by Guy Adams
'Hope so!' the girl replied. 'I'm looking for a place that's advertising rooms around here. Nina Rogers...' She stuck out her hand.
'Pleased to meet you, Nina Rogers!' Jack smiled, shaking her hand.
'I'm at the Uni, you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find somewhere to stay.'
'I can imagine—'
'They're all really expensive or really grotty, or both, I went to this one place, and I swear there were things living in the walls.'
Jack glanced towards Gwen, neither quite sure if they should be worried.
'Like cockroaches or something,' Nina added, her eyes never leaving Jack's face. 'The old guy there probably breeds them, he smelt like the sort, y'know... mouldy... He wore this cardigan that I swear would have stood up on its own, weird guy, wouldn't have stayed there even if the place had been nice, you just can tell about some people, can't you? Not the sort of people you want calling for the rent, if you know what I mean...'
'And breathe...' muttered Gwen with a smile.
'Sorry!' said Nina, rolling her eyes. 'I go on, don't I? Anyway, I've got the advert somewhere...' She dug around in her bag. 'I don't know you, do I?' she said, still looking at Jack.
'Wouldn't be surprised,' Gwen told herself in the SUV's wing mirror.
'I don't think so,' Jack replied with a slight frown.
'He gets around.' Gwen added.
'Here it is!' Nina pulled the advert out. 'Julia Wallace, place called Jackson Leaves.'
'Full, I'm afraid,' Jack said quickly.
'Oh no!' Nina sighed.
'I know. We've actually just come from there. Known the place for years... Hope you find somewhere nice, though.'
Jack headed quickly towards Gwen and the SUV.
'Why did you say that?' Gwen asked. 'You know Julia's looking for tenants.'
'I'm sure the place is OK now, but let's not take the risk. Besides, it's not like Julia will need the money once she cashes in that ticket. It's all worked out just fine, hasn't it?'
Gwen frowned as she glanced at a 'lost' poster on a nearby lamp post – Hannah Ogilvy smiling in an old Christmas photo, paper hat on her head and Christmas-tree earrings that were as jolly as her smile. 'Not for everyone,' she said.
'No,' Jack replied, 'but sometimes you just have to settle for the majority— Watch it!' he shouted as a teenaged boy shoved past him and ran off up the road. 'Wait a minute...' he began checking his pockets.
Gwen was laughing. 'Did you not see who that was?' she asked.
'He took my wallet!'
Jack began to run after him, but Gwen didn't think he stood much of a chance. From what she could see, Danny Wilkinson was a fast runner.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to all the people who had to put up with me while writing this book. My family, who now understand the art of writing: do nothing until the last minute and then type frantically, screaming and begging for the world to end the day before the delivery date. Albert and Nick at BBC Books for keeping a roof over our heads during this process by sending cheques. Steve Tribe not only for giving me the gig in the first place but also for having a name so macho that one cannot help but feel reassured... I picture him as a literary Doug McClure beating primeval creatures to death while correcting my grammar. I hope I never meet him... it's so disheartening to have one's dreams shattered. And, of course, Morris and Pinborough; who'd have thought it, eh?
The rest of you? You're in the book, what more do you want?
Coming soon from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA
ISBN 978 1 846 07764 7
£14.99
Founded by Queen Victoria in 1879, the Torchwood Institute has been defending Great Britain from the alien hordes for 130 years. Though London's Torchwood One was destroyed during the Battle of Canary Wharf, the small team at Torchwood Three have continued to monitor the space-time Rift that runs through Cardiff, saving the world and battling for the future of the human race.
Now you can discover every fact and figure, explore every crack in time and encounter every creature that Torchwood have dealt with. Included here are details of:
The secret of the Children of Earth
Operatives from Alice Guppy to Gwen Cooper
Extraterrestrial visitors from Arcateenians to Weevils
The life and deaths of Captain Jack Harkness
and much more. Illustrated throughout with photos and artwork from all three series, this A–Z provides everything you need to know about Torchwood.
Based on the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
THE
TORCHWOOD
ARCHIVES
ISBN 978 1 846 07459 2
£14.99
Separate from the Government
Outside the police
Beyond the United Nations...
Founded by Queen Victoria in 1879, the Torchwood Institute has long battled against alien threats to the British Empire. The Torchwood Archives is an insider's look into the secret world of this unique investigative team.
