16

"What's wrong?" Toshiko asked as she settled in a chair next to Ianto who was scanning Mainframe for something.

That tiger, it rattled something in the back of my mind I wanted to check" Ianto muttered, and then he made a noise of satisfaction "HUH!"

She leaned over and looked at the screen. A map of the area with something highlighted "what is that?"

"Where our Tiger came from. It's an animal sanctuary for abused circus animals and such. If he's alive it tells us something." Ianto said.

"That there are more wild animals out there waiting to eat us?" Owen asked in a syrupy voice behind him.

"It tells us…" Ianto swung in the chair to smile at him "That the Blast Free Zone goes deeper than we hoped… look here, where this is. The Tiger was healthy, at least eight years old. It got out sure, but this is a secure compound with high fences, security measures… safe areas." Ianto then looked to Owen's left where Jack was.

"So… maybe this is NOT the right green belt to settle in?" Jack asked slowly "Maybe there is another one?"

"Maybe there is one with secure fencing… somewhere the Bots might have trouble to get into. Maybe it's all destroyed and not viable but… I would like to go look" Ianto admitted.

"Right, I don't see why not" Jack agreed.

.

.

Ianto stood as he looked around at the light fences and then over at the two men walking the fencing with an animated conversation underway.

John had flown an Away Vessel and Jack had flown another so now as Owen looked into the cages with open anger, they checked the defences. Not all animals had been released, not all had gotten out to survive another day. Some had died terribly and Owen was bereft at the thought of their final days.

"Right, first we need to dig a huge hole and get those carcasses into them" Owen said as he came to the other three men, now in the middle of the enclosure they had landed in "Most of them are mummified but it looks like some stayed alive through cannibalisms so they are not completely broken down… not nice. After three years there are still remnants."

"How many still here?" Ianto asked, focusing on Owen and his clear grief for the animals that suffered.

"Eight."

"OK, their brochures touted over twenty big cats so we have a large pack… pride… whatever… out there" John said, a brochure from the office he had entered still in his hand.

"Ambush" Ianto said softly, still looking at the lighting array around the top of the fence line "It's a Streak or an Ambush of Tigers."

"Ambush… huh. Makes sense, those fuckers are stealthy" Owen nodded.

"Jack calls you a Tiger. Is that why?" John asked, finally looking at the photos in the brochure "Big kitty cats? Not all of them are stripped, look, this one is black."

"Panther, different cat" Jack said as he looked at Ianto's face changing while chewing over a response to the question. Finally Jack admitted "Ianto had these boxer shorts, tiger print… so cute."

"No. Tell the truth. No, he caught me out with mates from T1 one Halloween dressed in a bodysuit. I was a tiger, complete with ears and whiskers. He was sooooo taken with my goods on display that he repeatedly asked me if I would ambush him. I was so drunk I didn't care and he got to cop his first real feel of me."

"And the rest is history… after measuring THAT in my hands I knew he would be an animal in the sack and wow… is he!" Jack leered.

"EWWWW" Owen slammed his hands over his ears and too off at a run making alarmed screeching noises. As he had hoped, Jack had lightened the little man's heart. Those poor animals that suffered would haunt Owen for a while.

Humans are such cruel creatures. The open gates meaning some were released and others left to their own fates. Arseholes. These pricks with their mini zoos… pricks. All in the name of … what. Is a caged animal with no identify better than an endangered one in the wild?

"Jax?"

Jack looked at John who seemed to know Jack was going to a place he shouldn't. Jack nodded Gray's face slowly vanishing away from his mind and he followed Ianto who was now heading for some buildings.

Looked like a large café and attached souvenir shop. Yeah for the betterment of the animals, right. For just… how fucking much? Jack gaped at the prices and snorted subtly. Fuck. Big money in this shit. Mind, they must have been expensive to care for.

"Right… the Valiant can fit in the car park and… wait. What?" Jack watched Ianto's face as he continued to consider things "Ianto? Thoughts?"

"Exposed. We are safe form the Bots or wildlife due to the fencing but… the Valiant is exposed out here, the tree's canopy hides her at the moment form the possible overhead drones they might be sending up, the satellite photos that they may or may not be checking but… if we park her here… it will be obvious."

"So what do you suggest? Commute?" Owen asked sarcastically.

Ianto looked back with equal annoyance "for now… yeah. While we clean this place up and make sure it really is as secure as we think it is… yeah. Until we sort out some way to shield her… yeah."

"Shields" John said softly to himself more than them and Jack turned to frown at him. He knew that tone, it was a tone of excitement.

John grinned wide like he just saw a French poodle.