Miracle Day- Escape to L.A.
It was a VERY long drive from Washington D.C. to L.A. A long, long drive and by the time we finally got to L.A., after spending the night on the road, we finally got our first view of the Pacific Ocean as I stretched my back.
"Ugh. Twenty seven hundred miles. Man, am I sick of your ugly faces." Rex said and we all get out of the estate car and stretch. "Anyone got change for the meter? Last thing we need with a stolen car is getting a ticket."
Jack shook his head. "No coins."
"No, I've only got plastic. You said no plastic." Esther said.
Rex goes to a magazine vendor. "Hey, my man. You got change for a dollar?"
While Rex is getting coins for the meter, Gwen, Jack, Esther and I head onto the beach. "Wow, look at that horizon. We've reached the edge of America." Gwen said.
"Decades since I saw the Pacific. Must be about seventy years." Jack said.
"Are you kidding when you say things like that?" Estherner asked.
Jack smirked at me and winked. "Oh, ho, ho. I wonder."
"So where's PhiCorp from here?" I asked walking up next to Jack and leaning on him. Jack immediately wrapped his arms around me and kissed my head.
"Maybe about ten miles that way. Technically it's another city. PhiCorp headquarters is in Los Angeles and we're in Venice." Esther replied.
"We need to find somewhere to hide while we plan the assault." Jack said.
"Oh, can't we stay here by the sea? Not some stinking, dirty pit for once, Jack. Please?" Gwen practically begged Jack as Jack begin to smirk.
I joined in with Gwen. "Please Jack?" Then I went in for the kill. I lowered my bottom lip and said in a sad, pleading voice, "Think about the baby."
Despite Gwen and my protests, we ended up in some shady motel. We were shown the accommodations by a hefty tattooed man. "I'm not gonna pretend. It ain't nirvana. If you want somewhere with no questions asked, this is the best I've got." The Landlord said.
"Well, as long as it's got electricity and a roof, this is all we need." Rex replied.
"Hot water would be good." Esther imagined.
"I don't suppose it's any good asking who you are." The Landlord asked.
"We're travelling circus folk." Jack replied.
"Yeah, and he's the clown." Rex said.
Gwen smiled. "I'm the bearded woman, but I've shaved."
"Yeah, you missed a bit. Cash in hand, and there's more of that tomorrow as long as you don't tell anyone we're here. If anybody does ask, you let us know straight away."
"Sure thing. By the way, if you get hungry, there's a cafe on the corner that does a guava jalapeno cheese tart that's just fabulous. Laters." Their landlord leaves.
"Fabulous? What is it with you? You make everybody around you gay?" Rex asked.
"Jack, don't answer that." I snapped and I slapped Rex on the face. "Keep your sex thoughts to yourself." I hissed before Jack pulled me back.
"Okay, now we can use this place as our delivery address, we can order that spare server. Then we start in on PhiCorp. But first thing we've got to do is lift out the security profile." Esther said, trying to defuse the situation.
Gwen's phone rings. "Oh, sorry, I've got to take this. Sorry. Er, yeah. I... sorry." She leaves the room.
The hotel room that we managed to get had two beds, a couch and a bathroom off to the side. Jack and Rex had moved the one of the beds up against the far wall, from the couch and the other bed up against the far wall from the door. They spun the couch around and pushed it up against the second bed.
I was sitting on the couch, eating a bag of sweet and sour chips while Jack and Esther set up the laptops and shown the computer screen on the wall as a big screen. Esther turned at the sound of my eating and stared at the bag. "Sweet and sour chips?"
I grimaced and pointed at my stomach. "What the baby wants, the baby gets."
Gwen came back inside the room, her cell phone clutched in her hand. "Sorry, that was Rhys. Sorry."
"We've all got family. The sooner we get this done the sooner we can see them." Esther says.
Gwen took a deep breath. "Okay, what do you need me to do?"
"Well, this PhiCorp raid means we need to lift out the security protocols on Jilly Kitzinger's files. You think you can do that?" Rex asked.
"Mmm hmm. Got Torchwood software ready and waiting." Gwen said.
"There is a lot of-" Danes said on the wall, which was projected from the laptops.
"You're obsessed with this bastard." Gwen said, looking at Jack.
