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.Don’t feel any different.Where the hell is it.?’She checked the screen again, but the scanners were still having trouble pinpointing the location.And that’s when they heard the voice.‘Don’t bother looking.I’m using a camouflage suit, top-of-the-range Yu-Ca grade from J’rizon 12.Harkness, I know you’ll have heard of that.’Gwen and Jack looked at each other.Jack nodded.‘Yeah, I have.Who are you? What do you want?’‘I’m the father of the child you murdered yesterday.What I want, is for you to die.’‘We didn’t murder anyone,’ said Jack.‘It was the woman that your parasitic kid latched on to.She’d had enough, didn’t want to be its puppet any more.We tried to stop it.’‘Your involvement resulted in the death of my son.’‘There was nothing we could do.If you hadn’t abandoned your kid, none of this would have happened.’‘Abandoned? I didn’t abandon him, he was taken from me.He was caught in the Rift, along with my mating partner.She was killed, and my son did what he needed to do, to survive.He found a new host.I’ve been tracking them for a while.And if I had found them, I could have taken my son home, leaving the human female unharmed.Now, thanks to you, I have nothing, apart from a lifetime of pain.And that is what I am giving you, in return.’Gwen put her hand up to the pinprick in her neck, rubbing it.‘What did you do to us?’The alien moved around silently, never giving them a chance to focus on its voice for too long.‘I’ve infected you with the Kagawa Virus.Again, I presume you know what that is.’Jack looked sick with worry.He tried to hide it from Gwen, but failed.Gwen knew it must be pretty bad if even Jack was scared – what could possibly frighten a man who couldn’t die?‘Jack? What does that mean? What has he done to us?’Jack looked away, unable to answer.‘Jack? Tell me!’‘He won’t tell you, so I will,’ said the alien.‘It’s an alien synthetic developed from the venom sacs of a Kagawan lizard, which renders its prey unable to fight back.It sends a feedback loop into your mind, which occupies it completely, making you unable to do anything or even move.Slowly, it will render you completely motionless, but aware of what’s happening to you, trapped inside yourselves.It’s a form of living death.And the only sort of death that will work on someone who can’t die.’‘Give us the antidote,’ shouted Jack.‘Or I’ll find you, and hurt you, I guarantee it.’‘You can’t hurt me.You’ve already taken away everything I had.I never even bought the antidote, I had no intention of letting you use it.Very shortly, you will both go into a sort of waking coma.You, Cooper, you’ll eventually die of old age, still in that condition.But you, Harkness – you will just go on, for ever, gradually going insane, unable to die.You can’t heal yourself, there isn’t actually any physical damage to heal, just the feedback loop going around and around in your mind.You will spend an eternity, suffering, inside the now-useless meat of your body.Already it’s starting to take effect, and you’re losing your concentration, having trouble thinking clearly.In a few minutes, you’ll be unable to stand up or feed yourselves, and will enter a permanent vegetative state.It’s what you deserve.’Jack and Gwen moved towards the sofa, unable to keep themselves steady.Gwen looked at him, scared.‘Jack? I can feel myself going, I can’t – I can’t focus.Can you stop this?’‘I don’t know.I don’t think so.’‘But we’re one person short,’ said the alien.‘Where is Jones? Where is the tea boy?’‘I’m here,’ said Ianto suddenly.BANG! The alien’s head exploded in a fountain of blood, and his camouflage suit shorted out, revealing his body, which stayed standing for a moment before crumpling to the floor.Ianto blew the smoke from the end of the shotgun, and removed his night-vision goggles.He glared at the alien.‘And I’m not the tea boy.I’m the coffee boy.’Ianto raced over to Jack and Gwen, who were already sitting still on the sofa.‘Ianto,’ said Jack.‘He said there was no antidote, what are we going to do, I don’t have an antidote, I can’t fix this, I don’t know what to do, I—’ He was babbling, partly because of the confusion sown in his mind by the virus, partly out of sheer panic.Ianto shushed him, and checked his pulse before checking Gwen’s.‘He didn’t say there was no antidote, he said he didn’t buy it.Which means he bought this virus from somewhere.Which means I can find out where, and get the antidote.I’ll fix this.I promise.I’m going to take care of things.I always do.’‘Ianto,’ said Gwen, trying to concentrate, trying desperately to form the words which might be her last.‘If you can’t get it, if you can’t cure me – don’t let Rhys see me like this.Don’t make him spend the rest of his life looking after me.I can’t let him go through the pain of watching me slowly die for the next however many years.Don’t let that happen, OK? Finish it.You take my gun, and you finish it.’‘Hey!’ said Ianto, more sharply than he intended to.He softened his voice.‘Hey.It’s not going to come to that.I’m going to take care of things.’‘But if you can’t – promise me.Give me that much.’Ianto took a long look at her.‘If it comes to that, then I’ll do what needs to be done.But it won’t come to that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]