A/N. Thank you for the reviews for the last chapter, as always much appreciated. Being stuck indoors yesterday means that i got this chapter written sooner than i thought i would. Enjoy. :)
Chapter 41.
Ianto and Jamie had tranquilised the weevil in the cells and got it down to the medical bay. Jamie took samples from it to compare against the two dead ones that they had. While these tests were running he ran a scanner over the weevil and it started to beep when he got to it's shoulder.
'There's something's in here, it's sending a signal out.' Jamie moved over to the two dead weevils and ran the scanner over the same spot. It beeped on the weevil that had been shot up in the tourist information office, but not on the one from the park. Jamie made a cut on the dead weevil and pulled out what looked like a small computer chip. 'I think we now know how they are being controlled.'
'The chip must be malfunctioning in the one from the park, that's why it didn't leave with the others.' said Ianto.
Jamie removed it from the weevil and it did indeed look damaged. 'I'll take the one out of the other one too, and then we can put it back in the cells.'
'Ok, I'll take this to Molly.' Ianto then climbed the stairs out of the med bay and went over to Molly who was working at her terminal.
'You ok?'
Molly looked up from her computer and smiled, 'Yeah, I'm fine. What have you got?
'Jamie found these chips in the weevils. He didn't find it before, because the one in the dead weevil from the park doesn't seem to be working.'
'Ok, let me see what I can do.' Molly hooked one of the chips up to her terminal and started to run some tests on it. As she was doing this the cog door alarm sounded and Jack came striding through it, Gwen behind. The look on Jack's face showed that things hadn't gone well.
'Please tell me you have found something.' he shouted across the Hub. On hearing Jack, Jamie came up to join the others.
'We have made one discovery that might help us.'
'Well, it better be good.' snapped Jack.
'Hey,' Ianto called back over to him. 'Whatever happened out there to put you in this mood, don't take it out on us.'
Jack took a deep, calming breath as he walked over to where the other three were standing. 'Sorry, but I've just spoken to the smuggest alien. I can't wait to shoot it.'
'Smug?' asked Molly.
Gwen nodded, 'It has delusions of grandeur. Problem is it made out that it wasn't the only one of it's kind.' She then filled the others in on what it had said.
'You want us to go down the sewers?' asked Ianto incredulously.
'It's where the alien went, and the only way to follow it, is to trace the residual energy it leaves behinds. That means following it through the sewers to wherever it comes out.' said Jack. 'I'm not exactly happy about it either.'
'So how do we stop them when we get down there?' questioned Jamie. 'We have no idea how many weevils they have control over. We might not get anywhere near these aliens, before they set the weevils on us.'
'I think I can help with that.' said Molly. 'If I can find the signal they are using to send to these chips, I can jam it. I don't know how long it will last, but I should give you long enough to destroy the equipment they are using.'
'How long will it take?'
'Hopefully not too long. The tricky part will be the distance it needs to cover. I'll have to stay here to do it though.' This was one time Molly wouldn't mind being left behind.
'Good, get working on that.'
'We don't know what will happen once we stop the weevils being controlled though. They will probably still attack us.' said Gwen.
'They might attack the aliens too though,' answered Ianto. 'They would have no reason not too.'
'What about after?' asked Jamie. 'We stop the aliens that are controlling them, but that still leaves us with stronger, faster weevils in the sewers. I can't reverse that.'
'We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,' said Jack. 'For now our priority is to stop the aliens controlling them. Get your stuff together, we leave in twenty minutes.'
Jack left and went up to his office, while Jamie and Ianto went back down to the med bay so that they could put the weevil back in it's cell, and the others into drawers. Gwen collected up a variety of different weapons and packed them up.
'Everyone ready?' asked Jack coming out of his office and back down into the main Hub. Everyone nodded. 'Molly, I need you in keep in contact with your progress on that jamming signal.'
'Sure. Good luck, and have fun down there.' said Molly with a playful smile on her lips, as they others started to move out of the Hub. Once alone she got back to work on the signal she was trying to find.
