Torchwood Long Time Dead (25 page)

It healed me.'

'We need to destroy it,' Cutler said, pulling
away so he could look at her. 'You know that, don't
you?'

'It scares me,' she said. 'It's so much stronger
than me and I can't control it any more. I'm leaving
bits of it behind.'

'I know. But we can turn it off. Why haven't you
destroyed it already? Are you scared of what that
will do to you? Don't be, you look pretty healed to
me.'

It's not that simple,' she said.

'Why?' he asked. 'Is it like some kind of drug?

Has it got you hooked?' He frowned. She wasn't
carrying a bag. 'Where is it anyway?'

'It's inside me,' she said, simply, her eyes full of
dread. She lifted her shirt, exposing her smooth,
flat stomach. 'I had it sewn into the other side of
my skin before all this started. Before my
first

death. I thought it might make the glove stronger.

When the Hub collapsed, the energy must have
activated it and it brought me back to life. I could
see it under there - a flashing red light - just like
when Tosh made it work after we found it on the
beach.' She looked up at him. 'But now it's gone.

It's still working, but I think it's right inside me
somewhere. Somewhere I won't be able to get at
it.' Her dark eyes had filled with tears again. 'I
don't know what to do. I thought I had everything
under control. I thought I'd been so
clever
.' She
wiped her nose. 'I just want it to stop. I can hear
them screaming.'

The screaming of millions.
Cutler's mind raced
as a chill settled through him. What did they have?

Ten minutes at the most to get out and leave the
device behind.

'It's all right. We'll get it out of you.' He barely
heard his own words. What would happen if he
called Jackson? Would they get a medical team
in and take the time to try and save Suzie before
destroying the device? No. They'd just blow the
place up anyway. The butt of the cigarette burned
his fingers and he dropped it. They'd be right as
well. The fate of the entire world depended on
destroying the device.

'It's so far inside me,' she said again. 'I think
it's in my heart or my lungs. It's bedded into me.

As if it's part of me.'

Til call a medical team.' He was glad of the
gloom. He'd never been a good actor and he didn't
want her to see the pain on his face. He'd found
her and now he was going to lose her again. There
was no way he could save her. Not now. There
just wasn't enough time. He pulled out his phone
and dialled his own home number knowing she'd
hear the ringing tone, and then got up and moved
towards the entrance to the vault, speaking into
his answerphone, demanding someone send an
ambulance immediately. He clicked off the call
and turned back to face her. They'll be here in ten
minutes,' he said. Til go up and keep an eye out for
them. You stay here. My men think you're down
here helping me with the Jackson investigation
anyway. I'll only be a couple of minutes.'

'Don't leave me down here, Tom,' she said.

'Please.'

He stared at her. Five more minutes until the
bombs would go off. Commander Jackson would
be staring at the entrance to the Hub and willing
him to come out. Either him or both of them. He
fought the temptation to take her upstairs with
him and make a run for it. He wanted her to live,
he wanted them both to live, but at what cost?

The entire planet? All those people he'd vowed to
protect? He couldn't do it. And could he live with
himself if he left her down here, alone? There was
no more memory drug to take to wipe her out,
and he didn't think he would even if he could. She
fascinated him. Good, bad or otherwise, there was
something in her that called out to him.

'OK,' he said and then smiled softly. 'Kiss me.'

'Even after all this trouble?' she said. 'You still
want me?'

'Now more than ever.' There was no lie in that,
even if she wouldn't understand why until it was
too late.

Somewhere in the corner of his eye he saw
a small red light appear. The explosives were
arming. They were out of time.

'Come here, gorgeous,' he said.

He held her face in his hands and had his lips on
hers as the first surge of energy blasted through
the small space. Light filled the vault as balls
of white flame raced to meet each other as each
explosion went off.

Tom Cutler was amazed at how much could

happen in such a small nanosecond of time.
This

is it,
he thought.
My death coming for me.
As the
breath was knocked from their lungs, Suzie pulled
away from their kiss, her dark eyes wide and her
mouth in an O.

He held her arms tightly. 'I love you,' he thought
he said.

'No,' she whispered.

In that briefest of moments, he thought perhaps
she didn't love him at all, and he was dying for
nothing, and then he wondered if perhaps she
was railing against a third death, and then, in the
last fraction of the second when her eyes changed
colour and the terrible darkness was so clear in
them, he knew that her 'no' was for him. The
darkness was taking her with it, and she didn't
want it to take him too.

He heard the screams. He saw her terror. And
he refused to look away.

Their bodies burned.

