Violets in Vegas: Sunday Morning Coming Down8
I was an idiot. Baiting her. Doubting her. Flirting with another woman in the same fucking building. I couldn't help myself. Nor could she. Maybe it was to distract us from the coming events that would change the world, change our lives forever. I shouldn't have rushed Rodney. I should have respected his grief, but I needed that information and didn't care what it cost as long as I got it. I was convinced I could stop Todd. I was convinced I was in charge, that I could get a step ahead of him, even act as bait if necessary to draw him out.
I was wrong.
The physics lab was a mess. Scientists were everywhere, white lab coats flapping like wings as they moved in anxious gestures from table to table to table, from computer to computer to computer. Voices rising and falling, shouting and arguing and not making any sense to John as he entered the room. Rodney sat in the midst of it all, staring at a computer and shaking his head as he held a phone pressed to his ear.
"No no no no no!" He swiveled in the chair suddenly. Pointed. "That component cannot be activated so it wasn't comparable to the ones he took! Use only what he took and build whatever it is he built! No Ancient devices because he can't activate them! God, do I have to everything myself! Come on!" He swung back to the computer, spoke into the phone. "And you're sure? Wonderful. Keep monitoring!" He slammed the phone into its cradle. Felt someone towering over him. "What?" he snapped.
"Location?" John asked mildly. A calm, still presence in the swarm of activity and noise.
"Huh? Oh, not yet! NASA's reporting an increase in solar flares, which is nothing out of the ordinary except for the frequency. They won't hit Earth until tonight and tomorrow and would normally just effect radio waves but with this wavering magnetic field and the tear in the rift and whatever Todd is building or has built it could be advantageous for him and disastrous for us." He took a breath. "I've narrowed the search parameters but until I can get an idea at least of what he's building I won't have a location."
"Great. We're on a clock, Rodney."
"I know! Don't you think I know? If I had more competent help I might be done already! I need Radek, damn it, for all his faults he was more competent than this lot no no no!" He stood, grabbed a device that resembled a screen covered with vines and smashed it onto the floor. All voices stopped. All of the scientists froze. "Not that! Whatever he is making it doesn't require a screen of any kind, just a nominal interface with an enormous capacity for power!"
"Rodney, I need that location ASAP," John reminded. He could see the strain the other man was under. The strain of the death of his wife was the least of it as Wraith technology littered the room. As maps of Vegas, of the Earth, of space filled the computer screens.
"I know! Damn it, I'm trying! Why don't you go out there and find the son of a bitch! Isn't that what you're good at? Finding killers?"
"I am. But I need a location ASAP. And if you figure out what he's building that would be helpful as well."
"You think? Get out!" Rodney turned back to his console.
"Sheppard, lay off him!" Richard approached, frowning. "He's doing the best he can under the most trying of circumstances!"
"We all are, Woolsey. I'm sorry, but all that means nothing in light of what could be happening right now," John stated, but he didn't sound apologetic. He sounded impatient. "I've got men on every power station. Nothing's happening. I've got men patrolling the city and so far there's nothing! Why can't we track this damn thing? Oh, that's right. You didn't put a fucking tracking device in the fucking alien!"
"And I will regret that until the day I die, all right?" Richard snapped. "We should be able to locate him using Beckett's—"
"Should be isn't good enough! Why can't I find a fucking Wraith in this city? He should stand out like a sore thumb! Even if he is trying to blend in like that other one but he's not. He's gone to ground somewhere! Give me that fucking location for the most likely target!" His phone buzzed. He snatched it. "Yeah?" he snapped. Listened. "On my way." He shoved the phone into his pocket. "Fuck. Got another body. I want this intel in one hour!" He stalked from the room.
Richard followed. "You'll have it when we get it, Sheppard! Sheppard!" he called, but John ignored him, striding along the hallway.
John stomped into the conference room where had left Moira. She was sitting at the table, studying a console, Carson beside her. "Got another body. Looks like Todd is on the move." Both looked up at his terse words. "How often does this thing need to feed?"
Carson and Moira exchanged a glance. Both started to answer at once. Both stopped, eyed each other again, then John. "Judging from the physiology I would say weekly, perhaps. But since Todd was starved he's probably making up for lost time," Carson said.
"The longevity of these creatures could extend into hundreds of years," Moira added. "They don't need to feed as we do, on a daily basis, that is. And since they can hibernate for extended periods of time their need for sustenance is even less than ours."
"So he's killing for the hell of it. For the fun of it. To bait me."
"Or to send you on a wild goose chase through Vegas while he does what he needs to do," Carson noted.
"Or to get you somewhere isolated because you are the target, John," she reminded. Frowning.
John nodded. "Okay, then. I've dealt with kind of exhibitionist killer before, except he was human. Carson, get me any weakness in these things, anything we can use against it. Moira, I'll meet you at your place around ten forty-five where we can change for the funeral, all right?" She nodded, about to speak when he continue. "And I need you to figure out some kind of plausible cover story if we all get through this day. I gotta go. Another body."
Todd walked the streets of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, planet Earth, and marveled. Never had he imagined such a rich feeding ground. There were humans everywhere you looked. Every variety and some he had never seen back in his own galaxy. All ages, both sexes, and he felt almost giddy with the menu choices available to him. This place alone would easily fill a Hive ship and sustain it for months. The whole planet could sustain an entire fleet. And more.
Their technology was more advanced, much more than any human society in his galaxy, yet was lacking in many ways. Primitive compared to his own, compared to the hated Ancients and their vaunted Atlantis. The Earthling's crude energy devices and communication devices would serve for now. He found the big boxes displaying people in various tasks and adventures and shouting amusing. Television, they called it. Although a shopping channel offering a detangling product for hair did catch his eye. Clearly this society had too much free time on its hands.
That would soon change.
He found he could walk the streets with little notice, even though he wasn't even trying to blend in like the first Wraith had. He wore a dark garment called a hoodie and it covered his hair and most of his face. His prison coveralls might not be the height of fashion but they did serve to make most humans give him a wide berth. He kept his hands shoved into the pockets of the hoodie. Kept his head lowered. His eyes shrank to narrow slits against the glare of the sun. This place was hot, too hot for his comfort but he would endure.
He had endured worse at the hands of his captors. At the hands of John Sheppard.
Todd smiled. Soon he would have his revenge, and it would be sweet. Very sweet.
He paused, staring at the neon lights, the glaring signs. All that power humming and running the city, the buildings. It would soon be at his disposal. It was an embarrassment of riches, really, this world, these humans, this unlimited yet crude source of power. He smiled. He would be the one to make way for the rest. The queens would surely reward him for opening this wondrous place to their fleets, and he could pick which one he would serve.
Then they would feed.
And feed.
And feed.
