Skeletons in the Closet

Part 6

Suzie disconnected the phone with a pleased smile. "They don't suspect a thing. I'll contact UNIT in the morning and arrange something for Tosh. I'm glad I didn't have to kill Owen. He's rather good in the sack." She turned to where Ianto was weakly trying to curl away from her. "Now you have been a very naughty boy, Ianto. Didn't I tell you that if you went to Jack, your life would be forfeit?" She walked over and patted him on the cheek. "Now you get all the rest you can while you have the chance." She ignored the pathetic whimper she got in response and turned her attention to the desk in front of her. She would have to start deprogramming her people in Pilgrim. Now that she was head of Torchwood 3, there would be no need for them. "I think the final test for you will be that glove. Jack wasn't willing to test it on humans, but to kill you and bring you back for those two minutes knowing you were going to die again will be just delicious."

She had a lot of things she wanted to change in the Hub. For one thing, she always believed Jack was way too lenient with the aliens that thought of Cardiff as a playground. She felt that Torchwood tower had been right about it. If it's alien, it belongs to Torchwood. Then there was the secured weapons and artifacts. So many interesting objects needed to be handled. She picked up the bandages she had stripped from Ianto's feet. She was certain he wouldn't be going anywhere, so she headed to another room.

She took out a note book and turned to a fresh page. She'd kept track of all her experiments in this book. She hadn't dared to take it to the Hub, for fear of it being discovered. That was no longer a problem. The first thing she noted was the exact dose of the drug she had injected into Ianto when he had started getting a bit spirited. The results had been quite pleasing. She was looking forward to seeing what side effects there would be. Then she wrote down what new experiments she had performed. She couldn't do much without her equipment, but she could still do a few things with the tech she had smuggled out of the Hub.

It was a good fifteen minutes before she finished a report Ianto would be proud of. She snickered at that thought. She had always hated filling out those stupid forms. It was a marvel that Ianto wasn't pleased with her thoroughness. Once she put the final touch on the report, she put everything away. She dusted off her hands and went back to where she had left Ianto.

The smile on her face faded when she saw that Ianto was nowhere to be seen. She saw the trail of blood from his injured feet and relaxed until she heard the unmistakable sound of rain coming from outside. He could have been anywhere.

"Shit!" Then everything went to hell for her.

Jack drove with grim determination. There was no telling what Suzie had done to Ianto in the precious time it had taken him to revive. He would have already been out looking, but he hadn't wanted to leave Owen alone. Then he'd had to figure out a viable reason as to just why he wasn't dead. Then Tosh had come in while Owen had been unconscious and he'd had to keep her from getting upset. He tapped his bluetooth. "Tosh? Tell me I'm getting close!"

"You're practically on top of where her signal came from." Tosh sounded distressed. "I only hope she didn't suspect anything and run. Worse, yet, she could kill Ianto if she thinks him a liability."

"That won't happen, Tosh!" He said it with much more conviction than he felt. He hated that he hadn't seen the possibility of Suzie seeing through the ruse. He supposed it was his fault for bringing Ianto into the whole mess that morning. He saw a building with its door wide open and decided to try it.

No sooner had he stopped the car than he had grabbed a dart gun. If he could, he'd take Suzie in alive and Retcon her enough to be sent to Flat Holm. That would be a fitting end to the woman for her crimes. He couldn't believe he had misjudged her so badly. She had worked with the police before he had hired her. He'd liked the way she could see what criminals were thinking. Perhaps that should have been his big clue. Sometimes what made a good criminal profiler was someone who could very easily become a criminal themselves. He strolled in just in time to hear Suzie's soft exclamation. He walked right into her line of sight and took advantage of her surprise. "Where is he? What have you done with Ianto?"

Suzie stared at him, shocked. "Impossible! You're dead! I shot you right between the eyes!"

Jack smirked at her. "I got better! Now answer my question!"

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you!" Suzie sniffed derisively. "He's gone. I turned my back on him for five minutes and then he was gone."

Jack looked around and saw evidence of the fact that Suzie was telling the truth. There was also evidence that the young Welshman had undergone a round of torture at his former second's hands. "What have you done to him?"

Suzie, rather than looking upset, merely shrugged as if it didn't really matter. "Some of my research requires a living human subject. It's no worse than what UNIT would have done to him for keeping a cyberman hidden."

"That was not your decision to make." He looked around. "I do not have time to deal with you right now, Suzie." He grabbed her and directed her to the SUV after securing a zip-tie around her wrists. He tapped his bluetooth again. "Tosh, I'm bringing Suzie in. Have Owen meet me so he can bring her to the cells. Ianto is missing, and I want to concentrate on finding him. If there's any CCTV in the area, see if you can find him and track him. From what little information I got, he can't have gotten too far. I'll keep an eye open for him on my way back, but I really want to get Suzie secure."

"I'm on it, Jack. We'll find him." Tosh sounded determined as she disconnected the call.

Suzie struggled a little so Jack shot her with a tranquilizer gun. "I told you I don't have time to deal with you, but you didn't listen." He secured her in the passenger seat and started the vehicle. He wondered why Suzie hadn't placed a tracking device in Ianto. Then he had a thought and connected to the hub. "Hey, Tosh? See if Torchwood One put a tracker in Ianto. I'm pretty sure Yvonne made it Standard Operating Procedure for a while so if any of their agents went rogue, they could be tracked and dealt with."

He could hear Tosh shudder. "I dread to think of how they dealt with rogue agents." He could hear clicking in the background. "According to the file on him, he does have one. Now it's just a matter of finding the right frequency. If I'm lucky, that information will still be in the database."

Jack smirked. "Tosh, with you, luck never has anything to do with it. I have every confidence that you'll have the frequency for me to use by the time I get there." With that said, he turned the SUV around and drove back towards the hub.

Author's Note: I bet a lot of you thought this fic had been abandoned! Let me reassure everyone that not one of my fics, or fic sequels, has been abandoned. If that were the case, I'd take the fic down. Muses, however, are fickle things. I have to write what they dictate or they won't give me anything at all.

Thanks, as always, to Keara. She points out inconsistancies that I can fix.