Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales

Jack Harkness knew he waited enough time. With a fireball possibly connected to Rift abilities and CN, they needed answers. They didn't have a lot of options. Payton Borthwick was still sedated. They couldn't wake him until the CN was purged. Nanogenes didn't work. With so many variables, and unknowns, they couldn't risk trial and error.

Torchwood rarely had human prisoners. Given Derrian Talbot's history with Torchwood, and the numerous problems with him, John and locks, Derrian had been housed in a secured area for hard-to-manage aliens. Shooting the general hadn't made him popular. The suicide prevention tactics were extreme.

Jack entered the adjacent room. As expected, Derrian sat on a raised cot bonded to the floor. He looked much older, grayer and harder. The butler image long since faded, leaving a career military man who had seen more than his share of horror.

An impressive transparent wall separated observation from the cell. Jack activated the intercom and pulled a chair up. "I don't know where to start."

Derrian stood and approached the wall. "How did I not know you have a thirty year-old son? He said you worked with his mother."

"Its complicated."

"I know who you were working with thirty and thirty-five years ago."

"He's from the future."

"Complicated."

Jack rested his arms on the back of the chair. "You wanted to talk about Beaupre?"

"Yeah. Ron was shot." Derrian paused. "Torchwood Three hacked CCTV and tracked him movements using facial recognition."

"Hacked through Torchwood Three. Another active office took him out."

"Nova Scotia? The Arctic Observatory is inactive. The Falklands has a librarian." Derrian thought about it. "Luc found out Ron screwed up an intel grab three years ago and got his mother killed." He shook his head. "A bullet to the head is cold for that kid. I figured he might beat Ron to death."

"Luc restaffed."

"With who?" Derrian laughed and he wasn't amused. "That's where Oliveira and the twins went after the botched attempt on Eryn. Do you have any idea what Oliveira is capable of?"

"Yeah. He's going to be the head of Torchwood Nigeria at some point. Another ten or fifteen years."

"You know that for sure?"

Jack nodded.

Derrian rubbed his face.

"You thought I killed Beaupre?"

"Yeah. Between you and Cooper, it made the most sense." A beat. "How did you rebuild this place?"

"It rebuilt itself." A ridiculous explanation that might work.

"And Ianto? How did you manage that?"

"Did you come here to interrogate me?"

"No. I thought you might understand. You're no more angel than I am."

"My sins don't include torturing and enslaving sentient creatures to produce drugs."

"Sentient?"

"The pissed off adult dragon that attacked Cattrel, it showed all the indications of sentience."

"They are dumb animals."

"Derrian, it left emergency workers alone and killed building security. It realized we were attacking the building, and helped us." Jack gave that a moment to set in. "It knew the difference."

"No."

"Why would an adult creature attack a building holding captives but not go after eggs? The drug producers weren't breeding enslaved dragons. When the eggs hatched, the healthy hatchlings were released or escaped. No harm. No foul." A beat. "The creature had to know the difference."

Derrian shook his head. "That's insane."

"It attacked that building with the sole purpose of freeing the others. The females lay eggs and leave. The eggs hatch and the young fly for the Rift. No maternal connection. Why would an adult show up, reveal itself for the first time and risk injury unless the juveniles sent out an SOS?"

"No self-awareness. No tool usage. No indication of higher intelligence."

"Play dumb, watch and wait."

"There was nothing in any assessment I read. Nothing. Ruthie thought they were dumb animals."

"What did you expect from me? Sorry I faked my own death, old friend. Sorry I didn't show up when the government blew up the hub with you in it."

"By the time I found out about that, your team had already freed you. I wasn't in the country."

"Where were you for Miracle Day?"

"The Falklands with Woodside trying to figure out what the fuck was going on." Derrian set a hand on the wall between them. "Are you mad at me because you were shorthanded? Or because I wasn't there for you." He nodded. "You're a petty son-of-a-bitch."

"I almost died in Shanghai. Permanently."

"I didn't know."

"Whose the son-of-a-bitch? You lied to me. You kept Janne a secret, for years, to play head games. When I thought you died, I saw to your wife and son. I found out Janne knew you were alive the same time I found out you were. In retrospect, she knew about us. She never asked one question. We cried together. She waved Langford at me. Doesn't he look like his daddy?"

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Your crimes against me are the least of it."

"I barely grazed him."

"Is there any war crime you haven't committed?"

"You're being self-righteous to me? You're been at this a lot longer than I have." A beat. "You killed your own grandson to take out the 456 in retaliation for killing Ianto. What right do you have to judge me?"

Tears welled in Jack's eyes. "I sacrificed one child to save millions."

"How much of your soul did you sell to get Ianto back?"

Jack stood, tears running down his face. "If you want any consideration at all, we need to know everything about CN and the Rift ability research. Data, locations, anymore unwilling research subjects, regardless if they're human or alien."

"I had nothing to do with human experimentation. Part of my family was targeted by the Nazis in WWII."

"Will Janne or Langford be able to tell me?"

"You leave them out of this. My son doesn't even know I'm alive."

"What was the point of enslaving the dragons if you didn't want CN?"

"Its an interrogation drug."

"Which you sold to a human-trafficker in South Africa."

"No." Derrian shook his head. "I've been in the Falklands with Woodside for years. I came back because of the attack on Eryn and Luc. Beaupre was out of control."

"Convenient, blame the dead man."

Talbot raised his arms. "Kill me and get it over with."

"Not until you have given us everything on Beaupre."