Thanks to all of you who have sent reviews or have put this story on alert so far. That's very reassuring (and intimidating--LOL), and I've received some really good ideas as well!

There's a little mild language in this chapter...but just a little.

Chapter 2

Sam woke feeling a little groggy…ok, a lot groggy, and her head hurt. As she opened her eyes, she was puzzled by her surroundings. She was lying on a bed in what looked like a very nice hotel room, and she was relieved to see she was fully clothed. But how had she gotten here? What had she forgotten? More important, what was the last thing she remembered? Then it came back to her. She was at Area 51, and two Army sergeants were taking her to see General Moore. She felt a pinprick in her neck…ah…the sudden realization that she had been drugged hit her. Drugged and taken…where?

She sat up, fighting off the almost overwhelming dizziness. She needed to look out the window, needed to get her bearings. But as soon as she stood, she regretted the decision. The room started to spin, her knees involuntarily buckled and she found herself sitting on the edge of the bed. Ok…checking out her surroundings could wait.

Placing a hand to her now throbbing forehead, she slowly reclined on the bed and thought of Jack. She had no idea how long it had been since she was taken from Area 51, but she was sure he knew and that he was furious, as well as worried. Damn! How had they managed to get her off the base? Security at Area 51 was as tight as at the SGC!

Opening one eye, she glanced around the room again, and noticed that it had only one window. Determined to get more information about her situation, she took a deep breath and shakily stood, stumbling and weaving toward the window. She pulled back the drapes and saw that it was still daylight. Ok…maybe the same day. But then again, she reminded herself, she had no idea how long she had been out.

Outside of her luxurious prison, she saw a terrace and a large swimming pool, surrounded by seemingly endless rolling green hills and fields. Ok…it looked like Earth, so she was probably still on terra firma. That was a positive, she supposed. She assessed a set of black bars that were fastened to the house's stone facade. Damn! They were out of her reach! She'd have to give that one some thought when her head was clearer.

She was on the second floor of what appeared to be a small hotel, or maybe an expensive home. Well, if she could get those bars to move, she could probably use the bed sheets to make a rope and shimmy down to the ground.

She glanced up at the roof. The room in which she was imprisoned was on the top floor of…..whatever this building was. Maybe she could figure out a way to get up there. If so, another section of the house might offer better, less conspicuous egress. Wait a minute! There was another door in this room. Probably a bath. She should check it out too, to see what she might use from there to make her escape.

At that moment, she heard a door opening. Sam spun dizzily toward the sound, grasping the back of a nearby chair to steady herself from the sudden movement. As the room came back into focus, she looked up to see the familiar face of her captor. "Ba'al!"

"Hello, Colonel Carter," he said, as a cunning smile spread across his face. "It is good to see you again."

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Jack stumbled slightly as he rematerialized in General Moore's office. The Asgard beam wasn't as rough as gate travel, but he hadn't yet mastered the landing, and he hated looking clumsy. He shook his head as the room came into focus. General Moore was sitting at his desk with a remote control in his hand. "Jack," he said, obviously surprised by the sudden intrusion. "I didn't expect you quite this soon."

"What do you have, Bill?" he asked as he moved to sit in a side chair. "Whatever it is, I need to know."

"I was just reviewing the security tapes from the sector where Colonel Carter's lab is located," Moore said. "It looks like she was kidnapped."

Jack bit his tongue to avoid snapping at Moore. Of course she had been kidnapped! What other explanation was there? "Let's see it, Bill."

With that, Moore pressed a button, and the video began to roll. Jack felt his stomach flip as he watched Sam come out of a building with her rolling suitcase in one hand, and a duffle slung over her other shoulder. He saw an open-top Jeep drive up, and watched as Sam turned. A young uniformed man got out of the Jeep and said something to her, then picked up her bags and loaded them into the vehicle. Jack watched as Sam climbed into the Jeep, and the driver started to drive forward. Then, Jack saw Sam's head and upper body slump forward, just before the younger man started to raise the Jeep's fabric top. The driver made a u-turn, turning away from the main complex, and the car sped off into the distance, kicking a cloud of Nevada sand up in its wake.

