Chapter 12

The Battle Of Battersea

Special Operations Unit.

Torchwood One, London.

19:30

1st February 2007

Green Watch were three and a half hours into their eight hour shift, and after clearing up the outstanding "shouts" from White Watch, they had a group meal and sat on the comfy sofas to watch television and wait for work to break out.

The four teams were made up of Callum Maloney, who was paired with Dave Robbins, Jennifer Goulding, paired with Matt Jennings, Graham Selby, paired with Annie Partridge, and Zac Wheeler, who was paired with Jimmy Metcalf.

The Green Watch Supervisor was Zara Mohamed, who was sitting at her desk in the Watch Supervisor's Office. The intercom on her desk buzzed for her attention from the Dispatch Office. She answered the call.

['Zara? It's Steph on Dispatch. Sorry to trouble you, but The Hub have received a call from a member of staff who said there's an incident at the millionaire Pete Tyler's house.'] The Hub was the Communications Hub at the institute where they monitored radio, satellite and video traffic.

'Who was it?' Zara asked.

['Stevie Munro. He's head of the Misinformation Office in the Public Relations Department and an old golfing partner of Pete Tyler. It's Jackie Tyler's high society birthday bash tonight.']

'And what kind of incident did he say it was? Has somebody sold them some knocked off bootleg champagne?' Zara joked, thinking that it couldn't be anything too serious with all the security Pete Tyler would have at his mansion.

Steph replied with no hint of humour in her voice. ['His call was disconnected mid sentence, but he did say they'd killed the president.']

'What!? Who's killed the president?' Zara asked with alarm, now regretting her flippant, initial response. 'I'm coming through.'

Zara left the glass fronted office and hurried over to the Dispatch Office. The Dispatch desk was a bank of keyboards, knobs, dials, multimedia sliders, buttons and switches, under a wall of media screens, satellite uplinks and downlinks. Zara looked at the multimedia display wall, which resembled the background of a news room seen on TV. 'So, what do we know?'

'Not a lot,' Steph replied as she pressed a button on the control desk. The recorded phone call played over the speakers.

['Hello. Torchwood?'] a panicked voice said. Screams and chaos could be heard in the background. ['This is Stevie Munro from PR. They've killed the president! These things have killed . . . Delete! . . .']

'Oh my God,' Zara said to no one in particular. She hit the emergency Code Red button, which sounded an alarm and set off the flashing red lights. 'Are police responding?'

Steph checked a monitor. 'No. The alarm systems at Tyler Mansion haven't been triggered.'

'Call the Met and report it. The president's security guards must have been killed as well. Suggest they send an armed response unit,' Zara commanded as members of Green Watch hurried into the Dispatch Office.

'What's the alert?' Callum asked.

Zara pressed the play button again. ['This is Stevie Munro from PR. They've killed the president! These things have killed . . . Delete! . . .']

'Holy shit! Somebody's iced the president!' Dave exclaimed.

The Watch Commander Duncan Prescott, hurried into Dispatch, having seen the Code Red in his office. 'Somebody's killed the president!?' he echoed as he caught the end of the conversation.

'Yeah. And not somebody,' Callum pointed out. 'Something. He said "these things" . . . And what was that voice before he got cut off?'

'It sounded like a voice synthesizer,' Jenny said. 'The kind of thing used to disguise your voice.'

'It could be an armed raid on the rich and famous gone wrong,' Anne theorised.

Zara nodded. That was a good theory. 'Steph. Do we have any live video?'

'Er, just checking now. Non from the mansion itself. They're on a ring fenced system. All internally recorded to stop busy bodies like us from snooping,' Steph replied, as she looked for streamed video feeds. 'We'd have to download it on site.'

'Okay. Callum, you're mission leader. You, Dave, Matt and Jenny, suit up and go and investigate. Offer assistance to the local constabulary.'

'On our way,' Callum replied, and they grabbed their gear from their lockers, before heading to the bullet lift, an express elevator to either the roof or the basement. They were heading for the basement garage.

Duncan had waited until the Watch Supervisor had coordinated a response before asking to be brought up to speed. As commander and deputy head of Special Operations, he had overall responsibility for the actions taken by the Watch, and knew that the supervisors were experienced operatives who knew how to respond to the various threat levels. If the reports of the president being killed were found to be correct, he would have to report it to his immediate boss, Andy McNab, who would then report to the Institute Director, Yvonne Hartmann.

'Good work Zara,' Duncan said in encouragement. 'Monitor the situation and keep me updated. I'll give "The Boss" a call and let him listen to the recording.' "The Boss" was Andy McNab's nickname in the Special Operations Unit.

'Zara. The police are now receiving reports from residents near Tyler Mansion of the sound of gunfire,' Steph reported.

