General Hammond didn't look as happy as he had sounded ten minutes ago when he first called Sam and the others to the briefing room. Still, they waited quietly as the General finished with his phone call in his office. Sgt. Walter Davis came rushing in and handed Hammond a piece of paper. The General nodded, dismissing the Sergeant.
After hanging up the phone he glanced at the paper then headed out into the briefing room. His voice somber as usual when delivering the not so pleasant news.
"Apparently, someone has a hold of Jacob's credit card and has been using it," he explained as they all took their seats with him. "I thought we had him but when I got the second call, saying his card was used again…I'm sorry."
"Where was his card used, Sir?" Sam asked. She had to ask.
"Osaka," he replied handing her the piece of paper.
"As in Osaka, Japan?" Colonel O'Neill asked.
"That is correct."
Sam concentrated on the piece of paper while the others talked. Her Japanese was rusty. Very rusty! Of course the last time she had used it was when she had finished kindergarten. Dad made her and Mark go to a Japanese school because their standards for teaching were much higher and stricter than any American school at the time. Boy, was that one big adjustment she had to make coming to school in the states. However, the study habits she learned in Japan stayed with her throughout her schooling and even to this day.
Looking at the listing she could conclude that a kid must have been using the card because of the locations it was used. A video game arcade store. Some kind of fast food sushi restaurant. A clothing store. A bank…a bank?
"Sir!" she shouted out interrupting them. "Sorry, Sirs. The first transaction was a bank. He took out almost seven hundred dollars."
The Colonel's eyebrows shot up.
"Did he get a raise? I haven't even gotten my review this year."
"General, Sir…that would be more than enough for my father to make his way anywhere in Japan," she said, ignoring the Colonel's comments.
"We can't be certain it's him, Major," General Hammond countered. "For all we know, the people that abducted him are using his card to throw us off the trail."
"It was an ATM, they'd have a video camera," she quickly pointed out. "If we got a copy of the recording during the time of this transaction we can at least confirm if it was my father or not."
"They're emailing me a copy," Daniel said.
"I know it was my father," Sam reiterated. "He would be thinking the same thing…that he might be tracked if he used his credit card."
"And if some kid got hold of it, then they'd lead Jacob's captors on a wild goose chase leaving him and Janet to make a getaway," the Colonel added.
"But if all that's true. Where would they go? We wouldn't even know where to start looking for them," Daniel pointed out.
"Jacob would head towards Okinawa," General Hammond smiled.
"Right, the Kadena Air Base. He was stationed there when I was little. Took the entire family with him."
"Carter, you were a little Geisha girl?" the Colonel questioned barely able to hide his smirk.
"Actually, Sir…I was more like Dad's little Samurai. Mark and I, decked out in our Kimonos and playing with wooden swords," Sam smiled. "We used to drive Mom crazy. Even killed a few of her Banzai plants in the garden!"
"First things first, let's see if it was Jacob who took money from the ATM machine," Hammond ordered.
An hour later, Sam and the guys were on a plane to Okinawa. And Sam was faced with a dilemma: how was she going to deal with the fact that Dad…as Colonel O'Neill so blatantly put it…had the hots for Janet? Sam was getting comfortable with the idea of Dad having a relationship. She just wasn't sure how she was going to react to seeing Dad with Janet.