Torchwood Goes Forth
Chapter Twenty Three
Falkland Islands
"Drop it," ordered Sergeant Mills, SA80 trained on Kevin. "Don't be a fool, I don't want to kill you."
"What are you waiting for, Sergeant!" yelled Lieutenant Timothy Walker. He was on the ground, writhing from the pain of his shattered kneecap and trying to stem the blood. "You saw what he did!"
"They've gone, Sarge," reported Corporal Riley. He was watching the dead snake-creature and scanning the water for the return of the other two.
"Good." Mick Mills did not take his eyes from Kevin who was standing over Walker with the pistol in his hand. "Come on, Kevin, drop the gun."
"He's in league with them," replied Kevin, his voice level. "He was closest to the water but the creatures ignored him. Why?" The realisation had come to him in a flash and, already suspicious of the man, he had acted without conscious thought. However now he was stuck in a situation he didn't know how to resolve without more bloodshed.
"That's rubbish!" ground out Walker through clenched teeth.
"Not so sure about that," said Riley in his thick Liverpudlian brogue. "I saw one of them go right round you."
"Idiot, it's not true." Walker groaned and fought against the blackness closing in on him.
Mills kept his gun trained on Kevin. "We can talk about that when Kevin puts the gun down."
"He's working with them," repeated Kevin, gaze not wavering from the man at his feet. "He deliberately led us down here, to the beach, so the creatures could reach us. There was no need otherwise."
"He's got a point," put in Riley. His SA80 was now trained on Walker. The man was an officer and Riley should follow his orders without question, that was what he was trained to do, but Riley had learnt to tell the good officers from the bad and Walker smelt bad.
"No one asked for your opinion, Corporal!" snapped Mills.
Kevin looked over his shoulder at Mills. "Give me a chance to prove it before you call the MPs and I'll give you the gun." He had no idea if he could prove it but it would end this standoff and buy him some time.
"Sergeant!" hissed Walker. "I order you to shoot."
It was Walker's bad luck that Mick Mills was one of the new breed of NCO, trained to obey orders but also to think for himself. He had gone over what had happened and like Riley had a clear image of two of the creatures by-passing Walker. Why? If they were mindless animals they would have attacked all of them. However, if he listened to Kevin he was putting his career on the line, likely to be dishonourably discharged or even imprisoned if the Torchwood operative was wrong.
"You've got thirty minutes," he said, shouldering his SA80. "Talk fast."
-ooOoo-
Cardiff
The kitchen was steamed up as pots on the hob boiled and the oven door opened and closed. It was early evening and Gwen was finally home after a very long day. As Rhys moved around checking potatoes, broccoli and swede, Gwen sat on the sofa and cuddled her son. Daniel had been fed and changed and was ready for bed but she could not bear to let go of him. Before she had given birth she had imagined a child in the abstract and the reality when it had come had knocked her for six. He was first in her affections and there was nothing she would not do for him. Which is why, rocking the baby to sleep, she was working round to persuading Rhys to take Daniel out of Cardiff before the big 'event' took place tomorrow.
"Good old Lois," said Rhys, poking at the swede. "She and Alonso are working pretty well together."
"Yes. Gave me all afternoon to alert the French. They're going to trace this Romanian, Ilie Roman, and keep an eye on him."
"What about his emails? You going to be able to hack into those?" Rhys sipped from his bottle of beer.
"Alonso is having a look. He's a godsend, don't know what I'd do without him." She watched Daniel's face; asleep he looked very like Rhys. "He's gone home with Lois. Seems he mouthed off at the UNIT guys and they now know he's a alien." She rolled her eyes. "Lois reckons UNIT will try and kidnap him."
Rhys stared at her. "They wouldn't, would they?"
"They might, they're always wanting to study anything new." She stood up. "I'll put this one down. Hope dinner's not going to be long, I'm starving." She kissed Rhys on the lips and went off upstairs.
Rhys checked on the lamb roasting in its juices and mulled over what she had said. Alonso was human, as near as made no difference, and Rhys hated the idea anyone would want to study or examine him like a laboratory specimen. His thoughts were interrupted by Gwen's mobile. He found it under a pile of ironing waiting to be done.
"Rhys, it's Selwyn. Can I talk to Gwen?"
"Hello. What's it like down under? Lots of beautiful girls round the barbie?"
"I haven't had time to find out. Look, Rhys, I really need to talk to Gwen."
"Okay. She's upstairs with Danny, I'll get her for you." He walked into the hall as he spoke. "Gwen, phone!" he called. "What's happened?" he asked Selwyn.
"There's been an attack by those snake-creatures. Half a dozen people dead." It was clear Selwyn was rattled. "Hiram called me, same thing happened in Texas."
"More killed?"
"Two of his people."
