"There. That wasn't so bad, was it?" John grinned smugly at Carson as their prey gave one last twitch and lay unconscious at their feet. Carson's hands shook with delayed reaction as John reached down and disarmed the thug.
"Bugger off, Colonel," snapped the physician. He gingerly recapped the needle and slipped the syringe into his pocket. "I will never watch another cloak-and-dagger flick for as long as I live." The Scot's accent was thicker than usual, further betraying his agitation.
"You did good, doc," John said. "Just like Sean Connery." Then he turned deadly serious again. John lifted the body by the shoulders and dragged it into an empty storage room. When he came out, he removed the control crystals next to the door, making a mental note to have Bates take the man into custody later.
Without warning, a wave of dizziness hit him as he was turning to leave. Carson was there almost immediately, grabbing his arm to steady him. "Colonel?" he asked in a concerned voice.
"Yeah, Carson, I know," John said tiredly. "Dizzy isn't good." Neither was the headache, he added silently.
The physician scrutinized him closely, obviously suspecting that John wasn't revealing everything. But his only response was to shake his head and sigh. (Carson seemed to do that a lot when John and Rodney were involved.) "Any trouble breathing?"
"No." Good news, for a change. And it was actually true. Of course, he hadn't had any trouble the last time, either, up until the minute he utterly collapsed. No point in mentioning that, though.
"Right, then. What's the plan now?" Carson looked like he didn't want to change the subject, but he didn't push the issue.
"Same as before. Find McKay, and kick these guys out. In that order."
"Control room?" Carson wanted to know.
"Control room." John agreed.
As they walked, John made a quick tally in his head. Eleven men had come with Torrell through the gate, and they had already taken care of one. Then they took out a two-man patrol, leaving a total of nine invaders. After that, they made it almost to their destination before hearing another noise that told them they were no longer alone in the corridor.
John motioned to Carson to stay in place while he checked things out. He pointed his gun ahead of him as he flattened himself against the wall. The sounds seemed to be coming from a side corridor about ten yards ahead of him. He approached, silently counted to five, and swung around the corner…
… to find himself aiming at a single, lab-coated scientist. He didn't know the man's name, but remembered that he had seen Zelenka yelling at him a few days earlier. John exhaled explosively. "Whoever you are, do you know that I could have killed you?"
The man blinked. "Don't you remember me, Colonel? I'm Eldon."
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Elizabeth's heart sank when one of Torrell's goons pushed Rodney ahead of him into the control room. Next to her, Lorne swore under his breath. The physicist had put up a struggle; one of his shirt sleeves was ripped and his hair looked almost as wild as John's. "Watch it!" he snarled as he was poked none too gently in the lower back. He looked as pissed as Elizabeth had ever seen him.
Torrell looked up from where he had been examining a console and grinned broadly. "Dr. McKay!" he proclaimed. "How very nice to see you again!"
Rodney adopted his classic pose – arms folded across his chest and a scowl on his face. "If it isn't my favorite armchair psychologist." He looked at Elizabeth. "We should introduce him to Kate Heightmeyer. They can psychobabble each other to death."
Torrell spread his hands apart. "You don't mean to tell me that you're still upset about the last time we met," he said mockingly.
"Oh, of course not! You threatened to kill my friends unless I performed on command. Why would I possibly be upset about that? For the record, it took six men an entire week to repair the ship that you assumed I could fix at the drop of a hat! And after that the repairs failed and left me stranded on the bottom of the ocean!"
The convict paused after Rodney stopped ranting. "You done yet?" Rodney's face turned red, but he nodded. "Good. That should make you feel better, and now we can get down to business."
Elizabeth broke into the conversation. "What, exactly, do you want here? You never got around to telling us that."
Torrell turned to Lorne. "Between the two of them yakking at you, how can you stand it? If you want a new job, just let me know." Ignoring Elizabeth, he then turned back to Rodney. "Actually, it's very simple. I just want you to fix this for me. Catch!"
The physicist jerked back in surprise as Torrell tossed a black, oval-shaped object at him. He fumbled, but managed to catch it before it hit the ground. "What the hell are you doing?" he yelped.
"Relax, doc. I'm bringing you a new puzzle to solve. It's dormant now… I think."
"Gee, you shouldn't have," Rodney snapped. "What is it supposed to do, anyway? And you think it's dormant!?"
