Out of Place Chapter 9

[galadriel1010]

Ianto pulled out his hand-held computer as he and Archie sat down and scanned through the message from Jack with concerned eyes, “Shit, we’ve got more Weevils to track down.”

“You what?” Archie tried to peer over his shoulder, “How do you know?”

“Arch, found you at last.” Catherine handed him a bag, “Can you go through that for me pronto, we’ve got a missing child and we suspect that that hard drive will contain evidence of her presence in the house. Photos, emails, anything that proves she was there and gives us an idea of where she may be now.”

“OK Cath, I’ll page you if I find anything.”

“Thanks Arch, hey Ianto.” She headed off to find someone else and left them to it

Ianto stretched and smiled at him, “OK, you do that, I’ll work on these Weevils.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I do it all the time in Cardiff.”

“OK.” He pointed across the room, “You can use that computer, it should have everything you need. Not that I know what you’ll need.” The tech expert was already loading up the hard-drive that Catherine had given him

Ianto nodded and sat in front of the computer, plugging in his PDA as it booted up. The hand held device contained all the tricks he could need on a computer; like a total override of the network, the software to connect him to the Hub, advanced anti-virus software and a ‘Bad Wolf Dropper’ to cover his tracks when he left, as well as all the scans he needed to run. He pulled out his mobile and called the Hub, working out the time difference in his head whilst he waited for someone to pick up.

“Ianto?”

“Who else would be using my phone Gwen?” He chuckled, “How’s things going back there?”

“Fairly quiet. Had a Weevil hunt this morning, currently following up one of Atraxet’s leads, a bit of rift activity but nothing above the normal. How about over there?”

“Dead Weevil and four dead humans.”

There was a pause, “In Vegas?”

He sighed, “Yeah, and there are another three tagged Weevils around. Is Mark available? I need his help.”

“Sure, I’ll pass you over.”

After a beat the cheerful voice of Mark Bond, Jasmine’s second in London who was covering for them whilst they were in Vegas, greeted him, “What up mate? Gwen says you need me?”

Ianto smiled despite himself, “Yeah, I’m just connecting this computer to the Hub, I need you to help me build a 3D map of Vegas.”

“Got it. OK, we’re connected.”

“Not something I ever wanted to hear from you Mark.” He laughed and started typing commands one handed, “I need a map of Vegas first.”

“Got it. There we go. Now what?”

“Now I need to add in the heights and overlay a map of the sewers.”

“Underlay, surely?” Mark chuckled, “You got what you need?”

“Yeah, whilst I’m doing that can you put in the Weevil scans?”

“Yup, on it.” They worked in silence for a while and Ianto switched from his phone to his Bluetooth headset until Mark spoke up again, “Just, how did you miss four Weevils going missing? That’s like, nearly 10% of the tagged population.”

“That’s what worries me, if they’ve got 10% of the tagged population, they’ve either picked up our scan frequency to track them down or they’ve got a lot more. We did pick up on it actually, but it coincided with big rift activity so we never followed up on it, you know how it is.”

“Not like you Ianto.”

He chuckled, “I’ve had other things on my mind, haven’t I? Got that in place?”

“Yup, let’s see how this looks.”

Ianto turned round and projected it onto the board so he could look at more of the map at once, “They’re all underground, that’s good. Jack and I can go round them up tonight. Seem to be in the same area too.”

“One close to your location Yan.”

“That one’s dead.”

“Oh.” Mark laughed, “I’ll not worry about it then. You need me for anything else?”

“No, that’s great. Thanks. I’ll get it loaded up and sent out, stuff like that. Don’t trash the joint, or you’ll find Janet in your closet.”

“Hannah wouldn’t be impressed.”

“I’ll get her to help, I’m sure she’ll understand. Now bugger off, I’ve got work to do.”

“See you mate.”

“Yeah, see you soon.” He flipped his phone shut and turned the projector off, downloading the map to his PDA and sending it to the others’ computers and PDAs. With that finished he moved on to the video, starting with the nearest camera to the scene and moving on from there, trying to locate his DBs whilst they were still LBs.

Archie set a scan running and wandered over to check on what Ianto was doing, “You found something?”

The Welshman was deep in concentration, clearing up the focus on a black SUV so that he could see inside it, “Possibly. They must have driven in and parked between the closest camera and the site, possibly right at the end of the alley even. But I found this, which seems the most likely. It came past three times, then not for a long time, then back in the opposite direction. Mind you, I’ve looked at two cars that did similar already.”

