Get Your Facts First, then you can distort them as you please (2/3)
Title: Get Your Facts First, then you can Distort them as you Please.
Author:
winter_rose91
Rating: PG-13
Length: 15,000 words
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen, PC Andy
Summary: A strange artefact and an even stranger message leave Team Torchwood tying themselves up in knots trying to solve the mystery. Cue a car chase for Gwen, an oddly acting Weevil for Jack, and a tomb-raider style adventure for Ianto.
Beta: Many thanks to ravenclaw42 for the beta and also to bassair for trying. Hope you feel better soon!
Art: here by mellten
Written for Torchwood Big Bang
Part 1
Part 2
Jack pulled up beside a battered house at the address Ianto had provided. This couldn't be right. He looked down at Ianto's neatly written post-it, checked the postcode in the sat-nav and then looked back up at Jones and Jones Amusements. Jack had chosen the amusement arcade for a reason; they were fun. Or supposed to be, he thought as he looked at the derelict building. He had been hoping for a few thrills whilst finding this artefact. Instead what he got was a run down old building surrounded by a high chain link ringed with barbed wire. Ianto must have known this. A sudden image of Ianto's smug little smile popped into Jack's head. He would have to have words with him later.
Jones and Jones Amusements
Checking his gun, Jack exited the SUV, shutting the door quietly so as to not to alert anyone nearby. He scanned the fence looking for a weak link that would allow him access. He could see that there was a section of fence that had been rolled up; someone had clearly broken in before. Walking over to it, he checked the street one last time. There was nothing but a flickering street light and a smashed up car. He ducked under the fence and took a step across to the door.
Crunch!
He cursed as gravel crunched underneath his boot. Hastily, he looked for an alternate route. He could see a concrete path and, taking the biggest steps possible, crossed over to it. He crept up the path to the door. As he approached, he saw that the doors were automatic, but there was no way they'd work now. He'd have to force them open. But as he drew closer, he could make out shards of glass framing the door pane - someone had already smashed their way through. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing whether this happened twenty years ago or twenty minutes ago, but Jack took his chance and shimmied into the building, careful not to cut himself on the glass. Not because he worried about the injury, but an old habit from his con-man days when he was careful not to leave any evidence of his whereabouts.
The room was vast and empty. There was no sign that this once used to be a place for fun. Everything was packed up and moved on, even the floor tiles. Instead, now, there stood an empty building, with only a thick layer of dust for company. It was quite clear to Jack upon entering that the break in had been recent, for there were large streaks in the dust that revealed the cement floor underneath. Jack bent down to examine one of the footprints. They weren't human. They were weevil.
Hastily, Jack groped for the weevil spray in his pocket. Damn! There was none in there. He had always had weevil spray on him. There was
probably some in the SUV, but just as Jack turned to run back and get some he heard a scuffling from the next room.
Immediately un-holstering his gun, Jack stood up slowly and backed against one of the walls. He crept forward to an open door, careful to be silent, and swept into the next room, gun extended.
This room was as big and as dusty as the previous one, except there were several cardboard boxes in the middle of the room. One of them scuffled a few inches. Jack froze. It scuffled again. Keeping a firm grip, he aimed his gun squarely at the box. The box suddenly sprang open and a weevil leapt out, snarling, but instead of lunging for Jack, it turned its back to him. It tilted its head and gave a soft moan, a noise Jack had very rarely heard them make. The weevil started to shuffle forward, towards a door marked 'Private - Manager's Office'. With a splintering of wood, the weevil shouldered its way into the room. Silently, Jack crept towards it.
Inside the room, the weevil was padding around a battered, old-fashioned desk, sniffing the air as though looking for something. It set its sights on an ancient filing cabinet, close to where Jack was standing. He retreated a little, but the weevil was completely ignoring him. Now that was odd. Weevils never ignored fresh meat. It thumped its clawed hand on the filing cabinet, dust spiralling into the air. It grabbed the cabinet and shook it violently form side to side. It fell to the floor with a crash; the weevil jumped back.
Jack had seen enough. He fired three rapid shots into the weevil's body; it turned around snarled and lunged forward, before Jack fired another three shots at it. It slumped to the floor.
Reaching inside his coat pocket, Jack extracted some of Torchwood's specially reinforced ties that they used for restraining weevils and looped it around the beast's arms and legs. It was now immobile, even if it came round.
Putting his gun back into his holster, Jack stepped over the weevil to the fallen cabinet. The impact had forced the drawers open, and Jack was now curious as to what could make the weevil behave like that. He had only seen similar behaviour when Owen had died (the first time) and he had exerted some weird power over them.
Brushing aside several yellowing pieces of paper that had fallen out, Jack searched through the drawers. To his frustration, he found that there was nothing out of the ordinary, bar a forgotten hip flask, disappointingly empty, and a ping-pong ball. Jack picked the ball up to find that, curiously, it wasn't plastic; it was metal. He brushed the dirt and grime off it with his thumbs; underneath it all was a dull gold coloured sphere. He rolled it over in his fingers and held it up to eye line. Hundreds of tiny symbols embellished the edges. He leaned closer; they were all glistening. He was pretty much certain that they were the same hieroglyphics he had seen earlier. It had to be the artefact he was looking for.
"Ianto?" he said, tapping his ear comms.
"Jack?" Ianto's voice crackled in his ear. "Have you got it?"
"Oh yeah. Not without a fight, though," Jack said. "And how come there's no weevil spray in my coat?"
"You ran into a weevil?" Ianto said.
"Yeah, defenceless," Jack said. Ianto snorted as though he highly doubted that. "You got yours?"
"Yup, found it, un-archived, I might add," Ianto said.
"You're complaining about lack of paperwork when I had to go up against a weevil?" Jack asked, half incredulous, half amused. "And, also,
how come you never told me what a dump this place was?"
"Is it my fault if you don't do your homework?"
"I'm the boss, I delegate, it's why I hired you," Jack said. "Speaking of which, any leads on the fourth artefact?"
"No," Ianto said.
"Right, I think you need to find a way contact the Vlexia, ask for more time?"
"However," Ianto cut across him, clearly not listening to what Jack had just said. "I did find something rather interesting on my artefact."
"Which is?"
"A map.""Yeah?" Jack said, pulling his PDA from his coat pocket and scanning the hieroglyphics. A location suddenly bleeped on Jack's screen.
"But that’s about fifteen minutes from here!" Jack said, half disbelieving half excited. "Is that what yours is?"
"Oh, yes," Ianto replied.
"Meet me there in half an hour."
*
Damn!
That idiot PC had touched the artefact, and now had disappeared. He cursed under his breath and shifted in the bushes. He watched as the woman, Cooper, aimed her gun squarely at the smouldering crater. He leaned closer.
Was the artefact still there? Or had it taken the PC with it?
By the weak light of the early sun on the horizon, he could see the glint of gold in the mound.
It was still there.
He puffed the air out of his cheeks in relief. His plan could still work. He just needed to be closer, that was all.
Much closer.
*
Ianto cast a glance over the cliff edge; he could see the iron-grey sea crashing against jagged rocks and white foam spitting up the cliff. The sky was heavily lined with clouds, Ianto could barely make out where the sea ended and sky began. The grass rippled across the cliff in the breeze.
Checking his watch, Ianto rolled his eyes; Jack was late, again. Ianto was currently clutching the sword, praying to God that no one would see him. At last he heard the familiar sound of the SUV, whose engine only roared like that when Jack drove, and turned to see it bounding over the sand dunes and skidding to a halt a few metres away from where Ianto was standing, sending sand, soil and grass into a arc in the air. Ianto refused to flinch or look even mildly impressed.
"You're late," he said calmly as Jack jumped out of the car. Jack just grinned broadly at him, slamming the car door shut and moving round to the boot. Ianto moved to help him.
"Cool!" Jack said, realising that Ianto was holding a sword. He'd given it a quick clean since finding it, and now it gleamed and sparkled. Ianto passed it to Jack for inspection, but instead he started to wave it about in a dramatic fashion.
"Learnt to sword fight back when I was stuck on Ghija 4 for a month," Jack said, slicing it through the air. Ianto rolled his eyes.
"I thought we weren't supposed to take strange alien things out of the Hub," he pointed out.
"Just this once," Jack said, walking back over to Ianto and the SUV. He placed the sword in the boot and removed a blanket with the air of a magician pulling a cloth away to reveal a spectacular trick. Ianto leaned in. Jack screwed up the blanket and tossed it unceremoniously to one side.
"It's a ball?" Ianto said, picking up the blanket, shaking it out and folding it neatly.
"No gold star for you today," Jack said.
"Damn, just one more and I'd have enough for a whole galaxy."
Jack chuckled, picking up the artefact.
"What is it, then?" Ianto asked.
"No idea," Jack said. "But it does exert some weird power over weevils, y’know, like when Owen died."
"Maybe it's like one of those dog whistles that only they can hear, but for weevils," Ianto suggested, taking the ball from Jack and inspecting it from every angle.
"Have you heard from Gwen yet?" Jack asked.
