*****
"Do we know which building it is for certain?" General Hammond asked Jack as he sat there fidgeting.
"No. Mayborne said that it was on the road just past the empty cul-de-sac. There is supposed to be a warehouse there at Little Johnson Reservoir. It's off Bradley Road, and if I might add, Sir, I was closer to Bradley Road before I drove all the way back here," he added testily.
"You did the right thing, Colonel." The general turned to the rest of SG1 who were standing behind the colonel, "I'm sending SGs 9 and 7 with you. Use them as you see fit, Colonel, but you're not going without backup. We have no idea what Colonel Mayborne did after you left there, and there is no telling what kind of a mess you may be walking into. Dr. Fraiser is going with a small medical unit. They will wait at the extraction site for your arrival. If Captain Uziel is conscious at the time of the recovery, she will be sedated and brought back to the SGC. It is my understanding that her time may be very short. Be suited up and ready to go in ten. Dismissed!" They all turned and filed out of the room.
The three teams suited up and climbed into the back of a large transport truck. Janet and a group of medics carried medical gear to a medical transport and climbed in the back of that. They were about to roll out when General Hammond stepped behind the trucks and called to them, "Bring her back, SG1. God's speed."
"That's better," Jack mumbled.
Everyone was quiet for the ride over. Jack pulled his black knit cap down low to keep his ears warm. Teal'c sat unmoving, and Sam did a last check of her gear. Daniel appeared to be staring straight ahead, but in truth he was watching Jack out of the corner of his eye. Jack was still. He barely blinked. Daniel always felt distinctly nervous before a military operation such as this. But Jack didn't seem nervous. It seemed like such events evened him out. Daniel had come to believe that, on a level the gray-haired colonel would never acknowledge at a time such as this, he was driven by more than training.
They rolled into the industrial complex that was situated near the reservoir. When they turned onto Bradley Road the truck made a quick stop at the empty cul-de-sac before turning back. The three teams disembarked in the parking lot behind a refinery. There was only one warehouse in the immediate vicinity of the complex on the reservoir, which made their hunting a little easier. There were trees between the refinery and the reservoir, but the warehouse had no natural cover for approach. There was going to be no sneaking up on the building. If someone was watching they'd probably already been seen.
Once the three team leaders had a feel for the layout of the area, they came together and squatted at a white board kept in the rear of the truck for drawing out their plan of attack. Colonel O'Neill instructed the other leaders and their teams: SG1 would enter the building on the North side facing the reservoir. SG9 would take up positions outside the building at the four exits on the North, East, and West sides of the building and SG7 would hang back at the tree line and wait in case either SG's 1 or 9 got in trouble. Janet and her team were told to drive to the cul-de-sac and pull off behind a small grove of trees. The rest of the lots on the site were being developed and the trees were gone. But in direct line of sight of the warehouse, there was a small grove of trees left standing on one lot. If the ground was too soft they would have to stay on the paved circle, but if it was dry or sufficiently covered, they would drive up onto the ground and wait for the recovery team to arrive. They were to maintain radio silence after SG1 entered the building, unless someone was in trouble. If someone needed to report they would signal by clicking the talk button three times rapidly. They inserted their earpieces, clamped on their NV goggles, did a last minute count of extra magazines, and Colonel O'Neill issued them "Go."
The medical transport pulled out, and, once it was in position, Jack called for SG's 1 and 9 to move in on the building. They circled the building at the tree line that ran closest to the fence that enclosed the parking lot. Once they got to the shortest section of fence SG9's CO, Major Selart, pulled a cutting tool from his vest and snipped the chain links in a straight line to the ground. He then held it apart while the remainder of his team entered the premises and advanced on the building. Colonel O'Neill grabbed the cut fence from Major Selart and held it open for him and then SG1. He was the last to enter. By the time SG1 had gotten through the fence, SG9 had spread out and were covering all the exits. SG1 went to the North side of the building and eased towards the door. O'Neill depressed and released the talk button on his radio to signal for radio silence.
