Martha returned to the derailment site while the rest of the team followed their new lead. Miranda and Ianto were in Ianto's car with Henry while everyone else was in the SUV. Ianto was driving, doing well keeping up after Jack. Henry was busying himself with checking his gun. Miranda gave Henry a slight glare. While the Duke had shed his cane, it was still possible he was not one hundred percent. "Are you certain you've healed sufficiently, your grace?"
"I have some lingering pain in my legs, nothing unmanageable. I assure you, I am able bodied." If he hadn't been able to handle the assault, he would have remained behind. He'd never do anything to put Fish in danger, nor anyone else on the team. He asked, "You advised our Watchers to remain behind, Mao-Lin?"
"I did, your grace," she replied. "They may not listen."
Henry sat back, disappointed.
"It's their choice," Miranda said.
"If Ashley had not been following me-"
"Neither here nor there. The Game itself is not benign. Watchers understand the risks involved," Miranda interrupted.
Right as Ianto pulled up to the kerb behind the SUV, Jack's voice came over their comm units. "Ianto? Through the front with Will and John. Everyone else? We'll go through the back. Non-lethal force everyone. If it is them, we need someone alive for questioning. You hear that? John? Will?"
"Non-lethal," Hart said, sounding disappointed.
The team discretely got out of the vehicles. Henry and Ianto had portable door rams in their hands. The team split as ordered with their guns drawn. Crouched low, Miranda, Ianto and Hart approached the front entrance. The lock was damaged. Hart took his place behind the two immortals. Since the scene at the park, Hart had begun carrying his Torchwood issue equipment. His comm unit was in his ear.
"On my count, everyone," Jack said through their comm units. "Three… two… one… GO!"
Ianto swung the ram at the door and it opened easily. The six Torchwood agents plus one sprinted into the empty shop, their guns raised. Jack and Hart were shouting at the men the strange language the two of them often used together.
They'd caught the men unaware. There were four of them and they were scrambling not for their weapons, but for their belongings and escape. Their movements, again, spoke of military precision. One of them tossed a device at the window. It went off with a flash of light, creating a large hole. It hadn't broken the window. The device had caused a large elliptical portion of the glass and the boards nailed to the outside to simply vanish. Two of them laid down cover fire while the other two reached for rucksacks. One bullet caught Jack in the shoulder as he pushed Gwen against the wall. Henry threw himself, protectively, in front of Fish. He wanted to return fire but Hart and Ianto were on the other side of the room.
Another bullet landed in Ianto's leg and he fell against Hart who stumbled backwards. As the Torchwood immortals shielded the mortals, the terrorists managed to escape. The last man through the hole slammed a device against his leg and dropped it into the middle of the room then turned to flee. Miranda took out a button tracking device and ran for the hole in the window and the man making his way through it. She dove for his leg and missed, the man barely escaping her hands. She swore an ancient curse and tossed the tracking device at him. It missed, rolling into the street.
Jack's eyes went wide. While Miranda was attempting to tag one of the terrorists, he recognised the device dropped into the middle of the room. It was a black and mauve stripped cylinder with a mauve light blinking at one end. He shouted, "CONCUSSION GRENADE!"
He and Henry pushed Gwen and Fish out the back door and then shut it, pressing their bodies into the door. Jack attempted to shield Henry from the blast. Hart made a grab for Ianto's coat to drag him to safety but Ianto shoved off Hart's hand. He pushed Hart into the street and swung the shop's front door shut before collapsing. All four immortals were sealed inside the shop. Miranda, who had been ignoring the others' scramble for safety, was reaching into her pocket for another tracker. The concussion grenade went off and pain lanced through her body as if she'd been tossed into a brick wall. The force from the grenade slammed her against the window frame as glass cascaded down around her. She felt some of her ribs snap.
All the windows in the shop exploded, the frames bowed outwards. The windows of the SUV and Ianto's car also exploded as did every window for a block. The shockwave knocked those outside to the ground. A sharp ringing was all Miranda heard as she brought her hands up to her ears. They came away smeared with blood. She was lucky to still be conscious. She was standing close enough that the concussion wave should have put her out like a light for hours. She leaned out of the window and looked up and down the street. No sign of the black clad men. She uttered another ancient curse as Jack put his hand on her shoulder. Miranda whirled to defend herself. He had blood trickling out of his left ear and held up his hands to ward off her attack. Once she saw him, Miranda lowered her own hands and Jack started to speak. She couldn't hear a word.
Trying not to shout, Miranda said, "My eardrums. I can't hear you Jack. Give me a few minutes."
