Long tail on a ghost part 3.4
Ianto and Owen listened for the thuds hitting the ground. They exchanged looks and Ianto shrugged. Owen opened the pantry door slowly, peeking out. There was no trace of gas in the air, no white mist or any sign of anything being amiss except for the four slumped bodies on the floor.
They kept their gas masks on as they moved into the room. The gas canisters didn’t exactly come with instructions and they weren’t sure how long it would take to clear the air. Owen didn’t fancy going to way of Arnie in Total Recall.
He crossed to one of the bodies, and checked for a pulse. When he found none he nodded at Ianto. Definitely deadly gas then. Ianto checked the other three bodies. They were all in green overalls. Zeta and Epi must have left the room.
The kitchen opened up to a large dining area which was currently deserted and caked with dust. Just to the side was an alcove and a short corridor. They stole along it, pausing outside the door at the end that stood ajar.
“...they’re loading supplies now,” Epi’s voice drifted into the hallway.
“The faster we act the better. I want a plane in the air within the hour.” Zeta answered.
“I will be ready, Captain,” came the unmistakable voice of Phi.
“Gamma’s base is your first target, make sure you get the entire building, including their hostages, I don’t want our victory to be challenged.”
Jack, Tosh and Gwen, Owen thought, fist tightening. He could see a key jutting from the inside of the door, he jerked his head at it and Ianto nodded. Owen counted to three and then jumped forward, yanking the key out and pulling the door shut. Ianto grabbed hold of the handle too, to keep it in place as Owen tried to lock it. It rattled as the women on the other side pulled at it and banged against the surface, but Owen managed in the end.
“That should hold them,” he said, his voice muffled by the gas mask he was still wearing. He pocketed the key and grinned at Ianto, though the other man could barely see it.
Ianto looked unimpressed. “If there isn’t a window.”
The smile slid from Owen’s face. They were still unarmed after all. “Better get out of here then.”
They walked back to the main room carefully, aware that others could still come in at any time. On the counter that would normally hold a till, Ianto spotted his PDA. He grinned as he collected it, waving it at Owen.
“Guns?” he asked, stepping up beside Ianto.
The other man shook his head. “Doesn’t look that way.”
He sighed. “No, that would only be easy.”
They stepped outside, backs against the wall as they hurried away from the front of the building where they could be seen from the street. Dawn was beginning to streak the sky, a lighter pinkish blue challenging the dark for dominance. Owen suppressed a sigh. Time lost all traditional meaning when you worked for Torchwood.
“Owen,” Ianto said at his shoulder and he turned to face him. He noticed Ianto had removed his gas mask and quickly followed suit. Ianto darted his eyes to the corner. “Look.”
Owen moved around him and peeked around the side. At the loading bay a white van stood idling, doors open. Two women in green overalls loaded a box into the back, while others moved around the area. Owen pulled back. “How do you want to do this?”
Ianto shrugged. “You drive, I’ll jump in the back and we both hope we don’t get shot.”
“I can work with that.” Owen replied. He took a deep breath and rolled his shoulder. “Ready?”
“Go.”
***
Tosh kept her eyes resolutely closed against the concrete walls but she could still hear Gwen’s footsteps scraping across the concrete. She had taken up Jack’s pacing since they took him away. It felt like hours ago, but Tosh knew it was probably less.
“Gwen, please stop,” she murmured, focussing on her breathing. The small cell was bringing back unpleasant memories she had hoped she had conquered a long time ago. Tosh supposed some things stayed with you forever, no matter what you did.
Gwen huffed a sigh and Tosh felt her settling on the floor next to her. “I’m sorry Tosh,” she said quietly, “I just hate not knowing what’s going on.”
“I know,” Tosh replied, opening her eyes and turning to look at her. Gwen had her head back against the wall, legs drawn up to her chest.
“I just hope Owen and Ianto are better off,” Gwen muttered.
Tosh smiled tightly. “I’m sure they’re fine.”
***
“Owen!” Ianto yelled as the van took another sharp turn, two wheels leaving the ground. Ianto was thrown into the side wall, gas canisters raining down around him.
