blood. He licked his thumb and wiped ineffectually at the brown-red marks. ‘That’s where the bushes outside scratched me. These people haven’t laid a finger on me.’
Jennifer Portland smiled benevolently at this reassurance. But her emotion seemed brittle. Gwen wasn’t sure she liked her. The woman was in her mid-fifties, calm and composed in her seat beside Ianto. ‘They haven’t put any clothes on you, either,’ responded Gwen tartly.
‘He’s got that A5 pad,’ observed Owen. ‘Or was he just doing dictation?’
Gwen nodded to the two red-headed men on the other side of Jennifer. They’d been introduced as Jennifer’s sons, Chris and Matthew. They studied the Torchwood people sullenly. ‘Didn’t one of you have a spare boiler suit?’
‘We’ve had more pressing problems than clothing,’ Jennifer snapped. ‘You’ll have seen the people who died here today. Seven members of staff, including…’ She paused for a little breath, regaining her composure. ‘Including Toby. One of my sons. He was at the zoo.’
‘Yeah, we saw something of him,’ Owen said.
One of her other sons reached across and squeezed his mother’s hand. Her only acknowledgement was a slight inclination of her head.
This smallest of gestures made Gwen feel more sorry for the woman. ‘What happened here today?’
‘Gareth.’ Jennifer’s voice was barely more than a whisper. ‘I thought he was returning the device he’d stolen.’
‘The catalogue thing?’ prompted Gwen. ‘Is that what brings the creatures through the Rift?’
Jennifer nodded. ‘Three of them. A Hoix and a pair of Chantri Golems. They overwhelmed my team before they could respond. Chris and Matt managed to transfer them into the surveillance suite, and I flooded it with kolokine-7.’
Gwen looked at the nearby Monitor Room, nervously wondering whether the air seal on the door was impervious to alien toxic gases. ‘In there?’
Jennifer nodded. ‘Transmitted them into that room through the PDA’s video signal, and asphyxiated them.’
‘All right…’ Jack’s booming voice interrupted them. The image on the wall of flat-screen displays wobbled and steadied itself, resolving into a giant close-up of Jack and Toshiko. They were looking into a camera on Toshiko’s desk back at the Hub. ‘We’re all set here.’
‘What kept you?’ asked Gwen.
‘Wait and see,’ he responded. ‘OK, Mrs Portland. Whadda ya got?’
Jennifer looked up at Jack’s image as it loomed over the whole room. ‘We need to combine our resources, Captain Harkness.’
Jack’s shook his head, a huge gesture on the display. ‘You don’t get it, Mrs Portland. You think you’re in charge here, but you’re not. You’re really not.’ He leaned in, and seemed bigger than ever. ‘We know you’ve gotten your hands on some kind of alien tech. We know you’ve used it today in the mall and the zoo and in the centre of town. We know you tested it beforehand – an earlier visit to the zoo, a dogs’ home…’
‘A farm,’ prompted Toshiko.
‘Yeah, that poor guy is never gonna work out where his alpacas went. What were you hoping? To sell the stuff? Exploit it? Salvage what was left of your late husband’s failing electronics firm?’
Gwen studied Jennifer’s reaction. She didn’t seem angry. A kind of weary resignation hung on her pale face.
‘Torchwood has been picking up the pieces of your “tests” for months,’ Jack went on. ‘And today, Achenbrite carelessly lost control of that device at the zoo. Nearly killed one of my officers. Nice to see ya, Ianto,’ he added.
Jennifer’s composure seemed to slip. ‘If your officer here hadn’t tampered with it, that device wouldn’t have killed my Toby.’
‘Are you
‘I’m saying that it’s not as simple as you make out.’
‘Alien tech never is. Leave it to the experts.’
‘Experts, indeed!’ Jennifer Portland sniffed loudly. ‘You’ve seen our work. We were able to control your communications network. We recognised your infiltration of our systems. And we have the equipment and expertise to contain the creatures from the Vandrogonite Visualiser.’
‘Oh, wait a minute…’ That had surprised Toshiko. ‘Why do you call it that? Vandrogonite was just our best guess about its origins.’
‘I know,’ said Jennifer smoothly. She tapped at the keyboard built into the conference desk. One of the sixteen flat-screens changed to show a computer display.
‘Picture-in-picture,’ Ianto told Gwen.
‘That’s a Torchwood file,’ said Toshiko in an aggrieved tone. ‘You hacked our system?’
Ianto chuckled, then turned it into a cough. ‘Not funny,’ he said. ‘Very serious, of course.’
Toshiko’s head shifted slightly out of frame. Gwen could hear the clattering noise as she tapped furiously at her own keyboard.
‘OK, we’re officially impressed.’ Jack settled more comfortably into the centre of the picture. ‘So, where’s the fire? You don’t need us, right?’ His sarcastic tone suggested otherwise.
Jennifer seemed to be taking a deep breath before speaking. ‘Yes, Captain Harkness. We need your assistance.’
‘And we should help you… why?’
‘Because we have all of this.’ Jennifer touch-typed a swift series of keystrokes.
Toshiko gave a cry of amazement. ‘Wow!’
The computer display flat-screen now showed the three-dimensional rendering of the Achenbrite warehouse. Gwen recognised it from their planning session in the Hub. The difference was that the whole of the blue wireframe was alive with brighter spots of light, like a firestorm over the whole complex. And she knew that indicated Rift activity.
‘I’ve turned off the non-disclosure field,’ Jennifer explained.
Toshiko’s head kept popping back into frame as she reeled off a list of what she could see. ‘The whole place is awash with Rift energy. You’ve got dozens of pieces of alien tech… peak traces for recent incursions… residual hot spots where living creatures have penetrated…’ Her voice trailed off incredulously.
‘You’re offering us this?’ asked Jack. ‘Because you sure ain’t gonna fight us with it any more.’
‘We weren’t fighting you in the first place,’ retorted Jennifer. ‘We were trying to contain the damage done by Gareth.’
‘We’ll just take it all,’ Jack replied coldly. ‘Close you down. This isn’t a negotiation. That’s the lesson you’ve learned today, Mrs Portland.’
Jennifer slammed her palms down, and Gwen felt the angry vibrations through the conference table’s surface. ‘I don’t need a lecture, I need your help. I want Gareth back. I want my son. I’ve lost too many good men today from Achenbrite to care about anything other than that. We can’t contain this any longer. Torchwood certainly can’t, that much is clear from your fumbling attempts throughout the day. We need to work together.’
Jack leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. His image still dominated the room. Gwen saw something in that look. Maybe he wasn’t telling them everything, but Jack could sometimes let his hurt pride get in the way of doing what was right.
So she leaned forward on the conference table and said to Jennifer: ‘Tell me about Gareth.’
Jennifer’s eyes darted to Gwen.
‘Gareth?’ Jack was saying on the screen. ‘That’s your son with the mental problems who’s walking around town with a Vandrogonite Visualiser?’
‘Jack!’ snapped Gwen angrily. ‘Just
Jennifer looked to her two sons. The woman who had seemed so in control when Gwen had first entered this conference room was now close to tears.
The older of the two sons, Chris, held her hand again. ‘That Visualiser thing,’ he said. ‘It was part of our first find. Up at the Rhiwbina dig. We thought it was just an alien toy, y’know. And Gareth wasn’t interested in
