Chapter Thirty-Six
In the security office, Sue scanned the various CCTV monitors scattered throughout the room. Normally there were a minimum of a half a dozen security guards manning the office in addition to the various guards spread out over the rest of the Torchwood compound, but with so many fired or in custody, only Ollie had been watching the monitors.
Captain Price turned away from the monitor she had been looking at to question him.
"Ollie," she said, "other than someone impersonating a security guard by the infirmary and a woman wandering around the facility pretending to be the Secretary of Defense, has anything else unusual been going on tonight?"
"Yes," he answered. "Someone broke into Director Tyler's, I mean Director Keeling's office a little while ago." Sue whirled around and stared at him.
"And you didn't see fit to mention that before?" she demanded. "I hope you at least notified Director Keeling."
"No," he replied. "The Director left specific instructions to ring Dr. Collins, I mean Secretary Collins if anything unusual happened."
"Secretary Collins?" Price asked. "Secretary Frank Collins of the NIH?" He nodded. "Why would you notify him?"
"Probably because he used to be the head of the medical department here until maybe a couple of months ago," Sue interjected.
"Plus he was already here," Ollie said. "When the office was opened, I called him and he said he'd check it out himself."
"How long ago was that?" Sue asked.
"About a half an hour ago," he answered.
"Ring him again," Sue said. "Make sure everything's okay."
As he turned to make the call, Price frowned.
"Why would he want to check it out himself? And why would he be here in the first place?" She turned back to the monitors. "Do any of these show the interior of the director's office?"
"No," Sue answered. "Only the hallway outside of the office." She pointed to a monitor on the far side of the room. "That one flips between four cameras that run down the hall from the director's office to the lifts." She walked over to it. Captain Price followed and looked over her shoulder. The screen was currently showing a shot of the area outside the lifts. She pressed a button to change the camera shot. It changed to a view of the hall outside the loos. Pressing it again, it showed a long hallway lined with office doors.
"Is this the hall with the director's office?" she asked.
Sue shook her head. "No, that's the next view." She pressed a button and the screen went dark. "Huh, the camera must be out."
"Are you really surprised?"
"No, just frustrated," Sue answered.
"So we've got a camera out here," Price said, "and several in the lobby which were pointed in the wrong direction. Is there any way to check on the rest of the cameras without checking them one by one?"
"Yes." Sue walked to a nearby computer terminal. "We can't check if any of the cameras are pointed in the wrong direction, but we should be able to tell if any of them are out." Her fingers flew across the keyboard. Brow furrowed, she exchanged glances with the UNIT captain. "It looks like we have six cameras out, all of them in an area near the infirmary and the director's office."
Ollie hung up the telephone and turned to the two women. "Secretary Collins isn't answering his mobile."
Sue turned to the UNIT officer. "Captain, surely you aren't going to tell me we shouldn't check that out?"
"You can call me Marion," she answered. "And that is exactly what I'm saying. My orders are to take no action at this time. We need to get the CCTV on again and find out who the intruders are and what they want before I contact the general again."
Sue frowned. Ollie turned to her questioningly.
"Well, you heard her," she said to him irritably. "Get those cameras working again."
~oOo~
"Doctor," Owen said into his mobile, "what's going on with Rose?"
"She was attacked by the Kern. She managed to fight them off, but in the struggle she was hurt and she stopped breathing for a while," he heard the Doctor answer. "I gave her artificial respiration, and she's started breathing again. She's stabilized, but… I need you to take over because I think I'm too close to the situation."
By now Owen knew the Doctor well enough to know that he must be badly shaken to be willing to admit that.
"Doctor, we've found Jake down here, and he's in a bad way," Owen told him. "As soon as we find Martha Jones, I can leave him with her, but until then I've got to stay here. Just keep an eye on her, and I'll get up there as quick as I can. In the meantime, if she gets worse, ring me again."
Owen rang off and hollered for Ianto.
"Get a move on and find that Martha Jones! I need her help with Jake."
Pete and Toshiko had tried, and failed, to find a way to open all the doors to the cells at once, so Ianto and Tosh were in the process of opening up all the cells in the Dungeon, Ianto using the guard's ID card on the scanners next to the door and Tosh using the psychic paper. It had taken Tosh a few minutes to remember that the psychic paper could work on the scanners, which had delayed things a bit. While she and Ianto worked on the cells, Pete was searching the computer at the guard's desk for information on who was on duty that evening and their current locations.
"We're working on it," Ianto yelled back to Owen.
"Well, work faster!" Owen yelled.
From three corridors over, Toshiko opened the cell of a petite black woman. The woman's face lit up as she jumped off the bunk.
"Are you here to let me out?" she asked hopefully.
"Yes," Tosh answered. "Are you Dr. Jones?"
"Yes," she told her.
"Thank God. We need your help."
