Something in the Water

NINETEEN

Jack strode through the giant cog-wheel portal of the Hub and headed straight for the steps on the left leading up to Toshiko’s workstation. He was taking the stairs three at a time when he realised that she wasn’t at her desk.

‘Where’s Tosh?’ Jack called to Ianto, who was just coming through from the Morgue.

Ianto was holding a dustpan and brush. He used the brush to point. ‘Hothouse. Good to see you back.’

‘You too, Ianto, you too. Lookin’ sharp. I like a man who knows how to keep a place tidy — I ever tell you that?’

‘Once or twice.’

Jack doubled back, heading for the spiral steps that led up to the Hothouse. He could see Toshiko now, standing over a complex piece of apparatus in the centre of the room. She was wearing a white lab coat, which stood out among all the plants and bottles. Jack was about to go inside when he realised that the doors were shut, and when he tried to open them he found they were locked.

‘Tosh?’

No answer. She was intent on her work and she couldn’t hear him through the partition.

Ianto followed Jack up the stairway and cleared his throat apologetically. ‘She’s sealed herself inside.’

‘What? Why?’

Ianto knocked politely on the glass and Toshiko looked up, startled.

Jack felt startled too. Toshiko looked terrible. She was drawn, with dark rings under her eyes and a sheen of sweat over colourless skin. Jack looked back at Ianto. ‘What’s going on?’

‘She’s running a temperature and she’s as weak as a kitten. Then she started coughing up blood.’

Inside the Hothouse, Toshiko pressed a switch to activate the intercom. ‘I’ve put myself in quarantine, Jack.’

‘Quarantine?’

‘It’s just a precaution. I think I’ve picked up some kind of infection.’ She coughed hard into a handkerchief, holding on to the workbench next to her for support. ‘I don’t know what it is yet, but I’m trying to isolate it now. I think it could be what’s been on the TV news.’

‘There must be something we can do. I’ll get Owen, he can help.’

‘I doubt it,’ said Owen, joining them outside the Hothouse with Gwen. He cleared his throat and winced. ‘I think I’ve got it too.’

Jack looked at him. ‘Owen, you’ve got a cold.’

‘Man flu,’ said Gwen. ‘You guys — slightest sign of a sore throat and you hit the deck. Rhys is just the same. Pathetic.’

Jack ignored her and turned back to Toshiko, thumbing the intercom switch next to the door. ‘What you found, Tosh?’

‘Well it’s not flu, I can tell you that.’ Another cough, her face screwing up and a hand going to her throat. ‘I’ve taken blood and saliva samples, I’m testing them now.’

‘Owen did all this before, on Saskia Harden’s GP. His tests were all clear.’

‘I was checking for known diseases,’ Owen admitted. He raised a hand to attract Toshiko’s attention. ‘Are you checking for anything in particular?’

‘I’m eliminating any known biological or bacteriological weapons. Sarin, Anthrax, E74. I’ve even checked for any radioactive isotopes, in case it’s plutonium poisoning — the symptoms aren’t dissimilar.’

‘And?’

‘So far it’s all clear.’

‘Which means?’ asked Jack.

Owen said, ‘Which means that if it is a bioweapon, it isn’t one from Earth.’

‘Meeting, downstairs,’ Jack told the others, and they moved away towards the stairwell. Jack smiled through the glass at Toshiko. ‘Carry on. I’ll connect up to you from the Boardroom.’

She nodded wearily and gave him the thumbs up.

Gwen already had BBC News 24 feeding through to the main screen on the Boardroom wall. They were in the middle of a story about the polar ice-caps melting, but the rolling stop-press news at the bottom of the picture referred to the flu epidemic in Wales and southern England. Gwen was reading it out aloud as the others filed in behind her: ‘Government scientists have been placed on alert following the outbreak of a previously unknown strain of the flu virus in South Wales and South East England-’

‘Government scientists?’ said Owen scornfully, sliding into a chair.

‘-A spokesperson has denied that the outbreak indicates that bird flu may have made the transition to human beings, although it has yet to be confirmed whether or not this is the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus … Blah blah blah,’ Gwen trailed off.

‘They’re fudging,’ agreed Owen. ‘They know it’s something serious, so they’ve let slip the bird flu thing. It’s a cover for the fact that they haven’t a clue.’

