38
It was three hours later that Toshiko called out sadly "Hit. We have a hit!"
They moved over to watch the screen as a couple entered the Emergency Room with tears streaming down their faces, a little one in their arms as they described the symptoms. The doctor asking if they were from Torchwood Village and they both gave an emphatic no.
"I don't recognize them" Jack said with a frown "Owen? Would have been your patients."
Owen leaned in close and squinted "No. Not Torchwood…. Fuck. I've never seen them before, they're not ours."
The Emergency Room came alive with red caps and guns, the couple forced to the floor as the baby was snatched up and examined roughly by a medic, it's faint cries heard over the speakers as it's mother begged them to stop.
"How old!" came a bark. Both parents looked up from the floor with fear as it was repeated with one of the soldiers poking the father with a foot.
"Four... four months on Friday" he father shakily replied as he bravely placed himself between the mother and the nearest gun "Please, he was premature. In NICU for the first three months, please… we've only had him home a month… please."
"Excuse me, this is my patient and I have his file..."the doctor entered with anger and a file in his hand that was snatched away, then held up to compare to the people on the floor.
"They keep photos of the parents on file, in case a baby is snatched from the hospital, they will have the birth certificate in there as well" Owen whispered like they could be heard in the Emergency Room.
"Concur, False Alarm" came a clipped reply and the file was handed back "Apologies. We had a baby taken from another hospital and we are trying to find it, it has a history of convulsions"
The Doctor snatched the file back angrily and said "Then the one who came in an hour back was the wrong colour? Black?"
"Where?" the solder barked.
"Oh god. Black…wait. The Evans couple… remember…on the caravan tour" Ianto said as he face-palmed "How could I have forgotten them. Fuck… they were not the only ones, there were… five right. The camping ground had five caravans that night?"
"An elderly couple, a man on his own… two families and the newlyweds" Jack agreed "I went down to warn them about larking up during night time hours. Shit… I left for London straight after. They were leaving the next day, right?"
"So… three possible babies out there… one found so... The newlyweds down here somewhere? A young couple from Sri Lanka right?" Owen pointed at the screen.
"So… who were the other two couples… with kids?"
"Check if they booked the sites through the website, maybe we can get lucky with at least one of them" Ianto suggested as he looked at the babies once more, and then settled back like everything was OK. "But if I thought of that… so did those fuckers. We need to track down the family hopefully NOT on the website bookings. These others are probably going to be used as bait."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I would."
.
.
Toshiko seemed to revel in the job of tracking the family they only knew by their caravan's number plate as it was the only thing Ianto saw as he walked past on their last day there… yes… of course he knew what it was after a single glace.
They found them at a site over near Cornwall. Apparently they were extremely mobile as they were following a craft fair style set up that moved from town to town. And their baby was sooo cute.
Damn.
""How far are UNIT form working this out as well?" Jack asked, drumming his fingers on the table as he considered options.
"I know what you are thinking and I might say no but… we have a window. A small one mind but, we do have a small window to get to them first" Ianto answered as he looked at maps he had spread out on the table.
"So, an overnighter?" Rhys asked "I'm in. I know the bad roads to that camp, we deliver healthy vegan shit to the little diner further up the road when I am on food deliveries."
"How hard is it to get in and out? Only the one road? Dead end?" Ianto asked in rapid fire.
"There is a road but it follows the cliff and continues around, not a dead end. Also, there are two little villages that you can easily hide in if they turn up. The best bet would be a delivery van, like… food or something" Rhys replied "to do the circuit around the bay and back to the main road… forty five minutes give or take."
"OK, Owen… I want a drone up as eyes in the sky. Jack, I need you to be with Rhys in the van and I will take point on a motorbike. We will have to move fast, efficiently and be prepared to bail." Ianto straightened up as he looked Jack in the eye. "I need to pinch us a nice big van."
"So, you have a plan?"
"Of course Cariad."