Chapter 6

When his last class ended at 2:50, Daniel Jackson went to the computer terminal, pulled out the note Jake had given him, typed in the web addresses for two different mapping websites and printed out detailed directions from both sites. Relieved when the directions provided by both sites actually matched, he stuffed the pages in his pocket, gathered his briefcase and books and went to find Teal'c.

He had just located the jaffa warrior waiting for him by the door leading to the football field that was closest to the construction site when his cellphone rang. Quickly checking the caller id, he flipped open the phone and said tensely, "Jack, where are you? I tried to reach you earlier, but Walter said you left without saying where you were going and you didn't answer your cell."

"You know how it is, a general's work is never done," O'Neill quipped. "What's going on?"

"Jake found a note in his locker this afternoon. It says for him to be at an abandoned warehouse at 4 p.m. They included the standard 'come alone, make sure you're not followed' bit, so we're not going to tail him and risk getting made. We'll parallel him on another road and try to time it so we arrive only a few minutes after he does."

"Good. Give me the address and I'll meet you there," O'Neill said. "I have a few things I need to attend to here first." After he'd copied the address down, he added, "Oh, Daniel, one more thing."

"What, Jack?"

"I had to pull Carter off this because something else big came up that I need her to handle for me while we finish this. So don't try to call her for anything. She needs to stay focused. We'll have to deal with whatever comes up on our own."

Daniel frowned at the phone for a moment, sensing something off about O'Neill's tone of voice but not able to identify it.

"Is everything okay, Jack?"

"Ask me again around 4:30, and I'll have an answer for you," he replied grimly and hung up.

Teal'c and Daniel had just reached Daniel's car, when they saw Jake's car disappear out the main entrance.

"We better hurry," Daniel said with concern. "I don't want to get too far behind him."

As they drove along, Daniel felt the tension building in him. Something didn't feel right, but he didn't know what it was. When they pulled onto the street fronting the warehouse at 3:50 p.m., he knew something was definitely wrong. "We shouldn't be there yet. It's too soon," he said to Teal'c with concern. "Give me that note."

"We are exactly where the note tells us to be, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said evenly, as he passed the note over, "the abandoned Wright Pharmaceuticals warehouse on Rte. 25."

Daniel looked from the note to the abandoned building, then slammed his fist against the steering wheel in frustration. "He played me. The whole 'don't leave me hanging' speech was just for show. He sent us on a wild goose chase."

Sighing heavily, he added with resignation, "I need to call Jack. He's just going to love this."

Jake parked his car on a side street of commercial businesses two blocks from the warehouse, pulled a gym bag out of the backseat and headed for the entrance of the karate studio across the street. In his jeans and Metallica t-shirt, anyone seeing him would assume he was just another karate kid wannabe heading to class.

He walked in the main entrance and headed for the dressing room area in the back with the confident air of one who belonged there. Nobody questioned him along the way or noticed when he slipped through a door leading downstairs.

Safely hidden in the dark recesses of the basement, Jake pulled black bdu pants and matching jacket, a black t-shirt and a black hat out of the gym bag. He changed quickly by the thin light of a miniature flashlight, checked that the knife in his boot was still accessible, then pulled the final items out of the gym bag.

The clip slid into the Beretta with a solid click that sounded too loud in the stillness of the basement. Jake stopped and listened for a few moments, but there was no indication that anyone was coming to investigate the sound. He spread the remaining 9 clips among the various pockets of his jacket and pants, added a scarf made of a medium weight material that could be used as a ligature if necessary and prepared to move out.

O'Neill was halfway to the warehouse when his phone rang. "O'Neill."

"We've been had, Jack. There's nobody here."

"Goddammit," O'Neill shouted in frustration, as he pulled over to the side of the road to try to figure out what to do next. The kid could be anywhere and, even if he put out an all points bulletin on his car, it would most likely be too late by the time they got to him.

He heard Teal'c's voice come over the line, sounding distant. "We must contact Colonel Carter. I believe she may have placed a tracking device on Jake's vehicle."

Good going, Carter, O'Neill thought to himself, then realized his dilemma. "No," he said. "You can't call her."

"Why?!" came Jackson's exasperated voice over the line.

It was O'Neill's turn to sigh heavily. "General Hammond showed up this morning with a colonel from special forces. It's not the NID who are after Jake; special forces are the ones trying to recruit him. Hammond was ordered not to interfere with their operation and to pass that order on down the line. Being the ornery sort, I chose not to obey that order, but I can't let Carter throw away her career tilting at my windmills."