"I'm sorry. Here's Gwen, I'll hand you over." He pressed the mute button. "Selwyn. There was an attack in Australia and Texas, people are dead." He passed her the phone and went to hold back dinner.
Gwen and Rhys finally settled down to eat an hour later. Both were subdued at the news of the co-ordinated attacks; they had occurred simultaneously in Australia, Texas and the Falkland Islands. Kevin had been distinctly curt when she spoke to him, giving only the barest details and practically cutting her off; most unlike him. Gwen had not been able to raise Vasili in Russia but had alerted his deputy who was sending someone out to the site to check.
"Rhys, will you do something for me? Something I really need you to do." She placed her knife and fork neatly on the plate and looked at him sitting opposite. Now was the time, she couldn't put it off any longer.
"'Cos, love. Do anything for you, I would." He beamed at her, his smile fading when he saw how serious she was. "What is it?"
"Don't be in Cardiff tomorrow. Take Daniel and –"
"No! I'm not leaving you in danger." He glared at her. "How can you even ask!"
A single tear trickled down her cheek. "I need to know you and Daniel are safe. If you're here then I won't be able to do my job and … I have so much to do. I can't cope if I'm worrying about you two." More tears, which she angrily wiped away. "People are dying, Rhys." She wept.
"Don't get upset, love." He was round the table and holding her. "Please, Gwen." She did not cry often and hearing her sobs made his heart ache and his resolve to stand up to her weaken. But not entirely.
"I can't lose you or Daniel. You could go to Mam's, she'd look after you both. And –"
"When I married you, I promised to stick by you for better or worse and that's what I mean to do. Even if it means dealing with aliens."
"We have to protect Daniel." She pulled away.
"You're right. When we've eaten this, you can call your mam and I'll take him down there first thing but I'm coming straight back so don't try and stop me. You've got half your team all round the world and you need me here."
"Thank you." She cuddled against him, fresh tears running down her face. They broke apart a few minutes later when the doorbell rang.
-ooOoo-
Falkland Islands
The three men sitting in a circle in front of the tent were silent, reading from the screen as Kevin scrolled through the emails one more time. Each message made the position clearer and piled up more evidence against the man who had written and received them.
Mick Mills cleared his throat. "I knew Rick Wincott. He was wild but a good bloke to have at your side. Why did he go along with it?"
"Blackmail." Kevin opened a Word file. "Private Wincott was stealing from the NAAFI and selling on the black market. Walker promised not to press charges if Wincott placed the cone for him."
"Bastard." Mills flicked a glance at Lieutenant Timothy Walker, lying on a groundsheet with a tourniquet above his injured knee and pumped full of painkillers and a sedative. "He killed Rick. The bastard fed him to those things." He gestured angrily to the body of the snake-creature lying on the shore.
"Suppose that's why he was so interested in what you were doing, Kevin," said Brendan Riley. "Didn't want you to get too close."
"He tried to pump me for information about what we … Torchwood were planning. I'm glad I didn't tell him everything now." Kevin carefully saved the emails he had discovered after hacking into Walker's private account. After shutting the laptop, he picked up the small emitter they had found in Walker's pocket. "This made sure those creatures stayed away from him."
"He was going to kill us the same way he killed Rick." Sergeant Mills was angry at the betrayal; officers were supposed to look after their men, not kill them.
"Yes."
Silence fell again as the three considered how close they had come to ending up paralysed and then drowned. Rising, Mills went into the tent and pulled a flask from his pack. Back with the others, he took a swig of the whisky and passed the flask round.
"So, what do we do now?" asked Riley, handing back the flask. "They going to believe us?"
"They have to believe the evidence. Sergeant," asked Kevin formally, turning to Mills, "permission to make a suggestion?"
"Go on." Mills took another swig of the whisky.
"We tell my boss what we've found and send her the evidence. She'll know what to do." Kevin was painfully aware that he didn't. "I know there'll be a row but I'll make sure you two don't take any of the flak. I shot the lieutenant and hacked into his emails. We can say I threatened you too if you like."
"No need for that on my account," said Riley. "I'll take my chances."
"Thanks. Sergeant?" prompted Kevin.
Mills sighed. "Rick was a mate and there's more to life than the Army. I'd better radio in."
"Let me talk to Gwen first so she can be ready for them."
-ooOoo-
Lourdes, France
Michelle Thierry of the DCRI arranged her team around the pension. One agent was in an apartment opposite with a camera snapping everyone who entered or left; two more were in cars parked at both ends of the street to follow if Roman left in a taxi; one was posing as a workman and watching the back entrance. In one of the cars out front, Michelle looked again at the sole photograph they had of the man they had been told to watch. Like all passport photographs it was unflattering, or at least she supposed so, and it would be a miracle if they could spot him if he came out into the dark and wet night.
"Chief." Her colleague, Pierre Gaspard, nodded towards the street.
"Damn!"