"She sent me a text saying she had got our message and was heading to Caerphilly."
"When was this?"
"Er -" Ianto flipped his phone open and scrolled through his messages. "About an hour ago."
"I'll call her, tell her what we've found, tell her to meet us here," Jack said extracting his own phone from his coat pocket. "Damn, no signal."
"Try, that way -" Ianto said nodding towards the road, "I got some there earlier." Jack strode off in the direction he indicated. Ianto peered
closer to the ball. It was the same gold colour as the sword, but a little duller. Ianto suspected that with a clean it would be sparkling again. The hieroglyphics on the ball, however, were gleaming. He placed it carefully back in the boot, closed it, and sat in the SUV, relishing the warmth. He used his PDA to do some quick research of the history of the cliff.
"No answer, I left a message," Jack said as he slid into the driver's seat. "Are you looking at porn again? You know you're supposed to call me when you do that."
"I'm researching, y'know, like I'm trained to do," Ianto said firmly, and after a pause carried on. "Listen to this..." he cleared his throat and read from the screen. "According to a rare Celtic myth, these cliffs are believed to be the home of an ancient temple which was the home of four beautiful and rare gifts that the Gods had given the people that resides there. There was only one condition: no one was allowed to touch, carry or transport the gifts away from their rightful place in the temple. However, one day, a cocky young hunter boasted to his friends that the Gods had spoken to him and singled him out to take the gifts and keep them in his house. His friends, awed, watched as he successfully managed to remove three of the gifts. However, on returning for the fourth, the Gods were so angered at his arrogance that as punishment for his sins, they caused a landslide which buried the entire village, including the temple, and trapped all the villagers. It was rumoured that there was a secret entrance to this buried temple that the Gods left as a reminder to the people."
Ianto finished reading and looked up at Jack. "What d'you reckon?"
"Dunno, have you ever heard that myth before?"
"Not this particular one," Ianto said. "I don't know about Gods, but I've done a quick search through our digital archives, and found three separate witness reports that say they saw a hidden entrance in these cliffs."
"Have Torchwood investigated before?"
"Not likely. One witness was a tramp and the other two were drunk. The police didn't take them seriously, and neither did we."
"No time like the present," Jack said giving Ianto a broad grin before getting out of the car.
"Hang on," Ianto said, slamming his door shut and calling after Jack. "Shouldn't we be looking for the fourth artefact, not tomb raiding?"
"First, it's temple raiding, and second, both the artefacts point to here, and it's not like we've got any other leads. We need to find four artefacts and the legend spoke of four gifts, so..." Jack trailed off and strode off studying the ground.
"We've only got three hours until nine, when the Vlexia want their artefacts back," Ianto called after him.
"If we haven't found anything in an hour we'll turn back," Jack called back, tapping some random rocks experimentally with his boot. Ianto removed his coat and opened the boot of the SUV. He pulled out the sword, the ball, a length of rope and a torch. Jack stared at him as he walked over; Ianto passed the sword to him and put the ball in his own waistcoat pocket.
"If we're going tomb raiding, I'm not going without supplies," he said.
"Temple," Jack corrected, slotting the sword through his belt so he wouldn't have to carry it.
"Found the entrance?"
"Not yet," Jack said. Ianto could tell he was excited, he knew Jack loved discovering new things and exploring new places. Ianto sometimes wondered why Jack had continued to stay in Cardiff for so long.
"I think this is hollow," Jack said placing his ear to the boulder whilst tapping it and giving Ianto a nice view of his arse in the process. Ianto did the more sensible thing and scanned the structure with his PDA.
"There's at least a fifty foot cylindrical hollow area underneath with a two foot diameter."
"A tunnel?" Jack said, sitting up.
"A narrow tunnel," Ianto told him. Jack ignored him and started to pull the rock to one side. Ianto bent down to help him.
"If we have to put this much effort into revealing the entrance," Ianto said in a strained voice as the two of them continued to heave the stone away from the entrance, "how come these witnesses just happened to stumble across this tunnel then?" Jack merely grunted, but Ianto couldn't tell whether it was in reply or from the effort of moving the rock. With one final heave, and both of them using their full body weight, they managed to push the stone out of the way. Ianto fell in a very undignified manner onto all fours, whilst Jack landed on his arse. Pushing himself up into a kneeling position, Ianto shone the light into the tunnel. All that was exposed was a few foot holes carved in the crumbling brickwork.
"Come on then, let’s go temple raiding, Indi-Ianto Jones." Ianto rolled his eyes and watched as Jack placed the torch between his teeth and began to lower himself down the tunnel. Ianto waited for Jack to get a few feet down before he, too, with the rope looped over his shoulder, began his descent into the darkness.
*
"It's okay, Fred, wasn't it?" Gwen asked the chalk white officer in front of her. He nodded, open mouthed, staring at the spot where Andy had disappeared.
"One minute he was, and then -" he said quietly, gesturing aimlessly. "I don't understand."
"We'll get him back," Gwen said firmly, looking straight at him. "It's what we do, we deal with this sort of thing all the time, we'll get him back."
She continued to look at him until Fred nodded. "What you need to do is cordon this whole area off, no-one but me, not even a sheep gets in, yeah?"
"Right," said Fred casting one last glance behind Gwen to the mound of smouldering earth before turning and trudging back to the police car. She watched him go, and waited for him to disappear from sight before extracting her scanner from her coat pocket.
She searched for rift activity, but the graph only signalled residual energy from when the artefact came through this morning. Hastily, she then performed a scan for temporal disturbance and radiation. To her frustration, she got negative results for both.
"What's going on?" A voice rang across the field. Startled, Gwen span around. The farmer, Jim Brently, was striding towards her.
"Mr Brently!" She said, quickly walking towards him, hands held up. "There's been a bit of an accident, can you -"
"Accident?" Mr Brently said, narrowing his eyes in an almost comical fashion. "What sort of accident? If anything's happened to my crops or my -"
"Your land is fine," she told him, slightly breathless. "I just need you to -"
"It better be fine, I'm telling you, I ain't happy," he cut across. They were now standing within a few feet of each other.
"I understand that -" Gwen said, ignoring the anxious knot inside her stomach. All she really wanted to do was phone Jack, get him down here so that together they could sort this mess out and get Andy back. But first, she had to reassure this man. "But, if you would just listen to me - I'm having this whole field cordoned off, so you need to leave so you don't contaminate the crime scene."
"Crime scene?" he bristled. "And I don't trust you on my land, you haven't even told me what you're doing here."
"Special branch," Gwen said patiently. "Look, I'm leaving too." She walked up to Brently and motioned that they should both leave. Brently gave the crater behind her a suspicious glance before following Gwen's lead and leaving the field.
"Go over and talk to PC Gilbert," Gwen said, pointing towards the police car. She knew that probably wouldn't do much good, but it would keep him out of her hair for a moment. Brently looked at the other car, Gwen's, taking in every metallic curve before marching off towards the police car. Gwen slid into her car, watching as Brently entered the police car, and looked at her phone. She had a message. It was from Jack telling her to meet him and Ianto at a place she'd never heard of. Gwen snapped her phone shut, shaking her head; she needed to be here. Intergalactic diplomatic incident or not - Andy was her friend - she owed it him. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to piece together what had happened.
Strange alien artefact fell through the rift ... Andy touched it ... and disappeared.
Was he vaporised, dead? Or had been transported? And if so, where to?.
*
A chill swept through him; every fibre in his body shivered. He opened his eyes; there was nothing but nothing but nothing. The darkness was all-consuming. Somewhere in the distance he thought he could hear the sound of trickling water and slow, steady dripping. His heart was hammering against his chest; blood rushed past his ears, air forced its way into his lungs in short sharp bursts.
He scrambled upright, his vision swimming, eyes streaming. He stumbled backwards, landing on a solid wall. His fingers scrabbled against it. It felt like rocks. Large, smooth, cold rocks. That could only mean one thing, Andy thought, gulping. He was in a cave. In a cold, dark, secret cave, somewhere. A sickening wave of panic rose in his chest. He didn't know where he was.
And neither did anyone else.
*
Jack shone the torch down the tunnel with his free hand. There was about a three-foot drop. Pushing himself backwards with his boots, and letting go of the wall, he jumped down with a splash.
"You can jump the last bit," he called up to Ianto, who was still clambering down. "It's not that far." Ianto eyed up the distance between his feet and floor and he too jumped down.
"Erugh," Ianto said. "It's damp, and God knows what's been down here, or died down here."
Bleep Bleep
"What was that?"
"My PDA," Ianto said pulling it out. "Oh great."
"What?" Jack asked, shinning the light onto the PDA.
"It's picking up similar energy patterns from the ones on our artefacts," Ianto told him.
"Where?"
"Somewhere east of here," Ianto said.
"So that means that our final artefact is down here somewhere?" Jack said, glad, for once, that he was right.
"Apparently so," Ianto said resignedly.
"Well, east is that way," Jack said, pointing at a solid wall, "and the only way forward is this way." He shone the light down a westward facing passageway.
"Maybe it leads round," Ianto suggested.
