CHAPTER THREE

Dead men don't cooperate

An hour was more than Jack could take, but three was just torture. For three hours Owen was on the phone with the terrorist now in charge of caring for Ianto. Three hours until Owen deemed that there was nothing more he could do and reluctantly allowed the terrorist to hang up on him. Jack stood up and looked at Owen as the doctor went over to the sink and splashed his face. He carefully chose his next words.

"He's not going to die, Jack. We managed to remove the bullets and stop the blood flow. I believe he's got a concussion and a few broken ribs, but it'll all mend in time. He's safe for now."

Safe. Owen's diagnosis was all Jack needed to know that Ianto was nowhere near safe. If the terrorists had broken a few ribs to get a phone number out of him, then there was no telling what they would do to get more information about Torchwood. They had to get him out of there, but how? A dozen different rescue scenarios went through Jack's head — every single one could end in Ianto's execution.

It was ages since Jack had felt this hopeless. He sank down onto the stairs with Owen watching him compassionately. Gwen had warned Owen that their captain was fragile, but he hadn't believed her until now.

Tosh staggered to the railing above Jack and got the men's attention. "I couldn't track Ianto's cell. They are blocking the signal somehow."

Something pierced Jack's heart. If they couldn't even locate Ianto, then..?

"But I found something else that might he useful."

Jack was on his feet in a flash and raced up the stairs. He was at Tosh's desk before she could limp back into her chair, but all he could see on her screen was a weevil tracker dot. He looked at Tosh questioningly.

"I found this surge of energy outside the city," Tosh explained. "It's the same type of energy we use to track the weevils. But..."

She clicked on the tracker and the map zoomed in very closely on the spot. Suddenly there was a second, different marker next to it, blinking slowly in red.

"... there is another kind of energy coming from the very same area."

"Is it rift activity?" Jack asked.

Tosh shook her head. "No, but the computer ruled it out as alien. It could be the same kind of energy we found on the terrorists' break-in sites, but I'd have to analyze it to be sure."

"Do it," Jack ordered. "We can't risk going there to check."

Tosh nodded and immediately set on working on the analysis. Jack had his mind crumble with hope that this could indeed lead them to the terrorists. Then they would at least be one step closer to saving Ianto.

— — —

Ianto woke up in complete darkness. The buzzing of machinery blocked out every other sound and the metal floor beneath his bare skin was warm. He was stripped down to his trousers and his hands were cuffed behind his back. His mouth was as dry as a desert while the rest of his body was drenched in sweat. He tried to roll over to his back but as soon as he strained his leg a white-hot pain shot through him. Tears sprang from his eyes and he swallowed the urge to cry out causing weird gulping sounds to escape his throat.

What felt like hours of agony later, Ianto had managed to sit up straight against a wall. His eyes were used to the darkness now and he could make out the structures of his cell. There were pipes going across the ceiling and metal boxes on the walls with lightning bolts on the doors. He was in some kind of switchboard room.

Guilt suddenly crippled Ianto's heart. He remembered how he had betrayed Torchwood's integrity and thereby his friends. Under the pain of needles in his wounds and a baseball bat, Ianto had told them what Torchwood was really doing and how much they knew about the terrorists' plans. He had even given them the direct number to the Hub — a number he, Jack and Tosh alone knew. Ianto hoped for all he was worth that the terrorists couldn't track the number to location.

Ianto hadn't heard the sound of footsteps over the buzzing machinery below, but he did hear the squeaking of metal against metal behind his back. Too late did he realize that he was leaning to a door which now slammed open and thrust Ianto across the floor. In came two men in black masks with guns and a rope. One of them Ianto recognized from the questioning by his light blue eyes — eyes that, apart from being merciless and hateful, reminded him of Jack's.

"Time to squeal again, wimp," the blue-eyed man said.

The other terrorist, a bulky, strong man, lifted Ianto from the floor and forced him to stand while blue-eyes started to tie a noose around their captive's neck. Ianto tried to fight them off but the bulky man squeezed his wounded shoulder so hard that Ianto cried out in pain. His uninjured leg couldn't carry him and he would have fallen if the terrorists hadn't held him up. Then they pulled and dragged and pushed him out of the room and through long, dim corridors to another room. There were bright lights in the ceiling, tables and chairs all over and a kitchen in the corner, like in a workplace cafeteria. This was Ianto's torture chamber.

There were four more armed men and women in the room and one of them was the terrorist leader, unmasked and indifferent. He nodded to the blue-eyed man stepped up on a chair. The bulky man forced Ianto up on another chair and blue-eyes secured the noose to a lamp hook in the ceiling. Ianto thought hard but saw no chance of escape — if he tipped the chair over he would be hung.

The terrorist leader pulled a knife from his belt and held it to Ianto's stomach. "You're going to tell us where Torchwood's base of operations is. Considering what we've already got out of you I think you know that there is no use in struggling."

Ianto said nothing, trying to keep his balance while his leg and shoulder was on fire with pain. The terrorist went on to slowly pressing the tip of the knife into Ianto's naked abdomen. Ianto fought so hard not to scream but the pain was too much. His cries made his tormentor smile just slightly, but he wasn't pleased. The knife broke through the skin and a thin stream of blood trailed down the blade, but still Ianto did not speak.

"You'll lose way more than a few drops of blood if you don't talk," the terrorist hissed and moved the knife down close to Ianto's crotch. "I'll skin you piece by piece until there's nothing left of you, and then I'll go after your friends and do the same to them."

Ianto surprised his captor by giving a weak laugh. He found the thought of this man over-powering Captain Jack Harkness hilarious and absurd. "I won't tell you anything. You would never be able to defeat Torchwood even if I did. We have weapons you—"

He shut his mouth but the damage had already been done — his words had caught the terrorists' attention. Ianto cursed himself inwards asking how he could have been so stupid. The leader was just about to say something when a masked woman marched into the cafeteria.

"Our men spotted an armored vehicle heading towards UNIT base A in Cardiff. We think it might carry some good stuff. Let's go!"

The terrorists shot quick glances at their leader and ran after the woman when he did not protest. Now Ianto was alone with the terrorist leader. His heart beat like a hammer in the chest and his head spun. But his torturer only smiled.

"If I had time with you I would make you tell me all about these weapons you say you have, but I don't."

Then, without warning, the terrorist kicked the chair away from underneath Ianto's feet. For little more than a split second, he was absolutely certain than he was going to die, and he had never been so scared. The rope tightened around his neck and choked him but the hook in the ceiling couldn't hold his weight. Ianto fell hard the floor, hitting his already bruised head on the chair and ripped up the stitches made to his injured leg. Blood soaked the bandages but the terrorist did not care. Without a word he left his hostage coughing and bleeding on the floor without looking back.

Oh, I'm being too cruel to Jack and Ianto! Break one and the other crumbles... Thank you all for the lovely comments and don't forget to leave a review to tell me what you think about the story so far! :)