On top of the Millennium Centre, a dark figure
stood staring down at the lights and activity
taking place in what was left of the Hub. He was
a mere strip of shadow against the starry night,
and he remained motionless as he waited for the
confirmation he needed from below. He'd stood
here night after night since the second round of
explosions, ignored by those who were so focused
on finding what was lost beneath the ground
that they had forgotten to look up occasionally.

He frowned a little as, below, the old and weary
Commander followed a soldier back to the enclosed
area. Perhaps this was it.

We've found them, sir.'

It was 3 a.m., and Commander Elwood Jackson

- retired Commander as soon as this job was
brought to its grim conclusion - was exhausted.

They'd been working for over a week now, digging
to find the bodies. It was at least quicker than the
first excavation at the site had been. Whereas then
the hunt had been a delicate process, wanting to
preserve as much as possible of the equipment
and technology, this time round it was simply to
dig down to the vault and find some evidence of
Tom Cutler and Suzie Costello's deaths.

He'd told the Department men that they needed
to be absolutely sure that she and the technology
that had brought the darkness were both destroyed
and they had gone along with that. He knew they
were just humouring him slightly, but given that
Cardiff had returned to normal - there were no
more black patches, nor any suicides - they would
give him two weeks to find what he was looking
for and then, after that, the site would be filled
in, and the whole mess forgotten. They'd got all
the technology they needed anyway. For Jackson's
part, he preferred not to dwell on the alien devices,
He'd had enough of those.

There's not much to see,' the soldier said as
Jackson followed him to the covered tarpaulin
area. They were at the heart of the explosion.

Their bodies were pulverised together. It's hard
to tell which bit comes from one and which from
the other.'

Jackson wondered if the man had ever lost a
friend. DI Tom Cutler had sacrificed himself to
save them all, and this youngster was talking
about him as if he were nothing. He found that he
was glad that he'd be leaving the Army. He'd seen
enough callousness to last several lifetimes.

'I just want to see his face,' he muttered.

'We have the upper portions of both their
heads. Obviously messy, but they must have been
standing facing each other.'

Jackson pushed past him while he was still
speaking and headed to the tables that were
covered with parts of bodies mixed with bits of
concrete. Here and there he saw a flash of fabric
that at one time had been clothing.

They're under that cloth,' the soldier said
softly. He didn't follow Jackson over. Maybe he
had some compassion after all.

Elwood Jackson pulled the sheet back. For a
long while he stared. First at the wrecked face
and missing eyes of the woman he'd known as Sue
Costa, and then over at DI Tom Cutler. Even in
the unrecognisable mess of his face, it was clear
that the policeman's eyes were gone.

'You couldn't let her go alone, could you?' he
said. 'You stupid, brave bastard. You couldn't let
her go alone.'

For the first time in a very long time, Elwood
Jackson wondered if he might cry. He didn't.

Instead he swallowed his tears and drew himself up
tall carefully covering over the pitiful remains.

That's all I wanted to see,' he barked at the
soldier as he passed. The site can be filled.'

From the top of the building, the dark-haired
man watched the Commander as he left the site,
his shoulders slumped. The old man paused for
a second, out of view of his command, and then
leaned his head back to suck in a deep breath
of the night air. He rubbed his hands over his
face. He walked away from the site and didn't
look back. The Commander didn't notice either
the man at the top of the building, or the pale-haired police sergeant who stood watching the
demolished site, his shoulders hunched with the
burden of knowledge. Eventually, Andy Davidson
also turned and walked away from the wreck of
the Hub.

Watching him, Captain Jack Harkness smiled
softly. It was a sad smile, but a satisfied one. He
turned away. His part here was over.

The darkness that settled over Cardiff held no
shadows and unnatural places, and this time the
city slept. For most, the hours passed peacefully,
as if on some unconscious level the population
were aware of the escape they'd had and were lost
in relief.

It wasn't like that for the Commander. That
night, and for so many nights afterwards, when
Elwood Jackson dreamed, it wasn't the screaming
of millions that haunted him, but the screaming
of one man, forever lost in Hell. When he woke,
sweating into his sheets, he realised how very
relieved he would be when there was only a quiet
nothing waiting for him after death.

As usual, a big thank you to my editor, Steve
Tribe, for giving me this gig, and for always being
there with his encyclopaedic and awe-inspiring
knowledge of all things
Torchwood
when I needed
a quick answer to a question.

A second thanks to him and to Russell T Davies
and the powers that be in Cardiff for letting me
give Suzie Costello one last adventure. I loved her
in the show, and totally loved bringing her back
from the dead. Bad girls rock.