The silence in the room was almost deafening. So intense that the soft beeping of the cardio-monitor was almost thunderous, even. After a moment of stunned silence, Jack frowned, and then gestured to Fraiser, who nodded and headed for the door, double-checking to make sure no one was there. Then she locked it, and came back over to the bed. It wasn't the most secure place to ask questions, but these were important ones, and couldn't wait.

"Where did you hear about the Stargate, River?" Jack asked.

Still examining his naked hands, River shrugged.

"Morgan told me."

"Morgan?"

"The guy that grabbed me." He shook his head. "Actually, Morgan didn't grab me; two of the other guys did – Smith and Pleasant."

Since Jack had been told that none of the men that had been in the suburban had been carrying identification and were refusing to talk, this was news that he needed – if the names they'd given were real ones.

"Which one shot Shawn?"

River looked from his hands over to Jack.

"Shawn? What about Shawn? He wasn't there. He's at school." The Californian sighed. "He wasn't all that sure about me going off to talk to this guy, but I told him it'd be okay – we'd be in public and all that. Looks like he knew what he was talking about… Like that one time when we were in La Jolla over Spring Break and Shawn said-"

"River."

Jack knew the kid wasn't really at one hundred percent, but he didn't have the time – or the patience – to allow him to get too distracted.

"Yeah?"

"What did this Morgan guy tell you?"

"About what?"

"About the Stargate."

Janet was impressed that O'Neill was being as patient as he was, and she appreciated it, because it wasn't River's fault he couldn't focus all that well on what was going on around him.

"That the Stargates are all over the place – on all kinds of planets – and people can go through them, instantaneously, and end up on another planet. There's all sorts of aliens out there that no one here has ever heard of, and some are allies and some are enemies, but they all have technology that could be useful to us – but they won't share it."

Jack frowned.

"Did he say how he knew this?"

"We didn't get that far… he was still telling me about the SGC when all of the sudden one of them comes in yelling that they needed to get going, and all hell broke loose. They grabbed me, and forced me into the car, and…" he trailed off for a minute. "I might have heard a gunshot – at first I thought it was a car backfiring. Shawn was shot, you say? Is he alright?"

"He's fine," Janet assured him.

"Did this Morgan guy tell you if he was working for anyone?" Jack asked. "What organization it was? Anything like that?"

River shook his head, frowning as if it were suddenly aching.

"I don't think so, Colonel… but he might have…"

"Which guy is Morgan?"

River described Morgan and the others as well as he could, but Janet could tell that his attention was really wandering, and she caught Jack's eye.

"He's really doped up, sir. I'm not sure how much of that is reliable…"

Jack shook his head.

"He knows way too much, doc. We can't let them keep him here."

"I can have him transferred to the SGC immediately. He's stable enough to be moved. And we'd probably better get a military guard on his door…"

"Yeah." Jack looked back at River, who had turned once more to his hands, clenching them and then unclenching them. "River?"

The Californian looked up at him with a slightly annoyed look – as if nothing were more important than what he'd been doing.

"Yeah?"

"Pay close attention to this, okay? I don't want you telling anyone else about what Morgan told you. Do you understand?"

"Why not?"

Janet interrupted.

"Because it's a secret, River."

"It's not a very good one…"

"Just keep quiet about it," Jack said. "Until I can figure out what the hell to do about it."

Actually, he wasn't going to have to figure it out at all, but he wasn't looking forward to telling Hammond about it – and he knew Hammond wouldn't look forward to telling those that he answered to – namely the President – that someone outside the military seemed to have far more information about the SGC than they should. Good information, too, if what little River had told them was any indication of things.

"Okay."

"You stay with him until I get a guard for him, doc," Jack said. "I'll make sure it's understood that none of the doctors or staff try to talk to him without the guard with them."

"Yes, sir."

"Admiral something or the other…" River suddenly said, looking up from his hands.

"What?"

"Morgan mentioned an admiral… I'm sure it was an admiral…"

"Which admiral?"

"I'm not sure… Flower, maybe… Apricot? … it was some kind of botany thing… I think…"

Jack scowled, but didn't throttle River like he felt like doing. He just counted to ten. And then counted again, watching and waiting. But River finally shook his head.

"I'm not sure…"

Bah.

Jack sighed.

"I'll go get that guard. You try to sober him up a bit."

River smiled at Fraiser, blissfully unaware of how annoyed Jack was with him, and as Jack headed for the door he heard River speak up once more – obviously talking to Fraiser.

"Did I tell you I'm naked?"

At least he hoped he was talking to Fraiser.

Jack shut the door behind him, and headed for the elevator, shaking his head.