Chapter Two: The Sound of Silence

Ianto looked at his face in the mirror. He winced as he prodded his swollen nose. With a frown, he looked at the old suit he was wearing, one that he had left in the Hub in preparation for something such as this. Ianto walked back out into the Hub's centre to find the desks of his co-workers vacated. Tosh's computers were shut-down and Gwen's bag was gone. Curious, Ianto walked back up to Jack's office. He found no one there, either, but there was a note on the desk.

Ianto, ice your nose. -Jack.

The Welshman sighed and walked down the stairs. He walked back up the tourist office, beginning to get very sick of the trip. He walked over to the mini-fridge he had recently installed and found a small bottle of water. He held it to his nose, feeling incredibly silly. He forced himself to go all the way back down to the centre of the Hub. The telly was still on, flashing through highlights and, mostly, lowlights of the day. Ianto began to clean up the small table with his right hand as he used his left to hold the silly bottle in place. He shoved old pizza into a trashcan and then looked back up at the screen. A young woman wearing a too-tight-to-be-professional dress had a microphone in her hand. Behind her was the building Ianto had been in only hours before.

"Two hours ago, a horrible tragedy occurred here at Cardiff Shopping Centre, leaving forty-seven dead. No details have been released, but there are contradicting statements from the police and the eyewitnesses. The police claim that a gunman stormed the building, while witnesses claim that some alien animal came in and," the woman paused as though the idea might have been laughable, "began to eat and kill people." Ianto quickly changed the channel, wanting to avoid the image of the dead child haunting him. The next channel had the same building in the background. And the next, and the next. On the fifth try, Ianto stopped his movement. Being interviewed was the distraught father, tears streaming down his face.

"All of the bodies were mangled," he said, brushing tears from his face, "but my little Izzy was shot. In the throat. And the people who were supposed to come and help, Torchwood, I heard them called, they're the ones who did it." The look on his face darkened. "They shot a little girl." Ianto's breath slowed as he watched the pain across the other man's face.

"Can you describe the people that came?" an off-screen news reporter asked.

"There was a tall American and another man… wearing a suit… They had guns and they took the thing away after it was dead, I guess." He was obviously trying to keep composed.

"Mr. Davis, what were you doing here today?" the reporter asked.

"Shopping for Izzy's back-to-school clothes. She…" he choked back a sob. "I just got custody of her and I wanted today to be special…" Ianto stood, transfixed at the screen that was filling his mind with poison. The whole story was spinning out of control. One shot. One shot and the small girl's life had been ended. Faint ringing peeled Ianto's attention from the screen. It was from the phone in Jack's office. Ianto hurried up the stairs and walked over to the phone. He picked it up.

"Ianto Jones, Torchwood." he addressed, anxiety nestling in the pit of his stomach.

"Hello, Mr. Jones, is Captain Jack Harkness there?" the man on the other end asked.

"No, I'm sorry. Is there a message I can relay to him?" Ianto asked, knowing more and more with every second that this was serious.

"Tell him that, according to the secret petitions of Queen Victoria, we are at liberty to put Torchwood on an indefinite hiatus. The government has found Torchwood Three's performance to be subpar and a mockery of the established rules of the administration of Wales. The Torchwood building is to be evacuated in the next two hours and after that, it will be inspected by UNIT. We will inform him of any changes in the status over his cell phone. Good day." Ianto's breath left him shallowly. He blinked slowly.

"I will relay the message, sir." he said. The phone beeped, informing him that the man on the other end had hung up.

"So. What was that about?" Jack asked, moving from leaning against the doorframe to standing up. Ianto turned around, his expression neutral.

"We have been shut down." he said, as if testing the words out. They didn't seem right. Jack raised an eyebrow and walked closer.

"What?" he asked, positive that there was some miscommunication going on.