He winced at the choice swear words that came from the other end of the line, having not realized Jackson was so prolific in that particular language. Finally the linguist said with disgust, "Why didn't you tell us, Jack?"

"Because I need your help. And since you and Teal'c are still technically civilians, you can't be court-martialed over this, so I figured if I kept you in the dark, you could just plead ignorance and nothing would happen to you. Both of you are too valuable for the SGC to lose anyway, but they'd have no choice but to make an example out of Carter. She's too highly placed and visible to be allowed to get away with that level of insubordination."

"Christ, Jack, sometimes I wonder who the enemy really is," Jackson said, the anger and frustration clear in his voice. "He's only 17 for crying out loud. Do they really believe he should be joining special forces already?!"

O'Neill thought about making the point that technically the kid's body was only 16, even though his assigned birthdate labeled him 17, but decided not to pursue it. Adding in the fact that the body had only been grown for the teenager a little more than a year ago, while his mind was that of a man approaching 50, made any discussion of the kid's true age nothing more than a massive headache generator.

Forcing his mind from that particular conundrum, O'Neill struggled to come up with a constructive suggestion but was interrupted by the sound of a loud buzzing coming through the phone.

"What the hell?" came Jackson's perplexed voice. "How can my phone be ringing when I'm already on it."

"It is not your phone, Daniel Jackson, it is mine," came Teal'c's distant voice. "It is Colonel Carter.

"Hello," he said as he activated the speakerphone feature, and Daniel moved his own phone closer so they could all hear each other.

"Teal'c, it's Sam. What the hell's going on. The General ordered me back to the base to handle some important matter for him, but when I got here, he was gone. Walter gave me a package he left for me, but even though there's a note on it that says 'I need you to take care of this today. I'll explain later,' the stuff in it is for something that could have waited. It doesn't need to be done right now."

"I cannot explain right now, Colonel Carter. We are under severe time constraints and have encountered a problem. Jake has . . . given us the slip." He gave Jackson a quick questioning glance to make sure he had gotten the idiom correct. "He may already be at the meeting site, but we are unable to locate him. Did you, in fact, place a tracking device on his vehicle?"

"Yes. I'll get you the location right away."

"Carter!" O'Neill barked.

"Yes, sir," she responded.

"We have orders from the highest levels not to interfere. You shouldn't be involved in this."

"What's that, sir? I can't hear you. Your cellphone battery must be giving out. Teal'c, I'll have that information for you in a minute."

A few seconds later she was back on the line. "The tracking signal is stationary on Bainbridge Street, just off Rte. 17. That's only a few blocks from the old Tyler Chemicals warehouse. I'll meet you there."

"Negative, Colonel," O'Neill snarled. "You're going to be in enough trouble already; we're not going to make it worse by having you caught on-site. You're to stay out of this from now on. That's a direct order. And don't try to pretend you didn't hear that," he added as he gunned the engine, making the tires squeal as he roared into a U-turn.

"Yes, sir," Carter's sulky voice came over the line. "But call me if you need backup," she added before hanging up.

"Teal'c, Daniel, from where I am, I'll be there in less than 10 minutes."

"It's probably going to take us 25 minutes or more even speeding, Jack," Daniel said with disgust. "He sent us totally in the opposite direction. And it's almost 4:00 now."

"Just get there as soon as you can," O'Neill barked before cutting the connection. He quickly dialed Jake's cellphone number and was annoyed, but not surprised, when it went directly to voicemail.

Samantha Carter put down the phone in her office and stared at it, trying to imagine what the teenager was thinking and why he would have pulled a stunt like this. The answer came in a flash of inspiration as a portion of the overhead conversation in the ladies room came back to her.

She sat down at her computer and typed in a query on the personnel database. The records for one of Siler's engineering techs popped up. Name, address, family members, contact information – there it was. Quickly, she picked up the phone and dialed a cellphone number. The phone rang and rang before finally going to voicemail. She left her name and number and requested a call back. Then she dialed the home number. It was answered on the second ring.

"Hello."

"Hello, could I speak to Lindsay McMenamin please?"

A man's voice responded, "Lindsay's at cheerleading practice this afternoon. This is her father. Can I take a message?"

"No, thanks. I'll try her cell."

Carter weighed her options carefully, then finally picked up the phone again and dialed Linda Schiler's private line.

"Linda Schiler speaking. How may I help you?"

"Linda, this is Samantha Carter. I have a favor I need to ask you, but it's a little out of the ordinary."

"What is it Colonel Carter? I'll be happy to help if I can."

"Call me Sam, please. I need to speak with Lindsay McMenamin right away. She's not answering her cellphone and I was told she's at cheerleading practice. Is there any way you could send someone out to the field to get her for me."

