Chapter Three

Kevin was waiting for Rose in the car park.

"Sorry about this," she said as they got into the car. "When I said I wanted to get out, I didn't expect Van Statten would make you give up your evening."

"Don't worry about it. It's not an unbearable duty, you know. It's good to get off the base, and in good company."

Soon they were speeding across the desert, while Rose coaxed Kevin into talking about his job again. "I've been here seven years," he told her. "Straight out of school, I got recruited."

"He combs the world for geniuses, that's what I heard."

"Oh, I don't know if I'm a genius. I had some specialty in security systems, and I guess that's what they were looking for. Right place at the right time, and all that."

Rose remembered Adam, and Kevin's humility was appealing, though probably misplaced. The Van Statten in her world had been a computer genius himself. This one she was not so sure of, but he had still worked his way into the position of being able to afford the best.

"So you were on board when they were doing business with Lumic?"

Kevin grimaced. "Yeah. I swear, I didn't know. Nobody knew what he was doing, why he needed the energy supply from us … Maybe Mr. Van Statten knew. I'm not sure. I just know that I was clueless."

"What about Dr. Shaw?"

"I don't think so. She didn't like Lumic, that was for sure, but I don't think she knew about the Cybermen. Maybe she did and that's why she hated him."

"And now it's this Anasazi Project. You've been around since the start for that, yeah?"

"Yeah, but…" He looked apologetic. "I'm not sure I'm supposed to talk about it with you."

"Not asking for state secrets," Rose cajoled. "After all, Torchwood already knows about the crash near the ruins. I was just wondering if you were here for it."

"No," he laughed. "Can you believe it? Something falls to Earth so close to where I work, and with my luck, I was visiting my parents in Minnesota for Thanksgiving. They called me -- work is always calling when you're supposedly on vacation, but this time, I was on the network for over twenty-four hours, refining the security containment. They sent out a zeppelin to get me and take me back."

"The security containment – is that why I can't get a signal for my phone, for anything, on the base?"

Kevin was silent. He should not have said anything. "It's the desert," he finally said. "Hard to get a signal this far out."

Rose decided to let him go on that evasion. The truth was clear enough, and something more interesting had hit her: "Hang on. Refining the containment? You were expecting this?"

"No! It was something we already had in place. Dr. Shaw was working on all kinds of other alien-derived power sources before Anasazi. And Van Statten's, you know … paranoid." He tried to distract her: "Look out your window over there. You can just make out the converter station."

She could. The buildings were low, but visible, with a few lights blinking in the dusk.

"We're just about ten minutes away from town," he told her.

It was nearing completely dark by the time they stepped out of the car in front of the Blue Moon Cantina, which proved to be a sparsely populated place smelling of stale cigarette smoke and beer, with pool tables and country music blaring. They found a seat at a sticky table, and Rose checked her watch: little more than an hour before she needed to excuse herself and go meet Ace. She was relieved when two employees from the base hailed Kevin and joined them. It would be much easier to slip away than if she were Kevin's only company.

A pool game started, which Rose watched from the sidelines, cheering Kevin on, nursing a beer, until it was close enough to the appointed time. She hopped down from the barstool on which she had been perched. With a grin and a wave to excuse herself, she headed towards the lit "Restrooms" sign in the back. But once in the narrow, grimy hallway, she passed by the lavatories, and out a door into the still, hot night.

She waited alone with the rubbish bins, listening to the voices and music from the bar. She was beginning to consider giving up when her solitude was interrupted by the sound of a motorcycle, which rounded a corner into the bar's back lot and pulled up in front of her. From the backseat handlebar, the cyclist detached a helmet and held it out to Rose.

It was Ace's voice that spoke through her own helmet. "Hop on. Let's go for a ride."

She took the highway for a short while, leaving the town behind, then turned off a side road – barely a road – into the wilderness.

When she slowed and stopped and switched off the motorcycle, silence and darkness enveloped them. The town was the faintest glow on one horizon, and Van Statten's base a slightly brighter one on another. The lights of the converter station that Rose had seen from the car earlier were lost.

Ace took off her helmet and pushed back her chin-length brown hair. She scanned the horizon in all directions, and once Rose's eyes grew accustomed, the moon and startling expanse of stars lit the landscape.

Apparently satisfied they were alone, Ace settled on the ground, cross-legged. "All right – you claim to know Mickey?"

"And Jake." Rose joined Ace on the desert floor. "When they heard I was coming here, they were desperate for me to find you. They haven't heard a word, for ages, they said. They thought maybe you'd been found out, been dumped somewhere with your memory wiped, or worse."

"Or worse? What would be worse than that?"