'Oh, now what?' Zara asked as she looked at Duncan. 'Is this a terrorist attack or something?' She turned to look at Steph. 'Feed that to the team. Tell them to proceed with caution.'

'Right,' Duncan said. 'I'd better call Andy. I'll be in my office.'

As Duncan left the Dispatch Office through one door, a young Asian man entered from the adjoining Communications Hub. 'Steph. I don't know if this is related to the Code Red, but social media is buzzing from people living in Highgate where the Tyler's live.'

'That's hardly surprising, Ramesh,' Steph told him.

'Yeah, I suppose. But one person who was walking their dog along Queenswood Road, reports seeing a big articulated lorry turning into Tyler Mansion ten minutes before we received the call from Stevie Munro.'

'Hhmm, he might have something there, Steph,' Zara said. 'Do we have any traffic camera recordings we can tap into?'

'Let's have a look,' Steph said as she started tapping her keyboard. 'The junction of Archway Road and Muswell Hill Road. There's a couple of cameras overlooking the junction. I'll just put in a time stamp twenty minutes before the call, and . . .'

A split screen view of the road junction appeared on one of the screens. Steph increased the playback speed and they could see cars, trucks and buses speeding past the cameras.

'There!' Zara called out. 'Play that back and freeze frame.'

Steph rewound the recording, and a black, eighteen wheeler moved back into frame.

'What's that written on the side?' Ramesh asked, leaning forward and squinting at the screen.

'If I zoom and enhance,' Steph said as she manipulated the controls. 'International Electromatics.'

'I wonder who they are?' Zara asked.

Steph tapped some more keys. 'Industrial robots and automated production facilities. Must have been a really extravagant present for Jackie Tyler.' A few more key taps. 'Subsidiary of Cybus Industries. That makes sense as Vitex is now also a subsidiary. Probably got a staff discount.'

'Okay. Good work everybody,' Zara said. 'I'm going back to the office now. I'll keep an eye on the situation from there.'

The remaining members of the Watch went out into the Standby Room to watch TV and keep one eye on the situation feed. Zara continued across the room to her office. Five minutes later, she had another call from the Dispatch Office.

['Zara? It's Steph on Dispatch. Sorry to trouble you again, but we're getting calls about crowds of people coming out of Battersea Power Station Underground and walking into the old power station.']

'Maybe Cybus Industries have got an event on or something,' Zara suggested, and then smiled. 'Or maybe it's an illegal rave.'

Cybus Industries had purchased the site a few years ago and had converted it into a factory for producing what the company said were advanced medical prosthetics which would benefit mankind.

['We've checked on the Cybus web site, and there's no mention of any promotional events or parties, although John Lumic's airship did moor up there this afternoon. Also, callers are saying it's a whole range of different age groups, so I doubt it's a rave.']

'Okay, I'm coming through to have a look.' Zara headed back to the Dispatch Office. 'Have we got any eyes on the scene?'

'Just getting them online now,' Steph informed her.

The remaining members of Green Watch wandered in to see what the fuss was about. It was turning out to be a busy shift. A camera panned around the entrance of the underground station, and they saw a steady stream of people walking purposefully towards the power station.

'Looks like a scene from "Shaun of the dead",' Jimmy joked, noticing that they were stiff bodied and not interacting with each other.

Zara nodded. 'It's almost as if they're in a trance.'

'Or sleep walkin',' Zac suggested.

'Are there any cameras inside the factory we can hack into?' Zara asked.

'No. It's on a closed circuit system. No connection to a network,' Steph informed her.

'Okay. Graham and Annie. Suit up and have a drive over there. See if you can talk to anyone and see what's going on,' Zara instructed.

'On our way,' Annie said.

'Steph. Check the usual sources. Social media, police frequencies, news media. You don't get that many people all going to the same place without someone knowing what's going on.'

'Already on it,' Steph replied.

'Oh, that's interesting,' Steph said a few minutes later. 'The Preachers conspiracy site is saying it's the Cybus ear pods causing people to go to Battersea.'

Zara rolled her eyes. 'Oh, come on. The Preachers blame Cybus Industries for everything. It's like they've got a vendetta against them . . . Although, that's not a bad theory actually. Everybody's wearing them these days. The only reason we're not wearing them is because we've got our own tech.'

'Yeah, and people who aren't wearing theirs, are saying friends and family members who are, have suddenly got up and left.'

'There could be something to it then. Feed that to Graham and Annie so they can investigate.'

Graham drove the black Torchwood Range Rover west, through Limehouse Link Tunnel, past the Tower of London, and then south over Southwark Bridge. They continued through Lambeth and Vauxhall, until twenty minutes later, they arrived at Battersea Power Station.

'Agent Selby to Dispatch. We've arrived at the power station. Over,' Graham informed Steph.

