Part five – Poison

The employees of O'Malley's did indeed remember the trio of troublemakers, and almost refused to let them in. Even Teal'c vouching for their behavior didn't totally convince the manager, until Daniel decided to look as regretful as possible and ended up looking devastatingly like a kicked puppy. The manager finally allowed them in, but restricted them from the pool table area. No exceptions.

"How do you do that?" Jack asked in amazement after they'd been seated.

"Do what?" Daniel inquired innocently.

"That!" Jack stabbed a finger in his direction. "The begging puppy face that none can resist."

Daniel smiled faintly, opening his menu. "Just a little talent I picked up in foster care," he admitted, avoiding eye contact. "It's come in handy on quite a few occasions."

Sam laughed gently. "I never realized just how manipulative you can be."

Jack snorted. "I pegged him as a cunning little bastard the day he lied to General West and told him he could definitely locate our return address during our first little trip."

"As I recall, you told West, and I quote, 'He's full of shit'," Daniel added helpfully. "But I did do what I promised. Eventually."

The conversation swiftly shifted to planning pizza night at Jack's house for next week as the waitress approached to get their drink orders. While the others decided on their beverages, Daniel's attention was drawn to a familiar scent amongst the seething mass of smells in the room.

Teal'c noticed his distraction immediately, but said nothing until the waitress moved off. "What is it, DanielJackson?"

"Remember that scent I caught during the reactor incident?" he said simply, subtly scanning the room with all his senses.

They grasped his meaning right away. "What, he's here?" Jack asked in disbelief. "What, is he stalking us or something?"

"Can you tell where it's coming from?" Sam interrupted.

Daniel shook his head. "No. It's very faint; I can barely smell it. Give me a minute." He focused his senses even further, almost totally tuning out his teammates in an attempt to locate the source of the scent. It seemed strongest in the general direction of where the waitress was retrieving their drinks, but the source seemed to have moved on already.

"Whoever it was, they're gone now," he reported regretfully, turning back to the other three. Yet a sixth sense was screaming danger at him, and he had to keep a lid on his uneasiness as their drinks were delivered. The scent appeared to have strengthened again...

Realization struck right before Sam was about to take a sip of diet Coke. "Don't!" he exclaimed.

Fortunately, Sam was well-trained enough to obey immediately. "What is it?" she asked instead, putting her glass on the table.

Daniel swiftly pulled it towards himself and sniffed at it. "Yeah, this is what I thought," he said grimly. "No one drink anything."

"Daniel, what is it?" Jack demanded, recognizing the deadly certainty on his friend's face.

"Our little saboteur has poisoned all our beverages," Daniel explained in a low voice, checking the other drinks as well. Each one reeked of sickly-sweet poison and death. "If any of you had taken so much as a sip, you'd have been dead before morning. He must've slipped it in when the waitress was preparing them."

Teal'c's expression became murderous. "This coward attempts to slay his enemies in dishonorable ways. He must be stopped at once."

"Make our excuses," Daniel told Jack as he stood up. "I'm going to try and track him while the trail is still fresh." He hurried out the door, closely followed by Sam.

Away from the seated customers, the scent became much clearer. Now he could make out what was so strange about the smell – under the scent of human male was the aroma of sand, gunpowder, and grease. He relayed this analysis to Sam as they moved down the street. "Probably NID, I'd guess," Daniel said angrily.

"Not again," Sam groaned. "Have they no concept of subtlety?"

"Apparently," Daniel concurred, picking up the pace a little. The trail was getting stronger, and he nearly ran past the spot where it suddenly disappeared. "Shit!" he exclaimed, doubling back. "I lost it."

Sam swore under her breath, coming to a stop and watching Daniel circle like a bloodhound. "Probably got away in a vehicle," she suggested.

"Likely," Daniel agreed, pointing at a space between two parked cars. "The trail ends here, and there's a fresh, lingering smell of gasoline fumes. It goes up the street a bit and then it's mingled with traffic too much to track." He glared at the semi-busy street. "The bastard got away again."

Needless to say, Hammond was furious when he heard what had happened at the restaurant. "This has gone on long enough!" he declared. "I want this saboteur found and arrested."

"How, sir?" Sam asked. "Whoever it is works fast, and Daniel hasn't been able to successfully track them."

"A trap," Daniel suggested. "What's the one place on base that won't look suspicious if all personnel are required to report to it?"

"The base infirmary," Teal'c said.

Daniel nodded. "We could say that Janet wants to make sure no one else was exposed to the werewolf virus through me, and order all personnel to report in for testing. I can hide out in the infirmary and try to identify the culprit."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "That actually might work."

Hammond nodded. "I'll inform Doctor Frasier immediately."

With as many people as there were in the base, the "testing" took quite some time. Daniel hid out in Janet's office for hours, using the slight cross-breeze from the ventilation system to test and discard personnel. It was very slow and tedious.

Another quartet of SFs. A quick sniff. Nope.

"How many left?" he asked quietly as Janet passed through the office.

She gave him a sympathetic look. "About fifty more on-duty personnel," she told him. "Still no sign of the saboteur?"

Daniel shook his head. "I don't even know if he's on base," he admitted. "Might've left altogether when the-"

Janet immediately noted his alerted state. "What is it?"

He got up and moved closer to the door. "He's here," Daniel said in a low voice, memorizing the scent-path moving across the room. Janet exited to keep up the façade and he used her departure to cover him peering around the door. His senses homed in on an unassuming technician that he wasn't very familiar with. That's our guy, he confirmed. Leaning out a little further, he caught sight of the name patch. Dominic Sumner. Wonder if that's even his real name.

It was rather unfortunate timing that Sumner happened to look up in that instant, eyes locking onto Daniel before he could duck back behind the doorway. He knew he'd been caught.

Sumner waited until the nurse was finished drawing his blood, then nonchalantly headed towards the exit. "We're not done yet, airman," the nurse informed him, but he ignored her.

If he gets out of the infirmary, he's going to find a way off base, Daniel realized. Moving quickly, he moved in between the saboteur and his escape route. "That's far enough," he declared, drawing on every ounce of authority he'd become accustomed to wielding.

Sumner's eyes widened, and he drew a hidden sidearm from his jumpsuit pocket, swinging it up to aim at Daniel's forehead. "Werewolf!" he spat venomously, and pulled the trigger.

End part five.