Ianto couldn't believe he had to be here in the middle of the night. Well the sun had already risen and it wasn't much earlier than he usually arrived but seeing as he only needed to keep an eye on the Hub he saw no need to wake up at ungodly hours anymore. Not to mention he still wasn't entirely well. Although the colors returned to his face and he had stopped looking like a walking corpse he still felt that he wasn't entirely well. Unless he got a good night's sleep he was exhausted and there were times when he felt weak. He never told anybody but he knew that it didn't skip the attention of his all-knowing boss. Also, he was certain that everybody was cursing him for that healthy diet of his. Their organisms needed pizza, chinese take-out, a kebab or some indian curry but all unhealthy fast food was prohibited by Jack. For the time being.

He got everything going and tidied the whole Hub knowing that Gwen would be here any moment. "First thing in the morning" he negotiated with her but what she didn't know was that although she would get another two or three hours of sleep he needed to be an hour earlier to get an update on the latest news and prepare everything accordingly. His job was meticulous and hard and most definitely not as rewarding as Gwen or Jack's but he didn't complain. Yes, he avoided most of the action but somehow working in the shadows always seemed to satisfy him more. There were times when he wished to get involved in the action like his co-workers but then he remembered his death. That and the cold darkness of the coffin.

The cog wheel door rolled open and the couple with their baby went in. Ianto couldn't help but protest.

"What is he doing here?" he asked looking at Rhys.

"Hey, I have as much right to be here as do you!" the man protested. "It's my baby too!"

"Where's Martha?" Gwen asked not bothering with a fight.

She knew Rhys was on the border of bursting with rage. He had always thought her returning to Torchwood was wrong. Up until now he had accepted it. She didn't have long hours and Jack was responsible enough to leave her off most dangerous missions. Only when he was short on staff and there was something more important did he call her. And Rhys really approved of the forced holiday he made her take this week. But this had all changed. Now his son was behaving unusually and he was quite certain that it had to have something to do with Torchwood. It was always Torchwood: whether his wife had appeared alien-pregnant on their wedding day or he had had to be a Cardiff escapee getting away in a truck full of potatoes.

"Nobody's in town at the moment," Ianto repeated the message he had received earlier. "I'm left taking care of the place."

"Wait, nobody's here?" Gwen asked.

"Jack went with Tobey, Martha and Lois to investigate a case in London," Ianto explained. "He thinks there's a connection between several recent murders Lois reported. By connection I mean Torchwood-slash-alien connection. Jack left me in charge of Cardiff for the time being," he added. In view of the recent standstill this didn't really mean anything.

"Oh he picked a perfect time for this investigation thing," Gwen complained. "Like he couldn't wait a day or two? When did they leave again?"

"Yesterday," Ianto said. "After they caught wind of another one of those murders."

"What do we do then? I mean I can't use any of those devices. Can you, Ianto? No! What happens now? Ianto!" Gwen's voice turned from a high-pitched panicking and mocking voice to harsh anger.

Ianto closed his eyes and sighed. He hated this part. Him getting all the blame for what was in no way connected to him. To Torchwood, maybe but even that didn't seem to be certain.

"You could try doing what every normal person would do in a situation like this..." Ianto said and Gwen turned to him, suspicious and confused. "You know, go to the doctor's?"

o*o*o

Jack parked the SUV on the normally busy street of Camden town. Right now it was almost empty the only people random passer-bys and policemen. It was too early for the crowds to flock the streets and the shops were not allowed to open until the policemen had their way.

The four Torchwood members made their way towards the red-and-white tape marking the boundaries of the crime scene.

"This area is off limits due to an ongoing investigation," a policeman stopped them entering the crime scene.

"I'm Captain Jack Harkness and we're Torchwood. We're taking over," Jack said confidently but the officer didn't budge.

"I don't know no Torchwood bollocks so unless you have official permission I can't let you in," the man said.

"Don't know about Torchwood, oh, I missed this," Jack said the smile on his face broadening. The Cardiff police didn't even put up a fight anymore but London was something completely different. He missed the challenge. "Lois," he said letting the newest member take over.

The girl searched her wallet and finally found the card. "Ministry of Defense officer, Lois Habiba," she introduced showing the card. "I have level two access clearance and a permission from the General to conduct my own investigations which allows me to grant access to this crime scene for Torchwood."

"Basically she's your boss's boss," Jack concluded and went on leaving the policeman baffled.

"Where did you get your hands on that?" Tobey asked the girl making sure none of the police officers could hear him.

"I worked in PR, sometimes you needed special access," Lois answered with a smile.

"Good work. OK, Martha, I'll leave you to it," Jack said letting the girl approach the corpse.

