Something in the Water

SEVEN

Owen found Jack on the phone to the UN in Geneva.

‘Torchwood,’ Jack was saying. ‘Yes. T-O-R-C-H-W … look, who is this? I’m calling on a priority line, dammit, I don’t need to spell anything out. I was promised a full report on the Helsinki Warp. Yes, I know that was a UNIT operation. Torchwood is copied in on everything UNIT does.’ He listened for a few seconds, a muscle twitching in his jaw. ‘Captain Jack Harkness. Harkness. H-A-R-K … oh, can it.’

He threw the phone onto his desk in exasperation and ran his fingers through his hair. ‘What is it with these guys? Give them a desk and a phone and they think they control the world.’

‘Some of them do, don’t they?’

‘Over my dead body. And I mean that. It’s bad enough dealing with the Hokrala Corp lawyers and their ex-dimension writs, without all that United Nations red tape.’ Jack leant back in his chair and called out: ‘Ianto! Anything from Gwen and Tosh?’

Ianto appeared quietly and calmly at the door to Jack’s office, almost as if he’d been waiting there. And he had a tray of coffee things with him. ‘They should be here within the hour.’

‘Great.’ Jack took a coffee. ‘Ianto, you always know exactly what I need. It’s uncanny, I tell you.’

‘That’s why I work for Torchwood. Uncanny is our business.’

‘You’d better get your autopsy table cleaned up,’ Jack told Owen. ‘Gwen and Toshiko are bringing in another guest for you.’

Owen shot Ianto a questioning look.

‘They found a corpse at Greendown Moss,’ Ianto explained.

‘Human or alien?’

‘They can’t be sure. Probably human. Apparently it’s rather old and somewhat decayed.’

‘Two autopsies in one day. Business is good.’

‘It’s better than good,’ Jack said. ‘It’s a result. According to Tosh, the corpse registers for Rift energy — it’s linked to whatever’s been going on with that.’ He nodded towards the immense silver tower at the heart of the Hub.

Owen shook his head, then paused as his gaze fell on a decades-old poster on the wall behind Jack’s head. Coughs and sneezes spread diseases, it read. He looked back at Jack. ‘I’ve been thinking about Bob Strong.’

‘Who?’

‘The GP.’

‘What about him?’

‘He’s very ill. He seems to think he may have been exposed to some kind of biohazard.’

Jack looked at him directly. ‘Do you?’

‘Can’t say for certain,’ Owen admitted. ‘I took a blood sample, partly as cover, but mostly because I think it needs checking into.’

Jack sighed. ‘Owen, this is Torchwood, not the Department of Health.’ Jack swung his boots down from his desk and grabbed his coffee, heading for the door.

‘The GP was only half-joking about the biohazard but I can’t say for sure that he’s not right,’ said Owen, following Jack out. ‘We’ve seen what can happen when an experimental strain of foot-and-mouth was accidentally released from research labs in the South of England after last year’s floods, and the NHS is under siege from C-Deficile. Throw the prospect of biological terrorism into the mix and a switched-on GP could get jumpy.’

‘Have you done the blood test?’

‘It’s running. Should be finished by now.’ Owen hurried across to his workstation and punched up the test results. ‘Now we can see what’s what.’ The screen filled with streams of chemical equations and graphs. Owen frowned, and tapped some keys. Data scrolled up the screen, and his eyes darted from side to side as he took it in. ‘That’s wrong,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s gotta be …’

‘What’s up?’ Jack joined him at the workstation.

‘Doesn’t make sense. The test must have mis-run.’

‘Why?’

Owen tapped the screen. ‘There’s nothing wrong with this blood. It’s perfectly normal O-negative. Cell count, blood gases, they’re all spot on.’

‘Which means …?’

‘Whatever Bob Strong’s got, it isn’t a disease.’ He sat forward and typed quickly, more urgently. The screen flicked and changed and began filling up with more information. ‘I’ve hacked into the main NHS database. It’s just a thought, but … Yeah, here we go. Look at this: massive spike in respiratory complaints in the last few weeks, right across the region. Way above the seasonal average.’

‘So what is it? A flu epidemic? Big deal; these people still think it’s news when there’s another outbreak of measles. Let me know when it’s Martian Flu.’

