The pieces of the puzzle he'd been assembling in his mind's eye shifted again with Samantha O'Neill's snarled reply. The picture still wasn't complete, but he now had a pretty good idea of what it would look like. Ryan knew now what had resonated so deeply with him. His instincts were telling him it was their anger and hatred towards the good Senator. He'd felt the same way more than once. Most recently he'd felt it waiting in the Oval Office for word from the agents outside the Giant Steps Day Care where his daughter was being held hostage. He'd felt it years ago on a boat in the harbor off Baltimore as he'd held a gun to Sean Miller. "What have you done, Kinsey?" President Ryan asked in horror. He saw his own expression of horror mirrored back at him on many of the faces around him. The agents on his detail were trained to note the most subtle aspects of human behavior. They had to be to differentiate the harmless wackos drawn to the power of the White House from the ones who were really dangerous. Clark and the Foleys had the same gift or they wouldn't have survived so many years in the field. These jobs also made them more than familiar with the darker side of human nature. Kinsey remained silent prompting Ryan to demand, "Answer me, damn it!"
"I did what needed to be done for the safety of this world," Kinsey sneered. "I did what the Air Force refused to do."
"You did it for yourself," the petite redhead, Janet, corrected. "For power and glory."
"Not to mention revenge," Dr. Jackson added.
"Accusations later," Jack O'Neill ordered. "What's it going to be Senator?"
When Kinsey remained stubbornly silent, Samantha leaned down closer resting the knife against the Senator's cheek. "There's an old saying I want you to think very carefully about, Senator" she told the older man. "It's said there's nothing in nature more dangerous than a mother defending her young."
"Oh my God," Bobbi Latham whispered as some of the pieces fell into place for her as well.
"You'll never get away with this," Kinsey growled. "I'll make sure you get the death penalty for this."
"You first, Senator. You ordered the murder of Air Force personnel on Federal property in order to acquire your test subjects," the bearded man who hadn't spoken before responded. He stepped forward dropping a large file folder and several computer disks onto the low coffee table in front of them.
"Maybourne, you son of a bitch" the Senator swore at the man. He started to lunge towards the bearded man, but sank back as Dr. O'Neill's knife pierced the skin of his neck.
"There are some lines even I won't cross," Maybourne replied. "Let me tell you, Senator, prison's not so bad. It'll take the court years to execute you, and when they do it'll be a needle in the arm. Quick. Painless. You don't do what Sam and Jack want, you'll die a hell of a lot sooner, and she definitely won't make it painless."
"I suggest you do as they want, Senator" Jack Ryan said. 'O'Neill said there wasn't time to do anything else,' Ryan thought, 'and this man, Maybourne, is talking about test subjects.' Hoping he was right about the reasons behind what these people were doing, Ryan threatened, "Otherwise I'll write them Presidential pardons and let them do whatever they need to do to get what they want."
"Mr. President, you can't do that!" Arnie protested.
The President's face remained resolute in spite of his chief of staff's objection.
Kinsey had paled noticeably when the knife first touched his throat. What little color remained drained from his face as his bluster finally left him. He swallowed nervously before grudgingly asking, "What do you want me to do?"
After she returned the knife to her boot, Samantha produced a cell phone from her pocket. "We're going to call your friend, Alexandro," she announced. "You're going to tell him about your meeting here with the President. You see the President is fascinated by what you've told him about Dr. Rivera's experiment. Isn't that right, Mr. President?"
"Oh, yeah" President Ryan agreed understanding at once where she was going with this. "In fact, I'm so fascinated I want a personal briefing from him here at Camp David."
"That's right," Samantha confirmed as she flashed a strained but genuine smile at him. "You should have him bring his test subjects here immediately."
"He's going to want to bring all his research," Jack O'Neill added. "The President has arranged for his project to be moved to a more secure location after the briefing."
"Now wait a second," Ryan objected reading the intent in O'Neill's eyes. "I won't sanction murder!"
"As long as his test subjects are still breathing when he gets here, he'll be breathing when we leave," O'Neill promised, "but the research comes with us. No one's going to profit from what they've done."
"Agreed," Ryan said instantly. "Make the call, Kinsey."
The room was silent as the Senator dictated the phone number to Samantha O'Neill. Everyone listened as he spoke at length to the person on the other end. As soon as Kinsey said good bye, the phone was taken away from his ear and returned to Samantha O'Neill's pocket. She slumped a little against her husband.
"Why don't you sit down a minute, Sam?" O'Neill suggested to her. When she nodded her acquiescence, he gently ushered her to the empty chair beside President Ryan. From the way she sank into it, Ryan suspected her energy was at a low ebb. "Now we just have to wait," Jack O'Neill told his wife gently rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.
"When did you escape the goa'uld?" Jack Ryan asked them. There was surprise on the two faces that turned to stare at him pushing him to explain, "I was given a briefing on the Stargate project when I became Roger Durling's NSA. By Doctor Jackson in fact. Your names figured prominently in it. I asked for a second briefing from the two of you specifically on the military and scientific implications of the Stargate."
"And I told you that wouldn't be possible," Jackson interjected, "because they'd been captured by the goa'uld."
Ryan nodded. With a jerk of his head he indicated Senator Kinsey. "Kinsey said he'd been informed of your escape," Jack continued. "When was that?"
"Four weeks ago tomorrow," Sam O'Neill replied.
Before the President could ask his next question the windows were shattered as the Secret Service agents outside the compound made their first attempt to retake the Presidential Lodge. Ryan watched as the agents attempting to jump in through the windows seemed to bounce back against an invisible barrier. The light around them changed momentarily.
"A force field?" Tony Brentano gaped. There was no mistaking the undisguised avarice in the engineer's look.
"It's on loan," the older man standing near the shattered window said. When he continued his voice changed to a more resonant sound, "And we'll want it back."