Chapter 11
McKay's team slipped silently into the flash plant, making their way past the skeleton crew operating the facility. It was eerily quiet once you got used to the continual low hum of the spinning turbines.
Holding up his hand, Rodney signaled them to stop. "Do you hear that?"
"I don't hear a bloody thing," Carson whispered, his head tipped sideways, straining to pick up anything out of the ordinary.
"Shhh!" both scientists hissed simultaneously.
Glancing back and forth between Rodney and Radek, Carson scowled, shaking his head. It was Stackhouse's look of acceptance, standing perfectly still with his hands resting on his weapon, that made the doctor realize this was Rodney's show. "What do you hear?" he asked softly.
"Water," the Czech whispered, following Rodney down a staircase.
"Oh." Still not clear on why that would be a problem; Carson caught up and stopped the smaller scientist, "I thought this facility ran on water?"
"No, doctor, it's powered with steam from hydrothermal fluids above 200 degrees Celsius. The remaining water is pumped back out of the flash separator through injection wells."
Thoroughly confused, the doctor shook his head, "I still don't understand what the problem is?"
Rodney spun around, glaring at both men. "Carson," he hissed, "Shut. Up. before someone hears you." Not waiting for the man's reaction, he brusquely turned and continued further down the hall, disappearing inside a doorway.
The physician inhaled sharply before letting the breath out while counting to ten. McKay was right; he needed to stay focused on his task. The only reason he'd been chosen by Sheppard to be on this team in the first place was to keep an eye on Rodney.
A quick square of his shoulders and he followed the scientists into the command room to discover Rodney and Radek were hunched over a laptop studying a screen, and Stackhouse sliding an unconscious Pennatrocan to the back of the room.
"Look at that." Pointing to a series of spikes and dips on the monitor, the Czech scientist, turned to a second laptop, typing madly. "It's magnified in the past two days."
Rodney chewed on his bottom lip, eyes intensely studying the data before him. "This is worse than I thought." Spinning around the room, he stopped when he spied a piece of equipment that resembled the earth equivalent of a seismograph. "Oh, dear lord," he gasped, watching a rapid scribble of lines move swiftly across the page. Grabbing Carson and Radek by the arms, he pushed them towards the doorway. "Move!" he shouted.
The floor beneath their feet began to sway and shift as the building suddenly groaned in defeat. Ominous creaking of large pipes escalated into screaming metal ripping apart when super heated steam escaped high into the air, literally blowing the roof off the plant.
"Rodney, what the hell is happenin'?" Carson yelled, racing down the hallway with a death grip on Radek, while they both desperately tried to avoid pieces of crashing debris.
"Earthquake!" he shouted before stumbling; only to find himself lifted back on his feet by Sgt. Stackhouse. "The epicenter is almost directly below us! We have to get out of here now, or this whole building is going to come down on top of us!"
Running for their lives, they barely made their way back up the staircase before another terrifying wave shook apart the walls. Mortar, brick, and steel rained down on the men, burying them in a tomb of darkness.
SG: A
Grose stood silently observing Sheppard in the dark street behind the security building, as the major flipped open the laptop packed by McKay, while Teyla and Ford kept watch. When the Atlantis officer pulled out a sheet of instructions meticulously written, he snapped two clips he was holding onto the communications cable, rerouting the system to give them access to the inmates.
"Okay, here goes nothing," Sheppard murmured, typing in Rodney's commands. The screen promptly shifted, bringing up the internal files. "Yes. Thank you, Answer Man." Sensing the Colonels confusion, he grinned, "McKay was able to hack into their system when he first arrived. Don't ask me how, but he was able to interface the two so that we could get in and not get caught."
Quickly scrolling down through the inmate list, Grose pointed over Sheppard's shoulder to a name. "Jilla Rogus, she is my chief science officer."
"And the other?" he asked, surfing through the rest of the list.
"Cagen Grose, medical officer."
"Grose, huh?" Stopping the page, he looked up, "Any relation?"
The colonel stared at the screen before answering, "Yes, he is my son."
"Damn."
The older man quietly looked at Sheppard a moment before he nodded, "Yes...Damn."
You didn't have to be an astrophysicist genius to figure out what it meant to have left your son in Noda's care. Scrolling down through the list once more, Sheppard shook his head as he mentally added another reason to hate this place. "I found him." Pointing to the screen, he brought up Cagen's whereabouts. It looked as though the teammates where being kept far apart on separate floors of the facility. Apparently, Noda suspected someone might come looking for them and ensured breaking them out would be difficult.
Tapping his radio, Sheppard called Teyla and Ford to come back and meet them at the rear of the building. Explaining the situation, he broke the group up so that Teyla and Grose could get the science officer, while he and Ford went for Grose's son.
"Major Sheppard…" The colonel forced himself to stop, stepping back from the others to stare at the dark building before them.