‘I told Strong it was probably a new strain of flu, but I doubt it is. And so does he, in all honesty. GPs are pretty clued up on influenza, even foreign strains of the usual A, B and C viruses. The Government has a major vaccination programme in place in case there’s an outbreak or a pandemic. But this doesn’t fit the flu profile.’

A quiet cough signalled Ianto’s presence. ‘Excuse me. I’ve just had word from Gwen — they’ve arrived.’

Jack clapped his hands. ‘Great. Let’s see what the cat’s dragged in.’

Owen gestured at his screen. ‘What about this?’

‘It’s still as much a matter for the medical profession as for Torchwood. I hear what you’re saying, and we’ll tag it for a follow up.’ Jack headed towards the Autopsy Room. ‘Right now, you’ve got another dead body to look at. Maybe you can find a connection?’

Owen bit his lip, considering the information on the screen for a second longer. Then he twisted out of his seat and followed Jack.

Gwen and Toshiko were just coming into the Hub. The strobe lights were still flashing as the massive cog-wheel vault door rolled slowly back into position behind them with its customary grinding rattle. Gwen looked tired but glad to be back at base.

Toshiko, on the other hand, just looked wet. Very wet.

Jack paused at the top of the stairs and looked down at her with a grin. ‘Hey, Tosh, when I said we’d see what the cat’s dragged in, I didn’t think it was gonna be you!’

Owen joined him and broke into a laugh.

‘Owen, don’t say a word.’ Toshiko glared up at him. Her face was streaked with dirt, as if she’d been lying face down in a puddle. Her hair was bedraggled and her clothes were soaked through and stained with mud. A pool of dingy water spread out across the concrete where she stood.

Ianto, with only the faintest of tuts, appeared with a number of old newspapers to put down on the floor and a clean towel for Toshiko. She thanked him icily as she took the towel and shivered. Ianto then busied himself spreading the paper out on the concrete, soaking up the water and clumps of congealed mud and grass. ‘There is a doormat upstairs, you know. Several, in fact.’

‘What the hell happened?’ Jack asked, grinning.

‘Slight accident in the marshland,’ Gwen said. ‘We wandered off the path at Greendown Moss. Big mistake.’

‘That’s a relief,’ Owen said with a sardonic smile. ‘For a moment I thought you’d been mud-wrestling together and I’d missed it.’

‘In your dreams.’

‘Only when I’m bored, girls. Only when I’m bored.’

Without another word, Toshiko went to get herself cleaned up. Gwen reported to Jack in his office.

‘Your friend Professor Len was … interesting. Not your type, I’d have thought.’

‘Really?’

‘Sort of … grungy.’

‘So he’s let himself go. But he was a great guy. We had a thing together in the early seventies.’ Jack smiled warmly at the memory.

‘Yes,’ Gwen said thoughtfully, ‘he sent his fondest. But we didn’t find any ghosts.’

‘Ianto said you found a corpse, which is a start.’

‘That was later. First we searched Greendown Moss. There was definitely something there — Tosh picked up another Rift spark, but we couldn’t get a fix on it, didn’t see anything.’

‘Sounds familiar,’ muttered Owen.

‘Ignore him,’ Jack told Gwen. ‘He’s just sore because he lost an alien in a fish farm.’

Owen pointed at himself and mouthed I’m sore …? incredulously.

Gwen said, ‘How’d you get on with Big Guy, then?’

‘He’s in the Morgue. Some unidentified extraterrestrial opened him up like a-’

‘So far we’ve had a packet of crisps and a tin of tuna,’ commented Jack.

‘-baked potato,’ Owen finished triumphantly. He looked from one to the other. ‘No?’

‘Almost a meal,’ said Gwen. ‘Which reminds me — I’m hungry. Anyone for pizza?’

‘Already ordered,’ announced Ianto smoothly as he handed her a mug of hot chocolate.

‘Thanks, Ianto. You are a treasure, you know that?’

He smiled. ‘As a matter of fact, I do.’

‘Tosh stepped off the path and got stuck in the mud.’ Gwen sipped the chocolate carefully. ‘At least I thought it was mud, but it turned out to be a bog or something and before we knew it she was sinking.’

Owen sniggered, shaking his head. ‘Oh, I’d have paid money to have seen that.’

Gwen glared at him. ‘She’s lucky to be alive. If it hadn’t been for Professor Len, she’d be dead.’

‘Wouldn’t we all?’ said Jack. He stood up and clapped his hands. ‘So — where’s the body?’