The Twilight Streets

TEN

Ianto closed the file and added it to the pile on Jack’s desk, just as Owen sauntered in.

‘Just us chickens, yeah?’

Ianto nodded. ‘Looks like it. We sit around at home while the womenfolk go out and do all the work.’

Owen grinned wolfishly. ‘Don’t let Jack hear you call him a woman!’

Ianto managed a smile back.

Owen nodded at the files. ‘Heavy going?’

‘Yeah. And nothing concrete in any of them. Just read about some poor kid whose two mates, were found immolated in number 6 Coburg Street. One of them was his girlfriend. The police tried to pin it on him and another girl, but there wasn’t enough evidence. Poor kid said it was the ghost.’

‘Once upon a time,’ Owen said, sitting on the edge of Jack’s desk, ‘dunno ’bout you, mate, but I’d’ve laughed at that. But in our world, ghosts and all that, who’s to say what is and isn’t real?’

Ianto shrugged. ‘S’posed to find out, aren’t we? But I’m not seeing anything that links the Tretarri area with Jack’s weirdness. You got anything?’

‘Nah, same old test results you always get from Jack – normal for him, less normal for us, but at least he’s consistent.’

Ianto pondered on this. ‘Look, I found out he’s been doing this for… years. I mean with back-from-the-dead Jack, how many years is open to interpretation, but well over seventy-five. So it’s not something new. And we know he’s not always been based at Torchwood, although he’s been in and out of here for a long time. So whatever it is that stops him going in, it’s before Torchwood. It’s something in him.’

‘Ask him,’ Owen suggested. ‘Seriously. Say it’s time for some answers.’

Ianto thought about this, too. ‘I’d like to offer him some options, cos you know him – he’ll just clam up, brush it aside. But if we can piece some stuff together from what we do know, we could challenge him.’

‘You can challenge him,’ Owen corrected. ‘I’ll just get my head bitten off.’

‘Maybe you will. So what do we know?’

‘Bugger all, frankly. I sit down and try and put two and two together where he’s concerned and always get five.’

Ianto was enthusiastic now. ‘Exactly, and maybe that’s the way to get answers from Jack. We draw wrong conclusions, hopefully he’ll correct us.’

‘Or let us believe ’em, cos it suits him that way.’ Owen pulled up a chair and sat down. ‘Right. He’s old. Dead old. Been here since Queen Vic was on the throne, Tosh reckons. And he can’t die, which – and I say this as the best doctor studying alien biology in the world – I can offer no grounds for. His cells just go back to how they were. I’ve studied his blood, tried messing around with it. It doesn’t reform, it doesn’t mutate or even clone itself. It just reverts back to how it was before. Which, frankly, is bloody weird and not a bit scary.’

‘Time Agent. When we met Captain John, he said they were Time Agents.’

‘Never told us what that meant though. But hang on… What if, assuming this isn’t all bollocks and they’re not conmen doing the most protracted swindle in history, what if they can travel in time. That’s gotta do something to you, I’d’ve thought.’

‘How do you mean?’

Owen frowned. ‘The human body, it’s designed for certain stresses, certain events in your life. But is it designed for time travel? I’m not saying it isn’t, but we don’t know it is. We do know that Jack’s the only person actually unable to enter Tretarri, even if no one else stays for long.’

‘And,’ Ianto worked it out slowly but surely, ‘Jack is the only time traveller we have to hand.’

‘So maybe that’s the connection. Whatever makes him able to stand time travel, makes him unable to get into Tretarri.’

‘Which would,’ said Jack from the doorway, ‘mean that whatever is in Tretarri, is related to chronon energy of some sort.’

Owen had his hand on his chest. ‘One day, Jack, one day, you’ll give me a heart attack, sneaking up on people like that.’

Jack smiled, and put his hands on Owen’s shoulders, to keep him in the chair. ‘Nah, physician, heal thyself.’ He looked at Ianto. ‘OK, I like the theory, how about I give you some interesting evidence. Ianto, any names come up in your files and records that should raise our collective eyebrows?’

Ianto frowned. ‘Dunno what you mean.’

‘Try this name for size-’

‘Bilis Manger,’ shouted Gwen as she crossed the Hub to join them.

‘Hell, is everyone out to get me into A amp;E today?’ Owen asked.

‘Phyllis!’

They all looked at Ianto.

‘It wasn’t Phyllis, it was Bilis!’ Ianto threw the file about Owain Garrett to Jack. ‘Read that.’

‘Where’s Tosh?’ Gwen asked.

‘What? Who the hell is Phyllis?’

‘Phyllis isn’t Phyllis, she’s Bilis!’

‘Hello? Tosh? Remember her?’

‘Heart rate still really fast.’

‘Bilis is a cross-dresser?’

‘No, he thought the ghost said “Phyllis” but I bet it said “Bilis”!’

‘Toshiko Sato?’

‘Ghost?’