Gendarme Charles Mauroux walked down the street, used to the vagaries of the weather and not noticing the fine rain. He had been late coming on duty – it was now 21.15 - and had missed the briefing which had included details of the DCRI stake-out. During the day the excitable man he had seen that morning at the station was often in Mauroux's thoughts and he decided to pay the pension a visit. Blissfully unaware that his every move was being watched, he mounted the steps and entered the building.
"I thought the uniforms were told to stay away," said Pierre.
"They were supposed to be. Do you know him?"
"No."
A request to the rest of her team discovered the gendarme's name. Thierry radioed headquarters and shouted and screamed at the duty officer until he got the message and agreed to pull his man back. Michelle settled down to wait. Inside the pension, Gendarme Mauroux had had a very interesting conversation with the owner who told him all about Ilie's screaming fit that afternoon. Grateful for the excuse to see the man again, the two of them went up to Ilie's room to warn him against further outbursts.
Ilie Roman was frustrated. He had ordered the Naraid attacks on the people who had found the cones but had no feedback from his people in the area about whether they had been successful or not. He did not regret giving the order; at the very least the attacks had scared his enemies. He had tried to fill the time by sleeping but The Lady's coming was too close for him to relax. This time tomorrow he would be at her right hand, the most powerful man in the world and no one would stand in his way ever again. He was coming into his own and meant to enjoy it. He giggled as he thought of the priests who had tried to remove him, the villagers who had mocked him and the many slights, real and imagined, he had received throughout his life. They would all be shown that Ilie Roman had a long memory. He thought of Dimitri and smiled; that was one who had got his just deserts. Reaching into his pocket, Ilie pulled out the knife which still had traces of Dimitri's blood on the blade.
The knock on the door did not alarm him. He greeted his two visitors with a smile unaware he still held the knife in his hand. Madame Leveque screamed, the gendarme stepped forward and, still imagining glories to come, Ilie stabbed him through the heart. He was dead before he slid off the blade. Madame Leveque, still screaming, ran for the stairs rousing other guests who came out into the corridor in time to see Ilie stab her from behind. She fell down the stairs noisily. Gerard Pelletier, a former rugby forward, grabbed Ilie and forced him to drop the knife before wrestling him to the floor. Other guests helped restrain him and one telephoned for the police.
Outside Michelle Thierry and her team, waiting anxiously for the gendarme to emerge, were astounded when three marked police cars turned up, sirens blaring.
-ooOoo-
Cardiff
If Gwen had thought she had a lot on her plate before, she had more added to it when the new arrivals, Lois and Alonso, settled on the sofa in the kitchen/diner and brought her up to date. As Rhys cleared up and made coffee, Gwen sat on a hard kitchen chair and listened intently.
Alonso had used a program of Kevin's and some of his own technical wizardry to hack into Ilie Roman's email account and found a wealth of information that explained much. They had evidence that Ilie had ordered the cones to be placed and by whom as well his most recent instruction for the co-ordinated attacks by the snake-creatures. From the email addresses of Ilie's contacts around the world, Lois had used Torchwood's own records and those in other countries to identify them all; a motley collection of criminal gang bosses, businessmen and politicians. Some of them operated under the guise of priests of the cult of Our Lady and referred to Ilie Roman as the Patriarch but others were merely paid to undertake the dirty work.
"There's still not much about the cult," pointed out Lois, "we'll need Roman's laptop for that. Any news from the French?"
"Not yet. This is good, Alonso, really good stuff." Gwen was shuffling paper copies of the emails, scanning them for any tidbit they might have missed. "You were right about the MOD, Lois."
"Yes. We ought to warn Kevin about that man, he might try something." Lois was quietly pleased she had seen through the thin report of an investigation into the placing of the cones. According to Lieutenant Walker there had been no suspicious deaths that could have been connected but her own brief search through military records had come up with two within the right timeframe, including Private Richard Wincott who the emails showed to have been the perpetrator.
At this moment, Gwen's mobile rang and Kevin told her all that had happened on the promontory above the Bay of Harbours. Kevin had been ahead of them, identifying Walker and thwarting his plans but ending up in a complete pickle. Concentrating on the important issues, she told him to secure Walker and the snake-creature before putting calls through to the network in Argentina and Chief of the Defence Staff. Citing a clause in the Network's UN mandate she declared the area around the cone to be under Network control and ordered the military to back off unless asked to assist. The CDS didn't like it, calling it another invasion, but she overrode him.
The news from France that Ilie Roman was in custody for murdering two people surprised but did not shock Gwen, too much had already happened. She requested he be brought under guard to Cardiff with all his possessions and most especially his laptop. The authorities grumbled but finally agreed provided they could have him back to face charges for murder. Head still full of all that was going on, she closed her mobile.
"Surely nothing else can happen!" she said with a tired smile.
At that moment Alonso's laptop started to beep.
