Chapter 5

Dead Dogs And School Bullies

It was mid-morning, and Rose was checking her departmental emails when she got a call in her head.

['Is it time for elevenses?'] John thought.

'Ooh, yeah. That sounds like a good idea.'

['On my way down,'] he thought with a cheeky grin.

Rose stood and moved around the desk, when the intercom from Dispatch buzzed for her attention. She leaned over the desk and pushed the button. 'Hi "Ace", whatcha got?'

['We've had a call from a detective who's with a body at the Hertfordshire county mortuary. Apparently, the pathologist has never seen a cause of death like it,'] Craig explained.

'OK, I'm on my way,' Rose replied, and made her way over to the Dispatch office.

'He's on line one,' Craig said as Rose put the headset on.

'Hello. Rose Smith, Watch Supervisor. Can I help you?'

['Hello Rose. D.I Ian Watson here, and I hope you and your institute can help. You see, we were called to a body found in Clarence Park, St Albans, in the early hours of this morning by a dog walker,'] the detective started to explain.

'And I presume there was somethin' unusual with the body?' Rose asked.

['The body; no, except for a puncture wound on the neck. It's the cause of death which is unusual, according to the pathologist . . . The body has been drained of blood.']

'What? They bled to death?'

['No . . . Well yes . . . sort of. The pathologist called it exsanguination. There's not trace of blood at the scene, which means either they bled out somewhere else and were dumped there, or . . .']

Rose followed his reasoning. 'The blood was sucked out of the body through the puncture wound.'

['That's the conclusion the pathologist came to.']

'OK Ian. Can you get the body transferred to Torchwood along with the case file, and we'll get our scientists to have a look at it.'

['Thank you for that Rose. I'll raise the paperwork now.'] Ian replied with obvious relief.

'No problem Ian. We'll keep you updated with any findings. Bye.' She ended the call and took off the headset. 'Let security know there'll be a private ambulance arrivin',' Rose instructed. 'And give pathology the heads up will you?'

'On it now Chief,' Craig replied.

Rose walked towards the kitchen area when John came through the double doors.

'Where's me cuppa?' he asked jokingly. 'You'll be getting the sack as the tea lady.'

'Shut up,' she laughed. 'I had to take a call from a detective inspector from the Met.'

'Ooh. Anything to pique my interest? My interest hasn't been piqued for ages.'

'How does an exsanguinated body sound?' Rose asked as she grabbed hers and John's mugs off the counter and popped a tea bag in each.

'What, proper "blood sucked out the body" exsanguination?' John asked.

Rose poured the hot water into the mugs from the boiler on the wall. 'The very same. The body's bein' brought into the mortuary.'

'Well, that's settled it . . . My interest is definitely piqued,' John told her as she finished making the tea and handed him his mug. 'Thanks Love.'

They wandered over to the sofas and sat down with the Watch. 'The detective is sendin' the case notes, so I think I'll send a team out to where the body was found to do a scan of the area,' Rose explained.

'Good idea,' John agreed. 'Let me know when the body arrives and I'll pop down to the mortuary and have a word with our pathologist . . . See what I can find out.'

'Will do . . . Who fancies a trip out to St Albans then?' Rose asked the Watch members.

Stuart and Pete looked at each other and nodded. 'We'll take that one Rose,' Stuart offered.

'Thanks. Crime scene protocol. I'll send you the police CSI report when it's been uploaded, and I'll let the detective know that you'll be coming to do a detailed scan of the park,' Rose told them.

Stuart and Pete stood and headed towards the lockers. Rose put her mug of tea on the low table and went to the Dispatch Office. 'Craig? Can you call D.I Watson back and tell him two of our agents will be going to the park to scan the crime scene, please.'

'No problem, Rose,' Craig replied.

Rose sat back down on the sofa, picked up her tea and helped herself to a Hobnob biscuit. John had already dunked one in his tea and was letting it melt in his mouth. They chatted with Julia and Jake as they drank their brews, when "Other Craig" and Tom arrived back from their assignment. Tom went straight to the kitchen to make them a mug of tea,

'That didn't take long,' Rose observed.

