Out of Place Chapter 16

[galadriel1010]

Nick shook his head in a vain attempt at clearing it of the fog clouding it, but found that that just made his brain rattle. He was tied to a chair with his hands behind his back, facing one corner of the room where bare wooden floorboards met dull concrete walls with peeling paper. The room was in half darkness, with the only light coming from behind him, presumably a window. The concentration made his head ace, so he closed his eyes again and steadied his breathing. Fingers tangled with his own behind his back and squeezed softly, “You awake yet?”

He turned his head as far as he could but found that A) That wasn’t very far and B) It would never be enough to be able to see Jazz behind him, “Yeah, where are we?”

“No idea, he’s in and out by the way, been gone five minutes so should be back soon. Who he is, I’m not sure.” She fell silent for a moment and squeezed his fingers again, “We’ll be OK, I promise.”

“OK.” He struggled against the bonds but her fingers stilled him, “Have you done this before by any chance?”

Her tone was bitter but amused, “More often that I’d like to have. Did that sentence make sense?”

“Just about.” He sighed and dropped his head, the headache was just getting worse, “So what do we do now?”

“Leave it with me.” Her fingers left his again and the backs of her hands started moving against his, “I’m working on these bonds. Put it this way, I have a very, very kinky boyfriend. And he likes nothing more than for me to escape.”

“Any connection to the fact that you came into work looking like something out of Lady Heather’s place the other day?” He asked, trying the knots and finding them impossible

“That was because we’d been to Lady Heather’s place.” She answered, “Like I said, kinky boyfriend.”

“So are you…”

“Submissive, in bed at least.” She stilled for a moment, “I hope that was the question you were about to ask.”

“Yeah, it was.” He chuckled, “And Jack, is he the same?”

She laughed, “I really don’t know. Although I have a feeling that it’s a bit of give and take. I mean, I have walked in on them on more than one occasion and they used to keep me up at night until I got my own place in Cardiff but I don’t know what they get up to… Just that Ianto swears in Welsh. As a result, most of the Welsh I know is swear words. He can be very creative in that department.”

“You’re gabbling.”

“My head hurts.” She was moving again, just slightly, “He’s coming.”

“Who’s…” Nick started, but then he heard a door swing open and the question was answered for him.

“Ah, other one, you’re awake.” The voice was smooth, English received pronunciation, so he could have been from anywhere really. It had a hint of an accent, but not enough to give a location

He sighed and desperately wanted to rub his head, “Unfortunately, that is the case.”

“Yes, sorry, we had to drug you, and we still get the dosages wrong. Still in the experimental stages you see. Oh, by the way, you are completely disposable, so I’d stay quiet. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but if Commander Donovan complies with my wishes, you should both be able to go unharmed.”

Jazz sighed behind him, “Do you know how likely it is that I will agree to your demands?”

The man, still out of both their lines of sight, chuckled, “Yes my dear, I do, that’s why I had them bring your friend. We’ve not been introduced by the way. My name is irrelevant, but you are?”

“CSI Stokes, Mr Irrelevant.” He wasn’t in the mood, and the fact that the other man just laughed didn’t help matters, “So what do you want?”

“CSI Stokes, just because you’re here, doesn’t mean you will understand what’s going on. But just so you know, I need information, my boss, in fact, needs information that only the Commander or the infamous Jack Harkness…”

“Captain Jack Harkness.” Jazz seemed to find it amusing

“Indeed, Captain Jack Harkness, can supply.” He snapped his fingers theatrically and a slim blonde entered the room, came over to them silently, blindfolded them and left again without a single word. The man chuckled and started walking around them, “You will have realised by now that I am good at what I do. Little Sally is not remotely experienced at this, she just does my bidding, and as a result you both saw her as she came in. No matter, her name is Sally Lockhart…”

“As in the fictional character from the Ruby in the Smoke and subsequent books by Phillip Pullman?”

“Ah, never try to pull the wool over the eyes of someone with such an evident love of contemporary literature. Indeed, are you going to believe anything I tell you now?”

“Only when you’re telling the truth.” Nick wished he could see Jazz, but her fingers had wound back into his and squeezed softly, reassuring him. She at least sounded confident, “What is it that you want?”

“As I said, I want information. Now what I am going to do is leave you alone for a while, so that you can make your decision. I know of your almost unique… talent, Commander, so you should be aware that it will be Mr Stokes, not yourself who will suffer the consequences if you choose to refuse. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal.” Jazz sighed

“Good, I’ll leave you two to it then. You have exactly thirty minutes.” The door opened and closed, then opened again and footsteps crossed the room. Their blindfolds were removed and they watched Sally leave the room again.

“He’s good, he’d very good.” Jazz muttered, releasing Nick’s fingers again and going to work on her bonds.

“Yes, I can see that. What happened?” Nick thought back to the scene, it had seemed perfectly ordinary

“What do you remember?”

“Ordinary scene really. Seemed like a body dump. You found something, you called me…”

“I got whacked over the head and had my throat cut.” She huffed out a laugh, “Which means the scene’s now contaminated. Not that that matters now.”

“That still weirds me out, but why doesn’t it matter?”

“Scene belongs to Liberty Towers now.” She shrugged and appeared to have more movement, “Got it, anyway, after they whacked me I have to assume that they drugged you somehow.”

