When Mitchell took over control of the Hammond, he made it clear he was just stepping in until Sam returned but after three months Jack wasn't surprised to come home and find three boxes in his living room. He knew it had been hard on Mitchell to be surrounded by Sam's personal effects every day because he was living through that same hell himself. Sometimes he wasn't even expecting it, like yesterday when he opened the kitchen junk drawer and saw her favorite mint flavored Chapstick. Usually, he knew the pain was coming because he hadn't touched her razor in the shower, her brush on the bathroom counter, her coat in the closet, or her reading glasses on the table on her side of the bed, but the Chapstick took him by surprise. He had taken her bike and car for a drive a few times, to make sure they were still working when Sam came home. He started and ended each day by checking for updates on her case. He was surrounded by small and big reminders of her absence.

After six months Sam was officially declared missing in action. The leading theory was that she had been kidnapped and taken off planet but there was very little evidence to support that theory or any of the others, including she went insane and ran away, was killed by a serial murdered, joined a cult, defected to Russia, and even better went to North Korea to be the personal advisor to Kim Jong-un.

They were on the cusp of seven months when Hank called near the end of the day. "Jack, I've got Lieutenant Hailey in my office and she thinks an article in the current edition of Journal of Applied Physics was written by Colonel Carter."

"What?"

"Let me put her on speaker." Jack heard the click. "Go ahead Lieutenant. Tell General O'Neill what you told me."

Jennifer leaned closer to General Landry's desk. "I know this sounds ridiculous sir, but I've read everything Colonel Carter ever wrote and I know she wrote the methods section of this article." Hailey went on talking about sentence structure and punctuation quirks but all Jack could hear was hope.

"Ok, ok. I assume her name isn't on this article."

"No, sir."

"Did she write it before she went missing?"

"No, sir. She wasn't even working on this particular topic." Hailey handed a stack of papers to General Landry. "I looked up the authors. They all work at a company called Modern Aerodynamics out of San Diego. There were two authors listed on the paper but not on the company website, Laura Cauthen and James McDermen."

General Landry decided it was time for him to jump back into the discussion. Her took the papers Hailey offered. "Thank you, Lieutenant. You're dismissed but stay in the mountain in case we have any other questions."

"Sir. Yes, sir."

Landry waited for Haley to close the door. "It's thin Jack but we can't ignore this."

"No, how about having Daniel do a little digging into the authors, maybe make a few quiet inquiries."

"I'll have him get on it immediately." Landry closed the file. "For now, we should probably keep this between us. The last thing we need is another conspiracy theory muddying the waters."

"I understand but if he finds even a hint, I want this blown open wide."

"I hear you, Jack."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Jack's cell phone interrupted his morning budget meeting, a blessing as far as he was concerned. "Jack!"

"Yes, Daniel?"

"She's here." Even though Jack couldn't see Daniel he knew he was bouncing and the hand not holding the phone was waving. "We saw her but when I called her name she didn't respond. I tried to wave her down as she was leaving the parking lot, but she kept going."

"You're sure it was her?"

"Did you seriously just ask me if I recognized Sam?"

"What exactly happened?"

"Jennifer and I went in and asked to speak with the article authors. Jennifer said she was a doctoral student and needed more information for her research. The lead author came down and spoke with us for a few minutes but told us the other authors were unable to meet with us because it was so late in the day. We offered to make an appointment for tomorrow, but he made several excuses. We were sitting in our car deciding what to do next when she walked out and got in a car."

"What are you doing now?"

"Jennifer is trailing her while I'm talking to you."

"Give her space Daniel."

"We don't want to lose her."

"She could be working undercover and if she is you don't want to blow it for her."

"Wouldn't you know if she was working undercover?"

"Not necessarily." Jack rubbed the back of his neck. "Keep your distance and let me know where you end up. I'll get a flight out tonight."