Chapter four
Don looked from Sam, to the road speeding passed, and back at Sam, her face a pale grim stone.
"Tell me again," he said if only to get the situation clear in his head.
"This place is some kind DOD testing ground, they have a restricted airspace. We can't fly in without permission."
"So? You're the super secret spy person can't you sneak us in?"
"What do you think I'm doing?" snapped Sam.
"I don't know!" cried Don, "You threw us into that dinky little plane of yours and flew us to an even dinkier airstrip and now we're driving in the back woods of beyond, and you won't even tell me where we're going!"
"I don't know where we're going!" cried Sam.
"What!"
"This place is highly classified half the people who know about its existence don't know where it is! That's why they think they can stop us from getting there if they stonewall us about the air-clearance."
"But if you don't know where it is, where are we going?"
"We're going to where the signal came from."
"The signal?"
"I tagged Daniel's file, and I tagged Charlie's file, if anyone accessed them I would get an instant feed from the terminal. I got a hit while we were having coffee."
"I remember," said Don.
"Well, about an hour later they pulled Charlie's file, the combo-hit allowed me to get an approximate location of the main-server terminal on the network."
"Huh," said Don, "With this being such super secret government facility I didn't think it would be that easy to track them."
"That sounds easy to you?" asked Sam laughing.
********
Kevin walked into his mother's office and sat down on the couch, the coffee table in front had a note pad on it he picked it up and started drawing. Allison found her son drawing pyramids and circles.
"What's this Kevin?" she asked picking up the drawing of Daniel wearing glasses and a long robes standing in front of a pyramid.
"Man in the stars," said Kevin.
******
Daniel peeked out into the infirmary and saw that the alarm wasn't for him. Some guards had walked straight passed and hadn't even glanced at any of the beds. He snuck out of the bathroom and down the hall, now wearing the dark blue track suit that Kevin had brought him, and unfortunately, barefoot on the cold concrete floor. Daniel was quickly coming to the conclusion he wasn't getting out of the building in a hurry. This place had tight security the doors were all locked with either a card reader or a thumb scanner. He quickly back traced and went into a locker room he'd spotted earlier. A man was in the showers alone Daniel scanned the clothes lay over the bench and quickly dismissed them as too small, including the shoes, he thought with a grimace, but there was an ID swipe card.
Douglas Fargo, Daniel read, and sighed, he'd have to disappear for a while. Daniel collected up all the clothes and threw them into a vacant shower stall and started the shower. "Sorry, Mr. Fargo," Daniel grimaced as he exited the room swipe card in hand.
*****
Sam and Don drove into town, early in the morning, both were exhausted from the all night drive, and both were irritable that all they'd found so far was this sleepy little hamlet, ironically called "Eureka!" Sam's phone suddenly started beeping itself into a frenzy as the two weary people walked into the local diner, Cafe Diem.
"What is it?" asked Don as they sat down at the counter and he ordered coffee for them both. Sam blinked in disbelief at the read-out on her phone.
"Either a really big glitch," she said double checking her results.
"Or?" asked Don.
"Or, we're in the right place," she said smiling at the portly server behind the counter as he set down two cups of steaming coffee in front of them.
"The right place for what?" he asked smiling back. Sam sipped her coffee.
"Wow! The best cup of coffee I've had in two hundred miles!" she said. The man beamed.
"Well, I'm Vincent; this is my place order anything, on the house."
"That's very kind, of you but,"
"But nothing," said Vincent, "anything you want, I can make it."
"Waffles," said Sam, thinking of Daniel, "blueberry waffles, and maple syrup."
Vincent smiled, "Coming right up, anything for you sir?" he asked Don.
"Waffles, sound great!" said Don, "hold the blueberries though."
"I'll be right back!" said Vincent. He zipped away.
"So what's all the beeping about?" asked Don.
"Power readings," said Sam, in a lower whisper, "This town is a mass of energy in constant flux."
"Isn't everyone?" asked Don.
"Not like this, this is fission energy, and I think it's in this building!" Sam hissed, excited despite her exhaustion.
"So you folks just passing through?" asked Vincent appearing with a two plates of perfectly golden waffles and passing back with a coffee pot of refill their cups.
"These look gorgeous," said Sam breathing in the aroma, as Vincent stood by expectantly. "We're actually looking for someone," she said cutting into the waffles reverently
"I know everyone in town," said Vincent, "Who're you looking for?" Sam pulled out a head shot of Daniel, and Vincent picked it up, "Nice," he said, "Boyfriend?" he glanced at Don.
"We work together," said Sam watching Vincent, eying the photo.
"Jo," he called to a woman at the other side of the counter, she looked up from her coffee and Sam realized she was wearing a law enforcement uniform, Vincent took the picture to Jo, "This that guy from the other day?" he asked. Jo took the picture, stood up, and walked around to Sam and Don.
"Deputy Jo Lupo," she said, and then held up the picture, "You know this guy?" asked Jo.
"He's my friend," said Sam, "he's missing." Jo stared at Sam for a full minute as if trying to decide something; Sam stared back, without flinching. Jo looked away and pulled out a cell phone.
"Carter," she said making Sam frown, "we've got two more for your party," she paused listening, "How'd he manage that?" she snorted, "Typical Fargo, do they have a bead on him? The place is crawling with cameras! What'd you want me to do with the new comers?" She glanced back a Sam, "They seem different to me. Okay, I'll bring them over." She hung up and turned back to the counter, "Vincent can you pack them up to go, we're meeting in the Sheriff's office in ten."
"Can do," said Vincent and pulled out a couple of boxes for the two meals.
"Who are we meeting?" asked Sam.
"This guy's very popular," said Jo.
"Someone else has been asking about him?" asked Sam.
"Not asking, more demanding their right to him."
"I don't understand," said Sam, "They took him."
"And we took him back," said Jo, "I'll explain when we get over there." She gestured them to leave.
"Here," said Vincent, "I packed you up, and I did you both coffees to go."
"Thank you, so much," said Sam, "What do I owe you?"
"On the house," said Vincent, "Just come back for dinner and I'll be happy.
*******
Daniel had to concede the truth-he was lost, he was hopelessly, and utterly lost. This place was a rabbit warren of corridors and tunnels and lab spaces. The more he wandered, the more he saw, and the more he saw, the more he really hoped he was going to find a way out soon! From what he'd seen Daniel thought this place was almost weirder than the SGC! There were robots and clones and animal testing, and human testing and plant testing! There were massive labs filled to the brim with things Daniel didn't even want to know what they were. He shuddered out of one lab and slid his stolen card through the next lock. He seemed to have found a pretty high level security card, there wasn't a door in the place Daniel had been denied access. After seeing some of that stuff Daniel wasn't sure if that was such good thing or not.
Ahh, tis the season for young love and candy hearts and life size Daniel dolls. Aww you guys! I've got virtual chocolate hugs and kisses for anyone who wants 'em! later Cynic.