Chapter 3: A New Lead
The elevator doors opened, ripping me from my memories. Gwen and I headed to the back of the building and saw that the alien had cut his hand on a sharp corner, and there was a little splotch of black blood glistening on the ground. Every few feet, there was another blotch. We followed the blotches around a few corners and into yet another apartment complex. It was a small one, only a six family complex. It wasn't far from my own apartment, and I knew some of the people in this complex. There was only one person who lived alone. And like the previous victims, she was a brunette. She lived on the base floor and I led Gwen to the apartment the woman had to have been in. We took out our concealed guns.
We walked in to see that she was already dead. Shot with the same gun. Jack was standing in the corner next to yet another broken window. I heard his voice both through the sound waves coming to me from across the room, and through the comm in my ear.
"Ianto, we got another mess." He told Ianto where we were, and said he'd start cleaning up.
The Varvara was busy tonight. Ianto had left scenes partially cleaned. Our fingerprints, shoe prints, and anything else tying us to the scene had been wiped clear. We were only three people without him, and couldn't let the Varvara go kill someone else while we were cleaning up its mess as if we were its nanny.
I was angry that we couldn't stop another person from being murdered. We'd been following a bloody trail throughout the night. And I was fed up that we couldn't seem to save these people, always being at least one step behind the Varvara. I stormed out of the apartment.
Gwen called out after me, "Where are you going?"
I told her somewhat harshly, "For a stroll," And I headed out.
On the way to the outside door I put the handgun back into the belt on my dress, making sure it was fully concealed. It had been pretty useless that night. I took the comm out of my ear and switched it off, shoving it into a zippered pocket in my jacket. I figured a walk around the lit up city would be nice, and maybe I could sort through some of the details and figure out where it might be heading with the random killings.
After about twenty minutes of wandering, I headed to the train station. It was late and I actually wanted to get something done before class on Monday. It's pretty hectic trying to have a life outside Torchwood, but I was determined to get my degree, and besides, I was almost done.
I got on the train, and it was surprisingly packed for a Saturday night. There was a small section of 4 seats that only had one seat occupied. I went over to the empty seats and sat across from the occupant.
He looked up at my arrival and smiled. His clean bright white teeth peered at me as he spoke a greeting, "Hello," his voice was fluid and soft. He said the greeting as if we were long lost friends.
Before I was mesmerized by him, my eyes had been peering above his shoulder, looking at the other occupants. Through the dim-lighted cabin, the man's clear blue eyes peered anxiously at me, awaiting a reply. His short cropped blond hair looked as if he'd never combed it. I realized I was starring, and muttered a quick, "Hi," before he thought he was the latest attraction at the zoo.
"My name is Gwylim." He said innocently, his accent shone through. It wasn't Welsh, but I couldn't quite place it.
His voice was like poetry to my ears, I needed to know more about him, "I'm Caden." I said in reply. My voice seemed hoarse to me, I had been working a long night, "Gwylim isn't a name you hear everyday." I said.
"Yeah, my mother had a sense of humor," he laughed softly, "So what brings you out this late at night, Caden?" he asked, I could tell he was anxious to get away from the talk about his name.
I couldn't stop looking at him, everyone else in the subway cabin was no longer important to me, I figured that the alien could be sitting in the seat next to me, and I wouldn't know, because I would be too busy looking at Gwylim. I answered with a lie I hoped he didn't pick up, "I was out with some friends," His blue eyes sparkled, I continued, "they drank a bit much, so I ended up taking them home, and left my friend's car at her place, figuring I could take the subway home." Maybe that was a little too thought out, but I think it flew, "How about you?"
"I was out looking for an adventure," He explained, my ears perked up, my entire night had been an adventure. He continued, "to no luck."
I laughed easily. We asked each other a barrage of questions, until the mechanical voice came over the speakers announcing the station we were approaching. It was my stop. I stood a bit early, knowing it would be hard to break the conversation, "This really is my stop," I said, dropping off.
"Alas," he said, "all good things do come to an end." He stood and held out his hand as if waiting for me to shake it.