In-depth background on personnel, case files on alien enemies of the Crown and descriptions of extra-terrestrial technology collected over the years will uncover more about the world of Torchwood than ever previously known, including some of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Rift in space and time running through Cardiff.
Based on the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
ANOTHER LIFE
Peter Anghelides
ISBN 978 0 563 48653 4
£6.99
Thick black clouds are blotting out the skies over Cardiff. As twenty-four inches of rain fall in twenty-four hours, the city centre's drainage system collapses. The capital's homeless are being murdered, their mutilated bodies left lying in the soaked streets around the Blaidd Drwg nuclear facility.
Tracked down by Torchwood, the killer calmly drops eight storeys to his death. But the killings don't stop. Their investigations lead Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper and Toshiko Sato to a monster in a bathroom, a mystery at an army base and a hunt for stolen nuclear fuel rods. Meanwhile, Owen Harper goes missing from the Hub, when a game in Second Reality leads him to an old girlfriend...
Something is coming, forcing its way through the Rift, straight into Cardiff Bay.
Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoki Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
BORDER PRINCES
Dan Abnett
ISBN 978 0 563 48654 1
£6.99
The End of the World began on a Thursday night in October, just after eight in the evening...
The Amok is driving people out of their minds, turning them into zombies and causing riots in the streets. A solitary diner leaves a Cardiff restaurant, his mission to protect the Principal leading him to a secret base beneath a water tower. Everyone has a headache, there's something in Davey Morgan's shed, and the church of St Mary-in-the-Dust, demolished in 1840, has reappeared – though it's not due until 2011. Torchwood seem to be out of their depth. What will all this mean for the romance between Torchwood's newest members?
Captain Jack Harkness has something more to worry about: an alarm, an early warning, given to mankind and held – inert – by Torchwood for 108 years. And now it's flashing. Something is coming. Or something is already here.
Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoki Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
SLOW DECAY
Andy Lane
ISBN 978 0 563 48655 8
£6.99
When Torchwood track an energy surge to a Cardiff nightclub, the team finds the police are already at the scene. Five teenagers have died in a fight, and lying among the bodies is an unfamiliar device. Next morning, they discover the corpse of a Weevil, its face and neck eaten away, seemingly by human teeth. And on the streets of Cardiff, an ordinary woman with an extraordinary hunger is attacking people and eating her victims.
The job of a lifetime it might be, but working for Torchwood is putting big strains on Gwen's relationship with Rhys. While she decides to spice up their love life with the help of alien technology, Rhys decides it's time to sort himself out – better music, healthier food, lose some weight. Luckily, a friend has mentioned Doctor Scotus's weight-loss clinic...
Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoki Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
SOMETHING IN THE WATER
Trevor Baxendale
ISBN 978 1 84607 437 0
£6.99
Dr Bob Strong's GP surgery has been treating a lot of coughs and colds recently, far more than is normal for the time of year. Bob thinks there's something up but he can't think what. He seems to have caught it himself, whatever it is – he's starting to cough badly and there are flecks of blood in his hanky.
Saskia Harden has been found on a number of occasions submerged in ponds or canals but alive and seemingly none the worse for wear. Saskia is not on any files, except in the medical records at Dr Strong's GP practice.
But Torchwood's priorities lie elsewhere: investigating ghostly apparitions in South Wales, they have found a dead body. It's old and in an advanced state of decay. And it is still able to talk.
And what it is saying is 'Water hag'...
Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoki Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
TRACE MEMORY
David Llewellyn
ISBN 978 1 84607 438 7
£6.99
Tiger Bay, Cardiff, 1953. A mysterious crate is brought into the docks on a Scandinavian cargo ship. Its destination: the Torchwood Institute. As the crate is offloaded by a group of local dockers, it explodes, killing all but one of them, a young Butetown lad called Michael Bellini.
Fifty-five years later, a radioactive source somewhere inside the Hub leads Torchwood to discover the same Michael Bellini, still young and dressed in his 1950s clothes, cowering in the vaults. They soon realise that each has encountered Michael before – as a child in Osaka, as a junior doctor, as a young police constable, as a new recruit to Torchwood One. But it's Jack who remembers him best of all.
Michael's involuntary time-travelling has something to do with a radiation-charged relic held inside the crate. And the Men in Bowler Hats are coming to get it back.
Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoki Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
THE TWILIGHT STREETS
Gary Russell
ISBN 978 1 846 07439 4
£6.99
There's a part of the city that no one much goes to, a collection of rundown old houses and gloomy streets. No one stays there long, and no one can explain why – something's not quite right there.
Now the Council is renovating the district, and a new company is overseeing the work. There will be street parties and events to show off the newly gentrified neighbourhood: clowns and face-painters for the kids, magicians for the adults – the street entertainers of Cardiff, out in force.
None of this is Torchwood's problem. Until Toshiko recognises the sponsor of the street parties: Bilis Manger.
Now there is something for Torchwood to investigate. But Captain Jack Harkness has never been able to get into the area; it makes him physically ill to go near it. Without Jack's help, Torchwood must face the darker side of urban Cardiff alone...
Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoki Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
PACK ANIMALS
Peter Anghelides
ISBN 978 1 846 07574 2
£6.99
Shopping for wedding gifts is enjoyable, unless like Gwen you witness a Weevil massacre in the shopping centre. A trip to the zoo is a great day out, until a date goes tragically wrong and Ianto is badly injured by stolen alien tech. And Halloween is a day of fun and frights, before unspeakable monsters invade the streets of Cardiff and it's no longer a trick or a treat for the terrified population.
Torchwood can control small groups of scavengers, but now someone has given large numbers of predators a season ticket to Earth. Jack's investigation is hampered when he finds he's being investigated himself. Owen is convinced that it's just one guy who's toying with them. But will Torchwood find out before it's too late that the game is horribly real, and the deck is stacked against them?
Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoki Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
SKYPOINT
Phil Ford
ISBN 978 1 846 07575 9
£6.99
'If you're going to be anyone in Cardiff, you're going to be at SkyPoint!'
SkyPoint is the latest high-rise addition to the ever-developing Cardiff skyline. It's the most high-tech, avant-garde apartment block in the city. And it's where Rhys Williams is hoping to find a new home for himself and Gwen. Gwen's more concerned by the money behind the tower block – Besnik Lucca, a name she knows from her days in uniform.
When Torchwood discover that residents have been going missing from the tower block, one of the team gets her dream assignment. Soon SkyPoint's latest newly married tenants are moving in. And Toshiko Sato finally gets to make a home with Owen Harper.
Then something comes out of the wall...
Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoki Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
ALMOST PERFECT
James Goss
ISBN 978 1 846 07573 5
£6.99
Emma is 30, single and frankly desperate. She woke up this morning with nothing to look forward to but another evening of unsuccessful speed-dating. But now she has a new weapon in her quest for Mr Right. And it's made her almost perfect.
Gwen Cooper woke up this morning expecting the unexpected. As usual. She went to work and found a skeleton at a table for two and a colleague in a surprisingly glamorous dress. Perfect.
Ianto Jones woke up this morning with no memory of last night. He went to work, where he caused amusement, suspicion and a little bit of jealousy. Because Ianto Jones woke up this morning in the body of a woman. And he's looking just about perfect.
Jack Harkness has always had his d
oubts about Perfection.
Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
INTO THE SILENCE
Sarah Pinborough
ISBN 978 1 846 07753 1
£6.99
The body in the church hall is very definitely dead. It has been sliced open with surgical precision, its organs exposed, and its vocal cords are gone. It is as if they were never there or they've been dissolved...
With the Welsh Amateur Operatic Contest getting under way, music is filling the churches and concert halls of Cardiff. The competition has attracted the finest Welsh talent to the city, but it has also drawn something else – there are stories of a metallic creature hiding in the shadows. Torchwood are on its tail, but it's moving too fast for them to track it down.
This new threat requires a new tactic – so Ianto Jones is joining a male voice choir...
Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T Davies for BBC Television.
Also available from BBC Books
TORCHWOOD
BAY OF THE DEAD
Mark Morris
ISBN 978 1 846 07737 1
£6.99
When the city sleeps, the dead start to walk...
Something has sealed off Cardiff, and living corpses are stalking the streets, leaving a trail of half-eaten bodies. Animals are butchered. A young couple in their car never reach their home. A stolen yacht is brought back to shore, carrying only human remains. And a couple of girls heading back from the pub watch the mysterious drivers of a big black SUV take over a crime scene.