"We're doing everything we can, Jack," Moore said softly, as he stopped the tape. "Problem is, they've left no clues. The vehicle was one of ours, and there wasn't a single print on it, not even Colonel Carter's. The uniforms belonged to two soldiers who were on guard duty at the time. They're both dead." When he spoke again, his voice was cold. "You need to know, Jack, these people will do whatever they need to in order to achieve their goals. One of my men was found right beside the security device for the western gate. Apparently, they drug his body over there so they could use his fingerprints to get out without sounding the alarm. He couldn't have been dead more than a few minutes when they left."

"Take me there—now," Jack said solemnly.

"Jack, there's already been a complete sweep of the area. My people were thorough. There are no clues."

Steely brown eyes fixed on Moore's face, their determination leaving no doubt as to what was going to happen. "I said, I need to go there."

"Sure, Jack," Moore sighed, as he picked up the phone. "Sergeant, get me a security detail with a Jeep. General O'Neill needs to go to Colonel Carter's lab."

"And the western gate, Bill."

"And the western gate, Sergeant. Have them here in three minutes."

"Thanks," Jack said, as he stood and walked to the door. His face was expressionless, a mark of the many years he had spent in special ops. "I'll let you know what else I need, and how long I'll be here."

"Sure, Jack," Moore said as the door closed. He knew O'Neill had left the SGC because George Hammond asked him to move to Homeworld Security. But he also knew O'Neill and Colonel Carter were seeing each other, and he suspected getting out of her chain of command had made the DC post attractive. Moore had known Jack O'Neill since they attended officer training school together decades earlier. He had been shocked when he first heard the irreverent soldier he remembered was wrapping himself up in day-to-day bureaucracy. Now, he understood. A strong motivation in Jack's decision was Colonel Carter, and it was clear that O'Neill had it bad for her.

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"So, Colonel Carter," Ba'al began, as he walked across the room where she was held. "I hope you find your surroundings pleasant. With your cooperation, your visit won't be a long one."

"Visit? I don't think visitors have bars on their windows."

"For your protection," the goa'uld said, as he stopped and turned back toward her. "I wouldn't want you to attempt some foolish escape and hurt yourself in a fall. Let me assure you, Colonel, my estate is fortified and guarded, and this house sits in the middle of over 2,000 acres. There is no way out. I made sure of that. Oh, and if you're counting on your locator beacon to signal help, don't. We disabled it during your trip here."

Her heart sank at that news, but she kept her features neutral. "Speaking of 'here,' where am I?" she challenged.

"Oh, I'm sure you realize that's a question I cannot answer," he smiled coldly.

She expected that reply. "Ok then, see if you can answer this one. Why have you brought me here?" she asked.

"Ah, yes. That one is simple…so you can return the favor I did for you last year, Colonel. Since the demise of the other system lords, I have been here on your little planet, considering my options for future endeavors. I have learned a lot about Earth culture during this time, and apparently, the return of a favor is considered an appropriate and gracious gesture."

"Favor?" Sam asked, shaking her head.

"Certainly, you haven't forgotten, Colonel Carter," Ba'al smiled. "On Dakara. Granted, I was only there as a hologram, but even in a non-corporeal state, I was able to give you the instructions you needed to make the Ancient machine work and defeat the replicators."

"I thought that was a joint effort to save you as well as us," she replied. "And as I remember, you left before the job was done."

"I stayed until I had to turn my attention to my ship, and without my assistance, I doubt you would have been able to position the stones correctly in time."

"And we saved your butt in the process, so I thought we were even."

He chuckled. "We will be…soon. You see, Colonel, I have decided I like this quaint little planet. I'm planning to start a whole new life here on Earth," Ba'al said, gesturing at the very American business suit he was wearing. "But I need a little leverage with…I believe the term is…stubborn competitors?"

"And that has what to do with me?" she asked.

