Tags:
Fiction,
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Science-Fiction,
Media Tie-In - General,
Media Tie-In,
Mystery & Detective,
YA),
Mystery Fiction,
Science Fiction - General,
Fiction - Science Fiction,
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Martians,
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Human-alien encounters - Wales - Cardiff,
Cardiff (Wales),
Intelligence officers - Wales - Cardiff,
Murder - Investigation - Wales - Cardiff,
Floods - Wales - Cardiff
body bag full of Weevil.
He was headed for the coffee machine, and smiled in recognition as he spotted them leaning against the balcony rail. ‘Sorry, didn’t see you there.’ He waggled a freshly rinsed coffee pot at them. ‘I was about to get fresh.’
Jack smiled at this comment. He shrugged off his coat, and draped it over the rail. ‘Ianto, you’ve anticipated my need for something warm and wet.’
Ianto rolled his eyes theatrically. ‘Very amusing, sir. I should have guessed that, whatever I say, you’ll always want to top me.’
‘You wish,’ Jack told him. He gestured for Gwen to follow him through the glass doors into the Boardroom. ‘We’ll take it in here, Ianto. Thanks.’
They tripped the motion detectors as they went in, and the strip lights blinked on. Gwen looked down across the Hub, past the steel column and its sheen of flowing water, to where Toshiko and Owen were completing their initial work. The flicker of the lights had attracted Toshiko’s attention, and she gave Gwen a cheery thumbs-up to indicate that she was almost ready.
At the same moment, there was a buzz of power as the wall-mounted plasma screen behind Gwen faded into life. The big screen was quartered, and Gwen recognised several of the images as being those that Toshiko had been analysing.
She and Jack spent a few minutes considering the images. Again, the red blobs on the map recalled the spatters of Wildman’s blood on the bus at the most recent SOC.
Toshiko joined them and sat quietly at the opposite end of the oval conference table. Her elfin eyes blinked through her glasses at the PDA she’d carried in with her.
A minute later, Owen was clattering up the metal stairs to join them, late as usual. He was still wearing his white lab coat over his crumpled t-shirt. Seeming to realise this, he peeled off the coat, spotted that there was nowhere to hang it, and bundled it under the table before taking his seat.
They settled into their places around the table, while Ianto delivered the fresh, steaming coffee to murmured thanks from everyone.
‘So I think I’ve completed the movement analysis that pinpoints Wildman,’ Toshiko began.
‘Round of applause for Dr Toshiko Sato,’ Jack told the room. ‘You know what “completed” means to her. Sometimes I think you’ll never stop polishing the apple, Tosh.’
Gwen and Owen grinned in appreciation. Toshiko blushed prettily.
‘I cross-correlated the locations for the deaths of all the vagrants.’ She displayed a list of names on the main screen. A substantial minority showed only as ‘A. N. Other’. She continued: ‘Now, it’s not unusual for vagrants to drop down dead, even at this time of year when the weather’s still quite warm. So I obviously eliminated the less dubious cases.’
‘Any of them that hadn’t had the backs of their neck and skull chewed off,’ Owen said.
Toshiko frowned at him. ‘Not exactly. These victims aren’t exactly missed and mourned. No one’s looking for them. They’re already missing, so they can drop down dead and nobody cares. That means that foraging wildlife might predate the bodies.’
‘Eww,’ said Gwen. ‘Predate? Like predatory? You mean, eat them?’
‘Of course.’ Toshiko tapped at her PDA screen with a stylus. The main screen in the room flashed up a shorter list of the names. ‘The victims we’re interested in have had their heads chewed by human teeth. There’s no connection with where they live. Or used to live, I should say. Some of these addresses are from many years ago.’
Owen stood up to look at the screen more closely. ‘Bloody hell! Look at all these Welsh place names.’ He wrinkled his nose at Gwen. ‘Don’t you people use vowels? It’s like the English town planners finished naming all our places, and your lot had to use all the left-over letters in the box.’
‘ Gwirionyn ,’ Gwen told him. ‘As my nan would say.’
‘Bless you,’ retorted Owen. ‘I mean, look at this. How