"I'm sorry, Sam, but I happen to know Lindsay's not here this afternoon. She got sick after lunch and the school nurse felt she should be sent home. Her father's assistant picked her up around 1:00. Perhaps he took her directly to the doctor and that's why she's not home yet."

Carter heart sank in her chest and she sighed heavily. "Probably. If she's sick then this will have to wait. Thanks for your help, Linda. I'm sorry to have bothered you."

"Is something wrong, Sam," Linda asked with concern. "Should I call her parents?"

"No, nothing's wrong, Linda. Don't worry about it," Carter said reassuringly. "I'll see you on Monday."

Carter hung up the phone with a heavy heart, then quickly dialed Teal'c again. "Teal'c, it's Sam."

"O'Neill does not want you involved in this matter, Colonel Carter. I must hang up."

"No!" Sam shouted. "I know why he did it."

"Why who did what?" came Daniel's distant voice.

"Jake. I know why he pulled the disappearing act on you. There's a girl."

"A girl? What girl? What are you talking about?" Daniel asked.

"There's a girl he's . . . friends with. She's one of the SGC kids at the high school -- the daughter of one the engineering techs. I just did some checking and she's missing."

"That's crazy," Daniel's disembodied voice shouted. "If it really were the NID behind this, I could understand that, but special forces shouldn't be pulling this kind of crap."

"What does special forces have to do with it?" Sam asked, but suddenly realized the answer, and all the pieces fell into place for her. "Never mind, I get it."

"We must advise O'Neill of these developments immediately," Teal'c said.

"You better do it, Teal'c," Carter said, "I'm afraid he won't answer the phone if he sees my number on the caller ID."

"Agreed."

Jack O'Neill turned the corner onto Bainbridge and saw Jake's car parked on the left side of the street. He pulled his SUV into an empty spot halfway down the block and activated the GPS mapping system on his dash. Quickly reviewing the configuration of streets leading to the abandoned chemical plant, he calculated the route the teenager would have taken.

He'd changed into black bdu's and a black t-shirt before leaving the base, but he grabbed the loose-fitting black leather jacket from the seat beside him, quickly checking that the 9mm and zat were still concealed in its inner pockets, and hoping it would keep him from standing out on the now busy street.

He had just moved to open the car door when his cellphone rang. "O'Neill," he barked roughly, the tension clear in his voice.

"O'Neill, it is Teal'c. Colonel Carter just called."

"Dammit, I said she's not to get involved in this Teal'c."

"I am aware of that, O'Neill, but Colonel Carter relayed some information that may assist you."

"Okay then, spill it."

"One of the SGC children that were being watched at the high school also appears to be missing. Colonel Carter says she is a friend of Jake's."

"A friend? How close a friend?" O'Neill asked suspiciously.

"She did not say," Teal'c responded evenly.

"Well, that explains a whole lot at least. Thanks T," O'Neill added before cutting the connection. Switching his phone to vibrate mode, he got out of the truck and set off in search of his wayward younger self.

Carter was sitting at her desk trying to decide whether she should risk O'Neill's anger and head for the meet site against his orders, when the phone on her desk rang. "Carter."

"Colonel Carter, this is General Hammond."

"General, sir. This is a surprise. What can I do for you?"

"You can tell me where General O'Neill is."

"I believe he's in his car, sir. Have you tried his cellphone?"

"He's not answering. Colonel, how much do you know about the situation with Jake?"

Carter paused for a moment considering how much she should say. "General O'Neill ordered me back to the base this afternoon with no explanation other than there being another pressing assignment he needed me to handle for him while he finished up the business with Jake. I talked to Teal'c a little while ago and he told me they were supposed to follow Jake to a meet this afternoon, but Jake ditched them and took off alone."

"I see," Hammond said heavily.

"I don't understand, sir."

"I have a very angry special forces colonel on the other line who was expecting Jake for a meet at 3:30, but the boy never showed. He seems to think Jack went against direct orders not to interfere and is responsible for the boy's failure to appear."

"He couldn't be, sir," Carter said, perplexed. "I . . . um, I mean, Teal'c told me he spoke to the General right before I called and he was as surprised as they were that Jake ditched them."

"Very well," Hammond replied warily, sensing she wasn't telling him the complete truth, "but have Jack call me as soon as you hear from him again."

"Yes, sir. Um, sir?"

"Yes, Colonel?"

"This may be totally unrelated, but would your special forces colonel have any idea why the daughter of one of our base personnel, who happens to be a friend of Jake's, also seems to be missing?"