"In Queen Victoria's second note petitioning her advisors to allow the creation of Torchwood, she established that Torchwood could be shut down if their performance was found to be no longer necessary or useful." Ianto said, positive of his facts. He knew Torchwood rules and regulations better than even Jack. And in his memory, somewhere deep and tucked away, he remembered that fact. "And UNIT will be here to inspect the building in two hours. It must be evacuated before then." Jack blinked, thinking quickly.

"Ianto. You're serious?" he asked, still unsure that this situation could even occur. Ianto nodded. Jack pulled out his phone and began to dial a number. Ianto walked over to Jack's desk, thoughts surprisingly non-existent. Normally, he would have started organising the papers in front of him and fixing the office up, but he couldn't even concentrate on that. He sat back and stared at the ceiling. He listened to Jack's hissed threats and angered questions. After a minute or two of conversation, Jack angrily clicked his phone off and pocketed it. He walked over to the desk and pulled out a key. He walked out from behind the desk and opened a lock-box in the corner of the room. "Ianto, you call the team, tell them to get out of the country. UNIT would be all too happy to stick any of us into a prison cell at the first chance they get…" He pulled seemingly random items out of the box and pocketed some of them. He looked up to the silence tea-boy. "Ianto?"

"Yes, sir…" he said distantly. He picked up the landline and began dialling Tosh's number as Jack walked out. He hurried down the stairs, the clatter of his boots hitting the stairs ringing through the Hub. He walked over to Tosh's computers and pulled out a small thumbdrive from his coat pocket and plugged it into the computer. When he flicked the monitor on, the message on the screen read 'encrypting information. 16% complete.' Jack then walked over to the technology that Owen had left out in his small medical bay. Jack glanced over them to make sure there was nothing that UNIT reverse-engineer and mass produce. Most of the devices were too complicated to recreate, so he wasn't too concerned. He walked back to see the computer's percentage had climbed up to 29. Jack glanced up at his office through the many plants to see Ianto on hanging up the phone. Ianto looked down at him and gave a solemn nod. He walked out of the office. "Anything else, sir?"

"Get two tickets to America. The next flight we can make." Ianto nodded and disappeared behind a tall, leafy plant to organise their escape. Jack looked at the TV to see the mall they had been at not two hours before. He rolled his eyes at the mob that was gathering around it, demanding the 'truth.' They would never accept the truth, so the whole thing seemed ridiculous. Jack glanced back at the computer. It was done changing all of the files into nonsense, so UNIT couldn't read their information. The code was something Jack had seen in his Time Agent years and only another Time Agent could translate it, so their information was safe from prying eyes. He pulled out the thumbdrive and put it back in his jacket pocket. When he turned back to middle of the room, Ianto was standing in the middle of the room, staring at the TV. Jack walked over and clicked it off. "Did we get them?"

"Under one of your aliases, yes." Jack nodded.

"Good. How much longer do we have?" Ianto looked at his watch and then checked through the math in his head.

"One hour and seven minutes." Jack ran through his mental checklist, thinking about what they needed to do before they left the Hub. He knew that he couldn't risk leaving anything that could potentially be damning or even dangerous around for UNIT or the government to find.

"We'll stop by your flat, grab some of your things, and then book it to the airport." Ianto shook his head.

"I don't need anything from my flat." he said. Jack didn't believe him, but also knew that the sooner they got to the airport, the greater chance they had of avoiding questioning by the government and trouble. Being late for a flight would bring too much attention to them.

"Okay." Jack said dubiously. He did know, however, that there were always accounts they could use in their escape, and the only thing that really mattered that Ianto had was his diary. And his laptop…. Jack looked around for the computer. "Ianto? Your laptop?" Ianto motioned to the top of the building.

"Tourist office." Jack nodded and began to walk out of the Hub, looking for Myfanwy. "Jack, she can take care of herself." He nodded and walked out of the main Hub, adrenaline still pumping. When they reached the Ianto's office, Ianto grabbed both his laptop, and as Jack expected, his diary.

"Are we ready to go?" he asked. Ianto gave a vague nod. "We'll take your car."