Tuesday, 5 March 2019

Fans Fiction Mitchell: Return to the Fold by DJ Forrest



 Chapter Two

Gwen lay on the sofa, eyes closed. Her half mug of cold coffee had formed a milky ring on the surface. A documentary about wild cats and bears in captivity played on the television in the background. On the dining room table behind her, sat her laptop, the screen still displaying images of werewolves, myths and legends, and hand scribbled drawings, some of which lay screwed up on the floor and others scored through, as the angle of the hand that didn’t convey what Gwen was aiming for lay beside the laptop.
   Rhys closed the front door quietly behind him. It was late. Anwen would be in bed, but a light sleeper, it wouldn’t take much to waken her, and another couple of hours to encourage her back upstairs for bed, school in the morning!
   He dropped the snib and slid the bolts home and switched off the outside lights. He knew Gwen would be home researching, and the text for pick up Chinese on the way back was encouragement enough, especially given the footie was on, and he knew there was at least two bottles of lager still in the fridge.
   He carried the white carrier bag loaded with foil trays and a paper bag concealed in another plastic bag, containing prawn crackers into the dining room. Gwen had dropped the lights to ambient, candles burned in the fireplace, and the telly was down low. He smiled.
   He glanced over at the laptop to his left as he made his way towards the kitchen, just to the right of the fireplace.
   ‘You’re researching werewolves now? Let me know when we’re expecting vampires, I’ll dig out the garlic.’ He chuckled.
   Rhys spied Gwen asleep on the sofa and grinned. He wafted the warm bag of tantalising flavours a foot or so from her face. Gwen stirred.
   ‘Mmm.’ She smiled, eyes still closed. ‘Chicken?’ Rhys nodded, a broad grin on his face.
   ‘Yep.’
   ‘Chow mein? Extra veg, sauce and….’ She tried to guess the other flavours. Rhys scrunched the plastic surrounding the paper bag. ‘Prawn crackers?’
   ‘Yep, and not forgetting a large special fried rice.’ He chuckled, reaching down to meet her lips, rubbing his bristled chin against her nose. She squealed, curling up her toes and kissed him back.
   ‘Come and get it while it’s hot.’ Rhys added, before heading to the kitchen to dish up.
   Gwen sat up and rubbed her tired eyes. She dipped the volume on the telly further, stretched and returned to the laptop and pondered on the photographs just peeking out of the files. With Anwen in and out like a yo-yo earlier, it hadn’t been wise to leave them sitting on show. The laptop was a different story.
   ‘Been looking forward to this all day.’ Rhys called from the kitchen as he grabbed the beers from the fridge. ‘I had to work a double shift. Baylis didn’t show.’ He continued but Gwen didn’t hear him; too wrapped up in a shocking discovery.
   In the folder marked Weevil, Gwen shook the photos and lay them out in front of the laptop. The blood thirsty sketch of the red eyed werewolf continued to scowl at her from the screen. A detailed image of a Weevil in a folder stared back at her.
   ‘What am I missing?’ Gwen pulled the file of the current murder cases. Bodies with deep grooves of flesh torn from torsos. ‘What am I not seeing?’
   In previous Weevil attacks in the city; the fight club. The Ann Summers Store, the marks on the wall in chocolate body putty, Gwen isolated the problem.
   ‘Not enough fingers.’
The documentary had flicked to cartoon images of crazed animals and in particular, a werewolf, slashing a victim. It caught Gwen’s eye, the vivid images of red and yellow and flash photography. She looked up, then back at the Weevil photos. Her eyes widened and she blanched.
   ‘Ohhhh. It’s not a weevil.’
   ‘What is it, love?’ Rhys asked, his hands holding two piled plates of take away and tucked under one arm, two unopened bottles of beer. ‘You’ve gone pale. Don’t tell me you’re not hungry, after I’ve binned the containers?’
   Gwen looked from Rhys to the food, to the television, no longer showing ravenous crazed monsters, but the end credits of the programme. She smiled. It could wait. She looked back at Rhys and forced all the worry to the back of her mind.
   ‘This looks lush, and beer. Oh Rhys, you know the way to a woman’s heart.’

