Torchwood One's New Second In Command

Part 3: Meeting her for the first time

Four months had passed since he had started his field training under Agent McCormick, and Professor Martin had been right. It had been harder for him to meet up with the man and his colleagues' expectations. As soon as he had arrived, they started by giving him a gun and a one-week course to learn how to use. Then the second week he had been thrown completely unprepared in the field agents weekly bi-weekly exercises and practice. What did not help his already very low confidence in this new environment, was that he mixed with other trainees that had been doing this for the past four months. He felt like an amateur next to them. And he did not like the feeling at all.

Of course, that was not going to stop him in his goal to succeed. He just decided to work harder. He now spent his lunch breaks in the underground shooting on level minus three. He'd make himself lunches that could be eaten quickly, and then spent the rest of the hour lunch break practicing using the different guns available there. He had finally finished moving into his small studio a few metro stations away from Torchwood, Torchwood had recommended it to him themselves the first week he was in London. It was small but comfy. He was also located above a really good Chinese restaurant and an Italian place. For a fan of eating out, it was heaven. Not having any unpacking to do, he spent most of his evenings now teaching himself about different alien weapons and catching up on different strategies used in the field.

Running, gun in hand through the abandoned building, making sure not to be spotted by the other's, he was grateful he spent last night studying the building's plan and layout. It had once been a hotel during the second world war. He had found that there were five different passages connected to an underground floor underneath his feet. It had been used by the hotel staff and clients as a hide out during bombing alerts. He remembered quite clearly each of their locations. One of them was behind the dark wood door on his left. He heard voices behind him, they were gaining on him a few more seconds and they turn in his corridor. He quickly pushed the door open and closed it silently behind him. He spotted the small trap door situated near one of the room's corner. He was relieved to see that the room was still furnished. The furniture was obviously old and molded, but what caught his attention was the old maroon carpet laying in the middle of the room. Pulled it across the room towards the small wooden trap. He tried to cover as best as he could most of the trap door before gently opening it trying to keep the dusty carpet from moving off and climbing down the stairs that had been installed there. From his position, he could hear many footsteps against the floorboard. Some dust from the roof fell around him. He heard the door of the room he had just been in be slammed violently open. He heard some shuffling and the sound of voices.

"Clear, he's not here."

"Let's go, the twerp probably ran to hide further down the corridor."

When he was sure he could not hear them anymore, he started making his way through the empty rooms. The rooms he passed were only filled by benches on the side of the wall and some trunks here and there probably filled with what had been emergency rations and necessities. He followed the mental image he pictured of the blueprints he had found online. Turning right when he had to while using his flashlight to light his way. He was holding it against his gun, while the latter he kept pointed in front of him the way McCormick had showed him. He had grabbed a few smoke bombs from the weapons room this morning. It would be the perfect distraction. He finally found the trap door he was looking for. He knew it opened at end of the corridor where the room filled with hostages was located. The next steps of his plan would strongly depend on the opposite side's reactions.

He climbed as silently as possible through the trap door. The room he entered was fortunately closed, no one posted in the corridor could have seen him open the trap door. He knew that four men had been following him a few seconds ago and they had been on the other side of the building. They were still looking for him and his two other colleagues. He did not know what the two other were doing. Perhaps they already had been captured. He looked through the closed door old fashioned key hole. He had a perfect view on the hostage room door at the end of the corridor. He counted two men pacing up and down the corridor. They were concentrating on the middle of the hallway where on the right was located the supposedly only entrance to the hallway.