The Captain approached one of the policemen and after exchanging greetings and names asked him about the investigation so far.

"The victim's name is so far unknown. He was male, approximately twenty-six years old. The body was found this morning around eight by a man commuting to work who says he tripped over the victim. So far no witnesses were found. Looking at the body it's obvious this was a murder. The shooter probably used a silencer as non of the people living in this area heard any shots."

"You don't find it suspicious at all?" Jack asked.

"Suspicious?"

"The victim has been lying here the entire night and nobody noticed it? On a Friday night?"

"True," Martha added still kneeling next to the body. "The body has been here for at least five hours."

"Everybody's drunk on a Friday night they might've thought he was just passed out," the policeman tried reasoning.

"In a pool of blood? I don't think so. And this morning, how come they nobody noticed him? Only after that man tripped did he realise there was a body lying in the middle of the sidewalk. He was certainly not the first one walking down this street. Martha, what can you tell me about the death of this man?"

The girl stood up and looked at the body. The man was lying in a strange position on his front, face twisted to the side revealing a broken nose and dead wide-open eyes. The body was dressed in a big overcoat. Strands of brown hair were glued together by dried blood which had gushed from a bullet hole in the back of the man's head. A significant amount of the crimson-red liquid was spilt on the ground.

"The cause of death was single shot to the back of the head, no other trauma is visible. Nose broken probably due to the fall, there are no signs of struggle on the body. Evidence suggests the man was shot here," Martha pointed a spot about two meters behind the body. "This is unusually far."

"He was running?" Jack asked already figuring it out.

"Looks like it," Martha said. "The momentum propelled him forward. I see no other possible explanation."

"He knew he was in danger," Lois concluded.

"Exactly my point," Jack said. "He would probably shout, try getting somebody's attention. There's no way this street was empty during the time of the murder. But they didn't see him. They didn't even hear him. The fact that there were no witnesses is not because there was nobody there but because nobody could see or hear him."

"How is that even possible?" the policeman asked.

"There was something in the air," Jack explained with a smile. When he heard no follow-up from his team members he added: "Something in the air? Tobey?"

"Oh, right!" the technician noted the command and immediately took out his PDA. After a moment the results came out on the screens. "The readings look normal to me Jack," he said. "Although wait... There're traces of a weird substance I've never heard of. It's not in the database. But it's disappearing. And very quickly. And... it's gone!"

"That was probably it," Jack noted. "Some sort of hallucinogen. Have you got the chemical structure?"

"No, it was all mumble-jumble. The readings only said "unknown compound". But from what was analysed so far it looks like its carbon-dioxide based. It seemed to bond with it at least."

"That's fine," Jack said and proceeded to check the body.

"Wait, you're contaminating the evidence," the policeman protested seeing no gloves on Jack's hands and nonchalant handling of the body but his cries were futile.

Jack turned the body over and searched his coat. There were drugs hidden in the inner pockets of his coat and he took them out. He then licked his finger and tasted all the drugs one at a time.

"Speed, amphetamine, cocaine," he named each and every powder and pill. Once he got to a bag with a powdered drug that consisted of orange and black granules he smiled. "Oh, he's connected alright," he said. "We're done here," he added and proceeded to the car.

"Wait, that's it?" the policeman asked.

Jack looked at him acting surprised. "Do you see anything else we should do?"

The policeman looked at him dumbstruck not really wanting to answer the question.

"Exactly. So you can do what you have to do here, get evidence, clean up, whatever you want and then transfer the body to the morgue. But you don't need me telling you what your job description is, do you?"

"Err... no, sir," the policeman saluted the captain uncertain of what he should do.

He didn't have to worry for long because soon enough Jack was gone along with his coworkers.

"What was that anyway?" Tobey asked him once they were already in the SUV.

"Have you got an ID?" Jack ignored the question.

"Yeah, easy," Tobey said deciding that his boss would answer his questions when he wanted to anyway. "His files were in the database and the facial recognition program did the rest. Mark Storey, convicted drug dealer. Apparently not affiliated to any drug syndicate. His alias was Age and he specialized in dealing with a drug called The Tiger - that being probably the thing you tried."

"It's called Bug, if you translate it from the original language," Jack said. "Gives you a hell of a kick and is heavily addictive. You can't even begin to imagine the things you see after you take it. But after you take it you're not as depressed as with all the other drugs. The "morning after" doesn't come. There's no hangover, no suicidal thoughts, everything is as if you had never took it."

"Sounds convenient," Tobey said. "So, where are we heading now? To search for other people connected with the drug?"

"The morgue. To see all the other connected murders," Jack explained.

"How do you know they're connected?" Lois asked.

"That drug, the Tiger, it didn't originate on Earth."