Chapter 4

Preliminary Enquiries

John was in the kitchen of his Notting Hill home, wearing his usual brown, pinstripe suit. After their extended shower, he had managed to get his unruly hair into a sticky-uppy kind of order. Rose had already left for work, getting a ride from her friend Alice Dimaggio, the head of the Torchwood Psychology Department. With the help of their house robot, Donna, he was getting his children ready for their day, before doing the school run.

'Eyulf. You have PE this morning, so make sure you take your clean kit with you,' Donna instructed as she accessed his timetable.

'Got it Donna. It's already in my backpack,' Eyulf replied. He was the eldest of the three children, and was now in his first year at secondary school.

'Juleshka, Jason. Your lunch boxes are ready. Don't forget to put them in your bags,' she said with a smile on her high resolution facial display.

'Don't worry, I'll get that for them,' John said as he picked up the plastic boxes and put them in their bags.

Juleshka, who was three years younger than Eyulf, had a box with mythical creatures from the Harry Potter films on it. Jason was the youngest of the children, being born fifteen months after his sister, and his lunch box was decorated with the characters from the popular, animated Space Patrol television program.

'See you later Donna,' the children called out as John shepherded them down the hall and out the door.

'Bye you lot,' Donna called back.

'Thanks Donna. Catch you later,' John said as he closed the door.

They went down the steps and around to the left where Delores the DeLorean was parked in front of the house. John pressed the keyfob and the gull-wing doors rose up. As the children were organising themselves into the seats, John sensed that his wife Rose was worried about something.

['Rose? Is everything all right?'] he thought as he waited for the kids to fasten themselves in.

['Yeah. There's a UNIT research facility in Hampshire that has gone silent. Nothing's getting in or out of the village. We're gonna need your input on this one Love.']

['Okay. We're just getting into the car now to go to school. Put the kettle on, I'll be there soon,'] he told her as he climbed into the driving seat.

John felt her relax as she knew the cavalry would be coming to the rescue. ['Thanks love. See you soon.']

John drove the car off the drive and turned right down the road. Lonsdale Road was busy with a number of cars also doing the school run, so John took manual control and managed to pull into the small car park in front of the imposing, Edwardian red brick building. The passenger door rose up, and Eyulf got out to allow Juleshka and Jason to climb out. Once he was back in the passenger seat, John doubled back on himself and headed east along Westbourne Grove towards the Westway.

He drove over Lord Hill's Bridge, a victorian iron truss bridge, past the Royal Oak Underground Station, and under the elevated Westway. On the left hand side, they came to a modern, three storey glass and steel building which was the Westminster Academy. John pulled into the bus stop and let Eyulf out, before turning around further up the road and heading east on the Westway towards the city and Canary Wharf.

When he arrived at the Tower, he made his way up to Special Operations and his cup of tea. Rose sensed when he had arrived, so poured them both a mug from the pot and took them through to the Hub.

'Ooh, thanks Sweetheart,' he said as he took the offered brew and gave her a peck on the cheek. 'So, what's occurring?'

She handed him the tablet with the latest information on it, and brought him up to speed. 'I've appointed Pete Davis as mission leader and he's taken Stuart, Amy and Craig in an MIV to run the investigation. They should be arrivin' on scene in about fifteen minutes.'

'Good,' John said as he finished reading the tablet and had a sip of his tea. 'That'll give me time to have a look at the satellite data.'

He sat next to a technician at the multimedia desk and started bringing up images and data on the screens. 'Hmm. Look at that . . . There are cows and sheep lying in the fields around the village.'

Rose leaned over and looked at the screen. 'Oh yeah . . . and what are those black blobs over here?'

John put on his brainy specs and squinted at the screen. 'Crows! It's a . . . ah,' he said hesitantly.

'What? What is it?' Rose asked.

'The collective noun for a group of crows, is a murder,' he told her. 'Not very appropriate in the circumstances. Any hoo. Whatever this phenomenon is, it seems to affect all animal groups.'

'Any ideas what it is?' Rose asked.

'Not from the satellite data. We might get more from the team on the ground when they arrive. We're about to lose this satellite so let's look for any visual clues from the stored images while we acquire another satellite,' John suggested.

It was like looking at a high resolution version of Google Maps as John panned along every street in the village, whilst getting background information off the internet. He saw that it was pronounced "Dun'ich", and that the nearest town was Trayne which lay roughly eight miles to the south west. There was the smaller town of Hickham to the north, and the neighbouring villages of Stouch and Oppley.

