Broken Bonds (audio story)

was a P.R.O.B.E. audiobook released by BBV Productions on their website. It was written by James Hornby and read by Bill Baggs. A print version of it was later included in the anthology True Origins. The story revealed more about Giles's family background, introducing his sister and niece.
== Publisher's summary ==
Giles tries to reconnect with his estranged family, but life at P.R.O.B.E. has other ideas…
== Plot ==
Having stayed at HQ after hours to get Director Giles's advice on a disagreement she's been having with her father, Tasha Williams suddenly thinks to ask Giles if he has any family. He very blatantly avoids the question, and she relents, leaving to go drop in on her dad in person. However, the question has awakened a lot of troubles buried in Giles's psyche, and, on impulse, he decides not for the first time to try and phone his sister Sandra to try and smooth things over with her. She doesn't pick up, but, refusing to give up, Giles drives all the way to her house to try again to speak with her. She answers the door, but only to reiterate that she wants nothing to do with him ever again, telling him to "move on".
Two months later, Giles is engaged in a new case, chasing a young agent of the magic-using terrorist group Beltane through crowded Oxford Street, when he catches sight of Sandra in the crowd. He is momentarily distracted and his target almost takes this opportunity to stab him, but Bedevere tackles her to the ground, saving him. Still keeping his eyes on Sandra, Giles tells Bedevere to keep the cultist under control until Tasha gets here to help him take her back to HQ. He, meanwhile, follows Sandra at a distance, vaguely intending to try to apologise yet again. Instead, he sees Sandra meeting up with a young woman bearing a startling resemblance to Sandra, and he realises to his surprise that in the many years since their falling out, Sandra has had a daughter, and he is now an uncle.
When he returns to P.R.O.B.E. HQ, having elected not to disturb the happy mother-daughter moment between Sandra and the girl, he finds the team in a tizzy, wondering what to do with the prisoner — with Agamya Akhtar insisting that they should not be holding her without a trial, and they need to transfer her to appropriate authorities with an actual warrant of arrest, or else release her. Giles convinces Agamya that they need to try to see if she can tell them anything usable about Beltane before the rest of the group hurts anybody else, but promises they'll transfer the prisoner to the authorities as soon as possible if this doesn't pan out. Though not entirely satisfied, Agamya lets it go and heads for the Archive while Tasha goes to interview the prisoner.
Giles goes to Maxie's office and asks her to look up the daughter of Harry King and Sandra King in the database. To both their surprise, as well as information on Harriet's life (she is a gifted young chemistry researcher, currently working as a lab assistant at Modernex Labs), they discover that her current boyfriend Jonathan appears to be well-acquainted with the very ginger-haired Beltane agent they've just brought in. Giles, though disturbed, voices his certainty that Harriet herself can't be part of Beltane, though Jonathan might be — and Maxie reveals, in her reply, that she's figured out his relationship to the Kings, although she promises not to tell. The two walk back to the main hall of HQ to find the rest of the team panicking, as the prisoner has just committed suicide for fear of questioning.
Thinking quickly, Giles sends Tasha, Maxie and Bedevere on Jonathan's trail while he goes to meet Harriet at a café she often frequents. He finds her there, and introduces himelf as his "Uncle Giles" — whom the sceptical Harriet explains her mum always described as "mental". He tells her about Beltane and Jonathan's apparent ties with them, imploring her to help P.R.O.B.E. if she can by telling them anything important she might have overheard. She refuses to believe him, trying to dismiss Giles's incoherent stories about terrorists as the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist trying to worm his way into her confidence for his own selfish reasons; but they are soon joined by Jonathan himself, who recognises Giles at once and immediately makes a run for it without explaining himself to Harriet.
A car chase ensues, with Harriet following Giles into his car even as he continues explaining the Beltane case. They quickly lose sight of Jonathan due to heavy rain, but Tasha phones Giles to give him the result of their search of Jonathan's home: it seems Beltane's plan centre on Modernex Labs, and that all the Beltane members had been worming their ways into the lives of various people who worked at Modernex, with Harriet only being one of many. Giles and Harriet meet up with Tasha and Bedevere outside Modernex Labs. Harriet explains that Modernex has been working on a new fuel source to reduce harmful emissions, which Beltane probably want to use as the "pure substance" that will ignite the "sacred fire" with which they want to consume the world. She uses her pass to let them into the Labs, and leads them towards the research area where the prototype is stored.
As soon as they enter the room in question, they find themselves faced with four armed Beltane agents, including Jonathan. There is a brief, tense standoff that is broken when bedevere thoughtlessly throws a dagger at one of the Beltane agents with a cry of "For Arthur!", sparking an exchange of fire that ends with Tasha lightly wounded, and three of the four Beltane members dead. Harriet is unharmed, but shocked at the violent deaths she has just witnessed, having never been in any situation of this sort, unlike the P.R.O.B.E. team. However, Giles manages to get her to focus enough that she is the first to notice, and warn them of the fact, that Jonathan has escaped in the confusion, taking with him the Ogden Farm sample. They chase Jonathan to the roof, where they find him fumbling with a lighter, intent on completing Beltane's plan by setting fire to the highly-flammable sample, creating a "sacred fire" to destroy and "purge" London. However, Harriet manages to talk him down, getting him to admit that he was in over his head with Beltane and that he cared about Harriet as more than a means to an end.
Jonathan is taken into custody, and given that he did not get the chance to do much more than breaking an entering, Giles, using his status as P.R.O.B.E. director, is able to put in a good word to ensure Jonathan will be released fairly quickly so long as he behaves himself. He says goodbye to Harriet, who admits that she rather enjoyed meeting her Uncle Giles and wouldn't mind having coffee now and then — although she makes it clear that she has no intention of getting drawn into Giles's dangerous world and following his professional footsteps, with their future relationship remaining a purely personal one. Tasha agrees to drive Harriet home, and Giles heads home by himself, feeling happy and at peace for the first time in a long while.
== Characters ==
* Giles
* Tasha Williams
* Sandra King
* Unnamed Beltane agent
* Sir Bedevere
* Harriet King
* Agamya Akhtar
* Maxie Masters
* Jonathan
== Worldbuilding ==
* Tasha Williams is once more having a spat with her father.
* Giles was once infected by a mind slug.
* Maxie Masters has been living on Earth for about four years.
* Gendar have somewhat different body language from humans, and Maxie has had some difficulty adjusting; for example, her smiles are "irregular", "all teeth and no expression".
* Sandra Elizabeth King married Harry King in 1991; the two, who now live in Guildford, had a daughter, Harriet Cathryn King, who was born on 1 June 1998.
* Bedevere recalls "Merlin's lockpick" which could open any door.
== Story notes ==
* Although it still held off on revealing Giles's full name, as had become series tradition, the story offers some evidence in favour of "Giles" being his first rather than last name, something which had previously been left ambiguous: he introduces himself to Harriet as "her Uncle Giles", which would be a rather unusual form of address if Giles was the family name he shared with Harriet's mother, rather than a personal name.
== Continuity ==
* Giles thinks back to what happened with Archie, seeing his death as a lesson that "time was precious and, if opportunities weren't seized, they could one day be lost". (AUDIO: What Happened in Manchester)
* Giles recalls his supernaturally-caused relationship with the love wraith Stacey Facade "a few months ago". (WC: Stacey Facade)
* Modernex Labs was built "on the site of the old PKD headquarters". (PROSE: Cyberon, The Last Dose)
* The Ogden Farm sample comes from the Ogden Farm. (AUDIO: The Root of All Evil)
== External links ==
Category:True Origins short stories
Category:2021 audio stories
Category:BBV audio stories