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PART TWO
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Washington DC
The phone was ringing. Cassandra closed her eyes and burrowed deeper under her covers.
The phone was ringing.
"Go away!" she muttered, pulling the covers over her head and turning over so that her back was facing the phone.
The phone was still ringing.
A muffled thump banged against the wall, followed by Bek's sleep-muffled voice. "Answer your damn phone, Cass!"
"Maaargghh!" Cass groaned, rolling over in a tangle of sheets to find the offending appliance. "Yeah?" she grunted into the receiver.
"Cass! Why didn't you answer your phone?" her Mom's voice demanded.
"Mom! It's 6am!" she moaned, flopping onto her back.
"I know, Cass, and I'm sorry."
A door slammed somewhere in the apartment, and she heard Bek rattling mugs in the kitchen. Damn, now there wasn't going to be any going back to bed. "What's up?" she asked, staring at the ceiling. It needed another coat of paint, she mused.
"I need you to fly home straight away, Cass."
She frowned. "Mom?"
"I can't talk about it on the phone, sweetie, but-" a squeal from the kitchen cut Janet's voice off, and Cass flew upright in bed.
"Bek?" she called.
"Cass! You have got to see this!"
"Just a minute!" she yelled back, rolling her eyes. "Mom, you still there?"
"Yes, I am. Cass, listen to me, I need you to get home as quickly as possible, okay?"
"Why?" she whispered, suddenly cold in the summer heat.
"There's been a safety breach, honey, and you could be in danger."
"How?" Cass demanded. Her mouth was cotton dry, and she swallowed roughly to try and dislodge the lump suddenly constricting her throat.
"An experimental project working on some specimens brought back by SG-1 a few years ago went wrong. Some specimens got out, and they're lethal, Cass. They multiply faster than you can imagine, and they swarm. There are only a few out there at the moment, but they're spreading."
"Fuck," Cassie whispered.
"Cassandra!" Janet snapped.
"Sorry!" she apologised absently. "I'll… I'll get Bek and book our flights straight away."
"Good. Keep your cell phone on, Cass, and call if you have any problems."
"Okay," Cass nodded, juggling the phone as she tried to pull her night shirt off and dress herself.
"Cass?"
"Yeah, Mom?"
"Don't go near anyone who's been stung, okay?"
"Okay," Cass whispered. The carpet beneath her feet was light, almost cream coloured. Her Mom had been wearing a cream dress when she'd died, the same colour as the carron fields behind their house.
"I love you, sweetheart."
"I love you too," she whispered. The handset slipped neatly onto its cradle when she hung up, and her room was too quiet.
Bek was in the kitchen. "Morning," Cassandra said.
"Have you seen this?" Bek demanded, turning to face Cassie. "This is… Cass… this is unbelievable!" She motioned toward the TV screen.
Cass stared at it blankly; a female reporter was speaking into a microphone, but Cassie ignored her. "We have to get out of here, Bek. Something bad is happening."
"No shit," Bek agreed vehemently, her green eyes wide. "Cass, these things… they're amazing!"
Cassie looked at the TV screen. "My Mom says we have to get out of here. She wants us to fly to Colorado Springs. We're in danger. In very bad danger," she whispered.
Danger. So much danger. Everyone was dying. Mom! Where was her Mom? The sun was shining and the grass was growing, but everyone was dying and her mom was wearing a cotton dress and there was blood on her hands and-
"Cass! Are you okay?"
Cassandra blinked, and she was in their kitchen, her sweaty feet sticking to the cold linoleum floor and her hands wrapped around the back of a kitchen chair. "I'm fine," she whispered, closing her eyes and shaking her head slightly. "Bek, we have to get out of here. Now. Pack your things; I'm booking us two flights to the Springs."
"No, I'm going home, Cass, to New York."
"Bek, you have to trust me on this. My Mom is one of the only people who can help us," Cass urged.
"What do you mean?" Bek frowned.
"My Mom… she… she knows things," she said lamely, clenching her fingers around the smooth wood in frustration.
Bek clambered to her feet, staring at Cass. "This isn't funny, Cass."
"I'm serious, Bek! You have to trust me."
"I can't, I have to go to my family. If these bugs… if this is really as bad as they're making it out to be on TV, I have to go home to my family. Besides, the Springs is where the bugs are going. You'll be safer in New York."