'Nah. Traffic on the 303 was light, and there wasn't much to do when we got there,' Craig replied.

'What was the assignment?' John asked, and Rose "thought" him the details.

Tom wandered over with two mugs of tea and handed one to Craig. 'Go and have a look at the skeleton of a dog.'

'Don't you mean the carcass of a dog?' John asked with a frown.

Tom sipped his tea. 'Nope. Definitely a skeleton. The zoologist said there was no viscera remaining . . . whatever that means.'

'No soft tissues,' John informed him.

'We took soil samples from around the skeleton,' Craig told them. 'There might have been bodily fluids and traces of what might have removed all the flesh. Oh, and the zoologist brought the bones back for analysis.'

'Mmm. Might be worth a look,' John mused. 'I've seen something like that once before . . . in The Library.'

'You've seen the skeleton of a dog in a library?' Tom asked in disbelief.

'It wasn't a dog,' John said ominously. 'They were people, a team of explorers, eaten alive inside their space suits.'

'The Vashta Nerada,' Rose recalled, and John nodded.

'What's that?' Julia asked, worried that something could get inside a protective suit.

'The shadows that melt the flesh,' John told her. 'The piranhas of the air. Most planets have them, but usually in small clusters.'

'Which planets?' Jake asked. 'And how did they end up in a field in Wiltshire?'

'Woah! We don't know it is The Vashta Nerada,' John cautioned. 'It could be Damien Hurst doing another one of his bizarre art installations. And as for how they got here, they germinate here.'

'Germinate?' Jake asked. 'What, like plant seeds?'

'More like fungus spores. You can see them sometimes, if you look. The dust in sunbeams. Normally they live on roadkill. But sometimes people go missing. Not everyone comes back out of the dark,' John said quietly, as though he was telling a ghost story around a campfire in the woods. He suddenly brightened up. 'So, You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry. You'd better not pout,

I'm telling you why . . . The Vashta Nerada might be coming to town.'

He finished his tea, kissed his wife and stood up. 'Right, I'm off to Earth Sciences to have a look at those soil samples.'

'Okay. I'll see ya fer lunch, yeah?' Rose asked.

'That's a date,' John replied with a waggle of his eyebrows.

John went to the Science and Technology Department on the eighth floor where his office was located, along with satellite departments from the physics, chemistry, biology, exobiology, and earth sciences divisions.

'Oh, hi Doc,' one of the technicians said as John entered the glass walled laboratory.

'Hi Sean,' John replied in greeting. 'Have you got those soil samples Craig Owens just brought in?'

Sean looked around the worktops. 'Er, yeah. These here,' he said, stopping in front of several plastic containers. 'Is there a problem?'

'What? Oh, no. No problem. I just wanted to run a quick scan on them with this,' John said, taking out his sonic screwdriver.

'Oh, okay. Just pop it in the cabinet and I'll put these samples in there as well.'

The cabinet he was referring to was a transparent plastic, sealable cabinet with rubber gloves built into the side. When the cabinet was sealed, John put his hands into the gloves and picked up his sonic. He popped the lid on each sample container and scanned the contents, the results being displayed as a holographic projection just above the tip of the sonic. As he suspected, there were a few Vashta Nerada in the soil, but not in the numbers which would be needed to strip the flesh off a large canine animal.

'Thanks, Sean. I'm done,' John told him, and Sean opened the cabinet to remove the sonic screwdriver. 'You can run the usual test now, thanks.'

John left Earth Sciences, and went into the laboratory next door which was Biology and Biochemistry. This laboratory had specimen jars full of all sorts of exotic creatures and parts thereof. There were glass tanks and cages with live specimens, all healthy and well looked after. The idea of animals in cages though, had never sat well with John.

'Hello John,' a middle aged, dark skinned woman in a white lab coat, said in greeting.

'Hi Ami,' John replied.

Doctor Amondi Nyong'o was head of Zoology and Exo-Zoology at the institute. She had been born and brought up in Kenya, and had spent most of her life studying the fauna of the African continent, before moving to Great Britain to study for her doctorate.

'I understand you've had some canine bones brought in,' John said with a smile.

'Yes. Alex went out with a Spec Ops team this morning. He's just examining them now.' She indicated a man at a workbench, looking into a microscope.

