AN: So my company decided to ship us more Christmas trees because we ran out... but not until next week. I'm not sure they know this or not but...

Chapter 10

Jack sighed. "I did not want to come back here."

"You wanna catch this guy or not?" Jacob asked him pointedly.

Jack scowled.

"You don't happen to still have my suit handy, do you?"

Jack looked at his soon to be father-in-law like he'd lost his mind.

"I can't walk my little girl down the aisle in my leathers." He told the younger man like this was the most pressing concern at the moment.

Jack knew what Jacob was trying to do. He knew Jack had some pretty bad memories of several prisons and this one included. Fussing about the wedding was his way of trying to distract Jack from any PTSD events he might be harboring going right back into the facility he'd narrowly escaped.

"Jack, you said you know the guy running the show?"

"Name's Londaris. Any chance you know where he lives?"

"No, but I was thinking we could use the front door."

"Better yet, we could let his people nab our guy." Jacob suggested.

"Bad idea, Dad, Londaris said it would take him some time to shift the balance of power. We don't want the Lucian Alliance guys to tip this guy off or we won't find him again for years."

"We could let them kill him themselves for being a liability." Harry suggested.

Tempting though that was, Jack shook his head. "Hammond said bring him in. We're bringing him in."

Teal'c looked from Jack to Harry to Jacob. "Colonel Maybourne may be correct."

"Yah had to tell him that, didn't you." Jack grumbled.

"Come on, let's get this guy before he figures out we're on to him." Jacob told them.

Jack nodded, Harry shrugged. Teal'c remained impassive and Jacob rolled his eyes in annoyance.

On the up side, Jack thought as they broke into the facility, at least he knew where he was going. Of course on the down side, he'd seen very little of the administrative areas of the facility and they would need to figure out where this guy was usually working then find some place to wait all day silently until just before the end of workday. Jack wondered if the guy Teal'c had nursed back to health might know. "T." He hissed at the larger man.

"O'Neill?"

"That guy you helped, what did they have him doing?"

"Due to his injuries, I believe they gave him a cleaning job." Teal'c told Jack.

"Perfect." Jack said with a feral grin.

"You guys made a friend, huh?"

"Yah, he'll get along great with Harry. Same level of class and reliability." Jack said.

Harry gave Jack an injured look and Jacob snorted in amusement.

Jack led them silently through the darkened facility. There were still guards but generally they weren't around at night as it was next to impossible to get out of the place. No one ever thought of someone trying to sneak in. Their unit was towards the back of the facility. Jack was banking on Takitti staying behind when Bolar and his woman moved on. Sam had been one of the last to get pregnant and by now all the women should have had babies.

"What if someone is in his room?" Jacob signed at Jack.

Jak shook his head. That was pretty unlikely. He was unable to fight for a woman now with his injuries. "T, he likes you, you should probably be the one to try to talk to him."

"I concur." Teal'c said and edged out in front to lead them to Takitti's last known room. Londaris had eliminated most of the night guard in the inside which Jack figured was good for him. Better if he'd already nabbed their stray Trust flunky, but Jack was betting against that. He might be hiding out as a prisoner but that was unlikely. He'd want free movement and guys like him wouldn't be subtle about that.

Teal'c is discreetly poking his dark nose into doors to figure out where his unusual friend has ended up. He finds him three berths down from his old unit. "Takitti" He rumbles at the man but has his Zat ready just in case.

The other man sat up, startled. He'd been alone as Teal'c and Jack had predicted. His arm still moved stiffly and probably always would. "Teal'c? They took you out. We figured they killed you." He looks up at the other men and notices Jack.

"They did not." Teal'c told him. "We are in need of your assistance."

"I'm not sure what good I am, guys. How did you even get in?"

"That is irrelevant. We need to know where we might hide in the administrative quadrant of this facility."

"There's a ventilation system going to all the office type rooms, it's big enough that a man can fit in it."

"How do we enter this system?"

"You know they got rid of most of the guards and moved all the violent guys out of the main blocks. Asked the girls which ones liked to rape and carted them off. Left the rest of us alone. Told us from now on, the girls would be picking their men and if they didn't like him, she could leave or switch up. That was after the rotation though. I want my wife back but I'm no good to her now."

Jack gave the man a sympathetic look. He'd been a thief in his past life. His partner had decided the man's wife was his for the taking. Hopefully, the next cycle they would let them be together again… or Jack could leave Londaris a note in exchange for his missing employee. "Got any paper?" He asked Takitti.

"Uh, sure, why?"

"No reason. Just need to write a letter to a friend so he doesn't worry about a buddy of ours." Jack said companionably.

