Part Four

Rodney jerked reflexively at the muted grunt that escaped Sheppard when Kolya's goon jabbed him in the arm. All thought flew out of his head and he nearly dropped the handheld computer again as he recalled vividly his own run-in with the same knife.

"Where is the C4, Major?" The question that Kolya had been asking over and over reached his ears. The Genii leader was calm and unaffected by the suffering he so casually caused.

"Where you'll never find it," Sheppard replied, his voice strained.

Kolya's man moved in again, and Rodney cried out. "Can't you see he's not going to tell you anything? If you're going to take over Atlantis, you'll find it eventually, anyway!"

"Why would I expend such effort, Doctor McKay, when the solution to the problem sits before me?"

"B-Because . . . ." Rodney cast around for an answer. "Because he can help you in other ways. . . ."

"Rodney –." Sheppard interrupted, his tone suggesting that he didn't need to be defended, but Rodney kept talking. He wouldn't stand by and watch another being tortured.

"He's the one carrying the ATA gene," he blurted the same argument that Sheppard had used earlier. For all of the times he'd envied the Major's affinity with using the Ancient technology, it felt odd to be using it as a bargaining point – ignoring the little white lie, of course. "And he uses it like he was born to it, almost instinctively. He's the best chance you've got of getting this city to work for you."

"Better than you?" Kolya asked, focusing cold eyes intently on him.

Rodney faltered mentally, and fought the urge to take a step backward. The his natural inclination kicked in. "Of course not," he responded. "What I'm trying to explain to you is that through some freak of nature, he's the key to everything."

"I'm flattered . . . I think." He heard John mutter.

"All the more reason to break him, now," Kolya said, and refocused on John, clearly demonstrating that the conversation was of no more interest to him.

"He isn't some animal to be broken," Rodney argued, panic at the possible return of the knife bearing down on him. "He's a human being who deserves to be treated with respect and dignity."

Kolya's gaze didn't waver from John. "His worth is yet to be seen."

"Is this not unusual?" Teyla's curious voice sounded.

Carson looked to where Teyla was looking, and his heart dropped into his stomach. For a moment her could only stare in the hope that he was hallucinating. Just when he'd been getting used to the autopilot thing, everything was going to pot. This was why he didn't trust himself with this sort of technology. He didn't like it and it clearly didn't like him.

"That is weird." Ford spoke from the opposite side of the console, the nervous quaver in his voice not entirely camouflaged. He tapped a few keys on the console, none of which responded. "What did you do, Doctor?"

Carson's breath was beginning to come in quick gasps and he hoped that he wasn't headed for full fledged panic. "I didn't do anything!" he forced the words out. "The jumper was doing all of the work, remember?"

"So explain why we're about to crash into the ocean!" Ford demanded.

"Arguing will not help the matter," Teyla reminded them. "Is there not something more we can do? Can we not fly the ship, Doctor?"

"What?!" Carson demanded, incredulous. "I've no idea how to make it stop. He'll, I'm not even clear on how I started it. We're going into the water in the next thirty seconds and there's nothing I can do about it!"

"Everyone, brace for impact!" Ford yelled back into the passenger section.

As the waters came ever closer, the thoughts of Gilligan's Island returned with guilty force as the roiling waters rushed up to meet them.

Elizabeth set the pace with the guards at her back, as she made her way back to the Command Center. She had no idea as to why Kolya wanted her back before even allowing her to complete the final channeling rod reconnection. It was worrying, and as little as she wanted to bow to his demands, she also needed to know what was going on.

She faltered half up the stairs when her eyes settled on the tableau there, then continued along more slowly, needing to confirm the situation. John was tied to a chair that more or less faced the steps. Kolya sat across from him, his back to her, while one of his men stood alongside John with a huge knife in his hand. There was blood on the knife. Her mind stuttered over that realization for several moments before her gaze drifted toward the growing area of darkened wetness on John's arm that had nothing to do with his having been out in the rain. There was another area, she realized to her horror, on his leg. Her eyes slowly rose to meet John's.

The usual cocky grin was not in evidence. He was pale and perspiration beaded on his brow. He didn't seem happy to see her. As the soldier with the knife started toward her, she began to understand why. Her heart plummeted to her toes.

"No!" Rodney's outburst from a far console drew her gaze. He was quickly subdued by another of the guards.

The other two guards were still at her back. Kolya remained seated, never turning to face her, and the one with the knife was before her. There was nowhere to run to, as if she would. She looked back toward Major Sheppard and steeled herself for what was to come. Both he and McKay had already suffered at the hands of this merciless Genii soldier; it was her turn, now, it seemed.

The soldier grabbed her arm. Refusing to be dragged, she walked alongside him until she was standing in Kolya's line of sight. Still, the Genii leader didn't look in her direction, not even when the soldier pressed the point of the knife into the skin at the back of her throat.

"Where is the C4, Major Sheppard?" Kolya asked tonelessly.

Elizabeth could see the struggle on John's face, but she knew ultimately what his response would be.

"I have to show you," he said, "It's not a place I can explain."

For the first time during their acquaintance, she thought she saw Kolya smile.