Chapter 14 - We're Torchwood
Cardiff, Wales, 2015
Jack spun the ball and threw it, jumping.
It caught the basket and bounced off, crashing into a desk. He laughed, and looked around. Tom Jackman stood working a station, checking up file reports on the Company. Mapping out a history. Trying to work out how to unravel them, to bring them down. He was nearing middle-age. Too old to play basketball. Elijah Baley sat in his chair taking a metallic ball apart. It glowed, slightly They'd found it washed up by the Rift weeks back, and now they were house-bound Elijah had decided to take the time working it out. Reckoned it was from his era. He had had a wife. Too old, too old.
Gene Hunt caught his gaze, lounged over a desk. He shook his head, grimly.
They weren't the old Torchwood. This wasn't Gwen and Owen and Tosh and...Ianto. These were survivors. People washed up were they didn't want to be, like so much flotsam and jetsam on so many desolate shores. They didn't want to be here. This wasn't a team. Not like...not like before.
The door to the cells hissed as it opened. Jack walked through, ignoring the snarls as he passed Janet's block.
He stopped and turned. Harry Potter looked up.
"Can I have a minute?"
Harry shrugged. Jack hit the electronic door lock and stepped in. He crouched, sitting beside the man.
There was a silence, for a moment. Then Jack spoke.
"Married?"
"Yeah," Harry said, dryly. He pushed his head back against the cell wall.
"Happily?" Jack wondered.
"Yeah. Why?" Harry asked, suspiciously.
Jack laughed. "I'm bored."
"Oh God," Harry sighed.
"Relax, I wouldn't do you. Well...I would, but not right now," Jack grinned. "I want to talk."
"Go on."
"There's a company I once worked for. One small job, when I had less principles. A company that set itself on principles of greed, colonialism. A by-product of the sudden wealth new land brought. What began as business became conquest. Ruthless, trying to spread their influence across the known world, their power rising as the map got filled in."
Harry frowned. Jack continued.
"This company disappeared. Went under as the British government started taking more authority over its dominions. Vanished. Then one day it resurfaces, and suddenly it has fingers in every pie going. And now my team is being threatened and everything we know is at risk."
Harry shook his head. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I know you aren't behind it," Jack grinned. "and I know that you have contacts I don't."
"The East India Trading Company," Harry said, quietly. Jack started.
"What?"
"The East India Trading Company. I know it. I've had Aurors investigating it for years."
Jack grinned. "What do you say we help each other out?"
"Wait, you're letting me go?" Harry said, perplexed. Jack shrugged.
"I have the odd contact in your Ministry. He helped fill in some details. Beyond that, all we did was pick you up from where Donnie left you."
"You're going to have tell me about Donnie," Harry admitted, as Jack helped him up.
"I think I have alot to tell you about," Jack grinned.