Part 5
Daniel struggled vainly, twisting in an effort to free himself. The only result was laughter from the men holding him as the Pater watched with a small thin-lipped smile. Desperation lent him strength, and he redoubled his efforts, managing to land a hard kick on the leg of the man in front of him. For a brief moment he thought he was gaining the upper hand, but more hands joined the fight, pinning his arms behind his back.
He raised his head, a feeling of hopelessness washing over him, to meet the gaze of the Pater.
"There is no point in struggling. My men have the power of the Lord on their side." His hand reached out and grabbed Daniel's chin, tugging his face upwards. "You would do well to tell me where your master is hiding. Redeem your soul, before you are judged by God."
"We are just explorers! If you'd only let me explain!" Daniel tried one more time, his voice frantic, knowing even as he spoke that it would do no good.
He almost missed the man's gesture, the direction to take Daniel to the rack. He tried to struggle once more, digging his heels into the floor, and pushing as hard as he could backward with his hands. All to no avail. He soon found himself lying on the rough wooden surface.
He was terrified.
Daniel had seen what they had done to Jack. He knew he wasn't as strong as his friend, didn't have those long built reserves of strength that Jack had developed over the years, but he would try. There was no way he would tell this bastard where Jack was.
No way.
As his wrists and ankles were tethered to the machine, he took a deep breath and prayed for courage.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Lou Ferretti turned and glanced back to where Sam Carter was walking at the rear of the party. She looked tired – that was to be expected, but it was more than that. She had been distant when he had tried to talk to her earlier. He had seen her face while he had been questioning the prisoner, and knew that he had to explain.
He fell back, waiting for Sam to come along side him.
"Hey, Sam." She took a moment to look up, as if she hadn't registered his presence. That wasn't normal for the usually alert major. "You okay?"
The smile he got in reply didn't reach her eyes. "Sure, Lou. Just a bit tired."
They walked on in silence for a few meters while Ferretti tried to think of the best way to make Sam understand.
"Listen, Sam, I'm sorry if anything I've done has upset you."
Sam's head came up from it's lowered position. "What?" Her voice was startled. From her expression it really seemed like she had no idea what he was talking about.
"I know that I should have let Teal'c question the prisoner." He gestured to where the local man was walking ahead of them, flanked by the members of SG-10. "He has a lot more experience in these matters than I do."
"That did puzzle me, Lou, but I wasn't upset by it. I knew that you must have had a good reason."
"I did. There was something about the way he was talking. Sam, did you know I'm Catholic?" When she nodded, he continued, "I've always been fascinated by the history of the Church, and especially the Inquisition. I saw the way he looked at Teal'c and combined with what he was saying, I put two and two together."
Sam nodded again. "I can see that, but how did you persuade him to trust you?"
"I told him Teal'c had to be purged of his sins to gain salvation, and that God had sent me to give him the opportunity to repent, because he was only recently fallen." He looked up to see her reaction, and was pleased to see her smile. "He thinks that I am a spy for the Lord." He didn't smile back. The whole situation was making him angrier than he had been in years. These men were perverting everything that he loved about his faith. He continued. "I'm sorry that I just jumped in and took over without explaining."
Sam shook her head, stumbling slightly as she stepped over a small ditch. She was obviously exhausted, but he knew there was no point trying to get her to return to the SGC, not while Jack and Daniel were still missing.
"You don't need to explain anything to me, Lou. You're the senior officer here."
"I know, Sam., but I value your opinion."
"I appreciate that." Sam replied, "But the main thing is that we get results. How we get them is immaterial, we have to find the most expedient way to rescue the Colonel and Daniel."
Lou stopped, putting out a hand to halt the woman.
"Here, Sam, drink this." He unhooked his canteen and handed it to her, waiting until she had taken a few swallows before speaking again, his voice low. "I'm worried too, Sam. I keep thinking about the descriptions I've read of the Inquisition." The drawings of torture instruments he had pored over as a teenager suddenly didn't seem so fascinating.
Sam handed the canteen back to him, her hand shaking a little. "I know, Lou. I can't get them out of my head either."
