'And is Torchwood really your home?'

Jack shrugged. 'Sometimes, I think so. Sometimes not. And then I'll go travelling for a bit. Or do something totally different. I had a brief spell in life insurance.' He caught Agnes's glance. 'Yeah, I know. Didn't last long. Then there was the burger bar on Bondi Beach. That was fun. But I always come back to Torchwood.'

'Well, I'm sure we're all very grateful,' said Agnes tightly.

Jack smiled at her, surprisingly fondly. 'We have our moments, you know.'

Agnes looked at him. 'And whatever do you mean by that, Captain Harkness?'

Jack grinned. 'You, me, a disco, the Undead, two guns, and one sense of balance. There aren't many people I can do this kind of thing with.'

Agnes laughed a little. 'I suppose that's true.'

'And, seriously, the twentieth century is proving pretty eventful,' he told her. 'You're actually seeing some of the more interesting corners of it.'

Agnes nodded. 'It's just so uncertain. I never know what I'll see when I wake up. I've a younger sister. . . I had a younger sister. Tilly. I tried to look her up when I first awoke. But by then. . . I don't know. I couldn't find her. I had so much to tell her. I could always tell her anything. And she was gone. That was a shock. And that was a couple of weeks ago. Mama. Papa. Tilly. Everything I knew is just history. And now my one remaining link to the past. . .'

'Me?' said Jack with a rueful smile.

Agnes frowned. 'Well, yes, there is you, I suppose.'

Jack chuckled. 'Faint praise indeed, Miss Havisham. We will have to get used to each other. At this rate, you'll be around another thousand years.'

Agnes snorted, nearly causing a policeman to drop the corpse he was carrying. 'Familiarity breeds contempt, Harkness.' She giggled. 'Jack.'

'Oh, it does, Agnes, it does indeed.' Jack squeezed her shoulder and smiled.

And then he kissed her.

Captain Jack Harkness sat alone in the empty roller disco, nursing a fractured jaw. He stood carefully, and rolled towards the exit in search of his boots. Down the road, somewhere, he knew Abba were in concert. And he'd be able to get a ticket off of Agnetha. Or was it Bjorn? One of the blondes, anyway. He looked up at the lone glitterball that still sparkled as it turned, and then he walked out the door.

Gran, slumbering on the sofa, woke suddenly and looked around. Anita handed her a beaker of tea, which she took, blinking with momentary confusion and then a weak smile.

Nina wandered over to the staff-room door, where Janice was peering through the slats in the blind. Under her breath she was saying, 'Well, our insurance is covered for flood. This is a mud slide. I'm fairly certain, oh yes, that we're covered for mud.'

Through the slits, Nina could see the giant black thing flinging steel racks around like paper darts. The noise was terrific, not helped by the way the walls of the building were making a remarkable noise. It was, she figured, the sound of concrete being squeezed.

Occasionally, she'd see two figures darting between aisles, somehow keeping on fighting both the creature and each other. It was so oddly, rea.s.suringly human that she felt, against all the odds, a little bit of hope.

There we go, Nina Rogers, she thought. she thought. You're probably going to be eaten by a giant alien blob, but you're still feeling all upbeat. That's nice. You're probably going to be eaten by a giant alien blob, but you're still feeling all upbeat. That's nice.

'Goodness,' said Gran, sitting up. 'Are those two having any luck out there?'

'No,' sighed Janice. She was watching as a whole set of swings and trampolines flew past.

'Do we know anything about them, dear? I just think it's important to know what organisation they represent, don't you?'

There was a muttering of agreement.

Irritated, Gran pressed on. 'But does anyone know who those people are? What authority they have?'

Everyone shook their heads.

'We don't know who they are, Nan,' said Anita, dolefully.

'They're superheroes,' put in young Scott, hopefully.

'Oh, I see,' said Gran quietly. 'That's nice.'

'I'm going to take a sample,' said Jack, grinning. 'Cover me.'

Agnes ducked as a volley of mountain bikes flew over their heads and clattered into the walls.

'At least if we can learn something from all this. . .'

Agnes opened her mouth to protest, but then nodded. 'It's the first sensible thing you've said today. You have fifteen seconds.' She raised her rocket launcher and, instead of directing it at the creature, fired it at a row of computers. The resulting explosion scattered clouds of razor shrapnel towards the creature.

