Treachery Part 15/?
Mar. 31st, 2011 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aviv_b_artworkRATING: PG-13
WARNING: None
CHARACTERS: John (Ianto), Tosh, Owen
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 1550
SUMMARY: John is readied for his final mission. Tosh and Owen devise a daring plan.
Treachery (Part 1) here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/49816.html
All chapters are linked.
A/N: The Brigadier mentioned in this story is not Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, nor is he Brigadier Hamilton from Ianto's Journey.
“If you’re asking me whether he’s fit for an assignment, I’m afraid I can’t give you a definitive answer,” the scientist replied.
“I’m not asking your opinion. I’m asking whether the reactivation of his emotional controls been successful.”
The scientist almost rolled his eyes at the Captain’s question but caught himself just in time. “Yes, the activation has been successful and it appears that the programming for his next mission has now assimilated into his consciousness. But that’s no guarantee…”
“Thank you, I don’t need to know anything more. He’ll begin his next mission tomorrow,” the Captain replied as he rose to leave the room. Leaving the labs, the Captain walked over to the UNIT executive wing. His superiors were already waiting for him in the conference room when he arrived.
The Captain assured the assembly that John was ready and able to carry out his next mission. A few questions were asked, but he was surprised how unconcerned they were about John’s possible shortcomings. After he was dismissed, the real discussion began.
“So do we have enough evidence of his performance to assure a successful mission?” one officer asked.
“Does it matter? If he succeeds we will have achieved a great victory and if he fails we will still have a victory of sorts. This is a no lose situation for UNIT,” the Brigadier replied. “The reintroduction of the emotional controls was done with no complications and our Assassin appears to be quite enthusiastic about his next assignment, even if he doesn’t really understand his own motivation for performing this mission.”
“You know, I wish we had a way to see what was happening when it all goes down. It would be a treat to watch the destruction of Torchwood.
****
Owen had shared his discovery about Ianto’s final mission with Tosh first thing the next morning. Tosh was so upset that Owen was concerned her distraction might cause her to be injured on a mission. He had to find a way to keep her safe without alerting Jack. Fortunately the rift was quiet that morning and Owen found a reason to end up in Jack’s office.
“I’m telling you this in the strictest confidence, Jack. Tosh is a bit worked up about asking you for permission to visit her mother. She’s been on edge and losing her focus for the last week.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Jack replied, “why wouldn’t I let her go? I’ll have to speak to her about this.”
Owen grimaced. “Shite, now what do I do?”
“I think there’s more to it than that. I think she has a little ambiguity about going home, but can’t admit that to herself. So I’d like to ask that you give her some space to work through that, but unless absolutely necessary, restrict her to monitoring our mission from the Hub. I don’t want to see her or anyone get injured because she isn’t totally focused on the mission.”
That sounded perfectly reasonable to Jack and he was glad to go along with Owen’s suggestion. As Owen left his office, Jack smiled to himself over how protective Owen had become of Tosh.
***
John checked and rechecked his weapons carefully for his upcoming mission. He had cleaned his handgun thoroughly, but more importantly he had loaded it with the special ammunition the Brigadier had given him. He wondered why his handler hadn’t provided this, but the Brigadier had eased his concern, telling them they were specially prepared for this job. John couldn’t believe how fortunate he was to be under the personal care of the Brigadier.
He couldn’t wait to get on the train the next morning. One more mission, just one more and then he could retire. And Carlos would be with him, his alone forever. John snickered as he felt himself become hard. He’d have to beat off again in a bit, between the mission and the anticipated reward he was almost uncontrollably excited. He needed to stay calm and focused. He checked his small duffle bag and ran through the assignment’s steps one more time.
As he readied himself for sleep he had a feeling of unease pass through him. Hadn’t Carlos told him something about his flat and about the Brigadier? He tried to remember but the buzzing in his head became more irritating.