   ‘Promise me, Rhys?’ Gwen asked, after they’d demolished much of their meal in relative silence, bar the footie breaking the monotony.
   ‘Sure love. What am I promising?’ He asked, scooping up some rice on a cracker and pushing it into his mouth. Someone on the telly scored a goal. Rhys cheered. He looked over at Gwen and frowned.
   ‘You’ve got a bit of bean sprout on your…’ he pointed to his own cheek. Gwen brushed a hand across her face.
   ‘Gone?’
   ‘Gone.’ Rhys nodded. Gwen set her plate down on the coffee table between them.
   ‘This case I’m working on,’ She began. Rhys was suddenly absorbed in the footie again.
   ‘Rhys Williams, are you listening to me?’ She snapped.
   ‘Were you listening earlier, when I was talking to you?’ He retorted, eyes still on the game.
   ‘This is important.’
   ‘So was mine.’ Silence. Rhys paused and dimmed the volume. He set his plate beside Gwen’s. ‘Look Gwen. I know your job requires a lot out of you, and I know your mind can be busy with everything other than me, and that’s fine, but I needed to tell you something earlier, and you didn’t listen. Again.’
   ‘OK. So…’
   ‘So, Baylis, my mate, from work. I’ve known him for a little over two years. He didn’t come in today. He was a great bloke.’
   Gwen detected a note of sadness in his voice.
   ‘What happened?’ She asked, her voice softer. Concerned. Her eyes solely on Rhys. Her world. Her love.
   ‘He didn’t have any family. The depot was his home. Marlene, on reception was as close as family as he had.’ He drew himself up, playing it out for all the sympathy. ‘The Police called, said that Baylis had been attacked, and was found 25 yards from his truck. They didn’t go into a lot of detail, but they did let slip that it was an animal. They said it was very brutal.’
   ‘Where was he when he was attacked?’
   ‘It was a truck stop, on the motorway, heading South.’
   ‘What was his surname?’
   ‘Hardacre, Baylis Hardacre. Why?’
   ‘Because I think it might be related to the case I’m working on.’ She reached out for his hand, wrapping her own around his. ‘Promise me Rhys. Promise me. Don’t be a hero. Just be safe, yeah. We’ve had reports of wild animals attacking people, but we have no idea why, just yet.’
   ‘What kind of animals?’ Rhys asked, concerned.
   ‘I dunno. Weevils probably.’
   ‘Not werewolves?’
   ‘No. It was a theory but…’ She didn’t want to worry him. Saying Weevils would at least allay some of his fears.  ‘Just don’t go antagonising anything with sharp teeth and claws.’
   ‘Righto. You have nothing to worry about.’ Rhys picked up the remote and upped the volume, sitting back in his armchair, beer in hand, he cheered on his team.
   Gwen sat back and inwardly worried for him.

It was a little after midnight before Gwen had collated all the data, the locations up and down the country. The pit stops, the food chains, from the North down to London and now in Cardiff. It sent a cold chill through her body and she shivered. Snatching up her phone lying on the table beside her empty bottle of beer, she called Marley, it went to voice mail. She swore and phoned Mitchell. Again – voice mail. She left a message.
   ‘Mitch, it’s Gwen, call me when you get this message, I need to know that you’re OK.’