"Do we really have time for that, Jack?" Harry asks him warily.

"I'm making time. This is important."

Harry sighed.

Jack sat down in the single chair and hastily scribbled out his note to Londaris in his broad blocky printing. When he was finished, he folded it and pushed it into a pocket of the guard uniform they had stolen from the laundry room they had passed. "All right, lead the way MacDuff." He told Takitti.

"Who?"

"Show us the ventilation system." Jack said in near exasperation.

"Hey, by chance have you seen this guy?" Harry asked Takitti, pulling out a tattered photo of the Trust operative.

"That's Kodar. Used to hang out with Snrell before they executed him for… well I'm not sure what for, but they made us all go outside and watch. Buncha the women cheered."

Teal'c nodded. "Good." He said with a satisfied expression.

"You guys know why, don't you?"

"Yup." was all Jack would say on the matter and ushered Takitti out ahead of him.

"Letting him go back to his room was a bad idea, Jack. He's going to tell someone." Harry argued.

"He will not." Teal'c interjected. They were hunkered down in the maintenance room on the back of the facility. They would need to make their way to the offices prior to the beginning of the day but they had over an hour Earth time to do that and they were unlikely to be heard.

"We don't have time for this." Jacob said as he got the last screw loose on the air return screen. "Everybody in."

Teal'c who arguably had the best sense of hearing and direction led with Jacob in the back

They reached the vent near the office Takitti said their missing Trust flunkey was using.

"Don't you think it's a little weird the ventilation is so big and so easy to infiltrate?" Harry asked pointedly.

"Yes and I don't care." Jack told him. No one was expecting them to be stupid enough to come back. This trap wasn't for them. It was for the staff to sneak out if things went south. There was an obviously easily jammed door at the entry to the office area.

Jacob gave them both a 'would you shut up' look.

Jack bobbed his shoulders dismissively.

"The grates screw from the outside. At the end of the workday, just zat him in his chair. I'll go back out and unscrew the cover, shove him in and screw it back on."

Jack nodded. Not a bad idea really. Sometimes Jacob really pushed home where Sam got her ingenuity from.

"Just don't get caught. This place is a pain in the ass to escape from." Jack grumbled at him.

Jacob nodded and patted Jack's shoulder reassuringly.

They all settled in to wait silently for their opening.

All four men were fairly bored by the end of the day. Their intended target putzed in his office off and on all day but was clearly settling in for a late night when Jack eased forward with a Zat while Jacob silently made his way down the air exchange duct. The fact that he even could confirmed Jack's opinion that the large vents were escape routes.

Jack carefully aimed the Zat as close to the grill as he could and fired on the man.

He let out a strangled little yelp then slumped in his chair on the desk. Jack and Harry sweated a bit while the door to the office stood open for anyone to walk in.

Jacob showed up soon after and closed the office door. "Give me a minute or two." He said quietly and started fiddling with the screws on the grate on his side. Once he had them done he tilted the man's head back and pressed open his mouth. With a sharp pop he knocked out one of the man's teeth with his multi-tool. "Cyanide." he told Jack, holding up the tooth.

"What is this, a 1960s spy film?" Harry muttered.

Jack reached out and helped manhandle the Trust member through the grate then handed Jacob the letter to place on the man's desk. The front was simply addressed "Londaris".

Once they dragged him over the lip. Jacob started replacing the grate and screws. Once he was done he nonchalantly walked out of the office like he belonged there in his stolen guard uniform.

"Help me tie this idiot up." Jack told Teal'c.

Teal'c nodded silently and pulled a roll of duct tape from one of his many pockets.

"No rope?"

"I find duct tape far more versatile." Teal'c told Jack and gave Harry a considering look.

Harry edged back out of the way and definitely out of Teal'c's reach.

Jack snorted in amusement as he positioned the prone man so Teal'c had better access to restraining his upper legs. "All right, let's get out of here." He told the other two men. They could meet Jacob further up the line.

They slowly made their way out of the ventilation shafts, carrying their bound and gagged charge. Jack doesn't envy how the man's shoulders will feel with Teal'c carrying him hooked from behind through his arms so his own hands are free. Jack and Harry each have a leg while Jacob now leads them out.

"How do we plan to get off this rock?" Jacob finally asks them. They had bummed a ride on shuttle earlier with what money they had left but now they would have to figure out how to get back to a working Gate without anyone noticing they had a hostage.

Jack looked at Harry.

Harry shrugged and Jack sighed. "Anyone got any ideas?" He asked them as they worked their way through an alley trying to stay out of the light.

