8.

The call from UNIT came in early the next morning: they were allowed access to the Horizon files – the paper ones from the archives, not the digitalized form. Jack spent half an hour being mad about that, then the team came in for work and he decided to take Gwen, as she already knew Leslie. He could have taken Ianto, but Martha's words rang in his ears and, besides, he didn't want Ianto anywhere near a UNIT facility. The UNIT branch in Bristol was just as colourless and cold as the headquarters in London.

General Leslie led Jack and Gwen to what seemed to be a boardroom. A big, oval table with chairs took up the middle of it and a small table in a corner offered tea and instant coffee. No windows. Boxes with files were taking up one wall, all of them bearing yellowed labels identifying them as Project 32188: Horizon. Oddly, there were menus from various take-out places in Bristol on the table. Jack had a very bad feeling about this.

As if confirming his fears, Leslie folded his hands on his back and said, "Those files aren't to leave this building."

Jack put his hands on his hips. "So we're stuck here until we've read all of them?"

Leslie nodded. "Essentially." He seemed to interpret Jack and Gwen's raised eyebrows as the reproach they were and tried to appease them. "It took a lot of work to authorize you to even see them." He nodded at the menus. "Whatever you order is on us. If you need something, a soldier will be in front of the door, taking care of you."

"And making sure we're not wandering around, I guess," Jack added with a forced smile. Leslie frowned, displeased. Gwen stepped in. "Thank you, General." She smiled brightly and Leslie nodded at her before he left with a last scathing glare in Jack's direction. "We shouldn't antagonize them," Gwen told Jack.

He crossed his arms. "We have every reason to."

She sighed in annoyance. "Just … leave it, Jack." With that, she sat down at the table and opened the first box. "Focus your energy on helping me."

xxx

The Rift alarm woke Ianto from his nap on the couch. He sat up carefully, bracing one hand against his belly subconsciously, and looked questioningly at Tosh who hurried to her workstation. She dropped into her chair and waited until Owen and Martha had come down from the lab to say, "It's a pretty big spike." Which meant that they all had to go. Martha had volunteered to help out in case something would come through. It was just bad luck that it was really happening. All eyes went to Ianto.

He sighed, getting slightly annoyed. "I'm fine. Just go. I'll keep an eye on the Golem detector." He got up and sat down in Tosh's chair, muttering, "I'm pregnant, not invalid."

Owen nodded and took command. "Alright. Martha, get a gun from the armoury."

She nodded and hurried towards the room nestled into a bay of the main Hub. Tosh put on her jacket and took Martha's from the hook, while Owen put on his and then activated his headset. Ianto switched on his headset as well while Tosh got two others from her desk drawer for herself and Martha. As soon as Martha joined them, they hurried towards the garage, leaving Ianto alone in the Hub. He took a deep breath and relished the quiet for a moment. Nobody there to fuss over him and treat him like he couldn't even walk on his own. If he had five more months of that to look forward to, he would go mad. The only one treating him somewhat normally was Jack and that was kind of ironic.

xxx

Gwen threw another file on the pile they'd made in the middle of the table. "This is useless!" she said. "Every single mention of the device they used to make Rift travel possible for the Golems is blacked out! How are we supposed to work with that?"

"They want to keep their petty little secrets," Jack agreed. "What we do know now, though, is that the project was shut down immediately following Dr. Shaw's death and that there really were only four Golems."

"But why is there a whole army of Golems then?"

"Well, somebody continued experimenting and building the army. The question is who."

"And could they be responsible for those murders?"

"And just how much does UNIT know about this?"

xxx

Leslie shook his head. "We didn't know anything about the experiments being continued after the official ending. We found out through your investigations in the murder cases." Leslie looked angrily at Jack. "You should look into your own organisation before accusing us."

"We don't know if Torchwood One continued the experiments," Jack replied. His wrist strap beeped but he thumbed the message away, far too busy with Leslie. Whatever it was, his team in Cardiff would deal with it. "I wasn't exactly on good terms with them. If they did, there was no paper trail."

Gwen opened one of the files. "Why did you black out these paragraphs? Everything that tells us something about the device that was used to travel through the Rift is unreadable."

"It's top secret."

Jack put his hands on his hips. "I thought we were working together on this and now I realize that you hold back important information even though my team has made more progress in the investigations than UNIT."

Leslie folded his hands behind his back and straightened his shoulders. "With all due respect, for all we know you could have continued these experiments after Torchwood One fell and lost control over them, sending the Golems on a killing spree."