Torrell grinned again, showing all of his teeth. "That's what you're gonna find out for me." His smile faded and he raised his gun slightly in Elizabeth's direction. "Of course, if you need a similar incentive this time…"
"I'm working, I'm working!" Rodney brought the oval to one of the sensor consoles and begin to examine it. "You know, this would have a better chance of working if I had my actual equipment from the lab. I don't normally fix things in here."
"I have faith in you, Dr. McKay. After all, you're the one always saying how brilliant you are." He chuckled as Rodney shot him an evil glare.
Elizabeth decided that she had to get back in this conversation. "Do you mean to tell me that you came up with an elaborate plan to infiltrate our allies and gain access to our city just so you could have Rodney fix something for you?" She looked at the convict leader skeptically. "There has to be more to it than that."
Torrell relit his cigar and took a long puff. "Wouldn't you like to know."
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"Eldon?" John looked with disbelief at the scientist, trying to reconcile this man with the scruffy little guy they'd brought back from Olesia. "You're kidding."
"N..no, Colonel Sheppard," Eldon stuttered. "It's me. I work in Dr. Zelenka's group."
"That's right, you nearly set him on fire the other day. I remember now." John lowered his gun but didn't reholster it. "So what'cha doing? Did you think it was time to rejoin your old partner in crime?"
Eldon turned bright red. "No! I wouldn't do that to you."
Carson put a steadying hand on the scientist's shoulder. "Relax, son. The colonel's just being… cautious."
John snorted. He'd expected Carson to say "paranoid." Then he smirked at Eldon and added, "Yeah, I'm a cautious kind of guy." He raised his eyebrows questioningly and waited.
Eldon looked glum. "I knew it was Torrell who came through the gate. I saw him in the hall as I was trying to get back to my quarters. Anyway, I wanted to help. I thought that if I could find one of Colonel Sheppard's men, I could, you know, do something."
John exchanged glances with Carson. "Well, for starters, you can tell us why you think he's so interested in talking to Rodney. The two of them didn't seem to get along very well the last time they met."
The scientist thought for a long moment. "I don't know," he finally said. "Before Torrell got sent to the island, he did a lot of trading. High-tech stuff; I don't know where he got it from. But I can't see what that has to do with Dr. McKay."
"What kind of stuff?" John asked grimly. "Weapons?" Eldon nodded. "Terrific. Black market. Did he ever come across any tech that wouldn't work?"
Eldon nodded again.
"Then he would need a scientist to help him with that," Carson said thoughtfully. "But why Rodney? I know he's good at what he does, but wouldn't it be easier to…Oh, God. It's the Ancient gene, isn't it."
"Probably," said John. "Which implies that he got a lot of intel on us since we saw him last. We never mentioned that the jumper was gene-activated. Thanks, Eldon. That's helpful."
The little man flushed again, this time with pleasure. He fell in behind them as they started to leave. "Where do you think you're going?" John demanded.
"I'm coming with you."
"Hate to break it to you, buddy, but you're not."
Eldon stood his ground. "I know how Torrell thinks better than anyone else here. You'll need that, if you really want to get rid of him."
"It couldn't hurt, Colonel," Carson said softly.
"Oh, I can think of plenty of ways it could," John muttered. But he sighed and gestured toward the scientist. "Come on, let's go. But if I tell you to get down, you do it! Clear?"
"Very."
They walked for a few minutes, then stopped in an alcove that was only one corridor away from the control room. John whispered, "I think we're only facing nine of them now. Carson got one and I took out two." In any other circumstances, he would have laughed at the expression on the physician's face.
"Before Major Lorne was captured, he killed three," Eldon offered.
"I've had better odds," the colonel admitted. "But then again, I've had worse, too." In his mind's eye, he went over the layout of the control room. The decorative beams by the ceiling over Elizabeth's office were not only esthetically pleasing; they were also good places for a sniper to hide. He knew a way up there, but it involved climbing thin ledges. Normally, he wouldn't worry about it, but today he wasn't at the top of his game.
Carson knew it, too. He eyed John uneasily as the plan was explained, but held his peace. Nevertheless, John waited until he had left the alcove and was out of sight before stopping to rub his forehead. As time passed, he was feeling worse and worse.
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The physician wasn't happy as he watched John leave. It hadn't escaped his notice that the colonel was in some pain, and the dizzy spell was quite worrisome. He hadn't said anything because of their untenable situation, but he was concerned that John might lapse into respiratory failure again. There was now an emergency intubation kit and defibrillator in the jumper bay, due to the number of times Sheppard's team came in at death's door, but he could never make it there undetected. He would just have to trust that John knew what he was doing, trust being something that he hadn't done much of, lately.
Time to get back in the habit.