"Maybe, c'mon," Jack said, leading the way into the passage. It was carved entirely out of earth, soil completely surrounding them.
A few pieces of loose earth rained down on them. Jack could hear a low rumbling. Grabbing Ianto's hand, he hauled him forward, the two of them tripping as he did so. They skidded down the passageway, just in time as the ceiling gave way. They collapsed against a concrete wall and looked back as soil continued to pile up in a heap, blocking the exit. Jack shuddered at just the thought of all that soil in his lungs and his mouth and his nose and...
"You all right?" Ianto asked him, giving Jack's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Yeah," Jack said breathlessly, squeezing Ianto's hand back. He was glad Ianto was there with him.
"I'm fine. Let's keep moving." Jack pushed himself off the wall and walked onwards, trying to push all thoughts of live burials out of his mind.
"Told you it was a good idea to phone Gwen," Ianto said. He had insisted, halfway down their climb, that they should let Gwen know where
they were. Ianto told her that if they weren't back at the Hub by 6 pm to call the emergency services. It had been no mean feat for him,
managing work his phone and get signal whilst clinging to a tiny ledge with one hand.
"This section's all brickwork," Ianto said, keeping one hand on Jack's shoulder. Jack wasn't sure whether it was for Ianto's benefit or for his. But judging by the false levity in his voice, it was probably a bit of both.
"Which means someone has built this," Jack said, "in a cliff?"
"We're a hundred feet down," Ianto said.
"So?"
"We aren't in the cliff, we're under it," Ianto said. His PDA was still bleeping at regular intervals. It was the only sound bar their footsteps on the ground.
After about ten minutes walking, they came to a crossroad. Jack shone his torch down each passage.
"Where d'you reckon they all lead?" Ianto asked, examining his PDA.
"More importantly, how come there are no records bar a dodgy myth of this place? It's huge - how can it go unnoticed?"
"The scanner indicates that the artefact is that way," Ianto said, pointing down the right passage. Down this passage there was more room, allowing them to walk side by side. Not for the first time, Jack found himself glad that Ianto wasn't much of talker, it meant he could concentrate on listening out for the tell tale rumbling that indicated a cave in.
They must have walked on for a least half a mile, both of them noticing how the passage sloped downwards. Even though he was silent, Jack could practically feel the tension coming off Ianto. He wondered whether he should lighten the mood by telling Ianto one of his more amusing stories, but Ianto wasn't particularly impressed by those at the best of times.
"God, I'm hungry," Ianto said after another half a mile. "I should have had breakfast first."
Jack was hungry, too, and he found his mind frequently wandering to bacon, eggs and fried bread.
"What's that?" Ianto said, stopping suddenly. Jack flashed his light in front of them. There was nothing but a brick wall.
"A dead end?" Ianto said, "You've dragged me all this way for a dead end?"
"Hey!" Jack said. "You're the one giving directions, maybe you're reading the map wrong!"
Ianto huffed out an exasperated sigh. "Well either way look at it, we're trapped underground, we've no idea where we are, no-one's coming for us for at least another..." he glanced at his watch, "eleven and a half hours, and I haven't eaten in nearly as long!"
Jack opened his mouth to retaliate when there was a great rumbling noise. The brick wall in front of them started shaking. Jack felt Ianto
grip his forearm tightly as the two of them backed away.
The walls around them continued to shake, but the bricks in front seemed to be slipping down into the earth. In a matter of moments it had
sunk completely, leaving a gaping black hole in front of them. They glanced at each other, puzzled, and peered into the gloom. Jack's torchlight illuminated a sloping bank. They stepped forward. Jack felt his jaw drop as he looked up. They were standing in a gigantic cave, stalagmites higher than either of them reaching up into the darkness. Half of the cave was submerged in water, and Jack could see ripple marks on the walls and ceiling.
"Sweet," Jack said, letting out a low whistle.
"That's one word for it," Ianto muttered. "Don't you think this is all a bit..." Jack flashed his torch in his direction, aiming it squarely on his tie, which as ever, was perfectly straight.
"A bit what?" Jack prompted.
"Well, the wall that disappears into the ground, the boulder that is a hidden entrance. Isn't it all a bit Lara Croft?"
"Too much time playing video games in your teenage years, Ianto?" Jack teased.
"How many caves d'you know with sliding brick wall entrances?" Ianto shot back.
"Fair point," Jack said. "Although you gotta admit, that was pretty awesome." Ianto fixed him with his 'do I really have to put up with you' stare for a few moments before conceding and nodding in agreement.
"Where from here then, Indi-Ianto?" Jack asked.
"If you call me that me one time..." Ianto said, checking his PDA. Jack just grinned. "About a kilometre that way." He pointed at a solid rock face. The water reflected on it, rippling across the base.
"Y'know, in my experience caves like this are normally connected by a system of water ways," Jack said striding over to the edge of the bank. The black water lapped around his boots.
"You're not serious?" Ianto said joining his side.
"What other way is there?" Jack pointed out. "Here's what we're going to do, I'm going to swim down, find a passage, swim through it, grab the artefact and swim back."
"No," Ianto said firmly.
"What?"
"Too dangerous."
"I can't die," Jack said forcefully.
"And I don't care," Ianto said with equal force, "anything could happen, another cave in, you could be trapped, and the artefact is at least a
kilometre away, you don't know what's on the other side, you need back up."
"What do you suggest we do, then?"
"We have a rope," Ianto said indicating the thin rope looped over his shoulder. "One of us goes first, the other stays here and holds the end of the rope whilst the other finds a route through."
"I'm going first," Jack said firmly. They glared at each other for a moment, both of them knowing the other wasn't going to back down. Ianto spoke first.
"Ok, tug on the rope three times if you're in trouble and you need my help, five times once you've gotten through."
Jack nodded, knowing he would never tug three times. He wasn't going to put Ianto in danger because of him. Bracing himself, Jack waded into the water, holding the torch in one hand and rope in the other. He looped it around his waist, knotting it securely. The water was freezing. It seared against his skin, and goose bumps erupted all over his arms. He tried not to shiver. Once he was waist deep, his coat billowing under the water, he cast one last glance over his shoulder at Ianto before flinging himself under.
Every nerve in Jack's body screamed at the piercing coldness. Jack propelled himself forward a few strokes, flashing the light (all Torchwood torches were waterproof as standard) over the rock worn smooth by the constant presence of water. He spotted an opening. It looked wide enough for Jack to swim through. He swam over as efficiently as he could considering he was carrying a torch and had an alien sword stuck in his belt loops. The passage looked long and was littered with small boulders. He entered it, aware of the rope that was becoming slacker with each stroke he moved away from Ianto.
Jack was also acutely aware of how much longer he could survive without oxygen. Sure, he'd drowned before, and it wouldn't really matter if he did, but knowing Ianto, he would come after Jack, and that’s not what he wanted at all. Luckily for him, the ceiling suddenly and sharply pulled upwards. He pushed himself to the surface and gulped in lungfuls of air. He was in another cave. Quickly ducking under again, he could see that the passage continued. He didn't know how near he was to the artefact at all; Ianto had the PDA. Jack sharply pulled on the rope five times, and few moments later, he received five pulls back. Ianto must have got the message. Jack knew all too well from experience that getting out of the water and then getting back in would feel worse, it was better to just stay in. He remained there, treading the water, listening to a steady dripping noise echo around the cavernous room, waiting for Ianto.
The minutes dragged by, Jack was sure it hadn't taken him this long to swim that far ... Finally, the rippled figure of Ianto appeared under of the water and came crashing through the surface, spluttering as he did so.
"About time," Jack said as Ianto ran his hands over his face.
"Shut up!" Ianto said. "It's freezing."
"So the sooner we get moving the better - which way's the artefact?" Jack asked, gathering up the rope that was floating around them. Ianto extracted his PDA from his coat pocket.
"Good job Torchwood issue PDAs are waterproof," Ianto said, tapping a few buttons. "It's that way." He pointed at the bank.
"Thank God," Jack said they moved towards it and he hauled himself up out of the water. Everything seemed colder now he was out. The air burnt at his skin and his teeth couldn't stop clattering together.
"This better be worth it," Ianto stammered from his side. Jack shone his torch over him, his suit and coat were dripping wet and his hair was plastered to his face. His lips were a faint shade of blue.
Jack pulled him close and ignoring his weak protests, un-tucked his shirt and slid his hands over Ianto's slippery back, moving in circular motions, trying to generate some heat. He felt Ianto's hands and arms spread against his back as well. They pressed themselves to each other, trying to share some body heat, Ianto's breath wonderfully hot on his neck. After a few moments, Jack realised his teeth were no longer chattering. They broke apart. Ianto wasn't shivering any more.
"If I get pneumonia I am going to blame you," Ianto said. Jack allowed a small laugh to escape his lips.
"Noted," Jack replied. He flashed his torch over their new surroundings. They were standing on a raised platform, looking down onto...
Jack's jaw dropped.
Huge carved pillars below them supported a crumbling, yet ornate, stone roof. A set of large steps swept up to the grand archway entrance, and a dilapidated fountain stood proudly, yet forgotten, in front of the building.