For a moment, it was completely silent. Jack's eyes narrowed, his shoulders tensed. He took a deep breath and managed to stay calm. "I would love to walk out that door now," he said, "and never come back again. You should sort out this mess by yourselves. But unfortunately, Torchwood bears part of the responsibility, so we're staying. We're going to find out who killed those former UNIT and Torchwood employees and why. We're going to stop him. And guess what? We can do so even though you keep interfering every step of the way. What does UNIT have to hide?"

Leslie didn't react, but Jack saw his jaw tighten fractionally.

"You can't stop us from finding out. Somewhere in these files, you forgot to black out something we're not supposed to see and we're going to find it."

Leslie sneered arrogantly. "Well, good luck. You're going to need it."

xxx

Ianto had directed Tosh and the others successfully to the origin of the Rift spike and was now sitting on the couch, waiting for them to tell him what they found. He'd switched off the headset to be able to concentrate on the file on his lap without their constant chatter in the background. It would only take one tap against their comm links to make him part of the conversation again. A cramp was starting to make itself known and Ianto put the file aside, his hands folding on his belly. He gasped when the pain got worse. The longest cramp until now had lasted two excruciating minutes, with the aftershocks taking about three minutes to fully subside. Ianto was hoping they would stop as soon as he was further along. He wasn't sure he could take much more of this. It was one of the most intense pains he'd ever experienced. A vicious stab in his belly robbed his breath and he bit off a pained scream, sinking to the floor and leaning back against the couch to pull his legs up against his chest, as if that would help. It didn't, but it also didn't make it worse.

And then, when the pain reached the point where he kept biting his lip to keep from crying out, his breath coming in gasping pants, two things happened: the phone started to ring and he heard footsteps. The first wasn't alarming, the second certainly was. He was supposed to be alone. He raised his hand to his headset and tried to turn around to the intruder, but pain finally clouded his vision and he felt hands grab his shoulders before he blacked out.

xxx

Owen dropped into the driver's seat of the SUV. "I don't get it," he said with a sigh and looked at Tosh who had taken the passenger seat and was closing the door. "Are you sure?"

"There's nothing there," she answered. "Just chronon particles to indicate that the Rift was open. No object."

From the backseat, Martha asked, "Is that normal?"

Owen shrugged. "Sometimes nothing comes through." He started the car. "All the better since we don't have to deal with any complications."

xxx

Jack hung up the phone. "Nobody's answering," he said, looking up at Gwen.

She shrugged. "Maybe they're out? You said there was a Rift alert or something."

"Yes," he replied, "but at the very least, Ianto should be in." He chewed his bottom lip, getting worried. He'd called the Hub and Ianto's mobile – no answer. He'd tried several times already, giving Ianto time to reach the phone … nothing. A niggling dread began to form in his mind. "Something's wrong," he said and dialled Owen's mobile phone.

"Why are you so jumpy about it?" Gwen asked with a frown. "They're just busy."

Jack shook his head. "Something's wrong. I know it."

xxx

Owen activated his headset to pick up his mobile and then focussed on the traffic again. It was lunch time and apparently, everybody was rushing about for a meal. Owen steered the SUV into a space a bit too small for it, trusting that the intimidating size of the car alone would help him get back to the Hub faster. Somebody honked at him and Owen made a rude gesture, saying into his headset, "Hello?"

"What's going on?" Jack snapped.

"We had a Rift alert. Nothing we couldn't handle. Pretty boring actually. Nothing came through. We're on our way back but the traffic is bloody mad." The lights changed to red and Owen cursed.

Tosh gave a long-suffering sigh. "We're in no hurry, you know. Relax."

Owen was distracted by Jack asking, "Is Ianto with you?"

"No, he's back at the Hub."

"He's not answering the landline or his mobile. I tried several times."

Owen bit his lip, now understanding Jack's annoyed opening line. He was getting a bit worried as well. They'd tried to contact Ianto to let him know that nothing had come through the Rift but he hadn't answered. They'd just assumed that something was wrong with the range of the comm links. He switched on the flashing blue and red lights the SUV was equipped with, forcing the cars before him to part. They did so, reluctantly.

Martha leaned forward. "What's going on?"

Owen ignored her, answering Jack instead, "Okay, I hear you. That's strange."

"Just get back there! Report to me immediately."

"Alright."

"And Owen – I mean immediately."

"I know what to do." Owen rang off and touched his headset. "Ianto, you better answer right now. Your ex is getting nervous … and me, too."

No answer.

Owen frowned. "Ianto?" Further silence made him curse. "Get your guns ready, girls. We seem to have a situation at the Hub." It could of course be a medical situation, Owen knew that. But he could always count on his instincts and they told him that there was more going on than trouble with the pregnancy.