6
Ianto found one of the reporters sobbing quietly in the foliage that afternoon and he swallowed back a groan as he knelt to try and coax her out.
"I… I made a terrible mistake" she wailed "This is my entire entire fault. I was the one who…"
Ianto slammed a hand over her mouth and glared daggers at her while using the other hand to point to the microphone on her lapel. "Rule number one… you are ALWAYS hot Mic'd."
She looked down at it and the back at him owlishly. He looked around and then seized her hand, dragging her to the potting shed in the back area of the Dome where the light was low. He sat her on a pile of potting mix bags, sitting on an overturned large bucket himself.
"Look Caroline… that's your name right? Caroline… you have to always assume you are being seen and heard by EVERYONE out there. OK? This is one of the few spots in this place that is out of range. This is like a Faraday Box… electronics do not work in or out. I have several of them dotted about for emergencies we could not broadcast. Now… look at me. Take a breath."
"The premature start… we did that" she blinked as tears cling to her long fake lashes "We paid a lot of money to get the project notes. We tried to get someone inside, tried everything but the project managers said no every time. We knew that is the place locked down with some of us in here… then you had to let us stay and we would win."
"So, you found out the starting scenarios that wood green-light a lockdown and … what… played it?" Ianto sat back and considered as she blinked more tears from her lashes.
Yet something occurred to him and he let his head fall back to curse softly at the ceiling. She was looking at her end on this. Ianto could see the larger picture and the fat there were several players with pieces on the board. He had to be strategic too.
"OK. Let's think logically…"
"But it's my fault. Everyone has a right to know…"
"Twelve months. You have to live in here with everyone for twelve months." Ianto warned.
"Yeah, that was one hell of a failed trick" she scoffed "We thought we could make it happen, there would be a lot of bickering with us in here for some great shots … then in a day or two we would be released."
"Gotta read the fine print in those waivers you all signed" Ianto shook his head as he looked out of the window "Keep thinking."
"About what?"
"The two minute window."
"The what?"
"There is a two minute delay in all the feeds to the outside world. Two minutes. They had two minutes to contact me and say it was a false alarm, two minutes to stop the feed. Two minutes to pull it back and they didn't."
She gaped at him.
"I counted to one hundred and fifty… past the one hundred and twenty so they had the time to pull it back, call it off. They did not give the signal. So… I can only believe that they wanted it to happen like this. They can blame you, they can make a fuss and the contracts and deal in place are now probably being renegotiated. Your bosses that OK'd this idea are not getting their arses handed to them. Coincidence? Or design!"
"Oh my god" she breathed with horror.
"So… stop saying this is your fault that and you caused this. You were just a pawn in the game, you were led to your decision and did what they wanted you to. They deliberately gave you up like a sacrificial lamb. Even let you think this is somehow your fault. So… stop it." Ianto scolded.
"Sons of bitches. What do I do now?"
"You do NOT tell anyone. We all have to get through this together. You need to be the victim like all the rest of us, we are all on the same page. Right? Why muddy the water and cause some disharmony? Even some half truth might get picked at like a scab. No… this never happened. You are not to blame so why be the martyr?" Ianto whispered to her. "Fuck them!"
"You're right" she finally relaxed and accepted his words as truth "I am only going to put a target on my back for something that was above my pay grade."
Ianto relaxed as well, watching her walk off with a jaunty attitude once more, unburdened by the fact she WAS to blame.
Two minute rule my arse.
God that man can think fast.
.
.
"I knew it" Jack snorted as he watched Ianto potter about "It was driving me mad trying to work out the reason for the kids to be locked in here, even if the press was part of the plan they couldn't have been."
"It confused me at the time. I hesitated because it was not the right 'Go' prompt but one for a similar project. I mean… I knew it had to be bogus because it was word for word the right prompt for that rejected project. I had to make a decision and even if I knew it was not quite right… I was not supposed to know that. Right? We were trained to recognize certain 'Go' prompts and that was one of them on the list. So in the end I decided to just do it."
"Ianto, you made the right choice. I would have too. Come hell or high water, this was not on you. You did exactly what you were told to do, even if it was not right. Like a good solider you stepped on the landmine even seeing it was there. You swallowed the pill. That is the job."
"Feels shitty though."
"I know… that's the job too, when in charge."
Ianto pondered that comment for some time before letting it settle in. Christ, Jack was right.
He was the one in charge all along.