"What?!!" Hammond exploded.

The General's voice disappeared from the line and Carter waited impatiently for him to return, feeling the need to do something more than just sit and wait. Finally Hammond returned to the line, sounding concerned, "Colonel, Colonel Sanford says he knows nothing about your missing girl and I believe him. He seems very surprised and upset by the news, in fact."

"I'm sorry, General, but could you ask him one more thing."

"What is it, Colonel."

"Ask him how many people he had stationed at the school."

Hammond's voice disappeared from the line again, but he came back on a few moments later. "He says four - one woman in the library, one man on the construction crew, a janitor and a groundskeeper."

"Damn. That's what I was afraid of. I'm sorry, sir, but I really need to go," she added apologetically before hanging up the phone, grabbing her purse and a zat that she dropped into it, then heading for the door.

As Carter was striding down the corridor toward the elevator, she saw Tech. Sgt. Walter Davis walking toward her. "Sergeant," she snapped.

Startled by the urgency in her voice, Davis said, "Yes, Colonel?"

"Did those background reports ever come in on the employees at the school, specifically the five the General had flagged for special runs?"

"Yes, ma'am. They came in right after the General left."

"I need to see them right away." When Davis opened his mouth to protest that they were for General O'Neill's eyes only, she added, "The General, Daniel and Teal'c may be in serious trouble, Walter. I need to get that information to them right away."

"Yes, ma'am," he responded crisply. "Follow me and I'll get them for you."

O'Neill made his way carefully through the small woodsy area that separated the abandoned factory from the neighborhood beyond. Listening carefully, he heard only the sounds of birds chirping and small animals scurrying about. Turning to his left, he realized there were no such sounds coming from immediately ahead in that direction and he carefully picked his way through the trees, moving the zat, which was already locked into firing position, from side to side in front of him, trying to cover as much of the exposed area as he could.

He saw a dark pile of what looked like rags half hidden under a blanket of fallen leaves. Moving carefully, all the while searching for signs of a trap, he advanced on the pile. A smile slid across his face as he got close enough to see what the dark mound really was. He checked for the unconscious man's pulse and was relieved to find one. Brushing some of the leaves away, he saw with satisfaction that, not only had Jake taken the man out, but he'd tied the guy up with his own restraints as well.

Already knowing he'd find nothing, O'Neill quickly patted the man down for weapons. As he'd expected, Jake had taken everything. O'Neill's forehead creased into a frown as he wondered just exactly what 'everything' entailed and how much of it the teenager intended to use. There was no walkie talkie or other communication device in evidence, so he assumed the kid had gotten that too.

As he headed for the far end of the wooded area that would open onto the grounds of the abandoned complex, his cellphone began to vibrate. "Damn," he muttered, dropping back behind a tree and pulling out the phone. "Goddammit," he muttered again when he saw Carter's number on the caller ID. He wavered for a moment about not answering it, then decided she wouldn't disobey his direct order if it weren't important.

"What is it, Carter?" he snapped into the phone. "This isn't a very good time."

"I'm sorry, sir, but I just got off the phone with General Hammond. Colonel Sanford was very upset that Jake didn't show up for their 3:30 meeting."

"What?!" O'Neill asked, the import of the news leaving him speechless.

"That's right, sir. And that's not all. Sanford said he only had four people at the school, not five. The deep background checks came back and it looks like our software tech is not who he says he is. I can't get an identity lock, but I think we both have a good guess who he really works for."

"Christ, almighty," O'Neill said with disgust. "They used special forces' own game against them, letting them set up this whole thing. Then they planned to sneak in at the eleventh hour and pluck the kid right out from under their noses."

"That's the way it looks to me, sir. I've got Walter checking on the status of the other twelve SGC kids at the high school to make sure no one else is missing and then he's going to go through the rest of the background reports to see if anyone else looks fishy."

"I have a feeling no one else is going to be missing, Carter, but I won't be surprised if we find another NID plant."

"My money's on the school nurse, sir," Carter responded. "According to Linda, the girl's father sent his assistant to pick her up when she got sick. The nurse was the one who supposedly talked to the father and handled all the arrangements. It's the only way they could have gotten her out without raising any red flags."

"You're probably right, but we've got more important things to worry about right now. Even though somebody rescheduled Jake's meeting with Sanford without letting Sanford know, Jake's definitely on his way there now. I found a guy knocked out and tied up in a nice neat package – and he's definitely special forces not NID."

"Jake took out a special forces operative all by himself?" Carter asked incredulously.

