Disclaimer: See chapter one.
A/N: And the rewrite has reached chapter three... Hope it clears stuff up.
Chapter Three: Cleaning Up Messes...
It was 0500 hours by the time Leigh pulled into the parking lot for hikers in the small park campground. She needed somewhere to stow her car, and she didn't dare leave it abandoned. Any more clues hat she was coming would be bad for her, from here she'd just have to go on foot. The long walk would suck, but it wasn't the first time she'd gone on a long trek across country. At least there wasn't snow... Shaking her head to clear away the cobwebs two sleepless nights in a row were beginning to create, she checked her gear one last time to ensure everything was in place. Certain she had everything she needed, she headed into the trees, cloaking as soon as she was out of sight. Invisible to the untrained eye, she made her way towards the Cheyenne Mountain base. At least they wouldn't be expecting something like this, even if they had figured out what the prototype cloaking device did. Lesson number one, no matter how much you teach, always keep a few secrets, one never knew when they would end up in a fight with their "student". Her father had given her that advice, though he didn't seem to subscribe to it himself, at least not as far as his little girls went, but one never knows really. Leigh chuckled softly. Wool gathering already am I? I've would swear that I've had more experience in the field than that.
It took a couple hours to get to the first check point that stopped cars, and then it was just a matter of waiting for a car to hitch in on. That didn't take long, the traffic seemed a little heavy really, then again, it was about time for everyone to be heading in to work. Getting into the elevator with the person she'd hitched a ride with was a little more tricky, he couldn't see or hear her, but if he touched her... When more people joined them on the elevator, not being touched got a little more difficult. With the increased crush of people, Leigh nearly started to panic.
Luckily, the one time anyone brushed against her, the man she'd followed at that, he seemed to shrug it off as another person in the elevator. That didn't keep her from being relieved when most of them got off at higher levels, and it was only her and the man who moved past the checkpoint at the eleventh level. Especially when she saw that this elevator was smaller. She couldn't afford to get caught, they couldn't know that she was here until she'd found the case, came up with a plan to get it out. She'd already come to terms with the fact that she may very well have to reveal herself at some point, but when it happened it would be on her time table and under her control. This was what she'd been trained her whole life for, if she screwed it up, then she'd be a disgrace to her family name. Oh really? Asked a niggling little voice in the back of her head. What are you trying to prove? Who has ever done anything like this alone?
She pushed the voice away, she wouldn't screw this up. She couldn't let herself fail. She would prove to herself, and everyone else that she could do this. I'm 25 years old. She told that voice. A highly trained agent with the most advanced technology on Earth at my disposal, not some snot nosed kid with nothing but a few explosives and a gun! I was stupid, it won't happen again!
Are you sure you can do what may need to be done? The voice taunted. People may have to die to get you out of here if you go through with this. Can you do it if it does?
It won't come to that. Her resolve firming as she shot the thought back. Her subconscious wasn't usually this verbal which meant that Deirdra was trying to talk to her on the sly... If I have to I'll turn myself in. My biggest mission here is protecting you, that's who they think is involved in all of this. The voice went silent. Well, she'd been right then. She was sending a mental command to her nanites to block all transmissions when the man, 'Colonel.' She corrected herself, stepped out of the elevator, she followed his lead, then went in the opposite direction. You didn't get to that rank without lots of experience, usually combat experience. She would hate herself if she was found out because she followed the wrong person. Well, time to find a way to a computer... She needed some clue where to find what she was looking for after all.
"Good, you're okay," Daniel looked up at Jack coffee cup midway to his lips, and quirked his brow.
"Is there some reason that I shouldn't be?" He asked his friend. "That is why I stayed on base after all, you should know. It was your idea." Why was it that all of his friends seemed to think that he needed looking after? He'd died, it was true, but really they all had, more than once... He schooled his annoyance into remission, no easy thing at 8:30 in the morning. Jacks uneasy expression made it a little easier though "What's wrong? Why wouldn't I be okay?"
Jack just shook his head. "Just watch yourself today okay, it's probably nothing."
Now Daniel started getting a little worried and a he got up from his desk. "What's going on Jack?" He asked, frowning.
"Nothing," Jack's smile was forced. "Just forget I ever mentioned anything." That's when the telephone rang.
"Hello?" Daniel asked into the receiver.
"Just calling to make sure you were okay," Sam's voice came to his ears. "There's reason to believe that General McAllister is here, on base. Unannounced and unexpected. Why she'd break in I have no clue, but be careful, okay. That she did could be a very bad sign."
"Thanks for the heads up," He said quickly, then hung up giving Jack his best "spill" look. "So, Sam thinks Gen. McAllister might be here? Do you know anything about that?"
From his expression, Jack was thinking curse words. "Oh for crying out loud..." Was the closest he came to voicing them. "I thought someone was on the elevator with me, but I couldn't see anything and didn't manage to touch anything. I figured I was just being paranoid." He did curse that time.
"Calm down, Jack. I'm sure if she wanted to hurt me, I'd be hurt already." Daniel rubbed at his eyes for a moment, thinking. "We'll need to handle this carefully. We still don't know what she was doing with the stuff or where she got it. It wasn't anything that came through the gate." He turned his eyes to those of his team leader. "We're going to need a plan."
