The Undertakers Gift by Trevor Baxendale Read Free Book Online

had a chance to cool off.’
    ‘What about?’
    ‘Recent Rift activity. Kerko’s one of the few things to come through in the last couple of weeks that we can actually communicate with. There’s been lots of stuff and a fair few aliens, but. . .’
    ‘You mean like our friend in Cell One?’ Gwen nodded her head at the nearby cell. ‘Mr Quiet.’
    Inside the cell was a large blob of orange-coloured jelly, roughly humanoid in shape but transparent, and with no discernible features, organs or clothes. It sat, silent and unmoving, on the concrete bench opposite. If it had any eyes then they would probably be staring at the floor. It had been in the cell for the last seven days and hadn’t moved. It didn’t appear to need any food or sleep but it was quite obviously alive. The glutinous mass which made up its body shifted occasionally as a thick bubble of some kind of gas oozed slowly around inside it.
    Torchwood had stumbled across the creature on a building site. Two workmen had died when they had poked the thing with their shovels – the jelly appeared to be electrically charged to a lethal degree.
    Dressed head-to-foot in rubber – and probably not for the first time, thought Gwen wryly – Jack and Ianto had manoeuvred the creature to the Hub and led it, completely unprotesting, to Cell One. And there it had stayed ever since.
    ‘Still no response?’ Jack asked.
    ‘Nothing,’ Gwen shook her head. ‘Just a big, fat zero . Not a word or a peep or a squeak. I’m not even sure it can make a sound. Maybe it’s mute. Maybe it only communicates by telepathy, but I’ve run an ESP scan on it and it just doesn’t register, so it’s unlikely. I’ve tried talking to it, shouting at it, whispering, singing, signing, playing music, tapping, even reading the Daily Mail out loud, everything. . . But no reaction. It just sits there like a. . . like a great big jelly.’
    ‘Marmalade,’ said Jack. ‘Ianto reckons it looks like it’s made from orange marmalade.’
    ‘Shredless,’ Gwen agreed. ‘Shredless marmalade that carries a 50,000-volt electrical charge.’
    ‘Hey – maybe that’s what we should call it: Marmalade.’
    ‘Nope. I had a cat called that. Besides, Ianto wants to call it Eja.’
    ‘Eja?’
    ‘E-J-A. Electric Jelly Alien. Cute, don’t you think?’
    ‘He is, but the name isn’t.’ Jack tilted his head to one side, watching the strange, silent creature. ‘Anyway, I think I prefer your idea.’
    Gwen was puzzled. ‘My idea?’
    ‘Zero. As in we know zero about it; it tells us zero; and the chances of anyone surviving contact with it are zero.’
    They stood in silence for a few more moments until Jack cleared his throat. Gwen looked questioningly at him. ‘How are you, Gwen?’ he asked, with only slight hesitation.
    ‘Fine. Why?’
    ‘Missing Rhys?’
    ‘Of course. But at least the flat is tidy.’
    He smiled. ‘How’s the Glock?’
    Gwen raised an eyebrow, not expecting the question. ‘It’s OK. Good. Light weight, which is a bonus. Smooth. Easy to handle. Laser sights work OK. Ianto says he wants me to try it with some different ammo. Hollow points, thermium impact rounds, that kind of thing. Why?’
    ‘I want to make sure we’re all armed all the time right now.’
    For the first time Gwen noticed that Jack’s Webley was in its holster. He never usually carried his gun in the Hub. ‘Worried about the assassin?’
    ‘I need to know that when it really counts we can all do the job.’
    Gwen blinked. ‘You mean with a gun? You know I can.’
    ‘Sometimes it ain’t that easy.’ Jack took a deep breath. ‘Sometimes it isn’t in the heat of the action that you have to do it. Sometimes you’ve gotta look the enemy right in the eye when you pull the trigger.’
    ‘I know.’ Gwen frowned. ‘What’s this all about, Jack?’
    ‘It’s about being able to make the right choice. Between life and death. I need to know that we can all do that when it really