Jack threw an arm across his face and vanished into the maelstrom.

'I don't believe it,' groaned Janice. 'They're firing at the stock.'

'Yes, dear,' tutted Gran sympathetically. 'But who would normally be called at such an emergency?'

Dad looked up. 'My brother's a fireman,' he said. 'He's seen a fair few remarkable things these last couple of years. But I don't think. . .'

'The army,' said Anita suddenly, certainly. 'Soldiers would be good at this.'

Scott nodded, excited. 'With their tanks and their nuclear weapons and their harrier jump jets.'

'That's the air force!' cried out Anita, happy and excited.

'I see,' said Gran, shifting slightly on the sofa. 'But what if they weren't enough? What then? Who would help us then?'

Jack was pressed underneath a checkout counter. Flapping around him was the burning hail of what had once been a bouncy Princess castle. He watched as the plastic fragments slapped into the alien creature and were instantly absorbed.

The ma.s.s pressed up against the formica and steel of the checkout, and Jack knew he only had seconds left. Hurriedly, he grabbed a carrier bag from the counter and reached out to scoop a sample, like a dog owner picking up a t.u.r.d. And then he remembered that the alien ate plastic and dropped the bag hurriedly. He looked around again, patting his pockets without luck. He knew that Torchwood had bonded polycarbide bags that could hold almost anything. Failing that were portable force-field containers. But he didn't have any on him. Instead he made do with a steel cash box, hoping that the steel would hold it. He reached out and snapped the box shut, and then, as the checkout splintered around him, he ran, ducking slightly as a rocket soared over his head and thudded wetly into the shivering black blob.

The Vam had sensed the little man. It knew he wanted a sample. And the Vam felt generous. Let these humans find out what they were up against. After all, it was doing exactly the same.

'I wonder what they're doing,' said Gran.

Anita, perched on a desk, beckoned her over. 'Come and have a look.'

Gran shook her head. 'I don't think so, dear. I'm quite comfortable here. Just tell me what they're up to.'

'Cowering,' said Janice, dismissively.

'Oh,' said Gran. 'I expect they'll die in a minute.'

Anita looked at her in shock. 'Nan!' she wailed.

Gran patted her hand. 'Oh, hush,' she said. 'They're clearly outcla.s.sed. They've just got guns. It'll all be over quite quickly.'

Jack joined Agnes underneath the burning remains of the train set.

All around them the building was shuddering, giant corrugated sheets splintering down as the creature dripped in around them.

'Retreat?' suggested Agnes.

'Oh yeah,' agreed Jack.

'Shall we join the others?' Agnes loosed off the last rocket and threw aside the spent gun. She hoisted up her crinolines. 'Let's strike out!'

'Yeah. They can make us a cup of tea,' said Jack and raced after her.

Behind them, the store shattered in a rain of concrete and steel.

Agnes and Jack pelted through the door of the staff room, slamming it somewhat pointlessly behind them. They stood there, panting for a few seconds and then guiltily met the gazes of the other people in the room. Hope had been replaced by a look of fear and betrayal. They'd swept in, they'd a.s.sumed authority, and, as far as anyone could see, they hadn't achieved much.

Nina almost felt sorry for them. What could they really expect two people up against a big devouring blob?

Jack flashed a weak smile. 'It's honestly better than it looks, folks. Our top priority now is getting you out.'

'Oh, really,' said Gran. 'And how are you going to manage that? You're surrounded.'

Jack's smile didn't even flicker. 'Not completely surrounded, ma'am,' he said.

His confidence was undermined by the rattling, roaring devastation of the rest of the building falling in and tumbling towards them like a lost game of Jenga.

'Down!' roared Agnes, s.n.a.t.c.hing Janice and Nina to the floor.

Debris smashed in through the gla.s.s of the staff room door, spreading dust and splinters everywhere.

For a few seconds there was silence, and then the crying began. Not, noticed Nina, from the kids. Anita and Scott were both tremblingly silent. But Janice had started to sob uncontrollably. One of her staff was trying to comfort her, with the ease of someone trying to pat a live electrical cable.

Jack and Agnes stood up, dusting themselves off.

'Not long now,' said Gran. She'd retained her seat on the sofa, even though she was now coated with dust.

Jack looked at her. 'There's still time,' he said. 'There's still hope.'