SG1 removed their NV goggles. Sam pulled a lock pick kit from her vest and set to work on the lock. Daniel readied a thermite incendiary strip in case she couldn't get the lock opened. She breached the door in just under thirty seconds, and the four of them cleared the entry. Jack signaled for Sam and Teal'c to take the east hallway and he and Daniel would take the one to the West. Daniel raised his Zat' higher as he followed Jack around the corner into the darkened hallway. He could hear the blood rushing in his ears as he strained to hear voices or movement from behind the doors while they moved up the hallway. Jack held his Zat' in his right hand and reached out with his left to open the first door.
As the door swung open Jack moved in, down and right and Daniel moved in up and left, clearing the room. There was no one. They moved down the hallway in this fashion, one room at a time, not finding anyone. Sam and Teal'c were having the same experience on the other side of the building until coming to a room that they found locked. Upon examination Sam could see that a normal dead bolt was holding the door, and dim flickering light was filtering from beneath the crack at the bottom. She motioned to Teal'c to follow her into a room they'd already cleared. Once in there, she closed the door and depressed the talk button on her radio three times in rapid succession and waited.
Daniel and Jack were in the hallway when their radios signaled that someone needed to report. They stepped back into the room they'd been in just before and closed the door. Jack spoke in hushed tones into his radio, "Go ahead."
"Sir," Sam whispered, "We've found a locked room. There is some light coming from under the door. Breaching it will alert everyone to our presence. Over."
"Understood, Carter. Standby." Jack stood still for a moment considering what he should do. Then he said, "What is your position?"
"We're fourth room down on the right in the hallway opposite you."
"Oay, hold there. Daniel and I are going to finish clearing this side, and then we'll join you."
"Copy that, Sir."
Daniel and Jack moved back out into the hallway and started back down to the next unopened room. They made quick work of clearing the remaining rooms and started back towards the door where they'd entered. As they rounded the corner Jack heard something and held up his hand. Daniel stopped and they pushed themselves flat against a door. Footsteps started echoing down the hallway they were heading for. Daniel held his breath. The footsteps were getting louder. Someone was definitely coming. Only one set. Daniel waited. They stopped. There was the sound of a door opening, then closing. Then the footsteps were approaching again. A solid-looking man about six feet tall, and wearing a dark blue suit, came around the corner.
Before it fully registered in the man's head what he was seeing, Jack had fired his Zat' at the man and he dropped to the ground. Quickly and quietly they grabbed the guy and started with him down the hallway. They counted four doors and went inside, closing the door behind them. They dragged the man behind a desk, and Jack quickly undid his tie and belt, using them to gag and bind the man. Without a word Jack indicated that they would try a thermite strip for breaching the door. It took about three full seconds to melt through an average dead bolt, but it was significantly quieter than a gun or a breaching charge. They had a better chance of not being detected with the thermite strip.
He took the strip from Daniel and signaled for them to follow him. He indicated with a question in his eyes, 'Is this the door?' Sam nodded her head. Teal'c crossed the hall and took up a position that would cover them as they entered the room. Jack placed the strip and everyone looked away from the flash of white-hot light in the dark. The moment it stopped its burn Jack stood up and kicked the door as hard as he could. It sprang open with a moderately loud BANG. The guy at the monitoring station was standing with his mouth open, reaching for a gun he'd stowed more than arm's reach away. Daniel fired his Zat' and the guy fell with a heavy thud onto the desk then slid onto the floor. SG1 hurried into the room and Teal'c closed the door quietly.
Jack and Sam ran around the desk and started examining the different monitors. This was a security control room. There were security cameras all over the building, including the entryway they'd entered. How they managed to not be noticed was a pressing question. If in fact they had not been noticed. There was no indication that anyone on the premises was aware of their presence, but knowing that the probability was high, they could not ignore the increased risk of their situation. Jack thought the situation felt very wrong.
Jack pointed to Daniel and ordered quietly, "Secure our security guard, here."
