31: Herald
It was afternoon in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The 'Prime Seasons' Hotel was a ten floor silver-grey, glass fronted building across the street from a small public park. A narrow, paved road came off of the main street and went up to the hotel entrance, before turning back around and connecting to the main road again, serving as a drive-in for visitors to bring their vehicles so the attending valets could take their bags and park the cars in the underground, secure garage. An American flag hung over the hotel entrance, fluttering about in the breeze. It was joined by another flagpole, upon which the Pennsylvania state flag flew.
Daniel sat in the hired car across the street, looking to the hotel and wondering just how they would approach this. McKay sat in the backseat, following his gaze, whilst Teal'c kept an eye on their surroundings. Daniel supposed getting in should be fairly easy, as they did have a pass-card for the presidential suite. He had to assume that the top floor, with its obvious penthouse stylings, must have been home to that particular suite. Getting up there might be tricky, as security here was not likely to simply let them in without some form of check-in. And Daniel did not feel like registering his presence here on any system, not when they were so close to a potential breakthrough. Sure, there was a chance that they would find nothing in that room, that maybe the people who had been staying there had left already. Or simply that the people they had killed at the motel back in Maryland had been those who had been staying here, and Daniel and his companions were simply tracing them back to their origin. This could be another dead end, or so that was the most disappointing scenario that came to mind. The worst case would be that their enemies were up there waiting for them, and Daniel would walk right into their grasps.
"We need a plan," Daniel said. Teal'c, seated in the driver's seat next to him, turned his head. His expression was firm, telling little of what he truly thought.
"What did you have in mind, Daniel Jackson?"
"We need to get into that suite. Thing is, I don't think they'll let us just walk in." Daniel opened the door at his side then, climbing out into the cool afternoon air. Teal'c followed suit, joining him on the sidewalk. It was McKay who hesitated a moment, uncertainty playing across his features before he finally emerged from the vehicle. He left his laptop inside, having stuffed it under the passenger seat. Ahead, the hotel stood stalwart, little taller than the surrounding apartment blocks and dwarfed by the nearby office buildings in the 'Cultural District'. Daniel had never been in Pittsburgh before, so there was some novelty to his surroundings, even if his mind was more on the task at hand and less upon sightseeing.
"We'll see what the go is inside," he said, and he started across the street. McKay followed, looking a little flustered.
"Daniel, are you sure this is a good idea?" He asked him. "I mean, they could be expecting us. We just killed three hitmen and we're heading straight for their hotel room. Doesn't that seem like a bad idea?"
"Yes, it does." Daniel supposed he may as well be honest. Behind them, Teal'c followed a few steps after, ever vigilant as his eyes scanned their surrounds for any sign of trouble. "But it's the only lead we have. We go in that suite, we poke around a bit and see what we can find out. I mean, we're obviously onto something, otherwise we wouldn't have been almost killed by a bunch of assassins, right?" He offered McKay a wry smile, not that this did anything to reassure the man. If anything, it did the opposite, and McKay's eyes widened noticeably. Still, he followed, doing his best to compose himself lest any passers-by notice how perturbed he was.
They walked by the small garden at the front of the hotel, before crossing the narrow paved road and coming to the entrance. A carpeted lobby was through the automatic doors ahead, with a pair of important looking businessman types walking out as Daniel and his companions entered. There was a security guard by a metal detector over to the far left of the lobby, where the main corridor started. A reception desk was straight ahead, although Daniel did not go there immediately. Both Teal'c and McKay hung back for the time being as he went for the corridor, only for the guard there to hold up a hand. He was a broad-shouldered forty-something African-American man, and he motioned for the reception desk.
"You'll have to check in, sir."
Daniel pulled out the presidential suite keycard, holding it up for him to see.
"My friend and I need to get back to our rooms," he said, and he allowed the guard to take the keycard from him. He gave it a cursory examination, little more than mild curiosity displaying on his face. Nothing suspicious, just procedure. He then looked to McKay and Teal'c, likely attempting to search his memories for any previous sightings of them or of Daniel. Of course, a security guard here would work on shifts, and he would not have necessarily been present when those who rented the suite arrived.
