Aiden dashed out of the hidden jumper and found cover behind a nearby pillar. Major Sheppard and Sergeant Bates were close behind, and soon all three men were surveying the area with their weapons ready.
"Okay, this should be a snap," Major Sheppard whispered once he had double checked with his life signs detector and determined the coast was clear. He pointed to the left. "The doors leading into the complex are right over there, so as soon as the prisoners are done with their daily constitutional, they'll probably file right past us."
"Probably?" Bates said.
Aiden shot him a glare over his shoulder and then turned his attention back to his commanding officer. "We only have two Wraith stunners, Sir," he said. He didn't actually say what was really on his mind - that he didn't trust Bates not to kill anyone with his P-90 - but Major Sheppard seemed to get the point.
"Lieutenant, you and me are gonna pick three prisoners out of the crowd, preferably stragglers that nobody's got their eye on, and knock 'em out. Bates, I need you to make sure nobody catches us. Got it?"
Aiden and Bates both nodded.
"Good. At the same time, though, keep an eye out for Rodney. I doubt he'd be out here so soon, but you never know. This operation might just turn out to be easier than we thought."
Boy, was he wrong.
It all seemed to be going so well at first - they only had to wait five minutes before a bell rang and the prisoners on the other side of the compound started gathering into four long lines. As the prisoners filed past them on their way back inside, Aiden and Sheppard took out the three at the back, dragging them behind the pillars and quickly stripping them of their baggy shirts and pants.
They changed into the prisoners' clothes in record time, and hurried into the line-up before anyone even noticed the other men's absence. They kept their weapons concealed under their shirts, but nobody was looking closely enough to see them anyway. Everything seemed to be coming together perfectly, and before they knew it, they were on the inside. Piece of cake.
The part that fell flat on its face was actually finding Dr. McKay.
As they entered the complex, Aiden kept his eye on Major Sheppard for his signal. It wasn't long before he saw it - a quickly raised fist making a chopping motion - and as soon as he did, he broke away from the group and started setting up charges in the hallway. That was always his favourite part of any given mission - when he got to blow something up. It never failed to give him a tingly feeling up and down his spine, and the adrenaline rush was what he lived for.
Once the charges were set, Aiden crouched down in a dark corner and waited for Major Sheppard's next signal. The second he heard the low whistle, he covered his head and detonated the charges.
Everything happened quickly after that. In the chaos and panic the sudden explosion caused, he and Sgt. Bates were able to grab two of the guards and hold them as hostages while forcing the other guards to lock themselves and the prisoners away. Warning alarms started to sound, but Sheppard forced one of the guards to shut it off and keep that section of the prison locked to anyone that might be coming to help.
"Where is Rodney McKay?" Sheppard demanded as he grabbed the guard by his collar and pointed his own weapon at his chest.
"I have no idea who that is," the man replied.
Aiden winced as Major Sheppard struck the guy hard across the face, sending him stumbling against the wall. "This is the wrong day to piss me off," he warned, pressing his gun against the guard's temple. "Where is Rodney McKay?"
"I do not know that name!"
"The guy who was put on trial for murder a few hours ago," Sheppard said, his voice getting louder with each word. "He was tried and convicted in a matter of minutes, and now I'm here to bust him out. If you don't want to tell me where he is, though, that's fine... I'll just kill you and the rest of the guards so I'm free to explore the place myself."
"But he is not here!" the man cried. "He was sent away!"
Aiden glanced over at Bates and returned his confused expression. Away? What the hell did that mean?
Sheppard glowered at the guy. "Sent away where?"
"I do not know... Jassin Tiya's home world."
"I thought Jassin Tiya was from this world?" Aiden spoke up, tightening his hold on his hostage so he wouldn't get any ideas about his captor being distracted.
"So did I," Sheppard agreed, never taking his eyes off of the guard in front of him for an instant. "What world is he from?"
"I do not know," the guard said. "Honestly, that is all I know. Please... you must let us go, or the prisoners will riot!"
Sheppard stared at him for a few more seconds, but then released him. "Let's get out of here," he said to Aiden and Bates. "Bring those guys with you until we get to the jumper, just to be on the safe side."
"We're really going to take his word for this?" Aiden asked in disbelief. After all that Major Sheppard had said about never leaving a man behind, leaving without him now just wasn't sitting right with him.
"What choice do we have, Lieutenant?" Sheppard snapped. "You feel like searching every inch of this prison from top to bottom?"
Aiden shook his head regretfully. "No, Sir."
"We should at least see if we can find out more information about this Jassin Tiya person," Bates said. "If he really is from another planet, someone must know the Stargate address."
"Right, so that's the plan," Sheppard said. He looked closely at the guy Aiden still held in a chokehold and inched towards him slowly. "I don't suppose you know anything about where Jassin Tiya came from, do you?"
Aiden gave the guy's neck a rough squeeze as added incentive for him to tell the truth. The guard shook his head as best he could and croaked, "No."
Sheppard nodded and turned to the guy Bates was holding onto. "What about you?"
Aiden couldn't help but notice that for a prison guard, this guy seemed a bit too nervous when asked a simple question.