Three days earlier…

   ‘Locked onto the co-ordinates. Typically, remote location. Come on, Jack.’ Lexy drummed her fingers on the steering wheel of her long wheel based Landrover. It wasn’t a particularly new model, but the surgery had received an influx of patients and rumours were rife, so a more reliable mode of transport, equipped with medical supplies and a stretcher, were required, as there were werewolves in London!
   A bolt of light broke through the clouds onto Capricon Hill, a mound of earth on an English Heritage site. The property was part of Lexington Barlow’s estate. A property that had fallen into disrepair some twenty odd years ago, and with a convenient Torchwood lie of Knights Templar shenanigans and other historical battles, backed up with data, researched from the Torchwood archives, Lexy gained government funds to keep the property in her name, so long as parts of the house were opened to the public once in a while.
   Heavily pregnant, Lexy flicked on the headlights and drove towards the still form, lying face down on the hillock. It was late. The stars peeked out from behind the scudding clouds on the cool winter’s night.
   Lexy had been prepared for Jack’s return weeks earlier. Unlike Gwen, her communications with Jack ran deeper. Although after the 456, and more recently Miracle Day, all communications had been severed to keep those closest, safe, but she had never given up hope of his return. Torchwood didn’t end just because the Captain was no longer at the helm. Her surgery was full of intergalactic space cadets, creatures which had slipped through the cracks in time and space, not to start an invasion but to flee from one.
   Lexy climbed down from the Landrover and opened the back door. Two uniformed soldiers in synthetic garb jumped out, both only 5’ 9” in stature, carrying a stretcher. They hoisted Jack off the ground and onto the stretcher with the efficiency of having done this a thousand times in their lifetime. Jack no longer held the matinee looks, but of someone who had fallen onto every branch of a large deciduous tree before hitting the ground hard. Lexy winced.
   ‘We need to move quickly. Careful.’ She hissed. ‘He might be immortal but I don’t want his recovery hampered by you leaving his leg behind.’ She nodded towards the limb still lying on the ground, where the body had once been. ‘What happened to you Jack?’ She asked, more to herself than the dead man on the stretcher.