Jack fisted his hand into her shirt and dragged her towards the front door. Ianto was laying on the ground, blood weakly spurting from his leg wound even though Hart's belt was tightly wound around it. He was panting and sweating.The femoral artery…
The ringing in her ears was subsiding. Again, trying not to shout, she said, "The bullet's severed the femoral artery, Jack. There's nothing I can do."
She bent down and reached for the belt.
"Are you mad!" Hart shouted, grabbing her hands. To Miranda it sounded muffled and far away.
"I thought Jack explained things to you, Captain," Miranda said to him. She pointed at Jack's belt. "Henry, Ianto and I are immortals of the Game. This is not helping. Like the knife in my chest, it is prolonging his suffering. It is kinder for him to die and revive."
Jack knelt down, gathering Ianto's weakening form into his arms. Miranda looked at him and both men nodded. Miranda undid the belt and blood began to spurt like a fountain from the wound. Fear was alight in Ianto's eyes and he panted harder. Despite being immortal, it was nearly impossible to override the body and mind's natural instincts to fight against death. Jack was whispering soothing words to him that he couldn't hear. Miranda saw that both Ianto's ear drums had also been blown out. Ianto's body slackened. The bleeding slowed and then stopped. Miranda dug into Ianto's trouser pocket and depressed the stopwatch's button. She heard it click. Her ear drums had healed.
"Get him back to the SUV, Jack. It will take him more than half an hour to revive," Miranda said handing Jack the stopwatch.
"Bleeding out usually takes you less than twenty, Will," Jack said as he took it from her.
"He's young and low on the scoreboard," Miranda said. "Keep him warm. He's going to be freezing when he wakes up. Henry? Fish? Help him, please?"
Fish, Henry and Jack loaded Ianto's body into the SUV as unobtrusively as possible, covering him to keep him hidden from view. Meanwhile, Miranda and Gwen evaluated the scene with Hart. The floor of the shop was littered with trash. There were empty crisp bags and wrappers as well as empty drink bottles, plastic and glass. The shop had no electricity or utilities and the loo was nearly overflowing. They'd left a single rucksack behind. Miranda opened it up and, after moving a discrete distance from Hart and Gwen, began going through the contents. This rucksack contained far more dangerous items than what they had taken off of their first prisoner.
There were two more concussion grenades and three Pyraxian grenades, thankfully, with stasis locks on them. The Pyraxian grenades were notoriously volatile. The stasis locks put the grenades into a suspended animation to prevent them from going off at the slightest movement as they were prone to. There were a few extra guns and extra ammunition as well as larger amounts of that explosive they had found on the Linearist. There were a few fighting style knives. Miranda handed the rucksack off to Gwen.
"More weapons and ammunition. Be careful, there are some Pyraxian grenades in there but they've got stasis locks on them," she warned.
Gwen nodded and went to put the bag into the SUV. Hart was examining the litter on the ground.
"Take a look at this, Dollface," Hart said, pointing at the ground.
"I wish you'd stop calling me that," she said, automatically.
She used to say it with annoyance practically dripping from her tone but Hart wondered if he was imagining the affectionate teasing he heard. She crossed over to Hart and looked at what he was pointing at - printed train and bus schedules.
He said, waving at the ground, "Looks like they're not lone cells. These are for the train they derailed. They must have an idea what each cell before is supposed to do so they can carry out their own plans. Maybe another public transport target is next?"
Miranda nodded and bent down, spreading the schedules out with her hands. "Would they even understand the language? Those ear buds seem to work with the spoken word only."
"Believe it or not the Phoenician alphabet is still used in our time. We use the same numbers and they mean the same things. They'd just need to do the proper research on the time period and the language. That train's a scrap heap. I'd say they understand," Hart said, guessing himself. "That kid back at the Hub speaks Ekumen. It's a standardised language used throughout the Empire-"
"I know what Ekumen is, Captain," Miranda interrupted. She continued to sort the pieces of paper while crouched down. She didn't look up from her chore as she switched to the language. "My pronunciation leaves much to be desired."
Hart couldn't help himself. He burst into hysterical laughter, completely doubled over. She was speaking the Ekumen with Jack's accent! The Boeshane Peninsula was a peninsula shaped section of star systems out on the far edge of the Great and Bountiful Human Empire, the complete arse end of nowhere. While Miranda was a lethal creature, she also displayed a poise and grace that Hart found old fashioned and charming. To hear such a polished woman speaking Ekumen with such a boorish yokel accent made him want to laugh until he pissed himself. He was laughing so hard his eyes had begun to water.
Miranda lifted her head to look up at him, her eyebrow raised. Hart was still doubled over with laughter, tears nearly running down his face. Gwen and Fish were staring at him as if he'd lost his mind.
"Something amuses you, Captain?" she asked, still in Ekumen, and Hart's laughter increased.
