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The Age of Paradox 2.5: Miracle Day
Amy was fully aware that she would never have all the answers to the threats that she encountered in their travels, but it was particularly frustrating to be dealing with so many people who seemed to simultaneously believe that they alone were the key to the current situation and delight in treating her, the Doctor and their friends like idiots. The woman who had identified herself as Olivia Colasanto seemed to have decided to remain silent once she'd 'assured' them that further questions would be answered once they reached their destination, and had even agreed to let the group take their car so long as one of her men remained in it to make sure they kept following Olivia's car,
Once they reached the Colasanto family residence,
"They're with me," Olivia said to the two men standing at the main door. "They've agreed to leave their weapons behind."
"But Esther's staying outside," Rex put in.
"With K9 for security," Natalie added.
"Why?" Olivia asked, turning sharply around at this news. "What for?"
"She's gonna keep an open relay to a hard drive back in Los Angeles," Rex explained. "If we go through those doors and disappear, then we have a record, OK? So, tell your goons to leave her alone."
"And don't underestimate what my dog can do if you tick him off," the Doctor added. "K9 likes her, after all."
"Affirmative," K9 said from his position in the seat beside the ex-CIA analyst. "Mistress Esther is under my personal protection; any attempt to harm her will be met with all necessary force."
"Necessary-?" Olivia looked at K9 in surprise.
"Come on," Jack said, cutting off that particular question. "Angelo's inside."
Apparently accepting that they weren't going to change their minds about this situation, Olivia led the group into the main hall of the house. The hall alone was filled with all kinds of elaborate works of art, ranging from paintings and statues to even a few fancy-looking chairs that reminded Amy of things she'd seen on school trips to palaces or other historical homes. There were even a few 'chandeliers' on the walls, although Amy passed by them too quickly to tell if they were real or electric lights.
"He talked about you all the time, Jack," Olivia explained as she walked. "His immortal man in old New York. He never forgot."
"You're telling me-?" Rex began, only to get slapped in the back of the head by Natalie. "Hey!"
"If you're just going to keep insulting Jack, keep it to yourself," Natalie said firmly, Amy giving the girl a nod of agreement.
"You inspired him," the dark-haired woman continued as she looked at Jack, her voice briefly becoming softer. "You proved immortality was possible. And he devoted the rest of his life to figuring out how to live forever."
"And he did it?" Jack asked. "He's still alive? He's still young?"
"Oh yes, he's still alive," Olivia said, before she kept walking. "Angelo Colasanto is still very much alive… but he's not young."
When Olivia walked around the next corner, Amy was shocked to see the figure lying on the bed in front of them, the man wearing blue pyjamas and surrounded by all kinds of medical equipment that seemed at odds with the fancy furniture on the edges of the room. There was an oxygen mask on the man's face and an IV drip in his arm, to say nothing of the various monitors linked up to him that were measuring everything from his pulse to things Amy wasn't sure how to define exactly.
"What's wrong with him?" Jack asked. Looking back at her new friend and fellow former companion, Amy could almost see the moment when his initial hope at seeing an old lover still alive was shattered by the sight of just what had happened to the man in question since their last meeting.
"At his age, just about everything," Olivia said.
"If this guy was alive back in the 1920s, I can agree with that," Vera commented as she examined the equipment around the bed. "If I'm reading this stuff right, he doesn't have anything that could be outright fatal on its own, but if one man had all of them he definitely needs all this equipment to keep him going…"
As Olivia indicated that the nurses could depart, Jack walked up to the old man and lifted his right eyelid, as though looking for something.
"It's him," the once-immortal captain said.
"You must be horrified," Olivia observed.
"Why would you say that?"
"Well, he's grown so old…"
"That's how I see most of the world," Jack replied with a smile. "The Doctor's the only person I know who's genuinely older than me."
"Really?" Vera looked at the Doctor in surprise. "You're older than him?"
"By a considerable degree," the Doctor smiled politely at the other doctor.
"How-?"
"Can we stop the chatter and focus on getting the facts?" Rex asked as he held up a phone. "Esther's got enough on her plate as it is."
"After everything I've heard about Torchwood technology, you're relying on an open handset to exchange data?"
"We had to get out fast and we weren't expecting this little trip," Natalie pointed out to Olivia with a shrug. "Don't underestimate us just because we're not packing the more obvious tech."
"Although maybe you could clarify what the hell's going on with the stock markets?" Rex asked.
