Chapter Two
Rodney was bored rigid. The meeting that had been arranged between himself and the eastern region grain master had not been his idea of a fun evening out and as he now sat in the man's office he could feel the blood flushing to his face and he inwardly cursed Sheppard's name.
The association of Grain traders had agreed to trade with Atlantis, but the regions were overseen by three completely individual masters, and each wanted to broker their own separate deal.
The eastern region was controlled by Gaven Syler, a full figured man with four small children, the eldest of which had delighted in playing a game of 'lets aggravate the visitor', before his father had suggested that they walk through to the back office to discuss the details of the trade agreement in more detail and in peace.
Rodney pretty much loathed children generally, but children who persisted in poking his leg for attention as he sat talking 'grain futures' were asking for trouble.
The child had looked so innocently at his father as he had been caught running his wooden train into Rodney's leg, but after a stern reprimand, he had merely stuck out his tongue at the scientist before retreating to the other side of the room with his siblings to play by the hearth.
Rodney had almost been at the end of his tether when his com had hissed for his attention. He had excused himself from the office and walked through the back door, finding himself outside the back door in the rear alley to the property.
His com now hissed again, but as he responded to the hail, he couldn't quite make out the words,
'R..ny …..h..rts!... tr..ble..' Rodney recognised Sheppard's voice, but the static hiss meant that he caught only a very small part of the transmission. Rodney pressed his com to answer,
"Sheppard! Is that you?" Rodney waited briefly after his own attempt to respond, but there was no further response, the infuriating static his only reply. He didn't like what he had caught from the brief message, and he was even more worried by the lack of any further contact. Pressing his own com link again, he waited until he heard Teyla's voice before speaking.
"Teyla, have you heard from Sheppard?!"
"Rodney, I have just received a broken transmission from the Colonel, I believe that he needs our help. He mentioned that he had been hit, I'm not sure what he meant, but he said that he was located at the 'docks?'." Her voice held the worry that Rodney was starting to feel himself, "I think we should meet at the lower section of the main thoroughfare in the town and make our way to the river side area, I am concerned that Colonel Sheppard is injured Rodney, he sounded…wrong"
"I know, I didn't catch very much of what he said, he kept breaking up, but from what I did hear I'm pretty sure that he's got himself into trouble again."
"Ronon and I will meet you where the street splits in two Rodney, near the tavern, I believe we need to hurry!"
"Right, I'll see you there in…five minutes, McKay out." Rodney turned back towards the office door, his head spinning with the sudden turn of events.
"What have you gotten yourself into this time Sheppard, can you never stay out of trouble", he muttered quietly to himself as the door opened under his push and he made his way back into the office and the waiting Syler.
Syler seemed surprised as Rodney reappeared through the back door looking worried and Rodney's admission that one of his team seemed to be in some sort of trouble peeked his interest even further.
"But what has happened Dr McKay!" He had risen from his seat as Rodney had re entered the room and now stood by the fire, "has there been an accident!"
"No, no, I'm sure its nothing. We just need to check that's all, just to be sure." Rodney felt unsure about trusting the man; after all, they actually knew very little about the people of this world.
Their initial contact had been made through one of the Athosian traders. He had informed them that they may be able to negotiate a trade agreement for the supply of grain with the inhabitants, but had admitted that he hadn't had much trade contact with the people himself. The initial contact had proven to be encouraging and from that, a formal meet and greet had been arranged, with Elizabeth tagging along to begin the official negotiations.As the regional grain masters were spread through the town, it had been agreed that the team should split and deal with them individually, especially as the basics of the deal had already been formalised by Elizabeth, so essentially all they would be doing was wrapping things up.It had been agreed that Sheppard would meet the representative from the central region, Rodney would take the eastern sector and Teyla, with Ronon tagging along, would meet with the western master. They hadn't trusted Ronon to negotiate on his own as he had a tendency to resort to 'stronger' methods to secure the deal of his choice, with very mixed results.
Rodney now mumbled a quick apology as he left the confines of the warm office, heading out into the cool night air and down the street in the direction of the tavern that they had agreed would be their starting point.
He felt strangely unnerved by the brief message that had come through his com. If Sheppard was in trouble, what had happened and why had the message been so short? His mind was starting to spin out all sorts of scenarios and he had to remind himself that Sheppard had probably just gotten involved in a tussle over a woman's honour and was probably suffering a sore head and nursing a bruised pride.