“Needle, I can feel it.” It was in his neck, they had to have known what they were doing otherwise he wouldn’t still be here.

“Thought it must have been, the alternative would be a patch, and I don’t think they’re advanced enough to have those yet. We only have them because John took a day trip for me.”

“A daytrip where?”

“Wrong pronoun, it’s more when. Long way in the future.” He felt her roll her shoulders and she stood up, then turned her attention to the bonds on his hands, “Tell me I’m good.”

“Yes, you’re good, how long have we got?”

“No idea, there’s no clock, no way of knowing. Can’t have taken more than five minutes though.” It was easier with one she could see, but this knot was more complicated, “He’s playing with me.”

Nick didn’t reply as she got his bonds off and stayed silent as she paced, waiting for her to speak. Finally she turned to him, “I need to get you out of here.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“Nick, I cannot give in to his demands and he means what he says. If you stay here, you will die, and I couldn’t live with myself.”

“It won’t come to that.”

Jazz rubbed her forehead and waved a hand, now he was face to face with her he could see the blood that stained the front of her white top, her blood, so much blood. “He left us alone so that I would untie us, so that we have to have this conversation so that…” She swore, “Fuckit, he’s playing me, and I’m not sure yet whether I should be dancing a tango or a waltz.”

“What?”

She started pacing around the room again, “Half an hour, and I’ve no tracking devices on me, or traceable devices, they must have left them at the scene to only give us half an hour. And I don’t even know what he wants.” her gaze fell on the chair and she stopped, staring at it. “Maybe…”

Nick leant on the wall and watched and she pulled the chair apart and put crafted it into some sort of weapon, “Is that supposed to do anything?”“It’s mainly symbolic, it’s just… Just trust me, OK?”

“Why should I trust you? You’ve already told me that you won’t agree to his demands, you’d trade my life for your secrets.”

Finally she met his eyes, “it’s not a matter of won’t Nick, you have to believe that.” He snorted and turned away, “I just can’t.”

“You can actually look me in the eye and say that?”

“If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t be doing this job.” She turned away and thumped her hand against the wall, “I will get you out of here Nick, I just don’t know how yet.”

“Vertical?”

She could hear the slight forgiveness, or at least acceptance, in his tone and was grateful for it, “I will do my best.”

The door swung open and they turned to face their captor, Jasmine moving closer to face him properly and put herself between him and Nick. He was in his late forties or early fifties, obviously kept in shape and was dressed in a three piece suit that would have put Ianto to shame. It was black, with a deep plum pinstripe that seemed to be barely there. The waistcoat was probably the only reason it was visible, because it matched the stripe. He didn’t have a tie, probably because of the heat, and instead wore his shirt collar unbuttoned to just above the waistcoat. “You know,” Jasmine started, “It’s very hard to get away with a three piece and your top button undone.”

“Do I pass?” He smirked

“I guess you’ll do, I feel like I should have dressed for the occasion. But then again, I didn’t know there would be an occasion.”

“Indeed not, that was part of the plan really.” He smiled, a pleasant enough smile were it not for the fact that it didn’t reach his eyes, which really should have been sparkling emerald or glittering blue but were actually just a dull brown. It came as something of a disappointment, “very well done by the way, I wasn’t expecting you to have time to get yourself loose and craft a weapon from the tools I gave you in the time allowed. I’m sure that gets you bonus points.”

“It certainly should do, it took a moment of brilliant parallel thinking.”

“Indeed, and have you considered my threat?” He hadn’t moved from the doorway, and Jasmine could see people moving around in another room of the house, but she could also see a window, a road. A fairly busy road at that

She shrugged, “I don’t know what you’re demanding, but I cannot agree to your demands. Unless, of course, you just want to know where Ianto gets his suits; in which case I would say that you don’t really need to know as your supplier is excellent.”

“Ah, but I shot the man who made this suit, so I need a new tailor.”

“I’m sorry, I really don’t know. He may even make them himself, his father was a tailor.”

“That would be rather impressive.” He commented

“Yes, he is rather.” She swung the modified chair leg thoughtfully and pointed it at him, “So what did you really want to know?”

“the entry codes for the Torchwood archive.”

Jazz started and raised an eyebrow at him, “Really?”

“Absolutely.”

“Well, erm…” She stared at him, “No.”

He rolled his eyes and pulled out a gun, pointing it over her shoulder towards Nick, “Reconsider?”

Her eyes flicked to the gun and back to his face and the horror was easy to read, “I can’t.”

“Not even once, to save the life of your friend?”

“And if I do it once, and people hear that I backed down, what then? I will be in this job long after you are gone and I will be making these decisions long after you are gone, but if I choose to save someone once, I set a precedent. People will see me as weak and will try to take advantage of that. More people will be put in danger.” The immortal in a teenaged body shook her head, “You’re not going to get the codes off me, no matter what.”

“I wonder, if it were your boyfriend…”

“he’d have flirted you to death by now.”

“Or Mr Jones?”

“Outcome would be the same.”

“Captain Harkness would never forgive you.” Their captor seemed genuinely interested by the idea

“No, neither would I though.”

“But you’d still make this choice.”

“It’s all very academic, it’s the only choice I can make.”

He shook his head and pulled back the catch, “But you know as well as I do, that all actions must have consequences.” He smiled smugly and pulled the trigger and a single tear trailed down Jasmine’s cheek as she felt its path pass over her shoulder.