12.

Daniel glared at the house, although it really wasn't the house's fault it had taken Teal'c and he so long to locate the place. And it shouldn't have taken so long. There were 350 residents in Bluff, for heaven's sake. But that also meant … no signs whatsoever. Anywhere.

OK, it wasn't the house's fault. He stared at the structure. It was actually a classic - completely made of stone, although its roof was dilapidated from years of neglect. It must have been built during the early days of the Mormon settlement around the late 1880s.

He turned away and glanced at the San Juan River in front of the house, gradually making its way down to Glen Canyon. Amazing the house had stood the test of time along those waters before they'd been … civilized… by the dam down river. Even now, the river was running full speed. The San Juan was a quarter mile, probably more, across, and steadily headed on its downward path, though now regulated.

He tried to image what it must have been like when settlers had started homes here and then were predictably drowned out by the surges. It must have been tough.

At least the town was appropriately named. The high ridge of rock he could see across the river, the bluff, was stunning; reds, orange, gold, browns with desert varnish coloring the sandstone. He wished Sam were here to tell him what he was seeing, time wise. There were at least 10 strata, maybe more, of rock, each a story. As an archaeologist, he "knew rocks", of course, but he wasn't a geologist, and didn't have Sam's comprehensive understanding of geologic formations. And he'd never really worked in this part of the world. Most of his time had been in the Middle East, specifically Egypt.

"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c closed the jeep's side door and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Teal'c. Sorry. Just looking at the view."

"It is most impressive. Glen Canyon must have been similar, although on a much larger scale, before it was dammed."

"Yeah. I guess. We should… " He gestured towards the house.

"I agree. It is preferable that whatever information Dr. Saunders is able to supply is revealed as soon as possible."

Daniel turned and knocked on the front door. It was wood, carefully preserved, an anomaly from the red stone of the building. The ground-level entrance of the house was covered by a wood overhang providing shade for a chair set on one side.

No answer. He knocked again. And waited.

The door finally opened and a short, grizzled man in his 60s looked out at him. He was stooped and sun burnt, but with the energy of a man thirty years old and a look in his eyes that made Daniel take a step back.

Daniel was suddenly glad Teal'c was there.

"Jackson."

Daniel stared at Saunders, surprised. "I'm sorry, but I don't remember. Have we met?"

"Of course not. But I figured you'd eventually end up here." He glanced at Teal'c. "Who's your friend?"

"This is … Murray."

Teal'c said nothing, but acknowledged Saunders greeting with a bow.

Saunders turned and gestured them in.

Daniel scrutinized the room. By anyone else's standards, it was a mess. But from an archeologist's eye, it was amazing. Saunders was carefully documenting shards, pots, and timelines, as Sam would say, from the Anasazi. It was a museum, a monument, carefully organized and preserved.

"I – oh… wow."

Saunders grinned. "I thought you'd like it. I've been wondering when you'd show."

He gestured to Daniel and Teal'c to sit on the small space available away from his exhibit. "Rumor has it that you were meticulous in your research until you went over the edge."

Daniel sat. "Was I supposed to … show?"

Saunders looked up from the shards he was fitting into a case. He shrugged and finally commented, "All the crazy ones do eventually. I thought you'd show up earlier, though, right after your insane statement about aliens using the pyramids for landing sites nearly five years ago.

"Crazy, by the way. They would never do that."

Daniel stared at the man, totally confused. "They… wouldn't."

Saunders walked away from the shards, and sat next to Daniel. "Of course not. Don't need space ships if you've got teleportation devices."

"Uhuh." Daniel wondered vaguely what Thor would think about that comment, and then decided that if Saunders was unhinged, he wasn't far behind.

Saunders stared at him. "You really are nuts. That was a joke." He paused. "Look, I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell every wacko that ends up here. There are no aliens. I tried a publicity stunt and it cost me my career. End of story, except that if you think aliens are real, I'd recommend some counseling and Prozac."

Daniel lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes, trying to absorb the comment. "So, nothing was true in what you described."

"Of course not."

"The film was a fake." Daniel rubbed his eyes again, and then lowered his glasses, still trying to absorb the conversation.

"Yeah, I think you're finally getting the picture." Saunders grinned at the pun.

Teal'c broke in. "Is there a copy of this fake available?"

"Why do you want to know?"

Daniel broke in. "No reason in particular. Just interested."

Saunders stared at him suspiciously. "Don't have any copies. Burned the original. So, if there's nothing else, maybe you and… Murray could head on your way." He started to get up.

Daniel put his hand on the man's arm, keeping him still. "Rumor has it that yours was a class act. We wanted to see and hear it from the source. I'm sorry to waste your time."

At that, Saunders subsided. "It's gone, Jackson. I got rid of it all. But I see your point. Your 'crazed interpretations' didn't make nearly the press that mine did." Saunders turned away, grinning. "None the less, I've deleted all files that I can find." He turned back. "Once you've made the point, it's better that way."

Daniel interrupted, honestly confused. "Why did you do it? You must have known that you'd be discovered - you'd lose your position, credibility. Everything." He looked around him, saddened by the lack of resources and yet clear expertise in the meticulous displays Saunders had created.

Saunders stared at him knowingly. "Why did you?"

"Excuse me?"

"You proposed an insane theory by anyone's standards. Why did you do it?" He continued before Daniel could say anything. "You're not the serious nuts type that usually shows up here; they're normally out of here in thirty seconds, so it must have been for the publicity as well."

"No, I -"

"Look, Jackson, just get to the point. If you want help with the black market, I can't do it. We're in completely different fields."

"The black market?"

Saunders stared at him like he was an idiot. "What *have* you been doing for the last five years?"

