Scene 27

There was only a single creature overseeing the vast child repository.

One caretaker was all it took to monitor the highly advanced computer systems that created the environment to keep the children alive. It controlled temperature, air quality, vital signs, all at the press of a button.

A feeding tube passed directly into the gut, a waste tube coming out.

All carefully managed.

On a separate programme, keyed in, a youngster could be bought down when it was required for servicing one of the 456 manually, the poor unfortunate would be wired up to its host and 'milked' of the drug needed to provide that all important high.

It was barbaric. Cruel in the extreme.

The sheer scale of the operation was mind blowing.

Looking up, Jack knew he could search the floors for days, and not find Clara.

He didn't have days.

He made his decision.

He'd had more than enough of this place. It sickened him to the core.

These people were evil, and worse, they made others perpetrate evil in their name.

So far the Overseer wasn't aware of his presence...he was behind and to the left of it, out of earshot, concealed in the shadows.

He weighed up his options...try to sneak passed or take the creature on.

The latter was his choice.

The creature was taken completely by surprise...knocked sideways, as he launched himself at it, Harkness straddling it's body with his own, the gun pointed directly at the temple on one of its heads.

Adrenaline made Jack strong...fearless, this was an argument he had no concept of losing. Tiredness forgotten. Heart pumping.

His voice was menacing...the 456 was in no doubt of his intentions.

"Tell me where the Earth girl is, you piece of shit, or I'll fry your brain, just like my grandson's." He spat.

The creature writhed, but could not free itself.

"If you do as I ask, you get to live...agree?"

The creature nodded it's heads, then spoke.

"Fifth floor. Compartment Twenty-Six."

"A wise decision."

He relaxed his grip slightly, then fired...directly into the creature's skull. Splitting it asunder.

It groaned and fell away from him.

Dead.

"I lied." Jack said, and scrambled up, kicking the lifeless body aside.

Without giving it a second glance, he stepped onto a hover platform, which raised him smoothly and effortlessly upwards.

Jumping off after noting five, he began to run along the row of booths, counting as he went.

Reaching number twenty-six, he fired his gun again at the door locking mechanism.

It sparked and sprung open, like a huge freezer in a butcher's shop.

He found himself staring straight into Clara's big brown eyes.

She appeared at first to be in a trance like state...not unconscious but barely aware either.

He soon saw, however, that he was mistaken.

Those eyes, they were pleading.

She knew exactly what was happening to her.

It was written there in those earthy depths.

She was naked.

Her body had been pierced, violated cruelly, by the connections that both kept her alive, but held her inert.

He began the disconnect the tubes and wires that penetrated her, with trembling hands.

A tear leaked out from under her lashes as he worked to free her.

"Bastards! Bastards!" He whispered, half to himself, half to her, almost sobbing.

The tubes left wounds which oozed blood and serous fluid.

There was no chance to apply dressings or tend to her properly, Jack had no medical supplies in his back pack anyway.

She was bruised and punctured here and there over her nude body.

But Jack had no time to register embarrassment, either hers or his own.

"Clara! Clara! Baby, wake up, it's me, Jack. Clara, come back to me honey."

The face mask appeared almost glued to her skin, the seal tight, it was hellishly difficult to remove, without taking the skin with it.

He used water from his drinking flask to eventually release it, before fixing his own portable breathing mask he'd carried in it's place, strapping the pack to her waist and switching it on.

Talking to her all the while.

"Clara! Come on honey, come back. You're gonna be okay. Clara!...Clara!"

She did not respond.

Limp.

Paralysed by whatever the 456 had pumped into her.

As he broke the last of her fetters, she slumped forwards, and he caught her, letting her sink gently down.

"It's okay, honey I've got you. You're free. The Doctor will take care of you. You'll be okay now."

Taking off his long coat, he spread it beside her, then lifting her onto it, he wrapped her inside it, like a blanket, gently tucking it around her.

Not a sound did she make, not a whimper, but her eyes fluttered closed and she let go a deep sigh.

Harkness gathered her into his arms, her head lolling against his chest.

She was such a diddy little thing, light as a feather.

Leaving the scene of hell behind, he went in search of the Doctor.

It wasn't long before they met each other.

The Doctor was half walking, half running, his eyes almost closed, his finger tips resting against his temples.

Deep concentration. He looked half crazed. Desperate.

When he heard Jacks footsteps he opened his eyes wide.

"Jack!" He cried. " I've been trying to reach out to her, with my mind, I can hear her calling, Jack."

Only then, did he seem to realise she was there, in his arms.

His face changed, expression wide with fear...was she dead?

She looked so pale, so lifeless.

"Take her Doctor." Jack moved towards him. "Take her and get her to the Tardis. You know where it is. You need to hurry. We haven't much time. They'll be onto us soon. Closing in, we can't afford to be taken by them, if that happens we're finished."

"What are you going to do?"

"Take her, and run Doctor, don't look back, don't worry about me. I've got to finish this. Not you. This is my task. The Tardis knew it, I know it. Get Clara back there, get her safe. This whole place Doctor, the whole thing, it stinks to high heaven. I've seen it all now. I've seen what they do. It has to stop. I'm going to be the one that ends it. For Steven, for Ianto...and for that poor bastard Frobisher. It's pay back time."

His lip trembled with barely concealed emotion.

The Timelord took Clara into his embrace, holding her to him tenderly.

"This isn't over Jack. You have the Manipulator. Use it if you have to. Or I'll find you, the Tardis will lock onto the coordinates. I'll find you wherever you are. This is not goodbye. Okay?"

"Okay. Doctor. I'll be seeing you...and Doctor...thank you. Thank you for making me believe in myself again."

Jack touched the Doctor's coat sleeve, in a gesture of warmth.

The Timelord looked down at the hand. Then up at the man, lips pressed in a firm line, giving an expression of finality.

"À bientôt!"

He turned away then, and hitching Clara closer to him, he started to run.

He didn't glance back.

Didn't stop to think.

Jack watched until he'd rounded the corner, then hitching his back pack more comfortably on his shoulders, he made his way back the way he'd come...