John nodded his thanks and moved over to the zoologist. 'Alex. Found anything interesting?'

Alex looked up from the microscope. 'Oh, hello John . . . Well, it's the skeleton of an adult German Shepherd, which is more unbelievable, rather than interesting.'

'Really?' John asked with raised eyebrows. 'How come?'

'Well, the two agents, Craig and Tom, had been told that the dog had been killed overnight,' Alex explained.

'And I'm guessing you don't agree,' John suggested.

'This level of maceration usually takes months to occur. Foxes, raptors, rodents, insects, they all play their part, but not at the same time. It would take a coordinated effort by a large group of scavengers to achieve this overnight,' Alex told him.

'Hmm.' John sat in a wheelie chair and crossed his arms. ['Rose, Love?']

['Yeah, whatcha want?']

['That shout in Wiltshire this morning, did the owner of the dog say that It had happened overnight, or was it that he'd only just noticed it this morning?'] John asked in her head.

['Hang on, I'll check the transcript of the call . . .'] There was a pause whilst she called up the file on her tablet. ['No, the dog was alive and accounted for yesterday. It was released into the fenced yard of the small industrial estate once everyone had left for the day.']

['Okay, thanks. See you later.'] John leaned in towards Alex, who had returned to the microscope. 'A coordinated effort you say?'

'Hmm? Yes. An organised feeding pattern, you know, no squabbling or fighting like you normally see in large groups of opportunist carnivores,' Alex explained as he moved the bright light illuminating the bone he was examining. 'Wait a minute, what're those marks?'

He activated the microscope's camera and brought the image up on a screen. John could see the yellowish, white surface of the bone illuminated from the side, giving a bass relief to any marks present . . . and there were plenty! Short, parallel grooves were etched into the surface of the bone at different angles to each other.

'What are we looking at?' John asked. He had a good idea what he was looking at, but wanted confirmation from an expert.

'Teeth marks,' Alex replied, and started to move a cursor over the image with a trackball and mark reference points on the grooves. 'Okay, now let's put these measurements into the database . . .'

He wheeled over to a computer and tapped a few keys. 'Incisor width, spacing and length . . . Bite gape, and . . . different sized individuals of the species Rattus Norvegicus,' he announced.

'Rats?' John asked in amazement. 'A pack of rats did this?'

Alex spun on the chair to face John. 'A pack is a small group living together. This would be a colony of brown rats, also known as the common rat, although there's nothing common about this colony.'

'Why's that?' John asked.

'Rat's have a lot in common with humans. They're intelligent, adaptable to a number of environments, curious, and have a varied diet. You could say they've learned from us and followed our example, but the amount of organisation needed to take down and devour a large dog in one night without being killed, or killing each other is beyond their abilities,' Alex stated,

'Or was,' John said ominously. 'And surely, if a German Shepherd was attacked by rats, he'd have killed a few of them, no matter how many there were.'

'I'd say it would be a foregone conclusion, yes,' Alex agreed.

'Have you got the skull?' John asked.

'Yes. I've got the whole skeleton.'

'Check between the teeth for me, see if there's any dried blood you can identify.' He stood up, headed for the door, and went back to the Earth Sciences Laboratory. 'Sean. Those soil samples. Can you run tests to look for blood?'

'Er, yeah. But won't it be canine blood?' Sean asked.

'Yes, it will. But can you identify the blood of other species?'

Sean grinned at him. 'Easy peasy. I'll just put a sample in water, shake it up, and run it through the DNA sequencer.'

Ten minutes later, the results started to tabulate on the screen. 'Here we are,' Sean announced. 'Hundreds of different bacteria, viruses, fungi, invertebrates. Large sample of canine DNA as expected.' At that point Alex hurried into the room. 'Ooh, and a significant amount of rat blood,' Sean finished.

Alex stopped in his tracks with an amazed look on his face. 'There were flakes of dried blood between the dog's teeth . . . rats blood.'

'And not a rat in sight,' John said to himself.

Westminster Academy.

Harrow Road.

London.

