Chapter 54
Jack didn't bother going to bed, but he did grab a change of clothing. There was no time to lose, although he was relieved beyond measure that Ianto hadn't yet been taken to one of those awful cells that he'd found Tosh in. Jack spent the night going through everything they had on Gates, desperate to find out how he had carried out his threat to have Ianto arrested for treason. Who could he have contacted? He figured that the threatened dossier of evidence against Ianto would be about Lisa. That meant he would have to go through Ianto's files as well.
He hardly noticed Tosh's arrival, the sound of the cog wheel door opening and closing could have signalled the arrival of any one of his team – well any of them but one. He had to stay focused, on task. Ianto was depending on him.
However, he couldn't ignore the whirlwind of fury that was Tosh as she stormed into his office and threw herself at him as he stood up to see what was wrong. She hammered her fists against his chest, relentlessly, battering him hard enough to cause pain.
Owen had looked up in time to witness Tosh's race up the stairs to Jack's office and felt obliged to follow her. Upon seeing her launch her attack, he tried to intervene but Jack stopped him with a look.
"No, it's OK, I deserve this." He then wrapped his arms about Tosh, pulling her close to his chest, feeling her shoulders shake as she broke into uncontrollable sobs.
"I begged you not to let them take him, Jack. Wasn't there any other way?"
"I wish there was, but now we have to focus on getting him back. OK?" He gently took her chin and tipped her head up so that he could look into her eyes. She nodded and sniffed as she reached into her pocket for a tissue to blow her nose.
Jack steered her by the arm and sat her down at his desk, handing her a memory stick.
"Tosh, I hate to ask you to do this, but I need you to look through the files on this. Gates said that it contained downloads of the memories held on the cyber power unit I removed from Lisa's brain." Jack took a deep breath. "According to that bastard, this contains recordings from the point of conversion to the moment of death. They already had footage of some sort of Ianto taking Lisa out of the Tower, that's readily explained as the actions of a man rescuing his partially converted girlfriend in a moment of terror. What worries me, is what evidence they have of Ianto bringing her here and how he kept her alive. Unless we know what they are using against him, we can't present a defence argument."
"They can't court martial him, can they? He's not UNIT." Owen was leaning against the door frame, his arms folded across his chest.
"No, but they do have the power to lock him away with no reprieve, without any evidence at all. However, we need to be able to prove his innocence."
"But … he isn't." Owen could feel the air thicken in the office as soon as he spoke. "Strictly speaking, he's not innocent - he did take a Cyberman home and keep it alive –"
"Ianto is no guiltier than the rest of us! Yes, guilty of being willing to do anything for someone he loved. Owen – you'd have done anything for Katy, wouldn't you? And Tosh – consider what you did for your mother's safety." Jack glared at them in turn, daring them to argue with him. "As for me, you really don't want to know what I've done in the past. Or the future for that matter. So I don't want to hear one more word of doubt when it comes to Ianto's innocence. Is that clear?"
"Crystal." Although he had taken the point, Owen was still confused about Jack's request of Tosh. "So, why do you want her to go through that? Why not do it yourself?"
Jack looked away and reflected on how to answer Owen. That damn memory stick had been taunting him throughout the night, but he kept putting it off, not being able to bring himself to watch it. He had eventually watched some, starting with the most recent files, those that related to the discovery of the Cyberwoman by him and his team. In the early hours of that morning, in an empty Hub, he had sat with tears rolling down his cheeks, as he watched Ianto finally come apart at the seams, spattered with the blood and gore of what was left of his girlfriend.
There were other more selfish reasons for not being able to finish the job. There had been another part of the recording that had made him cringe in horror, not over the Cyberwoman's actions, but his own. The complete absence of compassion, as he issued orders that no one with a heart should ever give another living soul, his anger had caused him to revert to the man he used to be, ruthless and cruel.
Then he'd seen her kill Ianto. It was as if his own hand was reaching out and tightening around his lover's throat. The image of Ianto in the screen looked directly at him, bewildered and heartbroken, just before his limp body was thrown violently aside. That proved to be too much for Jack. He had seen a lot of horrific sights in his many years, but that was more than he could stomach. Watching it, even on the small screen of his computer, made him feel as if he was murdering the man he loved. He had stopped the playback, pulled the memory stick from the port on his computer and then thrown it across the office. Jack shuddered as he recalled the feelings of revulsion that had gripped him just a few hours ago.
"Jack- come on, answer the question. Why can't you do that?"
"Because… because I can't watch it from an objective point of view, Owen." Jack's voice was quiet and he met Owen's eyes willing him to grasp what he couldn't put into words. "I just …can't."
"That makes sense, yeah." Owen had caught the haunted look in Jack's face and knew then that he had tried and that the contents were too painful for him.
