Ficlet_zone Challenge 5 - Targeted

[m_findlow]

Title: Targeted
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 2,735 words
Content notes: Set in my Torchwood futureverse.
Author notes: Written for Challenge 5 - Michael Jackson Song Titles - Blood on the dance floor at ficlet_zone
Summary: Jack and Ianto are undercover to make an exchange when things go wrong.

'Remind me why we're here again,' Ianto asked as he and Jack strolled along the gravel covered path that ran down behind a narrow set of buildings.

'I've got a favour that needs trading, and unfortunately this is the only place we can make that happen.'

'What favour is this?' He didn't recall them owing anyone any favours.

'Something I picked up the last time we were reporting in,' Jack confessed.

'Still don't remember,' Ianto insisted. It had been months since they'd taken a commission from the Shadow Proclamation and Ianto's final report there had been uneventful to say the least. Jack certainly hadn't mentioned picking up any new work whilst he'd been waiting around. If anything, they'd both agreed to take a bit of a break. It was good to be working again, and doing something that not only earned them a few credits, but was helping the universe in some small way, but they didn't need the money desperately, and they were meant to be enjoying themselves. Forever was a long time and they couldn't spend all of it working.

Ianto kept walking but he said 'tell me more.' By rights Jack should have the opportunity to explain himself. After all, they'd only come here at his request.

'I ran into someone,' Jack explained as if sensing Ianto's uneasiness. 'I said the next time we were somewhere in the vicinity, I'd handle things.'

Ianto didn't like the sound of that. Handling things sounded very much like just the sort of work they should be avoiding, whatever the payoff. Handling was something Jack might have done back in the day when he'd been a Time Agent. Handling implied something untoward.

'And why couldn't this someone of yours do it themselves?' Ianto asked.

'Some faces just can't be changed,' Jack replied, 'and this face has been in more scrapes than you and I put together. It'd be suicide to attempt the exchange in person.'

Ianto did come to a stop this time. 'But you're good cannon fodder?'

Jack reached out a hand and gave his elbow a reassuring squeeze. 'It's not like that. A quick trade and it's done. There's no risk to us, whatsoever.' Ianto gave him a knowing eye. 'Okay, maybe not no risk,' Jack admitted. 'It's not exactly what you'd call a good part of town.'

'That much I gathered,' Ianto replied, seeing a hefty creature being hauled bodily from the building they were approaching, by one even larger than it. If that was how the bouncers treated big guys, they'd make short work of them if they got caught doing something dodgy.

'Look,' Jack began, 'we go in, mingle for a short while, I go make the exchange and we leave before anyone is the wiser. Besides, everyone else will be there making deals of their own. It's a place for criminal activity if you catch my drift. It's a place to indulge in a lot of other entertaining illegalities.'

'Lovely,' Ianto replied deadpan. 'I'm looking forward to it already.' Whoever this friend was of Jack's was going to owe them big time if anything went wrong. 'Just so I know, though, is what we're doing illegal?'

'Of course not. It's undercover work for the Shadow Proclamation. Time Agents used to do this stuff all the time before they disbanded us. Now it's up to a few brave souls who are happy to work on the sly and have the Proclamation cut them loose if it goes wrong. There are things even they're not supposed to get involved in.'

'I though the whole point of them was intergalactic law enforcement?'

'So why do they have undercover cops on Earth doing gun running if the police are law enforcement?' Jack countered.

'Good point.' Thinking of themselves as undercover cops made Ianto feel a lot better.

'Come on. We'll be in and out in an hour. We're not staying any longer than we have to.'

Ianto made the decision quickly, knowing Jack would leave without him if he didn't. Really, he reasoned, what was the worst that could happen? 'Just this once,' he warned Jack. 'Next time you run these things past me first.'

Jack gave him one of those quick pecks on the cheek that served as acceptance of forginvess. Worse was that Ianto always let him get away with it.

Jack walked them up to the back of the building - the same one that had the hefty bouncers inside - and without further ado, the bouncer let them inside. No identification, no secret passwords.

Inside Ianto would have said it looked no different to any club he'd been to in Cardiff or London. It had the same dark ambience, the same odour of sweaty bodies, smoke and alcohol, and a reasonable approximation of the clientele. The only difference was that it all looked a bit haphazard, as if it had been thrown together in a hurry. There was no fancy lighting, no special dance floor, and the drinks weren't lined up neatly behind the bar, but rather extracted from crates on the floor from what he could see of the people being served.

