Chapter Twenty-one
Standing in front of an ornate gold sink Daniel splashed water on his face after having been violently sick for the past ten minutes. He had barely managed to keep his stomach under control in Ba'al's presence. Once in the privacy of his new quarters he'd quickly lost what little he had eaten.
Having found a towel he rubbed off both the water and the garish eye shadow. It was the cracking sound of Sam's breaking wrist, replaying in his mind like a bad song, that was making it hard for him to keep even his empty stomach settled. Still a little unsteady he walked out into the main bedroom where Gabriel was waiting.
"Can't hold your Hemosary, eh?" Gabriel asked with a slight chuckle.
Daniel lashed out at Gabriel with a speed and strength that took them both by surprise. Daniel grabbed the front of Gabriel's shirt and slammed him against the wall hard enough to knock his breath away. With Gabriel pinned to the wall Daniel fought to regain his temper.
If Gabriel had struggled against him at all he knew he would have been unable to keep himself from beating the Goa'uld senseless. As it was Gabriel stayed motionless as a kitten being held by the scruff of the neck.
"I'm sorry." Gabriel apologized meekly. "O'Neill's use of humour in these kinds of situations always seems to help you."
"Yeah, well, you're not Jack." Daniel growled as he let Gabriel go.
"No, I'm not." Gabriel admitted with a sad smile. "However, speaking of him...if you don't contact him soon he's going to come over here to find out what's happening for himself."
"I know." Daniel sighed heavily.
"Would you like me to find somewhere else to be for a while?"
"Please try and find where Sam is."
"I can tell you exactly where she is."
"Then make sure that Ba'al isn't there with her."
Gabriel gave Daniel a shallow bow in exactly the same way Teal'c would have and left the room without another word. He wasn't sure what he expected Gabriel to do if Ba'al was tormenting Sam, but he trusted him to think of something. He was confident that Gabriel would do anything in his power to protect her. It was the one thing Daniel knew he could count on, even if Jack didn't.
Taking a quick look around Daniel riffled through his things until he found the Goa'uld communicator. He felt safe using it because Goa'uld never seemed to put any effort into surveillance. It wasn't their style.
"Jack?"
"Damn it, Daniel." Came the instant response. "What the hell took you so long?!"
"You know how Ba'al is with his need for ceremony."
"True, at times his speeches were more painful than any of the other tricks in his twisted arsenal."
Daniel smiled at the fact that Jack had quickly recovered from what must have been an hour of sheer panic. He knew that it was driving his friend insane that he had to sit this one out and simply wait.
"How's Carter?" Jack asked as casually as he could.
"Gabriel's looking after her."
"That doesn't make me feel any better." Jack grumbled. "This is a nightmare."
"Jack, you'd be so proud of how well she's handling herself."
"Just...just try not to get her killed too many times." Jack sighed.
"We're doing the best we can."
"I take that to mean she's already dead."
"Ja..."
"Don't lie to me, Daniel."
The icy tone in Jack's voice made Daniel pause. He wasn't going to tell Jack what had happened, because he didn't think it would help. However, lying wouldn't help either.
"I'm sorry, Jack...there was nothing I could do."
"What happened?" Jack asked quietly.
"She attacked Ba'al when he asked me something that I couldn't answer to distract him. There is a very good chance that this mission would be over already if she hadn't acted as she did. She knew exsactly what she was doing."
Jack made no response. For several minutes there was no signs that Jack had even heard him. Daniel would have preferred a healthy round of verbal abuse. When he couldn't take the silence any longer he broke it himself.
"Jack?" Daniel asked in concern.
"Remind me to get her promoted when she gets back."
Daniel was surprised by Jack's reaction at first. However Daniel quickly realized that he shouldn't have expected anything less. Jack's ability to keep himself calm helped ease Daniel's own tension and self doubt. In the past Daniel had felt that Jack's attitude toward these types of situations was always too confident, too cavalier and brash. He realized now that it was exactly these qualities that made Jack the brilliant leader that he was.
"Jack, I need you to do something for me." Daniel changed the subject suddenly.
"Anything."
"I need you to evacuate and abandon the Alpha Site."
"Make that 'almost anything'."