Jack, Ianto, Gwen and Jamie walked back across the Plass to the alley where the alien had disappeared down into the sewers. Jack shone a torch down the hole and then climbed down, the others following behind grimacing. They stopped at the bottom to get their bearings, all the while trying not to think about what was down there.
'My boots are going to be ruined,' moaned Gwen.
'What about my suit,' complained Ianto, 'this was one of my best.'
'Quit complaining,' said Jack. 'I'll put the dry cleaning through the expense account.'
'Forget drying cleaning, I think new clothes are in order.'
'Just try not to think about it, we have an alien to find.' Jack held up his PDA and scanned the area to pick up the energy signal. They started to move along the tunnels, going deeper into the sewer tunnels.
'Urgh!' exclaimed Gwen. 'Something just ran over my foot.'
'It was probably a rat' said Jamie.
'Gross, I'd rather see a weevil.'
'I wouldn't make statements like that,' said Ianto. 'You may get your wish.'
'This is not the stealthy approach I was hoping for.' said Jack, turning round to the rest of the team.
They walked along the tunnel for what seemed like miles, the water splashing around their feet. So far they hadn't seen anything, other than the rats. Then in the distance they heard some low growling.
'I have a feeling that they know we are here.' said Gwen.
'Maybe, or it could just be one lone weevil.' suggested Jamie.
'Does it sound like just one weevil?' asked Ianto.
'No, I was just trying to be hopeful.'
The noise sounded again, but this time they could hear it behind them as well. 'We need to move faster or else we are going to end up trapped in the tunnels and we'll be sitting ducks.' They started to move along the tunnel faster as they could hear the sounds getting closer to them all the time. Jack decided now would be a good time to see how Molly was doing with the jamming frequency.
'Molly how's that jamming signal coming?'
'I've found the frequency of the original signal and I'm working on jamming it. The only problem is I can't get it to work over a wide distance at the moment.'
'Well, no pressure, but I think we're going to need it sooner rather than later.'
'I'm working as fast as I can, I'll let you know when it's running.'
After Jack finished talking to Molly he stopped, the signal on his PDA had stopped also. 'The signals gone.'
'Great, now what.' muttered Jamie.
'It must have gone somewhere.' said Ianto, shining his torch around the tunnel. It wasn't until he pointed it up that he saw another sewer grate. 'I'm starting to think this alien has planned this all along. It's forcing us to go where it wants us to.'
Jack sighed. 'We can't stay here, we go up, but keep alert.'
'Any idea where up will be?' asked Gwen.
'Judging the direction we have travelled in, I believe it will be in the dock area.' said Ianto. 'Plenty of places there for an alien to hide.'
Jack started to climb up the ladder, he pushed the grate up and moved carefully out of the sewer. Ianto, Gwen and Jamie close behind. Ianto had been right, they were in the middle of the warehouses at the docks.
'I knew you'd follow my trail.' said a voice in the darkness that Jack recognised as the alien from the alley.
'Where are all your friends?' said Jack, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
'Around, but it's not them you need to worry about.' The alien then let out a low whistle, similar to the one they had heard before. They looked around them, and out of the shadows appeared around ten weevils.
'This is not good.' said Jamie, 'We can't take on that many.'
'Keep calm, no sudden movements.' whispered Jack. He then raised his voice again to talk to the alien. 'What do you want?'
'I want you out of the way so I can live in peace. I can't have you messing with the plans that we have in place.'
'Before you kill us, I want proof there is more than just you.'
The alien thought for a moment, and then made a signal behind him. Three other aliens with the same kind of yellow eyes came out of the shadows and stood next to it. 'Satisfied.'
'Not yet, but I will be.'
'Jack, what are you doing?' whispered Gwen.
'It's ok, I have a plan.' said Jack, not sharing any more than that. Mainly because he wasn't convinced his plan was going to work, and it was all going to be down to Molly.
The alien made another sound and the weevils started to close in on the four Torchwood team members, who were now standing in as tight a group as possible, with their weapons drawn. Jack reached up and touched his comm.
'Molly, now would be a good time to have that signal working.' As he bought his hand back down, the weevils surged forward at the group.
