Torchwood 18 - The Men Who Sold the World by Guy Adams

Author:Guy Adams
Language: eng
Format: azw
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Fiction
ISBN: 1849902852
Publisher: BBC Digital
Published: 2011-08-17T23:00:00+00:00

Eleven

‘… and you will give us whatever we want.’

The video stopped and Rex closed the media viewer on his phone.

‘That was in the mail inbox of every Section Chief in the Company,’ said Esther. ‘They wanted attention, they got it.’

‘What’s the party line?’

‘Terrorist gas attack, caused mass hallucination and hysteria.’

‘God bless the Age of the Terrorist,’ said Rex, ‘for, lo, it gives good cover stories.’

‘And, of course, no link with Cuba. As far as CNN is concerned, that was just an anti-Castro demonstration. Fatalities in Florida were surprisingly low and the official line is: we wait until we hear some demands.’

‘And the unofficial line?’

‘Don’t ask me. If there is one – and I’m sure there is – it’s for higher ears than mine.’

‘Which leaves us…’

‘Absolutely nowhere. Broderick wants you to file a report and walk away. Shaeffer’s to report to Special Operations for debriefing.’

Rex sighed. He had known this was coming but it didn’t make him like it any better. ‘Hate walking away, Esther.’

‘I know.’

He hung up and walked over to the bar table he was sharing with Shaeffer.

Eager to get out of Cuba, they had flown back to Nassau on the next available flight and from there to Miami. Now, booked into a small hotel in Virginia Key, they had planned to take twenty-four hours to decide their next step. It seemed their superiors had made that decision on their behalf.

‘I’m not just strolling back in,’ said Shaeffer, after Rex had passed on the details of the call. ‘Debriefing my ass, I’ll be wearing an orange jumpsuit and officially dead within five minutes of entering Virginia.’

‘Get over yourself,’ said Rex. ‘This is the real world not The X-Files.’

‘This from the guy who says he met Old Man Spook himself.’

‘Just some old guy giving himself a rep he hasn’t earned. We don’t kill our own.’

‘Grow up. That’s exactly what we do if the mess is big enough to justify it. And this is one hell of a mess.’

Rex shrugged. He wasn’t going to have this argument; neither of them would win. ‘You think I like leaving it like this?’ he said. ‘It’s unfinished business. The bastard tried to have me killed, hell, nearly managed it. If I could think of a way of hanging on in there a little longer I would. But the trail’s cold, we wouldn’t have the first idea where to start looking.’

‘I do.’

‘Do what?’

‘Have an idea. Look, I worked with these guys for a good few years. I know how Gleason’s mind works, and he sure as hell isn’t going to just sit on his hands for a few days and then issue his demands. There’ll be more fatalities. We know that nobody’s going to just roll over and pay him because he freaked out a few holidaymakers. He knows the standing order: we don’t give in to terrorism. So he’ll keep pushing until he thinks we have no choice. Gleason gets off on it. You saw him in Havana, he’d do this even if he wasn’t after money.

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