He also saw the triangular Green, five elms and the white-railed pond on the satellite view, along with the war memorial, the church, the vicarage, the local pub, a smithy, the post office, the village shop, and a number of cottages. Further out, along the three lanes, he could make out some sixty cottages and small houses, the village hall, Kyle Manor, and The Grange.

John finished reading the all the known facts about Dunwich, took off his glasses and leaned back in his chair. 'Blimey!'

'What is it? What have you found?' Rose asked, not picking up any threat that he had read about.

'I've found that Dunwich is boring,' he announced. 'It's just an ordinary village. A quiet, ordinary village. A quiet, ordinary, boring village. And apart from The Grange, it's full of quiet, ordinary people. Isn't that brilliant?!'

'What do they do at The Grange?' Rose asked.

'I'm not sure,' John said as he tugged his ear. 'But I wouldn't be surprised if it is somehow connected to what is happening there.' He went back to the satellite view and zoomed out. 'What I am sure of though, is the size of the affected area.'

Rose leaned in close and looked over his shoulder as he explained. 'See that blob of crows there?' he started, an Rose nodded. 'If this event occurred during darkness, they would have been roosting and in the trees. As they are in a field, they must have been flying, which means when they fell into a coma, they would have just dropped to the ground.'

Rose picked up on his thoughts through their link. 'So that defines a border of the effect.'

'Exactly. And if you look at the BT engineer, he was walking when he fell, which defines another part of the border,' he continued.

'And any vehicles would have travelled some distance into the affected area, meaning you couldn't use them as an accurate marker,' Rose reasoned.

'Except for the recovery truck that went to find the bus. When it would have seen the bus, it would have slowed down to park behind it. So that roughly defines another border. Cows and sheep aren't known for their speed, so the ones furthest from the village and facing the village can be assumed to be the ones who wandered into the affected area.'

John used the graphical tools to join the borders to form a circle. 'There we are, 2 miles in diameter. And if we interpolate diameters across the data points, we can find the centre . . . Oh.'

Oh what?' Rose asked.

'It's the ruins of the Abbey,' he said as though disappointed. 'I thought it would be The Grange.'

'Rose?' Jake called out. 'The team have arrived at Dunwich.'

'They made good time,' Rose said.

'Right. Let's sync with the MIV and see what's going on,' John said as he accessed the live feeds from the team.

['Right. First things first. Let's get a "Fly" in the air,'] he heard Stuart say, and saw him using the joystick on the control panel to fly it.

'Ah, good man,' John said as he moved to another screen and watched the feed from the "Spy-Fly". They saw it approaching a man in overalls, with the BT logo on his back, lying face down on the Tarmac. On the next screen along, sensor readings scrolled across the screen.

['Ah. He's alive!'] they heard Pete call out.

'Oh thank God,' Rose said with relief. John reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze.

['Heart rate, 42 beats a minute. Respiration, 12 breaths a minute. Core body temperature, 36 degrees Celsius . . . Are you getting this Doc?'] Pete enquired.

'Yeah, I'm getting it. It's good news that he's still alive. He's a bit cold, but it is September. What's the weather like there?' He looked at the sensor readings for the air temperature. It showed 9 degrees Celcius.

['Cold with a mist,'] Pete reported.

'He's losin' body heat to his surroundings,' Rose reasoned. 'If he stays there too long he'll become hypothermic.'

'Yeah, I know,' John said, and then opened the mike. 'Right. So these readings make it look like he's in a coma.'

['A coma?' What would put people into a coma?'] they heard Amy ask.

'A number of drugs and gases. Narcoleptic seizures. Light and sound stimulated epilepsy and other neurological conditions,' John reeled off.

['Okay. Let's check the other vehicles then,'] they heard Pete say.

They saw the bus get closer on the screen and could see the heads of the few passengers that were on the bus, resting against the windows. Thermal imaging showed that the area of the window in contact with the passengers head was warmer than the rest. Also a brief area of condensation could be seen in front of one passenger as he breathed out. They then moved over to the UNIT truck and found the troops in a similar state. The head of the bread delivery driver was tilted back, and the sensitive microphone could hear him snoring.

Finally, they moved across the road to the police mountain bike, and the police officer lying on his side. When they got close, they could see he was shivering, and measured his core body temperature at just 33 degrees Celcius.

'John. He's in the first stage of hypothermia,' Rose said urgently.

['We've got to help him,'] they heard Amy say.

['But how?'] Pete asked. ['Look what happened to the BT guy.']

