A/N. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, i do appreciate it. It also helps me to update quicker. :) This chapter does make a reference to the novel Pack Animals, which some of you may have read, if you haven't it is a good read.
Chapter 17.
When Molly and Jamie returned to their seats in the boardroom, Molly noticed a look pass between the other three, but she said nothing.
'Well, now everyone is back in the room, lets see if we can come up with a plan to deal with these shifters.' said Jack. 'Jamie, have you got the information through yet on the victim from last night?'
'Yeah, it came through first thing this morning, not that I've had chance to look at it yet.'
'Ok, go and do that, see if it gives us anything.'
Jamie got up, walked out of the boardroom and down into the medical bay where he started pulling up the notes the doctors from the hospital had sent. Part of him was still worried about Jess, but he also knew that he would worry about her whatever the threat and that he just had to learn how to deal with it better.
Back up in the boardroom, Jack turned to Molly.
'Is Jamie alright?'
'He's fine.' Molly knew it wasn't really her place to tell them what had happened outside, but she had to give them something. 'He just got a little worried when you mentioned the zoo because that's where his daughters spending the day, but he's fine.'
'I can understand that.' said Gwen.
'Yeah, zoos can be a dangerous place. I went on a date there once, didn't end how I would have liked.' said Jack.
'What happened?' asked Molly, noticing that Gwen was trying not to smile.
'Well, I got chewed up by a two headed Brakkanee and my date got turned invisible by alien technology.' Jack said smiling and looking at Ianto.
At this Gwen started laughing, while Ianto looked almost as puzzled as Molly.
'Did that really happen?' asked Ianto.
'Yes. That would be one of the things you don't remember, wouldn't it. You did get turned invisible though.'
'Actually, it was the date at the zoo part I was having trouble believing.' said Ianto.
Jack looked slightly put out by this, 'Gwen, back me up here.'
'It's true, although…' she answered smiling, 'there had been Rift activity in that area.'
'See that sounds more like it.' said Ianto, but he too was smiling.
'The thought was there,' Jack shot back.
'Please don't tell that story to Jamie, because I don't think it will help.' said Molly.
'Enough of memory lane,' said Gwen. 'What are we going to do about these shifters? Do we know how to kill them?'
'I think shooting them would work, but I'm having trouble finding out more. The old record I found wasn't exactly forthcoming with details, I need to do more digging. I believe the bigger problem is the fact we don't know what they look like in their true form.' said Molly.
'The shadow Jamie and I saw yesterday didn't really look like much, it was more like something that you see out of the corner of your eye, but when you look it's gone.' said Ianto.
'That will be because of their speed. Molly answered. 'There has to be something we can do though.'
'Right, I want you and Ianto to keep searching the archives to see if you can find anything else. Gwen, can you check the police report from last night and then keep an eye out for any similar call outs. I'm going to see what Jamie has found.'
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'This is useless.' said Molly throwing down some papers onto an ever growing pile next to her.
'It's not useless,' said Ianto. 'We're just not getting very far.'
Molly rolled her eyes, 'We've been at this for ages and still we haven't found anything helpful. You would think that they would have accurately described this shifter and how they dealt with it, in case one should ever appear again.'
'Well, the archives aren't as complete as they used to be, but I get your point.'
Molly stood up and started to walk around the room to stretch her legs. 'When we get hold of these shifters, I'm going to make a point of making a detailed record.'
Ianto laughed, 'You mean I will.'
Molly laughed too. 'Let's go back and see what the others have got.'
When they reached the main part of the Hub, they found the others hadn't got much either. Jamie described the marks that had been made on Tom Smith, and how some were not bite marks, but more like slashes, which must have been the shifter in its true form. As they were listening Gwen interrupted, 'There's more 999 calls coming in.'
'Where?' asked Jack.
'Near to the University campus. There are multiple calls from students saying there are dogs roaming the grounds.'
'Ianto and Jamie, I want you to come with me. Molly, monitor the situation from here, Gwen, you stay too. I need you to deal with the police.'
'What are we going to do when we get there though?' asked Ianto. 'We can't be seen to just randomly shoot at these dogs, most of them wouldn't normally behave like this. Plus if we were lucky enough to hit the shifter, it won't die in its animal form.'
'Tranquilisers.' said Jamie suddenly. 'If two of us use tranquiliser guns on any dogs that attack us, it leaves someone with a real gun to shoot the shifter, because I would imagine that if it feels threatened its going to attack.'
'Good plan, go and get what you need.' said Jack.
It took Jamie a couple of minutes to find everything he needed, but the three men were soon in the SUV and on their way to the University. Gwen got on to the police and told them that they were dealing with the situation.
'Do you think they'll be able to stop these shifters?' Molly asked Gwen.
'I hope so,' said Gwen, 'I hope so.'
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With Jack driving it didn't take them long to get to the University campus. It was fairly quiet and Jack suspected that most of the people around had taken refuge somewhere. They walked across the grounds, Ianto and Jamie armed with tranquiliser guns and Jack with his gun. After a few minutes they could hear the sound of barking. All three of them took off at a run in the direction it was coming from. They stopped when they saw a group of around eight fairly vicious looking dogs surrounding a young girl who looked like a student. Jack raised his gun in the air and fired it as a distraction. All of the animals turned and looked in their direction. Sensing the threat they started over towards where Jack, Ianto and Jamie were standing.
'This does not look good.' said Ianto, aiming his weapon at the animals coming towards him.
'Wait.' said Jack. 'We don't want to provoke them into attacking.'
'So we just wait while they surround us?' questioned Jamie.
'Better us than that girl over there.' answered Jack, and he could see that the girl had now run off in the direction of the main building as the dogs attention was elsewhere. 'Plus if they are all together we might be able to work out which one's the shifter. If we can stop the shifter the link with the other dogs will be broken'
They stood there back to back, all with weapons pointing outwards while the dogs surrounded them.
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Gwen and Molly were in the Hub waiting for news, when an alert sounded on the monitor again.
'What now?' sighed Gwen.
'Oh no.' said Molly. 'We have a problem. A big problem.'
'I hate to ask, but what?'
'More 999 calls, same as before. There are reports of a group of dogs, except this time they are coming from the city. Apparently they have been behaving strangely near to the shopping centre and multiplex cinema.'
'There were two shifters, they must have split up to cover more ground.'
'What are we going to do? The others are busy at the Uni.'
'We are going to have to go,' said Gwen. 'There should still be one tranquiliser gun left.' Gwen hurried down to the medical bay and found the gun she was looking for. 'Come on, we can take my car and let the others know on the way.'
As they hurried towards the car park Molly activated her comms. 'Jack.'
'Little busy right now.' came the reply.
'I realise that, but so are we. There's more reports of strange animal behaviour in town, so Gwen and I are going to check it out. We think the shifters have split up.'
'Ok, just be careful.'
Molly got into the passenger side of the car and Gwen sped out of the car park towards town. Both of them hoping they weren't too late to stop something bad from happening.
