LOTS OF THINGS yOU cAN dO wITH A STOPWATCH
(iANTO'S RETURN)
Chapter one:
"Like a pretzel" muses Kennedy placing a cotton swab into the test tube held by Jessica who pulls an unamused scowl at his comment.
A sudden camera flash causes the pair to jump "Sorry" Jorden chuckles prowling around the scene in front of them.
"Have I taught you nothing about discretion?" A sharp welsh voice comes from behind the trio who all turn to be greeted by familiar moss green eyes.
"Sorry boss" Jorden grumbles turning the flash off for the next picture of his subject. At the group's feet in the dark side road lit up only by the streetlights is the body of a young man.
The poor soul is contorted into a knotted shape with one leg around his neck and an arm woven through the loop this made.
His back was broken so that he almost looked folded in half if not for the awkward arrangement of his limbs.
Jessica's focus returns to the tablet device in her hands currently monitoring rift activity, police chatter and live news feeds.
Kennedy bobs back down leaning over the victim to take further swabs whilst Jorden takes close-ups of the victims wounds.
"What do ya reckon then? Weevil?" Jorden is shaking his head before Kennedy has barely finished the question.
"Not enough blood not to mention I don't think weevils have an interest in human origami" Jorden smirks at his own words but then looks back at the poor sod in front of them and shivers.
The man looks about his age if not younger it was hard to tell with the large chunks of flesh missing from parts of his face.
The dead man has dark skin with short-buzz cut hair and the remains of what look like a military uniform but again hard to tell with large sections of the fabric missing.
Behind the two men Felicity and Jessica are silent looking anywhere but at the mangled corpse. They were not use to seeing things like this up close "How long do we have left?" Felicity murmurs to the smaller woman and Jessica looks from Felicity to her screen "I'd say about three minutes" as she finishes the sentence, sirens blare in the not so distant distance.
"Or we're already out of time" Jessica yells in a hurried and garbled voice. The group move swiftly packing everything back into rucksacks in seconds and running for the car.
"I didn't get to finish with the scene" Kennedy shouts to their leader "Just get in the car" Felicity growls back.
No black SUV awaits them much to Felicity's shame but a red Skoda Fabia and not for the first time in the last six months Felicity wonders what the hell they are doing? They aren't a secret underground organisation or anything of great substance.
They were just a group of over-enthusiastic nutters with too much money so maybe not that far away from being Torchwood after all.
Back at the base even that seems like a joke to Felicity. Some base just a basic basement apartment underneath her house.
She has converted the small space available into a medical room, holding cells, a kitchen and a main office nicknamed the hub.
The hub consists of four steel desks with three monitors on each one. Several heavy duty cabinets clutter the surrounding space.
At one desk Jessica Miles is inserting various samples from the dead man into various high-tech machines for analysis. In the kitchen around a white table sits Jorden Fellows and Kennedy Kirk devouring a pizza watched by Felicity Jenkins who is leaning against the sink sipping from a strong black coffee.
"Next time we order from them we should order it under Torchwood" chuckles Jorden "Make it official" he adds.
Felicity scowls over the top of her mug not deeming the younger man's joke worthy of response. Kennedy smiles warmly at Jorden "Fancy a hostile take-over? Maybe we'll get prettier assistants then".
Kennedy turns his smile on Felicity winking she rewards him with the sight of her middle finger "Just remember I chose you specifically" she leans forward and smacks each of them over the head "Don't make me regret it"
Felicity opens her mouth to continue the lecture but a loud crackle comes over the speakers in the room followed by Jessica's voice "I have something".
The two men exit the glass kitchen and move into the hub. Jessica's usually smiley face looks worried which snaps Kennedy and Jorden out of their childish mood.
"What is it? Jessie" Kennedy murmurs as Felicity marches over to Jessica's desk and leans over the blonde woman's shoulder "Yes, what are we dealing with?"
She asks pointing to the screen "Private Mark Evans" announces Jessica "Member of UNIT"
Jorden rubs a hand over his face "Oh, fuck-buckets" Felicity stands up straight sighing and Kennedy looks from Jessica to Felicity ignoring Jorden "We're screwed right?" he asks Felicity who nods, sighing again "We're done for before we've even started".