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m_findlowTitle: Impossible to find
Fandom: Torchwood
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Word Count: 600 words
Characters/Pairings: Ianto, Adelaide Sharma
Author notes: Written for Challenge #014 - Extrapolate at![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
vocab_drabbles
Summary: Ianto is desperate to find Jack and takes it out on his team.
‘What do you mean you can't pinpoint the phone call?’ Ianto said, trying to keep his voice level. With all the hub’s technology at their disposal, saying they'd come up empty, annoyed him. This wasn’t just a case of “we couldn't trace the call, no big deal.” This was the biggest deal there was. The fact that they needed to find Jack was more important than anything else.
‘We did everything,’ Adelaide promised. ‘The trouble is the phone tower he was using is off the grid.’
Ianto raised an eyebrow at her. ‘Off the grid? What does that mean?’
‘It's actually quite common in parts of South America. The gun runners and drug cartels set them up, bribe the companies to install them in the most remote parts of the jungle so that they have a way of communicating with the outside world whilst they're still tucked up in their little hideaways. Most are encoded so that even rival gang cartels can't use them. I don't know what to say except that Jack must have hacked one of them to get his call out, but as for us tracking it back…’
Ianto paused just long enough to run a hand through his hair, as if that might help matters, or do anything to quell the torrent of emotions running through him as he attempted to remain calm in the face of crisis. ‘But…’
Adelaide cut off whatever he'd been about to say. She sighed. ‘Believe me, we followed every phone tower and satellite from Cardiff all the way back there and came up empty. I'm sorry. There's just no way of knowing where the call came from. Unless of course you feel like pulling out a map of the Americas and playing a game of pin the tail on the remote tropical jungle hideout.’
Ianto heaved a sigh. It wasn't the news he wanted, even if he'd been half expecting it. At least it confirmed for them what they already knew. Despite Ianto's express orders, Jack had gone there to investigate the strange signals emanating from the deepest parts of the South American jungle.
‘Well, we know he's there now,’ Ianto said, as if that settled the matter. Pin the tail, indeed.
She frowned at him. ‘Not sure how that helps us much, sir.’
He empathised with his agent. She’d tried and failed, and now had resorted to calling him sir. ‘We change tact. We've spent the past two days trying to work backwards from wherever the call came from. Now we work forwards. We know Jack left the country three and a half weeks ago. Now we scour every piece of camera footage we can find to extrapolate his last known location before he disappeared off the radar. He had to have passed through airports and other towns along the way. If he’d really wanted us to not be able to find him, he'd have given us the runaround to throw us off the scent.’ Ianto didn't believe for a second that his husband would do that to them. ‘He's left us a trail to follow, we just have to find it and it will point us in the direction of where to look next.’
Adelaide nodded, acknowledging the task even if they both knew it was a mountain of work. ‘I’ll make a start right away.’
Ianto clicked back to his computer, pulling up the map of the dense jungle that spread for thousands and thousands of square miles. Jack was there somewhere, in trouble. He just hoped one of these cartels didn't find Jack before they did.
Fandom: Torchwood
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Word Count: 600 words
Characters/Pairings: Ianto, Adelaide Sharma
Author notes: Written for Challenge #014 - Extrapolate at
vocab_drabbles Summary: Ianto is desperate to find Jack and takes it out on his team.
‘What do you mean you can't pinpoint the phone call?’ Ianto said, trying to keep his voice level. With all the hub’s technology at their disposal, saying they'd come up empty, annoyed him. This wasn’t just a case of “we couldn't trace the call, no big deal.” This was the biggest deal there was. The fact that they needed to find Jack was more important than anything else.
‘We did everything,’ Adelaide promised. ‘The trouble is the phone tower he was using is off the grid.’
Ianto raised an eyebrow at her. ‘Off the grid? What does that mean?’
‘It's actually quite common in parts of South America. The gun runners and drug cartels set them up, bribe the companies to install them in the most remote parts of the jungle so that they have a way of communicating with the outside world whilst they're still tucked up in their little hideaways. Most are encoded so that even rival gang cartels can't use them. I don't know what to say except that Jack must have hacked one of them to get his call out, but as for us tracking it back…’
Ianto paused just long enough to run a hand through his hair, as if that might help matters, or do anything to quell the torrent of emotions running through him as he attempted to remain calm in the face of crisis. ‘But…’
Adelaide cut off whatever he'd been about to say. She sighed. ‘Believe me, we followed every phone tower and satellite from Cardiff all the way back there and came up empty. I'm sorry. There's just no way of knowing where the call came from. Unless of course you feel like pulling out a map of the Americas and playing a game of pin the tail on the remote tropical jungle hideout.’
Ianto heaved a sigh. It wasn't the news he wanted, even if he'd been half expecting it. At least it confirmed for them what they already knew. Despite Ianto's express orders, Jack had gone there to investigate the strange signals emanating from the deepest parts of the South American jungle.
‘Well, we know he's there now,’ Ianto said, as if that settled the matter. Pin the tail, indeed.
She frowned at him. ‘Not sure how that helps us much, sir.’
He empathised with his agent. She’d tried and failed, and now had resorted to calling him sir. ‘We change tact. We've spent the past two days trying to work backwards from wherever the call came from. Now we work forwards. We know Jack left the country three and a half weeks ago. Now we scour every piece of camera footage we can find to extrapolate his last known location before he disappeared off the radar. He had to have passed through airports and other towns along the way. If he’d really wanted us to not be able to find him, he'd have given us the runaround to throw us off the scent.’ Ianto didn't believe for a second that his husband would do that to them. ‘He's left us a trail to follow, we just have to find it and it will point us in the direction of where to look next.’
Adelaide nodded, acknowledging the task even if they both knew it was a mountain of work. ‘I’ll make a start right away.’
Ianto clicked back to his computer, pulling up the map of the dense jungle that spread for thousands and thousands of square miles. Jack was there somewhere, in trouble. He just hoped one of these cartels didn't find Jack before they did.