In the en suite Master bedroom at Lexy’s manor, a fully operational makeshift hospital nursed one patient back to full health. Lexy, assisted by more of the synthetic clad space cadets worked around the clock, monitoring Jack’s somewhat slow progress. Lexy was confident he would return to her soon. His face, deathly pale, body scarred and broken. She frowned at his dismembered leg, currently surviving in warm water, body temperature, wires feeding into the veins, muscle and tissue to avoid decomposition. Jack’s body lay in stasis, using alien technology, a gel like membrane surrounded his naked form, securing the blood loss from the severed leg. Heart and brain monitors detected tiny pulses of activity but nothing strong. To an untrained physician in human anatomy, Jack was officially unresponsive – in other words – brain dead.
   Lexy of course knew different. The jump using this form of teleportation was not without risk. For a healthy male, the displacement of atoms and reforming on landing was like a really bad case of travel sickness. If he’d been injured…
   She turned towards the doorway and caught sight of a highly decorated Space Ranger, cap tucked neatly under his arm, a winning smile, and all the characteristics and charm as the man lying naked in the jello.
   ‘Ma’am.’ He smiled, saluting her, casually. He held along with his cap, a folder, Lexy noted.
   ‘Teddy.’ She returned the smile.
   ‘How’s the patient?’ His voice was smooth as silk.
   ‘Broken. Slow progress really. Is that the report from Starmega Division?’
   ‘Yes.’ Teddy replied, stepping closer to the stasis chamber, eyeing the patient with interest.
   ‘Can I see it?’ Lexy held out her hand. ‘Teddy, I need to know the details in order to help him.’
   Teddy sighed. ‘What if he never wakes up?’
   ‘We are all Torchwood here. The fight still goes on. I need to know what happened to him. In all the years I’ve known Jack, he’s never returned like this.’
   Teddy held out the report.
   ‘I heard that the rendezvous point had been compromised. Arakia was decimated by mutant dino type creatures. Jack had made contact with one of our agents out there. The princess who had been detained on Earth was taken to Arakia to assume her role as Queen but was executed for her past crimes. The kingdom was in chaos. The mutant army was more than their own guards could handle.’
   ‘Presumably Mitchell and Goodson escaped capture then. Neither of them have spoken about their ordeal.’
   ‘Jack jettisoned an escape pod before he was shot. He was a little sketchy as to what happened to him before they reached Arakia.’ Teddy replied, stepping away from the stasis chamber.
   ‘Walk with me.’ They left the medical team to monitor Jack. Lexy skimmed through the details in the file as she walked with Teddy along the ornate wood panelled landing, where historic battle scenes hung in gilt edged frames. Profiles of heroes and heroines in battle dress, posed for artists, and followed them through the passageway towards a solid wooden door at the end of the corridor. It held a hand print scanner which shone a green light over Lexy’s flat palmed hand against the door. With an orchestrated click and whirr of minute cogs and pin wheels on the other side, the door popped open, and Lexy waved Teddy in first.
   ‘After you.’ She said.
   Teddy entered the beating heart of Lexy’s operation. A bank of monitors sat against one wall of her study, each with the familiar swirling alien tech, synonymous to Torchwood Three computer systems. 
   ‘Nice.’ He smiled, feeling at home already. He lay his cap upon a spare space on a desk beside a keyboard, and blue Manila folders. Hovering by itself without any form of magnetic field, Teddy spied the Gora. ‘Hey, I’ve not seen one of these in years? Where did you come across it?’ He strode excitedly towards it. Aware of its power, he lightly traced his fingers of his left hand around its perimeter and smiled like a child with a new toy, as the raging storm inside sought out the new heat pattern. It built a mixture of senses within. A rage that fought against the calming influence of the Space Ranger.
   ‘These are banned across seven star systems. How did you…?’
   ‘A battle cruiser crash landed on this site just over twenty-five years ago. That hillock where Jack landed was formed after the ship ploughed up the field. I suppose I should be lucky that it didn’t land on the house. It would have taken more than a queen’s ransom to fix that.’ She smiled, easing herself into her computer seat, folder resting on her apparent bump.
   ‘There are pieces of the ship still buried under that hill. It’s how Jack was able to lock onto our signal.’ She winced, rubbing her side. ‘Ahh, he seems to have woken up again.’
   Teddy glanced over, tearing himself away from the Gora.
   ‘You should be resting. Let your minions take up the slack.’
   ‘It’s not as simple as that. The medical side of things I know they are capable of. But this,’ she slapped down the file. ‘I can’t leave someone else in charge of this.’ She paused for a beat. The Gora was darkening. The storm system within was changing pace.
   ‘Do you know what Gora stands for?’ Lexy asked.
   ‘Yeah,’ Teddy replied. ‘Gladstones Orb of Raging Affinity.’
   ‘Do you know what it does?’
   ‘It monitors weather patterns, but it’s also got a darkness about it. The druids on Calasant 9 used it to connect with demons. In the wrong hands, it can conjure dark entities, or at best, tell them when the darkness is coming. Like an aura. A seer of dark worlds.’
   ‘It’s a weather system.’ She corrected him. ‘Druids from outer regions, have been using it, but it’s not to conjure up dark spirits. It’s to know how close they are to becoming a reality.’
   Teddy wasn’t convinced. ‘I think I’d know more of an outer world device.’ Lexy smiled.
   ‘I’m not trying to show off here. Jack Harkness through there is a traveller from another world, who through countless centuries has come to live on Earth and fight the demons that come through the Rift. I’m sure deep in your psyche, you already know that.’
   ‘I’m well aware of his Lazarus qualities, ma’am. I’ve heard the stories of his battles with Daleks, and the travels with the Oncoming Storm. That still sends shivers down my spine.’
   ‘About the Daleks?’
   ‘No. About the Doctor. There are some pasts we like to keep buried.’ Teddy smiled sardonically.
   ‘I have no interest in your past, Teddy. It’s the good that you do now, that I am interested in. We all make mistakes.’
   He laughed lightly. ‘I was younger back then. I looked up to a lot of different people. I was afraid to be myself. Different times.’
   ‘We can all be grateful for that then.’ She sat mesmerised by the storm, crashing and billowing inside its glass orb.
   ‘There’s a storm coming.’
   ‘There’s always a storm coming.’
   ‘I know. But this one, this will change everything on the planet if we allow the Ciou Sioux tribe to reign. This is not just a few tribal elders singing around a camp fire, about life struggles and the invasion of the white men. This would be an invasion of wolf men that on a global scale would decimate the human race. And with an Arakian prince at his side, there would be no stopping Caleb in attaining the power to rule over everyone.’
   ‘He’s just one man.’
   ‘One influential man, who can control armies, Teddy. Who can rid the world of the species known as man and make slaves of any survivors. He tried it once before, but he was without his son, Porlicanthus, and without his heir he is powerless. Mighty, but powerless.’ Lexy rose to her feet and stretched her legs. Baby was awake.
   ‘So, what can we do?’ Teddy leaned against the desk, his eyes drawn to the raging storm inside the globe again. It was darkening still, and fresh animal shapes were beginning to form. Lexy stood before it, her heart racing.
   ‘Our job. We protect Mitchell. And we keep him as far away from Caleb as we can. The alignment of the seven planets is less than a week away.’
   ‘What does that mean?’
   ‘Caleb wants his heir, and an Arakian wolf man is the most powerful of rulers in the whole Universe, and god help us if that happens.’ She looked at Teddy. ‘Mitchell didn’t have the greatest start in life. He has a rage inside of him, built from mistrust of people. Wolf did his best, but he never revealed himself to the boy, his nephew, and because of that, perhaps it was wrong. Perhaps if Mitchell had known his true identity….’
   ‘You can’t blame yourself, Lex.’ Teddy was beside her, a compassionate hand upon her shoulder. ‘Come and sit down.’ He led her back to her seat and turned a waste bin on its head, at her feet.
   ‘Whether Wolf had revealed himself or not, if we have to protect the Prince, then that’s what we have to do. Where is he now?’
   ‘Safe. He’s with his old guardian from the Children’s home. Greer will look after him.’
   ‘Isn’t Greer, a…’
   ‘Wolfman? Yes. He’s one of Caleb’s old tribal men, but he like Porlicanthus, stepped away from the group. They are lone wolfs. They don’t mix with the pack. They both disliked Caleb’s teachings. It was old and archaic and didn’t move with the times, didn’t wish to blend in with the world. I mean, we all like a piece of tradition – but slayings and the taking of innocent children for sacrifice. These aren’t the Dark Ages.’
   ‘But they could be again?’
   ‘Yes, and that’s what we can’t allow to happen.’ Her smile returned. ‘I’m sorry Teddy. Maybe one day, you’ll come over and we’ll have that date you’ve been talking of.’
   ‘Yeah, I’d like that.’ He laughed. A smile that warmed her heart, but didn’t completely take away the fear she felt.