"I'm gonna put a permanent trace on him so we always know where he is." Jack said, brushing away Gwen's accusation.
"What about Kitzinger? Did we find anything more on her?" Eastern asked.
"She's freelance. She's been working with PhiCorp for about six months. She's good, but I don't think she's connected. She just happened to be at the right place at the right time." Rex said.
"Just like Oswald." Esther sighed. "We're wasting our time tracking them."
"It's never a waste of time, because our greatest problem is that what's happened to the world is invisible. But quite by chance Oswald's found himself right at the heart of it. George Eliot wrote this chapter in Middlemarch. She said that if you take a piece of metal with random scratches all over it and hold a flame up to the metal, the scratches look like they're forming patterns circling around the light. And that's Oswald. He's blazing away and patterns are starting to revolve around him. And all we have to do is keep watching." Jack said.
A while later, Jack and I are sitting next to each other on the couch, while Esther and Rex are talking off to the side of the room. I rested my head on Jack's shoulder. Why do we always get drawn into this stuff? I asked Jack through our bond so the others wouldn't hear our conversation.
Jack wrapped his arms around me in a comforting hug. I have no idea. Sometimes I hate it. But sometimes… Jack trailed off.
Yeah. I know what you mean. It's hard. It's even harder knowing what will happen.
How are you doing? Baby giving you any trouble? Jack asked.
I rubbed my stomach. She's been surprisingly well behaved for the most part. She only starts kicking when we are in danger…. She's got good intuition.
Jack laughed through the bond. That a girl.
I smiled and closed my eyes, wanting to only rest for a few minutes… I was asleep in seconds.
I woke up when the door to the apartment slammed closed, jolting me awake. I saw Rex carrying in what looked like a new server. Rex winced as he saw me staring at him. "Sorry Susan."
I shrugged. "That's okay. It's not like I needed it or anything." I said sarcastically, adjusting my position on the couch to a sitting one.
We all conjugated around the new server after Rex unpacked it. "So to recap, there's over a hundred dedicated servers identical to that one inside the PhiCorp building, all containing corporate data. But, according to Jilly Kitzinger's information, number one thirteen is a secure server accessible by only the highest corporate brass." Esther said.
"That's our target." Jack told everyone.
"And when PhiCorp says secure, they mean secure. I have never seen firewalls like this before. Our only option is to steal number one thirteen, to physically take it and cover our tracks by leaving a duplicate in its place." Esther said.
"Which is empty." Gwen stated.
"So we damage it. Fire damage. PhiCorp will think the information's lost, not stolen and they won't overreact." Esther said.
Gwen's phone rings. Gwen takes it out, types something and turns her phone off. "Oh, sorry. It's off." Gwen says, wincing.
"All right, I can scout out the building. So how are you gonna get me inside?" Rex asked.
Jack looked at Rex. "I don't think so. Not your mission, Agent Matheson. You're still on CIA lists. It's way too risky to pass you through security."
"And that makes you any better?" He responded.
"Jack wiped us off the map, remember? He's got a piece of software that removes any reference to Torchwood online. There's no record of us, unlike you." Gwen said.
"Okay, Dead is Dead. That's me, huh?"
Esther sighed. "Rex, you're a better strategist than any of us. Maybe you can figure out what to do next. Let's check this out. This is the IT center where the servers are housed. Floor 33, maximum security, completely enclosed. We need to gain access, but it's restricted with some heavy duty biometrics. Only one man can gain total access, the man who designed it. Nicholas Frumkin."
"Well, what kind of biometrics? I mean, what level?" Rex asked.
"Every entry needs voiceprint, palm print, iris recognition by him and him alone." Esther said.
"Okay. Then I know exactly what you need to do." Rex said.
Jack and I are strolling hand in hand when they meet a couple pushing a baby in a buggy. I changed my British accent into a New York City accent, going back to the way I spoke before I joined the Doctor.
I pulled Jack's hand along and practically ran up to the couple pushing the baby. "Oh, hey. My gosh, look at her. She is a beauty. Hey, baby." I gushed, putting on a smile.
"Don't I know you? I swear we've met before. You're er-" Jack asked the husband.
"I'm Nicholas." Nicholas said.