"Look, we're on important business. I need some paperwork I left up there. Time is money, you know?" Daniel had never considered himself a great liar. Still, this piece of improvisation, delivered with the best 'irritated businessman' tone he could come up with, seemed to convince the security guard. He handed back the keycard, before stepping aside to allow Daniel through. Going on into the corridor meant passing through the metal detector, which was not a problem. Not for him, anyway. It was Teal'c who carried a gun, and the Jaffa had this in mind as he met Daniel's gaze and gave a slight, apologetic nod.
"I will wait outside for your return," he said. Teal'c could stay outside, no point having him set off an alarm with the gun he was packing. Daniel returned his nod, before Teal'c turned around and headed back outside. McKay joined Daniel by the security checkpoint, and the pair casually strolled on through the detector and headed into the corridor beyond. They entered one of the elevators further down, and inside Daniel took an extended look at the control pad in order to determine which one was actually the location of the presidential suite. He figured it to be the top, so he tapped the button for there and the elevator doors slid shut.
"What do you think we'll find up there?" McKay asked him, as the elevator started moving. "Because I think this is a big waste of time."
"You would rather wait for more people to find you and try to kill you?" Daniel countered. McKay had no answer to this, of course. They both knew that they were simply pursuing what leads they had, no matter how slim.
"If you give me more time with Holt's data, I might be able to find something," McKay said. He did not sound too confident on this, but it was probably his preferred option. Better than gallivanting around the country and getting chased by anonymous gunmen. Daniel could see why McKay had chosen to live in the wilderness like a hermit. Still, hiding from your problems was not going to get rid of them.
"Rodney, don't you want to find out what's really going on?"
"Of course I do, Daniel." McKay frowned in annoyance. It had been a stupid question, perhaps. Still, with McKay one could not be too sure of how enthusiastic he was on the matter at hand. "But I don't know about this. I feel like we're walking straight into some kind of hornet's nest."
"So, we'll kick it over and stir them up."
"Yeah, then they'll swarm us and sting us to death. Are you really sure about this?" The elevator stopped as McKay asked this last part, a loud ding sounding throughout the elevator to indicate their arrival. The doors slid open onto a carpeted corridor, with sunlight streaming in through windows at either end. There appeared to be only two rooms up here, both large suites. Daniel pulled out the keycard, eyeing the number printed upon it: 10A. That put their intended destination to the left, and so Daniel strode out of the elevator and headed for the door down that end. McKay hurried after him, having been partway into voicing, once again, his uncertainty as to this course of action.
Between two potted ferns sat the entrance into the presidential suite, a set of painted white double doors with brass handles. The lock in the middle was secured by a keypad, and Daniel slid the keycard through it, a green light blinking on in response and an audible click sounding as the lock disengaged. Daniel pushed open one of the doors, revealing the lavish but strangely darkened room beyond. It was practically a penthouse up here, with a broad living space with lush carpet underfoot, expensive furniture placed all around and a kitchen with a minibar at the right-hand side. On the left was another pair of doors, likely opening onto a bedroom. Ahead, the automated shutters were down over the row of windows that would have normally looked out upon a large balcony area, complete with swimming pool. With the shutters down, the inside of the suite was unnaturally dark, given the broad daylight outside. Only some scattered slivers of light slipped in through the gaps between shutters and through the doorway at Daniel's back.
Daniel stepped inside, his first thought going to finding a way of bringing some light in. McKay followed him, pulling the door closed behind them in order to give the pair some added privacy. They were essentially breaking in, after all. No use risking some curious hotel staffer from poking their head into the open penthouse suite during the break-in.
"Doesn't look like anyone's been here," McKay commented. He paused by the coffee table in the middle of the living area.
