m_findlow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
m_findlow) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomweekly2025-02-16 05:41 pm
m_findlow) wrote in fandomweekly2025-02-16 05:41 pm
Entry tags:
[#250] SMASH AND GRAB (TORCHWOOD)
Theme Prompt: #250- Quick exit
Title: Smash and grab
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG. Minor spoilers for Big Finish audioplay “The Conspiracy” and “Fall to Earth”
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Jack thought he had more time to dig up the information he needed to take down The Committee.
‘That’s it,’ Jack said, cooing at the laptop as it began to slowly download the contents from the server. ‘Come to daddy.’ Terabyte after terabyte of precious data flowed in a slowing filling bar graphic.
‘Hello? Who are you?’
Jack was startled by the female voice and turned to it, familiar lanyard clutched in her hand. ‘I thought I put you all on leave for the week. We’re refitting the place. New carpets. Fresh paint. That means no workers, and whilst I appreciate the dedication…’
‘You couldn't have thought of that before we all moved in?’ she asked, cutting him off mid speech.
It was a fair point. Jack wasn’t used to people questioning his orders. Especially people he didn’t even know, who didn’t know him, but were merely employed by the company he now ran. ‘I thought it’d be okay,’ he lied. ‘You wouldn't believe how many complaints are in my inbox about the state of the place. Let it not be said that I don't listen to what my people tell me. Come next week you won't even recognise the place.’
Not that they’d be here next week. They’d be getting an email telling them that due to unforeseen circumstances, the company had been forced into administration and that all employees would be stood down with immediate effect. Harkness Industries had run its course, coming to a sudden and premature end.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Running a backup on our main server,’ he explained.
‘Since when does the boss do those sorts of things?’
Oh, this one was good, he thought. Just when he’d thought he'd only hired a bunch of mindless drones to fill the space and give it legitimacy. ‘The IT geeks called in sick. We’ve got sensitive customer data here and I'd hate for the construction team to accidentally damage anything and for us to lose our data.’ That much was true at least. The server did indeed contain valuable data – just not the kind that would serve anyone other than Torchwood.
Ephraim Salt was no dummy. He had deep pockets and liked to dabble in anything and everything, from owning tech companies to selling insurance, philanthropy to building his own private spacecraft – which was due to take its maiden flight tomorrow, going off in a fanfare of media and celebrity influence. You didn’t get to be one of the richest men on the planet without a bit of intelligence. Salt knew something about The Committee. He must have been one of the few people alive that even knew the name let alone what their aims were, which put him in a dangerous position.
Jack hadn’t been following them for long but already he knew that they didn’t take kindly to anyone knowing anything about their business. And because Salt was so very clever he hadn't taken any chances either. He knew things about The Committee – things that Jack desperately wanted to know for himself – but you couldn't just walk in and make an appointment with the wealthiest man in Britain. Ephraim Salt only saw people that he wanted to see, when he wanted to see them, and Torchwood were not on the guest list.
Instead, he’d cleverly distributed what data he had on The Committee, carefully concealing it in the computer systems of his various commercial pursuits, and much of that had been locked away in the innocuous looking servers of the insurance company call centre just a few floors below. Renting out the top floor of this building in the middle of a rural city centre in Turkey was no coincidence, and security was tight, so Jack had to tread carefully when poking around in those server stacks. It didn’t matter that they were ostensibly on the same side – Salt had his ways and means and didn’t like people interfering.
It was, quite frankly, brilliant to hide the data here. There were hundreds of places within the UK and the developed world where he could have kept things hidden behind vast networks and impenetrable firewalls, but this little known outpost of cheap labour in an insignificant piece of his commercial portfolio was exactly the place to hide it in plain sight. Jack had to give him credit for that. Anything that might help to take down The Committee was vital and Jack simply had to get his hands on it, however he could. The information was too powerful to risk in the hands of a civilian – even one as high-powered and brilliant as Salt.
The laptop bleeped angrily at him. ‘Dammit!’ Jack swore. Across his laptop screen ones and zeroes had taken over, scrolling quicker than he could comprehend. Someone or something had hacked the system and was speedily trying to corrupt anything in its path. He quickly pulled the cable connecting him to the server tower before the malware could infect his laptop as well.
‘What’s wrong?
‘No time to explain. Just grab the fireworks and follow me.’ Deep breaths. Don’t panic. It wasn’t all of the data, but it was something.
‘What?’ She didn't get a chance to ask what he meant, merely jogging after him as he ran from the building, laptop tucked under his arm.
‘You need to get out of here. Grab a bus or a taxi and get out of the city and don’t come back, okay?’
‘Why?’
‘Because some very nasty people have found me and that building is swarming with CCTV cameras that will have my face and yours on them. If they find either of us…’
He didn’t doubt that The Committee would quickly descend on the place. Jack had kept himself under their radar for months after they’d forced him to flee Cardiff, set up for the murder of a prominent former newscaster, come conspiracy theorist and public speaker. ‘Just go!’ he yelled at her, watching her spare a worried glance over her shoulder before running.
