55
"Right. Was it worth dying for?" Ianto asked as he settled in his seat in the room that was now full of light and motion as screens lined the walls. Ianto tapped some keys to change the screens in front of him that had been on standby to engaged. The screens flickering as the USB stick downloaded, each screen springing to life with a differed document, internal memos, photographs… mass murder… destruction. Cells filled with… what the fuck?
"Ground Zero" Jack said softly as he gripped the back of Ianto's chair "Look. The original dose as marked on those containers to the left. See? This was where the drug's early trials are. Jesus wept. It takes a lot to turn my gut but… Jesus. Some of those subjects were kids!"
"So… the labs where they trialed and fiddled with it to get it humanized?" John asked, swinging in another of the chairs with glee "We know the Alien version is deadly to humans, that is sure but they mixed it, crossed it and fiddled with the mix to get a nice dose for Sol3 … of course where there are trials,… there are errors."
"John. Look" Jack demanded pointing at the screen and with an exaggerated sigh of boredom John rolled his head, the smartarse look fading as he looked at a baby with only half a face, grotesquely deformed and clearly alive… well… functioning.
"Shit."
"So… this is what they killed him for" Gwen said, her own face betraying her disgust "Do you think they are still alive?"
"Hag on… let me check the time stamps… yeah. Look, these photos were taken a week ago. I don't see why they would keep them for this long only to kill them off suddenly. I reckon they are all alive. Poor bastards." Beckett pointed out. "the drug is still out there then."
"Kept them this long… Jack. That baby is barely a month old… they are still experimenting then, right?" Ianto asked swinging in the chair to face him as his hands went to his still flat stomach with horror.
Jack also felt the bile as he nodded, the baby clearly a newborn and if this was a recent photograph… they were still fiddling down there in that facility with something that could destroy the entire world. John then calmly made a point no one else had thought of "So… if we fight Decay up here… we will never clear it out so long as they are culturing it down there. They can either deliberately of by mistake… simply release it again. Or… sell it to the highest bidder. Imagine, what a weapon of mass destruction. Release it into the country you don't like anymore, watch them die then clean it out. Boom! War over."
Ianto drummed his fingers "It came from another race. It came from another planet. How do we clean it off ours? Completely?"
"Gitterton Council?" John suddenly blurted out "Do you think the Glitterton Council will be happy to learn someone bootlegged one of their own sex drugs?"
"Sex drug?" Beckett repeated as did Brooks. Ianto swung to glare at the man who was once Jack's bed warmer and the young man closed his mouth quickly, long since learned to move as quickly and quietly as possible around that scary motherfucker.
"Yeah. Like… what do you have here… ecstasy?" John canted his head "Trippy for them... not so good for us."
"But what sort of reception might we get?" Ianto asked, reaching for the key around his neck. Had to tell him sooner or later anyway, the moment he steps onto the TARDIS it will be all over Rover anyway… right?
"Well… the Shadow Proclamation is the other side of the coin and we certainly do NOT want their potato heads stomping about" Jack muttered with annoyance.
"They look more like Rhinos to me. Those Sontaran or whatever are potatoes" Ianto muttered as he swung in the chair then sighed "But John is right. At the end of the day, this is their drug. Their mess. It has gone beyond controllable means if this is what is happening in facilities we have yet to find. Maybe it's time to let them rampage a bit"
"The Doctor will not like that at all" Jack groaned, knowing Ianto was right. Go for the lesser of the two evils, know a cleansing will reap rewards as well as Collateral Damage that might not be as easy to sleep at night knowing.
Still.
You do not get as old ad Jack and Ianto without knowing that death is inevitable anyway.
For other people.
"After all…" Ianto added as an afterthought "Can't patch the entire human race… right?"
John turned to look at him silently, the words lingering as he glanced aver at Jack and saw a look he knew well. Jack was thinking of something … dangerous.