Jack snapped his fingers. "That's right. Nicholas Jackson, isn't it?"
"No, Nicholas Frumkin." Nicholas Frumkin said, looking strangely at Jack.
"Yeah, yeah. I think we've met." Jack said. "My name's John Smith." Jack lied and I almost rolled my eyes at that. He totally got that from The Doctor.
"Your baby is just so amazing. She's just awesome." I said, looking from the baby to the parents.
Jack smiles. "She's a keeper, isn't she?"
I hold out an aluminium drink bottle. "Would you mind holding that for me? Thank you so much." I asked and Nicholas took it. "Look at you. Wow. Oh, thank you. I'll just take that off you." I said, carefully, taking the bottle out of Nicholas's hands by the handle and straight into my bag.
"Hey, doesn't she remind you of our first little girl?" Jack asked.
"Yeah. Oh, you should see her." I said to the couple, lying through my teeth. I patted my stomach, "She's going to get a little sister soon."
"You know, we'd better be moving along. It's lunch hour, you know, so-" Nicholas said rather awkwardly. I took out my cell phone and showed them a picture of Gwen's baby.
"Oh, there she is." Jack said.
"There she is. Her name is Sally Anne Louise Matilda Jane. We couldn't choose." I said, smiling.
"She's beautiful." Nicholas said.
"Thank you, I know. Look at her little face!" I smiled as I pushed the phone almost into Frumkin's eye, and the computer grabs his iris pattern.
"So it was er, it was awesome meeting you. Just super good." I said. after I slipped my phone back into my pocket.
"Yeah, you too. See you around." Nicholas said.
"Sure thing." I said.
"See you later. Take care." Jack told them and we parted. "You're so never doing that accent again." Jack told me.
"I agree. Besides I like my British accent better. It sounds way sexier." I said, slipping back into my British accent.
I sat back on the couch after we got back in the apartment, eating the rest of my Sour Cream and Onion Chips while watching Jack and Rex destroy the server hard drives with a blowtorch. "Whoo!" Jack let out when they were done.
I rolled up my bag of chips, put a rubber band around it and put it in my shoulder bag. "You done?" I asked, walking over to them.
Jack, with his gloves on, picked up one of the server hard drives and held it up. All I could see was burnt and blackness. "Think this will convince them?"
"Probably." I said, nodding my head 'yes'.
Jack drove a delivery van while I sat in the passenger seat. We soon arrived at the PhiCorp service area. Jack backs up a delivery lorry and opens the rear. We were both in service uniforms.
"Hold up. Hold up. Who are you?" A large and strong looking guard asked.
"Delivery." Jack said.
The guard looked at his list on a clip board. "I don't have anything on my schedule."
"It says Human Resources." Jack said.
The security guard phone rings and he answers it though I could hear both the person who was calling and the security guard due to my excellent hearing. "Human Resources. Yes, our document shredder had crapped out. We had to rush a new one. Send it on up." It was Esther's voice.
"Sure thing. Go on up. Need some help?" The guard asked.
Jack shook his head "No, We're good."
The guard then turned to me. "Shouldn't you be on maternity leave or something?"
I raised an eyebrow. "I will continue to work until my water breaks. I refused to go on maternity leave. Anyway, most of the time I am sitting down in this van so its fine."
The guard held his hands up. "Okay. Yeah I know someone who is like that. Didn't stop working the whole pregnancy. She gave birth in the back of an ambulance because she waited too long." He chuckled to himself and waved his hand. "Go ahead."
I smiled. "Thanks." and Jack rolled up the window and continued to back into the garage.
Gwen met us at the service lift. "Hey Jack, Susan."
I smiled. "Hey Gwen. How do you like those heels?" I asked, smirking.
Gwen groaned. "Whoever wears heels to work is heroic. Why do women put up with these things? Look at 'them." Gwen took them off and held them up.
I laughed. "Yeah. Besides with traveling with The Doctor you should never ever wear heels because normally almost every single trip involves running."
Gwen laughed. "I bet."
"The fire department's average response time is twelve minutes. When they arrive, Esther's gonna direct them to the fourteenth floor. That should buy us another five minutes before they start checking other floors." Jack said. He turned to me and held out his arm. I took it, smiling. "Lets go, My Lady."
