UNSUNG HEROES
Craig Chatham was writing in his journal. He preferred to write poems by hand, it made it more personal, and he could show them to anybody who asked to see them. Admittedly, the only person who’d ever shown an interest in them was Isobel, and she was still in Cardiff. He sat alone in the spacious living room of his uncle Ben’s flat, his headphones on, listening to Fallout Boy. His uncle didn’t like him listening to that sort of music, and kept trying to make him listen to some old bloke from the eighties, but he wasn’t here, he was at some concert in London with his boyfriend Anselm, trying to bring something back into their presently troubled relationship. Not that they knew how hard it was, Craig thought, at least Anselm was there, rather than in a top-secret underground facility in Cardiff.
He wasn’t completely alone in the flat, Kyle was in his room, doing something with Katie. She’d come over shortly after Ben had left, and they’d both gone into Kyle’s room, telling Craig it was “official business”. Craig ignored them, he didn’t care, he missed Isobel too much. He was just adding the finishing touches to his poem, and was considering drawing a bleeding heart in the corner of the page, when he heard the phone ringing. He expected Kyle to come out and answer it, but he didn’t. “Oh, I’ll get it then!” Craig whinged, pulling his earphones out and dragging himself to the phone. He picked up the receiver and grunted a “hello”.
“Hello, Is that Ben Chatham’s flat?” it was a polite sounding woman, with a Welsh accent. Craig recognised it at once. “Oh, Hi Gwen, it’s Craig. How’s Isobel, can she come back?”
“Sorry Craig, she’s started acting up again, broke three televisions and knocked out the power in the bay for an hour yesterday. When she’s calmed down, you can see her again.”
“Oh.” Craig replied, sadly.
“She does ask after you a lot though.” Gwen said comfortingly.
“That’s nice.” Craig said. “Is that what you phoned to say?”
“Sorry, no.” Gwen said softly. “Is your uncle Ben there?”
“He’s at a concert with Anselm.”
“Which would explain why his mobile is switched off.” Gwen said. “What about Kyle, or Katie?”
“They’re in Kyle’s room, I’ll just get them.”
He put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone, and called to Kyle. No response. He went to the door and knocked. Still no reply. He knew they were in there, why weren’t they answering? Still, they were dealing with official business, and this obviously came under that subject, so he reasoned that he might as well just go in. He turned the handle, and pushed the door open. “Kyle, Katie, It’s Gw...” is all Craig managed to say before he realised what he was seeing. Kyle was lying on his back on his bed, shirtless, his lower body covered with duvet, and looking flushed. Katie was sitting on him, completely naked. They both turned and saw him, and time froze. Craig looked at Kyle’s shocked face, then at Katie’s face, then her bare chest, then at the floor. “Uh, sorry” he grunted, and quickly left, closing the door behind him. He turned away from the door, stunned. He knew that Kyle and Katie had been friendlier than before, but this...
The image of a naked Katie still in his teenage mind, he remembered that Gwen was still on the phone. He held it to his head, and spoke. “Er, Kyle and Katie are a bit, er, busy at the moment, can they call you back.”
“Not really, it’s important. We’ve had a report of a Weevil in Cambridge.”
Craig had seen Weevils in the cells of Torchwood, and Jack had told him stories of Weevil hunts. This was clearly bad. “Can I do anything?”
Gwen hesitated. “Craig, I need you to get Kyle and Katie to stop whatever they’re doing and get them to go to the old Woolworths in Cambridge City Centre. Jack and Ianto are on their way, they should be with you in about two hours, but that Weevil needs catching before it gets out.”
“Will Do!” Craig said as authoritatively as he could, and put the phone down. At the same moment, Kyle came out of his room, a look of anger on his face. “What have I told you about going into my room!?” he shouted.
“That was Torchwood on the phone, there’s a Weevil on the loose.”
Kyle stopped, then pointed a finger in Craigs face. “We’ll talk about this later.” He went back to his room, and shouted “Katie, get your knickers on, we’ve got a Weevil to catch!” He grinned at Craig. “I’ve always wanted to say something like that!”
Five minutes later, they were all in Katies Landrover, heading into town. Craig and Katie were deliberately not looking at each other. “So, how do we deal with this Weevil?” Katie asked, looking out of the window.
“What would Uncle Ben do?” Craig asked.
“Phone Torchwood?” Katie suggested
“They phoned us.” Kyle said.
“Phone UNIT?” she offered
“Then why didn’t Torchwood phone them?” Kyle replied. “Well, that’s our usual options covered, I think we need to come up with a new plan.”
