Chapter 7
Jack O'Neill came into his office around three am, after leaving only a few hours earlier. Too worried about Daniel to sleep he had not only been able to lean on those blocking his attempts to get permission to fly into the DOD facility's air space, but he'd been able to collect dossiers on half a dozen fringe agents who had not only the access, but the inclination to try something like this. He'd also managed to track a couple of different attempts they'd made to do the same thing, but it had back-fired. The scrutiny those documents got before reaching the level necessary had stopped them in their tracks. Then there was Daniel and the fact that everything he did was so classified that only a few people were even cleared to know he existed. Jack's computer pinged at him.
"Who is going to E-mail me at this hour?" he grumbled turning to the monitor and clicking on the message. The message was short and to the point.
Beam me up Scotty! 0455.
Jack checked his watch and grabbed his phone.
Sam jerked herself awake at the sound of her cell phone chirping near her ear.
"Carter," she croaked into the speaker. She sat up from where she'd fallen asleep at the computer in the Sheriff's office.
"He's done it again Carter," said Jack.
"You've heard from Daniel?" asked Sam.
"Sent me an email on my secure server, he wants us to beam him up."
"Apollo?" asked Sam looking around keenly aware that the others were listening in.
"Just coming into orbit, we haven't been able to pick up his signal."
"I managed to get a look at their main facility's security specs," said Sam, "They have an EM barrier over the whole building."
"EM barrier?"
"Disrupts electrical signals, sir."
"Daniel's going to bring it down at 0455. We'll be ready to get him then."
"What about Dr Epps?"
"He's at that facility somewhere," said Jack, "I'll beam you down a couple of squads you can do a search room by room if you have to."
"That's what the security teams have been doing to find Daniel, but they haven't found either of them."
"We both know that if Daniel doesn't want to be found he won't be," said Jack, "He's obviously got the run of the place or he wouldn't have been able to send me this message without risk of being found."
"Security inside the building is pretty lacks," said Sam, "we figured out he stole an ID early on."
"So why aren't you tracking his access?"
"Poor guy was in the shower at the time, Daniel soaked his clothes and by the time he was found, Daniel had already switched the ID for someone else's. After tracking after six different people we figured it was impossible to know whose badge he has now."
"Doesn't matter now," said Jack, "we'll have him as soon as we're sure this EM thing isn't going to mess up the beaming signal."
"The Apollo sensors aren't the problem sir," said Sam, "it's the subcutaneous transmitter, it's susceptible to the same things all home grown technology is."
"Yeah, Teal'c told me something similar, the Asgard sensors will pick up the life signs of everyone in the building, but the EM thingy must be blocking Daniel's signal."
"Exactly sir."
"Well Carter, it looks like Daniel's saved himself again, and if he's gotten enough access into this place's records that he can drop their security net, he might have some idea where they're keeping Dr Epps," Sam looked over at Don dozing fitfully on the cot in the Sheriff's cell. He'd only just gone to rest having sat up most of the night going over the security videos with Sam, the Sheriff and his deputy.
"I hope so, sir," she said, "I don't think Agent Epps will accept anything less."
"Another hour and we'll know. I'll have Daniel call you when we get him."
"Thank you sir," Sam sighed tiredly.
"Get some rest Colonel, you sound beat."
"Have you slept since we found out?" asked Sam.
"I'll sleep when I see him safe," said Jack.
"So will I sir."
"Goodnight, Carter."
"'Night, sir," She hung up the phone the beginning of a smile on her lips.
"Good news?" asked Don, sitting up.
"We expect to pick up Daniel in about an hour."
"You found him?" cried Don walking over to her, "That's great, where?"
"Actually, he found us. He sent a message to our commanding officer, to let us know a time and a place where he can be picked up."
"Did he say anything about Charlie?"
"No, I'm sorry, but I have a couple of teams on the way, we'll tear the place a part if we have to, but we'll find him."
Fargo's fingers flew across the keyboard as Allison paced behind him her cell pressed to her ear.
"I've got Fargo checking the system for breeches and I'm sending you the feeds from all the external exits in the last four hours," she said into the phone and placed it on the speaker box.
"Anything yet?" asked Carter on the other end of the line.
"I've found some breadcrumbs and I'm following them now," said Fargo, "I thought you said this guy was an archeologist," he said tying in a few commands.
"He is and to get that much I had to resort to public record," Carter's voice came out of the speaker.
"Public record?" asked Allison.
"I googled him," said Carter.
"Did it say he's an archeologist who's a computer genius on the side?" asked Fargo.
"No mostly it said he was a genius linguist who lost it and some nonsense about aliens."
"Well he's in the wrong field, whoever he is, he's hacked our system but good," said Fargo, "It's going to take me some time to track the source."
Daniel sat next to Charlie at 4:50 as the Mathematician finished inputting the commands that would drop the EM barrier long enough for them to find his transmitter and beam them out. He hoped that the Apollo had gotten back from their test flight and that Jack was still getting all his E-mail forwarded to his phone. Charlie finished typing and hit the enter key.
"Done," he said, "the barrier's down, but for how long I don't know, are you sure your friends can get their chopper or whatever through in time?"
"If Jack got my message in time," Daniel sighed, "Why don't we get you ready?" He stood and helped Charlie out of the bed to stand facing him their arms braced between them.
There was a knock on the door, to their storage room.
"This is security! We know you're in there come out and you won't be harmed."
"They found us!" cried Charlie.
Ahh my little chillblanes have you enjoyed this adventure? I hope so! More to come I promise :D Later Cynic.