"That's what those screens are for?" Amy followed Rex's gaze in surprise, revealing a TV screen showing shifting numbers on a news broadcast.
"They're falling," Olivia said, choosing to answer Rex's question. "It's been inevitable ever since Miracle Day, which I reckon is part of the plan."
"Why would it be inevitable?" Natalie asked.
"Society's having to adjust basically all its old expectations of the future now that humanity's immortal," the Doctor explained. "When you can't be sure of anything… well, everything changes, and the last thing stock markets need is this kind of unpredictability."
"Right…" Gwen said, before she turned to glare at Olivia. "So you put a gun to my daughter's head for what, for this? So you get your revenge on Jack?"
"We weren't trying to hurt you," Olivia corrected. "I was carrying out my grandfather's final wish, to keep you safe."
"So you don't want Jack dead?" Amy asked. "This was all about protecting him?"
"Hell of a way of going about it," Gwen protested.
"There's a crucial distinction," Olivia countered coldly. "My grandfather cared for you, I don't. You might be important in some way we've yet to work out, so it's best to keep you intact. But that's as far as the sentiment goes."
"OK, we can… work with that," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together and looking around at the others in manner that made it clear to Amy he didn't want to discuss that particular detail right now. "In the meantime, what can you tell us about this… well, this young man certainly had an interest."
Following the Doctor's gaze, it wasn't hard for Amy to see what he was looking at; photographs on the mantelpiece, all displaying Jack Harkness at different points in history. Two photos were black and white and showed Jack wearing suits- one even had him in a black hat of a style Amy wanted to consider a bowler even if she knew that wasn't suite right- while another had him in what looked like dungarees and a peaked cap.
"These are all of you?" Vera looked between Jack and the photos in growing incredulity. "And… they're authentic?"
"When you can survive anything people throw at you, being aware of what's going on around you becomes almost optional," Jack shrugged. "If he wasn't trying to shoot me, I wouldn't notice."
"A moustache?" Gwen looked at one particular photo in surprise.
"It was the seventies."
"A decade of interesting fashion choices," the Doctor shrugged. "I went around back then in… I think when Amy saw my photograph from that time, she compared my fashion sense at that point to Austin Powers?"
"Austin Powers?" Rex looked incredulously at the Doctor. "You dressed like Austin Powers?"
"Maybe get back to the fact that this guy's been watching Jack for decades?" Amy cut in; this wasn't the time to start talking about how the Doctor had been different for more reasons than his choice of clothing back in the old days.
"And never made contact…" Jack said, turning back to the bed.
"You may not be ashamed of being old, but he was," Olivia observed.
"Hold on now," Gwen cut in inquiringly. "He didn't cause this? Angelo didn't cause the Miracle?"
"No, he lived this long through natural means. He kept his body at a temperature two degrees below normal. He controlled his caloric intake, kept his blood pressure below one ten."
"Does that work?" Gwen looked over at Vera and the Doctor.
"Prolonging life isn't that difficult," the human doctor observed. "It's just not exactly profitable, considering all the necessary measures needed to make it work, so it's not exactly advertised."
"And he spent that extra time looking for immortality?" Jack asked.
"There are ways," the Doctor put in. "Even on Earth itself, there are theories that there could be jellyfish out there that are thousands of years old as they keep basically de-aging themselves, and cancer or stem cells could theoretically live forever if they didn't overwhelm the parts of the body necessary to keep it alive."
"And research into that kind of area is what Angelo investigated," Olivia affirmed. "With help, of course."
"Ablemarch, Costerdane and Frines, right?" Gwen asked.
"You have been busy," Olivia actually looked impressed as she looked at Gwen.
"We got a chance to question an overconfident assassin," Natalie explained. "We've been a bit busy to do a proper search, but K9 and Esther can probably run something out there."
"On it," Esther's voice called out from the phone.
"In the meantime," Vera looked curiously at Olivia, "what can you tell us about those Families?"
"The story says that it started with three men, each representing one of the families," Olivia explained. "While Captain Harkness was being repeatedly murdered, these men came to witness his resurrection."
"…I saw them," Jack said, his tone haunted at the memory. "They made a deal."
"They formed an alliance to purchase the power of resurrection," Olivia continued. "And when you escaped, the three families swore that they'd find the gift again."
"Ah, one of those conspiracies," the Doctor observed with a smile. "Well, at least if it took them this long it's probably a legitimate 'in-house' conspiracy; it's always so disappointing when I find out someone's been manipulating the main target to get the job done…"
"But if it's just a family thing-?" Natalie began.