Gran shook her head, and smiled at him sadly. 'No, there isn't. And tell me, please, what happens next? After you, who will come? The army? And when that army is defeated, who will then arrive? Who then will come to die?'

Jack's gaze hardened. But it was Agnes who spoke. 'People will come. And they will try. And they will die, if necessary. But they will try. Because that creature is evil. It is alien. It is wrong. It must be fought. If necessary to the last man, woman and child.'

'I see,' said Gran, nodding. 'That's nice to know. Thank you.'

'But it's not over yet,' vowed Jack.

'Yes it is, dear,' said Gran. 'This is the feast of the Vam. Goodbye.'

And the Vam surged up and out of Gran, pouring through the air vent, the sofa, and streaming in wild tentacles through the little old lady's ruptured body.

At precisely the same time the outer walls of the staff room gave in, pouring bricks and concrete and steel and dust down into the tiny room.

X.

REAPING.

THE WHIRLWIND.

In which Mrs Cooper encounters the gentlemen of the press, and Miss Havisham prevails against the government of nations As the building fell in around them a very neat, very square hole snicked open in the floor.

'Ianto!' cried Jack with relief, scooping up a screaming Anita, and ushering everyone down the hole. As concrete bricks thundered down around her, Agnes took one last, grim look around, before fixing on the flopping wet puppet of the old woman. And, just for a second, she looked worried. And then she jumped into the tunnel.

Outside, Ianto and Gwen were herding the survivors into ambulances.

To Jack's eyes, the scene was startling. Squatting over the entire building was a vast black ma.s.s, as rich and sticky as toffee. It seemed to roar, but that was simply the sound of the girders rent beneath it.

It was surrounded by police cars and ambulances; there was even a fire engine, of all things, hosing it down. Several camera crews filmed the proceedings under the shifting blue lights of the sirens.

For a second, Jack just took in the absurdity of the scene after all these days of worry, the end of the world was happening, and the Apocalypse wasn't a sky of fire and a boiling sea with hordes of h.e.l.lsp.a.w.n tearing through a rain of burning coals instead it began with the munic.i.p.al authorities hosing down a giant bin liner. He smiled, and idly checked out a pa.s.sing fireman.

Ianto came running up to him, and, making sure that Agnes wasn't looking, hugged him. Jack, careless, seized his cheeks and kissed him. Ianto squirmed away uneasily. 'Not on duty, Captain,' he whispered.

'Tut,' said Jack fondly as Ianto straightened his tie. 'Thank you.'

Ianto looked bashful. 'I'm sorry it took so long. It was almost impossible to get a fix on you through that. . . thing. We tried digging the tunnel through it, but the cutting equipment wouldn't touch it. It's like the thing's got a force field. So I had to go down.'

Jack started to say something.

'You did well, Mr Jones,' said Agnes. She'd materialised behind them almost silently and stood there, actually smiling as she picked dirt from her gloves. 'A most timely rescue.' She grinned at him and patted him on the shoulder.

Ianto grew visibly.

She then turned to survey the mayhem around them. 'Goodness me,' she sighed. 'What a mess.'

'All my fault?' asked Jack.

'Oh yes,' said Agnes with the tone of an eternally patient, eternally disappointed teacher. 'But we shall have to see what we can do. Mrs Cooper!'

Gwen broke away from complicated discussions with three policemen, a fire sergeant and a traffic warden and came running over. She looked stressed, but thoroughly in charge.

Agnes looked around her and drew herself up. 'We shall have to have a quick field conference everyone. Now, we've fallen at the first gate and clearly the antic.i.p.ated alien threat has not been prevented. Secondly, we have been unable to contain the situation without the help of civil authorities. Thirdly, those oiks over there savour of Her Majesty's Press, so we can a.s.sume that public knowledge of this alien menace will hit the streets within days. And, fourthly and finally, I rather fear we shall be spared public disgrace, as, given that creature's exponential rate of growth, I predict that it will have spread all the way to Bedfordshire by next week and the continent in a fortnight. The fate of the world, is, very literally, in our hands.' Agnes beamed and then c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at Jack. 'And I believe you said, only a short while ago, "Crisis? What crisis?" Shame on you, Harkness.'

'So what do we do?' said Gwen, sensing Jack's rigid frame.