"What else have we got to go on?" Jack looked from Owen to Tosh, hoping they'd have something to suggest.
"When we got back yesterday, Tosh set the program running to match the mugshots of those that UNIT arrested against our databank of Torchwood personnel: missing, presumed alive and kicking. Every single one is a match."
"That's what we expected I guess." Jack wiped a hand over his face, wishing there was something more tangible to go on. "I've got another three hours until I need to set off for UNIT headquarters, in that time we've got to have a strategy for getting them to release Ianto. I can't let them imprison him. Tosh knows why."
Tosh felt a shiver of dread course through her body, she still had the occasional nightmare of that time when she was a prisoner of UNIT. She knew only too well what fate awaited Ianto if they failed. It also occurred to her that it would be worse for him, especially if they knew of his relationship with Jack. The mere thought of what they might do to him caused more tears to spring to her eyes.
"Did you get through to Martha?" Tosh asked, wiping her face with a tissue.
"Yes, she can keep Ianto in the medical assessment unit for the rest of the day, but not much longer than that. She's done as much as she can."
"I'll see if I can get in touch with her, get an update." Owen could tell that Tosh wanted to speak with Jack alone, so he turned on his heel and was about to make his way down the stairs when he was almost bowled over by Gwen, who came clattering up the stairs in a rush.
"Owen – is Jack in there?"
"Gwen – come in, what's the matter?"
"I've been thinking-"
"Bollocks, that's signed Ianto death's warrant now," Owen mumbled under his breath.
"Shut the fuck up, Owen Harper and let me speak!" Gwen looked as if she hadn't slept well either, her hair was lank and she had dark rings under her eyes. She was also short tempered and had decided that she wasn't prepared to take any crap from Owen.
"Hush, Owen – let's hear her out first. Any ideas at this point are worth considering. What have you got, Gwen?"
"What about that mole they had working for them at UNIT? Can we find out their identity?"
"That's UNIT's fucking problem – I say we let them figure that out for themselves."
"They probably don't even know there is one, Owen! But what if we worked it out and then offered to give them the name of the mole in exchange for Ianto?" Gwen looked frantically at her team mates, hoping at least one of them would support her idea.
"Hang on, have I missed a meeting or something? What mole? What the hell are you talking about?"
Owen and Gwen looked at Tosh as if they thought she'd filled Jack in on their discovery of the presence of a Torchwood London mole in UNIT. She just shook her head and sighed.
"What damn mole? Somebody talk to me!" Jack slammed his hand down on his desk, making the various ornaments and gadgets jump out of place.
"Shit, we didn't tell you did we?"
"No, Owen, nobody told me, but I hope to hell someone's going to tell me now! Tosh?"
"Remember the crates in the storage cavern that you took photos of? Well, some of them had serial numbers that I managed to cross reference to boxes checked off after the battle of Canary Wharf by Suzie Costello."
"Our Suzie? What's that got to do with UNIT?" Jack was confused, he hoped this didn't come back to Suzie again, he thought he'd known her.
"Those crates were part of a consignment, signed over to UNIT, to be packed onto a truck for transport to a secure storage depot."
"Oh, I'm beginning to see the picture. They never got to their destination and nobody chased up their disappearance?" His face creased in a frown as he considered the implications. "Tosh, do we know what was in those crates?"
"The dismantled components of the multi-part laser array, last used on the orders of the Prime Minister to destroy the Sycorax vessel after its threat to the planet." Tosh sounded almost sheepish, she really thought Gwen and Owen had told Jack about this.
"Why the hell didn't you guys mention this before?" Jack's eyes lit up now, he could sense that this was the break they'd been looking for. "This is a bargaining chip that we can use to get them to hand over Ianto. If we can bring into play the fact that they allowed a weapon of that magnitude to be taken from under their noses, that's embarrassing as hell. We could even threaten them with demands for an enquiry… heads would roll over this."
"Fucking hell – that's right!" Owen picked up on the rush of optimism that had gripped Jack. "There's no way they can deny it either – Captain Price will be able to verify what we're saying."
"And I bet that Gates' contact in UNIT, the one that pushed for Ianto's arrest, I bet it's the same person that diverted that truckload of crates – the mole!" Gwen was delighted, she'd managed to make the connection that could save Ianto.
"Jack, if we can identify the mole, build up a case to discredit them, utterly and completely, and present that alongside the proof that UNIT allowed a weapon of mass destruction, augmented with alien technology, to fall into the hands of a bunch of renegades … then they'll have to let Ianto go, won't they?"
"Either that, Tosh, or I will use all of that to bring them down."
Tosh, Owen and Gwen saw from the expression on Jack's face that his threat wasn't an idle one, he was deadly serious.