‘We have a transvestite ghost?’

‘It’s in the report.’

‘Idris told me it was Bilis. It’s all on this flash drive.’

‘Who the hell is Idris?’

‘One of Jack’s floozies, from, oh, just before you joined, I seem to remember.’

‘Small? Japanese? Good with alien tech?’

‘Is Idris a cross-dresser, too?’

‘What?’

The Hub lights went out en masse.

‘Emergency procedures,’ yelled Jack.

‘Lockdown? We have thirty seconds or we’re here for six hours if it’s a complete power cut!’

‘Shit! My samples of Jack’s blood and DNA – I need to keep the power to them going!’

The lights came on again.

Gwen was standing at her workstation. ‘Next time I turn them off for good,’ she snapped.

‘Why did you do that, Gwen?’ asked Owen as they all left Jack’s office.

‘To get you lot to shut the hell up. Now then, I’ll ask again. Where is Tosh?’

Dunno.’

‘At Tretarri, I think.’

‘She hasn’t called in though.’

Gwen was about to say something to all this when a new voice called out.

All four Torchwood heads turned and looked past the base of the water tower and up at the raised Hothouse.

Tosh was there, unconscious on the grating. Beside her, hands behind his back, cool as a cucumber, was Bilis Manger.

‘Good evening,’ he smirked.

The click was almost deafening as four guns – three Torchwood pistols and Jack’s Webley – were drawn, aimed and cocked in unison.

Bilis just smiled more. ‘Oh really, surely you know by now that you don’t get rid of me that easily. You may all be very fine shots, but I’m not sure you’d actually open fire and risk hitting Ms Sato when faced by a harmless and desperately unarmed old man.’

‘Harmless,’ sneered Owen.

‘We don’t know you’re unarmed,’ Ianto pointed out.

‘Not convinced you’re as old as you seem,’ Gwen added.

‘But I’ll give you “desperate”.’ Jack smiled, lowering his gun. The others followed suit.

‘Oh Jack, Jack, Jack. Poor, sweet, time-lost Jack. How you wound me with your cynicism. Such ingratitude when I’ve gone to all this trouble. For you.’ Bilis looked at Gwen. ‘How nice to see you again, Gwen. And I’m so glad to see your Rhys is looking better these days. And Owen Harper. No, wait, Dr Owen Harper – one must subscribe to the social niceties. I really wanted to thank you. After all, it was down to you that my Lord was able to escape his shackles. And Ianto Jones, without whom nothing would ever really get done at Torchwood these days.’

‘What do you want?’ spat Jack. ‘Kinda bored of you now.’

‘Simple Jack. You destroyed Abaddon. You closed the Rift. It reversed time, repaired all the so-called damage that was done. And so I am left wondering: if all those people out there came back to life, like dear Rhys, what happened to my Lord?’

‘It was destroyed,’ Jack said quietly. ‘I destroyed it. That was what closed the Rift, sealed the breach. He’s not coming back.’

‘Ah,’ Bilis said, still smiling, ‘you would say that, wouldn’t you?’ He gestured to the Rift Manipulator housed in the base of the water tower. ‘This marvellous device, this wonderful creation affects the Rift itself. Who is to say that someone with experience of manipulating time couldn’t find a way to go back a bit further? To take my Lord out of harm’s way?’

‘Me actually,’ said Jack. ‘I don’t know if you can do that, but I doubt it. A lot. But even if I didn’t doubt it as much as I do, you’re not going to get the chance to try.’

Bilis nodded. ‘I imagined that that would be your response. Hence my borrowing of your technical genius here. Oh, you don’t mind if I hang on to her, just for a little while longer?’

‘Know what? I do,’ said Jack. ‘Funny little thing, loyalty, but she’s part of my team. And I rather like her, too. So work needs plus friendship needs equals me not really willing to part with her.’

‘Trade?’

‘Offer?’

‘I’ll exchange Toshiko for a day in your Hub, access all areas, and I promise not to let the Weevils out.’

Four stony faces greeted that request.

‘Well, it was worth a try,’ Bilis said. ‘Au revoir.’

Before anyone could react, Bilis and Toshiko had vanished again.

‘Damn,’ said Owen.

‘Gwen,’ snapped Jack. ‘Records, now. I want any trace of Bilis found. Start with this.’ He threw the USB flash drive to her. ‘I want to know everything there is to know, and extrapolate the rest.’

He looked at Owen. ‘If your hypothesis about me is correct, I’m useless in Tretarri unless you can find a way to overcome it.’

‘Gotcha,’ said Owen disappearing down into the Autopsy Room.

‘Ianto. You, my office. I want to know everything you’ve gleaned about Tretarri from your research. I’ll be back in five.’

‘Jack?’

Captain Jack Harkness turned back to Gwen and smiled. ‘I’ll get her back safe and sound, Gwen. I promise.’

Gwen held his look for ten seconds, and smiled.

‘I know you will.’