"The legend spoke of a temple," Ianto said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Yeah, but, it can't be real, can it?"
"Looks pretty real to me," Ianto said. Jack, for once, silently agreed.
*
He watched as she worked. The lone figure in the field, running her standard issue scanner over the crater. He watched her pull off her short leather jacket and wrap it around the statue. She was a smart girl; he had to give her that, if you counted not touching the 'strange alien thing' as smart. Not like that idiot PC. Nearly ruined all of his plans. But luckily for George McGovern, he was born a quick thinker.
He shifted in the bushes, he was after all getting on a bit these days, but not generating enough movement to arouse Cooper's suspicions. He wasn't daft enough to underestimate his enemy. He snorted to himself - perhaps enemy wasn't the right word. After all, they were working together, even if they didn't realise it. A sudden pang hit his chest - what if Harkness and Jones had figured it out? After all, Harkness was the leader, he couldn't be completely stupid; and Jones... from what he remembered of him, he was a bright lad. It was a shame, really.
Cooper held the coat-covered statue at arm's length as she walked back across the field, towards her car. McGovern watched her. This
wouldn't do, this wouldn't do at all. She was probably taking it back to that base of theirs, to be locked up and forgotten about. He wasn't going to let that happen. He fought his way out of the hedgerow, trying not to cut himself, and scurried over to the stile, ahead of Cooper. He could hear her footsteps - her boots on the wood, now, he had to act now.
"Oi!" he yelled.
"Oh, God!" Cooper jumped, spinning around, clutching the artefact in her grubby hands.
"You caught the lads who done it yet?"
"Mr Brently," she breathed, giving him a false reassuring smile. Mr Brently. The disguise had worked well - he could observe Cooper, what was going on, and no one suspected a thing. She had never met the real Mr Brently. He was currently gagged and bound in his own barn along with his wife. But by the time anyone found them he would be long gone.
"What's going on?"
"Didn't you speak to Fred Gilbert?" she said, pulling her coat tightly around the artefact, placing it on the back seat of her car and slamming the door shut. She was trying to palm him off. Again.
"Yeah," he growled. "He knows nothing." This was true. He had actually been glad when Cooper sent him to the police officer first, it allowed him to assess how much he knew and whether he'd be a threat.
"So are you gonna tell me what's going on?"
"Well -" Gwen began, but a ringing in her pocket distracted her. She signalled for him to wait. Snapping open her phone, she walked away from him. This was his moment.
Keeping one eye on Cooper, who was holding her hands up in an expression of disbelief, he quietly opened the back door of her car. He reached in and pulled out the statue. It was surprisingly heavy. With his free hand he also took Cooper's PDA. It was bound to come in useful. Not bothering to shut the door, he started to walk towards the four by four he'd borrowed off of the real Jim Brently. Instinct and the adrenaline pounding in his veins were telling him to run, but he forced himself to take measured, normal steps, keeping his back to Cooper and cradling the statue.
After what seemed an eternity, McGovern reached the land rover and slid into the driver's seat. He securely fastened the statue into the passenger's seat and started the ignition. As he pulled away, a triumphant feeling starting to glow in his chest, he checked the wing mirror. Cooper was standing in the road, a look of slight shock and horror on her face, growing smaller and fainter and less significant as he charged away, the first steps of his mission complete.
*
Ianto's PDA was bleeping rapidly now. He and Jack were ascending the steps to the temple, Ianto carefully stepping where he perceived the ancient stonework to be strongest. His mind was reeling; there was an ancient temple under Cardiff and no one knew it was here.
"Just think, Ianto," Jack said excitedly. "We must be the first people here in centuries." He clearly loved this, the thrill of discovering something new. Ianto suspected he himself would have been more excited if it were not for the fact that he was cold, wet, and that he was so hungry he was considering eating his own tie.
"Straight on," Ianto said as reached the top of the steps. That meant going into the temple. The entrance was a massive stone archway with rusty hinges on the side indicating where huge doors must have once resided. Silently, they stepped over the threshold, scanning for any sign of anything undesired. The chill intensified as they entered. The cold crept deep into Ianto's body, spreading through his bones. Ianto craned his neck to look up at the ceiling, where cobwebs hung and moss grew between the bricks.
Jack flashed the torch around; Ianto could a set of rickety steps, a pile of stones beneath a gaping hole in the wall and series of archways in front of them.
"Which way?" Jack asked, shining the light into each archway. Ianto held up the scanner and walked the length of the entrances, trying to detect where the trace was strongest. Eventually the scanner decided on the archway farthest left. As they entered, Jack flashed his light across the stone above it.
"Do that again!" Ianto said, staring at the point that was now submerged in darkness.
"Do what again?" Jack asked.
"Shine the light across the arch," Ianto said, pointing at where he was looking. Jack did so.
"That's not -" Ianto started, turning to look at him.
"-Human?" Jack finished. "You're right, it isn't." They were staring at a set of inscriptions above the archway. Ianto knew about languages. After failing French at school, he had taught himself to be reasonably capable in the most common languages. During his time at Torchwood London, trying to piece together what had happened in Greece 2000 years ago, he had picked up a little Latin and ancient Greek. This was not either of those things. He had also spent enough time in the archives, filing, retrieving and sorting, to understand when he saw an alien language. This was it.
It was a series of exquisitely carved wavy lines and intricate dots, far too neatly formed for any human civilisation to have carved a thousand years ago.
"This is an alien temple," Ianto said, holding up his PDA to scan to markings. "One which the translation programme doesn't recognise."
"What?"
"Yeah, we've never come across them before."
"So you're telling me that there's an alien civilisation under Cardiff that never made contact with humans above the ground?"
"That's what the scans say," Ianto replied.
"Huh," Jack said. "Let's keep moving." Ianto nodded, indicating that the scanner said straight on. They were walking through a narrow
passageway; the walls were stone, but the floors were dirt.
"How much further?" Jack said.
"About -" But before Ianto could finish the rest of his sentence, a trickle of fine dust started to rain down on their heads. There was a low rumbling noise. Ianto looked up to see the wall beside him shudder violently. Suddenly, the stones were dislodged and hurled down to the ground. Ianto felt the weight of the ancient stones crash into him and pin him to the ground. He thought he could hear someone shout out under the noise, and that was the last thing he heard before everything went black.
*
"Damn!" Gwen swore as the four by four roared down the lane. She turned and sprinted back to her car, jammed her keys in the ignition and slammed down the accelerator. Hedgerows and fields went flying past her as she tried to catch up with Brently. What the hell was he doing, stealing the artefact? She had only turned her back for a second, literally, a second, whilst Ianto phoned her to tell her he and Jack had gone potholing. As if she didn't have enough to worry about - now she didn't have any back up!
Turning a corner sharper than she should have done she caught her first glimpse of Brently, land rover going full pelt over the narrow lane ahead. She sped up, hearing Rhys' voice in her head, moaning about how she was ruining the suspension. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and raced off after him.
The only way Brently was going to stop was if he broke down or ran out of petrol, Gwen thought, bouncing over the uneven roads. She would just have to be there when he did and catch him on foot. The land rover, however, didn't show any signs of breaking down as it turned out onto a main road. Not wanting to lose sight of it, Gwen darted out straight across the traffic, causing several cars to blare their horns at her. Brently was leading her through some industrial estate, warehouses and factory buildings whizzed past her. It occurred to Gwen that Brently was probably not going to lead her to wherever he was taking the artefact, but was trying to shake her off.
Her instincts proved to be correct, as he turned suddenly, back out onto a main road and then up into a residential area; Gwen followed close behind. Brently was accelerating, and despite Gwen's reluctance to do so in an area with kids, she knew she had to keep up with him. Gwen saw him skid a little up ahead, as he turned a corner too quickly and too sharply. She went to accelerate, but slammed down her brakes instead.
A Volvo had just pulled out in front of her; Gwen had narrowly avoided a collision by matter of inches. But there was no time for apologies, Gwen thought as Brently's land rover disappeared from view. She pulled away from the Volvo and its angry driver, swerved around them, and followed the route Brently took. In the distance, up the road, she saw the unmistakable flash of a land rover.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," Gwen muttered under breath, trying to catch up with him. He was now leading her down virtually deserted roads, lined by fields. Gwen drove for what felt like hours, not minutes, trying to catch a glimpse of him. There was no way he could have driven off that quickly. She could not have lost him.
After twenty more minutes of driving, and no sighting, Gwen was starting to think that perhaps his car was faster than hers. If it wasn't for that stupid Volvo! she thought crossly. Maybe she had taken a wrong turning. She pulled into a lay-by, intending to phone the police to tell them she wanted Mr Brently and his vehicle found and given to Torchwood. But as she did so, she spotted something unusual in the far distance, towards the sea. There was a blue car shaped object in the middle of a field, on the horizon. Gwen squinted; she could definitely make out the red of Jim Brently's shirt. She smiled to herself, checking her gun was secure in her waistband. He must have thought he'd lost her.
