‘Now that is ugly,’ Jack said.
The occupant was a large humanoid. If it had stood, it would have been more than seven feet tall. In the caged frame, it sat in a scooped position, its knees slightly lifted and its long, filthy claws clutched near its chest, so that it appeared like a monstrously large foetus. Its bare skull had a ridge of bony protrusions that began at the bridge of its nose and continued over the back of the head. Its mouth was a gash in the bottom of its flat, cruel face, and it sucked in air with shallow breaths. Beneath its heavy, closed lids, the creature’s eyes were moving, as though it was dreaming. Tubing and wires were connected from its scarred torso into flickering shapes of light in the side of the cage.
Gwen found that she’d wandered in front of the suspended creature. She was fascinated and repulsed by it in equal measure. A hand on her shoulder moved her to one side. She twisted her head to see that Jack was weighing the harpoon gun in his hands, aiming the wicked spike at the trapped alien.
Gwen considered the look in Jack’s eye. ‘You can’t, Jack. It’s helpless.’
‘No it’s not,’ he told her coldly. ‘I’ve spoken to it. You don’t know it like I do.’
‘I’m beginning to think I don’t know you any more.’
Jack never took his eyes off the creature in front of him. It was almost as though he suspected he would falter if he met Gwen’s searching, disbelieving gaze. ‘It’s controlling Owen. It’s murdered others. It would have destroyed this whole area.’
‘No, Jack. I can’t let you.’
He hefted the harpoon gun higher. ‘You can’t stop me. It’s surrendered the right to survive.’
The trigger clicked. The harpoon spear shot forward and penetrated the creature’s chest, just above its folded claws. The barbed spike continued through the body and out the back of the cage. Jack braced his feet on the floor, took a grip of the unspooled wire that was still attached to the spear, and pulled back with all his weight. The reverse side of the barbed spike caught on the rear of the cage, until Jack tugged it one more time and the brittle casing shattered. The entire spear pulled back through the creature’s chest. The Bruydac Warrior’s eyes snapped open, red and wide and appalled. Its arms jerked out in an uncontrolled gesture, and for a fleeting moment Gwen imagined it begging, pleading. The spiked barb of the harpoon clattered to the floor in front of the cage, and the Bruydac Warrior slumped lifeless in its cage.
Jack concealed the remains of the ravaged body with the broken cage doors. The catch was broken and would not fasten, so he pulled the front pieces together as best he could. ‘Nowhere to run,’ he told the corpse quietly.
Gwen rounded on him. The initial sight of the creature had frightened her, revolted her even. But Jack’s cold-blooded execution had nauseated her more. She rounded on him. ‘You didn’t have to do that.’
‘No?’ He stared her down. ‘It’s controlling Owen. It still is. I don’t know any other way of helping him. You got a better idea, maybe?’
‘I don’t know,’ she yelled angrily. ‘What makes me the expert all of a sudden? You’re the one who’s had the Bruydac driving lessons.’
‘Well, maybe that will make it easier for you to do this next thing for me.’
Gwen didn’t want to listen any more. And she couldn’t abandon Jack and retrace her steps down those corridors and find her way back to the Hub alone. Jack would know that, of course, and was able to make some further adjustments to the controls in the central cylinder while she scowled at him from the edge of the room. All the time, Jack continued talking, explaining what he was doing, what he was going to do, and the things he needed her to do. She didn’t want to listen, but she found that she had to. And the more she did, the greater her dread became.
His work at the cylinder completed, Jack walked over to one of the hanging cages. It was the same one that they’d found Owen in. Without any hesitation, Jack sat in the chair of the cage.
‘Strap me in,’ he said to her. She hesitated. ‘Do it.’
Gwen found her hands were trembling.
‘Tighter,’ Jack insisted.
She completed the final fastening. Jack was pinned into the cage. His hands were free, but he could not reach the straps that bound him around the neck, shoulder, and upper arms. He could move his head just enough to peer down his nose at his watch. ‘Running out of time,’ he told her. ‘Listen, Gwen. If this doesn’t work, you’ll have to explain to the others.’
Gwen reached out to him. Placed her palm softly against his cheek.
He twisted his head as though her hand had burned him. ‘Knock it off,’ he snarled. ‘Stay focused. Do not — I repeat do not — change the plan. You do exactly as we agreed. Understand?’
She nodded mutely.
‘Say it!’ he snapped. ‘Understand?’
‘I understand.’
‘You must not let me change this plan,’ he urged. ‘No matter how much I may threaten you. No matter how much I plead with you or beg you.’ Gwen could hardly bear to meet the blue intensity of his gaze. ‘All right,’ Jack said. ‘Hit the button.’
Gwen reached behind the cage and activated the control Jack had shown her.
The cage quivered into life around him. With a brief cough, the mechanism punched a Bruydac device through the skin of his back and into his spine.
Jack bellowed in surprise, a roar that seemed to fill the whole cavernous room and that Gwen thought would never end. Eventually, Jack reverted to a series of anguished gasps.
‘Not what I expected,’ he told her, and slipped into unconsciousness.
THIRTY-ONE
Toshiko sat alone at her computer terminal in the main Hub area. Her desk was stacked high with half-repaired components, scribbled notes and an assortment of pens, half of which didn’t work. Flat-panel screens flickered in front of her eyes, displaying the latest results of her search around the Hub for Owen’s life signs.
At first, she’d worried about being too obviously exposed in the centre of the area. She reassured herself that Owen was not armed when he fled from the medical suite, and that she had now securely locked the armoury. He might be able to spot her by looking down from the gantry by the Boardroom, or from beside the cog-shaped entrance where the lift delivered people from the upper floors. But he would not be able to pick her off from either place. The idea was that it appeared she would have enough time to make a run for it if and when she heard his footsteps on the metal gantry, or detected the noise of the door opening behind her.
She was still in a state of some anxiety, though. That much was evident when the Tannoy system sounded, and she simply leaped out of her seat and practically whirled on the spot in panic as she realised that she had no idea where she was going to run. Her breathing was shallow, ragged, panicked. It felt like her heart was battering her ribcage.
‘You’re very difficult to reach,’ said Gwen’s voice over the Tannoy.
‘That’s the idea,’ said Toshiko. ‘Oh God, Gwen, you scared me to death.’
‘Sorry,’ Gwen said. ‘I’m using some comms device that Jack brought along. He connected it to the Torchwood PA system. Just as well, because your mobile’s still switched off.’
There was a clattering noise from the gallery. Toshiko looked up, momentarily distracted. Nothing to see.
‘No sign of Owen yet,’ she told Gwen. ‘I think he may have gone to ground.’
‘Thank God,’ replied Gwen. ‘Things seem to have gone completely tits-up here. We’ve managed to stop the ship coming through the Rift-’
‘Well, that’s great news!’
‘-but Jack’s got himself trapped in that place we found Owen. The place where he got that thing stuck in him. Oh, Tosh…’