Ian stared at the empty space that had only a moment before held his two roommates and Major O'Neill, and Jack couldn't help but be impressed. Aside from the whole swearing like a sailor, and the attitude, the young man was handling all the oddity around him fairly well. It wasn't every day you had people vanishing left and right, and little gray aliens standing less than ten feet away from you, after all. Jack frowned, trying to figure out the best way to quickly explain to Ian what he was seeing, and decided not to bother just yet. Whoever the men in black were, they'd soon be finding out their captives were missing, and Jack needed them in his control before they could report it.

"Thor? Can you scan that house where the boys were and tell me how many more people are there?"

"Of course O'Neill."

Ian's attention went from the empty space over to the Asgard, and his eyes widened as he realized that the whatever it was – his mind refused to say alien – was actually alive and not some kind of animatron like they had at Disneyland on the rides. It moved too smoothly to be a machine, and there was a definite life-ness to it.

"What...?"

"Later, Ian," Jack said. "I'll explain it in a bit."

Well, that was better than shut the hell up, or siccing his dog on him. Ian frowned, but nodded.

"There are five life forms in the building, O'Neill," Thor reported a moment later, looking over at Jack. Ian moved slightly, walking over to stand near O'Neill – who was closer to Thor than he was. Jack looked at him.

"You said three."

Ian shrugged.

"I saw three. There could have been more."

"Would you like me to bring them up here?" Thor asked.

"No." The last thing he needed was to have anymore people to explain this to. Besides, who knew what guns they had? Which brought up another slight problem. Jack looked down at himself; he was wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt he'd thrown on when the Commandant of the academy had called. He didn't have a weapon of any sort – except Jaffer, of course, but Jack wouldn't risk his baby with a group of armed men and no back up from himself.

He looked at Ian.

"Was the room you woke up in locked?"

Ian shook his head.

"I didn't check the door. I'd only just woken up and started looking around when I... um..."

"Ended up here."

"Yeah." He looked at Thor again. "It was small, though, and looked a lot like a jail cell – complete with the hardest fucking bed you ever saw. It was probably locked."

"Thor? Can you beam those five guys into those three rooms that the boys were in?"

"If you wish."

"You should knock them out or something, first," Ian said. "They probably have the keys..."

"I was getting to that," Jack told him, scowling. He turned to Thor. "Can you knock them out without permanently hurting them?"

"Knock them out?"

"Render them unconscious," Jack explained, wondering how the little alien had missed that particular phrase in all his years dealing with Shawn.

Thor shook his head.

"I do not believe so, O'Neill. I could transmit an ultrahigh frequency beam that could, conceivably render a group of them unconscious, but I could not pinpoint the beam accurately enough to target only those five. Chances are, it would affect many of the humans in the surrounding area."

"Then I'm going to need my gun."

A moment later there was a growl from Jaffer and a flash of light, and the Beretta from the drawer by Jack's bed appeared out of nowhere. He picked it up. It was Sam's, but he wasn't going to quibble.

"What are you going to do?" Ian asked.

Jack ignored him.

"Thor? Can you show me what the house looks like? Where those rooms are the boys were in? I need to see how close they are to each other."

On the heads-up display there was suddenly a holographic representation of the safe-house, the three small rooms the cadets had been locked in outlined in red. They were fairly close together, but not adjoining. Jack studied it carefully for a moment, and then pointed at the room nearest the end of the hall.

"Move three of them into this room here – just the people, make sure they don't have any weapons beamed over with them. Can you do that?"

"Of course."

That was good.

"Then move the other two into this next room. That way I can get control of all of them easier."

"I can help you," Ian said.

"Jaffer's going to help me. You're going to stay put."

"But-"

"Do what I tell you."

"If you secure both rooms at once, you're not going to have to worry about someone getting away," Ian said. "It's not like they're going to have guns, and if you send Jaffer with me, he can scare them into doing what I tell them to do."

Or he could get Teal'c, but Jack didn't want to wait any longer than he already had. God only knew how the men were going to react when they found the boys gone – and he knew it could happen any minute.

"Fine." Jack looked at Thor again. "Beam three of them into this room, here," he pointed at the place on the end. "Beam the other two there. Then beam me over there," he pointed to the spot right by the door that would hold the three men. "And Ian into the hall here, with Jaffer."

Thor nodded.

"Jaffer, you stay with Ian," Jack said looking down at the lab and gesturing to the cadet. Jaffer walked over and stood beside Brooks, even though he looked like he'd much rather stay with Jack. "Just tell them if they move you'll have him rip their throats out." Jack said. "I'll be there as soon as I secure the ones in the room."

Ian nodded that he understood, and Jack looked over at Thor once more.

"Do it, Thor."