16
Everyone seemed to be statues, then the place erupted.
Ianto moved the fastest, seeming to disappear into the wall with Toshiko's hand firmly clasped in his own. By the time the shot into the ceiling rang out and everyone froze again, both were gone. Jack noticed this and knew he had to do whatever he could to cover for them, whatever they were doing.
"OK. So what do you want?" Jack asked calmly like they had politely put up a hand.
"First, we want to address the public so… a live feed to a news station" Simon said with a wide grin "And ya know… we already have one. Harold, lift the camera."
His brother lifted the camera he had bene carrying around and Jack motioned everyone to stay where they were.
Hopefully Ianto has a contingency plan.
.
.
"Oh my god, what the fuck!" Toshiko spluttered as she stood in the lower bunker, the archives of the Domes. Ianto's home.
"Over here, we have all the CCTV cameras on live feed, if you need to you can touch one of the small screens and it will blow up to full wall, like this" Ianto tapped twice on a small screen and the entire wall became that single camera's eye.
Simon and Harold had the floor, talking about some sort of militant group and blah blah that Ianto was unconcerned with. Jack's face was what he was concerned with, the man was lost and trying to remain calm. Not fear so much as anger but I think he wanted to throttle them. Yeah, Ianto felt the same.
Ianto leaned over the desk and fiddled with a few things so the screen went to half size, the other small screens round the main picture, forming a frame of CCTV images once more, showing live feeds of the action.
"Right, now every motion detector will open and its camera will feed back, this way we can watch what they are all doing."
"And what will you be ding" she asked as she pulled out a chair to sit and watch.
"What I do best… misdirect and misbehave I guess" Ianto shrugged as he headed off out of the room at a trot.
Toshiko settled back with a sigh as she scanned the screen until she found the one she wanted, watching Owen as he stood as tall as he could, his arms puffed out and shoulders squared in a hero pose as the teenagers cowered behind him. He had chosen his spot, and it was to protect the teens. Good man. She smiled softly and felt that flare of affection.
And fear.
.
.
Ianto stood in the dimly lit wall space as he lifted the tablet to watch the feed on the other side of the wall and calculate the best way to do this, then her chose a door and slid back into action. He silently seized Hammer's shirt and Skippy's wrist, walking them backwards silently towards side door and as the two arseholes held the floor with all attention on Harold's raised camera, Ianto stole two more hostages.
Only Jack saw.
And now understood the plan.
Right.
Jack wracked his bran for a way to help and remembered a personnel file, turning slowly until he saw Andy and could get his attention, and then he started to use sign language. Andy stared back and then responded. Good. He had remembered correctly, this man had learnt sign. Andy started to calmly back away from the madness, his hands reaching out to seize Mickey on one side, Martha the other. Mickey turned his head to ask him something then he swallowed it back as Andy shook his head.
Martha reached out and snagged Donna who grabbed Mort.
By the time the wall behind them opened and the group had baked slowly into the darkened wall opening to be cocooned in safety, more had seen and realized there was a play in motion.
Over the next fifteen minutes Ianto slid around the inner walls to spot where people were close, snatching as many as he could until there was only a handful to there. Gwen had caught on and slowly directed each couple of three back at a time from the Dome to the hallway wall. There was now only a handful of them too far away to move without catching the corner of one of the men's eyes. Jack knew the problem would be when the two twats stopped their games and finally looked around to find most of their audience gone so he cleared his throat and spoke up.
"I think … I think you two need to head to the main atrium so the cameras outside can get shots to you too, it might add to the… drama" Jack said confidently "I see now what you are doing and I know you are not wanting to hurt us. This is a mission, I get it. Step over there so the outside cameras can see, the Press will help your case and ensure the live feed is picked up."
Both men stared at him and then did exactly that. So used to him giving orders now, they did not even consider the fact they had the fucking gun.
Once they had stepped clear Jack watched Ianto step out of the wall into the view of the remaining hostages and then he swung his arms towards the dining room while mouthing 'run' and everyone took off through the doorway, entering to find Owen waiting with something they did NOT expect.
A gun of his own.
Ianto walked confidently through the doorway and over to stand next to Jack as the wall closed leaving just the two of them with the terrorists.
An unspoken agreement between them had them both moving over to the two men and it was Ianto who spoke "If you really want to make an impact you need to head into the East Dome. They have that special press box area set up for interviews. It already has live feeds worldwide, waiting for someone to sit in the chair to speak, right?"
The two men turned to him and Simon's eyes tracked past him like he was thinking of the others.
Ianto waved a hand "They will stay there, like… where the fuck CAN they go?"
After a beat, the two men turned and had a hissed conversation before motioning Ianto and Jack to go with them, Jack turned to yell back to the empty room behind them "everyone stay calm, We will be back in a minute, just… just have more pudding and don't be stupid!"
Then… he and Ianto followed the two men and started to form a plan to show what it is to truly be stupid.
They never knew what hit them.