Nightingale: Agent of Torchwood

Everything Changes [2]

Nightingale sat in front of a computer in the library, looking over the case files that seemed to involve Torchwood. "Sarah Pallister, 72, was murdered in her front room. Rani Ghosh, 45, was murdered in Robintree Alley. And now John Tucker, 19, murdered in Llangyfelach Lane. So far, there's absolutely nothing linking these three victims, apart from the way they died, and Torchwood. It's all the same weapon. A blade approximately eight inches long and three inches deep. The women were stabbed from the front, but John Tucker was stabbed from behind," Nightingale felt as though she was being watched and looked up and a man in a long coat running up the stairs and followed.

He disappeared at the top, and all Nightingale could see was plastic sheeting taped to the entrance.

Nightingale called to a man on the stairs below. "Excuse me. Sorry. It's all sealed off up there. Who did that?"

"I dunno. Nine o'clock this morning, it was all sealed off. They never said. Chemicals or something," the man shrugged as he walked off.

Nightingale entered through a gap in the plastic of the sealed-off door. "Hello?"

A strange figure stepped out of a room at the far end.

"Sorry, I'm just looking for someone." Nightingale walked forward. "Yeah, right, clever."

The creature remained motionless except to tilt its head at Nightingale

"Anyway, I don't know if you saw a man come through here. A tall man in one of those big sort of military coats,"

As Nightingale got closer, she saw the creature's face was not human.

The eye sockets were vertical, he had tufts of hair on the top of his head, and he had a permanent snarl.

Nightingale recognized that the being wasn't human or from Earth, but with her time on Asgard, she couldn't quite place its species. "What are you?"

The creature snarled at Nightingale, and then the man entered from the stairwell and walked towards Nightingale.

Nightingale turned around.

"Ah, there you are. I did ask when I saw the head librarian because I thought it was him who said about the police, but he said no. Then I asked about the chemicals, but he said don't be stupid; what chemicals? So I don't know, could be anything." The man noticed the creature. "Who've you got with you there then? So much for sealing it off. Oh, there's a face. Nice one. Hey, I tell you, mate, you should try plastic surgery. Not on the NHS, mind." he glanced from the creature to Nightingale. "You all right?"

"Yeah," Nightingale breathed.

"Bloody hell, that is brilliant. That's like, er, Hellraiser. That's first class, that is." The man stood close to the creature and indicated the teeth. "Look at that. It's just like real teeth," He went up to the creature and got bitten in the throat, blood spurted from his pierced jugular.

Torchwood appeared, and Jack rushed Nightingale back down the corridor.

"Go! Go! Go! Go!" Jack ordered

The other three sprayed stuff on the creature.

"On the floor!" Owen demanded

They bagged it and put a black plastic bag over the creature's head.

Jack stopped at the end of the corridor.

Nightingale continued running out of the corridor and down the stairs. She stopped running, returning to the busy normality of the library.

Out in the car park, the Vogue nearly ran Nightingale down. She gave chase on foot.

The Range Rover dropped the four Torchwood people near the Millennium Centre and left.

Nightingale watched as they walked in front of the Water Tower sculpture. She followed only to see that they had vanished. "Seven hells," Nightingale muttered. She walked around the Millennium Square fountain to see how Torchwood could have gotten away earlier. Nightingale noticed a shimmer and smirked. "So that's how you do it," she looked over, spotted a pizza delivery bike go past, and formed an idea.