‘Must be in the car,’ he smiled. ‘I left the SUV a coupla streets back, uphill. Thought I could drive all the way back, but wasn’t sure where to drop anchor.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Gwen. ‘No traffic wardens out in that storm. It’s not going to be towed away.’
‘Hope not,’ agreed Jack. ‘Three dead bodies in it.’
‘That’s got to be worth at least twelve points on your licence.’
‘If I had one. Never needed to.’ Jack had sauntered over to the basin. He was sopping wet, so he didn’t seem to care about wading across through the flood water. ‘You got the scuba gear I asked for?’
Gwen indicated a pile of equipment on the other side of the basin.
‘Suit up,’ said Jack.
‘Aren’t we going to help Ianto and Tosh find Owen?’
Jack was already stripping off his outer clothes. ‘No time. That ship you found, it’s still coming through the Rift. You and me can best help Owen by getting back there.’
‘Getting back there how?’
Jack pointed at the flooded basin that separated them across the Hub. ‘This is a tidal pool. There are some valves and safeguards to negotiate on the way, but it’s the fastest route. The ship will have come much further through the Rift now, because it’s displaced a huge amount of water in the Bay. C’mon, get your gear on.’
Gwen considered the precarious railing to the side of the basin, and the flooded walkway. She was going to get wet anyway. She shrugged, and waded across the basin to join Jack.
‘Did you bring a harpoon gun?’ Jack asked her as she started to strip.
She paused and looked at him. ‘You are joking, right?’
‘Not at all,’ he said as he adjusted the straps on his diving mask. ‘You do remember the size of that starfish thing, don’tcha?’
THIRTY
The cell tunnels invariably smelled damp. Ianto could always tell if one of the team had been down there, because the clammy odour of mould clung to their clothes when they got back to the upper levels of the Hub. It was just like he’d been able to tell, back in London, when Lisa had been for a pub lunch with Trish, from the smell of cigarettes on her hair. Even though she didn’t smoke. Doesn’t smoke. That was a long time ago. Ianto looked nervously down the far corridor.
‘All clear,’ hissed Toshiko. She raised her gun and moved swiftly and quietly into the next corridor.
The lower basement was filthy. No point trying to keep it clean, Ianto knew. He wondered why Owen would choose to flee down here. The signal on Ianto’s PDA told him that Owen was still in the middle of the three main cells. He hadn’t moved from the area for fifteen minutes now. He seemed to be wandering between the different cells.
Was he waiting for them?
Toshiko pushed open the dungeon door. There were three glass-fronted cells to one side of a short corridor. Opposite were three more cells behind solid doors with tiny square windows. Once Ianto was in the corridor with her, Toshiko pulled a lever in the wall to seal the main door behind them.
The caged strip light hung above from the ceiling. It cast a pallid glow over the whole corridor. The three cells had their own internal lights, which showed up the grimy marks that smeared the glass fronts. Ianto knew that they had a Weevil secured in the middle cell, though the glass was angled up and so it was difficult to see where the creature was at the moment. The nearest cell had been empty for ages now, and the far one hadn’t been occupied since the incident last month with the Cyclops.
‘Hang on.’ Ianto put his hand on Toshiko’s shoulder.
She was surprised by this unexpected contact. ‘What?’
Ianto had worked out why light was sliding off the glass in the middle cell differently. Why he couldn’t see the Weevil inside.
The cell was open.
He checked the PDA again. Owen’s signal was behind him. He could smell the foul stench of something breathing close by. Something snorted in his ear. Belched and growled. He whirled round, shouldering Toshiko aside from the creature behind them.
The Weevil must have been lurking in one of the other cells, unseen behind the heavy studded door. She had stopped sniffing him now, and glared furiously. Though she always looked furious, thought Ianto. It was something about her deep-set eyes and the permanent furrow of lines in her forehead. That and the way her savage jaw seemed genetically incapable of smiling. It was snarling at him now.
Toshiko scurried aside as best she could, scuffling across the floor on her backside. The sound distracted the Weevil for a second. Just enough time for Ianto. He snatched the device he’d been carrying from his jacket pocket, and plunged it into the gap at the top of the Weevil’s overalls. It connected with the leathery flesh of her neck, below the chin and her slavering fangs.
The Weevil barely had time to twist her head towards him before he slid the activation switch on the gadget. Her eyes stared into his briefly, and then squeezed closed in agony as the device sent a disabling jolt through her whole body. She slammed backwards, smashing into the fire-hose reel on the opposite wall. Ianto pressed forward, holding the thing against her neck as she slid down the slimy bricks.
The Weevil’s eyes were closed now. Ianto stepped back, breathless, dazed, relieved. A bit incredulous at what he’d just done.
Toshiko clambered back to her feet and brushed the dirt from her trousers. ‘Ianto. That was very impressive, but…’
‘But what?’
Toshiko took the device from his hand. ‘I’ve not seen this thing before.’
He took it back from her. ‘Something we scavenged from the wreckage of Torchwood One. It doesn’t last for long. Look, it’s discharged already. Useless now.’
‘It could be lethal.’
‘I suppose,’ Ianto said quietly. ‘Better her than you and me, though, eh?’
‘Not what I meant.’ Toshiko’s brow was furrowed almost as much as the Weevil’s. ‘You came equipped, Ianto. We didn’t know the Weevil was loose. You brought it because you thought you might use it on Owen.’
Ianto stooped down to grab the Weevil’s ankles, and dragged her back into her cell. Something tumbled from the pocket in the Weevil’s overalls and clattered onto the floor. ‘That explains a lot.’ Ianto showed it to Toshiko. ‘Owen’s mobile phone.’
‘He must have known we’d track him down with it,’ groaned Toshiko. ‘It’s not as if he was going to need it to call any of us. And he opened the cell because he knew if anyone turned up that the Weevil might turn ugly.’
‘She has a head start on the rest of us, that’s for sure.’ Ianto clicked the transparent front of the cell securely in place.
Toshiko was looking sadly at her expensive trousers. They were covered in slime from the dungeon floor. ‘I think I may kill Owen anyway. Attacking Gwen. Releasing the Weevil on us. Plus what he did with the firewall security…’
Her voice had trailed off. She’d even stopped fussing about her trousers. Ianto recognised that distant, pensive look in her eyes. ‘What is it?’
She grinned at him. ‘I have an idea.’
The ship rattled and lurched. The corridors stretched into a misty haze ahead of them, just as Gwen remembered. The same green-tinged gloom interspersed by brilliant flashes, the same gusts of hot, sour steam from half-seen vents along their route. When she’d struggled out of here with Sandra Applegate’s body, she’d hoped that was the last she’d ever see of this place. And good riddance to it, at that. There was a tight feeling in her chest now, and it wasn’t because she’d chosen a wetsuit that was a size too small. It was the fear of not knowing the first thing about this place that was constricting her breathing. She shrugged her shoulders to detach the diving cylinder, and dropped her mask next to it.