Lexy awoke in the early hours of the morning to screaming coming from the stasis room. She struggled out of bed. It was becoming harder to move these days with the grace of an athlete. It took effort to roll onto her side, to move her body carrying the sleeping form currently sleeping on her bladder.
   The alarm bells rang out across the landing as she contemplated releasing the pressure first. She groaned and hurried as best she could, supporting her bump as she ran.
   The room was in chaos. Monitors lit up the room like a decorated Christmas tree. Staff were milling at machines and around the chamber. Many hands were trying to calm an angry Captain who had gasped back into life and been surrounded by many duplicate faces.
   ‘Get the hell off me.’ He growled, batting as many hands from his body as he could. That was the other thing – when he’d teleported he was fully clothed.
   Lexy called her team away and spoke softly and calmly to the raging Captain.
   ‘Jack. Jack!’
   ‘Who the hell?’ He turned towards her.
   ‘Focus on my voice.’ She shone a bright light instrument at his eyes. ‘You have some eye damage but that will heal, especially if your leg is anything to go by.’
   Fronds of muscle and sinew, and calcium stretched out towards the unattached leg. Lexy watched as the two ends met, intertwining like willow branches, weaving into shape, strengthening the limb. It was fascinating to her, but excruciating for Jack, who cried out and gasped at the pain.
   ‘Up his meds.’ She instructed one of the cadets. Jack was about to protest. ‘Don’t argue Captain. You’re on my territory now. Oh, and,’ she bent over, close enough to kiss his cheek and whispered in his ear. ‘Welcome home.’

