just kidnap him? They must want him co-operative and willing to work with them, so this was about controlling him, getting him into a state where he wouldn't have the will to leave. And Jack had sent him into this, his most loyal friend, his lover; he had delivered him into the hands of those who could hurt him the most.

As fat tears rolled down his face, Jack slammed his clenched fists onto the boulders strewn in the stream bed, bruising his knuckles, splitting the skin and smearing the stones with his blood.

It was the sound of Owen's voice in his ear that eventually roused him from his pit of self-loathing and recrimination.

"Jack, I got Tosh to patch me in to this frequency - I know what you're thinking, what you're going to do to those bastards, snap the fuck out of it! Your priority has got to be Ianto. You have to get him out. We'll deal with those fucking bastards later. Just. Get. Him. Out."

He scrambled to his feet, angrily brushing the tears from his face, he'd already wasted far too much time. Owen was right of course, there would be time for revenge later – after they got Ianto to safety. Then there would be hell to pay.

"Tosh – can you hear me?"

"Jack!"

"Talk to me, Tosh – are you still able to track Ianto's position?"

"Yes – he's barely moved."

"But he has been moved in the last few minutes?"

"Yes, but not far-"

"I need to know if Gates and Morgan said anything else, after they…"

"After they played back Lisa's last memories? Oh God, Jack – there was no way you could have known what was in that cell."

"I should have found out before letting Ianto walk into their trap with it, Tosh. Don't let me off on this one, I'm not. Now, tell me, did you pick up on any further conversation - I…I stopped listening…"

Tosh didn't tell Jack that she had heard him weep, they all had and none of them would mention that. They all knew why, they were all affected by what had transpired and if they were worried about Ianto before, they were now terrified on his behalf.

"Morgan had Ianto moved to the back room."

"What?" The red mist threatened to descend on Jack and not leave him until he had torn that bastard limb from limb.

"He's gone for now though – Morgan, Gates and Barton, they all left. It sounded as if they were leaving some guards to watch over Ianto. Morgan told them he'd be back in half an hour. I'm tracking you as well now, Jack. I'll download the latest schematic of the cave system onto your PDA to show your position as well as Ianto's. OK?"

Jack looked at his watch – he had less than thirty minutes to get to Ianto.

Gwen was sat in the SUV, Rhys' arm about her shoulders.

"Jack will get him out of there, you know he will. I don't fancy the chances of any of those guys getting in his way." He felt that his reassurances were hollow, he hadn't a clue what had just happened, all he knew was that Gwen had fallen to pieces next to him. "What the bloody hell was all that about, Gwen love?"

"Long story, Rhys. I don't know all the facts myself. Let's just say that if you could imagine the worst possible images a person could see – the last moments from the life of a person you loved, but they were already beyond saving, and you could see it from their point of view…"

Although Rhys still couldn't fathom exactly what Gwen was talking about, the tears flowing freely across her cheeks and over her lips, the way her whole body was shaking, that was enough for him to know that whatever they had done to Ianto was something more dreadful than any of the team had anticipated.

"Is there nothing we can do?" He looked up the track in the direction that Jack had set off. He felt that maybe they should follow.

"He wanted us to wait here, but I feel so bloody useless – "

Owen slammed his fist down on the steering wheel in anger. Shit. Physical injuries he could patch up, but this type of damage couldn't be fixed with sutures and antibiotics. He hated dealing with psychological traumas; he never had been much good at the counselling aspect of the profession.

He hoped he had got through to Jack, he could imagine only too well what he would want to do to the men responsible. Fuck it, he could think of a few things he'd like to inflict on them, after all who could hold him to the Hippocratic Oath now he was dead?

Owen was also painfully aware that, in the circumstances, it would only do more harm to Ianto to witness that sort of rage in Jack.

Several miles away on a desolate hillside, Jack had reached the opening to the cave system that Rhys had described to him. The gap was too narrow to get through with the back pack on and it was slowing him down, so he took a chance and ditched it, hiding it under a thicket of bramble. He grabbed a coil of rope, looping it over his neck and under his right arm, he also shoved a few extra items into his deep pockets of his great coat.

Wriggling through the overgrowing plants, scratching himself in the process, he managed to scrape his way through the fracture in the cliff side and into the darkness beyond. He switched on the torch he was holding in his left hand and checked the PDA clutched in his right. As promised, Tosh had managed to add his signal to that of the 3D display of the cave networks, he was relieved that he could see exactly where he was in relation to Ianto's position.

It transpired that the quickest route was also the wettest one as it entailed following the stream that had cut through the hillside to form the caves originally. He had to hurry, but the slipperiness of the rocks and the loose shale were all conspiring to slow him down. He was cursing and grumbling under his breath, the need for a stealthy approach was at conflict with the necessity of moving fast. He looked at the time on the bottom right of his PDA. He had less than twenty minutes left to reach Ianto before Morgan was due to return.

Sweating profusely now, despite the chill air in the caves, he stumbled on the uneven floor of the cave. He was in a section where the ceiling was low and he had to crouch down to shuffle through slowly. The tails of his coat had soaked up water from the floor and weighed heavily behind him, slowing him down even further. This only added to his anxiety to get to Ianto before any more harm could be done. He was growing more nervous with every passing minute.

Emerging into a more open area, Jack shone his torch across the floor, moving the beam of light up the walls until he caught sight of something that didn't look natural – a pipe. Looking at his PDA he guessed that it was the same pipe that Ianto had told him about, the one he'd been chained to overnight. It was there… just a few inches off the ground, running along the base of the wall. Referring to the display once more, he worked out that if he followed the wall upwards, the cavern should open up after an incline and a sharp turn to the left.

Jack moved with more care now, wary that any warning of his approach could get Ianto killed. He was shining the torch at the floor, not wanting to light up too much of the cave in front of him. Gradually he crept to the corner, beyond which should be the cavern he was heading for. He could see light on the walls and as he peered around the corner he could see the Portakabin that held Ianto, nestled into the side, under an overhang of rock. Yellowish light spilled out of the windows, casting long shadows of the contorted rock formations across the wet floor of the cave. He could hear nothing now, except for the persistent dripping of water that echoed eerily all about him.

There was no one to be seen outside the door, so he assumed that the guards would be inside. In a way that made it easier, especially if they were under the impression that they were preventing an escape rather than an incursion.

Carefully he adjusted the earpiece for communicating with Ianto. He whispered softly, hoping against hope that he could hear him, would know that he was close.

What he wasn't prepared for was the sound of Morgan's voice. He'd been too slow. He was too fucking late. He put the PDA and torch away, and pulled two guns from a deep pocket and swore he'd kill every fucking bastard that got in his way.