Risk Assessment by James Goss

Agnes watching him.
    ‘Game’s afoot, Harkness?’ she enquired.
    Jack stabbed the computer and it went silent. ‘Not really. Just one of Toshiko’s automatic alarms. Honestly, she set up so many of them, this thing pings at least once a day.’
    ‘Indeed? And what’s provoked it this time?’ Agnes was interested in the machine.
    ‘Well,’ said Jack, scanning down the screen. ‘It looks like a tag she placed on one of our previous cases has gone into action.’
    ‘Unfinished business? How thrilling, Captain. Leaving things half-finished must guarantee you’re always busy.’
    Gwen and Ianto wandered over – both of them sensing a fight.
    Jack, however, was more absorbed in the screen than in another confrontation with Agnes. ‘Gwen, Ianto – you’re not going to like this. . .’ he said, beckoning them over with his grimmest smile that said, ‘Well, you won’t like it, but anyway. . .’
    ‘SkyPoint?’ Gwen had seen what was on Jack’s screen. ‘I thought that dump was pretty much abandoned.’
    Jack shrugged. ‘Even so, its few remaining residents, the caretakers and the unluckiest estate agent in Cardiff have just been reported missing.’
    ‘Perhaps they all ran away together?’ suggested Ianto, his smirk dying under the lantern of Agnes’s face.
    ‘A brief précis, if you please,’ she snapped.
    Gwen breathed in. ‘Shiny apartment building. Tenants eaten by alien. It’s been pretty empty since.’
    Agnes nodded. ‘I have heard many similar warnings about tenement living. It is only to be expected. But. . . how far is this away from where you collected that coffin?’
    Ianto glanced at the map. ‘About a mile. Oh.’ His face fell.
    Agnes nodded. ‘So there may be a connection.’
    Gwen shuddered, ‘You won’t get me back there in a hurry.’
    ‘Actually,’ Agnes turned to her and smiled. ‘Can you drive an automobile, Mrs Cooper?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Gwen, alarmed.
    ‘Good. Then you can convey me there. If you’re too delicate to venture inside, I shall quite understand. Fear not. I have my police whistle and a Webley.’ She strode off to the invisible lift.
    ‘Don’t you want me—’ began Jack. The expression on his face was heartbreaking. And funny, decided Gwen. He looked like he’d been left off the school trip to Chessington World of Adventures.
    Ianto threw Gwen the keys, and she caught them. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry – it’s a false alarm. And I’ll bring Agnes back in one piece.’
    Jack grimaced. ‘I’m not fussy,’ he said.
    In the setting sun, Agnes stood outside the lobby of SkyPoint. She looked up. And up, her eyes slowly taking in the sheer tall tallness of the building.
    ‘So much glass and metal,’ she breathed to Gwen. ‘It’s. . .’ she breathed, ‘ ugly .’
    Gwen giggled. ‘Ugly?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Agnes. ‘I mean, I’m sure it’s all very well for people of your time, but I must admit, I find this kind of building very. . . cheerless. Empty grandeur never really did for the Empire, you know. Shall we?’
    The lobby of SkyPoint had changed remarkably since Gwen had last been there. Then it had been a shining marble palace. Now, it was a wreck. She couldn’t quite put her finger on how it was a wreck, exactly. But the empty lobby, so cold, so cheerless, looked and felt wrong somehow. Partly the lack of glowing lights and ice-cool receptionist. But somehow. . . She shuddered.
    Agnes looked around her, as though expecting the worst. She nodded grimly. ‘Like the lobby at my bank.’
    Something landed on her shoulder, and she gave a slight start, jumping back.
    Gwen ran up to her. ‘What was that?’ she asked.
    Agnes shrugged, craning round to look at her shoulder. ‘I don’t. . . I think merely a water droplet. No doubt the plumbing is deplorable.’
    They both looked up. And stepped back hurriedly.
    Where once there had been a chequerboard of ceiling panels, there was now an empty metal skeleton, tiny snotty strands of