Into the Silence

other victims.' He nodded towards Cutler, who was leaning against the corner of the wall. 'The police have been in touch with all the major news stations, and it's going to be hitting all the channels from now until daybreak.'

'You think the whole of Cardiff will take part?' Ianto was back in his suit, complete with jacket, and looking contained and smart despite the bandage across his head. He flashed Cutler a suspicious glance, and Gwen knew why. Jack had to think the man was pretty special if he had brought the outsider into the Hub. And she could recognise a jealous look when she saw one.

'They don't need to. Only the singers. Only the good singers.' Jack folded his arms across his chest. 'And they're the ones we need to do it.'

Gwen knew she was tired, but she wondered if she was missing something. 'So, if all the singers have shut up, how's that going to help us catch the alien?'

We can't afford to risk another civilian, but we have our own voice of an angel among us…' As Jack let the sentence trail off, Gwen turned to Ianto and waited for him to catch up. He did.

'I'm the bait?'

Jack grinned. 'If you're the only show in town, let's hope you'll be guaranteed an audience.'

'Great.' Ianto's expression disagreed with the word. 'An audience that rips your throat out if you sing too well.'

'We'll have the place covered and I'll be inside with you. And heavily armed.' Jack's grin had disappeared, his dark eyes intent. 'If we get the place rigged up right, he won't even get near you. You going to trust me on this?'

Ianto nodded. 'Of course.' His eyes sat quietly grim in his calm face. 'And we don't have any choice anyway. We have to do it.'

Gwen sat up in her chair, her impatience overtaking her. 'And you should have more notice of the creature's arrival this time round.'

'How come?' asked Jack.

Gwen grinned and glanced at Ianto, her own pride reflecting back at her from him. God, they were like children trying to impress their dad. But still, that was the truth. They both did want to impress Jack.

'While you two have been in the pub, we've been pretty busy here, and not just eating pizza.'

'Although I saw the box.' Jack raised an eyebrow. 'You did have pizza.'

'Smart arse. We ate while we worked.' She pushed her dark hair away from her face. 'Anyway, just before Drew Powell was attacked, do you remember that I saw all those tiny flashes that appeared randomly across Cardiff on the Rift monitor? Just before the big one at the church?'

Jack nodded. 'Go on.'

'It got me curious, so I looked at the data for the other attacks. We'd seen there was a big spike just before each one, but because we were looking with hindsight-'

'Retrospectively.'

'Whatever. Means the same.' She glared at Ianto. 'Because we were studying the attacks retrospectively, we hadn't looked to see what activity went on just prior to the main Rift spike. So I went back a bit further.'

A smile twitched at the corner of Jack's mouth. 'You've been working on a computer all night? Is this the same Gwen Cooper who runs at the sight of a USB cable?'

'It's the same Gwen Cooper who'll forget what she's trying to say if you're not careful.'

'Keep going.' Jack's eyes twinkled. 'I'm impressed.'

'OK, these outbreaks of tiny spikes were there just a minute or two before each attack, as if maybe the alien comes through in particles or something and then pulls itself together. But whatever the reason, what we found was that the tiny spikes aren't random. It's like a reverse explosion. The centre point between them is where the alien appears.'

'Good work,' Jack said, but Gwen shook her head.

'I haven't finished. That's not the good bit.' She leaned forwards slightly, her elbows digging into the table. 'Ianto and me have refined the system so that it picks up those early spikes more quickly and gives us the appearance location before the creature comes through. Should buy you about eight minutes, we reckon.'

Ianto nodded. 'Judging from our test runs.'

Jack stared at Ianto and then back at Gwen. 'You two figured this out yourselves?'

Gwen shrugged. 'With quite a lot of help from Tosh's notes and bloody pop-ups.'

'She'd be proud of you.'

Gwen couldn't fight the smile threatening to stretch across her face. 'Or horrified. She was probably watching over our shoulders making sure we didn't break her precious computer. It was her favourite member of the team.'

Jack grinned. 'She definitely thought it was more logical than the rest of us. And I think I'd agree with her on that.'

Even Ianto gave a half-smile. Cutler stayed out of it, against the wall. This was their business, the sharing of a memory of a lost colleague. Gwen felt warm in her stomach, even if she knew the image was a childish fantasy. When you were dead, you were dead; there were no ghosts of Tosh or Owen watching over them. And if one day there was, it would just turn out to be some bloody alien or entity using their memories as a weapon against them.

Still, she thought. It was what they had signed up for. It was the risk they took for the rewards of all this knowledge and excitement. She glanced at Cutler. She couldn't go back to the police now. She could never turn her back on all this, not willingly, however much of her soul it took.

'So what now?' Ianto asked.

'There's nothing we can do until morning.' Jack looked at Gwen. 'That enhanced program up and running now?'

She nodded, and he looked over to Cutler.

'Your men still out in their patrol cars?'

'Oh yeah. I think I just drained the overtime budget for the next ten years on this one.'

Nodding, Jack sighed. 'That's about all we can do for now then. You two go home and get some rest.' Both Gwen and Ianto moved to speak, but Jack cut them off. 'No arguments. I'll keep an eye on things here. If our visitor decides to make an appearance I'll at least have a few minutes to get the sirens to its location.' He looked at his watch. 'Although anyone singing at this time of night must be crazy.'

'There's one more thing.' Ianto frowned a little. 'It's just something I felt when the alien came for Drew Powell.' He looked up. 'I had this awful sense of emptiness. Loneliness, but human loneliness taken and multiplied a thousand times. It was so strong I can't explain it. I felt like I was being emptied of everything that I'd learned from outside of myself. Anything I'd been taught by anyone else, or shared with anyone else or felt for anyone else.'

He kept his head down while he spoke, never comfortable with talking about his inner emotions. 'But I didn't feel any aggression. Maybe frustration, but no aggression.'

'So what are you saying?' Jack frowned. 'You got to see inside the alien's mind?'

'Something like that. Or its mind invaded mine. That feels closer to it.' He looked up. 'All I'm saying is that I don't think it's killing these people on purpose. I don't think it really understands about killing. I'm not sure what it's doing, but the deaths aren't intentional.'

There was a moment's silence, then Cutler sniffed derisively from his position against the wall. 'I'm sure that will be a great comfort to the victims and their families.'

Gwen glared at him. He was a policeman right to the core. She remembered that kind of black and white thinking. There was no place for it here, even though she sometimes wished it were that easy.

'Maybe not.' Jack had the final word. 'But it might just help us when we catch it.'

TWENTY-TWO