aviv_b_artwork | Treachery - The Plot Thickens

TITLE:   The Plot Thickens (Part 9 of the Treachery Series)
RATING:  PG-13
WARNING:  None
CHARACTERS: Ianto (John), Tosh, Ocs
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 1280
SUMMARY:  Ianto(John)'s continues receiving treatment at UNIT;  Tosh moves closer to finding out the truth about Ianto.

Treachery (Part 1) here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/49816.html
All chapter are linked.

Two months had passed since the disastrous mission in Oman. John Thomas healed physically but emotionally he remained fragile and confused. Nightmares of Carlos’ murder continued to haunt him and if he was lucky he might get three or four hours of sleep on any given night.

He was still in the hospital receiving ‘psychiatric’ treatment. In reality, the UNIT scientists were working frantically to reinforce the reality that Carlos was alive.

“John, you know that your dreams are just your subconscious expressing your worst fears?”

“I do,” John replied, “but the first dream seemed so real, it’s hard for me to believe that Carlos is still alive.”

“What would it take to convince you of his existence?”

“Well, seeing him of course. Everyone telling me he’s alive does nothing to ease my anxiety. If I could just see him, spend some time with him, I would fell much better.”

“We’ve discussed before why that’s not possible…”

“I know, but I don’t think I’ll be emotionally overwhelmed if I see him. But without that, I’ll never be convinced, really convinced that he’s alive.”

The ‘psychiatrist’ nodded. They had been having daily sessions for two weeks and this was as far as they had progressed. The impression of Carlos’ murder has been fixed on John’s brain, and all the suggestions under sedation and images of a happy Carlos implanted directly into his brain couldn’t dislodge the memory of his murder.

John knew that the doctors were disappointed in him and puzzled a bit why that didn’t make him feel as uneasy as he usually did. By now he fully expected his head to be buzzing loudly but there was just a faint discomfort at the end of the session. He returned to his room and felt very sleepy. The new medication was helping him to get more sleep, but it wasn’t restful slumber, now he had vague dreams of strange people and monsters. He hadn’t told his doctors about these new dreams, he was certain they would have him committed if he told them he was having dreams about a chocolate eating pteranodon or a monster that looked like something out of a Planet of the Apes movie.

The researchers met again with the Colonel overseeing the project. Bringing him up to date, they weren’t surprised to hear his conclusion.

“I think we are going to have to give him Carlos in order to convince him that he’s not dead.”

The lead scientist sighed. “You understand how risky that is. He could go completely rogue on us, or completely decompose.”

“I don’t think we have a choice. Unless we can displace or at least dampen the memories of Carlos dying, he won’t be able to focus and process information for another mission.” Seeing a look concern pass between two of the other researchers, the Colonel asked, “Is there a supply problem?”

“No, it’s just that each comfort companion is designed specifically for one individual. We have one more Carlos but he is tuned a bit differently. Less agreeable, a bit sharper edged, more aggressive.”

“Can you alter John’s perception of Carlos so that he won’t detect a change?”

“I don’t think we can take a chance. His head’s so messed up already, I think that would be ill advised. We can work with the other Carlos to modify his behavior a bit, but that takes time. We’ve spent months fine tuning him for his chosen agent and it will take just as long to retrain him.”

The Colonel got up to leave the room. “You’ve got one week, gentlemen. I suggest you get busy.”

****

Tosh opened the program to see the CCTV feed it had identified as Ianto. The first pictures were almost three years old and a man who looked like Ianto was walking down the street. The feed wasn’t particularly clear, so it was hard to tell if the match was good or not. There were more pictures, but as time progressed the person matched looked less and less like Ianto. Again the clarity of the pictures wasn’t great.

While she had been looking at the first pictures, the computer program had completed its sweep of the available footage. It had identified two more images. She brought up the first one. It was a clear shot of a man from the front. But it didn’t look much like Ianto. His smile was a lot like Ianto’s, but the nose was straighter, the chin a little less square, the forehead smaller and the eyes, they were blue, but cold and lifeless. Still there was something vaguely familiar about him… “No! It can’t be.”

She was about to look for that image Liz had pointed out to her earlier in the day when she remembered that the program had identified one additional image. She decided to look at that first. A feeling of pure dread ran through her as the image was revealed. The image wasn’t from a CCTV camera in London, but was stored in her own cache. Not the picture of Ianto that she had stolen long ago, but the very image from earlier today. Her cache had stored the image of the suspected assassin in Oman. It still didn’t look like Ianto to her. Could the program be wrong?

She sat back and thought for a while until she determined how to proceed. She’d need to ‘borrow’ some software from the Hub, but that would be easy. Just sneak the program out from the archives, bring it home, download it on her laptop and put it back the following day. No one would ever know it was missing. It wasn’t alien, just advanced software developed by UNIT to identify soldiers who died in battle and who were otherwise unrecognizable. Tosh smiled as she appreciated the irony of using UNIT’s own tools against them.

She quickly sobered as she contemplated what this meant for Ianto and what it could mean for her. And what did this say about Jack? How could she continue to work for a man who had apparently turned Ianto over to UNIT?

She shuddered. What did mean in terms of Owen’s involvement? She had thought to enlist Owen’s help but how could she take the chance. Was he involved in this? She and Owen were dating now; they had even spoken of making some long term plans. The thought of Owen helping Jack was almost unbearable.

She considered asking Gwen for help, but as well meaning as she was, Gwen would certainly tell Rhys, who might tell Andy, who might needle Jack about it. She might even storm into Jack’s office and demand an explanation. Tosh snorted. Now that would be a sight, but it wouldn’t do much to help her figure out what was going on.

Maybe Liz… no, even she could be involved. “Shit,” Tosh thought, “she could even be a UNIT agent.” She realized that she had no idea where exactly Liz had come from. There had been mention of M15, but that could easily be faked.

No, she’d have to do this on her own. She shut off her computer and realized it was almost time to get ready from work. Tosh didn’t know what was going on, or who was involved, but by god she was going to find out. And she didn’t care who got hurt in the process. If Jack was involved then to hell with him. And if Owen was, well best to deal with that if she had to. Tosh was certain of only two things. She was not going back to a UNIT prison and if that image from Oman was Ianto, someone was going to pay.

Chapter 10 here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/89224.html