Miranda was leaning against the observation window of the interrogation room watching an exercise in futility. Jack and Hart were both in the room and the kid was terrified. They were wasting their time. This child knows nothing. Jack leaned in, banging his fist on the desk and the kid jumped. Hart glanced up at the window, tossing her a wink. She gave him a small smile and swore that, maybe, for a moment, a light blush crossed his cheeks. Probably the lighting…
"Has he done the dramatic 'just us, in this room, as long as it takes' bit yet?" Ianto asked handing her a cup of coffee.
"Not yet."
"Pity… Shivers down my spine that," Ianto said with a wry smile.
Miranda moved away from the window. She put the mug down on Jack's desk and plopped into the chair.
"You don't want to watch?" Ianto asked, pointing at the window.
"A fool's errand, Ifan. That boy knows nothing," Miranda said. She put her feet up onto the desk, crossing them at the ankles.
"You're so sure?" Ianto asked. He sat in the chair opposite, unbuttoning his suit jacket.
"Yes," Miranda said. She picked up the kinetic toy from Jack's desk and then tapped her ear piece. "Gwen? Where are we?"
"Nothing yet. I'm working on some geographic profiling to see if we can't narrow the search. I'll keep you updated," Gwen replied. Her voice sounded a bit distant, she was concentrating on something other than what Miranda was asking her.
"Thanks, Gwen. Fish? Where are we with the CCTV?" Miranda asked.
"I hit a dead end, Evie. I lost them on the cameras after the pawn shop robbery but I'm using what little I do have to help Gwen with the geographic profile."
Miranda sighed. They both sounded exhausted. Her own eyes were burning. "Got it, thanks you two. I'll have Ifan bring you both some coffee."
Ianto nodded and pushed himself off the desk. "I'll be ordering dinner shortly. Anything you fancy?"
"No pizza," Miranda said with a smile.
"Right," he said as he left the room to take coffee to Gwen and Fish.
It only took Ianto a few minutes to make the coffee. He fixed it to their preferences and arranged the mugs on his tray. Gwen was standing in front of a large map. Fish was flipping through CCTV footage as Gwen called out locations to him.
"I'm about to order some dinner. Anything either of you fancy?" he asked. He put the mug down next to Fish. He put the other mug into Gwen's outstretched hand.
"Not pizza again, mate," Fish said, accepting the mug gratefully.
Ianto smiled. "Mandy said the same. What are you two doing?"
"Geographic profile," Gwen said. Torchwood had a multitude of technologies at its disposal but for some things, Gwen preferred the old fashioned way. She tapped the paper map in front of her, indicating points in turn. Each one was surrounded by a drawn circle. Ianto thought it looked like some sort of bizarre Venn diagram. "This is where the initial spike was. This is where they mugged the university student. This is the Tesco Express and this… is the pawn shop."
Ianto leaned over her shoulder and said, "Huh… decent sized area."
"Not really. Everything is within walking distance," Gwen said. "It's their comfort zone. They're aliens. They're in a strange place, in a strange time. They're stranded here. They won't understand the scope of our society. They'll want to stick to a small area that they can easily cover on foot. They'll worry about the basics first - food, water, shelter. They got the first two out the way at the Tesco Express. We're focusing on the third… Fish? Are you still looking at the cameras on Salisbury Road?"
"Yeah, nothing so far," Fish said.
"Try City Road, it's a bigger street," Gwen said. "They don't have access to a vehicle. They won't want to waste what little cash they have for public transportation and they won't know how to use the system anyway. Where ever they are has to be in this area."
To Ianto, it sounded like she was mostly speaking to herself. Gwen continued, "They won't want to keep breaking into places, it'll attract attention. So where ever they are, it's probably somewhere deserted… an empty shop… something… Fish? Get the angles that have clearly abandoned shops in them. Anything boarded up or empty. Maybe something that doesn't have too many windows."
"Right, Gwen," Fish said, barely looking up as he took the mug and sipped it. "Cheers, mate."
"What's that?" Ianto asked, curious. Fish had about half a dozen camera angles on his screen, quickly flashing through.
"It's an experimental program. Right now, we don't have anything for facial recognition but a person's face isn't the only thing that's distinctive about them," Fish said. He waved at Gwen and then Ianto. "The way you walk. How you move. The rhythm to your gait and your step. The angle you hold your arms. Sometimes all that's unique to an individual when you add it all up. This program picks up on those little movements and compiles them into a movement profile. It's not as accurate as the facial recognition and the program is still pretty basic, but this is the perfect time to use it."
"That's fantastic, Fish," Ianto said, leaning in. He vaguely remembered Tosh working on something like this.
"I wish I could take credit, but the idea's not mine," Fish said.
He'd spent his years at Torchwood in awe of the genius that was Toshiko Sato. He had made his own changes when he'd joined Torchwood but all his work was built upon her foundation and he knew he could never match her technical genius. Fish was often profoundly sad that he'd never met her. He had broken down in tears one night when he'd accidentally come across a backup of Tosh's farewell recording. Two days later he had made his own and used Tosh's program to link the video to his personnel file. When his file was closed, the video would play the same as hers had. The video had given a face to the name that had built so much of Torchwood's technologies and that was when an idea was born.