“That’s incredible.” Archie had missed most of what he was saying, so surprised was he at the level of clarity Ianto was achieving, “How do you do that?”

“Do what?” Ianto smiled to himself

“Get it that clear, I mean, you shouldn’t be able to do that.”

“I’m not using normal tech. You should have this. Don’t you?” He was slightly surprised

Archie shrugged but his eyes glowed, “Maybe, but I tend to use the system we have here. That’s just amazing though, I’ll have to have a play with the stuff I’ve never used.”

Ianto smiled at him softly, feeling ten years older than the other man, rather that about that much younger than him. “Yeah, it’s pretty incredible. I’ve been working with Torchwood for five years now, and it still throws up things to amaze me.”

“What’s it like, working for Torchwood?” Archie asked, “I mean, I assume it’s similar there to what it’s like at Liberty Towers?”

“You’ve worked for LT?”

“No, but they’ve made me an offer.” He smiled, “What do you think?”

Ianto turned to face him fully, leaning on the desk as he considered his answer carefully. He was always wary of encouraging people into this life; as wonderful and as amazing as it could be, it still had a very low life expectancy and little to no chance of a life outside it. “It’s brilliant, but terrifying. You see the wonders of the universe and the scum of the universe, more scum than wonderful stuff most of the time. Some things are so amazing that I dream about them for weeks afterwards, but the nightmares of others still linger years later. Any relationships outside get totally screwed up, inside it’s like having a family; complete with the fighting, the wings of the family not talking to each other and the cousins whose names you can’t remember.” He shrugged, “I wouldn’t change it for the world, even if I could.”

“You really sell it.”

“Not trying to.” He answered honestly, “It’s dangerous and I’d feel guilty if I felt I were trying to persuade you into it. I was one of twenty-seven survivors of the Battle of Canary Wharf, out of over eight hundred employees. I know how dangerous it is.”

“I’m sorry.”

Ianto smiled at him, “You see what I mean though.”

Archie was silent for a while, digesting what Ianto had said. After watching him for a couple of minutes, the Welshman turned back to the picture he was clearing up, confident that he was onto something. Archie’s voice broke his concentration, “But it’s worth it. The madness, the danger, the lack of a life, it’s all worth it?”

“Oh yeah.” Ianto chuckled, glancing across the halls and catching a glimpse of his lover passing through with Nick, “Very, in my case. But even if I hadn’t found Jack, I’d still be saving the world on a daily basis. And that’s got to count for something.”

“Yeah, that’s quite something.” Archie smiled, “Thanks Ianto.”

“Anytime, I got something.”

“Great.” He hurried over to have a look, “Oh that’s amazing. Who is that?”

“That’s the guy who arrived with our two DBs, his friend is in the driving seat.” He printed it off and grabbed the picture, “I’d better get this across to Jay, then I can get back to the house and set a search running, better system there. You coming?”

The techie sighed and sat back down, “Nah, I’d better get this sorted for Catherine and actually get some work done. Good luck.”

“You too. Come round to the house once you get off duty? I suspect Jay will be cooking.”

“In that case, I’ll see you there.” He waved once as Ianto disappeared down the corridor in the same direction that his lover had taken, slipping into the room as Jack started his explanation.

---

Jack slipped his ear protectors on and glanced over at Nick to check that the younger man had done the same. When he got a reassuring smile he squared off and fired a shot into the gel from the gun they’d found at the scene. He hurried to retrieve the bullet and pulled a chair up to the microscope to compare the two. Nick looked through the other eye piece and whistled, “It’s not a match.” He looked up at Jack, “But what’s it not a match to?”

The immortal chuckled and met Nick’s eyes, “It’s not a match to the bullet that Jazz pulled from the gut of the Weevil. Ergo, not the gun that killed our dumpee.”

“Great.” Nick sighed, “So where does that leave us?”

“Well I’ll run that through your databases, then if that doesn’t bring anything up I can run it through our database as well.” He switched one of the bullets and compared the new one with the one he’d shot into the gel, “But two of the shots that hit the wall were fired by our dead dumper. In addition to that…” he moved to another microscope and Nick followed him, “This is the bullet that killed our Weevil on the left, your right. And the other one is the bullet that killed the dead dumper.”

“Same gun.”