Daniel moved around behind the desk and pulled the unconscious guard out of the way. He reached into his vest and pulled out a couple of plastic zip ties and secured the guy's hands and ankles. Jack and Sam were inspecting the various monitors, searching for any sign of where they might be holding Shaboni. They saw nothing that looked like her, but there was a largish room that was clearly not entirely seen by the camera.
"Carter, can you tell where this room is?" Jack indicated the monitor he was looking at.
"No, Sir. The cameras being displayed here rotate every fifteen seconds. They do not display the room they're in."
"See if you can figure out how to get them to stop rotating automatically. I'm going to see if there is a printout of the layout of this building in here." Jack turned and started searching the desk for anything that would give him a better idea of where to look. If they had to go through every room they would, but first they'd see if they could figure out something more specific.
Daniel finished securing the guard and joined Jack in his search for more intel on the building. There was a filing cabinet in the corner and Daniel started in there.
After a few minutes Carter said, "Got it, Sir. I have the cameras set to hold and can switch them from one view to the other with these buttons here." She pointed to a series of buttons beneath the monitor console.
"Jack!" Daniel called. The colonel turned around as Daniel produced a three-ring binder with one hand that contained what appeared to be emergency procedures for the building. He was shining a flashlight on the book with another. "I think they store hazardous chemicals here or something because they have this with a complete set of procedures for spills and stuff like that." He flipped the binder open and started turning pages. He came to the part he wanted to show Jack and wiggled his flashlight to indicate he'd found it. "These appear to be their evacuation plans for each sector of the building."
"Good work, Daniel," Jack commended, taking the book from him. He set it down on the desk, and Daniel handed him his flashlight. Jack studied it for a few minutes and compared what he was seeing on the pages with what he had surmised of the building from the security cameras. He reached forward and pushed a few of the buttons on the monitor console to set the images in a different configuration. He looked back to the book and turned a page back and forth a few times. "Okay," he motioned for Daniel and Teal'c to come closer.
"I don't know where they have her, if she's even here. But there are clearly two rooms that are not coming up on the cameras and at least half of this warehouse area there isn't visible," he pointed to the monitor. "Teal'c, you're with me. Daniel, you stay here with Carter." He turned to her, "I need you to follow us on the cameras." He stopped and reached into his vest, pulling out a grease pencil. He marked a line on the paper on one page, turned the page and drew a path from the top through a couple of rooms and out a door. "Get us to this room, and then, if she's there, when we have her you need to help us reach this door here." He dropped the pencil on the spot where he intended to leave the building. "I haven't seen any other personnel on the videos, but I seriously doubt they're all gone. Once we have her and are out the door, you two are going to head to the extraction point the way we came in."
Everyone nodded their understanding of the plan. Jack and Teal'c went to the door. Before they could open the door Daniel called to him, "Jack," he said earnestly, "Watch your back."
"You bet." Jack opened the door, and he and Teal'c disappeared into the hallway.
They headed down the corridor and came to the end where the office space opened up into a large warehouse space. They eased into the space that was lined all the way around with palettes filled with myriad moving supplies. The central portion of the room had two rows of metal shelves that went all the way to the ceiling and were filled with mostly unmarked crates. Jack and Teal'c made their way around the perimeter of the concrete room stepping lightly, hunched behind the palettes filled with moving blankets and unwrapped hand trucks stacked higher than Teal'c's head. They got to the end of the long room and stopped at a heavy door. Jack clicked the talk button on his radio requesting a report from Sam.
"Sir, the hallway on the other side of the door is clear. Over," she spoke lowly into her radio.
He looked to Teal'c to make sure that he was ready, and they pushed the door open. They moved into the hallway and held the door so that it would close as quietly as possible behind them.
"You need to take the first hallway on the right," she informed them.
They headed down the corridor and noticed that the floor had a slight downward grade to it. The walls were concrete and aluminum instead of the covered sheetrock they'd seen in the front half of the building. This part of the building had a distinctly military feel to it, by comparison. They came to the first right and turned. They still didn't see any sign of life.
"Now you need to take the second left."