Toshiko led the way to the cell where Jake still lay unconscious. "In here," she said.
"Well, it's about time, Tosh," Owen said when he saw the two women in the doorway.
"Jake," Martha said in surprise and rushed to his side. In a glance, she took in the cuts and bruises. "What are his vitals?"
"Breathing shallow, pulse thready," he answered. "Broken nose, possible fractured ribs, various contusions. Probably drugged. We need to get him to the infirmary, but I don't want to move him until he's stabilized."
Martha turned to Toshiko, who was still standing by the door. "Cell number 50, end of the hall in the corner. It's used as a storage cupboard and there's medical equipment in there including a stretcher."
Tosh rushed from the room.
"You must be Martha Jones," Owen said. "Owen Harper, Torchwood Three. Do you think you can handle this? I've got another patient in Director Tyler's office."
"Who?" Pete said from the doorway. He grimaced when he saw Jake. "Is he going to be alright?"
"Besides his injuries, we think he was drugged. If we can figure out what he was given, I should be able to give him a counteragent," Martha answered. By now Toshiko had returned with an emergency medical trolley. Behind her, Ianto was pushing a wheeled stretcher. "We'll know more when I can examine him in the infirmary."
"Who's the patient in my office?" Pete asked.
"Rose," Owen answered. Pete's jaw tightened as he tried to control his anger.
"The Doctor's with her," Owen assured him, "but I need to get up there and check on her myself."
Pete nodded tightly before turning to the others. "Toshiko and Ianto, you two help Martha get Jake up to the infirmary. Owen, you head to my office and help the Doctor with Rose. I'll be right behind you. Now that the rest of the staff is released, it's time to take back Torchwood."
~oOo~
"Ollie, have you got the cameras up and running yet?" Captain Price asked.
"Not yet," he answered. Instead of working on the computer he was staring thoughtfully at one of the monitors. "Sue, Mitch Reynolds is not at his post."
"Where is he supposed to be tonight?" she asked, crossing over to him.
"He's in the Dungeon. I suppose he could be in the loo or something."
She rolled her eyes. "With all the rest of the things going on tonight, I doubt it. Did you try calling him?"
"Yeah, and he's not answering."
The two women looked over his shoulder at the monitor displaying the lobby of the Dungeon. As they watched, the door leading to the cells opened. Several people walked out, two of them rolling out a stretcher. They all crossed over to the lift and got in.
"Could you see who they were?" Price asked.
Both Ollie and Sue shook their heads.
"Switch over to the interior of the lift," she ordered, but before either of them could do that, more people began to pour from the door to the cells.
"What the hell's going on?" Sue asked.
Price raised one eyebrow. "Looks like a prison break. I'm assuming Director Tyler's in that group."
"Yes." Sue pointed him out on the screen. "And that's the head of security, the head of research, the head of IT…"
"There's too many people there to be just department heads," Price said.
"I don't recognize all of them, but that doesn't mean anything," Sue replied. "Torchwood is a big place. I don't even know how many departments we have."
"Should we be doing something about that?" Ollie asked doubtfully, gesturing at the screen.
"Seriously, Ollie?" Sue asked, staring at him. "What do you suggest we do? There's got to be fifty people down there. We could shut down the lift, but then they'd just take the stairs. Besides, if you had to choose between Director Tyler and Director Keeling, which one do you think is on the side of the angels?"
"Time to call the general," Price said, pulling out her mobile and walking to the other side of the room. After a quick conversation, she rejoined the others.
"General Bambera still wants us to monitor the situation, but she wants me to find Secretary Collins. And I think the best place to start looking is the director's office."
~oOo~
Once the lift doors opened, Toshiko and Ianto helped Martha get Jake to the infirmary, and Owen rushed to the director's office. Once there he froze in the doorway.
The Doctor was sitting crosslegged on the floor. Rose's head was in his lap and he was gently stroking her hair. On the other side of the room, the man he had seen get off the lift earlier, whom Ianto had said was Frank Collins, lay motionless on the floor.
Owen began to cross to him first, and the Doctor stopped him.
"Don't bother," he said tonelessly. "He's dead."
"Yeah, I can see that," Owen said slowly. "Wanna tell me how?"
"Not really."
Owen knelt down next to the Doctor and began to take Rose's pulse. "What happened to you?" he asked.
The Doctor gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"
"You've got a lump on your forehead the size of a turkey egg, blood dripping out of your sleeve and what looks like sunburn on your face, neck and hands. It looks like you and he," he jerked his head at Collins, "were caught in some sort of an energy burst. You're lucky that you were wearing that leather jacket. Otherwise your burns would be far more extensive."
The Doctor shrugged and pulled up the sleeve of his jacket. His arm was covered with a series of parallel scratches that were still bleeding.
"Huh. Must have happened when I was reaching for my sonic screwdriver," he said.
