CHAPTER NINE

The walls suddenly shook. Samantha Carter had been sleeping next to Teal'c on the floor of their cell when it happened. Instantly awake and instantly recognizing the sound, she was on her feet and looking around before the rumble died away completely.

Someone had hit the compound with explosives. And they were close.

She didn't care who it was. She only hoped they would give her some chance for escape. A small spark of hope ignited in her chest. Maybe she could get everyone out, somehow.

Provided Daniel was still alive…

XXX

The hallways and passages of the prison were a maze, and O'Neill and Reynolds were soon disoriented and confused about where to go to properly search the premises. They had just taken a right hand turn down a long, straight corridor when a voice rang out that would have stopped Jack O'Neill dead anywhere in the universe.

"SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Carter." Jack mumbled under his breath at first, not trusting his ears. Then he opened his mouth fully and let loose a tortured question that would have woken the dead. "CARTER!?!"

"Turn around, sir! Down here!"

Reynolds and Jack about faced and headed in the opposite direction. About 30 yards down the hall, they found Carter, beat to hell but standing and able to run, locked in a small solid walled cell. The only access to the room was a tiny window in the top half of the door. Somehow, she had seen them through it and called out for help.

Jack's voice ground out an order. "Carter, get back-we're blowing the door!"

Reynolds made short work of the door with another C-4 brick, and Jack ran into the cell like a man possessed. Carter was covering Teal'c with her body in the back of the cell. Dust and small pieces of shrapnel rained from the air like confetti.

Jack was instantly kneeling beside his friends, and shaking his former 2IC. "Carter! You ok?"

Sam looked up, slightly disoriented, and answered shakily. "I'll be fine, sir. Teal'c, though…no symbiote…Tretonin…?"

Jack grinned slightly and started digging in his pockets. "Got just the thing."

O'Neill produced a pen syringe and immediately jabbed it into the thigh of his muscular friend.

Carter was grateful, but knew this wasn't so simple. It never was. "Sir, we don't have time for that to work well enough for him to walk out of here."

Jack looked annoyed at her statement of the obvious. "I know, Carter!" Then he addressed the empty doorway behind him. "REYNOLDS! Get in here!"

Colonel Reynolds stepped inside the cell from his post outside the door and looked at Jack expectantly.

"Sir?"

"Take T and Carter. Get them out of here. Get Burke on your way out if you can."

To his credit, Reynolds didn't waste time arguing. He merely nodded to Jack and addressed Carter. "Colonel, let's go."

As Sam started to leave, Jack's arm reached out and stopped her. "Carter, where's Daniel?"

"Down the hall, I don't know how far…interrogation room. Sir…it might not be good…he's bad off, sir…I don't know if…" Her voice trailed off, but no more words were needed anyway. Jack knew the score. He swallowed rising bile and let go of Carter's wrist.

"Well, I'm gonna go find out…you ok to get out of here?" There was a tiny hint of something more than concern in Jack's voice, and his hand briefly reached out again to touch Sam's arm as he spoke.

Carter's eyes snapped up to meet the General's then, and what O'Neill saw brought a quick smile to his lips. The blue orbs were filled with relief at seeing him and getting a fighting chance to get out of there mixed with complete understanding of why he had to go now and leave her to the fates. When Carter spoke, her voice was hard as steel, and her eyes seemed to turn to ice. "Yes, sir. Go get Daniel, sir. Bring him home."

"Damn right, Carter. Now get the hell out of here. Go."

Nothing else was said. Reynolds supported a very groggy Jaffa and half drug him out into the hall while Carter took his weapon and began leading the way out and covering them.

O'Neill headed the other way. Toward his friend. If Daniel was dead, Jack knew he wasn't leaving this place. He would take out as many of these bastards as he could, and then die trying to take more. He would make them pay for this, even if he died trying. He was tired of losing his friends, and decided this would be the last time, no matter what.