"We understand, sir," Sheppard said, standing up after putting the laptop back in his pack. "Just remember, you got McKay out of this hell hole, even if it was a setup. We're going to return the favor and get your team, both of them." Taking several small charges from Ford, he attached them to the power box on the building and on the back door. With one of his infamous grins, he pressed the switch, effectively leaving the facility vulnerable to their mission. "We're in, we're out. Understood? As much as I'd like to personally kick Noda's ass, we don't have time. Be careful."
Slipping noiselessly into the darkened building, lit only by emergency backup lights, they split up. Chaos ensued within the center, just as it had previously when Grose had shut down the power. Inmates and guards filled dark hallways, creating a cacophony of noise and confusion, enabling the intruders to make their way unnoticed.
Within minutes, Sheppard's radio beeped. "We have her, Major," Teyla's voice informed calmly.
"Understood." Leaving his radio on, he gestured Ford to do the same as they made their way up a previously undetected stairwell. Stopping on the landing, he eased the door back to get a look down the hallway before closing it once more. "Same as all the other floors. I'll go in first. After a ten count, you follow."
Ford nodded, snapping the safety off his sidearm.
Sheppard slipped through the doorway, merging into the crowd towards Cagen's cell. It had occurred to him that the younger Grose may not be there, but there was also the possibility that he had been incapacitated the same as McKay. Stealing into the dim cell, he cursed vehemently. "He's not here," he hissed over the radio.
"Major Sheppard, we've been expecting you," a cold voice spoke from behind him.
Scrunching his eyes tightly before turning around, Sheppard pasted on his best fake smile and held his hands up from his sides. "Commander, you seem to be having a bit of a power problem." Two large goons came to stand on either side of him, bringing him about face towards Noda, to see the little SOB standing there with some sort of small device pressed into what had to be Grose's son's side. "Cagen?"
The man, who couldn't be much older than Ford, nodded stiffly. His pinched features and unsteady demeanor were similar to Rodney's during his incarceration.
"You sure do have flashy place, Noda. Bang up job on your security, though. I mean, you let just about anyone walk on here, don't you?" Taking a step back, the major glanced towards Grose's son and pretended to wipe at his eyes, sending a silent message to the other man.
Noda took a menacing step closer towards the cell, "Where is the rest of your team, Major?"
"Oh, you know, here and there. Well, actually, more there than here. Although I'm still here." 'Come on, Lieutenant,' he silently urged.
"I don't find you amusing. Perhaps, after you spend some time with us, you won't find yourself amusing either." Nodding to the guards, he snapped, "Take him to the white room."
The two hulking figures latched onto his arms, preparing to drag him away, when Sheppard heard Ford yell, "Heads up, Major!" Stabbing his fingers in his ears and turning away, he missed the blinding flash and loud bang, but gasped at the pungent odor of the assault grenade as both guards dropped to the floor.
"What the hell took you so long, Lieutenant?" Stepping over the unconscious bodies on the floor, he reached down and pulled Cagen's limp form up over his shoulder. Seeing Noda's weasely little ass out cold on the floor made him smile. Resisting the overwhelming urge to give him a hard kick for good measure, the major nodded to his second in command, "Thanks."
Ford smiled. "That was fun, sir. Kind of like bowling. If you'd have fallen, it would have been a strike."
"Huh, you're funny." Shifting his burden to get a better hold, he nodded towards the hallway, "Let's go."
Walking point, with his gun ready, Aiden smiled back over his shoulder, "I've been taking notes from you and Dr. McKay."
"You think McKay is funny?" Sheppard rolled his eyes with a grin while carefully making his way back down the stairwell. "I worry about you sometimes, Lieutenant."
The closer they got to the bottom of the stairwell, the more people they came in contact with. Inmates escaping out the back were filling the doorway. Out of nowhere, Colonel Grose appeared, standing outside in the moonlight. "Attention!"
The surrounding area instantly drew quiet to the booming voice of authority.
"Single file, one at a time. Let's get this done right, people." His eyes surveyed each departing individual and when a guard attempted to stop the fleeing masses, Grose dropped him cold with a straight shot to the jaw.
"Major, I like this guy," Ford chuckled.
Sheppard had to grin, "I've kind of gotten used to him myself. Although, his kid weighs a ton." Grateful to have finally made it to the bottom, he made his walked out into the moonlight, only to stop when he felt the ground move below his feet. "Oh, no. Not again."
The colonel appeared at his side and draped his son over his shoulder, "The others are waiting at the end of the block. We have to hurry, Major."
Sheppard didn't have to be told twice. Cutting through the panicking crowd, he followed close behind Grose, with Ford on his heels. Another more powerful shake caused them all to stumble before a tremendous explosion filled the night and then the city went dark. Grabbing his radio, he paged McKay's team while they ran. "McKay! Rodney, answer me!" His hails were met with static.
The earth continued to moan as tall buildings began swaying, shedding stone and steel towards the ground. "Run! Run, Damnit!" he shouted, knowing as any Californian would, what could happen. He herded the escapees like a dog herding sheep, trying to not think about what this would be like underground…where his friends were.
TBC
A/N Go Gaffer! That added line was great! Baaa… To the rest of you, are you still with me? Wake up! There's whumping going on!