Over the coming days, Jack recovered fully. Although he still never opened up to Lexy about Arakia and how he came to lose his leg, she was at least satisfied that he had recovered well enough to return to work. Over dinner that night, he read over the details of files collated since Mitchell had returned, and the killings that had stumped the Police nationwide.
   ‘So, are we still facing attacks?’ He asked, shovelling in the last mouthful of rump steak.
   ‘It would seem so. The Police don’t want to admit what they think it is, because let’s face it, if you were to go on air and tell the public it was werewolves…’
   Jack laughed. ‘Yeah.’
   ‘We’ve managed to quell the news channel reports of violent attacks as nothing more than random big cat sightings. Naturally the Beast of Bodmin Moor is a talking point again and several children have reported seeing big cats in Scottish towns and villages after dark. It seems to be keeping the public quiet for now.’ Lexy lifted her glass of water to her lips.
   ‘You can’t keep them quiet forever. At some point, someone is going to post a video of a werewolf and it’s not going to be so easy to hide that.’
   ‘We’ve a team of qualified people able to block the slightest attempt of a video upload of such a thing.’
   ‘You’re missing my point. With live streaming being a big issue now, we can’t stop everything. We can try, but someone is going to show it to their friends, upload it to a bunch of other people. Like I said, we can only hold back the tide for so long.’ Jack lowered his cutlery and pushed his plate aside.
   ‘That was wonderful. Thank you. Been a long time since I’ve tasted meat as good as that.’ He grinned boyishly at her, showing off a rack of pearly whites.
   Lexy shook her head. ‘I’m never sure if you’re genuinely being nice or if there’s not a hidden innuendo there.’
   Jack laughed and got to his feet. He noticed Lexy studying him.
   ‘What?’
   Lexy shook her head. ‘I’m just blown away by how well you heal. Your leg for instance, the reconstruction of bone and body tissue. After all this time, Jack. You’re an enigma.’
   He threw his head back and laughed. ‘I’ve been called so many things in my time, but I’ll take that. I think I’ll go and stretch my legs. Work off this lovely meal.’ He lifted his jacket that lay draped over the back of the leather sofa and slipped it on.
   ‘Good idea.’ She dabbed her mouth with a napkin and drained her glass. ‘Why don’t I accompany you on your walk. You can fill me in on your adventures and I can tell you all about my day.’
   Jack’s smile faded.
   ‘Do you not trust me to come back?’
   ‘No.’
 
The floodlit grounds made it easy to walk around the perimeter of the large old stately building and grounds. Guards in the same synthetic garb paraded the grounds and acted as sentry guards. Lexy nodded to some who saluted her in passing. Jack scrutinised the soldiers and frowned.
   ‘If I’m not mistaken, you’ve got yourself a clone race working for you.’
   ‘They’re given free bed and board and paid through Torchwood. They have all the legal documentation and working visas set up by Space Ranger Teddy Bulgarow.’
   ‘They’re not human though.’
   ‘They were bred for war. Conceived onboard ships heading into battle. These are the surplus stock. The remnants of a forgotten war. I found a niche for them.’
   ‘You sound like your father.’ Jack snorted.
   ‘He wasn’t a bad man.’
   ‘You’ve changed your tune.’
   ‘Bad things happened to him. Alien bad things.’ She shrugged. ‘Just one of those things.’
   ‘So you’re the patron saint for all alien waifs and strays?’
   Lexy laughed. ‘Yes, I suppose I am. I mean, isn’t that what we’re about? Helping our fellow man.’ She stopped and gazed up at Jack. ‘When I joined Torchwood, I believed I was giving something back. Old Torchwood would have put a bullet in their heads. I could see something different in them.’
   ‘Danger.’ Jack replied.
   ‘No. Hope.’ Lexy made a beeline for the garden bench. Baby was kicking again.
   ‘You should be taking it easy, not running after people like me.’
   ‘It’s why I can’t be taking things easy Jack. We’ve been waiting for you for a good few months now. No word back. It’s thanks to these soldiers and Teddy that we found you at all. What happened to you out there? How did you manage to lose a leg?’
   ‘I’d rather not say. It’s not important. All I can say is that, it wasn’t just the Princess who faced execution that day. Skelagh also faced it. He used to be part of the crew onboard her battle cruiser. He was looking to stir up the pirates and create a mutiny in the ranks. Hiding away on Earth, disguising his identity. Seeing the Princess locked away, I guess it was only a matter of time before he knew he’d have to return to Arakia, and this time bask in the glory of her head on a plate.’
   ‘So what happened?’
   ‘The kingdom had changed. No longer a pirate princess in charge, democracy had decreed that there should be no more Royal family dictating to the masses, and so they had them all killed.’
   ‘All of Mitchell’s family, in a way.’
   ‘We’re the only family that kid needs. His mother would have been a bad influence on him.’
   ‘If you think about it, Porlicanthus wasn’t any better. One look at the moon and it was all over.’
   ‘She told me something while we were on board the ship.’ Jack sat beside Lexy and leaned forward in the seat, resting his elbows on his knees. ‘She told me I was his father.’
   ‘She’d have said anything if it meant getting free.’
   ‘True, but…’
   ‘You believe her?’ Lexy massaged her side.
   Jack sat back and sighed. ‘I don’t know what to believe.’
   ‘I suppose we’ll find out soon.’
   Jack nodded. ‘Yeah. And god help us all.’