I smiled but rolled my eyes as Gwen, Jack and I started walking down the corridor. We stopped under a smoke detector and Jack sets fire to his delivery note then blows it out under a smoke detector to set off the alarm.
Jack, Gwen and I arrived outside the service room. "Please state your full name." A computerized voice said.
I played back the recording that Jack and I got earlier at the park.
"Nicholas Frumkin." Nicholas said on the tape.
"Please place your right hand on the sensors as indicated." The computer said. Frumkin's prints have been transferred to a latex glove, which I am wearing.
"Please look closely at the circle below." The computer said.
I pressed 'pictures' on my cell phone, and brought up the picture I took of Frumkin's iris pattern and I held it up.
"Access granted." The computer said.
Gwen looked at the door, amazed. "I never thought that would actually work."
We went into the server room which was rows upon rows of computer servers. "Server one thirteen." Jack said grimly.
"Little bastard." Gwen said. Gwen is just about to start disconnecting the cables when Gwen's cell phone beeps.
'It's Rhys' Gwen mouths at us. Then she said. "Yeah. Anwen all right? … Is he okay? … Okay. Look, I haven't got time for this, sweetheart. Just tell me, can you get him out of there? … Oh, I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. Just do it and leave me alone. Oh, and give Anwen a big kiss. Okay? Bye." Gwen hangs up.
While Gwen was talking, Jack and I were swapping the PhiCorp hard drives for the burnt ones in the packing case. Jack leaves Gwen to finish off reconnecting.
"Good luck." Jack said to Gwen.
Gwen breaths in. "Okay, go. Both of you."
I nodded and Jack and I made our way out. On the way back to our van that we drove here in I said, "Jack, I have a bad feeling about this. I mean, my memory is hazy but I think we shouldn't have left Gwen alone. I mean, I don't remember specifically what happens, just something… bad."
"Shit." Jack breaths.
"And I'm pregnant. If I go back now I might put the baby in danger. If I wasn't pregnant I would probably be fine."
We reached the parking garage and Jack opens up the back of the delivery truck to see the burly guard with a tight ligature around his neck. "Gwen. Damnit!" We turned around and ran... well Jogged back to where Gwen was.
We got back to the service room and I was breathing heavily, hands on my back. Jack turned to me. "Are you okay?"
I nodded. "Yes. Lets go get Gwen."
The door is still ajar. Jack and I draw our guns and enter. After a minute, we find Gwen bound and gagged with computer cable. "Gwen! Gwen can you hear me?" Jack asked and dropped his gun while he kneeled next to her. Seeing this I tightened my hand around my gun, knowing Jack just made a huge mistake.
"Who did this, Gwen?" Jack asked and gets knocked out.
I whipped around to find myself face-to-face with an assassin. I raised my gun. "You just made a huge mistake. You don't know who we are, do you?"
"Of course I do." The assassin replied. "You're the people I've been sent to kill."
I didn't hesitate and shot my gun which he dodged and ran in close and we were now locked in hand to hand combat. I was slower because of my pregnancy and trying to protect him from hitting my stomach, which he was clearly trying to aim for.
He got in one lucky kick in my side, sending me to the floor. On the way down, my head hit a wall of servers and I drifted into unconsciousness.
I slowly woke up to the sound of talking and too cold metal against my neck . "-ry long time ago. Don't you remember?" The assassin was saying.
"Who? Who told you that?" Jack asked angrily.
"This would be so simple in the old days. Tell me what I want, or I'll slit her throat. I keep wondering during these miraculous days, would it be better or worse knowing that her pain will last forever? I think better."
"Leave my WIFE alone!" Jack yelled. Then he saw that I was awake. Susan, are you okay?! Jack asked me through our bond.
Besides being threatened with my life, never better. I responded. Though I do have a slight headache.
"Then tell me!" The assassin yelled and I winced as the blade cut a bit into my skin, and a trickle of blood flowed down, making Jack even angrier.
"I don't know." Jack said, gritting his teeth, trying to get out of the computer wires.
"You're very special to them, Jack. They trust me enough to tell me that. But I hear rumors of miracles yet to come, of a new society being forged here on Earth, and I'd like to guarantee my place. So, tell me, what did you give them so long ago?"