Daniel finally got the point. "So, you set up the publicity stunt knowing it would put your name out there as a disgraced expert on southwestern antiquities and then … capitalized on that." He looked around the room again. The poor state of repairs couldn't be ignored.

Saunders grinned. "You should see the place in Bali. This is window dressing." Saunders shifted his position, looking out the literal window and then back again, staring at Daniel knowingly. "You must be doing pretty well yourself." He glanced at Teal'c, "bodyguard and all. But you do tend to scope out dangerous territory so I guess that's understandable."

Daniel picked up the conversation, surreal as it was. "Yeah, I'm doing fine."

"Did you get the idea from me?" Saunders smiled at the thought.

Daniel went along for the ride. "Of course. That's why I came. I wanted to thank you for the idea of promoting oneself by promoting the insane idea of aliens- one scholar to another. I can't publish an acknowledgement, of course, so I thought in person was appropriate. And we've done well by it." He looked to Teal'c, whose expression was impassive.

Saunders smiled. "You're welcome." He shifted again, clearly thinking of something else and then stood. "So, a pleasure, I'm sure. Thanks for coming."

As a dismissal, it was clear.

"Daniel Jackson." Teal'c stayed seated.

"Yeah, I got it."

Daniel sighed. "Actually, I'm here for another reason as well. I hope it might be lucrative for us both."

Saunders stayed standing, but looked interested. "Really. What? I can't imagine anything that would involve my field and yours."

Daniel cleared his throat. "Yes, that would be strange. But could you listen to this for a moment and see if you can understand it?"

He glanced at Teal'c. "We found in it … well… no need to know, as they say. But it sounded like a derivative of Hopi to me, and I'm curious. And as you are the world's expert, " he grinned at Saunders, "although discredited, of course, I'd like to hear your opinion."

Saunders stared at him. "I can do that." He gestured to the one open table, and they set up the player.

Saunders went through the tape five times, listening to Hoffman's interpretation. "Sorry, but I can't help you. It's not Hopi."

"I thought it might be a derivative."

Saunders looked up. "If it is, I can't decipher it with this verbal translation someone's given you. It's too raw. " He paused. "You found this in the Middle East?"

Daniel shrugged, hoping that was enough answer.

Saunders stared out the window, listening to the tape yet again. "Well, not Hopi. That' s all I can tell you." He stood up, clearly prepared to throw his visitors out for the final time.

Daniel acknowledged the refusal and walked to the door, taking the tape. "Thanks for your time. I had hoped it might be advantageous for us both."

Saunders stared him down. "Not that I can see. Good bye."

He closed the door in Daniel's face. Daniel turned to Teal'c. "Well, that was interesting."

"O'Neill and General Hammond will not be pleased that there were no 'lack of disclosure' documents signed prior to your releasing the tapes."

Daniel grimaced. "Yeah, but…"

"There is no but, Daniel Jackson."

"It's try, Teal'c. 'There is no try'."

Teal'c just stared him down.

He sighed, annoyed that anyone had ever introduced Teal'c to Star Wars. Who had? Oh yeah, that had been him.

"It wasn't the right time. I just didn't think that letting him know the US government was interested was a good idea."

"And so you have released classified information to an individual who we know little about and can who use this information in whatever way he chooses without penalty."

Daniel finally glanced at Teal'c. "You didn't buy his act either."

"I did not."

Daniel sighed. "Yeah. He knows something. Worst case is that he translated the tape, knows what was said and plans to do something about it. Medium case is he translated but didn't know what to do with it and decided to play dumb. Best case is - I can't think of a any."

"Nor can I."

Daniel rallied. "It's possible he doesn't know anything and is just a dirt bag taking advantage of the current black market for antiquities, which is disgusting, but at least not dangerous. He could have just decided to not tell us what he'd deciphered because he didn't want to risk that."

"His illegal selling habits appear at this time to have little to do with our mission. His possible understanding of the translation of the film does."

Daniel grimaced, no longer enjoying the view.

"What do you propose next?" Teal'c looked at him, waiting.

Daniel got in the jeep and started it up. "Jack will want damage control. We need to get to the SGC and get the film translated immediately."

"This will result in Major Carter and O'Neill heading to the next site without our support and Major Carter is injured."

Teal'c looked as annoyed as Daniel had ever seen him.

Daniel sighed. "Okay, it was a bad idea to come here."

Teal'c stared at him, saying nothing.

He sighed. "And it was not the best move on my part to give him the tape without the disclosures signed. But I don't think just signing something would have stopped him from doing anything he wanted, and if he isn't going to act on the data, it won't matter anyway."

He thought it through. "What's done is done. I know Sam and Jack are headed out to Butler Wash, but my gut says that this story is in this transmission. We need to decipher it. It's the only other lead we have. And we need to let Jack and Sam know why it's urgent."

"The urgency is due to your interaction with your colleague."

He sighed. "Yeah. I'm sorry, Teal'c. I didn't expect this. I'll contact Jack. He's not going to be happy about this."

"Annoyance would be an appropriate reaction. He also will not agree to your proposal to return to the SGC and a change in mission plan."

Daniel grimaced. "OK, so we're agreed."

"That is accurate, Daniel Jackson."

"I'm going to go anyway."

Teal'c stared him down.

Daniel swallowed. "Are you coming with me or not?"

"I do not believe I have a choice in this matter. There is only one vehicle and O'Neill has ordered that I remain with you."

Teal'c got in the jeep, ignoring him. Daniel sighed. Okay, Teal'c was annoyed and Jack was going to be pissed. Great day. Just great. Maybe if he could decipher the message quickly they'd get over it sooner rather than later. At least Sam would understand.