Torchwood: Exodus Code

hormonal conflicts the women are already experiencing.’
    ‘Which would explain why some women are responding with orgasms and others with violence,’ said Vlad.
    ‘According to my analysis of the patient data, Vlad,’ added Shelley, ‘currently the other point that explains why some women are responding with violence and some with lust is tied to their synaesthesia. Most of the initial clusters of women, the synaesthetes, tended to respond with violence, but I believe that had more to do with the intensity of their heightened synaesthesia coupled with their emotional stability and how both outweighed their sexual desire.’
    Jack thought about Gwen’s response – how her frustrations over the sudden changes in her professional and personal lives after the suspension of Torchwood, how this emotional instability combined with the pheromones had shaped a violent response in her. Yet, Jack thought, there was an aspect of Gwen’s madness that continued to niggle at him. Why had she carved the glyph on her arm when so far Jack and Shelley’s research had not uncovered anyone else who had seen or carved the same mark, other than Jack himself, that is.
    Why was Gwen’s response so different?
    Vlad and Eva began checking the overnight data from the hydrothermal vents, monitoring all seven that had erupted, two of which were smaller in diameter and had already sealed like the one in New Zealand. Shelley shifted next to Vlad’s computer, wiping data to the air between them when Eva asked. If not for a slight shimmer around the folds of Shelley’s dress that was most obvious when standing close to her, she could easily be taken for another member of the crew.
    Jack watched the avatar interact with Vlad and Eva, impressed with how well Vlad’s original program had married the Torchwood software with only minor glitches.
    ‘How bad are the numbers?’ he asked Vlad.
    ‘Bad,’ said Vlad. ‘The PH is off in almost every sample. Schools of fish are beginning to wash onto beaches all over the Eastern seaboard and the west coast of Africa.’
    ‘What’s happening doesn’t make any scientific sense,’ said Eva, chewing the arm of her glasses distractedly. She stood and walked over to the screen that Jack had switched from the news feed to the map. Once again, Eva stood and stared at the pulsing lights.
    ‘What are you seeing?’ asked Jack, standing next to her.
    ‘Before you came on board I thought I could detect a pattern in the vents,’ said Eva, watching the lights. ‘But I couldn’t figure it out.’
    ‘Shelley,’ said Jack, ‘can you download the file I gave you from Gwen’s phone?’
    Shelley appeared next to Eva and she threw the file from Gwen’s phone up between them.
    ‘It’s the image on Gwen’s arm,’ said Eva.
    ‘Where’s the file from?’ asked Vlad.
    ‘Gwen downloaded it to her phone from a computer the night before she tried to kill her husband. At first I thought the message was for me, but given everything that’s happening to female synaesthetes, I’m beginning to think that it was intended for Gwen all along.’ Jack paused for a beat, then asked Shelley to superimpose the glyph image onto the map and drop out the background details.
    Shelley did, leaving only the flashing lights and the outline of the continents.
    Jack cleared his throat, and looked at each of them directly , aware that what he was about to say would change everything, would make this less a scientific mission and more a suicide one.
    ‘Every single one of these flashing lights is a hydrothermal chimney that’s already forming above the surface of the ocean, and we can assume when they seal over they’re going to force all that pressure, all that heat, all those combustible chemicals back to the centre of the planet.’
    ‘Which,’ added Cash, ‘will essentially turn the Earth into a bloody big hydrogen bomb.’
    ‘Holy shit,’ said Vlad. ‘Game over.’

54
    EVA WAS SPEECHLESS. She slumped across her desk. Her emotions were already in such a jumbled mess that she was having a difficult time separating and categorising exactly what she was feeling. From the moment yesterday when they had discovered how quickly the vent chimneys were evolving, Eva had felt as if she was caught in a bizarre training simulation and at any moment someone would step onto the ship and tell them all they’d performed well on this mission and now they could go home.
    If what Jack, Cash and Shelley were suggesting was