‘And we do?’ said Jack.

‘We know it’s something to do with Saskia Harden.’

‘Do we?’

Owen leaned forward, wincing for a moment as he cleared his throat. ‘It’s my guess Saskia’s the original carrier — Patient Zero. She went to her GP, passed it to him. That’s two infected people. Now a contagious pathogen in the middle of a doctor’s waiting room, full of people who are already sick or rundown, is the perfect breeding ground. Little or no resistance. Everyone there is infected. They go away, infect other people. And so it goes on.’

‘My God, it’ll never stop,’ whispered Gwen.

‘Do you think it’s deliberate?’ Jack asked. ‘Or just an accident?’

‘Does it matter?’ Owen said. ‘Either way we’re up the proverbial creek. Remember what happened when the Rift was opened — an entire hospital was brought to its knees trying to deal with fourteenth-century patients with bubonic plague. Something like this could cause the emergency services to go into meltdown.’

‘It’s deliberate,’ Ianto said firmly.

‘Why?’

‘Think about it. The whole thing boils down to this Saskia woman. Before this week we’d never heard of her — but neither had anyone else, except for the police and her GP. And the records they hold for her are all false. She doesn’t really exist.’

‘Which is why we have to find her,’ said Jack, clicking his fingers.

‘And Toshiko?’ asked Gwen. ‘What do we do about her?’

Jack turned to Owen. ‘How do you think she caught it?’

‘She must have been exposed to the virus. I don’t know how, but it’s my guess our dead friend from Greendown Moss is responsible.’

Gwen coughed. ‘But if that’s the case then we’re all infected, aren’t we? We were all there in the Autopsy Room.’

They all looked at one another.

Jack opened a link to the Hothouse. ‘Tosh? Any news?’

A barrage of strenuous coughing came through the loudspeakers. Eventually, Toshiko’s voice, tired and ragged, followed: ‘Nothing yet. I think I’ve managed to isolate a non-human cell, though. It’s a slow process. The cells are mutating all the time, almost as if they’re trying to disguise themselves as human cells.’

‘The likelihood is that we are all infected,’ Jack told her.

‘I’m the only one showing advanced symptoms so far. I need to stay isolated.’ There was a heavy, lonely sigh. Gwen pictured Toshiko lowering herself onto the stool as she talked. ‘I’m keeping notes — it starts with a sore throat, then a cough. The cough gets worse … like there’s something at the back of your throat but you just can’t clear it.’

‘Exactly what I’ve got,’ said Owen, and then coughed as if to prove it.

‘The cough gets progressively more painful. You begin running a temperature. Eventually you’ll find you’re coughing up blood.’

Gwen was rubbing nervously at her throat and swallowing repeatedly. ‘You know, I’m getting a sore throat too …’

‘It’s the first sign,’ Owen said, looking around the table. ‘We’ve all got it.’

Ianto came into the boardroom, a handkerchief held over his mouth and nose.

‘That won’t do you any good,’ said Owen. ‘Holding a hanky over your nose isn’t going to protect you against this kind of thing.’

‘It’s too late for that,’ Ianto replied. He showed them the handkerchief — it was full of bright red spots. When they looked back at him, his face was flooded with anxiety. ‘What’s going to happen to us all?’

‘After a while, there will be mucus as well as blood,’ croaked Toshiko before dissolving into another fit of coughing. ‘From what I can tell, it’s at this stage the pathogen becomes properly contagious.’

Gwen felt herself starting to panic. As always, her first instinct was to call Rhys, but she had to shut her eyes tight and ruthlessly close the lid on any thoughts about her immediate future. She wouldn’t be any use if she was frozen by fear. Look at Tosh, she told herself. Cool and professional to the end.

To the end … A thought suddenly struck Gwen. ‘What about Jack?’ she said.

Everyone turned to look at him. ‘I never get sick,’ he said. ‘When you can’t die, you don’t get bothered much by the common cold.’

‘This isn’t the common cold,’ Gwen said.

‘I don’t get sick,’ Jack repeated. ‘Usually.’

There was a long pause. ‘Usually?’ Owen prompted.

Jack pulled a face and rubbed his neck. ‘I’ve kinda got a sore throat coming on now.’