34

"Come again?" Owen asked and Jack snorted with glee as he told Owen he was using his lines again. Ianto ignored him as he usually did when it came to the leering bit.

Ianto pulled over a piece of paper and drew a circle "Here, this is us."

"Are we round?"

"Are we about to get thumped in the side of the head?" Ianto countered with a glare that him that had him sniggering. "Can I continue?"

"Pray, good sir… continue" Owen said in a posh voice as he flourished a hand, swinging it at the wrist and Jack leaned forward knowing this was all just two boys playing. Neither meant it.

"Right. All those fishing boats and freighters back at the marina and in the main docks, we take them to here, forming a ring around the island a few kilometers off shore, then we sink the fuckers."

"We scupper them?" Jack was trying to work it out, watching as Ianto drew rectangles all the way around bar for one spot left open, "Oh. Right. We create a reef. Like… battlements to a castle?"

"Exactly, the inner sea water is our moat. Fish can still move freely. Any boats reach this area cannot come over it, right? Uglies cannot swim so they cannot get past this point. Only one way in or out and we monitor that gap with motion sensors and the like." Ianto leaned back, finished his pitch as he watched Jack's brain engage.

"We will need a lot of boats love" Jack said as he calculated "We will need at least thirty or forty."

"They do not have to be bow to stern, we can have gaps for the water to flow… just not enough for a boat to get through, bar a small inflatable of course. Uglies would not have one of those, would they? Not this far out" Owen tapped the paper "Or we have the gaps covered with netting? Catch them that way? We can have almost a quarter boat length that way, ropes across it, nets hung… that was when we gat another boat from somewhere we can then use it to plug a gap?"

"I like the sound of that. We concentrate on the side of the island that faces shore, then the other sides can be staggered with ropes and netting" Jack agreed and Ianto rose to leave, seeing that the idea had legs.

"Where are you off to now?" Owen asked leaning back.

"Gonna go collect my kid from Alice and give the poor woman a break. She's so patient but Emma is at the demanding stage and sometimes her signing is getting messy. I need to teach her some patience and manners there" Ianto replied as he waggled his fingers at Jack.

After Owen had sat back down Jack agreed "He's right ya know. Little beast is at the pouting stage and knows I am a sucker for that bottom lip. Sometimes I don't' know there is even an argument going on until a little foot stomp. Ianto is soooo onto her schemes."

"With parents like you, she will be a beast alright. One I will be proud to watch pummel someone's arse in a fight" Owen laughed.

"Well, her Uncle Owen teaches her tenacity too" Jack clapped his shoulder "come on, let's take a boat and sit offshore outgoing the boats we can sink."

"Can I do it?"

"Huh?"

"Punch a hole in the hull… I love the destructiveness of it" Owen said gleefully "And I know you don't like destroying a hull of any sort."

"And just like that we are back to the submarine. I wish Ianto had never told you about that" Jack sighed.

"Actually he didn't. Not the entire story, just that there used to be a Torchwood Issue Submarine and you scuttled it? Just that you sank the Torchwood Submarine. I would have loved to have seen that, and you explaining it to her majesty. You are just gonna hold out on us all" Owen huffed.

"OK, if I say it had something to do with the undead and still gives me the heebie-jeebies will you let it go?" Jack begged.

"Zombies" Owen hissed with wide eyes and Jack rolled his eyes. "nooooo"

"Come on… let's go count boats and work out where we are putting them." Jack rose and picked up the piece of paper.

"Where's my camera. Photos will be good, we can better calculate lengths and shit n the comfort of our own home" Owen muttered as he got the digital camera from his drawer.

"hey Owen, you are dead right." Jack agreed absently.

"Oooo, like a… Zombie?"

Jack sighed softly.

Now he saw why Ianto sighed so often around this man.