“Got to ignore that, I remember now that the doctor told me that my day with Carlos was just another dream. No bugs in the room, no worries at all. The Brigadier is my protector, how could that walk in the park be anything but a dream?”
John relaxed as the buzzing noise in his head subsided. He went into his bathroom, had a quick wank, and got into bed.
“Kill Jack Harkness. Shouldn’t be too hard. Shoot him dead.” Something about Jack Harkness and death was itching at the back of his brain, but he couldn’t access the thought.
He fell asleep almost immediately but had disturbing dreams of a woman encased in metal all night long.
****
The Brigadier smirked with satisfaction as the Captain left the meeting. Stupid git, did he really think he could cover up how unstable John really was? He’d be dealt with. In fact the Brigadier thought he might just administer the discipline himself. Fortunately, it really didn’t matter. This would be John’s final mission in every sense of the word.
Everyone at UNIT knew that Jack Harkness couldn’t stay dead. The other officers had reckoned that John would kill Harkness and the Torchwood team would kill John leaving Harkness stew in his guilt over John’s death. And as satisfying as that scenario might have been, the Brigadier had a surprise for everyone. He had a separate team, working in total secrecy designing ammunition that would kill Harkness for good. Not just kill him but destroy him at the atomic level. There wouldn’t be a single cell left to regenerate if John was successful. And there wasn’t a single record in any database that they could implicate the Brigadier in using atomic disrupter technology to kill Jack Harkness.
After the meeting ended, the Brigadier returned to his office and studied the confidential doctor’s reports carefully. It seemed there wasn’t any doubt that ‘real’ Carlos had tipped off John about his mind being manipulated. Good thing that the reactivation of his emotional controls and subsequent programming had not only surfaced this problem but had allowed them to convince John that the whole day was a dream.
A pity about Carlos though. They needed him for one more round of cell samples. They’d have to take a rather large sample to freeze for future use, but it hardly mattered since after that he’d be executed. The Brigadier smiled as he thought back to
***
Tosh was so worried about Ianto’s impending mission, that she didn’t even notice that she was restricted to monitoring rift alerts and tracking alien signals at the Hub. She spent most of her time trying to figure out how Ianto would get into the Hub and how he could successfully carry out his mission. Even Gwen and Liz noticed her distraction.
“So what’s up with Tosh?” Liz asked.
Gwen laughed. “She is behaving oddly, isn’t she?”
“She may be a geek, but I’ve never seen her with her head in the clouds the way she is now.”
“Maybe she and Owen are planning a wedding.” Liz looked at Gwen with disbelief. “Or maybe they are going to elope,” Gwen added sheepishly.
Liz laughed. “Why would they have to elope? It’s not like anyone is going to stop them.”
Gwen shrugged and began to walk away. “Wait, come back, I’ve got it.” Gwen turned back to Liz. “I’ll bet she’s pregnant. Yeah, that makes sense, she’s been nauseous a few times, distracted, Owen’s obviously had her restricted to base, that’s got to be it.”
Gwen didn’t know what to say. What Liz said made sense, but somehow she couldn’t imagine that Tosh and Owen could be so careless. They were both physicians after all.
“Guess slip-ups can happen to anyone.”
Later at Tosh’s flat, Owen and Tosh checked the UNIT files as they had each day. Something had changed. In John’s main file there was a notation, “Mission Launch, 0700 hours” followed by the next days date.
“Its beginning,” Owen said. “So do we tell Jack or not? Do we tell the others? There’s no way Ianto can succeed. They want him dead and they are using Torchwood to pull the trigger.”
“And how do we keep him alive? If we tell Jack, he may want him killed. If we don’t tell the others, they may kill him outright.”
As they debated the best course of action, Owen scrolled through the files. The sub folders were untouched except for the last two. A large X was drawn over Ianto’s and Carlos’ face with the notation, TBT underneath.
“What’s that mean?”
Tosh felt sick to her stomach, “I reckon it stands for ‘To Be Terminated.'
