a/n: Sorry this chapter took so long to post. I lost a big chunk of it, and it took me a while to recreate it. And I want to apologize if you have reviewed and I haven't responded. Things got away from me for a little while and I may have missed answering a few.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Captain Marion Price sat in the small, cluttered office attached to the Torchwood Four security office, studying Torchwood's recent history on the computer. She had been assigned to find out "what was going on" at Torchwood by General Bambera, and she was riveted by what she had found out. Despite knowing about Torchwood and its mission to handle the Cybermen war and all types of alien contact, she had had no idea how many alien encounters there had been. And not just alien encounters. They had averted alien takeovers of the planet, and a large number of them. In fact, less than two months earlier they had stopped the alien invasion of a non-corporeal telepathic life form.
While she read the file, she gradually became aware of raised voices in the outer office.
"You're the only one here?" a female voice asked, incredulous. "Where is everyone else?"
"Fired or arrested," a young man answered. He sounded apologetic.
Deciding that this was as much a part of her investigation as studying the files, Captain Price quickly shut down the computer terminal and entered the other room. There were two people there, a young man with dark, almost black, hair, and a petite blonde who was pacing the room, obviously agitated. Both wore what Price had learned was the standard Torchwood security guard uniform of white shirts, khaki trousers and identification cards on lanyards around their necks.
"So how many guards do we actually have on duty tonight?" the blonde demanded of the younger guard. Oliver Brooks, Price remembered.
"Seven," Brooks answered. He sat at one of the CCTV monitoring terminals, facing the other guard. Behind him, a dozen screens were displaying various shots of empty hallways and the almost vacant car park.
"As many as seven?" the woman said sarcastically, stopping her pacing.
"Yeah," he answered. "Two at the gate, one at the main door, one in the Archives, one in the Dungeon and the two of us."
She groaned and then noticed Captain Price in the doorway. "Who are you?"
"Captain Marion Price of UNIT, on special assignment from General Winifred Bambera to determine, and I quote, 'what the bloody hell is going on at Torchwood.' Unquote." She looked down her nose at the smaller woman and raised an eyebrow. "And you are?"
"Sue Meyer," she answered and held out a hand to Price, who shook it. "And as far as what's going on here, your guess is as good as mine. Three fourths of the staff have either been fired or arrested, we've got rolling power outages, there are only seven guards on duty tonight, and evidently the head of the Department of Defense is personally conducting an inspection of the entire facility."
Price's brow furrowed. "I thought he was supposed to be at Number 10 tonight with the rest of the dignitaries."
"He?" Brooks asked. "The person conducting the inspection is a woman."
Captain Price quickly pulled out her mobile and typed in a number. "General Bambera?" she said. "Captain Marion Price. We've got a situation here at Torchwood."
~oOo~
"Rose hasn't responded to my text," Ianto whispered in Toshiko's ear. "I don't know if she got it. I need to ring her about Dr. Collins."
"Not yet," Tosh said softly, trying to answer him without moving her lips. "Wait until we get past the guard."
Toshiko, accompanied by Owen and Ianto, was crossing the tiny room that served as a lobby for the Dungeon, trying to hide her nervousness. On the far side of the room, a security guard rose from his seat behind the desk. The guard, who in his late thirties appeared far older than the other staff they had seen thus far, was a huge hulk of a man; broad shouldered, heavily muscled and with a military haircut, he towered over Tosh and Owen—and presumably Ianto, Tosh thought, but that was difficult to tell as Ianto was still wearing his perception filter—and looked like he could lift up both of them at the same time, one in each of his massive hands. And if that wasn't enough, he was wearing what appeared to be a sonic blaster on his hip.
"May I help you?" he asked. His voice, a deep baritone, indicated that helping them was the last thing he was interested in doing.
Tosh pulled out the thin wallet that held the psychic paper and handed it to him. After looking at it, he stared suspiciously at Tosh and Owen, and then looked back down at the wallet in his hand. Suddenly Tosh remembered the Doctor had told her that the psychic paper didn't work on everyone, that some people saw unexpected things in the paper, and some saw nothing at all.
After several long moments—in which Toshiko stopped breathing and felt as if her heart would stop as well—he handed the paper back and turned to Owen.
"Mr. Secretary, how can I be of assistance?"
