While normally Ian handed in his homework on Friday afternoon at the academy, it wasn't completely unusual for him to end up waiting until Saturday. After all, there had been a few times when missions offworld had simply kept him away on Fridays. The instructors – who didn't know what he was really doing, of course – didn't know the difference since they had the weekends off and usually just left their homework assignments for him in the main office, and he left his completed assignments in their IN boxes in their various classrooms. It worked well for all parties, and gave Ian the leniency that he needed in his schedule.

Saturday morning found him in the main office, ignoring the looks that a few cadets were giving him as he sorted through the new assignments that had been left in the box with his name on it. The Cadets didn't understand why Brooks was allowed to be off campus, and it fostered a fair amount of jealousy among some of them that he didn't have to sit in classes with them and was allowed to work on his own. Not to mention that he was thriving on the regiment, while most of them knew they would have been struggling.

Of course, curiosity had gotten the better of some of them – especially the older students, who thought they should know everything that was going on around them – and a few had asked where he was spending his time. They hadn't asked him, of course. Even the upper classmen knew what Ian's response to their questions would have been, so they'd asked the instructors themselves. And had been told in no uncertain terms to mind their own business. If the Air Force wanted them to know, they'd have put out a memo.

"Ian…"

All heads turned when Shawn came into the office – mainly because there were so few cadets that addressed Ian by his first name and everyone wanted to see who had been crazy enough to do it. When they saw who it was, they all turned back to whatever they'd been doing. Shawn was Ian's roommate and everyone knew that even though the New Yorker wasn't even staying in the room anymore, he was protective of Adams, and wouldn't appreciate anyone watching them.

Ian gave Shawn a slight smile. He had planned on stopping by the dorm room and seeing if Shawn and River were there, and this saved him the trouble of tracking them down if they hadn't been around.

"What's going on, Adams?"

The question had simply been Ian's rare attempt at small talk, but when he asked, Shawn decided that he might as well let someone know about his own uneasiness at River going off to visit with some guy he didn't know. Ian was a good choice for that, because Ian was easily as suspicious of the people around him as Shawn was. More, even.

"Funny you should ask…"

"Yeah? What do you mean?"

"Well… I'm kind of worried about River…"

"Yeah? Why? Did he make the moves on the wrong guy's girlfriend?"

Shawn smiled.

"Probably. But that's not what I'm talking about."

"What do you mean, then?"

Shawn shrugged.

"I'm probably making more out of this than it is, but River left to go meet some guy who said he was friends with his dad – something about passing on a gift or something for him."

"And you don't think he is?"

"He said he didn't know the guy – bit I didn't know all of my dad's friends, either…"

It was clear to Ian, though, that Shawn was a bit concerned – and after the events of the day before, Ian was already suspicious as well.

"Did he say where they were going to meet?"

"A coffee shop downtown," Shawn said, relieved that Ian hadn't made some sarcastic comment about him worrying over nothing.

"There's a lot of coffee shops downtown, Shawn…"

"I know. That's all he told me, though."

Ian was quiet for a moment, and Shawn wondered if he was going to brush him off anyways, even though the older cadet seemed just as uncertain as he felt.

"Well… you have the rest of the day free, don't you?" Ian asked.

Shawn nodded.

"Then how about I buy you a cup of coffee…? Someplace… oh, I don't know… downtown…?"

Shawn smiled and nodded, relieved.

"Sounds great."

"Go check out. I'll meet you in the parking lot as soon as I drop off my homework."

OOOOOOOO

"What do you want?" Kinsey asked, watching Nate warily as the retired general watched the door close behind the last of the Secret Service agents. As soon as the latch clicked, Nate turned to the Vice President, his eyes so cold that Kinsey felt his stomach clench in fear.

"I want to know what the fuck you're trying to pull, Kinsey."

Confusion warred with the fear in Kinsey's expression.

"What are you talking about?"

Nate scowled – a truly fearsome sight, especially when Kinsey already felt like he was going to lose control of his bowels.

"Don't play dumb with me, you slimy bastard. I know about the men who came looking for my son, and I'm not happy about it. You're not that smart, but I figured even you wouldn't pull anything after the last-"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Kinsey's voice had reached several octaves higher than normal as he realized Brooks was angry about something he hadn't done – and if he hadn't done it, then there was no way he could talk his way out of it, saying it was a misunderstanding or something. "I haven't gone near your son!"

Jesus, the last person in the world he'd ever go near was that fucking kid!

"Your men have," Nate repeated.

"What men?"

"John Smith."

Nate was an excellent judge of character, and well trained in reading people – and he was beginning to believe that Kinsey was telling the truth – that he didn't have a clue what his men were doing. However, that didn't take him off the hook, because as far as Nate was concerned; what the subordinates did, the commanding officer was responsible for – and there was no doubt who Smith worked for.

"I don't know any John Smith."

Now Nate knew he was lying, and he lost what little control he'd regained. His hand shot out and grabbed Kinsey's thousand dollar suit by the front, jerking him forward, and then pushing him back, effectively shaking him without even needing to come around the table.

"Don't lie to me you Sonofabitch!"

Kinsey's eyes widened, and his face paled even further. How did Brooks know about Smith? What else did he know about? Was he in on the SGC's secrets? He was a friend of O'Neill's; after all… maybe the bastard had shared intel with Brooks – even though he damned well wasn't supposed to!

"I don't-"

Brooks reached for the cane that Kinsey had hold of, tearing it out of the suddenly clammy hand and pulling it back. Kinsey cringed backwards.

"Fine! I know Smith! But I didn't send him after your son! I swear!"

"I don't believe you, you piece of-"

"I didn't!"

He did believe him, but he wasn't ready to admit that just yet.

"Who did, then?"

"I don't know!"

"You'd better find out, Kinsey," Nathan said, tossing the cane aside with a clatter. "Because I'm not happy with the idea of anyone connected with you being anywhere near my son – and you'd better believe I have no problem with the idea of taking that out on you. I want to know who did it – and I want to know what they wanted, and if you don't find out, I'll tear this whole fucking city apart finding out on my own – and I don't care where the pieces fall – or who gets crushed."

Meaning that Kinsey would be the first to go down – even if he was the Vice President. There was no doubt that Brooks meant it – and Kinsey knew he'd do it, too. Brooks had easily as much political clout as he did, and more importantly, he had a lot of friends in high-level positions – mainly military positions, but that was all it took. After all, hadn't it been the Legions that had taken down several of the Roman emperors?

"I'll find out," Kinsey promised, his voice cracking. The fear he was feeling was also beginning to give way to a certain amount of anger, because Kinsey didn't like being afraid, and he was going to make sure whoever was responsible for this was going to pay. And pay dearly.

Nathan stared at him a moment longer, and then reached in his jacket. For a brief moment, Kinsey was terrified he'd pull out a gun or something, but all he pulled out was a pen. Taking a napkin, he wrote a number on it and pushed it over to the place in front of the Vice President's plate.

"This is my cell number. You find out, and then you call me. Until I hear otherwise, you're responsible for this – and don't bother trying to hide from me."

Before Kinsey could do more than just stare at the number, Nate turned on his heel and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. He had a few people he needed to go see, and that would give Kinsey time to make whatever phone calls he had to make.