"Sometimes, people need a little more—shall we say---'motivation,' before they're willing to close a deal," he said. "Very stubborn business people, these earthlings." He smiled. "I suppose their lack of compliance has a lot to do with the Goa'uld's decision to leave this planet alone for so long. A terrible mistake, but my arguments were ignored when the other system lords made that decision."

"Again," she pressed, "what does this have to do with me?"

"Ah, yes," he smiled, "back to you. Colonel Carter, it has come to my attention that you have perfected a personal cloaking device that's keyed to the user's DNA. I want that weapon in my arsenal."

"You're a technical genius--you don't need me for that."

"Yes, I could find the answers on my own. But, I am somewhat impatient to acquire this technology. You, Colonel, are here for expediency's sake."

"You can't expect me to reconstruct that device here! It's a highly complex piece of technology. I have no notes, software, components…"

As he opened the door to leave, he said calmly, "I think, Colonel Carter, you will be surprised at the resources we have been able to assemble for you."

The confidence with which he made the statement, and his cold, hard stare, made a chill run down her spine.

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The desert sun was beginning to dip in the sky as a young lieutenant drove Jack toward the western gate of the Area 51 complex. His search of Carter's lab had turned up nothing useful. He had to find something here! He had to find her! As he rode along the dusty road, his thoughts returned to the last night they spent together. It had been on his last visit to the Springs, about four weeks ago. He remembered lying on his side with her spooned up to his back…one of her arms around his waist, the other idly playing with his hair. It was so peaceful, so right…

Suddenly, he was jolted from his daydream as the Jeep came to a lurching stop. "Sorry, sir," the lieutenant said, casting a nervous look in the general's direction.

"No problem," Jack returned crisply. He turned his lower body to the side, making the quick jump from the vehicle. "All right, men," he said, as he addressed the driver and two other lieutenants getting out of the back. "Let's fan out in 90-degree sweeps from right here. Be thorough, but make it fast. Look for anything…and I mean anything…that might give us a clue, even if it's a faint tire track or a scrap of paper. There's only about an hour of sunlight left."

Jack took the southwestern quadrant, the one that contained the road on which Sam's kidnappers had probably left. He walked slowly, mentally calculating how much time he had to get a click out and back before the daylight was gone. His highly trained eyes swept to the left, then the right, looking for a scrap of something, a piece of anything that someone might have lost along the way.

When his instincts told him he was about a click out, he gauged the sky again. He had 15…maybe 20 minutes left before the sun was gone. He could barely see Moore's men from here, but he could tell they were working.

He sighed. The guys who took Sam were good, whoever they were…whoever had hired them. And they had the advantage of leaving on the always-shifting desert sand. The light wind had already obscured their tracks..if they had used the road at all. Damn! By morning, there would be no clues left! He hoped Sam's captors had taken a less obvious course out of the complex, and that one of the other men had found something. He was having no luck.

Jack had walked about three-quarters of the way back to the western gate when his emotions got the better of him. Angry at whatever fate had kicked another load of crap in his and Sam's direction, he took it out on a rock at the side of the road. He absently watched it as it flew, hitting a nearby cactus about 20 feet ahead. At the precise moment the rock hit the ground, the fading sun reflected…something shiny. Shiny! Jack ran forward, reaching his arms out before he was able to stoop to the ground. He grabbed onto the object and shook the sand from it. It was a matchbook cover, in shiny silver foil with black lettering. He examined it closely, his heart racing. There were no ragged edges, no fading. However it got here, it hadn't been here long.

Jack stood, turning the small cardboard folder over in his hand. On the front were pictures that looked like Civil War Generals Ulysses Grant and Robert E. Lee. In script below the pictures were the words, "The Generals' Place, Alexandria, Virginia," and a telephone number.

"Virginia!" Jack thought to himself. "Hell, I just came from Virginia!" He heard the approaching footsteps of the other men as he continued to stare at the matchbook. It had to be a clue! It was too fresh, too undamaged, to have been here long. It had to mean something.

"General," the young lieutenant called. "Sorry, sir, but none of us found anything."

"That's ok," O'Neill replied, tucking the precious piece of cardboard into his shirt pocket. "I think I did."