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Hit the Road Jack Part 3

Tuesday

September 13th

2011

Jack crept up to the dark warehouse in perfect silence. The site was completely empty and if he didn't know better he would have thought it was an abandoned building – but Jack did know better.

The world was still trying to heal itself from the events of Miracle Day, the events he had managed to stop what seemed like only yesterday. People walked around like they were in a daze, still unable to process how they had been given and lost immortality so quickly. Mostly there was a sigh of relief, but a few people felt a tinge of regret that yes, they too would one day die.

Of course, that isn't at all what was going through Jack's mind, because he wouldn't die, destroying the Three Families' plans had seen to that, but he wasn't done with the Three Families yet.

Almost immediately after that day in Shanghai he had started looking for leads to find the Three Families, and finally he had had success. A day after the world returned to normal, 52 businesses from all over the world suddenly went up for sale at the exact same moment. There was nothing concrete to connect them with the Three Families, but there was no way a coincidence that big could have happened.

When he looked into the businesses, their seller wasn't listed. In fact, according to records no one had ever owned any of those businesses, most of them didn't have addresses or anything that the most basic of business should have had. It had the markings of the Three Families all over it. No one else would ensure that all traces of themselves were wiped clean.

When he had finally been able to track one down to an address, something called Morton Robotics, he decided it was time to act. The address was in Cardiff, right along the time rift. He didn't think that was a coincidence either.

Finally, Jack ran into a security guard. He was patrolling near the front entrance. Jack didn't want to risk an encounter, not when he didn't know how many more guards might be inside, so he waited until the guard passed him by, and then he snuck up to the door, broke the lock, and got inside.

The halls inside the warehouse were pristine white and well lit, the complete opposite of the façade, and he was more certain than ever that this company was not on the level. He needed to get to the centre, in order to get the most out of the brick of C4 he had brought along.

A brick, with the magnification of the time rift, would be more than enough to take this entire warehouse down.

A door suddenly opened and a guard walked out, saw Jack and started reaching for his gun. Jack reached for his own, just a little faster than the guard, and shot the man in the head.

The man fell, dead, and Jack grabbed the security pass pinned to his still chest. He walked through the door the guard had come out of, and into the main warehouse. It was completely empty, save for a computer terminal in the middle of the room. Was this just a front?

He wanted to look at the computer, copy the files, but he knew his gunshot wouldn't go unheard and he had nothing to copy the hard-drive with.

"Damn," he muttered under his breath as he attached the C4 to the computer, pushing in the detonator. He'd have to be content with simply taking out the building and whatever sinister deeds might have grown here.

OOO

"So when you say you nullified the threat?" Rex looked at Jack as he finished telling the three about his previous encounter with Morton Robotics.

"I blew them to kingdom come," Jack grinned

"Wait," Marty interrupted. "I thought there was no record of Morton Robotics before 2015."

"I suppose there wouldn't be. After I destroyed the warehouse the listing disappeared, along with any mention of them."

"Until they appeared in my home town."

"But why would they build on the rift?" The Doctor was deep in thought, asking himself more than anyone else in the TARDIS. "Maybe they need a warehouse to build the robots, but they hadn't begun building them… but maybe they needed the time rift."

"I'm sorry," Marty raised his hand. "Am I the only person here who doesn't know what a time rift is?"

"No," Rex said. "What the hell is a time rift?"

"Think of it like an open wound in time," Jack explained, "a wound constantly bleeding itself. Things fall in, reappear maybe 300 years later – or before. Torchwood worked right on top of it."

"It's also quite a handy refueling station," the Doctor added, bounding towards the consul. "Jack! Where's another time rift on earth?"

Jack opened a flap on the leather wrist-strap he wore on his left arm. "Mexico."

"Mexico?" The Doctor started wildly pressing buttons. "Perfect!"

"Wait-" Rex started protesting, but suddenly the TARDIS was violently swaying. "Hey! I didn't sign up for some robot hunt!"

"Neither did I," Jack smiled. "These things just happen around the Doctor!"

"And isn't it wonderful?" The Doctor grinned back.

"Oh yes!"

"Oh no," Rex sighed and resigned himself to his fate.

To Be Continued…

(Oh god, so busy with school, so little time to write…)