Torchwood: Exodus Code

with a little more flesh on your bones,’ said Hollis, who had used his Creole grandmother’s recipe for the étouffée in hopes of impressing this mysterious handsome stranger. Hollis hadn’t felt this giddy after meeting someone for the first time since he’d seduced the chef at the Mardi Gras ball after only two mouthfuls of his gumbo.
    Sam laughed. ‘Who’re you kidding, Hollis? You’d like your flesh to
be
on his bones.’
    ‘I wouldn’t mind that either,’ said Eva, who’d been drinking red wine steadily through dinner.
    Everyone was suddenly silent. Vlad’s eyes widened in astonishment. Jack bit his tongue. Then Hollis snorted, Sam grinned, Cash guffawed and the table erupted in laughter.
    Eva blushed bright red. ‘Did I say that out loud?’
    ‘Oh, yes,’ laughed Vlad, ‘very out loud. Maybe you should switch to water if we’re going to get any work done at all tonight.’
    Jack put his hand on Eva’s. ‘Your flesh on mine will be a pleasure I’ll look forward to.’ Then he turned and put his hand on Hollis’s arm. ‘Yours too.’
    ‘Well, now that we’ve got all the important stuff out of the way,’ said Cash, shaking his head, ‘and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but can we get down to some business of the non-sexual kind?’ He rolled his eyes at Eva, who shrank into her seat.
    Jack explained what he’d learned from Dr Steele about synaesthesia and how he thought something was heightening it.
    ‘The medical community’s response,’ said Jack, ‘has so far been to keep these women sedated, like Gwen. The problem is that when they have any moments of lucidity, some of them are aware of what’s happening and have already tried to kill themselves. Some of them have succeeded.’
    ‘Synaesthesia is a pretty cool thing,’ said Vlad. ‘I mean when it’s not out of control. I know a few gamers who can see their compositions and their coding in colours and shapes.’ He popped the top off another Jax. ‘If you think about it, it’s almost like their brains are able to construct meaning from downloading multiple codes all at the same time, like a synaesthete’s hard drive is way more sophisticated than the rest of us.’
    ‘Are you a synaesthete, Vlad?’ asked Jack.
    Vlad shook his head, tilting his beer bottle. ‘Only shapes and colours dancing in front of my eyes are drug-or alcohol-induced, sorry to say.’
    ‘I am,’ said Eva. ‘Well, mildly anyway. And I never knew what it was called until I took a psych class in university and my professor was one. It would really disturb her if we came to class wearing too much perfume. She could hear the smells. Created too much noise in her head. She said she couldn’t concentrate.’
    ‘Which is part of the problem with whatever’s happening to these women,’ said Jack, accepting a slice of pecan pie from Hollis. ‘The numbers that are being officially tracked could be much lower than the reality. It’s difficult to know how many women are simply dismissing their symptoms and trying to carry on as usual.’
    ‘That’s really horrible,’ said Vlad, pulling another chair over and stretching his legs across it. Jack noticed how intently Eva was watching Vlad. Jack checked Vlad out, approving of what he was seeing but he thought Eva might have to make the moves. Vlad was either oblivious to Eva’s longing or he was consciously ignoring her. Jack thought he could smell her desire from across the table.
    ‘To lose control of your mind,’ said Sam, ‘that’s… that’s crazy.’
    Hollis leaned across the table and slapped Sam upside the head. ‘Mr Understatement, thank you.’
    ‘Hell of a thing,’ said Cash, ‘if your wife comes after you with the cleaver when it’s her time of the month.’
    Jack stared at Cash for a beat, then grinned and got up from the table. ‘Know what, Cash? I think you might have hit on something. I should have thought of that.’ Jack went over to the chalk board where Hollis, in an effort to give the ship’s meals a little flair, wrote a daily menu. Jack looked at Hollis. ‘May I?’
    ‘Course, darlin’.’
    Jack wiped his sleeve across the board, erasing most of the menu. He picked up the chalk, addressing all of them. ‘I’ve been assuming that all of these women with heightened synaesthesia are reacting to something in their surroundings, and according to Dr Steele who’s treating a number of the cases in Wales, there must be some kind of external trigger.’
    Jack wrote