They passed the first left quickly, started to turn left at the second spot, and abruptly came upon a door. It was chained closed. Jack peered into the small glass window and saw what appeared to be a small utility room. It was pretty dark and Jack couldn't see all the way to the other side of the room. "Uh, Carter, little problem here."
"There's no camera past the door, Sir. That is the point where we turn the page." He could hear her flipping back and forth as she talked to see if there was something she was missing.
Jack decided to force the door. "Any sign of life anywhere in this building?" he whispered.
"No, Sir. That's the second page, Sir. It's obviously where the cameras stop."
"Copy that, Major." Jack did a quick appraisal of the chain and lock. It was not a standard keyed padlock. He fished in his vest and pulled out a thermite strip and attached it to the exposed links of the chain. He lit it and they both turned their heads away to avoid being blinded by the white-hot flash of its burn. The chain fell and hung open. Jack unwound it from the door handles and set it quietly on the floor.
They entered the small storage room. There was no obvious light switch, so Jack took out his flashlight and started trying to figure out how this room continued to the remaining parts of the building. There was only one other door, and it was also locked. This was getting annoying. This lock appeared to be keyed. He pulled his lock pick kit out of his vest again and squatted down to get close enough to get a feel for lining up the tumblers. He got the lock open and flung the door wide. It led to an elevator, and it only went down.
"Carter, we've found an elevator. Do you have plans for the lower floors?"
"No, Sir."
"We're going to check it out. If she's here, I bet she's down there. Keep an eye on the camera in the hall outside this room. We'll come back out this way. O'Neill, out."
"We copy, Sir."
Jack and Teal'c boarded the elevator. There was only one other floor that they could access so they pressed that button. The elevator descended intolerably slowly, and the two soldiers stood ready to destroy anything that might be standing in their way when the doors slid open. What they found when the doors opened not only surprised them both, but severely tempted the colonel to go with his initial plan to destroy anything that stood in their way when the doors parted.
"Good of you to make it, Jack. Now hurry, we don't have much time." Harry Mayborne was standing there with a less-than-thrilled expression on his face.
"Harry, what the hell are you doing here?" Jack demanded as they followed him down the dimly lit corridor. Every few feet they would pass an open room. Several of those rooms had unconscious men lying in them.
"I told you that you would need my help if you want to get the Mossad woman." He was walking to the end at a very fast clip, leading Teal'c and Jack to a room with a solid metal door.
As they walked briskly down the corridor, they noticed several men lying unconscious in a heap with their arms and legs bound towards the end. Mayborne offered a short explanation, "They were expecting you, but not me. You've been followed from the moment they took her from your house. I knew that if you wanted to get her back, I would have to get here and secure the location."
"Why the hell didn't you just tell me that, Mayborne?" Jack asked, irritated.
"Because you didn't give me the opportunity. Besides, I found it utterly satisfying to see the look on your face when that elevator door opened." They got to the end of the hallway, and Mayborne used a card to open the door.
The light in the room was dim, but Jack could see a figure lying on a table next to a desk littered with surgical instruments and other medical equipment. There was no IV or rescue equipment to be seen. They'd brought her here to experiment on her, but not to prolong her life in any way. His jaw clenched in fury.
He ran to the table and noted that she was handcuffed at the arms and legs. Jack shined his light on her and illuminated her deathly pale face. There was a streak of blood lining her face that streamed from her mouth and was pooling in her dark hair. He touched her and her skin was cold and clammy. She had been stripped to her underwear, and Jack could find nothing with which to cover her. He put his fingers to her neck to feel for a pulse and found it weak and thready. He bent his face close to hers to feel for breath, and that was when he heard the strangled drowning sound she was making. There was so little breath coming from her he wasn't sure he'd felt any at all.
"Shaboni?" He touched her face and tried wiping some of the blood from her mouth with the cuff of his sleeve. "Can you hear me?"
