57
Sarah was sitting up on the gurney in the Emergency Clinic looking more alive than she should as she was fussed on. Her pain is fading as she started to feel… real again. "What the fuck was that?"
"A mutated Decayed" Jack explained "I know. Horrifying. I know you know what I am talking about, this plague from the drugs. Under your village is the source of the stuff. It's in an underground facility that they fiddle with the mix to get it street safe. This meant some … mistakes. You just net one."
"Fuck that" Paul spluttered as he sat in a nearby chair with Neil listening "Our village? We … we are nobody."
"Exactly" Jack agreed "Where better to start an international drug enterprise than in a little nowhere town no one had ever heard of and is unlikely to be remembered."
"Fuckers." Paul said angrily. "This is OUR village and WE like it here!"
"So… you must know the place. Heddlu" the other man finally speaks and they were all surprised to hear Welsh tones, not American like the other ones.
"And I can assure you, a drug lab would have shown up in the Village Paper sooner or later right?" Neil asked.
No… not this sort. Think… Breaking Bad." Ianto explained "Just a shed or a…"
"Warehouse" Neil spluttered "The old Warehouse over near the Barker Farm. Sold about six months ago, lots of movement and then suddenly quiet again."
"Oh great... a warehouse. How novel" Ianto grumbled as Jack turned to Rex who was in the doorway.
"Think you can draw us a map?" Rex asks.
.
.
"At least it's nowhere near civilization" Rex commented as the three men stood overlooking the industrial site below. There were tractors, a bulldozer and stuff from one of the businesses leasing in the area and clearly they had been untouched for months.
"If that one got loose, might have others?" Ianto asked.
"They are going to come at us if they have… but I think the village would have seen them before now. I think we turned up just in time to get rid of this place. I think we can sanitize the area without harming the village" Jack said into the phone, then nodded to the other two men "OK … send it down."
"Come on" Ianto said softly to Rex as he motioned towards the jeep in the background "We gotta boogie."
"Do you think they will be OK?" Rex asked in a rare show of concern "I mean … we can't save those underground but the village... it seems nice. Do you really think we got here in time?"
"I do. You can only do what you can do" Jack said wisely as Ianto stopped the jeep on the top of the hill and they watched the bombers fly low over the village, hopefully not breaking too many windows as the payload fell gracefully to the warehouse with the pinpoint accuracy that was expected.
"You know… if we were in America we could have droned that in" Rex said as he leaned back in the back seat.
"How impersonal. You know, that is why war is so vicious. No one sees one another anymore" Ianto said then stopped, taking a breath "I know. Wrong time for a lecture. But seriously, mankind is fucked up."
"You kiss our son with that mouth" Jack said with a grin.
"I know."
"Wait a sec... fuck. Ianto… you are supposed to be benched. You could have been hurt in that warehouse!" Jack suddenly remembered the baby and Ianto grinned as he reveled in the ability to confuse the man still.
"Cariad, I was never in any danger! I was with you!"
Jack stared at him like he had gone insane "Ianto. Last time we stormed the castle you died!"
"A castle?" Rex asked from the back seat.
"Metaphor!" Jack snapped "Keep out of it."
"Don't talk to him like that. God, you have such a shitty Wing-man attitude" Ianto scolded.
"Wing-man? Hey… " Jack started to bristle then burst out laughing as he saw that the minx was playing him… again. "OK, just slow down OK?"
"Well, I think we can call this place sanitized and mark it off" Ianto said as he rose and looked back at the two Heddlu Officers and the teenager with them. "Well? Want a job?"
Neil looked at Sarah as she slid shakily off the bed and reached for her stab vest. He asked "Well?"
"Well what… it's fucking Torchwood. You want to say no?" she asked.
Neil shrugged "My parents are gone, me sister moved to Australia… who am I to hang about. Your Mam is still here though."
"And she will be when I come back to visit" Sarah agreed, looking at Paul "Kid?"
"Hell yeah, I don't want to work in my dad's greengrocers the rest of my life"
And Torchwood Three grew.