They made their way back to the house.
   ‘I suppose you should know,’ Lexy realised, bracing herself. ‘Mitchell is with Greer.’ Jack’s mild manner darkened.
   ‘Where?’
   ‘In remote farmland on the outskirts of Cardiff I believe. He’s safe, Jack.’
   ‘Greer’s an old man. No match for Mitchell. He must be pushing seventy if he’s a day.’ He paused. ‘Why is he not at the safe house?’
   ‘It was compromised.’
   Jack spun around to face her. It was hard not to notice the flash of rage simmering under the surface.
   ‘Tell me.’
   ‘While you’ve been away, and quite possibly before you went away, Caleb sent two scouts to find Mitchell and his location. We’re not entirely sure when they set off but following the line of blood from Scotland to London, I would imagine it wouldn’t have taken them long to find the boy or you. It’s not as if you really kept him that hidden. Surely the Torchwood base would have been enough. 17 floors and operated mostly by lifts, even Caleb is not that intelligent to know how to operate a modern day machine.’
   ‘You’ll be surprised just how well they adapt. Porlicanthus wasn’t ill equipped when he and I travelled out of town, if you know what I mean.’
   ‘It was Greer that alerted us to the breach in security at the safe house. We’re still waiting on information on who they sent.’
   ‘Why only two? Why wouldn’t he send more?’
   ‘I don’t know.’ They walked towards the welcoming lights at the front door, and a welcoming committee of young soldiers milling at the door, like expectant children awaiting the moment to impart a great secret. A soldier with an identical face to the others stepped forward. He looked a little younger than the rest. He was full of importance. A quick salute. A thrust of the paperwork. And a patient wait of further instructions. The entire household held their breath.
   ‘What is it?’ Jack looked over Lexy’s shoulder at the printed information in her hand.
   ‘It would seem that Caleb sent Swiftbone and Kaliyer to bring Mitchell back to the fold.
   ‘I don’t recognise the name.’
   ‘Greer does. Kaliyer is his brother. Swiftbone is a bloodthirsty young pup which would explain the slayings down from the North. He’s not very good at concealing his kills.’
   Jack headed for the door. ‘I need to head back to Cardiff.’
   ‘Not without me, you’re not.’
   ‘No offence Lexy, but you’re not in any fit state to travel. How long till you give birth?’
   ‘A fortnight at the latest.’
   ‘Exactly. I can’t risk you going into labour while we’re heading out into battle.’
   ‘Who said anything about heading into battle? I’m coming Jack. I’m the one with the vehicle. Plus, you can’t telejump again for another 48 hours. That jump alone killed you on re-entry. Let’s not over do things.’ She looked to one of the soldiers. ‘I’ll need my kit and my luggage case, it’s under the bed in my room.’ She looked back at Jack, lingering at the door.
   ‘We’ll need the right kinds of weapons to deal with the scouts. So we’ll need to collect kit from the armoury, which is this way.’
   ‘We’re wasting time.’ Jack growled, impatiently.
   ‘I would rather leave when I have everything I need, rather than in like Flynn and hope for the best. What if your base has been compromised?’
   ‘I would have heard by now.’
   ‘Help me gather my equipment Jack, then we can go.’
   ‘Fine,’ Jack sighed impatiently.
   ‘Mitchell is my responsibility as much as he’s yours.’
   ‘You could get hurt.’
   ‘And you could lose another limb. I’m coming and that’s final.’
   ‘Fine,’ Jack restated following Lexy to the armoury. ‘But I’m driving.’


End of Chapter Two.



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