"That's an interesting tattoo," I said as I noted the strange black runes printed on his arm that were revealed when his rolled up sleeves pulled away. I placed my hand in his and began the motion of shaking his hand, when he pulled it to his lips and kissed it.
"It's Korean," he said, "it says wanderer." He paused, "I suppose I'll see you around."
"I'd like that." I told him. The subway train had stopped, and I had to exit before the doors closed and I was stuck until the next station. I stepped onto the platform and waved to him through the glass window. He waved back, and the train started moving again. It was then I had realized that we had never exchanged contact information. I sighed, and then returned to the surface of the city, off to base to drop off the gun I still had in the belt of my dress. If any friends came over for surprise visits, I didn't want them seeing the gun, and wonder what I really did at work.
I wondered what the team was up to since I left, so I pulled the comm out of my pocket, turned it on, and returned it to my ear. I had been taking a short cut through a late-night open market place near the water when I heard a strange beeping noise. I'd never been to the market this late at night. I said into my comm, "Guys, do markets usually beep this late at night?"
Ianto's voice answered me, "What are you talking about?"
"I'm in the market between the subway station and the hub, and I hear this strange beeping noise."
"Caden, be careful," Gwen's voice said into my ear.
"Find out what it is, it could be something to lead us in the right direction." Jack's voice edged me on.
I followed the beeping to a corner of the market, "I think I found it," I told the team.
"What is it?" Jack asked.
I picked up something cylindrical that had been carelessly dropped by someone. It had strange runes etched on the side and had started to beep more frequently, "Jack, this can't be normal, it's a cylindrical thing with runes on the side," I tried to think of what the runes could mean, "it's beeping faster now," I trailed off and realized what it must have been.
"Throw it in the water!" Jack yelled in my ear.
I needed no invitation, I threw it as hard as I could towards the water; it exploded in the air in a great ball of fire. I hit the ground, covering my head, letting out a scream. I hadn't expected it to blow so loud. I could feel the heat on my skin. People nearby me screamed. Once I got my senses back, I ran out of the market place in case anyone tried to pin the explosion on me.
"Caden, are you ok?" Gwen asked over the comm.
"Fine," I said, adrenaline still pumping in my veins. I could have kicked myself; the police would probably investigate, and find fragments with the alien runes on them.
"Ianto, can you cover this up?" I asked, not quite knowing the extent of his abilities.
"Of course," he said.
"What did the runes look like?" Jack's voice came on again.
"They weren't human, I'm pretty sure," I dropped off. I realized where I saw them before. On Gwylim's arm.
"I think I have a lead, I'm off to the hub to check it out, check in with you guys later." I said into the comm, turning it off once again and putting it in my pocket. It was uncomfortable in my ear, and only wore it when I needed to.
Inside the hub, I looked through the CCTV of the subway. Gwylim had gotten off at the Cardiff Bay Rail Station. I followed him through linking cameras. He had finally entered a house on Alice Street. I snatched a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote the house number down. Time to pay Gwilym a visit. I told the team where I was headed; they said they would meet me there as fast as was possible.
XX
The house Gwylim had entered looked like any other house around. It was a one level blue-gray house that probably had a basement. There was a garage attached to the house with the driveway coming towards me. The neighborhood was quiet. The majority of folks around were fast asleep tucked safely in their beds unknowing that there was an alien killer on the loose, and even more unaware that their neighbor had set off a bomb in the middle of a market place. All the lights inside the house in front of me were off.
I sighed, I was anxious to get this over with, and I figured I had beaten the team here. The SUV wasn't anywhere in sight. My adrenaline levels were rising again. Earlier I had been angry that we seemed to be doing nothing effective tonight, but I loved the rush that came when you hunted down aliens. I headed up towards the house, digging my lock pick out of my jacket pocket. I knelt by the front door and, thanks to Ianto's instruction when I first joined; the door was open within thirty seconds.
Once inside, I closed the door quietly behind me, put my lock pick away, and made sure my gun was easy to reach for if the worst should happen. I had quietly walked through rooms, and opened doors only to find that no one was home, which I thought strange since I had seen Gwilym enter the house, but not leave.
