"Daniel!" Jack called from down the corridor, as he, Sam and Teal'c ran to catch up to the worried archaeologist.
"What?" Daniel asked, concern etched into his face.
"We're coming' with you" Jack stated.
"Thanks" Daniel said offering a small smile, as they all entered the elevator.
Taking charge of the situation, Jack stopped the group as they reached Daniels car.
"I'm assuming you know where Rachel was Daniel, so you and Carter go look there, Teal'c and I will go check your place out, ok?" everyone nodded in agreement, the two pairs turned to their respective vehicles. "Oh and keep your cell phones on!" Jack called across the lot. Sam and Daniel drove off first, in his car, and Teal'c and Jack followed closely behind in Jacks truck.
-
"Okay stay there, I'll come and get you" Rachel heard her father say as she kept an eye on who was coming in and out of the diner. She poked her head out of the phone area and eyed two men, dressed in all black, who had just come in the door. One of them, the shorter of the two, about Daniels height, saw her and nudged his partner. Rachel's eyes widened as they began to move towards her. Dropping the phone in mid-sentence she looked for an exit. Her eyes fell upon one behind her to the right. She bolted out it and into the street. She ran as fast as she could through the now busy streets, not stopping even when a cramp in her side threatened to take her down.
The scared teen ran for what seemed like fifteen minutes and eventually stopped, again in a small alley dividing two buildings, not able to run any further.
Not once had she looked back to see if the men had been following her, not once did she see the black SUV that had tracked her through the streets. She was just catching her breath when the black vehicle, pulled up onto the thin sidewalk, effectively blocking the alley's entrance. A man got out of the passenger side and came toward her. Rachel's jaw dropped, they had followed her!
Backing away quickly, she turned and began running down the alley as fast as she could. She jumped over various pieces of garbage, foolishly looking back at one point not seeing a fallen trashcan. Her foot hooked under it and she went flying over it, landing on her hands and shoulder. Pain ripped through the palms of her hands and shoulder as the pavement made quick work of scraping through her shirt. Both of the men, who had been in the diner, approached her, guns ready in their hands. She tried to back away along the ground ignoring the painful protest of her bleeding hands, but one man walked over to her and grabbed her arm yanking on it to make her stand.
"You're coming with us," he said. She shot him a weird look and couldn't resist.
"That was original," she snorted confidently, inwardly she was cowering with fear.
"Shut up" he said, letting go of her arm and grabbing a fistful of her hair roughly. He pushed her in the direction of their SUV still holding her hair, and she complied, scratching futilely at his gloved hands to make him let go. They reached the car and one man walked around to the drivers seat while the other pushed Rachel into the back seat and then sat himself down beside her in the back, letting go of her hair but not the gun.
"Scream and you die, try to get out – you die, try anything at all – you die" the shorter man said in a low guttural growl. His black hair and dark eyes menacing enough that Rachel didn't want to try and prove him wrong. The taller man looked in the review mirror at her as he drove off down the street. His gray eyes and dark hair made him look equally as frightening.
-
Daniel and Sam pulled up in front of the diner he was sure Rachel had called from. Walking in, they glanced around and went over to where the payphone was. The phone was still dangling near the floor, from when Rachel had dropped it. Walking over to the counter, Daniel got the attention of one of the waitresses.
"What can I do ya for folks?" the older woman asked kindly.
"Did a girl come in here, about forty minutes ago? She has fairly long blond hair, blue eyes; she's about 5'5", um wearing gray pants and a black shirt, and black shoes." Sam raised her eyebrows slightly having not figured Daniel to be so observant when it came to clothes.
"Why, yes I did. Silly girl outside with no jacket, gonna catch a cold I reckon." They lady shook her head.
"Do you know where she went? Or when she left here?"
"Well, she was on the phone for a good ten minutes, didn't talk much I don't think, but then a couple a men, scary lookin' I might add, came in and she left right away. Almost called the cops, thought they's was going to take her, but they just left when she did, so I didn't think nothin' more of it. Why? You her parents or something?" The old woman's gaze went back and forth between Sam and Daniel. Sam smiled shaking her head.
"He's her father, I'm just a friend"
"Mmm hmm" the lady said eyeing them closely.
"Thank you" Daniel said frustrated that now he had no idea where his daughter was. They left the restaurant and got back in Daniels car, thinking of where to go next. Sam pulled out her phone and dialed Jack's cell.
"O'Neill" he said when he picked up.
"Hi sir, any luck?" she asked hopefully.
"Nope, the lock was sorta scratched – musta been picked, but other than that the place is fine and there's no other evidence of a break in. Did you find her?" he questioned as he and Teal'c made their way back to him truck.
"No, apparently two 'scary looking' men came into the diner and Rachel took off when she saw them. That's all we've got." Sam sighed, looking at Daniel who was staring out of the window lost in thought. He jumped slightly when his own cell phone began ringing in his pocket. Picking it up, he answered it, confused by no sound on the other end.
Sam stopped talking, as did Jack; both had heard his phone ring.
"Hello?" Daniel asked for the third time. He was about to hang up when a gruff voice spoke up.
"Doctor Jackson, I have your daughter. Go back to your apartment. I'll be in touch" and the line went dead. Daniel at that point had gone extremely pale. He dropped his phone into his lap and started the car.
"Daniel? Who was it?" Sam asked worried by her friend's behavior. Jack also voiced his desire to know who had phoned, very loudly into Sam's ear.
"I don't know, but he said he has Rachel and to go to my apartment and wait for him to call back" Daniel didn't bother to look for oncoming traffic and pulled out into the street, intent on getting home very fast.
"Carter? … CARTER??" Jack called through the small object she held in her hand.
"Uh, Sir, stay there, we'll be there in a few minutes" and she hung up in the middle of Jack's demand for more information.
"Was that all the person said Daniel?" Sam inquired needing more to go on.
"Yeah… God how could I have let this happen?" he said desperately as he stopped at a red light. No sense in driving right through and getting a ticket when he had to find his daughter.
"Daniel you had no way of knowing this would happen. Can you think of any reason why someone would kidnap Rachel?" Daniel shook his head and they drove in silence for the next couple minutes.
He pulled up in front of his building. Locking the car, they both ran up the three flights of stairs to his apartment and entered to see Jack pacing. Teal'c was standing stoically off to the side of the living room.
"Carter, you hung up on me!" Jack glared at his 2IC.
"Sorry Sir" she shrugged.
"So what's the situation?" Jack said getting down to business.
"Someone phoned me saying he has Rachel and that he would contact me here… but he didn't say when" Daniel replied, sounding extremely stressed.
"Did you get a phone number from the caller?" Jack asked.
"Nope, there wasn't anything on the caller ID" Daniel replied, taking deep breaths to try and control his panicking. Jack opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the sound of the home phone's shrill ring. Daniel ran for it, and didn't argue when Jack put his ear up close to his to hear.
"Hello?" Daniel asked uncertainly. There were a few moments of silence before the deep voice spoke up.
"I have a small proposition for you Doctor Jackson…"