Mayborne actually made himself useful. He took his uniform jacket off and laid it across her torso, then set to work trying to unlock the cuffs at her ankles with one of the surgical instruments. Jack shined his flashlight for him and saw that the skin around her ankles was severely discolored. He looked to her wrists and found that they were worse than bruised. They were bloody. Her left hand was swollen in a way that indicated her thumb was fractured or dislocated. She had been trying to free herself but apparently hadn't succeeded before the swelling had set in. He saw no signs that she'd been shot, however, and concluded that what he'd seen in the woods must have been a tranquilizer gun, even though he didn't believe they tended to use gun powder in those dope darts. There was nothing to explain the flash of a muzzle. Then he saw the twin burn marks at her neck. It had been a stun gun that had incapacitated her.
Jack took his lock-pick kit out once more and set to work on her other wrist. She moaned a little when he pulled at the injured hand. "Shaboni, its Jack. Can you hear me?" Her eyes fluttered and opened. They were clouded with pain.
She tried to speak but Jack put a hand to her pale lips and said, "Shhhh. We're getting you out of here." She tried to take a deep enough breath to speak and the sound was unnerving. Mayborne looked up at the wet rattle she made when she breathed. His face was stony, but there was a darkness to his eyes that Jack had never seen before. He was truly disturbed by her condition. 'Didn't know you had it in you, Harry.'
Shaboni kept trying to talk, and things started spilling out in disjointed jumbles. "Antidote...said that they would make antidote....wanted Tolla...lab notes....knew you would be coming....waited for you, Jack....did not tell them....prayed for you would be finding me....so sorry." It was coming in barely audible whispers. A sound like a cross between a sob and a cough came from her throat and fresh blood spattered Jack's face.
"Damnit, Shaboni. Just hang on." They had all but the wrist Mayborne was working on unlocked when the door burst open and gunfire forced all three of them to the floor.
Jack lunged sideways shooting his Zat' at the two men taking cover behind the doorframe. Teal'c swung around and made for the far wall that was closest to his position. From the side he would be in a better position to fire upon the two men where the wall could afford no more protection. Mayborne actually shot under the gurney and fired a few rounds from his handgun, then turned on his back and went back to work on Shaboni's left wrist cuff. Jack and Teal'c kept firing.
Right at that moment Carter chose to request a report. "Sir, how's it going down there?"
Teal'c managed to hit the man who was on the left and he fell in a heap inside the doorway. He then began to track around to the other side of the room trying to angle himself so that he could more easily hit the remaining assailant. Jack reached down and yelled bitingly, "Little busy here, Carter," and went back to trying to shoot the remaining assailant.
Up in the security office Carter and Daniel looked at each other with alarm when they heard the sound of gunfire coming over the radio. There was absolutely nothing they could do but wait for a report or further orders and hope that they didn't need backup.
Finally, Mayborne got Shaboni's wrist free. He rose up high enough to get a good grip on her and pulled her off the gurney and out of the line of fire as best he could. She landed heavily on him smearing blood on his clothes and hands. He rolled her over, putting himself between her and the firefight.
"Jack, there are going to be a whole lot more people trying to come through that door in less than five minutes. Finish this guy off. We have got to GO!" he warned.
"What, and leave all this behind?" Colonel O'Neill groused, firing repeatedly.
Teal'c was finally able to shoot the other guy who fell away from the door. He went back to Mayborne's side to help him with Shaboni.
Jack radioed the others, informing them of the situation. "We're about to have more company. Teal'c and I are going out the way we came in. Carter, Daniel, and SG9 fall back. Get to the extraction point," he instructed.
He knew that Carter would be struggling with his orders to clear out before they had left the building, but that she was as solid a soldier as they come and would do what she was ordered. After the expected delay she said, "Roger that, Sir. Carter, out."
Jack made his way back to Shaboni's side and was about to instruct Teal'c to pick her up when a terrible drowning cough convulsed through her. Blood sprayed out of her mouth and covered Jack's shirt. Mayborne turned his head away. Her skin had taken on a grayish pallor, and her lips were tinged blue. Jack used the tail of the black t-shirt he wore beneath his BDUs to try to wipe some more of the blood from her mouth. She opened her mouth to speak again and whispered, "I was waiting...for..." she coughed once more and then went limp. Her eyes didn't close and Jack felt the terrible short gasping she'd been doing stop. 'No no no not this, not now!' A wave of fear crashed over him.