Jack found them a table that wedged up against a corner of the club, which seemed to be all angular on the inside, leaving lots of strange nooks where patrons could sit and presumably do shonky deals. He ordered two drinks from a passing waitress and they took their seats, presumably so Jack could get the lay of the land, and to spot his contact for the evening.

'How will you know who you're looking for?' Ianto asked.

'I won't. Their job is to find me.'

'And how are they supposed to do that?' As far as Ianto could tell, they weren't known to anyone. The contact who was meant to be making the exchange had sent them in his place.

It took a full twenty minutes for their drinks to arrive, making Ianto wonder if the waitress had remembered their order at all, but when they did, the waitress slipped a coaster under Jack's drink, tipping it ever so slightly in his direction to show him that the underside contained what he'd been sent here to obtain.

Without so much as a wink to the not unattractive female, Jack took the proffered credit tag, adding the drinks to their tab for payment later, as if nothing at all had just happened.

'That seemed a little too easy,' Ianto said, taking a tentative sip of his drink. Jack had surprised him by ordering two glasses of water that looked more like spirits, served in short tumbler glasses. At least it tasted like water. Ianto scanned the club with a trained eye. 'This place seems rather, erm, I think "pop up" is the correct Earth term.'

Jack gave him an affirming nod, raising his own glass to his lips. 'It's all about who you know, so that you know where to be when the party is on. The crowd are in the know and everybody knows what goes on, so nobody is surprised.'

They sat quietly for a while and sipped their drinks. The music wasn't exactly to Ianto's taste, but from where they were, they got a good look at the makeshift dance floor, which despite the lack of proper clubbing music, as Ianto would have phrased it, there were still people who looked like the only thing they'd come here for was a good time.

Jack threw back the last of his water, as if it were a fine vodka and settled the tumbler on the table. 'I think we've been here long enough,' he declared, and stood up. 'I'll just go settle the tab.'

Ianto raised an eyebrow in astonishment. 'They charged us for water?'

'They charged us for Elysian rum,' Jack corrected him. 'We got served water. All part of the ruse. Nobody comes to a club like this and orders water.'

Ianto rolled his eyes. 'Of course not.' Only Captain Jack Harkness, and he wasn't here tonight; only his undercover doppelganger.

'Wait here. Won't be long.' Jack clutched the small credit tag in his hand and left for the bar. Ianto watched as Jack deftly navigated the crowd, which was slowly filling more and more of the floor. Clearly there were no health and safety occupancy limitations on a place like this. More people simply meant more profits, and no doubt more under the table deals making them richer still.

He kept an eye on Jack the entire way as he twisted towards the bar, handing over his credit tag. Next to him, three burly individuals in coordinating suits were leaning over the bar to make their orders. They were clearly mobsters, judging by their attire, Ianto thought. Strangely, they were the first people he'd spotted here tonight that looked decidedly shifty. If other illicit things were going on around him, he was oblivious to their subtlety. Like their own exchange, even if someone had been watching closely, he doubted they'd have picked up on it.

The club was too crowded for Ianto see what happened next. All he heard was the sound of heavy gunfire and screaming. The club quickly descended into chaos as the music came to a halt and more shots rung out. Amidst the panic, he caught sight of the bar. The three suited mobsters who'd been standing there moments before were now dead. One was splayed over the bar itself, and the other two crumpled on the floor. They weren't the only ones though. Whoever had started the shooting hadn't minded that there might be innocent casualties. Several more people were lying dead on the floor as the remainder scrambled to get out, tripping over and trampling the bodies in the process.

Ianto bolted up from the table, eyes focused not on the source of the gunfire, nor the gunmen themselves. He only had eyes for Jack, struggling against the wave of people moving in the opposite direction that he was. He breathed a sigh of relief as he caught sight of Jack, still by the bar counter, though as he got closer, he could make out that Jack was leaning on the bar with his elbows, head down and in some kind of pain. Ianto was there in a heartbeat, gripping him protectively.

'Caught in the crossfire,' Jack groaned, Ianto immediately spying the wound in his upper leg that was bleeding profusely. The bar, and Ianto, were the only things keeping him upright.

'Oh, God. Okay,' Ianto said, trying to remain calm. He gripped Jack around the waist, trying to help him out of the building, but after just a few steps, Jack's leg gave out and he toppled to the floor. A couple of panicked patrons were still scrambling past them, not caring if they kicked or trampled the pair of them in the process. It was only as Jack came to rest, lying on his back that Ianto saw the second bullet that had hit him in the lower abdomen, bleeding profusely.