They didn't speak again as they hurried to catch up with the others. There was no need. Lou knew what Sam was thinking. He was thinking the same thing, but he could not voice it either.
They may be too late.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Jack woke a few times, each one a haze of confusion. Once he tried to get to his feet, but found he didn't have the strength, so he stayed on the ground. He also tried to stay as still as possible, even as his shoulder muscles kept clenching in ever worsening spasms. Staying still seemed to help the pain in his chest. The numb feeling that was spreading through his body was a huge improvement on the way he had felt before.
He didn't think that he could have stood that for much longer.
He didn't wonder why the lights were out anymore. He just accepted that was how it was.
He didn't think about the whys anymore. He only thought about the now, and welcomed the numbness.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Daniel shut his eyes and waited for the same question to be repeated.
"Where is your master?"
He flinched, the sound of the club moving through the air giving him some warning. This time the blow landed on his chest, causing the air in his lungs to explode from his mouth in a strangled yelp.
So far they had been fairly restrained in their interrogation, restricting themselves to the use of the wooden club. Perhaps they were softening him up to make the rack's job easier. He didn't care, he knew this was pain he could handle. His head was throbbing worse than ever, and he was sure a few more blows would send him into welcome oblivion.
Then he remembered what they had done to Jack when he had been unconscious.
He fought to stay awake, opening his eyes and straining to speak.
"You don't have to do this. I'm not going to tell you where my friend is."
"But I do have to do this." Yleek's slightly nasal voice answered. "God has entrusted me with this task and I will complete it. I will find your master, and when I do I will bring down the wrath of the Lord upon him, so that the Devil will know he cannot prevail."
Daniel tugged at the ropes binding him to the rack. "You must have had contact with the Goa'uld. We saw one of their machines in your square." He saw no recognition in the Pater's eyes. "The demons – the warriors with tattoos on their foreheads – they are Jaffa, they are the Goa'uld's servants." He finally saw some glimmer of interest and hurried on. "We are at war with the Goa'uld and their Jaffa. Our companion, Teal'c – the one you call a demon – he no longer follows the Goa'uld. He fights alongside us in our war against them."
He felt the Pater's hand caress his cheek, almost gently. "Honeyed words. For a moment you swayed me with their power, but I know to distrust anything a servant of the Devil says. Far from being at war with the demons, you are plainly in league with them." He turned to one of the watching men. "Fetch the brand. This follower of Satan needs to feel the Lord's mark upon him" He kept speaking as the man hurried towards the back wall. "Seeing as you agree that the tattoo on the demon's face is the Devil's mark, I will be merciful by placing the Lord's mark in the same place."
Daniel struggled frantically. There was no reasoning with this man.
He could almost feel the heat of the brand on his forehead. He vividly remembered the smell of burning flesh when the hot metal had been pressed into Jack.
Oh God! He didn't know if he could hold out against that. He just didn't.
"Pater Yleek!" The call made the priest turn, his hand dropping from Daniel's cheek. "There's an opening here!"
"Stay here. Watch him." The Pater ordered, before hurrying towards the voice. Before long he was back, leaning over Daniel, a triumphant smile on his face. "Your hiding place has been found. God has shown me the way forward. Soon your master will be in my hands."
With a thrill of horror, Daniel realised he was to be the instrument of Jack's capture. He had left the passage door open, its discovery inevitable once their attention was no longer fixed on him.
Jack would be defenceless against these men.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
The three SG teams met little resistance from the townspeople. It seemed that the parties off hunting Sam and Teal'c, and the guards at the gate, had contained the most militant inhabitants. The people that remained seemed almost glad to see them. Sam couldn't help wondering what sort of life they must lead if they welcomed an armed force of aliens so readily.
Sam only spared the machine that had caused this whole problem in the first place a brief glance as they passed it in the square. From closer up, its gold was pitted and missing in places, its luster lost with the passage of time. A gaudy remnant left behind, discarded.
Their prisoner led them to a small, nondescript building, the only feature making it different to the ones around it being the crosses positioned over the main door. Here they finally had a fight on their hands, the men waiting inside the entrance dying rather than surrendering. It only took a few minutes, but the fight was fierce and bloody, ending with several of their party suffering minor wounds, despite their superior weaponry.