Cass shook her head. "You're wrong. You're not going to be safe anywhere," she whispered.
"I'm not going to the Springs," Bek said firmly.
"I'll get yours booked for New York."
Bek nodded. "Thanks, Cass."
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Washington DC
He was getting hungry, and when Maybourne got hungry, he got cranky. Very cranky. It didn't help that his legs were beginning to cramp. He checked his wristwatch in a barely controlled gesture of frustration, touching the buttons to light up the small screen. 6:21am.
Good, only a few more minutes. He eased his right hand into his pocket and fingered the syringe again. Almost time.
The cupboard door squeaked as he pushed it open. No one was around. He stepped out quickly and shut the door behind him with a soft click, and then strode up the hall to the men's room.
He was washing his hands when the door swung open and one of the new guards walked in wearing a worried grimace on his face.
"Good morning." Maybourne smiled broadly.
The guard glanced at him. "Where have you been all night, buddy?" he questioned, crossing the room. "Haven't you seen the news? This sure as hell ain't a good morning!" he declared.
Maybourne's answer was to plunge the hypodermic needle deep into the man's neck. The man struggled briefly as Maybourne emptied the contents of the syringe into his neck, and then slumped silently to the ground, unconscious after a few seconds.
Other than the sleeves and trousers being too long the uniform wasn't a bad fit, Maybourne thought as he admired his reflection in the mirror. He tucked in the shirt and holstered the handgun before leaving the men's room and sauntered up the hallway.
"You're early," a guard remarked as he turned the corner and they came into view.
"It's chaos out there," he announced loudly. "I figured I'd make sure I got in here on time."
"What do you mean 'chaos'?" the other guard questioned.
"Haven't you heard?" Maybourne stared at them, feigning disbelief. "There are mutant bugs out there, and they're attacking everything in their path. At least a hundred of them. They're because of all that secret military testing they do out at Groom Lake; the fall out mutated them and turned them into killers. Just like Godzilla," he added for effect.
They stared at him doubtfully. "Mutant bugs?"
"Yeah. They sting you with their stingers." He nodded enthusiastically.
"Right. Good one. Very very funny."
"You don't believe me? Go to the staffroom and see for yourself. They're on almost every channel. Big news at the moment."
Their raised eyebrows were in danger of hitting the ceiling as they gazed down at him, and he shrugged carelessly. "Fine, don't believe me. You'll see for yourselves, there are mutant bugs on the loose. TV is only up the hall."
One of the guard's glanced at his wrist. "It's 6:31," he commented.
"Bert'll be late, with the traffic out there," Maybourne announced. "He'll be here in a few minutes. You go have a look, I'll be fine until then."
With a final disbelieving glance, they passed Maybourne the keys and disappeared up the hall.
"Idiots," Maybourne muttered as he watched them disappear.
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Washington DC
"Come on, Cass!" Bek yelled, her voice floating in through the open window. "Cass, we have to get out of here!" So, so urgent. Bek hadn't seen the end of a world before, she didn't realise it didn't come quickly.
"I'm coming," she called back, pulling back and shutting the window firmly. She pulled the curtains shut, casting the room into darkness before she snagged her knapsack from where it was lying on a couch.
The photo frame was silver, and she stopped by the bookcase to look at it. Her Mom, Sam and herself.
She picked it up; the pewter was heavy and cold in her hands as she walked out the door and locked it behind her.
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Nuclear Facility
"Damn it, Cass, answer!" Janet muttered, pacing anxiously across the floor.
Sam watched her agitated movements, discreetly studying the woman who used to be her best friend. Janet hadn't aged much in the last three years. Not like Sam. There were no bags under here eyes or scars on her hands.
"Where is she?" Sam asked, breaking the silence as she studied her own hands.
"DC," Janet answered, glancing wearily at Sam.
Sam could still read Janet; she could still tell Janet was going to launch into something serious. Sam was right.
"Sam, I didn't know. I promise you, I didn't know. If I'd known-"
"If you'd known, what?" Sam asked tiredly. "You'd have what?"
She heard footsteps behind her, and turned to face Samuels. "Harlowe just arrived," Samuels announced. "He's brought some samples, work and the equipment you'll need, Doctor Fraiser. He's also got a specimen."
Sam watched with veiled interest as Janet turned on Samuels. "We can't just whip up a miracle cure in time to fix your mistake, Samuels! Coming up with a vaccine for a retro virus in only a few days… it's almost impossible!"