"You said there was word of a meeting in Holt's emails?" Daniel stopped at the controls for the shutters at a wall nearby. He examined the display, noticing that the device itself appeared to be offline. He pressed a few of the buttons, but nothing happened. The control pad was dead and he could not determine why. Had there been a power outage? Or had someone intentionally ensured that the light was kept out of the room? No doubt for enhanced privacy, he supposed.
"Yes, but I couldn't find anything about where it was supposed to happen." McKay wandered over to the double doors at their left-hand side, past the kitchen and minibar. He tried the handles, finding the doors to be unlocked. He did not walk inside, not right away. Instead, he turned back to Daniel, eyes narrowing.
"You think it was going to happen here?" McKay asked him. Daniel saw the worry on his features, the realisation that maybe they had walked into the right place, albeit at the wrong time. There was certainly no meeting in progress; had there been, security would have been a lot tighter.
"It crossed my mind," Daniel said.
"Now what?"
"We could wait, stake the place out. See who else shows up." That could have been a dead-end also.
Daniel, dissatisfied with the non-functional control panel, instead went for the light switch instead. McKay, at the same time, pushed open the doors and stepped into the next room. It was a large bedroom space, the bed itself king size, its sheets immaculately pressed and arranged. Again, there was no natural light inside, the shutters being down over the windows here as well.
Daniel was about to hit the light switch when the doors of the bedroom slammed shut. The noise caught his attention right away, and he went racing over to them, heartrate having jumped into something rapid at the sudden, abrupt change in atmosphere. Indeed, he could feel something 'off' about this place, something that suggested all was not as it seemed. It was an instinctual feeling, a 'gut instinct' that he could not place accurately, but nonetheless it told him something was wrong. And the feeling only intensified further when he tried the handles on the doors, finding them locked shut. McKay was behind there, stuck inside and faced with God-only-knew-what.
Daniel thumped on the doors. One never had an axe around when they needed it.
"Rodney! Rodney, open the doors!"
McKay had not closed the doors. That had happened on its own, or at least someone had closed them somehow, perhaps remotely, he could not be certain. Doors did not simply close on their own, after all. He was a scientist, a believer in cause and effect, and in this instance he was convinced that someone had locked him in here with the flick of some unseen button, the use of some remote they perhaps had clutched in one hand. Nonetheless, he was stuck inside, and he found this out very quickly when he attempted to pull the doors open from his side. They did not give, locked tight as they were.
The room retained its unnatural darkness, the windows blocked over by the automated shutters. Even then, he was almost convinced that there was something in here that was seemingly sapping the light out of the room on its own, yet even he knew that was crazy. Perhaps not as crazy as some of the things he had experienced during his time on Atlantis, but still, what could be here that had such a capability? This was a hotel suite, not an Ancient laboratory.
It was at that point McKay realised he was not alone in the room. There was something else in here with him, he sensed it before he saw it. Sensed it in the way his own instincts told him that all was not right within this room, that something was situated just beyond the reach of his own vision, shrouded in the unnatural darkness that pervaded this place. It became apparent when he heard the voice, a low gravelly tone that seemed to resonate within his mind as much as it did his ears. A suggestion of telepathy, to some minor degree, or at least this was what he theorised in the midst of his rapidly mounting terror.
"You are far from home, Doctor McKay." It was a masculine voice, and McKay thought he saw movement in the far corner of the room. A cloaked figure, tall and broad, two pinpoints of red light becoming apparent at where its head was vaguely silhouetted. Eyes, he realised. Glowing, piercing eyes.
He could hear Daniel thumping on the other side of the door. McKay backed up against it, his heart pounding in his ears, a cold fear coursing through him that, instead of the usual panic he might have fallen into, only froze him in place. And yet, he could not shake the feeling that it was not all genuine. That somehow, what he was experiencing was being forced upon him by this being, whoever or whatever it was. Like some kind of insectoid predator paralysing its prey before moving in, except instead of a bite or sting, this being was using some basic form of telepathy. He was reminded of how the Wraith, over in the Pegasus galaxy, had been able to create hallucinations ('wraiths') to confuse their prey and drive fear into them. A trick that had worn thin very early on, for once someone knew it was a mere trick, then the fear quickly disappeared. Was that what he was experiencing now? The scientist part of him certainly seemed to think that maybe this was an illusion, supported by some kind of telepathy. Even so, McKay was terrified regardless of how legitimate the reasons for that terror were. It was a feeling he had felt once before, when he had last been at Atlantis, right before his life had been turned upside-down and he had lost everything.