Wiping his eyes, he said, "You've picked up Jack's accent!"
Miranda's eyebrows shot up.
"Jack's… from this… this… backwater colony," Hart said, still laughing. He was barely able to speak. He let out a few more deep belly laughs, finally straightening. He wiped his eyes and caught his breath.
"And your roots are more sophisticated?" she asked, sarcastically.
"Core planet, Dollface," he said with a wink. He let out a little chuckle. "Epsilon Kanai, the heart of civilisation and refinement."
"And may the Gods have mercy upon the human race, if you are their finest example," Miranda teased.
Hart drew a few breaths but continued to chuckle between some of his words. He wiped at his eyes again. "You're speaking it quite well actually, aside from the accent."
"I'm out of practice. Jack doesn't like to speak it," she answered in kind, trying to mimic Hart's own accent. She returned to sorting through the papers on the floor, looking at each one in turn.
"Better, but you're right, your pronunciation is off," Hart pointed out, "and some of the grammar as well."
"Perhaps you will teach me," she said, not looking up from her task.
"Be delighted to, Dollface," Hart said with a soft smile. He looked up and took in the expressions on Gwen and Fish's faces. "We're being rude."
Miranda turned and switched back to English saying, "Sorry, you two. Let's finish up here and get back to the Hub."
It didn't take the team long to bag and tag all the items into Torchwood evidence bags. They worked quickly since most of what they were bagging and tagging was little more than rubbish. Gwen and Fish went to load the bags into the SUV, leaving Miranda and Hart standing in the empty shop. Miranda was in the middle of the room looking around, rotating in place.
"What are you thinking, Dollface?" Hart asked, switching back to the Ekumen.
"I don't know," she said. "Something doesn't feel right."
"How do you mean?" he asked, stepping towards her.
"This felt too easy."
"Easy?" Hart gasped. "Eye Candy's dead."
She shook her head and waved around the room. "We're talking about a group of heavily armed terrorists here to destabilize the past, willing to commit suicide, who execute innocent bystanders unnecessarily. We should all be dead."
He replied, shrugging, "We got the drop on them, Dollface. They were outnumbered."
Miranda shook her head, still unsettled. "That patsy doesn't make sense. Why distract us? They're from the future. Hindsight is always twenty, twenty."
"What do you mean?" Hart asked, confused.
"Our little band of terrorists are from the future. They know what's going to happen. We don't. Why throw us off a scent we don't even know exists? Why make us think they're Linearists when Torchwood wouldn't know what that is?"
"They might not've been trying to convince us they're Linearists. They could be convincing us his mission was nothing," Hart said, shrugging. "They plant the information that they're just a bunch of mischief makers who ended up in the wrong time and place. The kid says they're dropping a few smoke bombs. That's a horse of a different colour from shooting at people and derailing a train."
Miranda nodded, still feeling something was off. She arranged for Ianto's car to be towed and climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV. Jack was in the SUV's boot, cradling Ianto's body in his arms. Henry was looking out the shattered window in the back with Fish's hand in his. Hart leaned forward, putting his hand on Miranda's seat. He continued speaking in the futuristic language.
"You're positive about Eye Candy?" he asked.
In the rear view mirror, she saw him cast a nervous glance to Jack with Ianto's body in his arms. He hadn't actually seen Miranda revive, only die. Of course, she must have, she was sitting here talking to him. But, it was hard to believe someone could come back from the dead.
"Yes, Ifan will revive. He'll be fine."
"Does this happen to you lot often?" Hart asked.
"Since Ifan joined the Game, he has eased a great deal of pressure off of Jack and myself." She tried to sound casual.
"He saved me," Hart said. There was no mistaking the surprise in his voice.
Miranda nodded. "It is the standing orders for the immortals on the team, Captain. We protect all of you with our lives because we cannot die."
"There's a bloody big difference between 'not being able to die' and that," he said, a bit angry, jerking his head back towards Ianto. He shook his head. "Just because you aren't as easy to permanently kill as the rest of us doesn't mean you should play cannon fodder."
Miranda repeated what she'd said to Ianto once. "Being able to give our lives over and over to save others is the only gift in our curse. It is a sacrifice that we gladly make. We will not stand idly by while our immortality can prevent the death of others."
"Can I ask you something, Dollface?" His tone was hesitant, with curiosity on its edge.
"I believe you just did, Captain," she teased.
"What's it feel like when you come back?" he asked.
Miranda closed her eyes and said, quietly, "Unnatural. Being pulled and ripped apart from the inside out. Like being hauled over hot broken glass."
The next question was out of his mouth before he could stop it, "Do you ever hope you won't?"
She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear that was flapping in her eyes from the wind coming through the broken windows. She confessed, "Sometimes."