"When?" Jack asked.
"Tell me who's employing you." Gwen demanded the assassin.
"You'll never stop them, for this is who they certainly are. They are are always. They are no one. They have been waiting for such a long time. Searching the world for a specific geography."
"What the hell does that mean?" Jack asked.
"That means that they've found it. And they've made it magnificent." The assassin puts away his knife and takes out his gun, pointing it at my stomach, making me freeze trying to get out of the computer cables which tied my hands and feet together.
"Who are they!" Gwen yelled.
"They once had names. Long ago. And those names were-" As the assassin was talking, Rex had snuck up behind him and Rex emptied his gun clip into him. The assassin falls against the wall, leaving a smear, and gurgles into unconsciousness, no one ever dies these days.
"Oh, shit." Rex said, releasing his poor timing.
"He was just about to tell us." Gwen said to Rex, disappointed.
"Thanks? Anybody? Thanks?" Rex asked, cutting the computer wires around our wrists and feet.
"And you shot him in the throat." Gwen said.
"Yeah, well, dead is dead." Rex replied.
Jack helped me stand up. "Are you alright?" Jack asked, hugging me.
"Yeah. Fine. Let's get out of here." I responded.
It was the next day back at our apartment. "Anything yet?" Jack asked Esther as I walked over to the couch to sit down, just coming from the shower, my hair still a bit wet.
"Oh, it's gonna take days, weeks, but I'm rushing through a primary sift for basic patterns." Esther said.
"He Rex." I said as he entered the apartment.
Rex looked up. "What?"
I gave a small smile. "Thanks for saving us yesterday."
Rex nodded. "Thanks Susan."
"I'm sorry I made such a mess of it." Esther said.
"That was your final warning. You give it any more thought? That maniac said it was someone you knew." Rex asked.
Jack shook his head. "Not that easy when you've lived through thousands of years."
Rex scrunched up his face. "Gonna keep talking that shit, huh?"
"Got it. First basic pattern, land prices. Estimates dating back years and they're all linked to these construction plans." Esther said.
"Plans for what?" Gwen asked.
"They're calling them overflow camps for all the patients in ICU. Looks like PhiCorp is taking charge of them, like they own them. Sold some kind of strategy to the UN."
"PhiCorp and whoever else is behind them. But what the hell are they up to?" Gwen asked.
"Whatever it is, I bet it ain't good." Rex said.
Since everyone's attention was on Esther, they didn't see me pale. Shit. I thought. How the hell did I forget those? I stood up and made my way to the bathroom, closing the door lightly and promptly started vomiting into the toilet.
There came a knock at the door. "Susan?" It was Jack. "Susan are you okay?"
No. I said through the bond.
Is it the baby? Jack asked.
No. Its the…. the overflow camps. I just don't know how to stop them.
Stop them? Jack asked. Why, other than it being related to PhiCorp?
I stood up opened the door and motioned for Jack to come inside and I closed the door again. "Jack I will telepathically send you images of that part of Miracle day from the show. Brace yourself."
I slowly started sending Jack what I could remember. After it was done, I leaned my back against the wall and slid down the floor, not looking at Jack. "I should have stopped them from building them."
"Susan, it's not your fault." Jack said, crouching down next to me.
I looked up at Jack, tears in my eyes. "Why isn't it? I let it happen, Jack!" I wiped my tears with my sleeve and stood up. "Never mind me. We have billions of people to rescue."
Jack grabbed me as I tried to escape the bathroom. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
I eyed Jack. "Of course! We're Torchwood. We save people from aliens and sometimes we have to save us from ourselves." I brushed Jack off and opened the door to find Gwen, her hand out as if she was reaching for the door. "Gwen?" I asked as I saw tears in her eyes. "What is it?"
"They've got my dad, Jack, Susan. They've got my dad."
I swallowed. I pushed passed Gwen over to my long coat and put it on and checked my weapons.
"Susan, what are you doing?" Gwen asked, Jack right behind her.
I stared at Gwen for a second before flipping open my vortex manipulator. "Getting your father. Oh, and DON'T go investigating until I get back. " I said before typing in a code and vanishing, leaving Jack behind to lead the stunned group.
A/N: Feel Free to Review.