Torchwood: Exodus Code

case, came out of the room at the end of the hall flanked by two guards carrying heavy black bags.
    An explosion of gunfire pelted the house.
    ‘We’re under attack, boss,’ said a guard, another North American, sprinting in from the courtyard. ‘It’s what we thought. Antonio’s taking most of the men with him. The rest are pinned under fire in the piazza. Americans. Maybe ATF or CIA.’ The guard took the bag from Asiro’s hand. ‘We gotta go, boss.’
    Jack heard a voice answer in Spanish in his earpiece that the trucks were loaded and in back.
    Asiro stepped up to Jack’s face. ‘If it is you who has interfered with my business, Señor, you should know I’m not a forgiving man. I will return and I will hunt you down.’
    Jack let his weapon drop to his side, and stepped closer to Asiro, a sad smile on his face. ‘My God, you are your grandfather’s double.’
    ‘You knew my grandfather?’
    ‘Yes. He saved my life a long time ago. And that’s why I’m not going to stop you, but your grandfather kept something of mine that I need. I don’t care what’s going on out in that courtyard. I don’t care about your kidnapping scheme, but I need my notebook.’
    Asiro nodded to his guards, who dropped their guns, and began carrying luggage and supplies out through the rear of the house.
    ‘Who are you?’
    ‘I’m the man who fell from the sky.’
    Asiro’s eyes widened. He stared into Jack’s face. ‘It can’t be you… You’d be at least as old as my grandfather.’
    ‘Let’s just say,’ said Jack, ‘I’ve aged better than he did. But if you want more details, I’d suggest you pull back your men from the piazza and cut your losses with the Brazilian. You’re a marked man, Asiro, and I’d like to see you live to be an old one.’
    A wounded guard, obviously one of Asiro’s commanders, burst through the front doors of the ranch. ‘Boss, I don’t know what the hell’s going on out there, but we’re taking fire from all sides out in the piazza.’
    Asiro’s eyes drilled into Jack’s. Jack held his stare, noting Asiro’s tense but cut jaw, a look of such concentration in his face that for a beat Jack could see only Renso in his grandson’s stare.
    ‘What do you want from my family?’
    ‘I need to find a small leather notebook, one your grandfather probably kept safe, in a place where he kept his secrets.’
    The gunfire in the piazza was getting louder and closer.
    ‘Asiro, you’re running out of time. Take your wife and your daughter and go.’
    ‘My daughter, Isela, has the diary,’ said Asiro, jogging down the stairs to the foyer with Jack following. He paused as a guard handed him a bullet-proof vest. He pulled it on and then turned to leave.
    ‘You may need this sooner than I will,’ said Asiro, handing his assault rifle to Jack.
    ‘What about your wife and daughter? You’re leaving them here?’
    Asiro waved his guards on and stepped over to Jack. ‘If you knew my grandfather as well as you say you did, then you know that he married the mountain and neither my daughter nor my mother can leave.’

65
    SHOULDERING ASIRO’S ASSAULT rifle and harnessing his Webley, Jack sprinted from the ranch towards the hotel’s gates. From his earpiece, he heard Asiro order his only guard left inside the compound to open the gate and let Jack leave. Jack sprinted quickly to the overturned minibus, sliding to safety behind it as a volley of fire rained after him.
    ‘Is everyone OK?’ asked Jack, crouching beside Gwen.
    ‘Minor injuries, thank God,’ said Cash. ‘Sam got it worst. A concussion, I’m sure.’
    Hollis slapped Sam upside the head. ‘That’s what he gets for missing our flight and then almost missing the bus.’
    ‘The fleet was in town,’ said Sam, stretched out against an overhang of rock that the rear of the bus had lodged under when it flipped, an icepack on his head.
    ‘It’s Miami,’ said Eva. ‘Pretty sure there’s always a fleet in town.’
    ‘And you didn’t even eat Hollis’s sandwiches,’ said Sam. Hollis slapped him again. ‘Ow! I’m in serious pain here.’
    ‘And it could get worse,’ said Hollis.
    ‘How are you doing?’ Jack asked Gwen.
    ‘I’m OK. I probably shouldn’t operate any industrial machinery or drive a tractor, but I’m sure I’ll cope.’
    ‘What’s going on out there?’ asked Vlad, making sure his laptop was functional. ‘I thought the hardest part was going to be getting you up the mountain.’
    ‘It