“Same gun indeed. A very lucky shot at the Weevil, a very unlucky shot at his companion.” Jack tapped the desk thoughtfully, “Or that’s what he wants us to believe and it was actually a very good shot at his companion.”

“Cheery thought.” Nick folded his arms, “Where do we go to from here then?”

“Scanning. Scanning through databases.” Jack straightened up and set the searches running, “We can leave these running and go tell Jay what we’ve found. I’ll lock the computers down so that no one sees what we’re up to.” He smiled up at Nick, “You’re got a burning question Nicholas Stokes.”

Nick blushed and looked down at the ground, “What’s it like, with everyone knowing that you live with a guy?”

“It’s fine, there are some arseholes who disapprove, but for the most part no one bats an eyelid. I’ll tell you something though, I wouldn’t do it here. Not for me, I can take it, but I wouldn’t put Ianto through it.” Jack smiled sadly, “If, if you ever want to make a go of it, and you think living in the UK would help, I’m saying it personally but I’d love to have you in Cardiff, and I’m sure Jay would say the same about London.” He smiled, “Consider that a job offer, for both of you.”

“Thanks. We’ll consider it.”

Jack nodded and led the way from the room down to where Jasmine and Greg were staring at computers and apparently chatting animatedly about what they were seeing.

---

“I got a DNA match on our vic.” Greg leaned back in his chair, “The one eaten by the Weevil. His name’s Dean Carinas, rap sheet as long as the Amazon for crimes ranging from drugs, illegal gun possession, lots of minor level mob connections that have never been confirmed.”

“I’ve just got into the FBI servers.”

“Got into?” Greg raised an eyebrow

She shrugged, “OK, hacked in, but I do have legal access. Do you want to know what I found?”

“Yeah.”

“He was the name the FBI were currently working on, trying to track him down.”

“They found him.”

“But someone else got to him first.” She printed out the file and closed the connection, “OK, so we have an idea of what he was doing there. What about the other guy?”

“Ah hah.” He whirled around and grabbed the printed sheet, “I got a name.”

“I got a search box.”

“You and me, together we could rule the world.” Greg grinned at her, “James Anthony Dru.”

“James…” She typed it in and her eyes widened, “Jebus, you know your rap sheet as long as the Amazon? Well this one would reach from here to the moon.”

“That’s impressive. All the same sort of stuff?”

“Pretty much.” She printed it out and read through it on the screen, “You know, if you ever feel you want to get out of Vegas, I would love to have you in London.”

“I wouldn’t come alone.”

“I wouldn’t let you. Working in London could have other advantages.” Jay smiled at him softly, “If you ever fancy it, just give me a call.”

“Thanks. I’ll ask him at some point.” He looked through the sheet and sighed, “So where do we go from here?”

“Well if you work on getting a background on the dumper, I’ll have a look and see if I can find who he was with when he died.”

“How will you do that?” He asked, searching first for school records

“You don’t want to know.” Her eyes sparkled as she danced through phone records, on to email inboxes and computerised diaries. “Oooh, I got a name.”

“Leggo my Greggo, what have you got?” Nick’s hands landed heavy but gentle on his shoulders and the older man’s thumbs rubbed light circles on the back of his neck, “Jazz.”

Jack had crossed the room and laid his hand on the young woman’s shoulder, bending to kiss her forehead gently, “Hey sweetie, how’s it going?”

“We’ve got names, I think I have the name of our witness even.”

“What?” Greg’s head snapped up and he glared at her, “How on earth did you do that?”

“Jay, I got you a picture.” Ianto waved the piece of paper at her as he slipped in and leant against the desk, “I’m going to have to run it through the system back at the house.”

“And I got a name that it will, hopefully, match.” She leaned back into Jack’s touch and grinned up at Ianto, “How about we head home and see if we can combine them into something that makes sense?”

“And we can locate him easier from home.” Jack agreed. “OK, let’s…”

“Jack!” Jazz tilted her head to the side and rested it on his hand so that she could look up at him with a half glare, “Jack, who’s in charge around here?”

“Sorry boss.”

“Hmm. OK, back to the house, we can wake John up and run the search.” She yawned, “Then I can get some sleep. And when I wake up we can send John out.”

“Wouldn’t it make sense for him to go whist you’re asleep and wake you when he gets back?” Jack asked

Jazz blushed, “Not if I want to get some sleep.”