"Getting killed?"

"Van Statten doesn't work that way – I doubt he'd care if any of us got killed, but he's not going to do it on purpose. I suppose he thinks he's being more moral, turning you into an amnesiac zombie. But obviously, it hasn't happened to me, never will. Go home and tell Mickey and Jake not to be worrywarts. I'm undercover, I can't go checking in once a week."

"I think they'd be happy with once a month."

Ace only shrugged.

"Now that I'm here," Rose continued, "I can report back to them anything you want me to."

"Yeah, the thing is, I know Mickey and I know Jake. But I don't know you. And I don't know if I can trust you."

Rose was taken aback. "Why not? I'm here from Mickey. And Jake. My dad's supported the Preachers since before you even met them."

"You say you're here to look for me, but that's true, is it? You and your dad are here for Torchwood, and what I know, I'm not sharing with them."

"You know that Mickey and Jake have done work for Torchwood?"

"Like I said, I trust Mickey and Jake. You and your dad? I don't know whether I can."

"We're on the same side!"

Ace scoffed. "What I've seen here is that Van Statten get his hands on alien technology and exploits it. From what the Preachers learned about Torchwood, I don't see the difference."

"Van Statten uses that stuff with no sense of responsibility, no conscience, for nothing other than to make money."

"And Torchwood's all noble and pure, is that what you're going to tell me?"

"Torchwood has changed. Since the People's Republic was established, it's become public, accountable – and certainly with better ethical standards than Van Statten's."

"Oh, well, those are high standards."

"Maybe I set my personal standards higher than Torchwood's too."

"So you would keep what I tell you to yourself – you wouldn't tell your bosses?"

"I can't promise you that. I just can't. If I thought Torchwood was best equipped to deal with whatever's going on here…"

"But they don't want to 'deal' with it. Torchwood wants to become Van Statten's paying customer. That can't happen."

"Yes, we are here to negotiate with him -- unless you give me reason not to. I have no way of knowing."

"And I have no way of knowing if you're the person to make that call."

Rose pulled out her phone and held it out. "Do you want to call Mickey? Or Jake? They will vouch for me."

"I want you to tell me why I should trust you. Start by telling me why you're even working for Torchwood."

Rose looked up, thinking about her answer. The stars were so vivid in the desert, surrounding them, so close she could fall up into them if gravity were not so relentless. She continued to study them as she spoke: "There was this man. I traveled with him. Traveled through space and time." She paused for Ace's expressions of disbelief, but they did not come. "You believe me?"

"I believed Mickey, eventually, when he told me that he came from a parallel Earth. Or rather, Jake told me one night in Paris with too much wine, and Mickey later confirmed it while sober. So you come from this other Earth too?"

"Yeah."

"And this man…"

"He came from … everywhere. It was his ship that got Mickey here. Me, it was more an accident. Happened at my Earth's Torchwood, actually. So he's there, and I'm here, and he can't come back for me."

"Are you working at Torchwood to get back?"

"No – it's not possible. And it's too dangerous even if I could find a way."

"So why are you working there?"

"Because my travels gave me some expertise in alien life. And I also learned that you have to take what you know, whatever you have, and fight for what's right. I know Torchwood's not perfect. It's better than you think, though. And better than the Torchwood in my world. When we ran into them there -- my friend, he wasn't human, and his ship was made on his planet, and Torchwood tried to confiscate both of them."

"The ship and your friend?"

"Yes."

"That's what I'm saying: How can you justify working for an organization like that?"

"I'm not working for that Torchwood."

"You think ours wouldn't do the same?" Ace asked.

"Not from what I've seen. They do a lot of good, using the technology they acquire for the good of humanity."

"Taking your friend prisoner, using him for God knows what – that could be for the 'good of humanity.' He's not human, what does he matter? And Lumic was always on about the good of humanity, wasn't he?"

Rose threw up her hands. "There's nothing I can say to convince you! You've made up your mind about me, about Torchwood, and that's it. We're wasting our time out here."

"If your friend walked into Torchwood tomorrow, would you stand behind your bosses if they claimed him as property?"

"Of course I wouldn't!"

"Because he's your friend?"

"No, because he's a thinking, sentient being who has done no harm to anyone! I didn't sign up to stop thinking for myself, to do anything I was told no matter how immoral."

Ace nodded. "Now that's good to hear."

But if it was enough to earn Ace's trust, she didn't start spilling her information just then. They sat in silence, looking up at the sky, until Ace spoke again.

"You know, when I was a teenager, I used to imagine I'd be whisked out of my room, into time and space. Didn't happen. I'm still here." Her smile was rueful, but all the same, she was finally smiling.

