TORCHWOOD 3 - CARDIFF
PRESENT
‘Ianto!’ I called. ‘What is it?’
‘You might want to take this Sir,’ Ianto said, taking the phone from a very confused looking Gwen.
‘Who is this?’ I asked.
‘This is Gwen’s friend Andy from the police, I’ve been told to give Gwen a call by her colleague Erin Sturgeon, who’s asked me to pass on a message.’
‘Okay so what’s the message?’
‘That her psycho soon to be brother in-law has arrested her because he’s got a small penis and is trying to compensate for his lack of seniority – her exact words not mine although he did seem like he was compensating for something, he bashed her head in.’
‘On what charges?’ Was my next question.
‘Espionage against the crown, drugging and assaulting an officer of the United States of America, preventing the course of justice, as well as suspicious activities and the active manipulation of British media.’
I turned to Ianto who just shrugged at my bug eyed expression.
‘Well I’m going to need you to let her go without charge there Andy.’
‘I’m afraid I can’t do that, the CIA have taken control of this one.’
‘She just had to go and get married.’ I muttered. ‘Thanks Andy.’
I tossed the phone back to Gwen, dashing to my desk knowing full well that Wyatt had taken this to the extreme. I knew I should of trusted my gut, I knew he hadn’t shut this down.
‘Jack I don’t understand,’ Gwen said following after me. ‘Why would he arrest her?’
‘Her brother is part of the CIA and I’m guessing since he arrested her he either triggered his memory loss for the Retcon or Erin missed something.’ I said, grabbing for the phone on my desk, quickly punching in the number I had memorised.
Suddenly the phone on Erin’s desk started ringing and Gwen scrambled away, her boots clunking on the metal as she answered.
‘Hello?’
‘Who is it?’ I yelled over.
‘It’s UNIT!’
Oh this was just what I needed, I knew Erin’s name in the system would ring alarms but I didn’t know UNIT would catch on so quickly, then again not everyone had a dad working for the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. They did have nice beret’s though.
‘This is Director Langon, who’s speaking?’ The drone of an American accent grated through my phone.
‘This is Captain Jack Harkness, we’ve spoken before.’
‘Ah yes, Captain.’
‘Your officer Wyatt Halliwell hasn’t shut down the investigation and has now assaulted and arrested my agent on charges that don’t make sense.’
‘I regret to inform you Captain but I know about your little Retcon pill, your agent used it on mine.’
‘Oh come on you’re telling me you haven’t killed someone to keep something quiet because I know you have, this needs to stop, give the order to let her go or-’
‘Or you’ll what Captain?’ The man asked.
‘It’s not just us here that she has protection from, I am the only thing stopping UNIT going down there and arresting your officer and having extradited back to the states.’
‘I think you’ll find we’re the ones extraditing her, Mr Harkness, she’s marrying into an American family anyway, she’ll be ours soon enough.’
‘What are you talking about?’ I asked, ushering Owen over.
‘Did I hear Erin’s got arrested?’ He whispered but I waved him off, pushing the speaker button on the machine. ‘Now I know the worlds going fucking mad – the woman breaks out into hives if we go past a do not enter sign.’
‘Believe it or not, ever since the first background check on Miss Sturgeon we’ve been keeping an eye on her, Wyatt was just doing a little personal digging for me.’ Langdon said and I could almost hear the smile on his face. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t more forthcoming on our last phone call but It’ll be interesting to learn what the British have kept hidden from us once she sets foot on American soil.’
‘You think she’s just going to tell you everything?’ I asked. ‘I don’t know if you’ve met her Director but that’s not going to end well.’
‘Oh I wouldn’t worry about it Captain,’ Langdon said. ‘Once she’s here you’ll never have to hear from her again, it’ll be our little secret – once she’s married to Wyatt’s brother she’ll be trapped and quite frankly, there’s nothing you can do about that.’
‘Wait hold up, you’re telling me this was a set up?’ I asked.
‘You really think dear Christopher just happened to be at her university?’ The director asked. ‘Wasn’t it Wyatt that pushed him to teach in the UK and recommend a certain university to give his first lecture at?’
I pressed the mute button on the machine, turning to Owen.
‘Get the Brigadier on the phone, tell him what’s happened co-ordinate with Gwen get UNIT down to the police station and get her out of there.’
‘I told her this marriage thing was a terrible idea.’ He muttered, running down the grate as I unmuted the receiver.
‘So you’ve been watching her in wait, why?’ I asked.
‘She’s been a woman that’s come to our attention for some time now but I think you know the reason for that, don’t you?’
Erin was an extraordinary woman; she was a time traveller, a university graduate and I was proud to call her an officer on my team. If the American’s knew about time travel, if the CIA knew about the Doctor then maybe that’s what they were getting at Erin, from what Tosh had shown me Wyatt had photos and data that was impossible considering Erin’s age, like the different high school’s she went to all dotted throughout her timeline. I knew travelling with the Doctor was dangerous but I had a feeling if the CIA got a hold of her, someone was going to get hurt.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’ I said firmly. ‘This is your last warning Langdon, tell Wyatt to stand down.’
‘No.’
With that I hung up the phone, slamming it on the machine.
‘Ianto!’
‘Yes sir?’
‘You and I are going to the police station, we’re staging a jail break.’
I grabbed my coat, slinging it around my shoulders, turning to Gwen and Owen who stood around Erin’s desk, Gwen frantically scribbling down notes.
‘Tell UNIT to meet us at the station and tell them to bring their guns.’ I told them. ‘And where the hell is Tosh?’
‘She’s out on her lunch break.’ Owen said.
‘Get her on the phone, I want her to meet us at the station.’