Not her, not Gwen Cooper.
Not this time.
Part 3
Author:
winter_rose91
Rating: PG-13
Length: 15,000 words
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen, PC Andy
Summary: A strange artefact and an even stranger message leave Team Torchwood tying themselves up in knots trying to solve the mystery. Cue a car chase for Gwen, an oddly acting Weevil for Jack, and a tomb-raider style adventure for Ianto.
Beta: Many thanks to ravenclaw42 for the beta and also to bassair for trying. Hope you feel better soon!
Art: here by mellten
Written for Torchwood Big Bang
Part 1
Part 2
Jack pulled up beside a battered house at the address Ianto had provided. This couldn't be right. He looked down at Ianto's neatly written post-it, checked the postcode in the sat-nav and then looked back up at Jones and Jones Amusements. Jack had chosen the amusement arcade for a reason; they were fun. Or supposed to be, he thought as he looked at the derelict building. He had been hoping for a few thrills whilst finding this artefact. Instead what he got was a run down old building surrounded by a high chain link ringed with barbed wire. Ianto must have known this. A sudden image of Ianto's smug little smile popped into Jack's head. He would have to have words with him later.
Jones and Jones Amusements
Checking his gun, Jack exited the SUV, shutting the door quietly so as to not to alert anyone nearby. He scanned the fence looking for a weak link that would allow him access. He could see that there was a section of fence that had been rolled up; someone had clearly broken in before. Walking over to it, he checked the street one last time. There was nothing but a flickering street light and a smashed up car. He ducked under the fence and took a step across to the door.
Crunch!
He cursed as gravel crunched underneath his boot. Hastily, he looked for an alternate route. He could see a concrete path and, taking the biggest steps possible, crossed over to it. He crept up the path to the door. As he approached, he saw that the doors were automatic, but there was no way they'd work now. He'd have to force them open. But as he drew closer, he could make out shards of glass framing the door pane - someone had already smashed their way through. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing whether this happened twenty years ago or twenty minutes ago, but Jack took his chance and shimmied into the building, careful not to cut himself on the glass. Not because he worried about the injury, but an old habit from his con-man days when he was careful not to leave any evidence of his whereabouts.
The room was vast and empty. There was no sign that this once used to be a place for fun. Everything was packed up and moved on, even the floor tiles. Instead, now, there stood an empty building, with only a thick layer of dust for company. It was quite clear to Jack upon entering that the break in had been recent, for there were large streaks in the dust that revealed the cement floor underneath. Jack bent down to examine one of the footprints. They weren't human. They were weevil.
Hastily, Jack groped for the weevil spray in his pocket. Damn! There was none in there. He had always had weevil spray on him. There was
probably some in the SUV, but just as Jack turned to run back and get some he heard a scuffling from the next room.
Immediately un-holstering his gun, Jack stood up slowly and backed against one of the walls. He crept forward to an open door, careful to be silent, and swept into the next room, gun extended.
This room was as big and as dusty as the previous one, except there were several cardboard boxes in the middle of the room. One of them scuffled a few inches. Jack froze. It scuffled again. Keeping a firm grip, he aimed his gun squarely at the box. The box suddenly sprang open and a weevil leapt out, snarling, but instead of lunging for Jack, it turned its back to him. It tilted its head and gave a soft moan, a noise Jack had very rarely heard them make. The weevil started to shuffle forward, towards a door marked 'Private - Manager's Office'. With a splintering of wood, the weevil shouldered its way into the room. Silently, Jack crept towards it.
Inside the room, the weevil was padding around a battered, old-fashioned desk, sniffing the air as though looking for something. It set its sights on an ancient filing cabinet, close to where Jack was standing. He retreated a little, but the weevil was completely ignoring him. Now that was odd. Weevils never ignored fresh meat. It thumped its clawed hand on the filing cabinet, dust spiralling into the air. It grabbed the cabinet and shook it violently form side to side. It fell to the floor with a crash; the weevil jumped back.
Jack had seen enough. He fired three rapid shots into the weevil's body; it turned around snarled and lunged forward, before Jack fired another three shots at it. It slumped to the floor.
Reaching inside his coat pocket, Jack extracted some of Torchwood's specially reinforced ties that they used for restraining weevils and looped it around the beast's arms and legs. It was now immobile, even if it came round.
Putting his gun back into his holster, Jack stepped over the weevil to the fallen cabinet. The impact had forced the drawers open, and Jack was now curious as to what could make the weevil behave like that. He had only seen similar behaviour when Owen had died (the first time) and he had exerted some weird power over them.
Brushing aside several yellowing pieces of paper that had fallen out, Jack searched through the drawers. To his frustration, he found that there was nothing out of the ordinary, bar a forgotten hip flask, disappointingly empty, and a ping-pong ball. Jack picked the ball up to find that, curiously, it wasn't plastic; it was metal. He brushed the dirt and grime off it with his thumbs; underneath it all was a dull gold coloured sphere. He rolled it over in his fingers and held it up to eye line. Hundreds of tiny symbols embellished the edges. He leaned closer; they were all glistening. He was pretty much certain that they were the same hieroglyphics he had seen earlier. It had to be the artefact he was looking for.
"Ianto?" he said, tapping his ear comms.
"Jack?" Ianto's voice crackled in his ear. "Have you got it?"
"Oh yeah. Not without a fight, though," Jack said. "And how come there's no weevil spray in my coat?"
"You ran into a weevil?" Ianto said.
"Yeah, defenceless," Jack said. Ianto snorted as though he highly doubted that. "You got yours?"
"Yup, found it, un-archived, I might add," Ianto said.
"You're complaining about lack of paperwork when I had to go up against a weevil?" Jack asked, half incredulous, half amused. "And, also,
how come you never told me what a dump this place was?"
"Is it my fault if you don't do your homework?"
"I'm the boss, I delegate, it's why I hired you," Jack said. "Speaking of which, any leads on the fourth artefact?"
"No," Ianto said.
"Right, I think you need to find a way contact the Vlexia, ask for more time?"
"However," Ianto cut across him, clearly not listening to what Jack had just said. "I did find something rather interesting on my artefact."
"Which is?"
"A map.""Yeah?" Jack said, pulling his PDA from his coat pocket and scanning the hieroglyphics. A location suddenly bleeped on Jack's screen.
"But that’s about fifteen minutes from here!" Jack said, half disbelieving half excited. "Is that what yours is?"
"Oh, yes," Ianto replied.
"Meet me there in half an hour."
*
Damn!
That idiot PC had touched the artefact, and now had disappeared. He cursed under his breath and shifted in the bushes. He watched as the woman, Cooper, aimed her gun squarely at the smouldering crater. He leaned closer.
Was the artefact still there? Or had it taken the PC with it?
By the weak light of the early sun on the horizon, he could see the glint of gold in the mound.
It was still there.
He puffed the air out of his cheeks in relief. His plan could still work. He just needed to be closer, that was all.
Much closer.
*
Ianto cast a glance over the cliff edge; he could see the iron-grey sea crashing against jagged rocks and white foam spitting up the cliff. The sky was heavily lined with clouds, Ianto could barely make out where the sea ended and sky began. The grass rippled across the cliff in the breeze.
Checking his watch, Ianto rolled his eyes; Jack was late, again. Ianto was currently clutching the sword, praying to God that no one would see him. At last he heard the familiar sound of the SUV, whose engine only roared like that when Jack drove, and turned to see it bounding over the sand dunes and skidding to a halt a few metres away from where Ianto was standing, sending sand, soil and grass into a arc in the air. Ianto refused to flinch or look even mildly impressed.
"You're late," he said calmly as Jack jumped out of the car. Jack just grinned broadly at him, slamming the car door shut and moving round to the boot. Ianto moved to help him.
"Cool!" Jack said, realising that Ianto was holding a sword. He'd given it a quick clean since finding it, and now it gleamed and sparkled. Ianto passed it to Jack for inspection, but instead he started to wave it about in a dramatic fashion.
"Learnt to sword fight back when I was stuck on Ghija 4 for a month," Jack said, slicing it through the air. Ianto rolled his eyes.
"I thought we weren't supposed to take strange alien things out of the Hub," he pointed out.
"Just this once," Jack said, walking back over to Ianto and the SUV. He placed the sword in the boot and removed a blanket with the air of a magician pulling a cloth away to reveal a spectacular trick. Ianto leaned in. Jack screwed up the blanket and tossed it unceremoniously to one side.
"It's a ball?" Ianto said, picking up the blanket, shaking it out and folding it neatly.
"No gold star for you today," Jack said.
"Damn, just one more and I'd have enough for a whole galaxy."
Jack chuckled, picking up the artefact.
"What is it, then?" Ianto asked.
"No idea," Jack said. "But it does exert some weird power over weevils, y’know, like when Owen died."
"Maybe it's like one of those dog whistles that only they can hear, but for weevils," Ianto suggested, taking the ball from Jack and inspecting it from every angle.
"Have you heard from Gwen yet?" Jack asked.
"She sent me a text saying she had got our message and was heading to Caerphilly."