A hovering van approached them and stopped. The passenger front door opened. "Perhaps we could be of assistance, gentlemen." Said a smooth and very amused voice of a dark skinned man. The driver chuckled.

"Hi Londaris. Didja miss us?" Jack said cheerfully.

"You know this guy?" Jacob asked Jack.

"Yup. He's pretty much the reason I'm not in jail for knocking up your daughter." He grunted as he helped Teal'c load the bound man into the van.

"I really wish you wouldn't put it that way, Jack." Jacob told him. Not wanting to think about his baby girl and her CO, a man he otherwise liked and respected doing that kind of thing ever.

Once the prisoner was secured and all four men were seated, Londaris closed the door. "So where are we headed this time?"

"Home." Jack told him. "But you can drop us off at the Gate, we need to make a pit stop anyway."

"Perhaps we should Gate directly home, O'Neill, and retrieve our belongings at a later time."

"Something on your mind, T?"

"I dislike remaining in the company of Colonel Maybourne."

"Ouch." Harry said.

"Jack, the Trust is going to be after him now." Jacob said thoughtfully.

Jack nodded. Jacob was probably right.

"The Tok'ra might have a few places he could hole up that he won't be found. Why don't I take him and meet up with you in a couple days?"

Jack thought about it for a bit. Harry was in some deep crap still at home too. "They gonna keep track of him?"

Jacob nodded.

"All right. Fine." Jack grumped. "Saves me the trouble of handing him over." He didn't actually want Harry to go back to jail, but that was where he was headed if he went home.

"So it's back to Orbistus for you then?" Londaris asked them.

"Yah. Thanks, Londaris, how did you know we were here?"

"Unlike the system lords we are not paranoid about being watched. You showed up on the security camera live feed in Tueri's office." Londaris told them with a companionable laugh.

"D'oh." Jack huffed under his breath.

"Did I not inform you that it was unlikely we were not being observed, O'Neill?" Teal'c reminded him.

"You don't have to rub it in…"

"My observation was correct."

Jack sighed.

Londaris chuckled. "Our cameras are very difficult to find, Jack. Don't take it personally." He told the other man who looked a bit put upon. "Why don't you introduce me to your friends?" He said, tactfully changing the subject to a safer one.

Jack gave him a grateful look. "The slimy fellow is Harry."

"Hi." Harry said with a duck of his shoulders and a finger wiggle.

"The turkey is your former employee who you may or may not have met, but who is definitely a guy from Earth involved in specifically trying to steal a particular baby from your facility." Jack sighs. "And that's Sam's dad." He said, poking a thumb at Jacob.

Londaris broke out in a big grin, asked Jacob directly. "Is he as terrified of you as I am of my father-in-law?"

Jack swiped a hand over his face in resignation.

"Well, he's a little old for her for starters." Jacob told Londaris. "He's also terrible at lying. I have no idea how he made it in Spec Ops all these years. And let's not get into his tastes in entertainment. Have you ever heard of the Simpsons?"

"Can't say that I have."

"It's a terrible cartoon about yellow people who all act like idiots all the time. The main character is a moron which is probably what he likes about the guy because he can feel smarter." Jacob gave Jack a sly glance to see how green he'd gotten at this plethora of unsavory opinions about the father of his youngest grandchild. "But he seems to love my daughter so that's a point in his favor." He said, winking at Londaris, who let out a rolling belly laugh.

"Jack, I now understand your discomfort when we last met." He said, still laughing.

Jack sighed in resignation.

Their prisoner groaned.

Teal'c bopped him on the head.

"Thanks, Londaris. I really appreciate everything you've done."

"Think nothing of it, Jack." He smiled and took Jack's proffered hand. Jacob and Harry had already left. "Just so you know, your father-in-law really likes you."

"Yah, I know, he just likes giving me grief for his own entertainment. He does the same thing to Sam."

Teal'c was quietly dialing Earth. Their prisoner sitting next to him on the ground. When the Gate whooshed to life he grabbed the man's arm and hauled him up. "You once again have our gratitude, Administrator Londaris."

Londaris nodded. "I'm still working on making our systems allies."

"I appreciate it. Ah.. look, I've been promoted. The next time you see me I'll probably have stars on my shoulders." Jack and Londaris had spent most of the shuttle trip back to Orbistus discussion how their militaries worked and what they might offer each other technologically.

Londaris grinned. "You are an asset to your people."

"He is indeed." Teal'c agreed.

Jack grabbed the Trust member's other arm and he and Teal'c frog marched him to the Gate. "See yah around."

Londaris nodded. They would indeed.