'Jesus,' Ianto cried, quickly pulling out his handkerchief and pressing it hard against the wound. Jack let out a pained cry of his own. 'Sorry,' Ianto apologised. He checked the leg wound again, watching it well up with fresh blood. He must have hit an artery, Ianto surmised, quickly removing his tie and winding it tight around the leg, tying it off as tight as he could, ignoring the protesting scream that tore from Jack as he tugged the tourniquet tight. He tended to the stomach wound, pressing down on it again, realising for the first time that the screaming and the gunfire had ended, and that they were the last ones here. The only company they had now were the scattering of dead bodies.

'I think... someone clocked me,' Jack panted.

'What?' He'd assumed Jack had been an unintended victim, just as he'd said earlier, but now there was a horrible sensation in the pit of Ianto's stomach as he realised that perhaps they'd been watched the entire time, and that Jack may have been their real target, not the pack of mobsters who'd been standing right next to him.

'It's fine,' Ianto promised him. They didn't succeed, though he knew both injuries were bad. Given enough time, Jack might be able to heal enough on his own, at least to make it out of the club under his own steam. Ianto just had to keep him hanging in there a while longer, keep him talking and keep his spirits up. And stop the goddamn bleeding, he added.

There was a sound of sirens off in the distance. They were foreign to Ianto's ears, but he recognised the urgent wail of a police siren no matter where they went in the universe.

'We need... to get out of here,' Jack wheezed, '...before the police arrive.'

'It's fine,' Ianto insisted. 'Don't move. Don't try to speak.' He brushed a hand repeatedly across Jack's forehead, knowing he must have been in excruciating pain. Under his other hand, he could feel the warm blood seeping through the thin handkerchief he kept pressed to Jack's stomach. It was doing very little to staunch the bleeding, as he well knew, but he couldn't just do nothing.

'Like I said... this isn't... a good part... of town,' Jack replied.

'Once they get here, they can get you an ambulance,' Ianto promised.

'No,' Jack said, straining to get the word out between bouts of agonising pain. 'Anyone they... find here will be... arrested and... imprisoned.'

'But that's madness. We weren't doing anything wrong.'

'They don't... care. These places... are illegal. Just being here... is a crime. Go.'

'I'm not leaving you, Jack.' If what he said was true, he most definitely wasn't leaving Jack here to be taken and imprisoned. It didn't even occur to him that Jack had lied earlier, assuring him that what they were doing wasn't illegal.

Jack struggled in Ianto's arms, reaching down, though it pained him, to bend sideways against the bullet wound in his stomach. He grabbed at Ianto's tie, tugging it and trying to loosen the tourniquet Ianto had strapped around his leg.

'Don't do that,' Ianto commanded, seeing what Jack was up to.

'Police are... gonna be here in... less than five minutes. Please.'

Ianto swallowed hard, knowing Jack had made the decision for them, and that his only option was to follow through. He set Jack's upper body down on the floor, removing his hand from the stomach wound, using both trembling hands to untie his tourniquet. The knot was impossibly tight, just as he'd intended it to be, his fingers slipping around the knot, coated in Jack's blood. Finally he managed to free it, pulling it away. Blood from Jack's leg bubbled up thick and red, soaking his trouser leg and spilling onto the floor beneath him. He resumed cradling Jack's head in his lap as his body slowly gave up its fight for life.

'Shhh,' he crooned, comforting Jack as best he could. 'It's going to be okay.' Jack let out one shuddering final breath before his eyes slipped shut and he went limp in Ianto's arms.

'Shhh,' Ianto said, continuing to comfort Jack's unresponsive body, warm hand resting on Jack's cheek, though it was as much for his own sake. It never got any easier, watching Jack slip away from him. Knowing someone might have done this intentionally made it worse.

Outside the sirens were getting louder as they approached, filling Ianto with a sudden sense of dread. What if they got here first? What if Jack didn't come back in time? What would happen to them?

'Please, please, Jack,' he begged, the sirens growing louder and louder.

There was a loud gasp and Jack flailed, catching Ianto off guard as the lights of the police vehicles begin to reflect and bounce off the exterior walls, flickering through the grimy windows, announcing their arrival.

'Go, go go,' Jack said, rolling over into his side and forcing himself to his feet, pushing Ianto forward towards the back exit.

There wasn't time to talk, time to hug Jack and thank the gods he'd come back. They ran like their lives depended on it, because they did. The only sign that anybody had been there was the handful of dead bodies and the pool of blood Jack had left on the dance floor.

Comments

[bk_forever]

Wow, that was a bit nerve-racking! Glad they got out in time, hopefully with what they went there for.