Time and Motion
Part 7
"Down!" Sam ordered pushing Janet behind the scrubby vegetation, the only shelter they could find outside the safety of the forest.
Cursing her heavy pack, Janet went to ground, the hard earth biting into her knees and hands. "What can you see?" She whispered, straining her eyes against the dark and silently hoping the turbulent winds wouldn't carry her away.
"I'm not sure, thought I heard something over the wind." Rummaging through her pack, Sam produced a pair of night vision goggles, "I was so sure-,"
"Noooo!"
"Sam, did you hear that?" Peering over the sprawling bush she was crouched behind, Janet listened intently, brown eyes blinking quickly. Jabbing at the air, she hissed, "Over that way."
"Okay," Sam mumbled, and slipping on the goggles she shuffled forward to scan the area. "I've got them, about five hundred feet away at a rocky outcropping."
Flopping over onto her back, Janet made to sit up but felt Sam's strong arm holding her down. "Not yet," Sam whispered, "I don't think they're alone."
Fumbling with the catches on her backpack, Janet heaved it off her back, rifling through it for her own goggles then sliding them over her eyes, she announced, "I can't see anything, Sam."
"They're there, Janet, at your two o'clock, five hundred feet. Look for a raised outcropping of rocks."
Adjusting her angle of sight, she brought the outcropping into focus and her heart sank. Sam was right. The figures were hard to see in the darkness but there were definitely more than three. Taking her goggles off, Janet rolled over to face Sam and found herself face to face with her friend's Beretta.
"You do know how to use one of these, don't you?" Sam asked, holding the weapon out grip-first.
Taking it in her hands, feeling its weight and the cold of the metal on her skin, Janet looked up at Sam and winced. "I do," she said. Staring down at the small pistol in her hands, she tried not to let distaste show on her face. "Doesn't mean I like to do so though."
Tucking spare clips for her P90 into her vest, Sam looked up at Janet and smiled thinly. "Just point and shoot, but try not to hit one of ours."
"I'll keep that in mind. What's the plan?"
Chewing on her bottom lip, Sam closed her eyes briefly before looking back at Janet. "I want you to follow the tree-line around to the left and come up from behind. Don't approach until I say so and switch your radio to channel seven. If the colonel has been compromised and his equipment taken, I don't want the enemy to know that we're here." Tapping the earpiece on the side of her head, Sam added, "Keep your headset on and don't use the radio unless it's necessary. Take only what you can carry in your vest, we'll leave our packs here."
Janet shrugged, pulled a small first aid kit from her pack and tucked it into a front pocket on her vest. Producing a small knife as well she checked its sheathing and slid it into her boot. "Okay, I think I've got it."
"I'm going to move forward as close as I can and check out the situation. Wait for my call, and Janet?" Janet looked up, meeting Sam's gaze in the pre-dawn light, "Do nothing until I tell you to,"
Janet nodded, trying her utmost to appear calm and in control of the situation, she was a doctor first and a soldier second and right now her friend needed her to be a soldier first. She could do this, she had to do this.
"Okay, Sam, I'm ready."
~oOo~
Sam watched Janet disappear in the remnants of the cold night, grateful that dawn hadn't quite broken over the landscape. Plotting a course through the dense undergrowth, she silently and efficiently worked her way forward towards the outcropping.
Crouching low, Sam withdrew her goggles and took in a sweeping view of the terrain around her. A small mound of earth to her immediate right had her smiling. "Perfect," she muttered softly, finding herself grateful for the distraction of the storm as it concealed her movements.
Stealthily moving up the mound, Sam found herself sliding sideways, a powerful gust of wind catching her jacket and throwing her off balance. "Not now!" she cursed, scrambling to regain her grip on the rocky mound. Finally satisfied with her location, Sam rested the P90 against her shoulder, and adjusting her grip she focused in on the other members of her team.
"Daniel!"
~oOo~
Jack bit back a groan. Kneeling in the soft mud was painful. His knees throbbed and the rope dug into his wrists spitefully. Cursing foully under his breath, Jack traded glares with Teal'c. "Well, big guy, you know what they say! Misery loves company."