The Land Rover pulled into the loading bay of the old Woolworths on Cambridge high street, and after a minute of lock picking, they were in.
They walked through the small loading bay and entered the main store. It was dark, and completely empty, all the shelving and tills gone. A mezzanine at the back that used to house a cafe was shrouded in darkness.“I used to come here all the time.” Katie said. “Hardly ever bought anything, but still...”
“I always used to nick the Pick-N-Mix” Kyle confessed. He pulled out a torch and pointed it at the doors to the staff areas. “I think we should go that way.”
“Hang on,” Katie said “Who put you in charge?”
“Fair enough,” Kyle said, offering the torch to Katie. “Where shall we go first?”
She took the torch, and pointed it at the same doors. “Through there.”
They found them locked, but a quick shove from Kyle got them open. They could smell something, like animals at the zoo. The Weevil was in the staff areas.
Kyle reached into a holdall, and pulled out a tranquiliser gun and some aerosols. “Weevil Spray” he told them, hanging the aerosols to Katie and Craig, and they headed up the stairs.
They tried the staffroom first. It was empty, all the tables and chairs had been removed, and all that remained were a few posters about heavy lifting, pension schemes and old magazines. Kyle pointed towards the kitchen area, and they moved silently over. Apart from a damaged fridge, there was nothing. Suddenly, they heard noises coming from outside. Cocking the gun, Kyle went ahead, leaving the staffroom and heading for the sound, Katie and Craig close behind.
They came to a door with a small glass window in it. Kyle peered through it, and saw it was the kitchens for the cafe. There was something moving inside.
He turned to Katie and Craig, and whispered. “It’s inside.” He pulled a net from the holdall. “I’ll shoot it, you get the net over it.”
“What if it tries to attack us?” Katie asked. “We don’t have guns?”
“Use the sprays. They should calm it down a bit.”
Kyle placed his hand against the door, and prepared to push it. “Good luck!” he whispered, and pushed the door.
The Weevil was huddled by a cupboard, chewing on something. Kyle hoped it was only a rat, or some abandoned food. Moving around the stainless steel units he saw it was a human arm, the fingers slightly chewed, but identifiable. He stopped, and managed to stop himself from crying out. He turned to Katie, signalling to her to keep Craig back. He was just a kid, he didn’t need to see any more death than he had to.
He turned back towards the Weevil, and realised it was looking directly at him. It snarled, showing off a mouth of vicious pointed teeth, and got to its feet. Kyle held up the gun, and fired. There was a “pfft” sound, and a dart appeared on the Weevils chest. It stopped, looked at the dart, and pulled it out of it’s flesh. Kyle turned to the others. “Change of plan. Leg it!”
They ran for the door, followed by the Weevil.
“So, what’s our back up plan?” Katie cried as she ran along the short corridor towards the stairs.
“Ain’t got one, I thought this one would work.” Kyle said.
“I’ve got a plan!” Craig said.
“Is it any good though?” Kyle asked.
“Better than yours.”
Kyle considered for a second. “Fair enough. What is it?”
The Weevil saw the humans go down the stairs, and followed. It had to be careful, stairs were easy enough to go up, but going down them was tricky. One wrong step and it would fall. Not that it mattered, Weevils healed a lot quicker than humans, and even after a nasty fall it would be alright.
It reached the bottom of the stairs, and lurched out of the door the humans had gone through. Suddenly, it was unable to move, covered in an invisible skin...
The net held. Kyle and Craig held it in place by the doorframe a few seconds longer, then let go. The Weevil fell forward, and tangled itself further in the net. Katie moved in, and sprayed the Anti-Weevil Spray in its face. It roared, struggled, then settled down. Kyle pointed the gun at its chest, and shot another tranquiliser dart into it. This one stayed, and after a minute, the Weevil fell asleep.
Kyle dropped the gun into the bag, and turned to the others. “Well, that was easy!” he said. Craig and Katie glared at him. “Well, it took us...” he looked at his watch “Ten minutes to defeat this alien menace.” He nudged the Weevil with his foot. “Usually takes Ben much longer!” He grinned, and Katie and Craig grinned back.
While they waited, Kyle took Katie to one side. “Could you go back up and check something for us?” He asked
“What?”
“That Weevil was chewing on an arm, could you see if the body is up there?”
Kate looked horrified. “Can’t you go?”