"Families can escalate," Amy cut the blonde ex-soldier off. "It doesn't have to just be two parents to one child; add in that we've got decades separating these people finding Jack and now, and with no idea of the other rules for whatever conspiracy we're up against…"
"We can worry about their possible recruitment drives later," Gwen said, giving Amy a brief look of apology for interrupting before she turned back to Olivia. "So what happened after 1928? What did they do next?"
"They lost Jack, but they still had his blood."
"Your blood?" the Doctor turned back to face Jack in surprise.
"I thought they were draining it away…" Jack said, another haunted expression on his face, "but they were collecting it."
"But why?" the Doctor asked, looking genuinely confused at this new detail. "What you are… it doesn't change your biology in that sense."
"Which leaves us still stuck for how they made Jack mortal or want him dead, right?" Natalie looked curiously at her father.
"Whatever they were planning, my grandfather wasn't included," Olivia said firmly. "I think they considered him inappropriate."
"Would that have anything to do with his relationship with Jack?" Amy asked.
"I think he truly loved my grandmother, but he never lied about what he'd had with Captain Harkness," Olivia conceded, nodding thoughtfully at the redhead. "I think that Ablemarch, Costerdane and Frines found that a little unfortunate. As a result, Angelo was forced to watch them from afar."
Amy just nodded in silent acknowledgement while chalking up another reason to dislike these people; if they'd reject someone because who he had been involved in once despite his obvious knowledge of Jack, there was no telling what such people would do if they gained more power.
"He made enough money by the looks of it," Gwen indicated the house.
"Well, Jack told him enough to navigate his way through the twentieth century and make a profit."
"Variation on the old time-travel interest gambit?" Amy observed. "You know what's going to succeed so you make the seemingly riskier investments that turn out good anyway?"
"He at least knew enough to know what companies would definitely work out," the older woman conceded.
"You told him that much?"
"I gave him a few key tips," Jack shrugged as the Doctor looked defensively at him.
"But how did those families manage to do all… this?" Natalie asked. "I mean, they get the blood from an immortal man in Manhattan back in the 1920s, and over eighty years later, the whole planet becomes immortal?"
"And I become mortal," Jack added.
"In 1998 we intercepted a message," Olivia said uncertainly. "It was just one word. Blessing."
"We've heard about that," Jack said, exchanging glances with Natalie as the two recalled their meeting with Stuart Owens. "They found it. Whatever the Blessing is, these three families found it."
"And it's time that we found them," Rex said, turning the phone on to speaker. "Esther, you got any news for us?"
"This is plain weird," Esther's voice said over the phone. "There's no one called Ablemarch or Costerdane or Frines. I mean, literally. There's no such names. There's nothing. It's blank. They don't-"
A sound that the TARDIS travellers recognised as K9's gun being fired suddenly came across the radio, followed by an anxious scream from Esther.
"Esther?!" the rest of the new Torchwood team all called out basically simultaneously.
"It's Friedkin!" Esther called, as K9's laser fired off again and again. "K9's keeping them back, but they're-"
The fat man Amy had earlier interrogated with Rex suddenly ran into the house, only to be intercepted by a kick to the stomach from Natalie that sent him staggering backwards into his men.
"What the-?" Rex began as another group hurried into the house after the fat man, only for Natalie to fly into action in a display of choreographed violence that looked more like something from an action movie.
With the fat man already dazed, Natalie leapt past him with her arms spread to strike a man and a woman in the necks before she bent over and rammed her head into the chest of the next man. Standing back up with such force that she struck the man's chin with her head, Amy winced at the sight of blood spurting from the man's mouth as he fell backwards, while Natalie grabbed the outstretched arm of the fourth apparent agent and spun him around to hit the woman as she was about to stand up. As those two were sent flying, Natalie extended one leg and kicked the last man standing in the head as she bent down to grab a gun and point it at Friedkin as he lay trembling on the ground.
"Not your best play, Mr Friedkin," she said, even as she discreetly flipped the safety on for the gun in her hand so she wouldn't shoot it by accident. "But we can discuss your mistakes later."
"Y-you and your friends are u-under arrest for violating the Miracle Security Act-!" the CIA agent said (Amy wasn't sure if he was just sticking to a script out of desperation or genuinely didn't realise how screwed he was right now).
"Shut up," Gwen said, kicking the man's gun out of his reach.