"Well, we need to get Rose to the infirmary," Owen said. "And you too. You're bleeding all over the floor."
The Doctor pulled his screwdriver out of his pocket, adjusted the setting with his thumb and handed it to Owen.
"Five seconds on the cuts, seven seconds on the bump on the head, then switch over to setting 238-B for the worst of the burns."
"Take off your jacket."
The Doctor struggled out of the heavy leather jacket and put it to the side. He winced slightly as Owen began to sonic his injuries.
Owen had seen the Doctor use his sonic before, but he still was amazed when the deep scratches began to heal in front of his eyes. The sonic reduced the swelling on the Doctor's head as well. He switched the setting to the one the Doctor had mentioned and began to use it on the burned and blistered skin of his hands and face.
"Is Rose alright?" Pete asked from the doorway. His eyes widened as he spotted Collins on the floor.
"I think so," Owen answered. "But we'll know more when I've had a chance to examine her in the infirmary."
"Is he…" He nodded at Collins.
"Yeah," the Doctor answered.
"The question I have is," Owen asked, "why were you and Dr. Collins burned and there's not a mark on Rose?"
Silence hung heavy in the air as the Doctor didn't answer, and Pete exchanged glances with Owen.
"I've got the rest of the staff beginning to take back control of Torchwood," Pete said.
"Yeah, but then what?" Owen asked.
Owen had finished treating his burns, so the Doctor slipped his jacket back on and put the sonic back into his pocket.
"Then we take down Keeling and the GBF," he answered grimly.
"You're talking about treason," a woman's voice came from the door.
The three men turned to see a UNIT officer at the door.
"Who are you?" Pete asked.
"Captain Marion Price, sent here by General Bambera to find out what was going on with Torchwood." Her eyes widened as she spotted Collins on the floor and she quickly withdrew her weapon.
"Put the gun down, Captain Price," the Doctor said in disgust. "What is with you military types and guns?"
"You want me to put my weapon down when I walk in and the Health Secretary is dead on the floor, Director Tyler has broken out of his jail cell and the three of you are discussing treason?"
"It's not treason to stop an alien invasion, Captain." The Doctor placed his arms under Rose and stood up, cradling her against his chest.
"Where do you think you're going?" she demanded.
"Rose's been hurt, so I'm going to take her to the infirmary," he told her. "You said you're working for General Bambera? General Winifred Bambera?" At Price's nod, he continued. "The general is a reasonable woman, or at least the Brigadier Bambera I knew was. Phone her and see if she wants you to stop us. If she's anything like the one I knew, she won't. And Pete," he said, turning to the other man. "Take away her gun before she hurts herself."
~oOo~
When they arrived in the infirmary, Toshiko and Ianto were in Lisa's room, trying to get as much information as possible about what she remembered about the GBF and their plans, and Martha was adjusting an IV that she had given Jake. Meanwhile Pete and Captain Price were taking turns speaking to the general on Price's mobile.
The Doctor gently laid Rose on a hospital bed near Jake. Once he was certain she was alright, he scanned the younger man and treated the worst of his wounds with his sonic.
"He was given overdoses of both Veratised and perichloridol," he told Martha. "I've temporarily speeded up his liver and kidney functions so he should be able to metabolize both quickly. I've also speeded up the healing of his broken bones. You should be able to handle the rest."
"Thank you," she said in amazement. She gestured at the sonic screwdriver. "Can I take a look at that?"
"Later," he said. "I'm in a bit of a rush."
She nodded. "I'm going to hold you to that, mister," she told him, and he grinned at her.
Toshiko called to him from the doorway of Lisa's room.
"Lisa has remembered more of their plans," she told him, "and she thinks she has a way to stop them once and for all." She outlined everything the other woman had told her, and the Doctor nodded.
"Text me when it's set up," he said. "And you and Ianto keep an eye on her, just in case she's trying to pull something."
"We will," she said. "But I don't think she will. She's very angry at being betrayed."
On the other side of the room, Pete rang off and handed the mobile back to Price.
"Alright, it's all set," he said, crossing over to the Doctor. "Bambera won't stop us. She won't necessarily help us, but she won't stop us. The only problem is that we need to get into Number 10, and dressed like this," he gestured at his work suit and the Doctor's leather jacket and jeans, "neither of us are going to get anywhere near the place."
"Let me let you in on a little secret, Pete," the Doctor said. "If you walk in like you own the place, people will think that you do."
Pete looked skeptical. He opened his mouth to argue, and the Doctor interrupted him.
"It's time to end this," he said grimly. "I'm not waiting another minute longer than I have to. They've hurt Rose twice, and I won't let them do it again. But before we leave, I need to pick up the battery with the Kern from your office, and the alien detector from the archives."
And then he shot Pete a manic grin. "Care to take down a corrupt government with me, Pete?"
Pete smiled back. "I thought you'd never ask."