"Jack, I'm serious."
"Care to explain why I'd give an order as insane as scraping a multi-billion dollar project?" Jack asked irritably.
"Because I'm about to tell Ba'al where it is."
There was no witty remark from the small device in Daniel's hand this time. Even though Jack was still on Anshar's ship Daniel could see him rubbing at the bridge of his nose, counting to ten, and trying to think of more ways to say 'no'. Under any other circumstances Daniel would have smiled at the fact that he knew his friend well enough to practically hear his thoughts at times.
"Daniel...no."
"Jack, I have to. I need someth..."
"Daniel, stop. I can see where you're going with this. But you do realize that if you give that Snake the Alpha Site location we will be putting all of our eggs into one basket and then counting them before they hatch."
"I know."
"There has to be a better way."
"This is it. This is the better way. If I don't gain Ba'al's trust I'm going to have to try and steal the information we need. Which is about as probable as just coming up with the key to recoding Goa'uld DNA on my own within the next ten minutes."
"That doesn't sound very likely...even for you."
"No, but I've got a deal started where Ba'al is going to give me the research if I give him something in return. However, right now he isn't going to let me near his lab without at least some small token of good faith."
"Daniel, the Alpha Site isn't a small token...it could be Earth's last saving grace."
"No, getting rid of the Goa'uld is the only thing that will ever save us."
"Can't you give him something else? Anything else?"
"I've already told him about the Ancient Weapon, but he doesn't believe me and he isn't willing to test it out."
"You don't think he'll be a wee bit suspicious when he gets to the Alpha Site and everyone is gone?" Jack countered.
"No." Daniel replied confidently. "If you honestly believed I had been compromised by a Goa'uld what would be the first thing you would do?"
"Get you back."
"Jack, seriously."
"Okay, fine," Jack grumbled "I would make sure that any information you had was as useless as possible."
"Which would include immediately abandoning the Alpha Site."
"I would still try to get you back." Jack chuckled.
"And I appreciate that."
"If nothing more than to wring your neck for ruining 350 billion dollars worth of secret."
"Wow...really?" Daniel asked in surprise. "350 billion?"
"And rising...well not for long."
"Does that mean you'll do it?"
"I'm still thinking."
"Jack..."
"Have you figured out what Ba'al wanted from Anshar in the first place?" Jack interrupted.
"Yes and no." Daniel admitted. "He wants the formula that halts symbiot maturation. Unfortunately, that secret..."
"Died along with Anshar." Jack finished in frustration. "Can't you or Gabriel just make something up?"
"Now is not the time nor the place to be underestimating Ba'al's intelligence."
"I still don't see why we can't just grab him and use Gabriel's little memory disk to get what we need."
"Jack, violence isn't always the best way. In fact in this case it's sure to get us killed. Ba'al isn't the kind of creature one just 'grabs'. Even if we managed to somehow get him and drag him all the way onto Anshar's ship we would still have his entire fleet to contend with, in ships more advanced than our own. Also the nature of this information is such that I doubt something as simple as a memory device would be enough for us to even begin to understand it, if those disks even work on a Goa'uld as old as powerful as Ba'al."
"...was that rehearsed?"
"...maybe."
Silence fell over the pair. Daniel knew he was asking for a lot. It wasn't going to be as simple as Jack calling up and telling them to evacuate. He was going to have to lie, he was going to have to say that the location had leaked unintentionally, and the only explanation for that would be that Sam broke.
Beyond blaming Sam for something she'd never do, it also meant that Jack would be liable for treason if the truth ever came to light. Knowingly allowing the enemy access to such a target would not be something that the Air Force would take lightly. Particularly when the only reason for the leak was the 'say so' of a civilian Archeologist.
Even if the truth was never known it could be a career ending move. If nothing good came of this plan the U.S government would be on a witch hunt for someone to blame for the loss, and the choice was a painfully obvious one.
Once the Alpha Site fell into Ba'al's hands this mission would instantly become an 'all or none' situation. If they didn't come back heroes, they'd return as criminals, assuming they managed to return at all. However, Daniel wasn't worried about any of that right now.
"Jack?"
"I hope you know what you're doing, Daniel."
"For once in my life...I think I do."