"Ah, found one." Jason parked the stolen SUV several spaces away. "Stay here, kid and don't move." It would have been good if he'd known what his own son's name was, but he figured he could call him Junior. The kid should have been named after him anyway. Too bad the brat looked like his mother.
Jason peered around the parked cars, looking to see if anyone was watching him. Safe. He pulled out the long strip of metal he'd long ago taken from his uncle's locksmith business, and slid it down into the door between the window and metal. Ten seconds! Getting faster at this. Jason opened the door and popped the hood open. Fiddling around for a minute, he started the car. Leaving the car running, he ran back and pulled Connor out of the SUV and strapped him down in the car seat.
"Now you won't be running all over the car, kid." Jason got into the driver's seat and checked the gas gage. Full. "Hey, kid, our luck is holding out."
He left the parking lot and turned south. He had a friend he'd met during one stint in jail who had a place just the other side of the Rio Grande River in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. He pulled back onto Highway 27 and headed out of Amarillo toward San Antonio.
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Jack checked the instruments on the plane's panel and was satisfied that everything was a go for landing. He radioed the control tower in Pensacola and got instructions for landing on runway four. He brought the nose down just a bit and began the landing procedures.
Thirty minutes later, they'd rented a car and were headed for Beth's, Rori's old roommate. She'd married Jason's cousin, Jerry, a few months before and they had just bought a condo on the bay. Rori had called Beth as soon as Janet had let her off base and informed her of what was happening. Beth let her know that the FBI had already contacted them and Jerry had given them what little information he had on Jason.
Jack pulled into the driveway of a small townhouse that faced the water across the street. Rori was out the passenger door before he'd even gotten the key out of the ignition. Daniel dashed after her, knowing that she was already exhausted and still anemic from loss of blood. He caught up to her at the door and grabbed her good elbow just as she began swaying.
Daniel turned her around to face him. "Rori, ten seconds isn't going to make any difference. If you make yourself sick, you'll have to go home. Just wait for Jack and me to help."
Jack leaped up the steps, two at a time, and arrived just as the door opened. A pretty, slightly plump, blond woman opened the door and threw her arms around Rori.
"Oh, god, Rori. I can't even imagine what hell you're going through right now." She wiped the tears from her eyes and led her friend into the kitchen. "Sit. I'll make some coffee and you can tell me exactly what's happened."
While Beth made coffee and placed some fruit and cookies on a serving platter, Rori told Beth everything that had happened in the past 24 hours. Daniel and Jack sat on either side of her, Daniel holding her good hand, and Jack with his arm resting on the back of her chair, occasionally patting her reassuringly.
Beth set four mugs on the table and poured some coffee for each of them. As soon as Rori finished catching Beth up on recent events, she sat down next to Daniel and pulled Rori's hand away from his. "Rori, we'll get him back. You can count on that. I called Jerry as soon as I saw your car pull into the driveway. He should be home in a few minutes and we'll answer any questions you have about Jason."
Beth released her hand and took a good look at her best friend. "No offense, but you look like hell. Should you be out of bed?"
"Probably not," Jack responded, "but she's not going to let that stop her from finding her kid."
All four people turned to the doorway as Jerry entered. He dropped a kiss on his wife's head and grabbed a coffee mug from the mug tree on the counter. Sitting down next to his wife, he introduced himself.
"I'm Jerry Hubbard, Beth's husband." He grinned wickedly at Beth. "That sounds so good – husband."
Jack and Daniel exchanged an amused looked as Daniel introduced himself and Jack. "I'm Daniel Jackson and this is Colonel Jack O'Neill. We work with Rori and we were with her when Jason kidnapped Connor. We're going to help her get him back."
Jack turned to Jerry. "We need to know everything about Jason. Any friends he may have, places he's been, any hunches you might have."
Jerry told them everything he knew about his cousin; Daniel or Jack occasionally interrupted to ask questions. An hour later the group had pretty much exhausted all the information Jerry had.
Jack summarized what they had learned from Jerry. "OK, we know he's spent time in jail several times, so he's met people there we don't know about. Family is pretty much all here in Florida and no one's heard from him. He's never kept a job longer than a few months. He's worked as a mechanic and done some locksmithing – that comes in handy for stealing cars."
"It looks like the next step is to get information about people he met in jail who might be out now. He could go to one of them for refuge." Daniel pulled his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. "Jack, do you know anyone who could get that information for us?"
"Yep. Major Lambert at Cheyenne Mountain. He's the exec officer of the MPs on base. He'll be able to get computer access to jail records all over the country." Jack glanced at his watch. "It's 1630 in Colorado. He should still be there. Jerry, do you remember just which jails and prisons Jason's been in?"
"Only three that I know of, all here in Florida. Here, I'll write them down for you." Jerry walked over to a drawer in the kitchen and pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil. As he began writing, Jack pulled out his cell phone and called SGC for Major Lambert.
Daniel turned to Jerry. "While you're at it, do you have an email address here at your house? Major Lambert could email us what he finds."
Jerry wrote his email address down and handed the list to Jack. Twenty minutes later he checked his email and found the information they'd been waiting for. He printed out the information and handed it to Jack.
Jack and Daniel went through the papers and found that four men had been released who had shared a cell with Jason. Three of the men were in the Pensacola area and one had moved, but his last known address was Laredo, Texas.
Daniel got back on the computer to do a search for Geraldo Munoz. He found four listed in Laredo. As he dug further into the online information, he found that two of them were too young, one was in his fifties – too old – and one was working as a dishwasher in a local bar.
Jack, looking over Daniel's shoulder, turned to Rori. "Looks like our next stop is Texas."
Jerry, arm around his wife's shoulder, suggested the three people stay overnight with them. It was already 1800 hours Texas time and by the time they got flight plans and flew to Laredo, it would be after 2200 hours. Rori was ready to go out the door immediately, but Jack and Daniel accepted Jerry's invitation.
Jack called the airport and made flight arrangements for 0800. By the time they got to Laredo it would be about 0900 Texas time, late enough to be asking questions of strangers.