I finally came to the realization that I'd have to go into the cellar. I opened the cellar door, and tried the light switch, it was busted. I felt my way down the steps. The moonlight from outside came through a tiny window and illuminated a small rectangle of light on the floor. I figured if I stood at the window and peered into the cellar, I might see someone hiding in a corner. I had made it to the rectangle in the floor when pain ran through my head and I blacked out.
XX
I don't know how much later I opened my eyes to the smell of something bad. I was sprawled in the back seat of an SUV that was fast filling with smoke. I tried the door handle. It was locked so that I couldn't pull the lock lever up to unlock it. I jumped into the driver's seat. I pushed the auto-unlock button to no avail. My hand reached for the key to turn it off, but grasped nothing. I brought my face in closer, the garage was dark and the smoke made my eyes burn, but even still I could see that there was no key to be turned. I turned to hit the window, but somehow they were reinforced so I couldn't break it even with my foot. I heard a noise outside the car.
I peered through the window into the smoky garage. A lone Varvara was standing there. I reached for my gun to shoot it through the glass, but my hand only found air. The Varvara held up my gun, "Looking for this?"
My hand went to my pocket, then to my ear looking for where my comm was, but my hand touched only my ear, and my empty pocket. I looked at the Varvara feeling like a fish in an aquarium left at the mercy of the school bully. I was his to do as he wished.
"What happened to the man from the train station?" I asked. To the extent of my knowledge, people don't just disappear.
Before my eyes, he morphed into Gwilym, "Our best kept secret is that we Varvaras can alter perception; make people see what we want them to see. Humans have the easiest perceptions to alter, it's their simplistic brains."
I realized that Gwilym never existed, and that the Varvara was just going to stand there and watch me die from oxygen starvation. I figured Varvaras didn't need to breathe oxygen to survive as he seemed unaffected by the smoke surrounding him in a fog. I was hoping my slim chances of a rescue weren't so slim. I had told the team where I was headed, and if they forgot, I had left the CCTV and the address up on the computer in the hub, "If you wanted to see me die, why not just shoot me in the head with your hollow-tipped rounds?"
"I'm tamer than my younger brother."
Varvaras have families? Well I suppose everyone does. Well now I at least knew that there were two Varvaras roaming about Cardiff killing, instead of only one as we all thought. It explained how some of the murders were so close together.
The Varvara continued his monologue, "My brother likes to see their insides decorate their outsides. I prefer to watch them die slowly like a caged animal, just how the humans on my home planet liked to watch us die."
"You underestimate me," I said a bit breathless, my throat was burning from breathing in bad air, and my eyes were burning.
He just looked at me.
I continued, "Never hunt someone that roams with a pack bigger than your own."
"So you think your friends will save you?" It was more of a statement.
"You betcha." I glared defiantly at it, determined not to let the diminishing amount of oxygen kick me in.
The Varvara peered at me for a few moments, and then started laughing the laugh of a deranged maniac, "I think your friends are just a tad busy at the moment tracking down my brother," he paused, "or being his nanny."
I could feel my breathing start to become labored, but the deeper breaths I took, the dizzier I got. I propped myself up against the corner where the seat met the door. I ignored the Varvara, and closed my eyes because my vision was starting to go awry. I was just so comfortable. I could keep my eyes closed forever; just resting against the door of the driver's side of the SUV I was trapped in.
I heard a shot, and I opened my eyes a bit reluctantly to look out of the window. The window was completely opaque, I couldn't see through the black. The door I was leaning on opened, and before I could fall, strong arms pulled me out.
"Jack?" I half-whispered, it was all the voice I could muster, and I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating.
"Just keep breathing." Jack's voice instructed me.
I could tell he was carrying me through the dark house. We went through the front door and down to where the SUV was parked in the street. The door to the back seat was open and Jack laid me inside. I was still just trying to keep breathing. I tried to sit up, "Jack?" I asked again.
"What?"
"There're two of them."