'He's got a point,' John said. 'Who rescues the rescuer?'

['But we've got state-of-the-art protection and monitoring equipment,'] Amy reasoned.

'She's got a point too,' Rose countered.

'Yeah. But we don't even know what has put these people in a coma. Our state-of-the-art protection could be as effective as a handkerchief over the mouth is against Ebola,' John told her.

['Doc? Have you seen the readings on the police officer? We need to do something, and quickly,'] Pete pleaded.

'Yeah, I've seen them,' John told him. 'The damp grass and mist is causing him to lose heat faster than the others. The "Fly" hasn't detected any airborne chemical or biological agents. However, that doesn't mean there aren't any. There don't seem to be any optical, sonic or electromagnetic emissions that could affect the nervous system.'

He closed the mike and looked at Rose as he ran his fingers through his hair. Rose recognised the look in his eyes. It was the look of a man who had to make a decision when there was no right answer.

She knelt down to hold his hand and stroke his face. 'Hey. I trust you. I always have, and I always will. And I know you always do the right thing, even if it doesn't always go the way you expect it to.'

He smiled, leaned forward, and kissed her on the lips. 'Rose Tyler . . . My rock.'

He turned back to the screens. 'We know the people are still alive, so the effect isn't lethal. We don't know if they'll wake up again though, but I can't see any reason why they wouldn't. Okay. I've made my decision.'

He opened the mike. 'Okay. One volunteer with sealed full body armour to make an attempt to rescue the police officer.'

['Thanks Doc,'] Pete replied. They could hear the relief in his voice.

They watched the internal camera feed as Amy put on her helmet, and Craig fastening her visor with undisguised concern.

['See you later,'] Craig said with a forced smile.

['Not if I see you first,'] Amy replied through the suit intercom. They saw her give him a nervous grin.

John and Rose looked at each other and smiled. They were both remembering those words from Krop Tor. They turned back to the screens to see the rear door lower and Amy walk outside. Now, on her helmet camera, they watched as she approached the BT engineer and stopped at what she perceived to be the demarcation of the safe zone.

['I'll make a dash to the police officer and get him out, and then I'll come back for the engineer,'] Amy told them.

['Copy that Amy. Good luck,'] Pete said.

They then watched in horror as the helmet camera bobbed up and down as she ran towards the fallen officer. The camera view tilted forward until it came to rest, looking at stalks of grass on the verge of the road.

'NO!' Rose gasped.

'Oh what have I done?' John asked himself.

['AMY!'] they heard Craig shout in the MIV.

['AGENT OWENS. FREEZE,'] Pete shouted.

'John. We've got to help them,' Rose told him.

John snapped out of his despair. 'I know. It looks like WE rescue the rescuers. Contact the roof.'

['But it's Amy. We can't just leave her out there,'] Craig told Pete.

['I know son, but we can't rescue her either.']

'No, but we can,' Rose said to herself. 'Sky Hawk One. This is Rose Smith in Despatch. Prep the ship for immediate departure, we have an agent down in the field. Over.'

['Copy that Rose. Running pre-flight checks now. What's our destination. Over,'] the pilot responded.

'Hampshire. I'm sending you the grid reference now. Over.'

['Got it. Get your team and gear together and we'll be ready to go when you are.']

'Thanks Simon. They'll be with you soon. Over and out.'

'Hang on Love,' John said moving over to the Comms panel. 'Simon, it's John. Do you have the robot explorer on board?'

['Roger that Doc. It's stowed in the hold ready for deployment. Over.']

'Thanks Simon. I'll be up shortly.'

'Hang on. Whatcha mean, "you'll be up shortly?' Rose asked. It was at times like this she had to remind him that he was no longer an active Special Operations Agent.

John looked past her shoulder to the empty Standby Room and gave a single nod with raised eyebrows. 'Who else are you going to send? The rest of the Watch are out on shouts.'

Rose looked over her shoulder and remembered that she had given the rest of the Watch their assignments. They had given up active service so that they would be there for their children. She knew first hand what it was like growing up with one parent missing. She turned to look back into her husbands gorgeous brown eyes.

'But you know what you're like at findin' trouble,' she reminded him.

'Rose . . . Love. If I don't go now, people are going to die. We don't have the luxury of waiting for a team to return.'

She had a sudden thought that made her smile. She grabbed his lapels and pulled him into a kiss. 'Okay. Go,' she said after snogging him. 'But stay out of trouble. Keep out of danger. And come back in one piece.'

He grabbed her lapels this time, and returned the snog. 'I promise.'