EJ Smith entered the dining hall of Westminster Academy, where he was a student, along with his friends Josh, and Liam. They made their way over to the serving counter, picked up a plastic tray each, and made their way down the line.

'What's on offer today then?' Josh wondered out loud, as he looked over the counter at the heated containers.

One of the dinner ladies heard him and thought he was asking her. 'Meatballs with spaghetti, cottage pie, or bean burger with chips.'

Josh chose the meatballs, whilst EJ and Liam went for the bean burger. They looked around the large dining hall, searching for a spare table, when EJ spotted a cute redhead, who if truth be told, he'd got a bit of a thing for.

'This way guys.' EJ weaved his way between the tables with his two friends following behind as though they were performing an impromptu version of the conga. 'Hiya Becky. Can we join you?'

Becky looked up and smiled, and then looked at her two friends, who had knowing smiles on their faces. 'Yeah sure. We can move up to make space.'

'Brilliant!' There was a dining chair cha-cha-cha, as everyone made room for the new diners. 'I'm EJ by the way. This is Josh and Liam,' EJ said to the two girls who were dining with Becky.

They all exchanged hello's, and settled down to eat their meals. EJ started chatting to Becky, whilst Josh and Liam timidly tried to strike up a conversation with the two girls. It was fair to say that they didn't have EJ's confidence when it came to talking to girls.

Half way through their meal, on an adjacent table, EJ noticed a geeky looking, dark skinned kid, with short braided hair, eating sandwiches from a lunch box, as he drew in a sketchbook.

'Who's the new kid?' EJ asked Becky, nodding sideways with his head.

Everyone had a quick look, and Becky's friend, Sam, whispered to them. 'Selene says his family are asylum seekers. They've moved into one of the flats on her estate. Keeps himself to himself . . . A bit weird they reckon.'

EJ smiled a smile he'd inherited from his father. `Who reckons . . ? Anyway, weird's good. I like weird.'

'You would,' Josh quipped.

'What'ya drawing there?' EJ asked the new kid.

The new kid jumped and looked like a rabbit suddenly caught in headlights. 'Wha'?' When he saw EJ smiling at him, he visibly relaxed. 'Er . . . An animal I saw last night.' EJ reckoned his accent was sub-Saharan.

'Ooh. Can I see?' EJ asked, and the new kid lifted the sketchbook to show his drawing. 'It's a hedgehog! Oh, that is brilliant. And you drew that from memory?'

The new kid shrugged. 'Yeah. How else would I draw it?' He went back to his sandwiches and drawing.

The sketchbook was suddenly snatched away, and they saw an older, well built student looking at the drawing with an evil smile on his face. 'Hey. Look guys. The freak can draw,' he said to his three cronies, who laughed along with him. The new kid kept his head down and continued to eat a sandwich.

'Probably what he had for dinner last night,' one of the thugs quipped, which got a chorus of laughter.

'Leave him alone!' Becky said, her face red with anger. 'Just because he's the new kid, doesn't mean you have to pick on him, Darren.'

Darren Price, was known as the school hard man. There was a firm anti-bullying policy at the academy, but Price knew how to intimidate students without getting caught. And of course, there was always out of school hours if he needed to get physical.

'Oh, the professor's found her voice,' Price said sarcastically. 'I wasn't pickin' on 'im, I was admiring his artwork, wasn't I?' Price said to the new kid, with a hint of menace in his voice as he threw the sketchbook back on the table.

'Mmm, yeah. Thank you,' the new kid said.

Price smiled sweetly at Becky. 'See. So shut it ginger.'

EJ had heard enough. He slowly stood up and stared at Price, with a serene smile on his face.

Price straightened up and looked EJ up and down. 'What you lookin' at?'

EJ returned the gesture, and looked down to Price's feet, before returning to look him in the eye. 'I could be wrong . . . But my best guess would be a rude art lover.' He scratched the back of his neck. 'Although . . . By definition, that would probably make you an art critic.'

'EJ, don't!' Josh whispered to him. He'd seen what happened to kids who confronted Price.

Price had a menacing, lopsided smile on his face. 'A comedian huh? Well maybe you'd better keep that smart mouth of yours shut, before someone shuts it for you.'

