For the second time that day, a tense trio approached General Hammond's office.
Colonel Samuels glanced at Shannon. "You do remember how to knock, don't you?"
Shannon rolled her eyes and knocked. Inside, General Hammond looked up curiously.
"Come in," he called.
Shannon pushed the door open and walked into the office. Approaching the general's desk, she spoke.
"Hello again, General. It seems that your security here is much tighter than was assumed in the beginning," she chuckled.
Hammond looked over her shoulder and made a mental note of who had followed her in. Of all the people on this base, she had to run afoul of those two Switching his gaze back to Shannon, he replied, "I'm glad we were able to exceed Mr. Kennedy's expectations of us, Miss Weiss."
Shannon scoffed. "Frankly, I'm disgusted with Director Kennedy, General. How he ever could have mistaken this group as one who wouldn't notice anything amiss is beyond me. I assure you, his part in this is over. And I'm going to find out what the good director really wanted here
Behind her, Ma'at muttered, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Even though she heard, Shannon didn't react except to crack a small smile that the other woman couldn't see when the general said warningly, "Ma'at...." Before it could go any further, Shannon popped in.
"General, I promise you, I will find out why the Director would send me here with such an obviously mistaken impression of your facility," she vowed.
Colonel Samuels stepped forward. "Well, that's nice. With your permission, General, I'll show Miss Weiss to the front gate."
Shannon paused. "Not yet. My infiltration was only my secondary assignment. My primary one is still to observe and study the weaponry that is retrieved by your teams and to see if that weaponry can be duplicated." Unable to keep quiet any longer, Ma'at spoke up.
"That's very sudden. We've been bringing it back for eight years," she pointed out.
Gritting his teeth, General Hammond spit out, "Ma'at!" He sighed. "Will you two leave Miss Weiss and me alone for a moment, please?"
Visibly unhappy, Colonel Samuels grabbed Ma'at by her arm and steered her out of the room.
General Hammond leaned back in his chair. He motioned for Shannon to sit in the one directly across from his desk.
"Have a seat, Miss Weiss," he ordered. Shannon sat quickly.
"General, it is my belief that someone send me here on this mission specifically to cause problems," she started. "For example, I was unaware that there was another agent here in the past." She took a deep breath. "Miss O'Toole said something about an agent trying to kill her?" Hammond rubbed a hand over his face.
"This might take a while," he said. "Have you ever heard of a man named Mark Devlin?"
Shannon shook her head. "My partner had a brief run in with him years ago. She says he's a total snake. Fortunately, I was spared the experience."
"Unfortunately, we haven't. There were other incidents prior, but I'll concentrate on the ones pertaining to the SGC." He shifted in his seat, preparing himself for the epic ahead.
"Agent Devlin," he continued, "under orders from somebody fairly high up in the food chain, commenced a campaign to blackmail SGC secrets out of Colonel Samuels –the officer who was just here- by threatening to harm Ma'at. I expect you'll find that amusing, but at the time, I assure you it was not," he finished wryly.
"Amusing only because Ma'at seems like she can take care of herself," Shannon broke in.
Raising an eyebrow, the general continued. "There followed a kidnap attempt, which fortunately we were able to discourage. A short while later, Devlin infiltrated this base on the pretext of having been assigned to a legitimate investigation. He stole some files which leave to an attempted invasion of the planet and almost cost the lives of several people on this base, myself included."
Shannon nodded, absorbing the information. She was stunned at the events that had taken place. It seemed impossible to her that these events were unknown to her superiors. But Hammond wasn't finished.
"Once the medical staff here had nursed Devlin back to health following that invasion, he attempted to acquire classified files and was directly responsible for Ma'at and Malek –one of our Tok'ra- being damn near killed."
Hammond stopped and took another breath. "I think you might be starting to understand why we're a little shy of "agents" around here, Miss Weiss."
Shannon leaned forward in her chair. "General, let me reiterate my position here. I am here to observe and take those observations back to the CIA. I will not remove any files or information from your base that could be used to harm its residents."
Sighing, she continued. "I understand that your people would be slightly paranoid given their previous experience, so I won't be reporting any of today's events. If you'd like, and she'd prefer, Ma'at is more than welcome to look over my report before I send it in." She stopped for a moment. "General, I'm aware that my presence here will make your residents uncomfortable. I'm sorry to hear it, but I am here to do my job. I intend to do it well."
General Hammond bristled slightly. "You are invading our home, Ma'am, and I am not giving you carte blanche to do that as you please. If you are discovered somewhere you should not strictly be, I cannot guarantee your safety."
"If violence is forthcoming from any of your residents, General, I cannot guarantee their safety," Shannon responded matter-of-factly. Hammond narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Tell you what, Miss Weiss, I'll make you a deal. When you feel the need to go sneaking, you'll be accompanied by a member of SG-CS, our counter-intelligence unit. They will be ordered not to restrict you in any way from going where you want to go or looking where you want to look. In return, you will not engage in any covert activity on this base without said escort. Deal?" General Hammond held out his hand. Shannon took a half second to consider the offer.
"Deal." She reached out and shook his hand. "Is there a team I can observe to start with? Or someone in particular I can direct questions to?"
"How about we get you over to Maybourne in Personnel? You will be lined up with accommodation and the like. If you let me know what questions you have, I can direct you to an appropriate person." Shannon nodded her assent and stood.
"If you'd be so good as to fetch Colonel Samuels from outside? He's second in command of SG-CS," Hammond directed.
Opening the door, Shannon spotted Colonel Samuels partially down the hall. Evidently, he'd persuaded Ma'at to go somewhere and chill.
"Colonel Samuels? General Hammond would like to speak with you." Easing back in to the office, she asked, "Shall I wait outside?"
The general flashed a quick smile, devoid of humor. "I think it'd be best if you stayed in here," he said.
When Samuels entered the office, he looked as if he'd been invited to his best friend's funeral. "Yes, sir?"
Hammond quickly explained the fundamentals of The Deal. Colonel Samuels looked defeated. "Yes, sir," he said again as he opened the door and stepped back to let Shannon exit first. She could practically feel the frosty as she passed.
Without cracking a smile, she said, "I'm following you."
Colonel Samuels felt as if his paranoia could be forgiven this time. Nodding to General Hammond, he set off down the hall.
"This way, Agent," he intoned. It was going to be a long assignment.