"When was this?"
"Er -" Ianto flipped his phone open and scrolled through his messages. "About an hour ago."
"I'll call her, tell her what we've found, tell her to meet us here," Jack said extracting his own phone from his coat pocket. "Damn, no signal."
"Try, that way -" Ianto said nodding towards the road, "I got some there earlier." Jack strode off in the direction he indicated. Ianto peered
closer to the ball. It was the same gold colour as the sword, but a little duller. Ianto suspected that with a clean it would be sparkling again. The hieroglyphics on the ball, however, were gleaming. He placed it carefully back in the boot, closed it, and sat in the SUV, relishing the warmth. He used his PDA to do some quick research of the history of the cliff.
"No answer, I left a message," Jack said as he slid into the driver's seat. "Are you looking at porn again? You know you're supposed to call me when you do that."
"I'm researching, y'know, like I'm trained to do," Ianto said firmly, and after a pause carried on. "Listen to this..." he cleared his throat and read from the screen. "According to a rare Celtic myth, these cliffs are believed to be the home of an ancient temple which was the home of four beautiful and rare gifts that the Gods had given the people that resides there. There was only one condition: no one was allowed to touch, carry or transport the gifts away from their rightful place in the temple. However, one day, a cocky young hunter boasted to his friends that the Gods had spoken to him and singled him out to take the gifts and keep them in his house. His friends, awed, watched as he successfully managed to remove three of the gifts. However, on returning for the fourth, the Gods were so angered at his arrogance that as punishment for his sins, they caused a landslide which buried the entire village, including the temple, and trapped all the villagers. It was rumoured that there was a secret entrance to this buried temple that the Gods left as a reminder to the people."
Ianto finished reading and looked up at Jack. "What d'you reckon?"
"Dunno, have you ever heard that myth before?"
"Not this particular one," Ianto said. "I don't know about Gods, but I've done a quick search through our digital archives, and found three separate witness reports that say they saw a hidden entrance in these cliffs."
"Have Torchwood investigated before?"
"Not likely. One witness was a tramp and the other two were drunk. The police didn't take them seriously, and neither did we."
"No time like the present," Jack said giving Ianto a broad grin before getting out of the car.
"Hang on," Ianto said, slamming his door shut and calling after Jack. "Shouldn't we be looking for the fourth artefact, not tomb raiding?"
"First, it's temple raiding, and second, both the artefacts point to here, and it's not like we've got any other leads. We need to find four artefacts and the legend spoke of four gifts, so..." Jack trailed off and strode off studying the ground.
"We've only got three hours until nine, when the Vlexia want their artefacts back," Ianto called after him.
"If we haven't found anything in an hour we'll turn back," Jack called back, tapping some random rocks experimentally with his boot. Ianto removed his coat and opened the boot of the SUV. He pulled out the sword, the ball, a length of rope and a torch. Jack stared at him as he walked over; Ianto passed the sword to him and put the ball in his own waistcoat pocket.
"If we're going tomb raiding, I'm not going without supplies," he said.
"Temple," Jack corrected, slotting the sword through his belt so he wouldn't have to carry it.
"Found the entrance?"
"Not yet," Jack said. Ianto could tell he was excited, he knew Jack loved discovering new things and exploring new places. Ianto sometimes wondered why Jack had continued to stay in Cardiff for so long.
"I think this is hollow," Jack said placing his ear to the boulder whilst tapping it and giving Ianto a nice view of his arse in the process. Ianto did the more sensible thing and scanned the structure with his PDA.
"There's at least a fifty foot cylindrical hollow area underneath with a two foot diameter."
"A tunnel?" Jack said, sitting up.
"A narrow tunnel," Ianto told him. Jack ignored him and started to pull the rock to one side. Ianto bent down to help him.
"If we have to put this much effort into revealing the entrance," Ianto said in a strained voice as the two of them continued to heave the stone away from the entrance, "how come these witnesses just happened to stumble across this tunnel then?" Jack merely grunted, but Ianto couldn't tell whether it was in reply or from the effort of moving the rock. With one final heave, and both of them using their full body weight, they managed to push the stone out of the way. Ianto fell in a very undignified manner onto all fours, whilst Jack landed on his arse. Pushing himself up into a kneeling position, Ianto shone the light into the tunnel. All that was exposed was a few foot holes carved in the crumbling brickwork.
"Come on then, let’s go temple raiding, Indi-Ianto Jones." Ianto rolled his eyes and watched as Jack placed the torch between his teeth and began to lower himself down the tunnel. Ianto waited for Jack to get a few feet down before he, too, with the rope looped over his shoulder, began his descent into the darkness.
*
"It's okay, Fred, wasn't it?" Gwen asked the chalk white officer in front of her. He nodded, open mouthed, staring at the spot where Andy had disappeared.
"One minute he was, and then -" he said quietly, gesturing aimlessly. "I don't understand."
"We'll get him back," Gwen said firmly, looking straight at him. "It's what we do, we deal with this sort of thing all the time, we'll get him back."
She continued to look at him until Fred nodded. "What you need to do is cordon this whole area off, no-one but me, not even a sheep gets in, yeah?"
"Right," said Fred casting one last glance behind Gwen to the mound of smouldering earth before turning and trudging back to the police car. She watched him go, and waited for him to disappear from sight before extracting her scanner from her coat pocket.
She searched for rift activity, but the graph only signalled residual energy from when the artefact came through this morning. Hastily, she then performed a scan for temporal disturbance and radiation. To her frustration, she got negative results for both.
"What's going on?" A voice rang across the field. Startled, Gwen span around. The farmer, Jim Brently, was striding towards her.
"Mr Brently!" She said, quickly walking towards him, hands held up. "There's been a bit of an accident, can you -"
"Accident?" Mr Brently said, narrowing his eyes in an almost comical fashion. "What sort of accident? If anything's happened to my crops or my -"
"Your land is fine," she told him, slightly breathless. "I just need you to -"
"It better be fine, I'm telling you, I ain't happy," he cut across. They were now standing within a few feet of each other.
"I understand that -" Gwen said, ignoring the anxious knot inside her stomach. All she really wanted to do was phone Jack, get him down here so that together they could sort this mess out and get Andy back. But first, she had to reassure this man. "But, if you would just listen to me - I'm having this whole field cordoned off, so you need to leave so you don't contaminate the crime scene."
"Crime scene?" he bristled. "And I don't trust you on my land, you haven't even told me what you're doing here."
"Special branch," Gwen said patiently. "Look, I'm leaving too." She walked up to Brently and motioned that they should both leave. Brently gave the crater behind her a suspicious glance before following Gwen's lead and leaving the field.
"Go over and talk to PC Gilbert," Gwen said, pointing towards the police car. She knew that probably wouldn't do much good, but it would keep him out of her hair for a moment. Brently looked at the other car, Gwen's, taking in every metallic curve before marching off towards the police car. Gwen slid into her car, watching as Brently entered the police car, and looked at her phone. She had a message. It was from Jack telling her to meet him and Ianto at a place she'd never heard of. Gwen snapped her phone shut, shaking her head; she needed to be here. Intergalactic diplomatic incident or not - Andy was her friend - she owed it him. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to piece together what had happened.
Strange alien artefact fell through the rift ... Andy touched it ... and disappeared.
Was he vaporised, dead? Or had been transported? And if so, where to?.
*
A chill swept through him; every fibre in his body shivered. He opened his eyes; there was nothing but nothing but nothing. The darkness was all-consuming. Somewhere in the distance he thought he could hear the sound of trickling water and slow, steady dripping. His heart was hammering against his chest; blood rushed past his ears, air forced its way into his lungs in short sharp bursts.
He scrambled upright, his vision swimming, eyes streaming. He stumbled backwards, landing on a solid wall. His fingers scrabbled against it. It felt like rocks. Large, smooth, cold rocks. That could only mean one thing, Andy thought, gulping. He was in a cave. In a cold, dark, secret cave, somewhere. A sickening wave of panic rose in his chest. He didn't know where he was.
And neither did anyone else.
*
Jack shone the torch down the tunnel with his free hand. There was about a three-foot drop. Pushing himself backwards with his boots, and letting go of the wall, he jumped down with a splash.
"You can jump the last bit," he called up to Ianto, who was still clambering down. "It's not that far." Ianto eyed up the distance between his feet and floor and he too jumped down.
"Erugh," Ianto said. "It's damp, and God knows what's been down here, or died down here."
Bleep Bleep
"What was that?"
"My PDA," Ianto said pulling it out. "Oh great."
"What?" Jack asked, shinning the light onto the PDA.
"It's picking up similar energy patterns from the ones on our artefacts," Ianto told him.
"Where?"
"Somewhere east of here," Ianto said.
"So that means that our final artefact is down here somewhere?" Jack said, glad, for once, that he was right.
"Apparently so," Ianto said resignedly.
"Well, east is that way," Jack said, pointing at a solid wall, "and the only way forward is this way." He shone the light down a westward facing passageway.
"Maybe it leads round," Ianto suggested.
