Part Nine

"You've got to be kidding me!" John declared to the darkness. "Enough already!" Trying to remain positive was becoming a challenge in the current situation.

"Perhaps it's an effect of the storm," Elizabeth's voice reached him in the darkness, offering a possible explanation.

"Yeah. Maybe," he agreed, fingering the switch on his P90 that turned on the built in light. "All a part of McKay's plan?"

An expressively raised brow revealed that she wasn't discounting the idea.

Realizing she was right, he stifled a chuckle and keyed on his radio.

"Ford?"

"Here, Sir," came the reply. "When the lights went down the prisoners attempted to escape, but we took care of the situation." Sheppard couldn't resist the half grin at the tone in Ford's voice as he made his report. He couldn't imagine that Sora wouldn't appreciate her present predicament.

"We're still moving in your direction," Ford continued with his report. "It would be a lot easier though if the lights stayed on."

"Can't argue with that," John agreed. "How far out are you?"

"Ten minutes. Maybe less. Kinda hard to tell in the dark." Ford had barely completed the statement when Atlantis re-illuminated.

"The power of positive thinking . . . ." John said, looking about, half anticipating that the lights would go down again.

"I think we're picking you up on the life signs detector," Ford's said. "Wait. . . Sir!" His voice was suddenly filled with alarm. "I'm registering a third life sign!"

John cursed and spun, leveling his P90 on the corridor behind them. Every nerve ending seemed to protest the movement. Thankfully the area was clear.

"Where, Ford?" He demanded into the radio. "How close?" One handedly he reached into his flak jacket and removed his own detector and handed it to Elizabeth. His attention remained on scanning the area, alert for any hint of movement.

"They've moved out of range, Sir," Aiden said. "I can't see them anymore."

"We're going to have to work on figuring out how to get that range extended," he muttered, then shot a glance toward Elizabeth to see what their device told them. The frown on her face brought an even deeper frown to his.

"What's wrong?" he asked, moving in closer. Even from a distance the screen seemed dimmer than usual.

"Is this the way it should work?" Elizabeth asked, handling the item to him.

Shooting a glance outward, still alert, though he knew Ford would cue him if he saw anything close, he took the detector. The blips that shown – far too many to represent reality – were fading in and out. Never a good sign with technology.

He sighed. "It must have gotten damaged when Kolya and I were fighting." Something else for McKay to fix when they got out of this.

--

The doors closed just as the sounds of the bullets impacted against the outer surface. Too frightened to even more or breathe, Rodney remained frozen in his position on the floor as he dematerialized and was transported elsewhere on Atlantis.

When the transport was complete, he still remained seated on the floor for several long moments waiting for his heart to start beating again. Then, slowly, he opened the lap top, hoping that the industrial level UL certification meant that the device would survive being drop tested at least once more.

The screen came to life like a loyal pet. He half smiled at that positive bit of news. He immediately linked into the now pass worded system and deactivated the transporter alcoves. Next, he went in search of the frequency of the radios that the team used.

--

This is McKay, calling anyone on the mainland or nearby. Please respond.

The voice boomed across the radio link reverberating through Sheppard's head. Happy to hear the voice, aggravated at the volume and bemused that the voice had sounded just as he'd thought of his repairing the broken life signs scanner. "McKay? That you?"

He met Elizabeth's equally surprised gaze as he awaited the response.

"Of course, it's me. Didn't I identify myself?" came the returned response. That was his McKay all right. A grin spread across his face as Ford, Teyla and Beckett all announced their presences over the radio link.

"What happened? Where are you?" John cut across the chatter. "Last time I saw you, you were stuck in command with the bad guys."

"I managed a little plan to get away. Which I see you've done as well." Rodney replied smugly. "Shall I assume since the gang's all here that we have a plan?"

"Uh. . . we're working on that," John told him. "But first, where are you? And please tell me that you didn't leave the Genii all alone in the gate room."

"Well first of all, I'm in a transporter alcove," Rodney replied, his back clearly up. "And second of all, yes I did."

"You what?!" John demanded. "What's stopping them from bringing more through the gate? It's bad enough that we still have to get rid of the ones that are already here. What were you thinking?"

"Are you done?" Rodney asked.

"Not hardly. But I'll feel better if you tell me there was a good reason for what you did."

"Of course there was. They don't just hand out degrees in physics to complete morons. In fact, considering the things I've accomplished today alone . . . ."

"McKay. . . ." John started warningly.

"Right. I, in spite of your obviously low opinion of my reasoning ability, locked out the control room and routed it through my lap top. We'd already begun the process when we set up the capturing protocol. It was just a simple matter of a small pass coded routine to take over from there. No one's coming or going through the gate or doing anything else in the control room unless they have either my pass code or the ATA gene."

"Ah," Sheppard nodded, impressed. "So that last power outage . . . that was you?"

"It was." The smug smile was evident in his voice.

"What else can you do?"

"I can locate all of the life signs in the city."

John felt a plan forming. "Do it."

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A/N: I'll admit it. I was weak. I started watching "The Eye", after I'd written this chapter, thinking that I was far enough along that I could indulge myself without fear of mixing the two. Well, when I got to a certain section when John did something that McKay would do I was astounded at a similarity between the episode and my story. So, I hit the stop button and turned off the ep. And it was sooo exciting, too! And now I'm really on pins and needles to finish this thing. Plus – January's coming!

There is another chapter complete after this one, which I will post tomorrow. After that, one more chapter to go! Hope everyone is still enjoying the story.