What A Tangled Web We Weave…
"Close your eyes," Daniel advised Sam quietly, hesitating just shy of stepping out into the bright November sunlight. Instead of doing as she was told, she turned her face into his jacket and snuggled closer to him. "Good enough," he murmured with a smile, pressing his cheek against her hair as he stepped out into the cool fresh air.
"Get her out of the cold," Feretti instructed a fraction of a second after Daniel had stepped outside. Turning his attention on Pearson, he scowled and said, "You wait here, you're riding back with someone else."
"But…" Pearson began, eyes wide with panic. He desperately wanted to be back underneath Cheyenne Mountain, safely beyond the reach of the NID. He was painfully aware of the lengths his employers would go to in order to keep him quiet, and he was loathe to wait around for them to execute their plans. Or him.
"Look pal," Feretti snapped angrily, instinctively training his weapon on Pearson, even though he knew he would never open fire. He was a lot of things, but a cold-blooded killer wasn't one of them. "If you think we're letting you close enough to even breathe on her, you're dumber than I thought, and my expectations were pretty low to start with."
Daniel tried and failed to bite back a grin, starting over to the nearest SUV to try and keep Pearson from seeing his amusement and thus ruining Feretti's 'Big Bad Air Force Major' routine. Sparing a look at the woman in his arms, he noted that she was wearing a grin that matched his own. In a day or two, he was certain that Sam would no longer find the overprotective streak her kidnapping had brought out in so many SGC personnel entertaining. For the moment, however, while her health precluded her from striking fear in the hearts of kindergarteners, never mind experienced soldiers, she seemed content to let others do her menacing and intimidating for her.
"If you think that's good, you should have seen Teal'c trying to get Pearson to tell us where you were," Daniel advised, smirking at the memory. "I was scared, and I wasn't even in the room!"
"I can imagine," Sam murmured, the thick material of his jacket muffling her voice somewhat.
"No, I don't think you can," Daniel argued quietly, his long legs quickly eating up the distance to the parked SUV. She had seen Teal'c's temper flare before, yes, but nothing else generated quite the same reaction in their teammate as Sam being in danger. Daniel knew it had nothing to do with the fact that she was a woman – despite the culture he'd been raised in, Teal'c had never treated her as anything less than the capable soldier that she was – but rather, he suspected it came down to a passing comment Jacob had made once. As he and Selmac been departing, Jacob had jokingly instructed the men of SG-1 to take good care of his daughter – much to her chagrin – and Daniel and Jack had responded in kind. Teal'c, however, had clapped his right fist to his heart and bowed his head, a grave expression on his face as he accepted the responsibility. To this day, Teal'c still considered Jacob's teasing to be a solemn request, no matter often Sam tried to convince him otherwise.
One of the young men left on guard duty noticed where Daniel was headed and rushed over to get the back door open for him, earning him a grateful smile from the archaeologist. Halfway between his post and the vehicle, the guard paused, his attention focused on something over Daniel's shoulder as he brought his weapon to bear. Turning, Daniel followed the other man's gaze and his eyes locked on an approaching SUV, identical to the ones they had arrived in. With no reason to believe General Hammond would have dispatched another group from the SGC to their location without notifying them, alarm bells started going off in both men's heads.
"Feretti!" Daniel called, getting the major's attention and nodding his head in the direction of the approaching vehicle. Upon seeing what had the archaeologist concerned, Feretti gave up on snapping at Pearson and inched his way towards Sam and Daniel, positioning himself between them and the vehicle. As he swung his P-90 up into firing position, he keyed the radio and issued a warning to the group still inside. "We've got company," Feretti said tersely into the unit. "Stand by."
The SUV came to a halt a few dozen feet from the cluster of SGC personnel and both doors on the passenger side of the vehicle swung open. Three pairs of boots hit the ground a few moments later, but their owners remained obscured behind the car doors. Waiting a few seconds, the SGC personnel gave the newcomers the chance to identify themselves; their patience wore off quickly.
"Okay, folks," Feretti yelled, flicking the safety off his P-90. "Show yourselves, nice and slow."
A head peeked around the front passenger door slowly, presumably following the command that had just been issued. The man's head swiveled around carefully, eyes roving over the open space between the building and the clump of trees to the right of the building.
"He was in on it!" Pearson shouted suddenly, his eyes going wide in recognition. At the same instant, the barrel of a gun appeared around the side of the front passenger door. "He's NI…"
Pearson never got the chance to finish his sentence. A bullet hit squarely between his eyes, the impact knocking his suddenly lifeless body backwards.
"Shots fired! We need back up now!" Feretti hollered into the radio.
As the first shot ripped through the air, Daniel had dropped to one knee and turned his back to the newly arrived SUV. Every instinct he had was screaming at him to keep the men firing on them in his line of sight, but doing so would leave Sam wide open and he wasn't willing to take that risk. He ducked his head and pulled her closer, leaning over her protectively. Looking up briefly, he decided that he could cross the few feet needed to take cover in front of the SUV he'd been headed for and shifted his weight, rising up on the balls of his feet in preparation. Waiting until Feretti let another burst of fire loose on their attackers, Daniel seized the opportunity and raced across the few feet needed to put a half-ton of solid metal between Sam and himself and the bullets. Around them, more weapons joined the fray until it seemed as if bullets were flying from all directions.
"What's going on?" Sam demanded, wide eyed and pale, her hands gripping his jacket tightly as she searched the area for any sign of their attackers.
"Pearson's dead," Daniel informed her tersely, raising his head for a fraction of a second, just long enough to scan the scene. "Our guys are all okay." The words 'so far' hung heavily in the air between them.
"Daniel, get her in the car now!" Feretti ordered, hollering to make himself heard over the battle that had unexpectedly broke out. "As soon as you're in, go!"
"But…" Daniel argued, his desire to see Sam safely returned to the SGC warring with his need to stay and help the people who had willingly risked their lives to rescue his missing teammate.
"Damn it, Daniel!" Feretti exploded, sounding frighteningly like Jack when he was angry. He had to reload his weapon and spared a quick glance backwards as he did so, inserting a new clip by muscle memory alone. "They're not even trying to hit any of us; all their fire is concentrated on you and Sam. Once you're clear, maybe they'll stop shooting and start talking! Now go!"
Glancing up again, Daniel saw that Feretti was right: all of the NID's fire was being targeted on their position, there was no doubt about it. Two of the men who had been left topside to guard the entrance to the abandoned nuclear facility had been caught out in the open when the shooting had started. They had yet to make it behind cover, but the group of NID goons wasn't even trying to take them down. Now that Pearson was out of the picture, it seemed that they were too busy trying to take out Sam to bother even taking so much as a potshot at the rest of the group from the SGC.
"You'll have to open the door," Daniel instructed Sam, sparing a look over the hood of the SUV. "On three," he advised, taking a deep breath and shifting his weight so he would be ready to move when the time came. "One, two…"
A bullet struck the ground beside his feet, showering the two of them with a small explosion of dirt.
"Three!" Daniel shouted, lurching forward and scrambling around the side of the SUV, the weapons fire following his progress.
As soon as he had her within reach, Sam's arm shot out, her fingers wrapping around the door handle and flinging it open. Daniel dove inside, twisting his body to the left at the last minute so he didn't squish Sam underneath his weight. Sitting up, he leaned forward and pulled the door shut just in time, the thud of the closing door accompanied by the loud ping of a bullet deflecting off the solid metal.