A Mother's Son (audio story)

 was the first audio story in God Among Us 3.

Publisher's summary
Cardiff has suffered a catastrophic flood. Dozens are still missing. Survivors fill camps across the city. An inquiry has been set up to find out what happened. Bethan's come to the city looking for answers. Her son is among the missing, and no-one seems to want to help her find him. It's starting to look like there's a cover-up. What is Torchwood? Can it really be behind it?

Plot
Bethan awakes in her car and is given a coffee by Colin, who is helping out at a camp at Ritz Tower. She keeps an eye on the list of the missing, having come to Cardiff from Chorley to find her son, Anthony.

Every day, Bethan watches the ongoing inquiry into the response of the emergency services and how everybody tells the lead counsel that they cannot remember who alerted them to the tsunami. Each night, she and other protesters walk silently around the city every night in silence. She goes on Faye's television programme and does a pre-interview with Graham.

Bethan goes to the Disaster Recovery Committee, having made an appointment with Andy, but is told by a receptionist that her appointment was not made and that she would have to call to schedule another one. She goes to the inquiry and looks for Anthony at the hospital and around the camps, finding him at one. However, she learns that it is actually Orr, who asks her to keep their existence secret.

Bethan goes for a cup of tea with Andy to discuss the DRC. At the inquiry, where Yvonne is being questioned, Jack tells Bethan that Torchwood is responsible. She later asks Tyler if he knows of the organisation and knows that he is lying when he says that he does not. She finds Andy and Yvonne arguing and asks them about Torchwood, storming out when Andy calls her "just another grieving mother", and instead asks Louise to ask about them at the inquiry. Louise forgets about it and Jack reiterates that there is a cover-up.

Returning to Orr, Bethan asks them to look like Anthony again. That night, Colin tries to get her to leave her car and come inside, and Andy apologises the next day for what he said, also telling her to avoid Yvonne. She tells Tyler about Orr. Although he says that he will not tell anyone, he calls Jack. Bethan visits them again with a friend, Amy, asking them to take the form of a loved one of hers.

At the inquiry, Bethan speaks briefly with God, who hints that there is something in the water making them forget and tells her to get the answers. She replaces the water with bottles from Ritz Tower, meaning that the existence and culpability of Torchwood comes to light. Captain Martin Okombe gives evidence that Torchwood knew of the tsunami hours before it occurred. Bethan goes to the camp to see Orr, but they are crowded by people as Amy had let the secret out. She instead listens to the voicemail that Anthony left her when he was trapped in the flood. She returns to the camp and finds that Orr is gone.

Yvonne joins Bethan in her car and the two smoke. Yvonne congratulates her on her accomplishment and tells her that the inquiry was a witch-hunt set up by those behind the DRC. She offers Bethan retcon to remove her memory of her son.

Cast

 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Yvonne Hartman - Tracy-Ann Oberman
 * Orr - Samantha Béart
 * Tyler Steele - Jonny Green
 * Andy Davidson - Tom Price
 * Colin Colchester-Price - Ramon Tikaram
 * God - Jacqueline King
 * Bethan Foster - Mina Anwar
 * Lead Counsel - Tariq Ali
 * Louise - Elian West
 * Anthony - Aaron Anthony
 * News Researcher - Francois Pandolfo

Worldbuilding

 * The Disaster Recovery Committee promised the Ritz Tower camp blankets which did not arrive.
 * Bethan comes from Chorley.
 * Dr Melton is a GP.
 * Mr Colchester is busy saving the world.
 * Anthony had an uncle called Eric.
 * Bethan says that it is "fair enough" if the DRC cannot get soup, blankets and bog roll.
 * Tyler dodges the topic of his mother.
 * Louise is counsel for the Core Participant Group B.
 * Yvonne alerted the Welsh Extremism and Counter-Terrorism Unit to the tsunami. Its head gives evidence at the inquiry.
 * Mr Patterson was one of Anthony's teachers. Bethan argued with him, saying that Cardiff University was better for his course.
 * Orr's camp is behind the Millennium Stadium.
 * Jack has not smoked since the 1980s.
 * Yvonne puts retcon in the inquiry drinking water.
 * Captain Martin Okombe is captain of the HMS Brighton.

Continuity

 * Cardiff is half-drowned. (AUDIO: Eye of the Storm)
 * Faye is mentioned. She will go on to appear in Day Zero.
 * Yvonne mentions to Andy how she "got out" of working for the Committee. (AUDIO: Eye of the Storm)
 * Colin knows how it feels to lose someone. (AUDIO: Future Pain)
 * Bethan says that there is poisonous mould in the water supply. (AUDIO: Hostile Environment)
 * Tyler used to be a reporter. (AUDIO: Changes Everything etc.)
 * Captain Okombe discusses HMS Brighton and how it was moved on Torchwood's orders. (AUDIO: Eye of the Storm)
 * Yvonne uses her catchphrase "happy day" and says she had to do her duty. (TV: Army of Ghosts, Doomsday, etc.)