['Copy that, Graham, we see you on the surveillance camera. Proceed with caution. Over,'] Steph replied.

Graham and Annie got out of the car and took out their hand held scanners. They noticed that the ear pods people were using were flashing with blue LED's. They approached some people at the back of the queue.

'Hello,' Annie said cheerfully. 'Is there a concert on or something?'

The woman she spoke to didn't react. She just kept looking straight ahead, waiting for the queue to move. It was all very orderly and very creepy. Graham waved his hand in front of a man's face, and again, there was no reaction. He scanned the ear pods and saw that there was a continuous data stream being fed into them.

'Agent Selby to Dispatch. The information was correct,' Graham said. 'All the people here are unresponsive and wearing ear pods, which are receiving a stream of data. Over.'

In the Dispatch Office, they were watching the video feed and analysing the data from the scanner. 'It's almost as if they're being remote controlled,' Zara thought out loud. 'Graham, it's Zara. Make your way to the entrance and see if you can find someone in charge to talk to. Over.'

['Copy that. Over,'] Graham replied.

Graham gave his partner a friendly nudge with his elbow. 'C'mon partner. Let's jump the queue and see if we can find the organ grinder.'

'Well, it doesn't look as if anyone will object,' Annie replied with a grin.

Two Black, Torchwood Range Rovers drove at speed along Archway Road in Highgate, with their blue, radiator lights flashing and the sirens blaring. As they approached the traffic lights at the junction with Musgrove Hill Road, three police patrol cars shot across the junction with their blue, flashing lights blazing and sirens blaring. Callum yanked the wheel hard and followed them into Musgrove Hill Road, where the patrol cars turned into Wood Lane on the right, just past the Woodman Inn.

'Look out!' Dave called out, as a blue LDV van flew out of Wood Lane with a screech of tyres, narrowly missing them.

Callum looked in the mirror and saw it fishtailing its way down the road as it sped away. 'They're driving like the devil himself is chasing them.' He put his foot down and caught up with the police, who were just approaching the gates at the entrance to Tyler Mansion.

The agents climbed out of the Range Rovers and slung their SA80 assault rifles over their shoulders, before approaching a police officer who was organising his team into pairs and sending them through the gates into the grounds of the Tyler's property.

Callum approached and held up his ID. 'Agent Maloney. Torchwood Special Operations.'

The officer turned to face him. 'Sergeant Bennet. Armed Response Unit. Do you have any intel as to what's happened?'

'Only that we had a phone call to say the president had been killed. On our way here, we had an update to say there had been reports of gunfire.'

Sergeant Bennet tilted his head to one side. 'Can't hear any now . . . What is that noise though?'

The agents listened to a rhythmic crunching sound. 'It sounds like the marching drill we used to do on the parade ground when I was in the Paras,' Matt informed them.

The marching sound stopped suddenly, and was replaced with the sound of automatic weapons fire. Bennet reached for his radio which was clipped to the front of his body armour.

'Alpha team, this is Sergeant Bennet. Report.'

['Sarge. You're not goin' to believe this, but there are robots shepherding people into a big lorry,'] an officer reported.

'Robots? Did you say robots?' Bennet asked.

['Affirmative. Robots. When we engaged them, they became hostile and we had to open fire, except that they are armour plated. We've retreated to the house, and there are dead bodies all over the place.']

'Okay. If it's safe to do so, make a tactical withdrawal and regroup here at the gates,' Bennet ordered. 'We need some serious firepower here, so I'm going to call in UNIT. Over and out,'

Callum touched his ear comms. 'Agent Maloney to Dispatch, over.'

['Standby Callum. We have a situation developing out at Battersea. Over,'] Steph replied.

['Callum, it's Zara. Go ahead. Over.'] Zara had picked up a headset off the desk so that Steph could talk to the Battersea team.

'Zara, we have a full scale fire fight going on out here,' Callum reported. 'I've spoken to the police firearms officer in charge, and he's called in UNIT for additional fire power. There are armour plated robots running rampant in the house and grounds. Over.'

['Robots?'] She certainly wasn't expecting that. And then the penny dropped. ['Robots! International Electromatics, industrial robots . . . Callum, set up a defensive perimeter with help from the police. Try to contain the situation until UNIT get there. Over.']

Callum looked up the driveway from the gates. 'Copy that. Although, I don't know how we're going to stop them if they decide to leave. Over.'

Dave made a suggestion. 'We could block the gateway with vehicles. It might not stop them, but it will slow them down.'

'Good idea, Dave,' Callum said. 'Sergeant. Can we park a couple of cars across the entrance here? It might slow them down a bit.'

Bennet nodded. 'Consider it done.'

In Battersea, Graham and Annie approached the gates to the factory, and noticed a young man tugging on the arm of a woman, trying to get her to leave the line and go with him.