They searched for any sign of the missing men, investigating several rooms before opening the heavy, black door to the dungeon. They negotiated the stairs carefully, peering into the darkness, involuntarily clenching their nostrils against the sweet smell that drifted upwards towards them.
Sam's attention was focused on only one thing – the figure tied to the table. She barely registered the struggles around her as men fought for supremacy as she hurried to his side.
Daniel.
He bore the marks of heavy blows, his skin bruised across his chest.
She began untying him, swiftly cutting the heavy ropes with her knife, looking around as she did so, her eyes passing over the items in the room as swiftly as possible while searching for the other lost member of the team. She spotted Teal'c swiftly dispatching a knife wielding man before she lost sight of him as he moved further into the shadows. She briefly wondered where he could be going, but her attention was taken by a more pressing need.
She turned back to the man lying in front of her. "Daniel?" His eyes stared up at her, unfocused. "Where's the Colonel?"
For a moment she thought he would answer, then his eyes rolled up in his head, and their lids shut.
"Daniel!" There was no response.
"He's not here!" Lou Ferretti came from the gloom, the beam of light from his flashlight darting around, illuminating each terrible object in turn. It halted on a spot on the floor, liquid glistening.
Blood.
Fresh blood.
Sam turned back to Daniel – he had no obviously bleeding wounds. She moved her own torch, searching.
The bucket and cloth next to that chair...oh god! The spikes still held pieces of what looked like skin.
The brand discarded beside the fire.
The realisation that Daniel was lying on a rack.
The hooked spikes of metal, looking for all the world like a clawed hand.
Her flashlight tracked back to Lou, his face pale in the darkness. They had been told what to expect, but the reality was worse than they could ever have imagined.
He wasn't there.
Colonel O'Neill wasn't there.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
"Pater?"
Yleek knew what Kelk was asking. He too could hear the sound of fighting coming from behind them, but he did not reply. Whatever was happening back there, it was not as important as his current mission. The follower of the Devil would not escape this time, even if all the fiends of Hell were treading on his heels.
He gave an impatient gesture for his companion to follow, and strode on, thrusting his torch ahead of him to ward off the darkness. The light exposed the dust clad walls and floor of the stone passage extending into the distance, several dark openings showing that it was not as straight as it first appeared.
Yleek had heard rumors of such tunnels under the town, but had dismissed them as fanciful. He now knew better.
He sped up, anxious to find his prey. His anger grew as he thought of the arrogance of the man – the way he had defied him, refused to confess his sins. There was no way that such a one could be saved, he deserved to burn in Hell, and Yleek could hardly wait to send him there.
And send him there he would.
He spotted the tracks in the thick dust and smiled.
The Lord was showing him the way.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
That was a definite improvement. The pain had moved from his knees and legs, travelled across his chest, up his arm and seemed to have exited, with a last flash of agony, out the top of his head.
He definitely felt better now. Sort of a floating, wavering, distant better. A not quite all here feeling, like a few sandwiches short of a picnic, better.
Speaking of sandwiches – he was hungry.
And thirsty. Damn, was he thirsty!
It would take too much effort to get a drink for himself. He would just wait and ask the next person who passed if they would be kind enough to get one for him. Maybe it would be Daniel. Daniel had given him a drink before, back in the...
In the...
Now that was odd. Where had that been?
He had to concentrate.
Daniel had been with him, then he had gone, turning out the lights.
No – that wasn't right either.
He had turned out the lights himself, when he left the other room.
It was very dark in here. Maybe it wasn't dark. Maybe he was blind.
He should check.
Jack's left hand twitched as the damaged muscles tried to move. Apart from the small motion he lay completely still at the edge of the tunnel, dust settling on his clothes, covering them in a thin layer of grey.
He couldn't prevent the moan from escaping when the numbness was dispelled a little by the movement.
Memo to self – stay completely still and hope it goes away.
He didn't see the dull flickering lights that had begun to pass the side passage, stop and move towards him.
He had shut his eyes again.
Someone would come for him. He just needed to wait for them to find him.
xoxoxoxoxoxo