Kyle looked over at Craig. “Need to have a word with Craig about earlier.” He held out the gun. “Take this, I’ve drugged this one up so much it’ll sleep for hours, so I won’t need it.”
She sighed. “Very well!” and headed to the door.
Kyle walked back to Craig, and sat on an abandoned basket.
“Hey, kid, nice plan back there. Real credit to the team. Ben’ll be proud!”
“Don’t call me Kid.” Craig mumbled
“Sorry mate.” Kyle replied. They sat in silence for a minute.
“Craig,” Kyle said suddenly. “about what you saw earlier...”
Craig suddenly had a flashback to a naked Katie. “Yeah...” he said awkwardly.
“Would you mind not telling Ben.”
“Why do you want to keep it a secret?”
“We have reasons.” Kyle said. “Katie and Ben have a history, one she doesn’t like to talk about.”
Craig had heard Ben talking about how he and Katie had had an ‘understanding’, but he thought that was over.
“Are you and her in love?” Craig asked.
Kyle considered this. So far, he and Katie were simply having fun, they enjoyed each others company a lot more, they understood each other...
“Sort of. It’s complicated.”
Craig shrugged “Tell me about it.” He looked at Kyle. “At least yours doesn’t turn into a powerful alien once a month!”
Kyle laughed. “You so do not know anything about women!”
Katie returned to find them both laughing. “What’s so amusing?” she asked.
“Craig’s cool” Kyle said, “He won’t tell Ben.”
“Good.” Katie replied. “The longer before he finds out, the better!”
“Who finds out what?” came a loud, American voice from the back of the shop floor. They turned, and saw the long coated figure of Captain Jack Harkness standing silhouetted in the doorway.
“Alright Jack, we’ve got you your Weevil!” Kyle shouted back.
Ianto emerged from behind Jack, and helped Kyle lit the Weevil’s prone form and carry it out of the shop. Katie took Jack to one side. “Jack, we found human remains upstairs.”
“Any idea who?”
“No, but it’s weird, it was only an arm, with the fingers chewed off. No way of identifying it.”
Jack thought about it. “I could take it back to Cardiff, see if there’s a DNA match on the database...”
“Thanks” Katie said, “It’s upstairs, in the kitchen.”
“Ianto will fetch it, won’t you.” Jack said loudly, looking at the recently returned Ianto.
“Naturally.” Ianto said grumpily, and went upstairs, pulling a bag from his suit pocket. Jack looked around the shop floor. “Where’s Ben?”
“Concert in London with Anselm. We had to catch the Weevil ourselves.”
Jack nodded, impressed. “Good work. Looks like Ben’s out of a job!”
Katie laughed. “Talk like that and he’ll never let us out on our own again!”
Jack laughed too. Craig wandered over. “Why are you laughing?”
“Never mind.” Katie said. “Actually, credit where it’s due, it was Craig’s plan that let us catch the Weevil!”
“Really?” Jack said, impressed for a second time. “Ben’s definitely out of a job.” He put a hand on Craig’s shoulder. “Tell you what, do you want to come back with me and Ianto, help us write up the report, then maybe you can spend some time with Isobel?”
Craig grinned.
“I’ll take that as a yes, if that’s alright with the grownups?”
Katie nodded. “I’m sure Ben will be fine with it. Anyway, it’ll be nice to have the flat to ourselves.” She shot a sly look at Kyle, who had just returned to the shop floor.
Jack spotted the look, and grinned, nodding. “Ahh, you two are...”
Katie blushed. “Yeah.”
“Good for you! Anyway,” He said, clapping his hands together “We need to head off, so see you around!”
He turned, his coat swishing as he left. Ianto said a quiet goodbye, and followed behind, a plastic bag containing the arm in his hand
“Bye.” Kyle said, and he and Katie were left alone.
“So, what shall we do now?” Katie asked.
Kyle looked around the shop. “Leave, go back to the flat? Ben will be wondering where we are...”
“Sod Ben.” Katie said. “Let’s do it. Here!”
Kyle stared at Katie, and grinned...
Steven Callard sighed. He’d have to report back, and tell his supervisor that Ben Chatham had failed to turn up. He thought of the trouble he and the others had had capturing the Weevil, transporting it to Cambridge without being detected, getting it into the Woolworths, making sure it had enough to eat so it didn’t escape, not to mention all the cameras he’d had to install and the tricky business of contacting Torchwood without being traced. And all he had to show for his efforts was footage of Ben’s friends. The boss wasn’t interested in them, just Ben Chatham. The operation had been a complete waste of time, and the boss would not be happy...
