Gary Russell - The Twilight Streets

‘He’s not part of it though, is he?’

‘Aren’t I?’ Idris asked. ‘I know about you, your stupid pills don’t work on me, I understand some of what’s going on here. Oh, and I’m not ten years old. My choice, Jack. Ever since I met you I reckon not a lot has exactly been equal between us. So go on, give us a chance to do something. And you know what, if it goes tits up and I die, I’m not gonna complain.’ He turned to Ianto. ‘Mind you, it might be fun to come back and haunt you, mate.’

Before anyone could do anything, Bilis walked into the crowd. They parted slightly for him, as if recognising some great power. He took Owen and Toshiko by the hand. They started to struggle and the crowd began jostling him.

‘Some help?’ he cried.

Ianto, Gwen and Idris pushed people away, until Bilis and the other two were freed from the throng.

Bilis closed his eyes and squeezed Owen and Toshiko’s struggling hands. The pair suddenly stopped squirming, and both staggered slightly. Bilis let go of them and opened his eyes. They were black.

Gwen moved in on Toshiko and Owen, gently steering them into 6 Coburg Street. She paused in the doorway to look back at Bilis Manger. He was motionless, Dark light playing in the sockets where his eyes should have been.

Bilis spoke. ‘Idris Hopper, if you are sure…?’

Idris grabbed Bilis’s hands. ‘Go for it.’

The others watched in fascination as the Dark light roared out of Bilis and into Idris’s violently shaking form. Idris began to scream, but the noise soon faded, leaving his mouth agape but soundless. When Bilis let go of Idris, the two men staggered away from each other.

Bilis recovered first, barking out a command. ‘Get him into the house. Into my room.’

Jack reacted quickly. He scooped the prone Idris up and rushed inside the house, followed by Bilis and Ianto.

Gwen was already inside with the recovering Owen and Toshiko.

Owen lifted his head and forced open his eyes. ‘Gwen?’

‘Shhh,’ she said. ‘I’ll explain everything later. First things first. We need you two to go back to the Hub. With Bilis Manger.’

Toshiko reacted now, started to ask a question, but Gwen hushed her. ‘Yeah, I know, Tosh. But seriously, he’s our only chance. Jack will explain it all on the way.’

She nodded over to where Jack was holding down the thrashing Idris Hopper. Idris’s eyes were entirely blotted out by the Dark.

‘Let’s hope his head doesn’t swivel and start talking about your mother,’ Ianto said.

Bilis scooped up the empty prison box. ‘We should leave. Now.’

‘What’s to stop him getting out of here after we’ve gone?’ asked Jack uncertainly.

‘His mind. Don’t worry, Captain, I’ll deal with it. And before you ask, no. I won’t let him be hurt.’

With a last look down, Jack jumped away from Idris, who was on his feet instantly.

Ianto yanked Jack out of the room.

Bilis took one last look around him. ‘Thank you,’ he said, as if the room were alive. ‘You kept people away successfully for so long. Goodbye.’ He gave the thrashing Idris a final look, clicked his fingers and slammed the door shut. He raced out of the hall and through the front door, wrenching it shut behind him. He clicked his fingers again, and a huge metal bar, padlocked, suddenly welded itself to the front door.

‘Neat,’ breathed Jack.

‘I swapped it for the one that’s no longer at Torchwood.’

‘And my private elevator? The one with the perception filter on it?’

Bilis laughed. ‘My dear Jack, I’m flattered by your faith. I change perceptions, not alien realities. Your silly entrance works as it always did. You only perceived that it wasn’t working, that people could see you on it. I honestly thought you’d worked that one out at least.’

Jack looked as though he wasn’t sure whether to hit Bilis or not. Eventually, he just nodded to himself. ‘Clever move. God, you’re full of it aren’t you.’

‘I do hope not,’ Bilis replied as they moved through the Dark-eyed crowds towards the others. ‘Now, we ought to get this rigged into the Rift Manipulator. You will need to boost that aerial as soon as possible. This lot,’ he pointed at the crowds, ‘don’t seem keen on us any more.’

Idris Hopper sat alone in the room. It was a bright room. The walls seemed to pulse with light from within, and it hurt his eyes.

All that broke up the blandness were two framed pictures, one at either end of the room. Both showed a horrible horned demon, one grey, one blue. At the foot of each beast stood an old man. The figure was neatly dressed, with a cravat, slicked-back white hair, bright eyes. The same man in each picture? A twin? A mirror image? He couldn’t tell. The one with the grey demon was holding a book. The one with the blue demon had nothing.

Below the picture was a handwritten line of text:

Tretarri, Cardiff City, 1876

As he stared at the blue demon picture, the image of the man changed.

In its place, a young man, fair-haired, thin, geeky almost.

Idris suddenly realised who it was. ‘No…’ he muttered. Then, louder, ‘No! No! No no no no no…’

Beneath it, the text of the location and date shimmered and blurred too, but he couldn’t see that now, couldn’t focus, because the sound of his own screams of denial filled his head, filled the room, echoing even after he’d shut up, and there was no escaping it…

With a swift kick from Jack, the doorway to the top of the roof stairs gave way, flying off its hinges and skidding across the asphalt. Jack pelted through, Gwen and Ianto at his heels.

‘I don’t think it was locked, actually,’ said Ianto.

‘I wanna look cool, OK?’

Ianto made a ‘whatever’ with his fingers and followed the others to the dish. Jack was up and on it, already grabbing the base of the aerial.

Gwen tapped her comms. ‘How’re we doing, Tosh?’

Toshiko’s voice echoed back to her from the Hub. ‘You’re doing fine, Gwen. I’m less convinced by Owen and me, frankly.’

‘We’ve lashed the Rift Manipulator into Tosh’s computer and old man Bilis there is putting the box inside,’ reported Owen.

There was a beat.

‘Well?’ snapped Jack.

‘He’s not exactly one for urgency, Jack,’ Owen said.

‘Can he hear me?’

‘Can now. I’ve patched the comms through to-’

‘Bilis, it’s Jack. I don’t have time for you to mess about. Get that damn box in there and opened up.’

They heard Bilis’s voice. ‘It is ready.’

‘So are we,’ said Ianto, as he and Gwen finished connecting the cables to the aerial.

‘How bloody primitive is this,’ Jack muttered. ‘A hundred years of alien tech, and it looks like Ianto jump-starting the SUV.’

‘Oi, the SUV never needs jump-starting,’ Ianto retorted.

Jack grinned. ‘I just have an image in my head of you with jump leads and a pole. I was saying the SUV to save Gwen’s blushes.’

‘Oh don’t mind me,’ Gwen said. ‘I gave up listening to you two hours ago. Days ago. About a year ago actually.’

‘Yeah, well, some of us don’t have that luxury,’ Owen said in their ears. ‘Thanks for the image, guys. We good to go, Tosh?’ There was no verbal reply, but Owen’s voice came straight back. ‘Tosh gave me a thumbs up. I like to think that’s Kabuki for “yes”. And not “we’re all gonna die in flame and devastation”. But you never know, it could mean both.’

Jack sighed, pulled the box of electronic gubbins from his pocket and looked up. ‘Now would be really good, guys,’ he said.

Gwen was looking over the edge of the roof at the mass of black-eyed people gathered at the foot of the building, like ants. She thought for a moment of Idris Hopper, trapped in that house a few miles away, raging against all this. For all she knew, Rhys could be out there too. And all their friends, family… anyone, everyone.