4
Ianto is at the sink as he cups some water in his hands. Splashes his face. Lets the water drip down. He's scared with good reason. He gathers himself. Leaves the kitchenette to enter the hotel room's min area. A real shithole. The type you pay for by the hour but they don't ask questions. Ianto appears in a top-floor window, peeking through the shades.
A dingy room. Rats. Stained sheets. Slow moving ceiling fan. Ianto looks up and down the street. Sees nothing but shifting shadows.
"Don't they teach anyone anything anymore?" Jack asks as he sits in a chair looking over the things in the Go-bag "You don't have to keep looking over your shoulder if you have eyes in the back of your head."
Ianto shuts the curtains close and turns around, crossing up to Jack. "We agree that we are not enemies tonight. The hit squad from the house. Who were they?"
"You're the field officer now. You figure it out." Jack is opening the medical kit to look at the scalpel, then his arm like he is considering what to do next.
"If they are trying to kill you, there must be a reason." Ianto sits on one of the twin bed "I mean… you are so fucking likable."
"With a mind like that, you'll make section chief before you're thirty-five."
Ianto's phone buzzes. He fishes it out of his pocket. Checks the display … Lisa. She sent him a text: WHERE ARE YOU? His face falls. Shit he forgot all about her. Can't deal with her now. He hits ignore and puts the phone away.
"She knows what you do for a living?"
Ianto looks at Jack surprised. "Who?"
"Lisa. You tell her about your work?"
"How'd you…" Then he realizes the cell phone display was reflected in the window behind him. "She's Agency too actually. In final training."
Ianto turns his back on him, returning to the window looking out.
"She's gonna leave you."
Ianto looks back.
"They always do." Jack adds "Ask my wife."
"Which one?"
"Exactly my point."
"She's different." Ianto replies, then pauses and adds "I sometimes think she is only there to watch over me and this little key. She's more than a level above me, clear in the way her friends treat me. She does not know me at all."
"Then you're gonna have to leave her." That gives Ianto pause. Jack continues "I know. You still have the Kool-Aid on your lips. I died from it a long time ago. But trust me. In the end this job of ours … there's no loyalty."
Ianto is about to answer. Just then, his watch beeps. Ianto checks the time "the key should be there by now. Let's go."
.
.
The Millenium Stadium is an open-air stadium … one of the largest in the world. The roar of the capacity crowd is palpable.
The Jeep pulls into a spot and parks. Ianto turns off the ignition. Ianto turned to look at Jack "Come on. We have to be quick, the CCTV will pick your face quicker than mine."
Ianto and Jack arrive at a row of small metal lockers and stop at number 007. There's already a plastic key in the lock. Ianto gives it a turn and the door pops open.
Jack is just as surprised as he turns around. Two cops are behind them like they were waiting for them, Jake making a noise in his throat to alert Ianto.
"Wait!" Ianto rises still facing the locker and as soon as Cop #1 puts his hand on his shoulders, Ianto shifts on his feet, remembering all his training. He throws his head back into Cop #1's face, busting his nose.
Cop #1 howls, eyes filling up with tears and blood, blinded.
Cop #2 RUSHES. Ianto throws up his leg and kicks him back. He slams up against the wall. The Security Head grabs Ianto's gun and spins. But Jack charges and puts a knee to his ribs knocking the wind out of the chief and when he keels over Jack buries the knee in his face.
Cop #2 goes for his gun. Ianto rams his head in his stomach then hurls it upwards into his chin, cracking his jaw. He goes down.
Cop #1 regains his sight -as Jack sidesteps and the cop hits the wall.
Ianto is breathing heavy with adrenaline rushing. He looks around and reaches for the fire alarm. He looks at Jack who nods his agreement. Good idea. Go.
Ianto is then running with Jack going with the flow of the crowd toward the exits while shedding himself of his jacket, picking up a fallen hat and fixing it to his head changing his appearance on the fly.
58. AN ACCESS DOOR FLIES OPEN!
Ianto explodes out of an access door with Jack right behind him.
Thet find themselves back in a parking area, like a bad movie they are running along rows of cars as people run for their own vehicles freaked by the fire alarms blaring.
Ianto turns sharply as he bumps into a large man with an overly expensive jacket on.
"Fuck, sorry mate" Ianto pants, staggering as if drunk before moving out into the night air and regaining his strides. Jack saw the sleight of hand and is impressed to see that Ianto could snavel something so easily. He lifts his hand and presses a key fob as he continues to run, not even checking if Jack is behind him.
BEEP.
"Oh fuck me… now THAT is a Humvee" Jack sighs with affection as the huge black beast sits there with headlights flashing.
"Oh… fuck me" Ianto agrees "Let's go."
The UNIT vehicles blast out of the side paring area after the Humvee.
Ianto looks-up in the rear-view mirror. The UNIT sedans are behind him, closing fast. Ianto rams the stick shift into gear; throws the wheel. The Humvee veers to the side and climbs over a parked, day-glow painted VW, squashing its hood. The Humvee roars through the intersection, leaving the UNIT sedans trapped at the light behind the other cars.
Jack starts to laugh as he finally manages to click the seat belt, looking over at the man beside him with the clenched jaw.
He was really starting to grow on him ya know.
Ianto's Humvee ploughs through traffic, hitting the left and right bumpers of the cars in front of it, knocking them aside. It blows through ten cars like ten-pins. A UNIT armoured car slams through the Humvee's wake of dented cars and accelerates after the Humvee.
TWO Heddlu Officers scramble into their cruisers, throwing on the light and sirens. They charge after the Humvee and the UNIT Armoured car. Ianto is accelerating up a very steep hill.
The two Heddlu cars, the UNIT sedans, and UNIT armoured car all race after it.
The traffic light ahead is red. Ianto runs the red light, The Humvee blasts through the intersection and explodes over the crest of the hill at 90 m.p.h. and soars.
A beat, then the UNIT sedans, followed by the UNIT armoured car soar over the crest of the hill.
The Heddlu cars try to crest it at speed as well and as they crash down Jack grimaces, the sound of their car bodies buckling audible even at this distance.
"Oops?" Ianto chirps softly "Idiots."
Jack can only laugh.
Yeah… definitely growing on him.