That feeling, that sensation of mounting dread only heightened when the being walked towards him, revealing more of its cloaked form.
"I know the look of someone who has seen into the abyss," the creature said. McKay caught sight of its face, its skin a dark blue-grey in colour, its features generally humanoid if somewhat bestial, an aspect brought on by its slitted nostrils and the pair of visibly curved horns sprouting from its forehead. A 'demon', in the most literal sense of the word. What was it doing here, in a hotel suite in Pittsburgh? McKay realised that they had been right to come here, as they had unwittingly found one of those responsible for the grand conspiracy Daniel believed was in play. There was to be a meeting here, a meeting with this very creature. Daniel and McKay had simply arrived several hours early.
"I can see it on you, emanating from you like an aura. It leaves its mark on everyone who opens that door, who peers through that gateway. And sometimes, Doctor McKay, the abyss looks right back at you." The creature lunged for him then, one clawed hand going around his throat. It pinned him hard against the door, lifting him off of his feet with ease, leaving them dangling above the floor by several inches. This put McKay's own eyes level with those of the creature, and he saw it give a malicious smile as it regarded the increasingly fearful physicist contained in its grasp.
"You dabbled in affairs well above your station, doctor," the creature declared. "You came here searching for answers. I am not entirely sure if you're deserving of them." It paused a moment, tilting its head slightly. "Are you deserving of them, Doctor McKay? Tell me, give me your honest answer. Are you sure you can handle the truth?"
McKay could not answer, not with the creature's grasp so tight around his throat. Daniel was still pounding upon the door, he could feel it rattling against him with each kick he delivered against its other side. The hinges were starting to give way under the assault, ever so slightly. Even less so, now that McKay's own bulk was pinned against it, further absorbing the blows. To Daniel's credit, he kept them coming, no matter how sore and tired his middle-aged body began to feel.
"My master was cast out, plunged into the abyss and left to rot for many millions of years. When the universe was young, he was there, forced to endure a solitude that no others have ever experienced. When he broke free, those who had cast him aside did not even attempt to place him back within that prison. You see, your God has left you, abandoned you to your fate. He could not bring himself to destroy the fallen one, and now He no longer cares enough to stop him. Soon, all of God's creation will be subverted and corrupted. Know this before you die, Rodney McKay. Know that everything you know, your entire world and all that it represents, will be torn down and reduced to ashes so that something else, something greater, can be borne from it."
"What…" McKay was beginning to become light-headed. He struggled to breathe under the powerful grasp. The creature's words rattled him, but so many of them slipped away amongst the growing haze brought on by his diminishing conscious state.
Suddenly, the door upon which McKay was not pinned sprang open, the hinges giving way with the lock tearing a chunk out of the neighbouring door. Daniel was on the other side, and as soon as the door came away the creature released McKay, leaving him to drop to the floor coughing and sputtering in an attempt to regain his breath. The creature set its sights upon Daniel, red eyes narrowing. Daniel took a step back in shock when he saw it, his previous relief at having forced the door open evaporating suddenly when he laid eyes upon the creature. A Herald, like the one they had seen on Sanctuary months before. Perhaps even the same one, he could not be certain. What he was certain of was that this creature was bad news. With this in mind, he took a few steps back, bumping up against a table inside the living area. The Herald stormed after him, striding towards him with pure intent, red eyes blazing.
