Thank you to all of you who did review...Please R & R guys. I'm starving out here!
A Tropical Nightmare.
By Lingren.
Previously:
Mrs Mallory let out a loud squawk of laughter and poured the coffee out, she was enjoying this verbal sparring. It had been a long time since she'd had anyone like him around to butt heads with.
Chapter 3
By the time Jack and Sam had returned to the SGC, it was well into the afternoon. They'd had a hard time extricating themselves from Mrs. Mallory's hospitality. She given them lots to think about and now all they had to do was to puzzle out where it would lead them. A couple of officers from welfare had been sent over to talk with Lizzie and Maria. Sam delivered the blood sample to the lab for analysis, and Jack went to see how Teal'c had been getting on. He'd been using the computer in Jack's office for privacy, while he delved into secret files, searching for any clues.
"So what have we got so far?" Jack asked, trying to make sense of the information jostling about in his brain.
"We know that Paul managed to send his family away before these men showed up. They abducted him and took the Naquadah with them, but as yet we don't know where they've taken him; why they've taken him; or how they knew about the Naquadah. They could be anywhere," Sam stated, as she joined them.
"Well, we do know they were Hispanic, and one of them had long black hair tied back in a pony tail..." How could he forget that description? But before he could continue, Sam interrupted him.
"And he had a beard," Sam was quick to point out, giggling.
Jack frowned at her, he just knew she wasn't going to let that one drop any time soon.
Teal'c arched an eyebrow, but thought better about asking what the joke was. Tau'ri humour was still a little strange to him even after all these years of living among them.
Jack buried his head back in the original note and kept reading it through. Now, being brought up like a good Irish Catholic, he thought he knew most of the hundreds of saints that people cried out to for help, but this Santa Christiana, was a new one on him. He frowned, trying to wrack his brain, the name seemed familiar somehow.
"What is puzzling you O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, seeing his wrinkled brow deepen.
"It's this Santa Christiana bit. It seems familiar. I should know this but I can't recall what she was the saint for."
"I also do not know what she was patron saint of, but I did look up the country on a map of your world. It is a small island republic in the Caribbean Sea, and ruled by a President Ramirez. There is much unrest among its people, and some talk of a planned revolution. A Luis Mendoza is reported to be the head of the rebel forces and is said to be planning a spectacular end to the government."
Teal'c punched up the news channel on the computer, where the reports of the growing revolution were clear for all to read. They had a picture of Mendoza and his second in command, Miguel Sanchez. Jack looked up from reading over Teal'c's shoulder, and looked straight at Sam.
"Long dark hair..." he began, allowing Sam to finish his sentence for him.
"Tied back in a ponytail, with a beard."
"I knew I'd heard that Santa Christiana name somewhere," Jack crowed with triumph. "Well done Teal'c. That must be where they've taken Paul. It was a clue. It wasn't a saint he was praying to, it was the place he was being taken to."
"You think that he's going to be forced into making them a Naquadah bomb to blow up their government?" Sam asked incredulously. "That much Naquadah will take out the whole island."
"I know that, but I bet this Luis Mendoza doesn't," Jack stated, "No matter what Paul says, he'll probably be forced into putting that bomb together. They just don't know what they're playing with. We have to stop them, and get the Naquadah and Paul back." Jack ran from the room, Sam hot on his heels with Teal'c trailing behind her, pleased that they had now solved at least part of the mystery. Now the real work could begin, but it was a race against the clock. He knew that hundreds of innocent lives were at stake here, just because of the lust for power of one man and a few of his fanatical followers.
OoOoOoOoO
General Hammond chewed over the news thoughtfully, before he answered the three eager people standing before him.
"Colonel, you know as well as I do, that the US Government cannot interfere in the politics of an Independent country without a formal request. US citizens are not exactly welcome in that country, and at the moment we have no official resident ambassador there to represent us. The diplomatic ties with Santa Christiana were severed some years ago. The President isn't about to sanction a team to go in there with guns blazing just to extricate one of it's own citizens. Dr. Cruz has family on the island and the repercussions could be devastating for them." He stopped to let the implications sink in, and wasn't surprised when Jack protested.
"Sir. We can't leave them to use that Naquadah, or the repercussions will be even greater..."
Hammond held up a hand to silence him.
"Jack, I realise that we need to get Dr. Cruz back and more importantly we do need to retrieve the Naquadah from them before they blow the whole place sky high. The resulting explosion would have devastating effects on the environment around the area, and not just for the island itself. It would cause a Tidal Wave so great that it would wipe out all the neighbouring islands and the cities along the gulf coast too, including Florida."
Jack had been about to point that out to the General, but now he knew that Hammond had already realised exactly what would happen, he kept his tongue.
