Torchwood: Exodus Code

Isela’s shot
    JACK FINISHED HIS coffee on the piazza, taking particular note of the peasant women spreading their glazed pots and fabrics across the steps of the church, their striped ponchos draped loosely around their shoulders. He watched two food vendors wheel their carts close to the high gates of the hacienda, clumsily unlocking the lids of their steaming food trays, their eyes darting on everything and everyone.
    In the distance, a cloud of red dust suggested the first tourist bus from Lima was climbing the last leg of the canyon road onto the meseta. The girl in the belfry was an unknown, but Jack decided she was the lookout for the bus and her job must be to alert the hot young man doing the James Dean imitation in the centre of the courtyard.
    Jack concentrated on the sounds around him, filtering and marking them in his mind, the only way he knew to track the woman, the Cuari guide he needed to descend into the mountain with him.
    Click. Click. Click.
    Jack tasted oranges and a hint of ginger.
    She was nearby. Did she know he had returned?
    Jack tipped back in the seat, the sun warm on his face, glancing longer at one of the women on the steps as he stretched, Doc Martens peeping out beneath her layers of multicoloured skirts. Touching her hand to her ear, she mumbled something into the collar band of her poncho.
    Jack smiled. Gotcha.
    Click.
    Citrus flooded Jack’s mouth. The ginger was fading from his tongue. She was on the move.
    Time to die.
    Jack stood and threw some coins on the table. Glancing up at the bell tower, he saw the young girl duck quickly out of sight. Jack was aware that he was not going to be able to stop what was about to happen but, if he was lucky, he could minimise the damage, find what he needed and still reach the mountain before nightfall.
    According to Shelley’s calculations, at the rate the chimneys were evolving and sealing, the Earth had six hours and twenty minutes left.
    Jack ducked to the rear of the café and onto the airstrip where he bribed the boys to sell their football. He took it and then dropkicked it over the hangar to the jungle beyond. At least he could keep them away from the fighting for a while.
    When the boys had safely cleared the area, Jack sprinted across the airstrip to the rear gates of the hotel, keeping his eyes on the belfry. He tapped the comms unit in his ear.
    ‘The condor is in position.’
    *
    ‘Glad to hear your voice, Condor,’ said Cash, from his seat in the rear of the minibus. The driver, Juan, glanced at him curiously in his rear-view mirror. Smiling across the aisle at Vlad and Eva, Cash folded up his laptop and popped a disc into his pocket. Loosening his seatbelt, he manoeuvred down the aisle to the couple two seats in front.
    ‘May I borrow your map, please?’
    ‘Yes, of course,’ said Gwen, who was stoned enough to keep her synaesthesia at bay, but alert enough to participate in the mission. Gwen had refused to be left on the ship, even threatening a call to Alan Pride, who Jack had confided to her had helped Dana with her intelligence. If anything happened to them, Pride had promised his help to Anwen and Rhys. He had also made sure that Dr Steele had given Gwen the right balance of drugs to be useful to the team when the time came.
    Cash took the map back to his seat, scribbled on it that Jack was inside the compound and so far Dana’s intelligence had been accurate. There were other forces at play in the Hacienda, Jack thought CIA, and that might make it more difficult to get what Jack needed.
    Cash returned the map to Hollis and Gwen.
    On the
Ice Maiden
, before they jumped ship to get to Lima as quickly as possible, Jack had been clear about his intentions and how they could help. Given his memory of how the mountain had affected him when he was last here, he knew he would need their help to make it to the top. The final stage of the plan was the only phase Jack had never explained to any of them.
    Once Jack found what he was looking for in the Hacienda del Castenado, what was he going to do when he reached the top of the mountain?

61
    AT THE REAR gate of the hotel, Jack signalled to the guard that he’d forgotten his cottage’s key.
    ‘I’m a guest of the hacienda,’ said Jack pointing through the wrought iron gates. ‘Numero seis ocho seis.’
    The guard smiled, nodded his head that he understood, but refused to open the rear gates to the actual compound. ‘No entrada, señor. Deliveries only. Please follow