18

"Idris?"

Idris was pale for a black man, his hands shaking as he exited the van and rubbed at his face before replying to Ianto who had met him inside the gates.

"Something is starting. I don't know what but... it's happening."

"What do you mean?"

"I went back to get the takings from the Midwich branch and hand out the pay envelopes like I do every Friday but… UNIT were everywhere and there were buses moving out of Torchwood and though Midwich heading somewhere with what looked like families being loaded. The pregnant women and their families, some of them not all going with the men left behind. My workers were freaked out and we all got out of there, I … I won't be going back to any of my restaurants. I think… I think it's time for us to go off the map."

"Come inside, let's see what Tosh can pick up in the chatter."

They found Jack standing in front of the large TV screen with his mouth open at the breaking news as the overly excited reporter said a sinkhole had swallowed the town of Torchwood. A sink hole. Can you even imagine a sinkhole large enough to swallow an entire town?

The reporter stood near the edge of a crater talking in exited and clipped tones, hands flapping as she forgot to hold the microphone up, turning to look down at the… well… nothingness below.

"Who want a bet they don't send up a drone to prove the size of it?" Owen scoffed as he sat watching with his arms folded, his eyes wide with horror.

"About the same odds as admitting they got about half the population out overnight in buses first" Andy replied as Rhys stood behind the chair Andy was in, gripping it tightly.

"Thank you Ianto" Toshiko said softly her own hands gripping the table she was sitting at.

"Do you still have the Trojan working?" Ianto asked after a while and she nodded.

"Don't check anything, don't click anything…not for a day or two. Let's just… not exist, please?" Charlotte, Idris's wife asked, her hands going to her own belly that had a slight mound to it and Owen's eyes followed her hand with internet.

"You don't live in the village" he said after a moment or two.

"No, but I was there for the Fete catering lists and decided to stay the night at my cousin's place. I don't think they know… I mean… they never came looking for me after so… I don't think they know about me."

"Oh god... two of us?" Toshiko asked with excitement "Two babies got loose? I wonder how many more."

"A week. We silently monitor for a week and if nothing goes tits up we can then open things and read again but until then we do nothing to set off a ping." Ianto warned.

"A week?"

"If they do know about any babies outside the cordon, this is when they will covertly scoop them up. Who else was in the village… wait. Mister Evans had his son and daughter-in-law visiting on their way home from their honeymoon, remember? Showed us the photos and gushed they brought him back a sea shell with something carved on it?" Ianto rose with alarm "find them. Let's watch them. If no one approaches them then… maybe only those in the village were being watched."

"Agreed."

.

.

Two days later and still the media had no new information on the sinkhole only to say the military had sent drones down and there was no chance of survivors.

The young couple of Evans were still enjoying their idyllic new life as they planned for their first baby, thought to be made on their honeymoon or soon after and things looked calm. Toshiko had them sort of in the background as she let the Trojan quietly glean from the UNIT servers and although it was hard, she resisted the urge to look at anything it was collecting.

When UNIT came for them it was late, the alarm waking Toshiko who lifted the tablet from by her bed to watch the couple's own personal CCTV in their home as UNIT stormed the place with flash bangs, guns and general nastiness.

Then they shot the young husband in the back of the head while he was on his knees begging for his wife and child's lives.

Then Toshiko threw up as she turned away to find Ianto behind her, his hands clasped together as he watched on. Apparently the poor girl was not ready to go without a fight and during the extraction, going down the sitars; she threw herself onto one of the men, taking him with her.

They both knew she was dead long before the man checking her confirmed it, along with their own operative. No one could have survived that fall. Toshiko went to cut the feed and Ianto quietly told her not to.

They then sat watching the Red Caps stage a fire to cover the bodies, the poor pregnant woman not even given the decency of having her night gown pulled down as she lay with her panties and large belly exposed. They loaded her body with comments about autopsies and general laughter like this was some holiday camp.

"Now you see?"Ianto whispered softly "Now you know?"

"None of those mothers will survive the births… will they" she sighed softly.

"Maybe a handful, for control purposes. Those easily controlled might be allowed as wet nurses to the others on the proviso they never leave and live what time they have left with those kids. In the end they will outlive their usefulness like the others and… yeah. None will ever get out alive." Ianto confirmed sadly.

"Operation Sinkhole. Swallowing everything." Toshiko said as she started to weep for those she knew, now doomed.

"Not everything. You. Charlotte, Collette and Helena are all pregnant so … four babies still unaccounted for that they did not know about in the first place as the other three never left the village until now and never saw those hand held scanners anywhere near them" Ianto smiled at her as she started to see hope.

"Oh my god… four?"

"Yeah. God help us all."