aviv_b_artwork | Treachery part 24/24 + Epilogue to follow (Reply)

TITLE:  Stone Cold Bluff (Part 24 of the Treachery Series)
RATING:  PG-13
WARNING:   None
CHARACTERS:  John (Ianto), Tosh, Owen, Jack, Gwen, Martha, Brigadier (not a cross-over)
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 1240
SUMMARY: The attack on the UNIT base and the aftermath.

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

A/N: Last Chapter - an epilogue will follow in a few days that ties up most of the loose ends.

Tosh crawled through the narrow ductwork on her belly for what seemed like hours. If she had been able to raise her head, the small infrared headlamp would have allowed her to see ahead, but as it was her total concentration was on silently inching forward. Her comm crackled her ear.

“The next vent on your right opens into the room just beyond where the Brigadier is located,” Jack said quietly. “Once you are in the room and ready to advance let me know and I’ll create the diversion.”

“Ok,” Tosh whispered.

She reached where the opening should be and felt along the wall until she found the grillwork. Turning her head aside her headlamp illuminated the grill and the room beyond. It looked like a briefing room, empty except for long tables arranged in rows as well as a lectern and white board placed at one end. She was just able to reach down and grab the small pouch of tools clipped to her waist. Extracting what Jack had dubbed her ‘sonic screwdriver’ Tosh used her more modest laser tool to remove the screws holding the grill in place. She struggled to loosen the grill, finally freeing it in cloud of dust that had gathered on it. The opening was too small for her to fit through so she began to cut through the particle board next to the vent.

A shot rang out from close by. “He’s executed another prisoner Tosh, how much more time do you need?”

“Just a few more minutes, Jack. I’ll signal you when I’m ready.” She continued to work until she had cut off enough of the wall to make an opening. She carefully lowered herself down to the floor and wiped her sweat covered face. As she unclipped the rifle from her back and began to load it, the unthinkable happened. Tosh sneezed.

“Who’s back there,” she heard a voice shout from the next room.

“Shit,” Tosh thought as she activated her com. “Jack, I need that diversion now, right now,” she hissed as she sought cover behind a lectern. Though her hands were shaking, Tosh continued to load her rifle.

“On my way.”

***

John woke up from a deep sleep. He looked around the room in confusion. Expensive walnut furniture and deep green curtains; where was he? Gradually he remembered leaving the Hub with the Torchwood team and being carried, once, or was that twice?

He noticed the monitor to his right and wondered if he was in some type of private hospital. The door opened and he recognized Dr. Harper as he came into the room with another woman.

“Well you’re up at last.”

“Where am I?” John croaked out. Owen poured some water into a cup and helped John to sit up and drink a little of it. He introduced Martha who was busy replacing John’s saline drip.

“You’re going to be here for some time recovering from your surgery. Do you remember that?” John hesitated then nodded. John was able to answer some basic questions, but seemed to have to think about the answers each time before he gave them.

Martha wondered just how much John actually remembered.

“John, what do you do for a living?”

John hesitated. He couldn’t remember. Something to do with…”I’m a tour director, in Edinburgh.”

“How long have you been doing that?”

“Years, I guess. I don’t know really.”

Further questioning revealed that he had no memory of being an assassin, or his time with UNIT, or even his real origins.

“Do you know who Dr. Harper is?”

He was able to remember the name Torchwood, but also had no memory of working there.

He did remember Carlos, and asked about his whereabouts.

“He’ll be coming to see you shortly. You need to get plenty of rest so you are up and about when he arrives.”

John pressed Owen for more information about Carlos, but Owen dodged the questions since he really didn’t even know if Carlos was dead or alive. John began to get agitated and Martha finally administered him another sedative.

Leaving the room, Owen and Martha debated John’s condition.

“I think his activities as an assassin may have vanished with the implant,” Martha speculated.

“I don’t know about that,” Owen replied as he told her about the sudden reemergence of John’s recollections of Myfanwy and Janet.

“This makes sorting him out much more difficult. Can he be held accountable for actions he took while under outside influences?” Martha wondered.

“Not to mention the problem of whether he will remember more about Torchwood or being an assassin. And as for Carlos, who knows what he remembers.”

“I suppose we’ll just have to see how it goes.”

“Yeah, with not only John but Carlos and whether Jack and Tosh can rescue him in time,” Owen said as he thought about all the possible outcomes of the attack on the UNIT base.

Owen looked at his watch and realized that three hours had passed since he had parted ways with Jack and Tosh. Surely they should have heard something by now. But neither he nor the retired UNIT officer at the house had had any communication with the team at the UNIT base.

Owen’s guts churned. This couldn’t be good.

***

Tosh was still crouched behind the lectern as a door at the far side of the room opened flooding the space with light. She knew that she was behind the only possible hiding place in the room and that the Brigadier was likely to shoot through it to her in a matter of moments. She closed her eyes and prepared for the inevitable.

She opened them a moment later as a powerful explosion shook the building.

“What the hell,” the Brigadier muttered. She could hear footsteps moving away from her. She peaked out from the lectern to see that the room stood empty and as she stood up and primed her rifle, she heard shouting coming from the other room.

“Hey Brigadier, did you miss me?”

“No! This is impossible, you’re dead!”

“And yet here I am, big as life.”

Tosh moved carefully toward the voices coming from the next room. She could just see the Brigadier from the doorway. As she lined him up in her sights she saw him laugh and pull his gun. “Not for long,” the Brigadier snarled as he shot Jack directly in the head.

Tosh let off a clean head shot at the Brigadier. He remained standing for a moment, shock and disbelief on his face. Then his head caught on fire and he disintegrated before Tosh’s eyes.

As Tosh entered the room she was met with the remains of a slaughter. Ten bodies lay face down in a neat row. Each had been shot execution style with a single bullet to the back of the head. Two living prisoners were huddled in terror in a corner of the room. Neither was Carlos. “Stay where you are,” she told them. “Help is on the way.”

Jack was dead but was already beginning to show signs of coming back to life. As for the Brigadier, all that was left was a brain implant. A large complex implant identical to John’s.

“Hell, he’s an assassin. Which means there’s someone else running this whole scheme,” Tosh thought as her heart sunk. This wasn’t the end of their search, this was only the beginning.

Tosh hit her comm and gave Lethbridge-Stewart and his team the all-clear signal. Tosh knelt by Jack to wait for him to revive. She’d let the UNIT team identify the victims, though in her heart she knew one of them was Carlos.

Chapter 25 (Epilogue) here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/105828.html