As the guard was looking straight at him, Owen tried to hide the smirk he wanted to give to Toshiko. He was only partially successful.
"We're here to inspect your holding facilities," he said, examining the guard's name tag. "Mitch, is it?"
"Yes, sir. Mitch Reynolds."
"Well then, Mitch, let's take a look at your lockup here."
"I'm sorry, sir, but I have strict orders not to let anyone in."
Owen raised an eyebrow. "Mitch," he said in what he hoped sounded like a dangerous tone, "I am the head of the Defense Department, and if I want to go in and check to make certain that the prisoners are sufficiently detained, I can. And anyone who stands in my way might find that things get rather… unpleasant."
Looking troubled, the guard nodded. "Yes, sir."
He turned to the heavy metal door that separated the lobby from the cells, placed his hand on the palm print scanner next to the door, and the door slid quietly open. He then moved to the side to allow Owen to pass through. But when Toshiko tried to enter, he stopped her.
"Sir," he said, still addressing Owen, "we have some extremely dangerous prisoners here and her security clearance isn't high enough."
"Mitch, her security clearance is what I say it is, and I say it is high enough. I need her to take notes for me. Besides," and now Owen gave him an exaggerated wink, "assistants are just supposed to stand around and look pretty, and she can't do that if she's on the other side of that door, can she?"
Toshiko bit back a retort and tried to school her face so her irritation with Owen wasn't obvious.
"No, sir," Reynolds said emphatically and moved to allow Toshiko to pass before passing through the doorway himself. Ianto quickly scooted in behind him before the door slid to a close.
"Now who are we currently detaining down here?" Owen asked conversationally as they walked down the hall.
Reynolds looked a bit uncomfortable at the question.
"All of our prisoners are people who have been accused of treason by the government," Reynolds told him.
"Really?" Owen asked, trying to sound surprised. "And do you think they're guilty?"
"It's not for me to say, sir," he said. "That's for other people to decide. It's just my job to keep them locked up."
"Yes, yes, of course," Owen responded.
As they walked down the hall, Owen periodically looked through the tiny windows in the cell doors.
"Everyone seems healthy and well treated," he said, "although the accommodations seem a bit Spartan."
"Better than we had in the Army," Reynolds replied.
"Oh, yes," Owen agreed, although the closest he had ever been to being in the military, besides as a member of Torchwood, was playing video games.
As Owen and the guard spoke, Ianto discovered that rather than the single hallway he expected, the Dungeon was set up as a grid; hallways intersected periodically, connecting parallel corridors which were lined with cells. He quickly walked down the halls, looking in the windows and searching for Pete Tyler. The rooms, all full up, each contained one person, many of whom he recognized and all he suspected were Torchwood staff members.
And then he saw someone in one of the cells that he hadn't expected to see, and he rushed back to the others.
Toshiko was standing a small distance from Owen and Reynolds, so Ianto approached her and whispered in her ear. Her eyes widened at what he told her. Stepping closer to Owen, she cleared her throat.
"Sir," she said, the term necessary for their cover but still grating, "perhaps we should continue."
Owen turned towards her. When he saw the serious expression on her face, he nodded sharply and started again down the hall, the others trailing behind.
"Would it be possible to open any of these cells, Mitch?" he asked. "I'd like to question some of the prisoners."
Instead of responding, the guard froze, a look of a shock on his face, and then collapsed on the floor.
Ianto pulled his perception filter off, and to Owen and Tosh's surprise he was holding the guard's sonic blaster.
"This was taking too long," he said. "I found Jake. He's two halls over, and he looks like he's in a bad way."
Ianto led the way, jogging back to the cell that held Jake Simmonds. Once there, Owen looked through the window.
"Get the door open," he ordered, nodding at the blaster still in Ianto's hand. "Then go and find Director Tyler. And Doctor Jones. I may need her help."
Ianto shot the door handle, creating a perfectly square hole, and the door swung open of its own accord. As Owen entered the cell, Ianto turned to Toshiko.
"You start looking for them. I'll join you in a minute, but first I need to ring Rose."
~oOo~
Rose stood with her back against the wall in her stepfather's office, trapped between a filing cabinet and a heavy, metal shelving unit. Frank Collins, her step-father's friend and Torchwood Four's former doctor, stood between her and the door, blocking her only possible escape. And to her shock, despite her perception filter, he could somehow see her.