'Sally?! I've had enough of this now. C'mon, we're goin' home. It's our big day tomorrow, an' it's already bad luck for me to see you this evenin'.' The woman completely ignored him. 'Sally. It's me, Gareth. Remember?' She continued to be unaware of his presence. 'Sally Fieldin'! You come home right now,' he said with a hint of anger tinged with fear.

Graham and Annie were shocked to see a gleaming, humanoid robot approach the man named Gareth.

'You are unprogrammed,' the robot said.

'Are you in charge?' Gareth asked angrily. 'What have you done to Sally?' He looked around at the crowd of people moving through the gates. 'What have you done to everybody?'

'They will be upgraded. You are incompatible. You will be deleted. Delete! Delete!'

The robot gripped Gareth's shoulder and tendrils of electricity arced from its metal fingers all over Gareth's body. The robot opened its hand and Gareth's lifeless body hit the floor.

Annie gasped in horror. 'That voice. It's the same as in the recording.'

Graham grimaced as he filmed the scene with his scanner. 'Agent Selby to Dispatch, you getting this?' he asked. 'Hostiles are in control of the Cybus factory. We need to get these people out of here. Over.'

They were getting it in the Dispatch Office. Zara hit the emergency Code Red button for the second time that evening. 'Zac, Jimmy. Go via the armoury and get yourselves some serious firepower. Enough for all of you.'

Zac, and Jimmy, ran out of the office.

'Copy that, Graham,' Steph told him. 'Back up is on the way, over.'

Zara continued, as Duncan hurried into Dispatch. 'Steph. Redirect the other two teams from Tyler Mansion. Tell them it's a code red and to rendezvous with Zac and Jimmy at Battersea,' Zara instructed.

'What's happening now?' Duncan asked, and Zara brought him up to speed.

Outside the factory gates, Graham and Annie crouched down, watching the endless stream of people walk by. One of them even looked like Pete Tyler, walking next to a young blonde woman in a maids uniform. "Had they come from Jackie Tyler's party?" they both wondered.

'Has the Earth been invaded by alien robots?' Graham asked.

'Who knows?' Annie replied. 'And what does upgrading mean?'

'No idea,' Graham said, and then remembered the Cybus announcement when they bought the old power station site. 'Wait a minute. This factory was supposed to be producing high tech prosthetics to benefit the human race. Maybe that's it. Maybe they're getting bionic implants or something.'

'Oh God, Graham. That woman there. It's my mum's next door neighbour,' Annie said. 'JAN? JAN! It's me, Annie.'

'Annie. NO,' Graham called to her, but it was too late. She'd been noticed.

'You are unprogrammed,' a robot said. 'You are incompatible. You will be deleted.'

'Oh yeah?' Annie said, drawing her Heckler & Koch MP5SF, semi-automatic carbine. 'Armed agent. Stand still and raise your hands. You are under arrest for kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder. You have the right to remain silent, but it may harm your defence if you fail to mention something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say will be taken down and used in evidence. Do you understand the caution?'

'You will be deleted. Delete! Delete!' The robot raised its arm and moved towards her.

'I'm warning you. Do not come any closer or I will shoot,' Annie threatened.

Graham came and stood by her side. 'You heard her, Tin Man. Stay where you are.'

Annie glanced gratefully at her partner, and then froze. 'GRAHAM!'

A robot had approached from the side and grabbed Graham's shoulder. The electrically energy coursing through his body caused his muscles to contract involuntarily, and his finger squeezed the trigger on his sidearm. Bullets zinged harmlessly off the robot in front of him, and then into the ground as his arm lowered before his body followed it.

Annie used the stiff, double handed hold she had been taught and fired accurately at the head of the robot in front of her, and then at the one to the side. She emptied the magazine, but the robots continued to approach.

'Delete! Delete!' the robots said together.

'Arghh.' Annie threw her gun at the nearest robot in frustration and it bounced off with a clang. She looked at the body of her fallen partner one last time before turning and running. 'Agent Partridge to Dispatch. Graham is down. Repeat, Graham is down. The hostiles are armour plated. Our weapons were ineffective. Over.'

['Copy that Annie. Get out of there. You've got back up on the way. Over,'] Steph said, trying to keep her voice calm and professional.

Whilst she was running away, Annie hadn't seen that panels on the robots forearms had flipped open and metal tubes had emerged.

'Hey Steph . . . If this goes badly . . . tell Steve and the kids I love them,' Annie said with a sense of foreboding.

['You can tell them yourse . . .']

'Delete!' the robots intoned as two bolts of blue energy shot out of the metal tubes and hit Annie in the middle of her back.

['. . . elf when you get back. Over . . . Annie . . ? Dispatch to agent Partridge, respond. Over . . . Repeat, Dispatch to agent Partridge . . .']