"Goes to prove that old adage about being able to do anything with the proper motivation, doesn't it," O'Neill responded grimly. "Where are you, Carter."

"I'm on my way, sir."

"Carter!"

"Don't Carter me, sir. It's a whole new ballgame if the rogue NID faction is really involved. Besides, Sanford has already admitted to General Hammond that this isn't part of his op, so we're free and clear. In fact, we're mopping up his mess, so he should be grateful."

"What's your ETA?"

"15-20 minutes."

"Teal'c and Daniel are about the same. I don't think it'll be soon enough," O'Neill said tensely. "Jake's sneaking in the back instead of going directly in the front, so it'll take him a little more time to make his way in than if he'd just walked in the front door. But if things start to escalate before you get here, I'll have to go in without you."

"Be careful, sir. I'll get there as soon as I can," she promised.

O'Neill turned off the cellphone and slid it back into his pocket as he slowly advanced toward the treeline leading to the warehouse.

Like a silent shadow, Jake slid up behind the tall, bulky man dressed all in black and armed with a P-90 assault rifle who was guarding the back of the warehouse. The man seemed relaxed and unsuspecting, but Jake knew that could just as easily be an act to throw him off his guard. He waited until he was just a few steps behind the man to pull out the zat he had lifted from one of the three guards he had already taken out.

The man pivoted suddenly and brought his leg up in a kick aimed uncannily at Jake's zat arm. Jake pulled his arm down and away from the kick as he fired, hitting the big man in the midsection. The outstretched foot spasmed along with the rest of the man's body and whizzed harmlessly by Jake's arm with less than an inch to spare.

Jake quickly collected all the man's weaponry and added what he could to his growing arsenal. Since he couldn't carry the P-90, he pulled the clip and replaced it with one he had filled with medium sized pebbles instead of bullets. If anyone attempted to fire the weapon, the pebbles would cause it to either jam or simply not work at all. Jamming would be better, but he would take what he could get. Searching quickly, he found the man's restraints and quickly bound his arms and legs with them, then finished off his handiwork with a gag made from a headscarf pulled from the man's own pocket.

There was no place to hide the body completely out of sight, so he dragged it as close to the building as he could manage and quickly gathered some fallen leaves to cover it with. He worked in total silence, fully in his 'zone', the mental place where every sight and sound was quickly and efficiently registered and catalogued to determine whether it signaled impending danger.

Although he was sorry about the necessity of lying to Jack and the others, he was almost relieved to not have backup, to not have to worry about anybody else. His body hummed with pent up energy and tension that wanted to explode in violence against these bastards who had threatened Lindsay and the others. But he refused to let that explosion happen, knowing it could doom Lindsay if he couldn't get to her before his unseen enemy decided to strike back for the damage Jake had already caused.

Finally finished with his little chore, Jake pressed himself against the side of the old warehouse trying to hear any sounds from inside, but the walls were solid and no sound made its way through. Instead of heading directly to the back door, he slipped down the side of the building to the corner and used a small mirror to peek around its edge. There was one man, dressed and armed similarly to the man he'd just taken out, standing halfway down the side, looking bored. Toward the front of the building he noticed another man step out toward the side to check on the status of the guard at the side, then return to the front of the building.

Jake quickly slipped to the other end of the building and saw a similar scene unfold on that side. His heart raced as he wondered if anyone would be coming soon to check on the guard he had just taken down. A smile slowly spread across his face as an idea popped into his head.

The man in black strolled down the left side of the building toward the back with his rifle at the ready. He stopped just before stepping into the open and carefully leaned forward to check on the man guarding the rear. Relief washed over him as he saw the man standing there with his back to him, his rifle at the ready.

"Hey, Stan. You got any smokes? I'm all out," the man in black said, relaxing his stance. "I hope the Colonel decides to pack it in soon. It's obvious this is a waste of time and nobody's going to show."

"Don't you know smoking is bad for your health?" Jake quipped, as he quickly turned and fired the zat at the startled man, who had no chance to make a sound before he slid to the ground unconscious. Jake sensed rather than saw the motion to his right and quickly dropped and rolled, causing the zat bolt to whiz harmlessly past his ear. His own aim was instinctive and true, taking down his sixth man with only one shot.

He felt time ticking inexorably away and hesitated for a moment about taking extra time to tie the two men up. Don't get careless now, O'Neill. Not when you're this close, his inner voice cautioned him. Grudgingly obeying it, he made short work of the latest additions to his growing collection of bound and gagged bad guys. Quickly checking the sides of the building again and seeing no one, even though he knew there was still one guy unaccounted for out front, he carefully made his way to the back door.