"I have failed DanielJackson." Head bowed low, Teal'c glanced sideways at Jack. "My thoughts were occupied with recent events and I failed to hear the approach of the villagers."
"Well, we're both guilty of that, Teal'c. Don't beat yourself up over it." Jack noticed Teal'c's attention drifting to the skies overhead. In the heat of the ambush he'd paid no attention to the storm. Despite the darkness all around, light from the twin moons of this system backlit the angry-looking sky, clouds knitting together in an ever-swirling knot, dark and threatening. Fat rain drops pelted Jack and Teal'c, and shuddering they felt the wind whip around them.
"I fear the weather is once more gaining in intensity," Teal'c whispered, lowering his head again, "We need to execute an escape from this location before DanielJackson is forced to endure another change."
Testing his bonds, Jack grimaced as the rain soaked into his leather bindings, biting his wrists and cutting down the circulation in his already cold-numbed hands. "Crap," he swore, and giving up on that option shifted his position to get a better look at Daniel.
Daniel looked miserable. Shaking violently from the stinging cold, he was offered no protection from the priests surrounding him. Straining to hear, Jack could see Zahur talking to Daniel, but the blustering winds carried his voice away, making him even more anxious for his friend's welfare. "What the hell are they doing?" Furious at Daniel's mistreatment, Jack struggled harder against his bonds, the muscles on his forearms screaming in protest. "If he's so damn important to them why don't they at least cover him up?"
"I do not believe the people of this word are interested in DanielJackson's welfare," Teal'c commented, his face a mask of anger, "They are only interested in his ability to manipulate the device. Once they have learnt this secret they will have no need of him."
"Yeahsureyabetcha. Where's Carter?" Jack sighed.
~oOo~
"Where is the Ipotma?"
Biting his lip, Daniel felt another stinging slap. Having been struck in the same place so many times, the area was virtually numb. Feeling his head being snapped back, Daniel refused to meet the priest's eyes, preferring to focus his attention on Jack, the only person here that he was sure he could trust.
Daniel watched as Zahur looked at Jack, painfully aware he'd shown the man his weakness. Leaning in close, his hot breath warming Daniel's face, Zahur hissed, "Look at their suffering. You can stop this! Tell me the key to the puzzle and I will let your friends go." Daniel flinched as Zahur grabbed his face between his fingers and pressed hard. "Deny me and I will burn them."
"Jack!" Daniel cried, falling backward to the ground, the leather bindings cutting into his already abraded wrists. Lifted and roughly placed back on his knees, he felt Zahur's foul breath tickle his ear.
"He cannot help you child! Again, where is the Ipotma?" Biting at his abused lip, Daniel moaned. Zahur's eyes glinted with signs of madness. "I will burn them, Daniel, and you will hear them scream. Tell me! Tell me!"
Eyes wide with fright, Daniel stammered, "N-n-oo, p-please, don't hurt them! I don't know! Honest!" Sagging to his ass, Daniel's chin dropped to his chest, the day's misery and pain overwhelming him, tears rolling down his cheeks and onto the ground. "Noooo!" Body wracked with pain, Daniel succumbed and let a traitorous sob escape. Jerking his head back, his eyes locked onto Jack's, the fear and pain unmistakable in his young face.
Stepping into Daniel's line of sight, Zahur snatched one of his wrists and jerked the boy to his feet. "Your silence is your answer. The suffering of your friends will be your own doing,"
~oOo~
Sam closed her eyes, letting the tension flow from her body. The finger that had been running lazy rings around the guard of her P90 now rested lightly on the trigger.
Checking her target she squeezed, a sad smile crossing her face as she watched the bullet hit home through the crosshairs of her telescopic lens.
Another life extinguished and another face to haunt her dreams.
~oOo~
The sound of a single bullet cried out in the cold night air as the shot hit true, a solitary trail of blood trickling down Zahur's forehead, skirting his open mouth.
TBC…