Disclaimer: If you recognize it from Stargate, it's not mine and belongs to MGM, and all the others that have claim to it. The only thing I'm getting from this is, hopefully, the readers enjoyment, so please don't sue, you wouldn't get much anyway.
Chapter One: Whatever Could Go Wrong...
New York, it looked different today, than it had the last time she'd been here on a mission. Years could do that to a person, a situation. It looked darker now, so much more crowded and cheaper somehow, gaudier. Was it the lens of experience that painted this different picture, or was it something else? All she knew was that there was something here that she didn't like. This wouldn't have been her choice for an exchange like this. It was much too open, there were many to many ways that this could go wrong. A shoulder jostled against hers in the crowd as she moved to cross the street towards the point of exchange, and only a quick step, and a run in with another person kept her from loosing the contents of her pockets.
"This is really starting to feel wrong," Leigh McAllister thought at her sister. "I don't like the way this is set up here. It would be easy for someone to disappear in this crowd, or be made to disappear." She looked around nonchalantly, scanning for signs of ambush. "Why am I doing this again?" The sea around her was much to good a mask, even holding the decent height that she did, she couldn't see far in it. The number of briefcases just like the one that she held, was astounding. This wasn't the way that an operation was supposed to work. She was about to call it off, when she got her response.
"Naquahdria, remember? Between the two of us I think we could stabilize the stuff, then just think what you could do. You wouldn't have to worry about power ever again, that AI might just be within your reach," Deirdra's mental voice turned wheedling near the end.
"I want it as much as you do, but they're late, this feels wrong," Leigh cast her eyes on another scan of the area, glancing up at the molding of the buildings that towered all around her. That's when she saw it, the glint of metal in an upstairs window, movement on a rooftop where there shouldn't be. They'd set her up. She swore, loudly, and broke off into the crowd in a different direction than she'd been heading, looking to disappear into it. Still, her eyes kept roving, looking for anyone or anything out of place. To the outside observer she looked fully relaxed, just like anyone else. Inside, she was terrified. She'd known this was a bad idea. How was it that Deirdra always managed to talk her into these situations? Why, oh why did she always have to clean up the messes?
In her dazed state, and outward focus on anything out of place, she found herself slamming hard into the body of a fully in place man. The briefcase that she'd been holding dropped from her hands at the sudden shock, and she stumbled. In the space of an instant she committed every detail of his appearance to memory. Tall, thirties, short hair, blond or light brown, blue eyes, glasses. He was wearing a light blue polo shirt and slacks, there were loafers on his feet. The hands that steadied her were calloused, strong.
"Whoa, sorry about that, are you okay?" His voice was low, pleasant. His features highly attractive. Under different circumstances, she would have been flustered, but she couldn't be now. There was no time, they were closing in. If she didn't move soon she'd end up surrounded.
"Yeah, sorry." She muttered, grabbing at the nearest briefcase as she slipped back into the crowd. She had to get away now, before they spotted her. She slipped down an alley, hopefully unobserved, and when she walked out the other side, she was a different person. More accurately she was looking like herself again, long auburn hair trailing around her in wavy strands, dark green eyes a mask of relief.
"Glad I didn't leave anything at the hotel," she muttered, "It's nice to know that my instincts are still sharp, I'll be on the first plane I can manage sis. See you soon."
"Are you sure you're okay?" Deirdra demanded.
"Yeah, I'm good. Requesting radio silence," Silence greeted her. With a sigh, Leigh made her way away from the square, and towards a place that she could only hope would be safe.
It was three hours later before she went to ground at a hole-in-the wall hotel that she'd gotten covertly two days ago. No one had even known that she was in the country, she'd made sure of that. Her equipment was waiting for her when she got there, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Her relief lasted only until she opened her briefcase to check on the contents. Then she swore again, this wasn't her briefcase. No, somehow she'd ended up with a briefcase full of what appeared to be papers that needed translation, and the notes to assist with it. Which meant that the man she'd bumped into had her briefcase, the one with the prototype personal cloaking device, and the production notes for said prototype and the nanotech that she and her sister had developed when they needed an extra edge. Information that she was supposed to be trading with the United States for a power source.
This was bad, very, very bad. A careful search showed no sign of identification in the briefcase, and Leigh set to work with her fingerprint kit. Running the fingerprints through all databases at her disposal, seemed to be straining her internet connection a bit, and she wondered absently what Deirdra was up to. She brushed the thought off, performing a more thorough search of the case, scanning it for tracking or communications devices of any kind. She'd learned the lesson about that long ago. There weren't any. When she finished that, she checked her locks and booby traps, then began dismantling and cleaning her guns, putting them together as she finished. She'd exhausted weaponry, and had moved on to checking her chemicals and explosive equipment when her computer beeped up a match.
One look at the screen and she froze. United States Air Force, the man that this briefcase belonged to was USAF? She scanned the screen more carefully. Dr. Daniel Jackson, civilian consultant, linguist, archeologist. Apparently the head of his department, which consisted of a large portion of the civilian researchers at the Cheyenne Mountain complex.
"Deep space radar telemetry?" Leigh scoffed. "How much more obviously a cover story could they get?" The picture did match the man that she'd bumped into though. They set me up! Anger surged. The U.S. Government had their package, and all she had were these useless symbols, and translation notes, not the newly found energy source she'd been promised. A little careful searching told her that Dr. Jackson had been on his way to the airport. That meant she was on her way to Colorado Springs to get her stuff back. That could take awhile. Suppressing her rage, Leigh pulled up the highly encrpted messaging system she and her sister used, and typed out a quick note. We have a problem, a very big one. I need you to stay put and run interference for me back home. I'm going to be here a bit, and I may have been compromised. Therefore, requesting communications blackout.
It didn't take long for Deirdra to get back to her. If you're sure you can handle it little sis. Be careful, I'll do what I can to keep mom and dad ignorant. If you need me I'm only a transmission away. Blackout request acknowledged. Then her computer crashed.
Good, Deirdra had gotten her deeper message then, no one would be pulling up anything on her computer if she really had been compromised. No one would get to the rest of her family even if they got her. It had happened before, and she wasn't going to let it happen again. Mom and dad were getting too old to still be in the game, it was time to stop letting people protect her, and start protecting the people she loved. After all, she wasn't thirteen anymore, she was a woman grown. It was time to start acting like it. That meant fixing this herself, and that would require at least a little planning.
Leigh turned her eyes to the notes she'd taken. He worked on base, and that was likely where her briefcase was, she would check his house first anyway. It would be a million times easier. Maybe she'd get lucky. But first she needed to make some preparations, just in case she actually needed to get into the base. With luck, she'd find, or craft, a way to get in legitimately. Legitimately would be a who lot easier on everyone. She had most of the things that she would need if it did come to breaking in, and the rest could be obtained in Colorado. For now, she needed to get herself and her cargo onto a plane, quickly. So her work began.
A/N: This has been the rewrite for chapter one. I hope that a few things have been made a little clearer. If not, oh well, there has still been some much needed description added. As ever, any and all comments so long as they're constructive are accepted and appreciated. Thank you for reading, or rereading as the case may be.