“Shut up, I’m driving here!” Owen yelled back, running a stop sign and taking a tight right that sent Ianto toppling in the other direction.
***
Jack was beginning to feel the heat. The laser was a mere hand length away from starting to cut him neatly in half. He braced himself for the pain, the searing feeling of flesh being melted and the sickly smell of death.
Delta was right, it would be a slow death, the laser was moving at the optimum pace for him to actually feel a great deal of it. Jack had survived a lot of painful deaths in the past, he wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction of hearing him scream.
The chaos that descended was entirely unexpected. The laser cut out abruptly as red overalls started scrambling about and yelling at each other in a language Jack didn’t understand. He lifted his head trying to see what was going on, but only found men banging at the entrance to the stairs.
Delta was shouting instructions but no one was paying her the slightest attention. Jack found Tau standing quietly against the far wall. He swore there was a small smile on the man’s face even as his nose started bleeding.
Jack’s chest tightened and everything went black.
***
Gwen and Tosh scrambled to their feet as the door rattled, bracing themselves for whatever was to come. They both started when instead of another amber eyed lackey, they came face to face with Owen, a semi automatic slung over one shoulder and a belt of canisters around his waist. He was dishevelled and a little dirty, but otherwise seemed fine.
“Hello loves,” he said grinning, “Did you miss me?” They both launched themselves at him, hugging tightly. “Whoa, I’ll take that as a yes then. Oh, watch the gun Gwen.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Gwen said pulling back with a wide grin, “We were just worried about you.”
“Aw come on, have a little faith,” he replied as he held the door back for them, “We’re playing the heroes remember?”
“You’re bleeding,” Tosh said, touching his cheek lightly.
Owen raised his hand and wiped at the cut under his eye. “Just a scratch, got it on the way in.”
“Where’s Ianto?” Gwen asked, scanning the corridor. “Is he alright?”
“Fine, he’s clearing upstairs.”
“They took Jack, Owen,” Tosh put it in, “We don’t know what’s going on.”
“S’alright we’ve already found him,” Owen replied. He jerked his head down the corridor and started walking, “If you’ll be so kind to follow me.”
***
Ianto stared at the bodies strewn around the makeshift control room glumly. This entire operation had gotten completely out of hand. It was just supposed to be a simple seize and detain, find out who was committing the murders and why, then send them packing. Instead it dissolved into this, nine bodies, not including those they’d taken out when breaking in. It reminded him far too much of a Torchwood One operation.
He turned his focus to Jack instead, undoing the straps that held him to the table. He waited, his breathing loud in his own ears thanks to the gas mask he still wore. This was always the worst part, the waiting.
Jack surged off the table with that first breath of air, all the violence of death present in the spark of life. Ianto held him down with a hand on his shoulder and it took a few seconds for Jack to orientate himself.
He blinked up at Ianto. “Poison gas?” He raised an eyebrow. “A little anti-climatic, don’t you think?”
Ianto snapped off the mask. “But compellingly effective.”
“Can’t argue with that.” Jack dragged himself into a sitting position, legs dangling off the table, and pulled Ianto in for a one-armed hug. “Thanks.”
“You should hardly be thanking me,” Ianto scoffed even as he leant into the touch, “I gassed you.”
“It’s better than being cut in half,” Jack replied with a shrug.
Owen’s head popped up at the top of the stairs, wearing his gas mask. Seeing the other two talking, he pulled it off and stepped up into the room. “It’s all clear, you can come up now!” he called over his shoulder.
Tosh and Gwen rushed in, and immediately bestowed hugs on Jack and Ianto, knocking Ianto back against the table. “Oof yes, hello to you too.”
“They’re very touchy feely today,” Owen commented.
Gwen glared at him. “Well you try sitting in a cell all day and not knowing what’s going on.”
“Fine,” Owen replied with a shrug, “Next time you can be the one being hit over the head and tied up.”
“I will.”
“Be my guest.”
“Hey kids, no fighting.” Jack interrupted, and Ianto rolled his eyes.
