PART SIX
8am saw the whole team congregated in the boardroom once again. Ianto had made mugs of iced tea for Gwen and Tosh and Jack had insisted on coffee flavoured milkshake. Ianto was somewhat disconcerted by the fact that both of his female colleagues were staring at him and exchanging smiles. Ianto wondered if he had shaving foam stuck on his chin or something but didn't ask, not wanting to draw any more attention to himself. Jack was staring at him with something bordering on affection in his eyes and Ianto found himself sighing as he sat down. He was tired and a little irritable. No sooner had his bumb hit the seat than his mobile began to ring. He had to stand up to wrestle it out of the pocket of Jack's borrowed trousers and to his consternation the others were all watching him as he answered the call.
"Ianto Jones speaking."
He instantly recognised DCI Swanson's sombre tones.
"Hang on a moment..." Ianto proffered the Nokia. "Jack, its Detective Swanson, for you. Sounds like more bodies." He passed the phone to Jack and sat back down aware that Gwen was still eying him up and he had no idea why.
The team waited for Jack to finish the call.
"You were quite right Ianto, more bodies." He said with a sigh. "Ok, Gwen, Ianto take some kit and check out the scene."
They both stood up.
"And take your weapons." Jack added giving Ianto a pointed look that said 'watch yourselves'. Ianto nodded and he followed Gwen out of the door.
"Alright Tosh, what have you got for us?"
Tosh immediately brought up a display on the plasma screen mounted on the wall. A scene from the incident was brought into view.
"The CCTV footage tells me very little, other than the fact that whatever creature was in that room was definitely cloaked. It was extremely fast moving and very agile judging from the way the man was firing his weapon. I ran it frame by frame and this is what the computer came up with." A hazy image of something vaguely humanoid was revealed. "Sorry it is the best I could do, the alien's camouflage is second to none. It's approximately seven feet tall, the shielding seems to be lowered or powered down for a micro second every time the weapon it is carrying is fired. There's no way of knowing what exactly the weapon is other than it is some kind of high intensity energy weapon that packs a hell of a lot of heat."
Owen was looking intently at the image. "That would concur with autopsy findings, the wounds on the bodies were completely cauterised. It's a bit like a much more powerful version of our little laser scalpel."
Tosh nodded her agreement. "I ran that additional intel along with Ianto's added search parameters through the database and came up blank."
"So we know nothing new then?"
"Sorry Jack."
"It's not your fault Tosh, is there any way of determining when it got here?"
Tosh shrugged. "There were no significant Rift spikes the days before the first reported attack. We need to find a way of tracking it Jack."
"Any suggestions?"
"Other than foot patrolling through Cardiff with our handheld sensors?"
Jack and Owen both sighed. "Owen anything to add?"
"Not really, the autopsies are done now apart from that new weevil you left in the fridge, but we are looking at extensive trauma to the bodies that aside, I'd like to get a look at the fucker so we can see what we are dealing with. It may be shielded because it can't breathe our air..."
"Then that would mean it was likely to have a ship somewhere close by." Tosh interrupted.
Jack nodded. "Ok Tosh, continuous city wide scans, every bandwidth and frequency you can think of, scan for everything and anything see if that comes up with something."
"Alright, that's going to be a lot of data to process Jack, I'll need the back up server."
"That's fine Tosh, do what you have to."
Gwen sat at the steering wheel and adjusted the position of the seat before keying the ignition.
"So er... Jack's clothes then?" She queried faux innocently.
Ianto could only roll his eyes in response. "I got wet last night bringing that weevil in, so can we drop by my flat first so I can change?"
"Of course love." She smiled. "Though I wouldn't recommend a suit judging from the last mess we had to examine."
Ianto half wondered where she was going with this conversation.
"Those cargo shorts were nice, have you got another pair of those?"
Ianto did a double take. "I'll do what I can do for you, shall I?"
Gwen was grinning and Ianto smiled too.
The smiles were soon wiped from both of their faces as they inspected the grisly crime scene with clenched stomachs. By the time they had returned to the Hub they were silent and somewhat shocked. Jack took them both to the boardroom and Owen went to fetch them both glasses of water. It was Gwen who recovered herself first.
"We really have to find this thing Jack. It killed children."
It was clear she was struggling to maintain her composure. "It was like the last one, the bodies gutted and skinned, but they were left lying around and I got the impression it had been interrupted mid gutting. One of the bodies was almost intact, we brought that one back with us, the rest have been left for the police to identify. I thought that would be best."
Jack nodded. "Yes. It'll give the police something to do without bogging us down in the minor details. I'm sure they know full well not to disclose cause of death."
"I discussed this with Swanson, and the police have decided to take the serial killer route and are keeping the whole thing as low key as possible, but with child victims Jack..." She trailed off.
He nodded, understanding and turned to Ianto. "Ianto, anything you want to add?"
The pale faced younger man looked thoroughly sick. "There's a case full of samples in the SUV along with the body. I felt uncomfortable Jack, like with the weevil yesterday, the feeling of being watched. I did a quick sweep with the PDA and nothing showed up." He shakily placed his glass of water on the table. "Now if you don't mind I really need to go to the bathroom." He rose unsteadily to his feet and then dropped like a stone to the floor in a faint. Owen, Jack and Gwen were out of their chairs in an instant but Owen waved his colleagues back.
"Give him some space."
Ianto groaned back into consciousness and promptly vomited.
"Oh lovely, Tea Boy. Come let's have you down on the sofa to rest."
Owen cooed and Ianto sat up and blinked at him... "Sorry."
Owen shook his head. "It's the heat mate, don't worry about it, let's get you hydrated and cooled off."
Ianto slowly nodded and was hoisted to his feet by Jack who then deftly picked him up and carried him to the couch. It was a testament to how ill Ianto felt because he merely lolled his head into Jack's shoulder. Owen trotted down to the autopsy bay to prepare an IV kit and Tosh having seen the commotion moved the fan from her desk to a position by the sofa. Jack carefully lay Ianto down and then flapped his arms at the girls.
"He's ok. Gwen, go get a shower and freshen up, cool off and make sure you have Owen check you over first."
Gwen nodded and stepped back towards Owen's domain and Tosh returned to her desk, glancing over her shoulder as she watched Jack undo the buttons on Ianto's shirt and remove the belt from his trousers. Owen was there a moment later to assist in getting Ianto settled. Ianto had fallen asleep by this point.
"Heat stroke?"
Owen nodded. "Probably, he's Welsh, most likely the first year he's ever seen the sun... seriously I suspect he hasn't been drinking enough and if he's been a Hazmat suit most of the day... Well you know. He's probably a bit squeamish too... I mean I would be as well if I had to deal with that."
Jack couldn't argue the point and when Owen was done he gently ruffled Ianto's hair as he slept.
"Don't worry Jack, he'll be alright. It's not serious, just need to keep him out of the field for a couple of days. Just pat him down with a cool damp flannel for a bit and the IV and fan should do the rest."
Owen did a thorough exam anyway, such things were always easier when Ianto was asleep, especially when he got the needles out.