"Out of curiosity, is the Miracle Security Act actually an official thing or just an excuse you've made up yourselves to justify this mess?" the Doctor grinned curiously at Friedkin before he turned to Rex. "Now then, I believe we're on your speciality for a change?"
"With pleasure," Rex said, walking up to glare coldly at the fat man. "You're working for the Families behind the Miracle, right? How much did they pay you?"
"…It's not about the money," Friedkin said, clearly recognising that denying anything would be pointless. "The Families… you can't escape them. They don't just pay me; they own me. They're everywhere…"
"Right…" the Doctor nodded tentatively before he glanced out of a nearby window and then turned back to Friedkin with a smile. "Out of curiosity, were you just meant to be the advance party and you'd claim we provoked you into shooting us, or is this next wave the official CIA party you were trying to beat to us?"
The anxious expression on Friedkin's face as he tried to follow the direction of the Doctor's gaze said it all about his own authority in this situation.
"Let me guess, you were just going to try and essentially kill Agent Matheson before he could tell anyone else what you'd done recently and claim he attacked you first?" Amy asked, folding her arms and looking at Friedkin with a cool grin. "I think we can safely say that plan just went out the window…"
"And on the topic of changing plans, could your people keep an eye on these men for a moment?" the Doctor looked over at Olivia. "As much as we would like to continue this conversation about the Families, my friends and I have a matter we'd like to straighten out right now; can you just… give us a few minutes?"
"…Sure," Olivia nodded even as she indicated to a couple of her own men to take up position aiming their weapons at Friedkin's men. "I'll try to keep them occupied until you're ready…"
"All we'll need," Jack nodded at her before he followed the rest of their group into another room off to the side, noting with satisfaction that he wasn't the only one looking with suspicion at Rex; Vera and Esther were the only ones who hadn't put it together yet, and he was personally putting that down to their relative inexperience in this field.
"What the Hell is all this about?" Rex looked at the others in frustration as the team gathered around him in the side room. "We've got someone who can talk about this crap and we've got the CIA coming in; we can give them the evidence-"
"Which leaves us with the immediate question of how did they find us?" Jack asked.
"They got lucky-"
"With at least two CIA agents, two agents of Torchwood, K9 and myself responsible for our security?" the Doctor pointed out, waving a hand at the group standing around the room. "And before you say anything, despite your likely opinion of them as official 'civilians', Natalie, Amy and Doctor Juarez aren't idiots; they wouldn't do anything big enough to give away our position-"
"The call," Vera looked up sharply.
"The call?" Amy asked.
"While we were preparing to follow Captain Harkness and Ms Cooper, Rex- Agent Matheson- gave me his phone," Vera said, as she turned her gaze to look coolly at Rex. "He said that it had been encoded so that I could make a quick call to my brother to confirm I was still safe after everything that went down in the camp I was assigned to…"
"You set her up," Esther looked at Rex with cold contempt. "You used Vera as bait."
"It's not like that; I thought I could lure Friedkin here and use the Eye-5s to get a video confession out of him to prove I wasn't behind any of this shit-!"
"Because only you have the right to make the kind of decisions that you'd dismiss as reckless and egotistical if we did them, right?" the Doctor gave the CIA agent a particularly firm stare. "Add in the fact that you couldn't guarantee our safety before you did this… Agent Matheson, do you want to solve the mystery of the Miracle or do you want to solve the mystery?"
"…What?" Rex looked at the Doctor in confusion.
"Is it more important to you that we save the world or that you're the one to find the key detail that does it?" Amy folded her arms as she glared at Rex. "If you're just freaking out because you don't understand this situation and need to feel like you've got some kind of control of a dangerous situation, we can work with that, but if you're doing this because you want to be the one who saves the world, you need to realise that you're not going to do this on your own."
Rex just returned the Doctor's stubborn glare with one of his own, but it wasn't hard for the rest of the group to see that his old certainty had taken a knock after the way they'd confronted him on his actions.
Wonder if this will be what makes the Doctor leave him behind, Amy found herself wondering as they returned to the main room as the next wave of apparent CIA agents entered the house. It wasn't as though Rex was a bad guy in the strictest sense of the word, but if he was now able to get Friedkin to confirm that he wasn't involved in the current conspiracy, maybe she, the Doctor, and their new allies in Torchwood wouldn't have to put up with him any more (although she hoped Esther could be convinced to stick around; her computer expertise had been pretty useful so far)…