‘Banged my head,’ Toshiko groaned at her. ‘How did you know where to find me?’
‘What, apart from following a trail of blood and body parts, you mean?’ Gwen held up her PDA. ‘When I couldn’t raise you on comms, I got a trace on your GPS coordinates. You were very insistent that we all get the hang of this.’
Toshiko gingerly levered herself up on her elbows and smiled. ‘You’re my favourite pupil.’
‘Took a little while to get right,’ Gwen admitted. ‘Bit of interference. I may have tuned it to Red Dragon FM at first.’
‘Interference? Of course! Are they still here? The men in uniform.’ Toshiko sat up suddenly, trying to look around. The effort made her giddy.
‘It’s all right, Tosh. All the security staff have evacuated. Those that are still alive,’ she added darkly.
‘Different uniforms.’
‘Well, there’s only us here now. Rhys is down in the mall. Spitting feathers, of course, ’cause I wouldn’t let him up here. I left him talking to Andy Davidson.’
‘PC Andy,’ said Toshiko. ‘Cardiff’s finest. Ouch!’
‘Steady.’ Gwen supported Toshiko into a proper sitting position, and examined the back of her head. ‘Better get you back to the Hub, Tosh. Don’t know how long you were unconscious. Need to get Dr Harper to look at that.’
Toshiko was getting agitated again. ‘And Owen, too! We were talking on mobiles, and the line was disconnected by… the same people who were up here! Achenbrite, that was the name. I saw it on their uniforms.’
Gwen reluctantly allowed Toshiko to stand. ‘Do you a deal. You can research Achenbrite. But you do it back at the Hub, and get this seen to.’
Toshiko gripped Gwen’s arm. ‘I need to show you something first.’
The fire alarm died just as they re-entered the building. Gwen sent general manager Maddock on his way back downstairs for some fresh air, which left her and Toshiko to examine the security room unaccompanied and unhindered.
She hadn’t seen this much blood in one place since the space whale at that makeshift slaughterhouse. Only this was human blood and remains. She wasn’t sure whether to feel ashamed that this made it so much worse. Easier to imagine these men with families, she supposed. Someone would have to tell their kids, or their neighbours, or their lovers. Thank God it wasn’t her who had to do that any more.
‘I saw the creature that did this,’ Toshiko explained shakily. She picked her way carefully through the room, showing Gwen the incontrovertible evidence of scratches and splinters. ‘A bat the size of a dog.’
‘Like the thing I saw in the loading bay!’ breathed Gwen.
Toshiko nodded carefully. ‘It had a bullet wound in one wing. This was the same creature that killed your Weevils.’
‘How did it get up here, then? Surely it would have just flown off. Not come back into the mall.’
Toshiko indicated the breakage around the door jamb. ‘It didn’t break in. It fought its way out. This door has a cipher-lock on it. But those poor victims would hardly let that creature in and then lock themselves inside with it, would they?’ Gwen saw the realisation dawn on Toshiko’s face. ‘Hey, remember how it vanished?’ Toshiko manipulated the control desk, carefully avoiding the spattered blood. The central monitor switched to a view of the loading bay.
‘No!’ Gwen found it hard to believe, but the evidence seemed to fit. ‘It came
Toshiko took an evidence bag from her pocket, and plucked some of the plant from where it was growing. ‘There’s no daylight in here. Not much natural light in the whole mall, that’s why the greenery is all fake. So how’s this growing in here?’ The variegated leaf had also established itself between the carpet tiles. She pulled up one tile, and found the roots went into a crack in the screed concrete floor. ‘This isn’t your typical office plant.’
‘And it’s dying. See? The leaves are browning. Not watered enough, eh?’ Gwen shook herself. What was the matter with her? She was standing by the bloody remnants of two men, and talking about plant care. ‘This whole thing’s going to take a lot of explaining,’ she concluded.
‘I know,’ agreed Toshiko. ‘And there’s still those dead Weevils in the basement.’
‘We’re stretched too thin,’ snapped Gwen. ‘Just five of us. Torchwood doesn’t have enough people.’
‘What would ever be enough?’ Toshiko prised a further plant sample from the base of the control desk, a double-headed bud that had not yet opened. ‘Well, this’ll be one of those things that needs covering up
Toshiko staggered a little. She had risen too quickly from her crouched position.
‘OK,’ Gwen told her briskly. ‘You need to get back to the Hub. Don’t drive, get a cab. Use the account.’
Toshiko sighed. ‘A secret organisation with a taxi account.’
Gwen grinned. ‘Another Ianto innovation. It’s in the name of Dr John Smith. Some in-joke of Jack’s, apparently.’
‘Bloody Andy Davidson!’ Rhys the Rant was in full flow as they ascended the escalator. It was stationary, so they huffed up the big steps together. ‘I’ve a good mind to cancel his invitation!’
‘He hasn’t replied yet,’ Gwen tutted. ‘Don’t suppose you thought to ask him.’
‘You’re joking me.’
‘What’s he done now?’
This was all the excuse Rhys needed to go off on one. ‘I was kidding about with him that I hadn’t got the right change for the car park ticket. And he was banging on about how I’d get a sixty quid fine. And I was… Oh, what are you laughing at?’
Gwen had her fist in her mouth to stifle her giggles. ‘He’s having you on, love.’ She shifted nearer and kissed him on the forehead. ‘Right, was it this floor?’
Rhys hopped off the end of the escalator and crooked his arm for her to join him. ‘We should shop more often when it’s like this, eh?’
‘That’s ’cause the police have cleared the place. See how they’ve turned off the up escalators? Gets people out faster.’
Rhys looked around the deserted top floor. ‘It’s a bit spooky with no one here.’
‘You sound like Andy.’
‘Don’t start,’ he laughed. ‘OK, I remember these Halloween decorations. There, in the far corner: Leonard’s Toys and Games.’
The lights were still on inside the shop, bright behind the pumpkins and gravestones in the window. Its metal shutter was almost down, with just a metre gap at the bottom. The pair of them stooped beneath it.
‘Oh my God!’ Gwen’s shock turned into relieved laughter. She’d seen the tall figure by the tills, like an over- tall Weevil. In the split second before she’d realised it was a dressed-up shop dummy, her gun was in her hand and pointed unwaveringly at its head. She holstered it again, noting that Rhys’s face registered something between shock and admiration.
The empty shop had a locker-room smell, as though a football team had recently vacated it. A forlorn-looking papier-mache diorama, painted and laid out like a battlefield, filled a section at the rear. Several carved figures had tumbled, discarded or forgotten, next to a couple of dice that had more than six sides. A handful of dog-eared MonstaQuest cards were strewn on the far side of the table.
Gwen rotated the blister packs that hung on wire racks by the till. She definitely recognised a couple of miniature Weevils and a Hoix – though the packaging called them ‘Toothsome’ and ‘Maymer’. The other models were new to her, including one with two heads like snarling, spitting snakes. Another had a long tail and neck, with a horn in the middle of its forehead that made her think it looked like an angry diplodocus.
‘We’re closed,’ snapped a thin voice. It belonged to an equally thin man, who stood up from behind the till