Major Sheppard seemed to pick up on this, too. "What do you know?" he demanded.
The man shook his head. "I... I don't..."
Sheppard nodded at Bates. "We're taking him back to Atlantis," he said. "Let's go."
Rodney didn't even have the energy to cry out as he was unceremoniously dumped back into his cell. He felt drained of everything, more dead than alive. He couldn't believe what Kolya had put him through over the past few hours.
Actually, he could believe it. Maybe that was exactly why it had been so frightening - he knew that Kolya didn't have much of a moral code holding him back from doing whatever the hell he wanted to.
And that's basically what this little session had been about, Rodney realized - Kolya had wanted to see Rodney in pain, so he'd made it happen. He didn't want any kind of information from him. Sure, he'd asked him the standard, "What is the code you use to lower the shield on the Atlantis Stargate?" and, "How much do you know about such-and-such a thing?" kind of questions, but he knew that Rodney wouldn't actually give him the answers. What did Rodney have to lose or gain if he did or didn't? It wasn't like Kolya was going to let him go if he told him what he wanted to know, so why should he endanger the lives of the people who were probably on their way to save him as they spoke? No, there was more to it than that. Kolya didn't want information - he wanted revenge.
It seemed a bit absurd to Rodney that he would try to exact his revenge on him, though. What had he ever done to the guy? He'd helped him, for God's sake. Still, to Kolya's sick, twisted little mind, it seemed that Rodney was the reason why his plan to take the city had failed. Rodney was paying for that now, that's for sure.
After lying there for a few minutes, he took a deep breath and hauled himself up onto his hands and knees. It took more effort to crawl across the floor and slump against the wall than he could ever have imagined, and by the time he'd done it he was completely out of breath.
He gave himself a couple of minutes to collect himself, and then he started examining his body for injuries. The first thing that demanded his attention was the fact that his wrists were raw and bleeding from the restraints. He didn't have any spare material to use as bandages for them, so all he could do was massage them a little to try to make them feel better. It didn't really work.
Next he lifted his shirt to check out the damage that had been done there. The light coming through his one window was dim at best, but he could still see the massive bruises covering his abdomen and chest, and the various red welts left behind by whatever Kolya had used to give him the electric shocks he seemed to be so fond of.
In short, his body was a mess.
Rodney sighed and leaned his head back against the wall. He felt as though he should be reacting more strongly to this, but he just felt... blank. He figured that was probably an after-effect of the shocks, and that it would hit him later. He wasn't looking forward to that.
Not that he expected to still be here later. Major Sheppard would probably have found him by then, and he'd be safe and warm in an infirmary bed by the time he had to deal with the horror of what he'd just been through. No matter how many times Kolya had told him that no one was coming to rescue him, Rodney didn't believe it for a second. His friends would come, and Kolya would be the first to die when they got here.
He sat there almost in a daze for a long time, until the cell was in pitch darkness again and the cold night air was starting to seep through his clothes and chill his skin. A strange sound finally brought him back to reality, one he hadn't heard before. It sounded like something was scraping the wall beside him. He looked down just in time to see part of the wall open up and a dim light shine through it.
The moving panel flattened out into a sort of makeshift table, and a small tray was pushed out of the wall onto it. On the tray was a small bowl of some kind of greyish substance, as well as a small metal cup of water.
Mealtime, if you could call it that.
As much as he dreaded sampling this poor excuse for food, he was grateful for the little bit of light that came with it. He examined the opening for a minute or two, but decided that it was much too small to even attempt any kind of escape through it. It was nothing more than a food slot.
With a sigh and a hard swallow, Rodney steeled himself and scooped a bit of the grey stuff onto his finger. He closed his eyes and stuck it into his mouth, knowing that if this was likely to be his only meal for a while, he had to eat it or suffer the consequences. He made a slight face at the bitter taste, but decided it was better than nothing, so forced himself to continue eating it.
He tried to lift the bowl off the tray as he ate, but it seemed to be fastened in place. When he went to take a drink of water, he found that it was fastened to the tray, too, but on a short string so that he could lift it just enough to take a draught of the liquid inside.
"What, do you think I'm gonna steal it?" he muttered. "How far could I go?"
As though it were giving him his answer, the wall panel suddenly shuddered, causing Rodney to back away from it in surprise. Then he heard the scraping sound again, and the tray withdrew, the panel closing up after it. Rodney's cell was bathed in complete darkness again.
"Well, that was a pleasant little interlude," Rodney mumbled. "I don't suppose a blanket will suddenly appear somewhere?" He looked around for any sign of light or any sound that might indicate that another panel was opening up somewhere, but nothing happened.
"Damn." He'd just have to do without, then.
He eased himself down onto the hard floor, careful not to lie on any of his biggest bruises, and tried to get comfortable. Finding that a lost cause, he just settled for a position that wasn't outright painful.
"I really hope you're on your way, Major," he whispered into the darkness as he started to drift off to sleep. A person could only live like this for so long before insanity started to set in, and Rodney was sure that for him it wouldn't take long at all.