After she'd gotten into a lab, it had been any easy thing to gain access to the base schematics and personnel files. It hadn't been particularly comfortable, finding out what it was that she'd gotten in the middle of. Briefly, she considered just letting them have the freaking blueprints given what they did here, but common sense had gotten the better of her. So long as she had something that belonged to them, they would be after her, or Deirdra rather. She couldn't let that happen, she had to make this exchange. For her sister's sake if nothing else. So it was that she made her way to Dr. Jackson's room through the ventilation ducts... It took a while, but she found it. A thorough searched showed her nothing of any import, though there was a picture on his night stand, a young woman, pretty. She locked that face away for later consideration, and slipped back into the ventilation shafts. She really needed to pee...
After hours of easy going, her luck finally ran out in the bathroom. Someone else came into it as she was flushing the toilet, not certain if she'd been detected yet, she didn't dare start the alarm just yet. Given what these people had been through, a toilet that flushed itself would be huge red flag. Altering her appearance, and the appearance of her clothes with a thought, she stepped out into the bathroom, and washed her hands at the sink, before heading out into the corridor. Damn! She growled mentally. Her bag was still in the air shafts and it could be awhile before she got back to it. For now, she forced herself to relax, she needed to blend in. Leigh really hated being behind enemies lines alone and exposed. Of course this was still better than the alternative, her family in danger... Again. Even if she got caught, that would still leave mom and dad safe, and Deirdra to pull her out of the fire, which she would regardless of if Leigh wanted her to or not.
She passed a small group of soldiers, and had to modify her breathing to keep from tensing up when one of them glanced back at her, looking a little curious. It helped, when the other soldiers dragged him along talking about food, of all things. Now, if she could just get back into the air ducts, she'd be fine. A voice caught her attention as she passed a door that was ajar. It nagged at her, and so she stopped for a moment, stooping to check on her shoelace.
"That's not likely to work Jack,"The voice chided. "If she's as good as everyone says, then what's to keep her from setting up an ambush of her own?"
Well, there was only likely to be one person they were talking about. She looked around the the area, and seeing no one, and no cameras, she cloaked, and slipped into the room. "Why betray us if we offer her her stuff and a pardon for breaking in here to begin with? Why deny that oh so, appealing offer when all she has to do is drop the case in your room, and walk away?" That was the man she'd been on the elevator with, Colonel Jack O'Neill, the blond was Major Samantha Carter. There was one member of this team missing.
"We can't discount the possibility that she's working with the Trust," Major Carter chimed in. "It's possible that she wants both."
For a moment, Leigh saw red. What did these people think that Deirdra was, some evil bitch? She'd read up on everything that was connected to Dr. Jackson including those people, damned doom-saying extremists is what those people were. To be linked with them... Leigh shuddered, then slipped away with a purely internal growl. It was time to give these people their package back, and get her payment, or the technology. Any thought of letting them have it for free was gone, by thinking things like that about Deirdra, they'd made this far to personal.
Daniel paced the briefing room, nerves making it impossible to sit down just yet. A glance at his teammates showed them looking no more comfortable than he was. Jack was leaning against the table, his arms crossed over his chest, and Sam was sitting at the table, fiddling with a stack of papers. He didn't blame them. What they were about to do was extremely risky. They all knew it, but it had to be done all the same. It didn't mean he had to like it. He'd gladly have done something else, anything else, but this seemed to be their only option.
Sam shot to her feet, and Jack straightened to attention when Gen. Hammond walked into the room, Daniel stopped pacing out of respect. "At ease," Hammond said, sounding weary as he took his seat. They all followed suit. "I take it you've found something?"
"We have," Jack replied, then hesitated. "Sir," He tacked on as an after thought.
"We think she might be working with the Trust," Daniel picked up.
"I dug a little deeper, and she doesn't seem to exist, nothing I found about her fit together, sir,"Sam put in. "About the only thing that was agreed upon was that she's a highly trained killer."
"I still think we should make a deal with her," Jack groused. "Give it back, and get her stuff back, no questions asked."
"Well, why haven't you?" Gen Hammond asked. "We have no way of knowing if she's working with the Trust, that seems like a reasonable suggestion to me. Just so long as she signs the applicable paper work. Do it."
"With all due respect, sir," Sam put in, "No matter what else she is, she's a highly trained killer. What's to keep her from picking us off one by one, and keeping it all?"
"She hasn't done anything like that yet. If you have a better idea Major I'd love to hear it," Hammond replied voice rising ever so slightly. Sam said nothing, and he continued after a short pause, calm again. "If there's anything else?"
"Actually sir, there is," Sam held up the papers she'd been toying with. "The device that was in the briefcase, I know what it is."
"It's mine is what it is!" Snapped an angry voice from behind him, and Daniel turned quickly only to come face to face with... Sha're?
A/N: *laughs evilly* I love Danny but that doesn't mean I won't put him through the ringer... Oh, and it'll be clear soon enough, but Leigh doesn't know that Deirdra is a Brigadier General in the USAF... Of course they also think she's in her 40's... *grins* Things are finally starting to get interesting folks, so now it's time to really be hitting that review button. I need to know what your thinking to keep things up. Also, now that I'm getting into interactions with canon characters, I'd like feedback if I get them to far out of character in your opinion. I do my best, but I don't write for the show... If you'd like a reply beyond my general THANK YOU ALL, for your review, let me know, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