"Maybe, c'mon," Jack said, leading the way into the passage. It was carved entirely out of earth, soil completely surrounding them.
A few pieces of loose earth rained down on them. Jack could hear a low rumbling. Grabbing Ianto's hand, he hauled him forward, the two of them tripping as he did so. They skidded down the passageway, just in time as the ceiling gave way. They collapsed against a concrete wall and looked back as soil continued to pile up in a heap, blocking the exit. Jack shuddered at just the thought of all that soil in his lungs and his mouth and his nose and...
"You all right?" Ianto asked him, giving Jack's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Yeah," Jack said breathlessly, squeezing Ianto's hand back. He was glad Ianto was there with him.
"I'm fine. Let's keep moving." Jack pushed himself off the wall and walked onwards, trying to push all thoughts of live burials out of his mind.
"Told you it was a good idea to phone Gwen," Ianto said. He had insisted, halfway down their climb, that they should let Gwen know where
they were. Ianto told her that if they weren't back at the Hub by 6 pm to call the emergency services. It had been no mean feat for him,
managing work his phone and get signal whilst clinging to a tiny ledge with one hand.
"This section's all brickwork," Ianto said, keeping one hand on Jack's shoulder. Jack wasn't sure whether it was for Ianto's benefit or for his. But judging by the false levity in his voice, it was probably a bit of both.
"Which means someone has built this," Jack said, "in a cliff?"
"We're a hundred feet down," Ianto said.
"So?"
"We aren't in the cliff, we're under it," Ianto said. His PDA was still bleeping at regular intervals. It was the only sound bar their footsteps on the ground.
After about ten minutes walking, they came to a crossroad. Jack shone his torch down each passage.
"Where d'you reckon they all lead?" Ianto asked, examining his PDA.
"More importantly, how come there are no records bar a dodgy myth of this place? It's huge - how can it go unnoticed?"
"The scanner indicates that the artefact is that way," Ianto said, pointing down the right passage. Down this passage there was more room, allowing them to walk side by side. Not for the first time, Jack found himself glad that Ianto wasn't much of talker, it meant he could concentrate on listening out for the tell tale rumbling that indicated a cave in.
They must have walked on for a least half a mile, both of them noticing how the passage sloped downwards. Even though he was silent, Jack could practically feel the tension coming off Ianto. He wondered whether he should lighten the mood by telling Ianto one of his more amusing stories, but Ianto wasn't particularly impressed by those at the best of times.
"God, I'm hungry," Ianto said after another half a mile. "I should have had breakfast first."
Jack was hungry, too, and he found his mind frequently wandering to bacon, eggs and fried bread.
"What's that?" Ianto said, stopping suddenly. Jack flashed his light in front of them. There was nothing but a brick wall.
"A dead end?" Ianto said, "You've dragged me all this way for a dead end?"
"Hey!" Jack said. "You're the one giving directions, maybe you're reading the map wrong!"
Ianto huffed out an exasperated sigh. "Well either way look at it, we're trapped underground, we've no idea where we are, no-one's coming for us for at least another..." he glanced at his watch, "eleven and a half hours, and I haven't eaten in nearly as long!"
Jack opened his mouth to retaliate when there was a great rumbling noise. The brick wall in front of them started shaking. Jack felt Ianto
grip his forearm tightly as the two of them backed away.
The walls around them continued to shake, but the bricks in front seemed to be slipping down into the earth. In a matter of moments it had
sunk completely, leaving a gaping black hole in front of them. They glanced at each other, puzzled, and peered into the gloom. Jack's torchlight illuminated a sloping bank. They stepped forward. Jack felt his jaw drop as he looked up. They were standing in a gigantic cave, stalagmites higher than either of them reaching up into the darkness. Half of the cave was submerged in water, and Jack could see ripple marks on the walls and ceiling.
"Sweet," Jack said, letting out a low whistle.
"That's one word for it," Ianto muttered. "Don't you think this is all a bit..." Jack flashed his torch in his direction, aiming it squarely on his tie, which as ever, was perfectly straight.
"A bit what?" Jack prompted.
"Well, the wall that disappears into the ground, the boulder that is a hidden entrance. Isn't it all a bit Lara Croft?"
"Too much time playing video games in your teenage years, Ianto?" Jack teased.
"How many caves d'you know with sliding brick wall entrances?" Ianto shot back.
"Fair point," Jack said. "Although you gotta admit, that was pretty awesome." Ianto fixed him with his 'do I really have to put up with you' stare for a few moments before conceding and nodding in agreement.
"Where from here then, Indi-Ianto?" Jack asked.
"If you call me that me one time..." Ianto said, checking his PDA. Jack just grinned. "About a kilometre that way." He pointed at a solid rock face. The water reflected on it, rippling across the base.
"Y'know, in my experience caves like this are normally connected by a system of water ways," Jack said striding over to the edge of the bank. The black water lapped around his boots.
"You're not serious?" Ianto said joining his side.
"What other way is there?" Jack pointed out. "Here's what we're going to do, I'm going to swim down, find a passage, swim through it, grab the artefact and swim back."
"No," Ianto said firmly.
"What?"
"Too dangerous."
"I can't die," Jack said forcefully.
"And I don't care," Ianto said with equal force, "anything could happen, another cave in, you could be trapped, and the artefact is at least a
kilometre away, you don't know what's on the other side, you need back up."
"What do you suggest we do, then?"
"We have a rope," Ianto said indicating the thin rope looped over his shoulder. "One of us goes first, the other stays here and holds the end of the rope whilst the other finds a route through."
"I'm going first," Jack said firmly. They glared at each other for a moment, both of them knowing the other wasn't going to back down. Ianto spoke first.
"Ok, tug on the rope three times if you're in trouble and you need my help, five times once you've gotten through."
Jack nodded, knowing he would never tug three times. He wasn't going to put Ianto in danger because of him. Bracing himself, Jack waded into the water, holding the torch in one hand and rope in the other. He looped it around his waist, knotting it securely. The water was freezing. It seared against his skin, and goose bumps erupted all over his arms. He tried not to shiver. Once he was waist deep, his coat billowing under the water, he cast one last glance over his shoulder at Ianto before flinging himself under.
Every nerve in Jack's body screamed at the piercing coldness. Jack propelled himself forward a few strokes, flashing the light (all Torchwood torches were waterproof as standard) over the rock worn smooth by the constant presence of water. He spotted an opening. It looked wide enough for Jack to swim through. He swam over as efficiently as he could considering he was carrying a torch and had an alien sword stuck in his belt loops. The passage looked long and was littered with small boulders. He entered it, aware of the rope that was becoming slacker with each stroke he moved away from Ianto.
Jack was also acutely aware of how much longer he could survive without oxygen. Sure, he'd drowned before, and it wouldn't really matter if he did, but knowing Ianto, he would come after Jack, and that’s not what he wanted at all. Luckily for him, the ceiling suddenly and sharply pulled upwards. He pushed himself to the surface and gulped in lungfuls of air. He was in another cave. Quickly ducking under again, he could see that the passage continued. He didn't know how near he was to the artefact at all; Ianto had the PDA. Jack sharply pulled on the rope five times, and few moments later, he received five pulls back. Ianto must have got the message. Jack knew all too well from experience that getting out of the water and then getting back in would feel worse, it was better to just stay in. He remained there, treading the water, listening to a steady dripping noise echo around the cavernous room, waiting for Ianto.
The minutes dragged by, Jack was sure it hadn't taken him this long to swim that far ... Finally, the rippled figure of Ianto appeared under of the water and came crashing through the surface, spluttering as he did so.
"About time," Jack said as Ianto ran his hands over his face.
"Shut up!" Ianto said. "It's freezing."
"So the sooner we get moving the better - which way's the artefact?" Jack asked, gathering up the rope that was floating around them. Ianto extracted his PDA from his coat pocket.
"Good job Torchwood issue PDAs are waterproof," Ianto said, tapping a few buttons. "It's that way." He pointed at the bank.
"Thank God," Jack said they moved towards it and he hauled himself up out of the water. Everything seemed colder now he was out. The air burnt at his skin and his teeth couldn't stop clattering together.
"This better be worth it," Ianto stammered from his side. Jack shone his torch over him, his suit and coat were dripping wet and his hair was plastered to his face. His lips were a faint shade of blue.
Jack pulled him close and ignoring his weak protests, un-tucked his shirt and slid his hands over Ianto's slippery back, moving in circular motions, trying to generate some heat. He felt Ianto's hands and arms spread against his back as well. They pressed themselves to each other, trying to share some body heat, Ianto's breath wonderfully hot on his neck. After a few moments, Jack realised his teeth were no longer chattering. They broke apart. Ianto wasn't shivering any more.
"If I get pneumonia I am going to blame you," Ianto said. Jack allowed a small laugh to escape his lips.
"Noted," Jack replied. He flashed his torch over their new surroundings. They were standing on a raised platform, looking down onto...
Jack's jaw dropped.
Huge carved pillars below them supported a crumbling, yet ornate, stone roof. A set of large steps swept up to the grand archway entrance, and a dilapidated fountain stood proudly, yet forgotten, in front of the building.