It was a comfort really, to know that things would always fall into this pattern regardless of what happened. They’d always be able to take on anything, Ianto thought, as long as they had each other. Still he could never quite silence the voice in the back of his mind that insisted that they were all already on borrowed time. Jack rested a hand on his back, drawing him back to the present.
“Let’s clear up and go home,” Jack said and for once, no one felt like arguing.
***
It had taken another two days to wrap up the case. First they had to round up all the minions in their red and green overalls, though this was surprisingly easy as they all seemed lost without their leaders to direct them.
They had explained that it was beyond their capacity within the game to make major decisions, and all they could do was follow orders in relation to their character profile. It was this that caused Tosh to declare the entire thing, “One huge twisted role playing game.”
Ianto felt a little uncomfortable with his Bond fandom afterwards, but Owen promised to shoot him if he ever became insanely fanatical and that was reassuring at least.
After they had dealt with the bodies, they had returned to the cafe where it turned out the room Owen and Ianto had locked didn’t have a window after all, but apparently Zeta and company never needed one. The door was still locked but the women were gone. Tosh detected a healthy amount of rift activity in the location though and it seemed that, for once, common sense persevered over winning at all costs.
With all the reports written, and the minions sent back home with the solemn oath they’d never join a fan club again, Ianto found himself feeling a little out of sorts. He left the team in the boardroom, joking over their take-out, and ended up thumbing absentmindedly through Jack’s book collection in his office. That’s how Jack found him.
“You okay?” he asked.
Ianto smiled but it was distracted, his eyes a million miles away. “Yeah. Just thinking.” He pulled a book from the shelf and straightened. “I didn’t know you had these.”
Jack saw a flash of the cover, a Bond book, and shrugged. “I’ve had a lot of time to read.” Ianto didn’t seem to be paying attention, attention fixed on the cover. He perched against Jack’s desk, flipping through the book idly. “It’s amazing that it lasts so long. Through all that time and all those galaxies. It just keeps going.”
“Immortality is overrated,” Jack sighed. “You can trust me on that.”
Ianto shook his head. “You always make it sound so unreasonable.”
“Because it is.”
“Come on Jack,” Ianto countered looking up, “It’s a driving force. It’s why writers write, and artists create, to live forever even if just as an echo, a memory of what they’ve done. It’s acknowledgement of having existed, that they lived and that they mattered, and to know they’ll be remembered.” Ianto paused and diverted his eyes back to the cover. “Ian Fleming lives forever because Bond lives forever.”
He could sense Jack shifting his weight, and Ianto knew he hated this topic. It wasn’t the first time they’d danced around this subject and it probably wouldn’t be the last, but he couldn’t help it.
“If people had forever, none of those things would exists. The need to create, to make a difference, all of that would fade away. Everyone would be too jaded to bother.”
“Maybe I should write a book.”
Jack huffed a laugh, coming to stand next to him. “You know you don’t have to,” he began haltingly, “You’ll already live forever because I - I will.”
Ianto managed an ‘hmm’ which he knew Jack found to be as entirely unconvincing as he did. Thankfully, their comms beeped.
“We’ve got another weevil brawl at the Queen’s Arcade, looks like four of them.”
Ianto gave a wry smile. “Glory fades.”
Jack tapped his comm to reply, eyes fixed on Ianto. “Bring the car around, I’ll be right there.” Ianto was already moving towards the door, the book forgotten on the desk.
“Hey,” Jack said getting up, grabbing the battered paperback as he went, “Why don’t you sit this one out?” Ianto arched an eyebrow and Jack pressed the book to him. “It’s only a couple of weevils, we can handle it.”
Ianto began to protest but Jack waved him off. “No arguing,” he insisted, before breaking into a smile, “And I’ll take you out tonight.” Jack kissed him and swept from the room, leaving Ianto standing there with a battered paperback in his hands.
“Oh and Ianto,” Jack’s voice said in his ear, “Glory doesn’t fade, it just becomes legend.”
Ianto shook his head. At the end of the day, no matter what happened, things always just went back to normal.
***
It ain't hard to hold,
When it shines like gold,
You'll remember me
- Bling (confessions of a king), The Killers
Fin.