Getting Nathan onto the base was easier than usual – even for a retired general. Jack had called Hammond on the way there from the airport, and Hammond had made calls to every checkpoint from the main gate to the lower levels of the SGC. All Nate had to do was show ID while Jack signed him in at the checkpoints, and they were sent on their way with respectful salutes.

"I'm not sure exactly where Ian is…" Jack said, hedging, as they waited for the final elevator.

"Wherever he is, keep him there," Nate told him. "I want to talk with you and George, and I don't want Ian to know what we're discussing."

"Really?"

"You'll understand when we talk."

Jack nodded, and the elevator doors swooshed open, saving him from making a reply.

Hammond was waiting for them when the doors opened again, and Jack headed for a phone as the two generals greeted each other. He dialed the infirmary, and one of the medics answered. A moment later Fraiser was on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Is Ian awake?"

Janet looked over towards the curtained area where she could just see Sam sitting by the bed watching as Jacob and Ian dozed together.

"Not exactly, sir. But he's been responding. I'm pretty sure we could get him awake if we tried, now."

"Let him sleep for now," Jack told her. "But I would like Sam to come listen in on what's happening. Could you pass that message on?"

"Of course."

Jack hung up and called Teal'c and Daniel both to the briefing room as well. The more people that were there, the fewer times he'd have to explain things – and he rarely explained briefings all that well after the fact. Then he hung up and headed back out into the room, arriving just as Hammond was offering Nate a cup of coffee.

"I could use a bite to eat, too, George," Brooks said. "The food on the plane was terrible and I haven't eaten since breakfast."

"We're waiting for the rest of SG-1," Hammond told him. "Let's go get something while we wait, and you can eat while you tell us what's going on."

"Good enough."

Jack sat down at the table; he'd wait for his team, and he knew that Hammond wasn't going to take too long.

OOOOOOOOO

"Colonel O'Neill wants you in the briefing room, Sam."

Sam looked up from watching Jake and Ian sleeping.

"They're back already?"

"I guess so. He said to leave Ian where he was for now, though."

"Really?"

That was odd. Sam had expected Nate to come charging into the infirmary looking for his son immediately upon arrival.

Janet nodded.

"Go ahead, I'll stay and make sure Jake doesn't roll off the bed."

As comfortably cuddled up against Ian's side as he was, it didn't look like it'd be a problem, but Sam was a protective mother, and Janet was a protective doctor, so it worked out well that way.

Sam nodded and stood up, leaving the infirmary with a wave to Shawn, who was eating dinner and had a mouthful of food and couldn't ask her where she was going. Janet checked Ian's monitors, made sure nothing was out of normal ranges, and then took the seat Sam had vacated.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Yesterday, Ian called me," Nate began less than half an hour later. "Asking me if I knew a man named John Smith."

This got Jack's attention immediately, since he knew one of the men at the hospital was named John Smith. Given, it was a common name, but not so common as some might think, and Jack had to assume that the two were the same man.

"Do you?" Jack asked.

Nathan shook his head.

"When I asked him why he wanted to know, he told me that some guys had approached him, telling him that they were friends of mine."

"We know about that," Hammond said.

"How'd you find out?" Nate asked. "Ian?"

"No. We'll explain that in a minute." Hammond didn't know what these men had to do with Nate knowing about the Stargate, but he wanted to find out.

"So I did some checking on my own, to see who might be prowling around Ian – given the events around Thanksgiving last year, you can understand why I'd want to know, I'm sure."

"What did you come up with?" Jack asked.

"Smith works for a guy named Morgan. Morgan works for an admiral named Leaf, and Leaf works for none other than Vice President Robert Kinsey."

"Kinsey?"

Jack scowled.

"Kinsey doesn't have anything to do with it, Jack. He was the first person I went to see, and I came away with Leaf's name, and the assurance that Kinsey doesn't want anything to do with Ian."

"He's a lying snake," Jack said. "Are you sure that you can believe what-"

"This time I can," Nathan said, confidently. "There's no way he was lying. Besides, I verified it."

"How?" Hammond asked.

"I paid Admiral Leaf a visit." Nate leaned back, his gaze going over the entire group in the briefing room. "He wasn't very talkative right away, but I convinced him."

"What did he tell you?" Sam asked.

"Leaf and Kinsey are the frontrunners of a group called the Trust," Nate said. "An offshoot of the NID – which he told me all about – they've been actively trying to steal alien technology from your allies by going through their own Stargate at certain times when its use can be masked from your SGC monitors."

"They have a Stargate?" Sam asked.

"How do you know about the Stargate?" Daniel asked, just as shocked.

"Leaf told me all about it."

"And presumably Kinsey would have told him," Jack said.

"Yeah."

"Where did they get a Stargate?" Hammond asked.

"They have the one from Antarctica."

"That's in Area 51." Sam said.

"Something is," Nate said, shrugging, "But I'll bet it's not a Stargate. Maybe it's a decoy. I don't know. All I know is they stole the Stargate from Area 51, and have been running covert operations of their own through it. They've lost several men, though, and have been trying to actively recruit new blood."

"Which is where Ian comes in…" Sam guessed.

Nate nodded, and now his eyes were cold and angry.

"They were going to promise him a leadership role on one of their teams, playing on the fact that he wouldn't have to wait for promotions from the military if he joined up with them."

"But he wouldn't even talk to them," Sam said.

"Of course not. Ian's not a big fan of the military, I know, but he's not the kind of kid that would ever allow himself to be drawn into a cesspool of rodents like those people." He scowled. "I'm not all that pleased to find out that he's already involved in covert operations here, for that matter – but at least the people he's working with are people I know."

Which said a lot, and they all knew it.

"Leaf told you all about the Stargate program?" Hammond asked.

"Yes."

"That's classified information, Nathan…"

Brooks nodded, but didn't look at all guilty about knowing.

"I didn't give him a lot of choice, George."