HUNTER KILLER PART THREE
Jack turned back to face the room and heard Ianto opening up his tool kit. It was a modern high ceilinged room with exposed RSJs arching over their heads in some rather poor imitation of the roof at Kings Cross Station. There were two rows of desks arrayed with some fairly hi tech computers and the far end of the room was dominated by expansive glass panels that looked over the arse end of the warehouse district and Barry Docks. The highly polished wooden floor was coated with slick layers of partially dried blood, above, in the phoney rafters hung 6 bodies, human once, now just skinned meat. Jack swallowed as he stared at them with morbid fascination suddenly aware of the humming of hundreds of flies. He hurriedly looked away, clean up was going to be a real bitch. Exposed reproduction Victorian brick walls were spattered with sprays of blood from ceiling to floor. He caught sight of Ianto gingerly stepping round the gore and taking photographs on his digital camera. Jack almost jumped when he felt Gwen's presence at his side, she had obviously composed herself and Jack couldn't help but feel pride for both of his staff, getting on with the task at hand.
"Jack you don't thinks it's another group of cannibals do you?" She had finally voiced what he himself had been wondering and judging from the glance Ianto had thrown in their direction, he was thinking the same as well.
"Not sure. I don't think so though. If they were gonna eat them, surely they would have taken the bodies?"
Gwen nodded. "Kathy said the burglar alarms had been tripped at about 2am, PC Andy got here at 4:30am about ten minutes after someone called it in, he found this."
Jack nodded. "Ok can you track down the CCTV for last night and find out from the security firm why the alarm wasn't dealt with immediately."
"Will do." Gwen was quietly thankful. It meant getting out of the room.
Jack turned his attention to the scene, taking note of the virtually undisturbed desks, he was interrupted by Ianto calling him.
"Jack, take a look at this." Ianto was holding something small in his gloved hand and inspecting it.
Jack wandered over carefully stepping over the mess. "What is it?"
Ianto held out his hand. "Some one got off at least 50 rounds, these are armour piercing bullets, the gun is over there under the couch, some of the bullets have gone into the wall and some up there." He pointed higher up. "Looks like they were shooting at something fast moving and pretty agile. The scans I've done so far indicate only human remains, but I'll take a load of samples for Owen to analyse anyway." His camera hanging about his neck Ianto handed Jack his PDA. He inadvertently glanced over Jack's shoulder and noticed the desks. Jack studied the readings, nothing unusual was indicated.
"I'll start doing the samples from the other side, you start this side. I want every inch of this space photographed."
Ianto nodded, knowing full well that it would be a whole lot better if Tosh and Owen were there to help them. He could understand fully why Jack didn't want to call them in though.
The next three hours were spent painstakingly going over the space. Gwen rejoined them an hour in and by late afternoon with the temperature up to 31clecius the smell was beyond being bearable. Jack was about to call a halt to the proceedings when once again Ianto called for his attention. Jack hadn't noticed that the younger man had found a ladder. Right now he was pulling slugs from the wall.
Jack stood there looking up as Ianto descended. He held up an evidence back and Jack looked at what appeared to be a spearhead.
"It was almost completely embedded and doesn't weigh much either." Ianto passed him the bag. "I've not seen anything like that before, the metal looks odd."
Jack inspected it as Ianto placed his tools back in the case and pulled out a half dozen evidence bags from the pocket of his overalls.
"I've photographed the whole scene and filmed it as well so Owen can get a good look."
"You get everything?"
Ianto nodded. Jack handed him back the bag with the weaponhead in it.
"Gwen, you done?"
She nodded adding a collection of samples of her own to the crate full at Ianto's feet. "Yes, definitely."
"Ok, we'll get these bodies down and bagged and then I'll get Tosh to bring the van over to collect all this crap."
Ianto and Gwen exchanged unhappy looks, neither of them wanted to go near the fly infested bodies. Ianto turned away and got his step ladder and set it in position, he'd already been up there to photograph the hanging corpses. He decided not to subject Gwen to the ordeal.
"We'll need rope to lower them down."
Gwen was thankful once again for the out and Jack too quietly thanked Ianto for his consideration as Gwen left to get the rope from the SUV.
The grisly task of getting the bodies down took well over an hour.
For the entire day the police hung about outside entirely grateful for once that Torchwood had done the forensic analysis. Kathy Swanson had nothing but reluctant admiration for the team of the team of three that had worked steadily throughout the day in that chamber of horrors. At 9:30pm a black van arrived and one of the uniformed guys helped a Japanese woman load up the half dozen body bags.
Jack, Gwen and the quiet Welshman whose name Kathy didn't know, peeled themselves out of the suits, all three looking the worst for wear. She turned to Captain Harkness who surprisingly subdued.
"Well?"
"If it looks like it's not our problem I'll let you know, but we'll take everything back with us for now. I'm curious as to why we were called in the first place." He said running his hand through sweat soaked hair. He looked tired.
Kathy nodded, the man had every right to be tired.
"My medical examiner and I made the choice between us, this isn't exactly the norm, gut feeling I suppose. Any guesses as to what happened in there?"
Jack shrugged. "We'll keep you posted. I have a nasty feeling that there is going to be more and you were right to trust your instincts."
"Great. What do you want us to tell the press?"
"I don't much care. As soon as we've identified the victims... if we can identify them, you can take it from there, for now, no comment. Don't tell them anything."
Kathy grasped his arm as he turned to leave. "If you think there's going to be more, keep us in the loop yeah? We may be able to help prevent that."
Jack nodded knowing full well that the police would not be slightest help.
It was midnight before the van had been unloaded of crates and bodies. All the corpses were moved to the morgue and Owen and Tosh began going through the CCTV and Ianto's photos and footage. Gwen Jack and Ianto got themselves cleaned up and Jack sent Gwen and Ianto home to get some rest. Ianto settled for crashing on Jack's bunk, knowing full well he'd never be able to sleep anyway, having scrubbed himself raw the smell of rotting meat was still clinging to his nostrils.
Owen made the decision to autopsy the bodies in a sealed cell, to which everyone was extremely thankful, even if it did mean Ianto helping get a lot of equipment down there to do it. Afterwards Ianto set about getting breakfast for the team so they could eat a decent meal whilst in conference.
It was another achingly hot day and Gwen came into the Hub at 7:30 am having hardly slept a wink. Tosh who hadn't gone home at all was working at her terminal subjecting the 'spear head' to various tests and scans. The two women exchanged muted hellos just as Ianto announced that breakfast was ready in the boardroom. Ianto had downgraded from casual to sloppy as he appeared from the kitchen area in saggy track pants and one of Jack's T-shirts carrying a tray of drinks.
The five of them were gathered around the table a somewhat muted conversation about the unusually humid weather and what it had done to Ianto's dress sense. Ianto didn't mind, at least the team were smiling and Jack was giving him a very close 'I'm undressing you' look as he was eating. Ianto actually blushed and dipped his chin a bit, it was amazing how vulnerable he felt without his suit to hide behind. Jack just smiled at him. Eventually the breakfast things were cleared away, everyone chipping in to help and then the catch-up conference began just as the Rift alert alarms went off.