Then he ran. Ran like his life, and that of everyone on the planet, depended on it.
Title: Smash and grab
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG. Minor spoilers for Big Finish audioplay “The Conspiracy” and “Fall to Earth”
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Jack thought he had more time to dig up the information he needed to take down The Committee.
‘That’s it,’ Jack said, cooing at the laptop as it began to slowly download the contents from the server. ‘Come to daddy.’ Terabyte after terabyte of precious data flowed in a slowing filling bar graphic.
‘Hello? Who are you?’
Jack was startled by the female voice and turned to it, familiar lanyard clutched in her hand. ‘I thought I put you all on leave for the week. We’re refitting the place. New carpets. Fresh paint. That means no workers, and whilst I appreciate the dedication…’
‘You couldn't have thought of that before we all moved in?’ she asked, cutting him off mid speech.
It was a fair point. Jack wasn’t used to people questioning his orders. Especially people he didn’t even know, who didn’t know him, but were merely employed by the company he now ran. ‘I thought it’d be okay,’ he lied. ‘You wouldn't believe how many complaints are in my inbox about the state of the place. Let it not be said that I don't listen to what my people tell me. Come next week you won't even recognise the place.’
Not that they’d be here next week. They’d be getting an email telling them that due to unforeseen circumstances, the company had been forced into administration and that all employees would be stood down with immediate effect. Harkness Industries had run its course, coming to a sudden and premature end.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Running a backup on our main server,’ he explained.
‘Since when does the boss do those sorts of things?’
Oh, this one was good, he thought. Just when he’d thought he'd only hired a bunch of mindless drones to fill the space and give it legitimacy. ‘The IT geeks called in sick. We’ve got sensitive customer data here and I'd hate for the construction team to accidentally damage anything and for us to lose our data.’ That much was true at least. The server did indeed contain valuable data – just not the kind that would serve anyone other than Torchwood.
Ephraim Salt was no dummy. He had deep pockets and liked to dabble in anything and everything, from owning tech companies to selling insurance, philanthropy to building his own private spacecraft – which was due to take its maiden flight tomorrow, going off in a fanfare of media and celebrity influence. You didn’t get to be one of the richest men on the planet without a bit of intelligence. Salt knew something about The Committee. He must have been one of the few people alive that even knew the name let alone what their aims were, which put him in a dangerous position.
Jack hadn’t been following them for long but already he knew that they didn’t take kindly to anyone knowing anything about their business. And because Salt was so very clever he hadn't taken any chances either. He knew things about The Committee – things that Jack desperately wanted to know for himself – but you couldn't just walk in and make an appointment with the wealthiest man in Britain. Ephraim Salt only saw people that he wanted to see, when he wanted to see them, and Torchwood were not on the guest list.
Instead, he’d cleverly distributed what data he had on The Committee, carefully concealing it in the computer systems of his various commercial pursuits, and much of that had been locked away in the innocuous looking servers of the insurance company call centre just a few floors below. Renting out the top floor of this building in the middle of a rural city centre in Turkey was no coincidence, and security was tight, so Jack had to tread carefully when poking around in those server stacks. It didn’t matter that they were ostensibly on the same side – Salt had his ways and means and didn’t like people interfering.
It was, quite frankly, brilliant to hide the data here. There were hundreds of places within the UK and the developed world where he could have kept things hidden behind vast networks and impenetrable firewalls, but this little known outpost of cheap labour in an insignificant piece of his commercial portfolio was exactly the place to hide it in plain sight. Jack had to give him credit for that. Anything that might help to take down The Committee was vital and Jack simply had to get his hands on it, however he could. The information was too powerful to risk in the hands of a civilian – even one as high-powered and brilliant as Salt.
The laptop bleeped angrily at him. ‘Dammit!’ Jack swore. Across his laptop screen ones and zeroes had taken over, scrolling quicker than he could comprehend. Someone or something had hacked the system and was speedily trying to corrupt anything in its path. He quickly pulled the cable connecting him to the server tower before the malware could infect his laptop as well.
‘What’s wrong?
‘No time to explain. Just grab the fireworks and follow me.’ Deep breaths. Don’t panic. It wasn’t all of the data, but it was something.
‘What?’ She didn't get a chance to ask what he meant, merely jogging after him as he ran from the building, laptop tucked under his arm.
‘You need to get out of here. Grab a bus or a taxi and get out of the city and don’t come back, okay?’
‘Why?’
‘Because some very nasty people have found me and that building is swarming with CCTV cameras that will have my face and yours on them. If they find either of us…’
He didn’t doubt that The Committee would quickly descend on the place. Jack had kept himself under their radar for months after they’d forced him to flee Cardiff, set up for the murder of a prominent former newscaster, come conspiracy theorist and public speaker. ‘Just go!’ he yelled at her, watching her spare a worried glance over her shoulder before running.
Then he ran. Ran like his life, and that of everyone on the planet, depended on it.
no subject
no subject