"The legend spoke of a temple," Ianto said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Yeah, but, it can't be real, can it?"
"Looks pretty real to me," Ianto said. Jack, for once, silently agreed.
*
He watched as she worked. The lone figure in the field, running her standard issue scanner over the crater. He watched her pull off her short leather jacket and wrap it around the statue. She was a smart girl; he had to give her that, if you counted not touching the 'strange alien thing' as smart. Not like that idiot PC. Nearly ruined all of his plans. But luckily for George McGovern, he was born a quick thinker.
He shifted in the bushes, he was after all getting on a bit these days, but not generating enough movement to arouse Cooper's suspicions. He wasn't daft enough to underestimate his enemy. He snorted to himself - perhaps enemy wasn't the right word. After all, they were working together, even if they didn't realise it. A sudden pang hit his chest - what if Harkness and Jones had figured it out? After all, Harkness was the leader, he couldn't be completely stupid; and Jones... from what he remembered of him, he was a bright lad. It was a shame, really.
Cooper held the coat-covered statue at arm's length as she walked back across the field, towards her car. McGovern watched her. This
wouldn't do, this wouldn't do at all. She was probably taking it back to that base of theirs, to be locked up and forgotten about. He wasn't going to let that happen. He fought his way out of the hedgerow, trying not to cut himself, and scurried over to the stile, ahead of Cooper. He could hear her footsteps - her boots on the wood, now, he had to act now.
"Oi!" he yelled.
"Oh, God!" Cooper jumped, spinning around, clutching the artefact in her grubby hands.
"You caught the lads who done it yet?"
"Mr Brently," she breathed, giving him a false reassuring smile. Mr Brently. The disguise had worked well - he could observe Cooper, what was going on, and no one suspected a thing. She had never met the real Mr Brently. He was currently gagged and bound in his own barn along with his wife. But by the time anyone found them he would be long gone.
"What's going on?"
"Didn't you speak to Fred Gilbert?" she said, pulling her coat tightly around the artefact, placing it on the back seat of her car and slamming the door shut. She was trying to palm him off. Again.
"Yeah," he growled. "He knows nothing." This was true. He had actually been glad when Cooper sent him to the police officer first, it allowed him to assess how much he knew and whether he'd be a threat.
"So are you gonna tell me what's going on?"
"Well -" Gwen began, but a ringing in her pocket distracted her. She signalled for him to wait. Snapping open her phone, she walked away from him. This was his moment.
Keeping one eye on Cooper, who was holding her hands up in an expression of disbelief, he quietly opened the back door of her car. He reached in and pulled out the statue. It was surprisingly heavy. With his free hand he also took Cooper's PDA. It was bound to come in useful. Not bothering to shut the door, he started to walk towards the four by four he'd borrowed off of the real Jim Brently. Instinct and the adrenaline pounding in his veins were telling him to run, but he forced himself to take measured, normal steps, keeping his back to Cooper and cradling the statue.
After what seemed an eternity, McGovern reached the land rover and slid into the driver's seat. He securely fastened the statue into the passenger's seat and started the ignition. As he pulled away, a triumphant feeling starting to glow in his chest, he checked the wing mirror. Cooper was standing in the road, a look of slight shock and horror on her face, growing smaller and fainter and less significant as he charged away, the first steps of his mission complete.
*
Ianto's PDA was bleeping rapidly now. He and Jack were ascending the steps to the temple, Ianto carefully stepping where he perceived the ancient stonework to be strongest. His mind was reeling; there was an ancient temple under Cardiff and no one knew it was here.
"Just think, Ianto," Jack said excitedly. "We must be the first people here in centuries." He clearly loved this, the thrill of discovering something new. Ianto suspected he himself would have been more excited if it were not for the fact that he was cold, wet, and that he was so hungry he was considering eating his own tie.
"Straight on," Ianto said as reached the top of the steps. That meant going into the temple. The entrance was a massive stone archway with rusty hinges on the side indicating where huge doors must have once resided. Silently, they stepped over the threshold, scanning for any sign of anything undesired. The chill intensified as they entered. The cold crept deep into Ianto's body, spreading through his bones. Ianto craned his neck to look up at the ceiling, where cobwebs hung and moss grew between the bricks.
Jack flashed the torch around; Ianto could a set of rickety steps, a pile of stones beneath a gaping hole in the wall and series of archways in front of them.
"Which way?" Jack asked, shining the light into each archway. Ianto held up the scanner and walked the length of the entrances, trying to detect where the trace was strongest. Eventually the scanner decided on the archway farthest left. As they entered, Jack flashed his light across the stone above it.
"Do that again!" Ianto said, staring at the point that was now submerged in darkness.
"Do what again?" Jack asked.
"Shine the light across the arch," Ianto said, pointing at where he was looking. Jack did so.
"That's not -" Ianto started, turning to look at him.
"-Human?" Jack finished. "You're right, it isn't." They were staring at a set of inscriptions above the archway. Ianto knew about languages. After failing French at school, he had taught himself to be reasonably capable in the most common languages. During his time at Torchwood London, trying to piece together what had happened in Greece 2000 years ago, he had picked up a little Latin and ancient Greek. This was not either of those things. He had also spent enough time in the archives, filing, retrieving and sorting, to understand when he saw an alien language. This was it.
It was a series of exquisitely carved wavy lines and intricate dots, far too neatly formed for any human civilisation to have carved a thousand years ago.
"This is an alien temple," Ianto said, holding up his PDA to scan to markings. "One which the translation programme doesn't recognise."
"What?"
"Yeah, we've never come across them before."
"So you're telling me that there's an alien civilisation under Cardiff that never made contact with humans above the ground?"
"That's what the scans say," Ianto replied.
"Huh," Jack said. "Let's keep moving." Ianto nodded, indicating that the scanner said straight on. They were walking through a narrow
passageway; the walls were stone, but the floors were dirt.
"How much further?" Jack said.
"About -" But before Ianto could finish the rest of his sentence, a trickle of fine dust started to rain down on their heads. There was a low rumbling noise. Ianto looked up to see the wall beside him shudder violently. Suddenly, the stones were dislodged and hurled down to the ground. Ianto felt the weight of the ancient stones crash into him and pin him to the ground. He thought he could hear someone shout out under the noise, and that was the last thing he heard before everything went black.
*
"Damn!" Gwen swore as the four by four roared down the lane. She turned and sprinted back to her car, jammed her keys in the ignition and slammed down the accelerator. Hedgerows and fields went flying past her as she tried to catch up with Brently. What the hell was he doing, stealing the artefact? She had only turned her back for a second, literally, a second, whilst Ianto phoned her to tell her he and Jack had gone potholing. As if she didn't have enough to worry about - now she didn't have any back up!
Turning a corner sharper than she should have done she caught her first glimpse of Brently, land rover going full pelt over the narrow lane ahead. She sped up, hearing Rhys' voice in her head, moaning about how she was ruining the suspension. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and raced off after him.
The only way Brently was going to stop was if he broke down or ran out of petrol, Gwen thought, bouncing over the uneven roads. She would just have to be there when he did and catch him on foot. The land rover, however, didn't show any signs of breaking down as it turned out onto a main road. Not wanting to lose sight of it, Gwen darted out straight across the traffic, causing several cars to blare their horns at her. Brently was leading her through some industrial estate, warehouses and factory buildings whizzed past her. It occurred to Gwen that Brently was probably not going to lead her to wherever he was taking the artefact, but was trying to shake her off.
Her instincts proved to be correct, as he turned suddenly, back out onto a main road and then up into a residential area; Gwen followed close behind. Brently was accelerating, and despite Gwen's reluctance to do so in an area with kids, she knew she had to keep up with him. Gwen saw him skid a little up ahead, as he turned a corner too quickly and too sharply. She went to accelerate, but slammed down her brakes instead.
A Volvo had just pulled out in front of her; Gwen had narrowly avoided a collision by matter of inches. But there was no time for apologies, Gwen thought as Brently's land rover disappeared from view. She pulled away from the Volvo and its angry driver, swerved around them, and followed the route Brently took. In the distance, up the road, she saw the unmistakable flash of a land rover.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," Gwen muttered under breath, trying to catch up with him. He was now leading her down virtually deserted roads, lined by fields. Gwen drove for what felt like hours, not minutes, trying to catch a glimpse of him. There was no way he could have driven off that quickly. She could not have lost him.
After twenty more minutes of driving, and no sighting, Gwen was starting to think that perhaps his car was faster than hers. If it wasn't for that stupid Volvo! she thought crossly. Maybe she had taken a wrong turning. She pulled into a lay-by, intending to phone the police to tell them she wanted Mr Brently and his vehicle found and given to Torchwood. But as she did so, she spotted something unusual in the far distance, towards the sea. There was a blue car shaped object in the middle of a field, on the horizon. Gwen squinted; she could definitely make out the red of Jim Brently's shirt. She smiled to herself, checking her gun was secure in her waistband. He must have thought he'd lost her.
Not her, not Gwen Cooper.
Not this time.
Part 3