Nervously, he tapped an icon on the screen. "Actually, I've a bit of a confession, mate. You see, this program is all Tosh."
The smiling face of Toshiko Sato filled his screen. She lifted her hand and waved. Fish had been toying with the idea of an artificial intelligence interface for the Torchwood mainframe ever since he'd come across Tosh's notes about it. She'd created a basic outline, built upon an alien system that had fallen through the rift. Fish had gladly taken on the challenge. It had taken him years to build the program up to the point that it would function. Once he'd come across Tosh's video, he realised how he could pay proper homage to his predecessor. He used Tosh's image for the interface.
"You are correct, Doctor Fischer," she said formally. Then she turned and looked at Ianto. She waved and said, brightly, "Hi, Ianto!"
Ianto was too surprised to say anything. Gwen, upon hearing the sound of Tosh's voice, stopped what she was doing and turned. The marker in her hand fell to the floor and rolled away.
Fish cleared his throat. Maybe this had been a spectacularly bad idea. "I'm sorry, mate. I used Tosh to-"
"I am Toshiko Sato, version five point four. Interpersonal interface for the Torchwood mainframe," she interrupted and then glared at him. "I can speak for myself you know."
Ianto felt a shiver go up his spine. Gwen stared at the screen, open mouthed and whispered, "Oh my God… Tosh…"
"I created a program that combed through all the old CCTV security footage. It picked up everything… her face, her voice, her mannerisms," Fish said, apologising. "I'm sorry, mate. I shouldn't have done."
Ianto swallowed, his eyes prickling with tears. "She would've been embarrassed but you would've impressed the hell out of her, Fish…"
"Does Jack know about this?" Gwen asked.
"I didn't tell anyone," Fish said. "I'm sorry. I'll get rid of her."
"No!" Gwen and Ianto both shouted simultaneously.
"No! Don't!" Ianto said, grabbing Fish's arm. "I'm not saying she wouldn't have wanted it. I mean, she would've been a bit embarrassed but… it just seems…"
"Right somehow," Gwen finished.
"I didn't mean to offend. I did it in her honour. Everything here is hers. I just built on her foundation." Fish explained, "She's a part of this place, forever. I just wanted to give a face to that."
"Ianto's right," Gwen said, sniffling. "You two would've been quite the pair."
Ianto felt his eyes water. He said, softly, "I'm so sorry, Tosh."
"It's okay. It really is," she said, giving him a smile. She pushed her glasses up on her face. "Fish just needs to figure out a way for me to be able to drink your coffee and I'll be set for eternity."
Fish threw his hands up. He'd just modified the program yesterday to remove the annoying nickname. "Bugger all! She's my bloody program and I can't get her to stop calling me that!"
Ianto and Gwen laughed through the tears in his eyes.
"Now, enough of that. Look, we can catch up another…" Tosh wagged her finger at them but trailed off. Her stern smile vanished and was replaced with alarm. "Incoming Internet based alert… Torchwood hashtag and keyword parameters detected amongst social media uploads… Filtering… Cathays Park. Displaying relevant information."
Images, videos and social media windows flooded Fish's screen. There were smoke bombs going off at Cathays Park. People were running and shouting. There was also several nine, nine, nine calls playing simultaneously.
"Didn't that kid say he was here to drop some smoke bombs?" Gwen asked, alarmed.
"Yes, I'll fetch the others, get the SUV warmed up," Ianto said. Before he'd even finished his sentence, Gwen was on her feet and so was Fish.
Tosh was still speaking. "Sat nav information transferred to the SUV." The mechanical tone vanished and she craned her neck on the screen and called after Ianto, "You know, if you installed one of those remote starters, I could warm it up for you!"
"I'll put it on my to do list," Ianto shouted back, forgetting a bit that he was speaking to a computer.
When he got through the office door, he saw Miranda was back at the interrogation window. Once she saw the look on Ianto's face, she rapped her knuckles on the glass.
"Ifan?"
"There's been an incident at Cathays Park. Fish and Gwen are warming up the SUV," Ianto said. He took Jack's coat from its hanger. "Smoke bombs have gone off…"
He didn't even get to finish his sentence. Miranda sped past him, picking up her sword from Jack's desk as she went. "Tell them to hurry."
Ianto took Jack's gun out of his desk and set it down. He stood there with the coat, waiting. The minute Jack saw Ianto standing there with the coat, he knew something was wrong. He turned and allowed Ianto to slide the coat up onto his shoulders. As he adjusted the sleeves, he asked, "What's happened?
"There's a disturbance in Cathays Park, sir. Several smoke bombs have gone off." Ianto didn't wait. He was putting on his own coat as he walked towards the Hub garage with Jack and Hart on his heels.
"This doesn't make any sense, Jack. They're killing and vandalising?" Hart said, shaking his head.
"It could be a fringe group," Jack said, just as perplexed. He ran out of his office after Ianto.
"I don't remember any of this," Hart muttered as he followed them.