"I can sense your surprise," Collins said. "But is it because you're surprised to see me, or because you're surprised I can see you? Because it's odd. I couldn't see you at first, and now I can. But even now, you aren't clear, as if you are shielded somehow. Very clever. Had I known Torchwood had something like that available, it would have made everything so much easier."
Rose glanced over his shoulder. Although the room was relatively small, the distance between her and the door might as well have been a mile away. There was no way she could cross that distance without being caught. And she couldn't fight him. She no longer had the element of surprise and he had at least six inches and fifty pounds on her. Not to mention the fact that he was just far enough away that she couldn't reach him to punch him or knee him in the groin, and being blocked as she was by the shelves and the filing cabinet she couldn't do a roundhouse kick as she had with Lisa.
"You look good with red hair, by the way," he continued, slipping one hand into his jacket pocket. "I'm assuming it's supposed to be some sort of disguise. It might work for some people but not for someone who knows you as well as I do."
Rose's eyes widened as she saw him pull a small spray vial out of her pocket. It was a match to the one Lisa had used against her. Damn, she thought. She no longer had a choice. She'd have to try to get past him.
Ducking to try to avoid his hands, she tried to dodge him but he caught her anyway. While she struggled to get away, he sprayed her with the vial.
Not again, she thought, and fell into unconsciousness.
~oOo~
The Doctor stared at Lisa. "So how is Frank Collins involved in all of this? His name wasn't on the list of GBF members."
"I don't remember," she told him. "He's not GBF, or at least he wasn't." She looked at him pleadingly. "I'm telling the truth. You've got to believe me."
He gritted his teeth and nodded. "I do. There's still enough gaps in your memory you could drive a fleet of lorries through them. But he's undoubtedly the one who did this to you. Of the people you showed me, he had the easiest access to Ret-Con, plus he was the one who said you had tested negative for it. Of course he would, if he was the one who gave it to you." He paused, closing his eyes to run his own memory of events through his mind. Then his eyes flew open. "And he was here when you kidnapped Rose. He must have helped you get out of here."
She shook her head. "I don't remember that. I still don't even remember kidnapping her."
He scrubbed his face and sighed loudly. "I know you don't," he said. "I would have seen it in your mind if you did." He pursed his lips and looked at the door. "Speaking of Rose, she should have been here by now. I've got to go find her."
The Doctor stood up and walked to the door. When she stood to follow him, he turned and shook his finger at her. "You stay here. I can't watch you and look for her at the same time."
"You don't need to watch me," she said. "I want to take Frank Collins down as much as you do."
"I believe you," he told her. "But I still don't trust you. And until I can, you stay put."
Her look shot daggers at him which he ignored as he left. Once outside the door, he pulled out his screwdriver and sonicked the lock. "With you locked up, that's one less thing to worry about," he said under his breath and headed out of the infirmary and towards Pete's office.
~oOo~
As Rose regained consciousness, her head pounding with a blinding headache, she discovered she was tied wrist and ankles to an office chair with heavy duty zip ties, undoubtedly from the utility closet down the hall. Not only had he tied her up, she realized, but he had searched her as well because both her mobile and her perception filter sat on the desk in front of her captor.
"Welcome back," Collins said with a glance at his watch. "Ten minutes. Not bad. I should make a note of that. I'm trying to refine the perichloridol to be more predictable in how it affects people."
"Glad to be of help," she replied sarcastically and then winced at the automatic eyeroll she gave him. "How long do you plan on keeping me here?"
"Not long," he said. "It's not you I want, you know. It's the Doctor. Reportedly the two of you are practically joined at the hip, and since you're here, he's undoubtedly around here somewhere as well. Eventually he's going to come looking for you."
At that, they both heard the door of the outer office opening. As Rose turned towards the sound, Collins grabbed the perception filter.
"Right on time," Collins said softly. "Let's see if this thing really works." He pulled on the perception filter and quietly made his way across the room.
"Rose?"
Rose strained to keep an eye on Collins, but it was difficult to make him out, even knowing he was there.
"Don't come in," she yelled but wasn't surprised when the Doctor rushed in anyway. "Watch out!"
"What?" the Doctor asked, looking around the small room. And then collapsed after the almost invisible Collins sprayed him in the face with the same vial he had used on Rose.