Daniel picked up the first item his hands fell upon, which was a lamp. He threw it, sending it bouncing off of the Herald's chest. The creature paused and raised one hand, and Daniel threw himself to the ground as a thick, razor-tipped spike darted out from its wrist. The spike, about three inches in length, embedded itself in the couch close to Daniel's head. Without a weapon of his own, Daniel was not sure just what he could do to stop this thing.
He need not have worried, as McKay came barrelling out of the bedroom with a yell, his face contorted in a look of anger and ferocity, the kind that Daniel had never seen on the physicist before. He tackled the burly Herald, taking him down like a football player, sending the Herald into the glass coffee table ahead of him. The whole thing shattered under the impact, with the Herald emitting a startled grunt as he slammed into the thick glass. McKay tumbled off of him, swept aside by a sudden movement from under its cloak, as if the creature had a set of extra appendages there. Wings, Daniel realised. The damn thing had a pair of wings.
Daniel rose to his feet and once again grabbed the nearest implement he could find. This was one of the short, brass legs of the shattered coffee table. He slammed it down upon the Herald's back as hard as he could, gritting his teeth, feeling the blunt object hit firm flesh underneath. The creature grunted again, and suddenly one leg swept out from under it and knocked into Daniel's own. He tumbled, falling backwards over the top of the nearest sofa.
Daniel scrambled along the floor, hurrying for the far end where the windows had been shuttered. They had been shuttered over for a reason, and so he quickly rose to his feet before one of them, finding the manual release latch on its side. With a flick, the shutter began to rise, rolling back upon itself at its housing over the window. Sunlight spilled into the room, blasting inside like a searchlight beam. The Herald, now on his feet, squinted in the harsh light, his sensitive eyes overloaded by the brilliance of the afternoon sun. He let out an aggravated yell, taking a few steps back, headed for the hotel suite exit.
That was until the doors flung open themselves, forced with a single powerful kick. Standing in the middle of them was Teal'c, silhouetted against the light coming in from the corridor like some kind of avenging angel. He had his pistol in his hands, raised and aimed, his finger hitting the trigger as soon as his line of fire was set. The weapon was loud within the confines of the hotel room, the gunshots like thunder, each one sending forth a bullet that cut into the Herald's stumbling shape. Again and again Teal'c fired, marching forwards as he did so, and the Herald twitched and faltered with each impact. Even so, the rounds did not stop him, and under the unrelenting assault he turned around, swept off his cloak and dived for the unshuttered window. It shattered around him, hundreds of shards spilling into the hotel room and balcony on the other side.
Teal'c, having emptied the entire magazine, paused halfway into the hotel suite. He watched with an increasingly startled frown as the Herald bolted past the swimming pool outside, fleshy wings spreading behind him, eyes closed against the harsh light of the sun. The wings flapped, catching the wind, and the Herald threw himself over the balcony railing, falling from view.
Daniel joined Teal'c at the shattered window, a cool breeze billowing in from outside. The Herald suddenly appeared, rising over the balcony, gliding through the air and heading further northwards, no doubt seeking out another dark place to hide. Teal'c ran outside, stopping at the railing to watch the Herald's diminishing shape disappear into the distance, no doubt causing some confusion for any onlookers down on street level. Even so, the whole thing would be written off as any number of cover stories, from abnormally large bird to mass hallucination.
Daniel helped McKay back to his feet inside the living room, both men still trying to catch their breath after their latest ordeal. They went outside to join Teal'c at the edge of the penthouse balcony, the Herald having disappeared altogether. Teal'c's usually stoic features were now set in a grave expression, for this was his first time running into a 'Herald', or so Aithris referred to them. John had encountered one on Sanctuary and Jonas had seen one on Langara; now there was one on Earth, which spelled all manner of trouble.
"Thanks, T." Once again, the veteran Jaffa warrior had come through for them. Daniel did not know just how many times Teal'c had saved his life over the years. Not once had the Jaffa ever asked for anything in return. "How did you get past security?"
"I found a rear entrance," Teal'c said. He turned to Daniel, his face still grim. "I thought you may need some assistance."