Rodney snorted with disgust as a scrawny cat ran across his path, carrying an unidentifiable lump in its mouth.
"Now that's just disgusting!"
Rodney side stepped the creature and continued down the slope towards the glowing lights of the nearing alehouse. Teyla was waiting for him as he rounded the side wall of the building with Ronon leaning against the wall lazily spinning his blaster in his fingers, to all intents and purposes looking bored out of his skull, but Rodney knew the look that he carried only too well and the tension was evident in Ronon's lowered eyes.
"Teyla, have you heard anything else; has he contacted you again?" Rodney could see that Teyla was worried as well. As she shook her head, he could see his own concern mirrored in her face.
"No Rodney, nothing more. I am now worried for his safety"
"He's tough, we'll just go find him that's all." Ronon looked at their surprised expressions, then continued "Where do we start McKay, did you bring the life signs scanner?"
"What, Oh, Yes, yes.." he pulled the LSD from his vest pocket and activated the screen, "OK, we've got plenty of hits, we just need to narrow the field down a bit." As he fiddled with the small screen, they began to make their way down the street towards the dockside area of the town.
"Where was he meeting Makill tonight, wasn't it near the docks anyway?" Ronon looked at the other two as they made their way down the side street that led towards Makill's office. The central grain master was the most influential of the three officers and held sway over the largest of the regions and as such had been flattered that his meeting had been arranged with the commanding officer of the visiting group.
"Sheppard did say earlier that Makill had mentioned his proximity to the docks. Apparently he chose the location to be nearer to his transport barges." Rodney tapped on the screen again, desperate to narrow their search.
"Well he could have chosen a slightly sweeter smelling place to work!" Ronon wrinkled his nose as the smell of the stale water drifted up from the direction of the riverside. Teyla looked over at the Satedan and smiled briefly at his grimace, but as her eyes focused back towards the street in front of her, she stopped suddenly. Backing up slightly she walked over to the opposite side of the street and stared at the wall in shock.
"Ronon, here!" She pointed to the mark that she had noticed on the wall, dark red against the grey stone of the building. Ronon touched the stain with outstretched fingers and then rubbed his thumb against the still wet liquid.
"It's blood, we've gotta be close, it's still wet!"
"Close, close to what!" Rodney looked at the blood stain in shock. It smeared along the wall like a bored child's finger painting and then disappeared.
"Ronon, I don't like this." Teyla gave Ronon a worried glance as they ran down the narrow street towards the riverside.
"Here!" Ronon had stopped by the side of one of the warehouses and now knelt on the gravel strewn ground. As Teyla and Rodney came level with him, he pointed to the large congealing pool of blood on the ground and the discarded wooden post also covered with blood stains.
"Somebody fell here," he pointed at a patch of scuffed earth, "there were two of them, and they both went off in that direction." He pointed towards the direction of the river bank. "One of them is loosing a lot of blood and the other is following, there see the tracks in the dirt, one over the other." He pointed out the tracks, but all Rodney could see were the deep red splashes of blood that led away into the mist.
"Who's bleeding? Oh my god if that's Sheppard, I hope we get to him before the other guy, that's.. that's an awful lot of blood."
"We need to hurry! Ronon which direction did they go?" Teyla voice betrayed her concern; the tremor was barely noticeable, but it was there all the same and as Ronon pointed towards the distant town centre, Teyla prayed that they wouldn't be too late.
"I've got two definite signals now!" Rodneys voice quaked, his fear about what had happened clearly apparent, "Oh no, I've just picked up another signal and it's closing fast on the other two!" He looked at his team mates, his eyes wide with concern.
"Ronon, we need to find them, can you follow the tracks?" Teyla waited whilst the Satedan rose up from his crouched position by the blood stained ground.
"It's a clear trail, and it's fresh. Shouldn't cause any problems"
"Then we need to go."
Ronon set the pace in a loping gait as they ran along the dockside in the direction of the busier town streets. Rodney followed holding the LSD up as he ran and Teyla followed, nervous now as she studied the shadows for hidden assailants. Their path took them past several huge grain storage silos; their towering shapes looming ominously in the mist. The area seemed empty of life as they pursued the three blips glowing on the small scanners screen, but it was getting late and most of the inhabitants would be with their families or taking a meal in one of the various taverns that served food to the working population.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! We've got a problem!" Rodney held up his hand and the others slowed down as he stared at the scanner screen, "One of the life signs just disappeared!"