"O'Neill," Teal'c said with fierce intensity, "I believe she is no longer breathing."
Jack was already moving. He got into position near her head, pushing Mayborne out of his way. He tilted her head back and put his mouth to hers, pushing the air in his lungs into hers. There was no rise of her chest and the air came right back out her mouth. '.crap.' Something was obstructing her airway. He had no way of knowing if it was in her throat, or if she was simply drowning in the blood that was filling her lungs, but he had to try something.
He looked around at the surgical instruments strewn across the desk and the floor. He found a short scalpel and grabbed it. He scattered the rest of the instruments searching for something to insert for a field airway. There was nothing tubular for him to use. He started feeling through his vest pockets for something. "HELL!" he spat as he came up empty. "Do you have a pen?" He demanded of Mayborne.
Colonel Mayborne reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic pen. Thanking the stars, fates, and whatever God may really be out there watching them, Jack grabbed it and unscrewed the ends of it. He tossed the ink cartridge and spring aside. Then he bent over Shaboni. There was no time for sterility.
"Teal'c hold your flashlight on her throat." Teal'c did as he asked, and Jack positioned the scalpel above the base of her ever-so-still neck. He closed his eyes and breathed a quick prayer that simply asked, "Please," and he made an incision.
Jack cut all the way through the pale skin at the base of her throat to the fibrous cartilage rings of Shaboni's trachea with one stroke. With one finger he held the slit in her neck open, and with the other hand he inserted the scalpel to make an incision in the tissue between the rings of cartilage. Then he worked his finger into the cut he'd just made and slid the tube from the pen into her trachea. He grabbed a small adhesive bandage from his pocket, cut a slit in it, and slid it down over the tube fixing it in place the best he could.
With a makeshift tracheotomy in place, he bent down and blew air into her lungs. He was rewarded with the rise of her chest. When he sat up to take another breath, frothy blood began to bubble out the end of the tube. He leaned down and gave a great suck on the pen tube, filling his mouth with blood and fluid. Forcing aside the desperate urge to wretch, he spat it out on the floor and then forced more air into her lungs. He had to clear the airway two more times before he could breathe for her repeatedly, but as soon as he did that the blue that had spread around her mouth started to recede and turn a more healthy shade of pink. Her heartbeat was still frighteningly weak and thready, but it was still there.
"Jack we have to go, NOW," Mayborne urged him.
"I shall carry her," Teal'c assured him. He gathered the woman in his arms and stood up.
Jack walked alongside Teal'c, blowing air and life into Shaboni every few moments. As soon as they got back to the ground floor Jack radioed the others, "We have her. I need the medical unit ready to go as soon as we get out into the open." He stopped and breathed into the tube in her neck again.
When they got to the door on the north side of the building where they'd entered they could hear approaching vehicles, and a light from a helicopter above them was shining on the warehouse. Soon the place would be overrun. Jack gave Shaboni one more breath, and then he and Teal'c took off for the medical transport. He noticed that Mayborne didn't follow them past the door, but he didn't have the time to argue about it. He turned around and looked behind him as he ran and saw the hated little man who'd helped them standing at the door of the building, watching them carry Shaboni to safety. Then he disappeared inside. Jack turned back around before he tripped over something, and he and Teal'c met the transport.
Before the vehicle had even stopped Janet was pouring out of the back of it giving her team instructions. "Tell me," was her simple instruction to the colonel. They all boarded the transport that sped towards their transport at the refinery.
"Right after we found her she stopped breathing. I couldn't get any air into her lungs so I rigged an airway. I also think she has a broken left thumb."
Janet regarded him for a moment, "Is any of that your blood, Colonel?"
"What?" He looked down at himself, "No. She was coughing a lot of blood." The transport arrived at the refinery and Jack and Teal'c got off. He took a last look at Shaboni.
"You can see her back at the infirmary," Janet assured him. She closed the door and then they were gone.