"It was amazing out there," Rose said.

"Do you miss it?"

"More than anything. Except for my friend – I miss him more." After another silence, she ventured: "The power source Van Statten's using, the reason you're so worried about Torchwood – it's something alive, isn't it?"

"I don't know for certain," Ace sighed, "but … yeah, that's what I think. I haven't seen anything -- I've guarded the outer room, but no one gets inside the core except for Van Statten and Dr. Shaw. Never heard anything coming from the inner room -- it's always dead silent down there. Eerie. But once I overheard Dr. Shaw talking to Van Statten, and two words caught my attention: 'Vital signs.' That's all. But it started to eat at me. More and more I started to think it could only mean one thing."

"Listen, there was a Van Statten in my world too. He got his hands on a living creature, and if this thing is the same, it's bad. As bad as it can get. Have you heard them say the word 'Dalek'? Or – what was it Van Statten called it – a 'metaltron'?"

I don't remember hearing anything like that. It really was a slip for Dr. Shaw to let me hear what I did. What happens if it is another one of these … which is it?"

"Daleks. To be honest – that is a case where we may have to call in Torchwood. And UNIT, and … anyone else we can."

If Ace was disgruntled at the possibility, she didn't voice her objections. "The question is, what do we do now?" she asked. "I've been on my own, not able to do much more than keep an eye on things. If you're here to help, we've got to make a move while you're here."

"The first thing is to figure out what they have down there. But not only is that core room locked down and guarded, but there's that containment field. I can't get a reading through the thing, and if it's blocking outgoing signals too -- we have to have the option open to call for help."

"You can't call out for help in that place," Ace confirmed. "But Mickey's not a bad hand at getting past that kind of stuff."

A thought struck Rose. "How well do you know Kevin Barrett?"

Ace chuckled. "I think he's got a bit of a crush on me."

"Even better. I met him on the zeppelin, saw him in the lab, and he's the one who drove me out to Gold Hill. He doesn't seem too happy."

"He's not. But he's not the type to do anything about it. And then one gung-ho speech from Van Statten can buck up his spirits for a little bit, until the grind gets to him again. He doesn't have much of a backbone on his own. But you know what? With a little convincing, he might rely on ours."

Rose had been gone over an hour when she returned to the bar, making a casual entrance, with Ace following behind. Kevin, whose face was flushed with drink, was panicked when he saw Rose – "Where have you been?" – then noticeably pleased to see Ace, who seemed to be right about the crush.

"I headed out for a breath of fresh air, when Ace showed up on her bike."

"It was great to see someone from home," Ace interjected.

"And she offered to show me some of the desert from the motorcycle – said it was the best way. And it was fantastic. You were having fun with your friends, and I didn't think you'd mind." A glance around showed Rose those friends had deserted him, gone or just drifted away to other tables in the bar. "I'm sorry."

"I was worried. I'm supposed to be looking after you."

"But she's all right, Kevin," Ace said. "I'm sorry I took her away. Let me make it up to you. I'll buy you a drink."

"But I have to drive Rose back."

"You're already past that, I think. I'll leave my motorcycle here and drive you and Rose back to the base. They know me here; they'll keep the bike for me until I can get back. Right, Amber?"

The waitress who had appeared at the table during Ace's offer grinned. "Do I get to ride it?"

"No, you can't," Ace said with mock indignation. "Just tell Joe I'm parking it out back for a day or two. And bring a water for me, another of whatever Kevin's been having, and whatever Rose wants, please. This round's on me."

The trick was to keep him relaxed, but not so drunk as to be useless.

"If you ask me," Ace told him, "you're too good for Van Statten. Not just the fact they say you're a computer genius who could work for any company, anywhere. But you're too good a person."

"I don't feel like a good person anymore."

"I know. And me. We're all compromised. But if you get a chance to do something to make it better … you have to grab it when it comes along. That's why Rose and Pete are here."

She let that hang there, untethered to a suggestion of concrete action.

A little later, Kevin said, "I don't know that I could do anything. It's just so hopeless. We provided power to build Cybermen. People have died."

"Then help us make it right. Put a stop to it before more harm can be done," Ace whispered. "I'm going to pay the bill, then we're going to go. But before we get in the car, I want to ask for your help. All I ask is if you can't do it, just don't tell another soul what we asked."

"I won't say anything," he said. "Tell me how I can help."

Back in the desert, Rose had called Mickey, just before she and Ace had returned to the cantina. Now she called again, and this time he was waiting by the phone. He was handed to Kevin, who was tipsy enough to be courageous, enough to be convinced that the right thing to do was to tell Van Statten's security codes to a stranger half a world away.