"Well, again, thanks." He glanced at McKay, who was still a little wide-eyed and frantic after their latest experience. "We should leave, before security shows up."
Teal'c lead them back the way he had come, which put them down a staff elevator and by the main kitchen on the ground floor. With the police having arrived minutes before, the trio were able to slip out quietly through a rear entrance, emerging into a quiet alleyway and loading area at the back of the hotel. Any security guards or staff who might have interfered with their escape were distracted by the police presence, and the few personnel the group passed by hardly offered them a second glance.
Once outside, McKay turned to the others, his neck visibly bruised from his run-in with the Herald. They were partway down the alley when he stopped, causing Daniel and Teal'c to do the same.
"We can't leave yet," he said.
Daniel cocked an eyebrow.
"Ah, why not?"
"Because we haven't got another lead," McKay explained. "What we have is this, this hotel, that creature up there. We leave, and we leave with nothing."
"But there was nothing else up there…"
"What about Holt? If he's involved with that thing, then he'll come here to check it out. Him or his lackeys."
Daniel saw what McKay was getting at, even if it was a risk. They could stay here, stake the place out, wait until the police presence reduced and things calmed down. And then, maybe then (and it was a big 'maybe'), Conrad Holt would make his presence known. Him or any one of his associates. Of course, they would have a hard time picking his human associates out of a crowd. Holt they would recognize, McKay in particular; his lackeys could be anyone and they could be anywhere, which made trusting anyone outside of their little group a risky move. McKay did have a point, though; if they left now, they would leave with nothing. No leads, no directions to go on, nothing more than the memory of a somewhat disturbing encounter involving what was, by all appearances, a winged 'demon'.
"You think we should stay?" Daniel asked McKay. Standing in the lane between the hotel and the neighbouring office building, he suddenly felt vulnerable and exposed. Not a good feeling to have, after a run-in with the devil or something of the kind. It seemed crazy, to even consider what they had encountered to be a 'demon': that was just a colourful name, a term derived from mythology for the sake of convenience. What they had seen was simply an alien species they had rarely encountered before, one with low-level telepathic abilities and a means of flight. Even 'flight' was perhaps too strong a term, for no creature that size would be capable of flying with wings like that; 'gliding' was perhaps the more fitting term. Like a hand-glider riding air currents, that Herald was bound by the laws of physics like anyone else. And then there was its sensitivity to light, something Daniel figured could be exploited if they ever met it again. He had a feeling they would, sooner or later.
"We stay, we see who comes by." McKay's plan was risky, but no more risky than anything else they had done so far. Daniel looked to Teal'c, who simply gave him a nod. He was on board with it, and Daniel honestly could not think of anything else they could do, short of returning to the SGC with McKay in tow. And he did not wish to return to the SGC without some solid evidence. If they could get hold of Holt, then that was all the evidence they would ever need.
"It's just as likely no one shows," Daniel said, if only to be realistic. McKay nodded, willing to acquiesce that point.
"And if no one shows, then we'll have to leave. But give it a night, maybe until tomorrow morning." He paused briefly, eyes narrowing somewhat. "Maybe that was what we should have done in the first place? Poking our noses in just seems to lead to trouble."
"It's the best way of finding what you're after."
"It's also the best way to get your head shot off," McKay countered. "When I agreed to come along, I didn't think I'd run into…" He trailed off, still reeling from his close encounter with the Herald. "Well, whatever that thing was."
"A Herald," Daniel explained. McKay cocked a brow at the term. "It's a name a friend of mine gave it. If one's here on Earth, then it means things are worse than I thought." Indeed, that meant that these 'Void Demons' had a foothold here on Earth, with their Herald presumably in league with some powerful people. All the more reason to get to the bottom of what was going on. "All right, Rodney, we'll stay here a while. Maybe Holt himself will come by?" Somehow, Daniel doubted it. Still, he was not about to rule out anything, especially after what had just happened. If they had run into a Herald, then it stood to reason that they were more likely to run into Conrad Holt.