"So what are we going to do Sir? We can't sit back and ignore the problem or leave the Naquadah in the rebel's hands, let alone Dr. Cruz for that matter. He could talk and blow this whole Stargate secret open to the world," Sam asked, concern for her colleague as well as everyone that would be affected.
"Agreed Jack, that's why you and a team are going in there. BUT... it will have to be a covert operation. No one here must know about it. There would be merry hell to pay if this got back to the Press, that one of our top scientists had been abducted along with a certain amount of a new mineral that has that much potential. I'll make all the arrangements. I can still pull a few strings. I don't want any identifying labels, etc., and let me have your dog tags. We don't want anything to give them a clue as to who you are if anything should go wrong."
"Understood Sir." He and Sam took off their dog tags and handed them over.
Hammond looked up at Teal'c, and really hated what he was about to say.
"I'm sorry Teal'c, but you'll have to sit this one out. We can't risk you getting captured by the rebels or even the Government on Santa Christiana."
Jack reluctantly agreed, if Teal'c should get captured by the rebels, the whole of Stargate Command's secrecy could be blown wide apart, but the mission needed more than two of them.
"Sir...?"
"Take Dr. Jackson, and Ferretti, Morgan and Andrews. I believe those members of SG-2 are in the commissary about now."
"Yes Sir."
"I'll get you to Hurlburt Field AFB, it'll be the nearest base. You'll leave as soon as I can arrange transport.
"Yes Sir," Jack snapped out heartily, saluting his Senior Officer.
"Oh and one more thing. Go careful out there."
"Oh...you know us Sir."
"That's what I'm afraid of Jack. I do know you...too well."
"We'll be back before you know it Sir," Jack grinned, hurrying from the room as soon as the General had dismissed them.
OoOoOoOoO
Dressed from head to toe in unidentifiable black outfits, their faces blackened against the night, the small group sat huddled in the helicopter, eagerly awaiting their drop zone. The Huey's rotor's chopped noisily through the silence of the night as it flew across the open sea to it's secret destination.
A small clearing was designated as their drop zone and they were to rendezvous back there in 7 hours with the missing Doctor and the Naquadah. It was a fair distance from the rebel camp, but it was the nearest available landing site, and far enough away so as not to be heard. There was something to be said for spy satellites after all, having located the camp and the clearing to which they were now heading. The pitch of the blades changed slightly as they hovered over the rainforest, searching for the clearing. As soon as the pilot spotted it he swooped down and landed, wishing them all good luck and reminding them they only had 7 hours of darkness left.
Jack and his covert army synchronised watches, and checked over their weapons. Jack smiled to himself, happy that if they were captured then nobody would be able to identify any of them as US soldiers. Their weapons were all Black Market stuff, bought from a known terrorist sympathiser. Of course he knew the minute any of them opened their mouths, their nationality would be a dead give-away, but that was something they would have to face if and when the time came.
He signalled the little group forwards into the depths of the jungle with all it's hidden dangers, human and otherwise.
The dark forest was alive with the noise of insects and animals, and the hot humid conditions did nothing to aid their progress. The path was thick with fallen trees, and lianas laced across their route, decorating the jungle like giant cobwebs and looking almost as eerie in the moonlight, had they been just that. Jack hacked his way through the undergrowth, sweat was running down his back and pooling inside the waistband of his pants. The others were in just the same condition, even though they weren't helping to clear the pathway. Jack stopped every now and then to wipe the sweat from his brow as it ran in rivulets down his face and neck. He really hated the jungle, especially at night, where the darkness and noises could mask a multitude of dangers.
The once clear night had now given way to a steady tropical downpour, soaking them through, and they welcomed the coolness the initial rain had brought with it. It was only a brief shower and was over with fairly quickly. Now as the heat rose again, the jungle fairly steamed around them. Three hours after they had stepped into the thick green swathe, Jack called a halt with the first glimpse of the camp through the thinning trees.
Jack donned his night vision goggles and studied the camp, creeping forward to get a better vantage point, hopefully without being spotted by the rebels. The camp was arranged with large tents along one side, obviously these were the mess tents and storage areas, Jack surmised. A smattering of smaller tents were lined up at a 90 degree angle from the larger ones and he could see people sleeping in them, these were evidently the troop's quarters. Swinging round to the right, he saw another tent, slightly apart from the others, and the flap was open. A figure tossed and turned on the cot and as it turned towards him, he saw it was Dr. Cruz. He watched the restless figure for a few moments, and realised by the movements Paul was making, that he was tied or perhaps chained to something on the floor. Ropes were easily dealt with, but chains would be a different matter altogether.
Four sentries walked their paths at random, which would make life a little harder, but nothing his team couldn't handle. He watched them for a while longer before making his way back to the others. Jack quickly outlined the plan and the covert group dispersed to implement their rescue.
TBC