'Why do you feel you have to be so rude and aggressive all the time?' EJ asked him, trying to get through to him and make him see how he was behaving.

Price leaned forward and was in EJ's face. 'Who says I'm rude an' aggressive?' He looked at the three thugs behind him. 'D'you think I'm rude an' aggressive?'

They shook their heads. 'Nah.'

Price turned back to EJ. 'See? Now get out of my way.'

Price used both hands to push EJ backwards . . . except, he didn't. At the lightest touch of Price's hands, EJ eased backwards and to the side in a graceful arc. Price was expecting to push the weight of EJ's body, and when that resistance wasn't there, he overbalanced and toppled forwards. EJ caught him around the chest before he hit the floor.

'Careful. You alright? Did someone spill their drink?' EJ said as he stood Price on his feet and dusted him down.

'Get off me,' Price said, as he tried to bat EJ's hands away, although he never seemed to be able to make contact with them.

'There,' EJ said, straightening up. The smile had disappeared from his face, and he gave Price an icy stare. 'No harm done.'

'Everything alright boys?' a teacher asked as he approached. He'd seen what looked like an altercation, and had come to investigate.

'Fine sir,' EJ said, the smile back on his face. 'Darren was admiring this student's artwork when he slipped on a spilt drink.' He turned to Price. 'Isn't that right Darren.'

'Er, yeah. I slipped,' Price confirmed.

The teacher looked down at the sketchbook. 'That is rather good, Afram. Have you always been good at drawing . . ?'

'This isn't over, kid,' Price whispered menacingly whilst the teacher was distracted.

EJ shook his head in disappointment. He'd just provided a brief demonstration of his superior abilities, and this idiot still didn't realise that he was outclassed. He sat back down at the table and proceeded to finish his lunch.

'I probably shouldn't have done that,' he groaned as he ate a chip.

'I did try to warn you,' Josh reminded him.

'Yeah, I know, but I couldn't let him talk to Becky like that . . . It's just bad manners. It's mum and dad's fault. They said that you don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away.'

'Josh is right,' Becky agreed. 'But thank you for defending my honour,' she said with a smirk. Her friends just sniggered.

['Is everythin' alright Sweetheart?'] Rose asked in his head. She'd felt his raised emotional state.

['Yeah, mum. Just one of the older students being rude to Becky. I just asked him why he was so rude.']

['Becky, eh? You should invite her around for tea,'] Rose thought teasingly. She wasn't worried about EJ when it came to doing the right thing. He had inherited his father's intellect; his sense of fair play; his dislike of violence; and his superior reflexes.

['Mummmm,'] EJ groaned.

['What?'] she thought, feigning innocence. ['You could study together.']

['Lunch time's over, Mum. Gotta go.']

['Bye, Son.']

'Thank you,' the new kid, named Afram, said to EJ. 'For drawing their attention away from me.'

'No problem,' EJ said, and then proceeded to introduce everyone. 'If you don't know anybody yet, come over and sit with us tomorrow lunchtime . . . or, you might want to sit on your own and draw. Up to you really.'

The group stood up, placed their trays on the racks, and made their way to their various classes. Walking down the corridor, EJ heard a voice behind him.

'Hey. Funny man,' Price called out.

EJ's shoulders sagged, and he turned around. 'You do realise the school has an anti bullying policy? You could get yourself expelled.'

'Yeah, I know. But it don't apply outside the school, does it,' Price replied.

'Doesn't,' EJ said.

'Wha'?' Price asked with a frown.

'It doesn't apply outside the school,' EJ corrected. 'Don't is a contraction of "do not". What you were saying was, "it do not apply outside the school", instead of, "it does not apply outside the school". It just sounds stupid.'

'You callin' me stupid?'

'No. Not you. The way you speak sounds stupid.' Price grabbed the lapel of EJ's blazer. 'Ah, ah. Anti bullying policy . . . Remember?'

Price released his lapel and smoothed it down. 'Later, funny man.' He patted the lapel. 'I'm goin' to have a real good laugh.' He tried to barge past EJ, but failed to make any contact as EJ gracefully leaned out of the way.

'Mate. You are in serious trouble,' Liam said as they headed towards their history class.