"Harlowe has been working on this since the incident with the Jaffa," Samuels interrupted. "He knows these bugs almost better than anyone."
"Teal'c," Sam snapped, "his name is Teal'c."
"If he's been working on this for years and he hasn't gotten anywhere, what makes you so sure we can create a vaccine in a few weeks?" Janet almost yelled, her frustration increasingly obvious.
"They've been performing genetic experiments with these bugs, Fraiser. Harlowe only had one of the originals to work on, not one of the newer mutations. The new virus acts slightly slower; the vaccines he has have no effect at all."
"There's not enough time," Janet whispered.
For the first time since they'd announced her death sentence, Samantha Carter felt fear.
The cold silence in the room was broken almost gently. "It's not as bad as you think, Janet," a familiar voice tried to comfort. "Samuels hasn't told you everything yet, has he?" There was almost an accusation in the tone.
Sam watched Timothy Harlowe silently. He'd betrayed them all by keeping the specimens and his research into the retro virus. It was through him that the NID managed to get hold of them and create this outbreak. It was his fucking fault that after all they'd been through, all they'd done, they were in danger of wiping themselves out with their own stupidity.
"Told me what?" Janet demanded. "Samuels?"
Samuels sighed in annoyance. "Maybourne is-"
"Maybourne?" Sam interrupted incredulously. "We're dealing with Maybourne as well?" She stood up abruptly, anger heating her limbs and sending a tingling surge of feeling through her limbs. She felt her blood rushing through her veins, heard the rhythmic beat of her heart, the stuffy air pressing on her face, the itch of the hair growing back on her scalp. "This has gone far enough! I don't trust you, Samuels, or Harlowe for that matter, and I definitely don't trust Maybourne!"
"Sit down and shut up!" Samuels barked. The quiet click almost deafened her in the small room, and everything else faded away again. She stared at the blunt muzzle of the hand gun trained on her. "You are here, Carter, because of your experience with these bugs. I don't need you, and I'm not putting up with any crap. You are a convicted criminal under my authority. Do I make myself clear?"
Sam sat back down silently, staring at his gun.
She was dead; she couldn't feel again, she just was. They owned her life, her thoughts… her breaths. She was nothing except dead, and even that release was withheld from her.
Who the fuck had she pissed off this much?
"Maybourne is getting us antibodies," Samuels continued smoothly, holstering his weapon. "He'll check in as soon as he's got them."
"Where is he getting the antibodies from?" Janet interjected sharply. "There only person who I'm aware of being exposed to the retro virus is Teal'c, and he's-"
"They've got him," Sam said dully.
"What?" Janet turned to her. "Teal'c is somewhere on another planet, Sam. I saw him go through the gate, right after I-" Janet stopped, the sentence hanging.
"Right after you watched me die?" Sam asked darkly. "Janet, they kept me imprisoned for three years without you knowing, or anyone else for that matter. It would be much easier for them to do the same with Teal'c."
"But how did they get him?" Janet demanded.
"I don't know," Sam shrugged, glaring up at Samuels. "These fucking bastards have screwed everything up."
"You're incorrect, Sam," Harlowe broke in. "They're not-"
The chirping of Janet's cell phone interrupted them, and conversation ceased as the doctor answered it. "Cass? Oh, thank God!" she breathed into the phone. "What? Where are you? No, stay there… hold on…" Janet speared Samuels with a glance. "Where exactly is Maybourne?" she asked suspiciously.
"DC," Samuels answered reluctantly.
"You get hold of him now, Samuels, and tell him he's bringing my daughter back with him."
"What?" Samuels gaped.
"You heard me. My daughter is flying here with Maybourne."
"We can't-"
"Your fucking organization is costing the lives of hundreds of people, Samuels, and you've destroyed the lives of countless already. You will bring my daughter home."
Samuels licked his lips nervously, watching Janet cautiously. "Tell her… tell her if she can get to the Academy Airstrip by 0800hours their time, Maybourne will meet her outside the Western Perimeter. Oh, and Fraiser? Tell her not, under any circumstance, to let herself get caught. Understand?"
Janet nodded silently and spoke urgently in the phone.
Sam watched Samuels stalking out of the small room, and wondered how Cass and Teal'c would react to seeing her alive, and whether they thought she was guilty.
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