Vegas in Red: I Won't Back Down9
Moira stood outside the lab, watching the haze of sunset color the listless sky in shades of orange and gold. The dead birds had all been cleared away, kept for analysis. Although she knew that such natural die-offs were not an unusual event to have so many so frequently was alarming. She wondered if the alien pathogen was to blame, although it seemed unlikely now that the virus was inert and contained. All sources destroyed. She stared accusingly at the sky, as if somehow it was to blame.
She smiled as a familiar red car pulled up to the curb. The handsome man inside leaned over and opened the car door for her. "John." She got into the car, setting a case full of folders onto her lap, balancing a copy of Paradise Lost on top. "Is everything all right?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing, Moira," he said, glancing at her odd choice of reading material. "I need to make a quick stop at the facility. Okay?"
"Of course," she answered as he drove back into the street. "John, is everything all right?" she repeated, seeing the tension in his body. The foul mood he was trying to bury.
"No," he answered. He maneuvered the car through traffic, changing lanes. He frowned as he was impeded by volume. He hated rush hour. "Afterwards let's grab some dinner at that new Italian place, then go to yours."
"Okay," she agreed. She waited, but he was silent. Eyes on the traffic in front of him. The neon lights of Vegas were garish against the colorful sunset. Splashing hues onto the red car, onto John himself as he brooded, brooded. Full, perfect lips turned downward. Green eyes narrowed, brow furrowing in thought. "John? What happened? Another case?"
"No. Yes, but no. God, I sound like you now." He glanced at her, smiled. She smiled. It seemed to relax him. His grip loosened on the wheel. He was gaining speed now that he was out of the city. Hitting the open road and driving right into the sunset as it sprayed across the distant hills. "Hendricks. He knows. Not about this, but he suspects all these damn cases are interconnected. He wants to get to the bottom of it. He put together a taskforce to do just that. And guess who's in charge of it?"
"You."
"Got it in one, baby."
"Well, that's good, isn't it, sweetie? You'll be able to control all of it. What was it? Disinformation, like you told me before."
"Maybe. Maybe not. I'm walking affine line here, Moira, and now it just got thinner. I'll be bouncing between the two jobs and I don't like that. Not at all. If I make a mistake, just one then it's over. All of it." He glanced at her. Saw her concern. Her affection. "Besides, the only thing I want to bounce is that pert little ass of yours. Repeatedly."
She rolled her eyes. "John! What will you do?"
"Look in the back."
"The huh?"
"The back of the car. Back seat," he clarified.
She turned to see the back seat. To see a variety of things. A wide ruler. A blindfold. A pair of sliver clips linked by a silver chain. A police baton, but it was smaller, longer, with a rounded head. She gulped, recalling his promises. Eyed him. "Very funny, John."
He smiled at her. "Discipline, baby. Don't worry. I am a fully qualified police detective. I know what I'm doing." He chuckled at her chagrin, her worry. The way she shifted in the seat. "Never fear, baby, you won't be hurt. Much."
"John! If you think for one minute you are going to use any of that, that stuff on me then you—"
"Don't start an argument, Moira! You know it makes me stiff. Oh, we're here."
"What? You son of a…oh."
He laughed. Parked the car and strolled with her to the bland building. "This won't take long. I just need to see McKay and then we can go. Hmm…I wonder if they have a whip you could borrow."
"John!" She hit his arm. He laughed, but sobered as they entered the building. Were directed to a lower level after showing their identification.
John's steps slowed as he realized where they were heading . "Great," he muttered. "I hope we won't be interrupting a feeding. I just lost my appetite. For food, anyway."
"What? Oh…Todd," she realized.
The room was dark. Blue light showered down on the cell where Todd was standing. Thankfully he had finished his meal. The volunteer was hunched in a chair, being tended to by Jennifer. Rodney stood watching, hands clasped behind his back. A stern expression on his face. At their approach he turned, met them halfway. "John. Moira. I've just been having a chat with our friend there."
"Was he cooperative?" John asked, gaze darting to the Wraith.
"No. Not really, not until I offered something he wanted. Come here." He led them across the room to a bank of monitors. "These feeds are telling me that something is going on."
"With Todd?"
"Yes. And no. More importantly something is going on with the Earth's magnetic field. All of these fluctuations in the atmosphere we've been monitoring seem sporadic, just the results of the solar wind or normal fluctuations in the geomagnetic field. But I've been seeing a slight increase in the charged particles in the Van Allen belt. Almost as if something is flexing between the two belts. As you know the magnetic field isn't uniform around the Earth. Nor is the radiation belt, and if something is exciting these electrons from a ground state then—"
"Whoa, science guy, slow down," John complained.
"That would explain the birds. Another die-off because of the magnetic field disruption," Moira noted, but frowned. "There have been a lot of those. Die-offs, I mean."
"Not to mention the rise in stronger weather patterns, more severe storms. Tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes. Rainstorms and snowstorms and the oppressive heat index that keeps rising. And the melting glaciers which affects the ocean currents and the temperature of the ocean itself. Some of these events have been strong enough to shift the Earth's axis, affect its rotation so we are spinning a little faster. Cities have been moved, like Concepcion in Chile. It moved three meters to the west. Even countries. Japan is thirteen inches closer to us now. And the day is now 1.8 microseconds shorter."
"It's like the Earth is trying to shake us off and reclaim her own again," Moira agreed. "The effects of global warming and destroying our environment, not to mention making species after species extinct all seem to be accelerating."
"So, now it's our turn?" John asked. "What does any of that have to do with this?"
Rodney shook his head. "I don't know. Yet. But if something big were to happen up there it would have an affect down here." He sighed. "I just don't have enough data to verify anything yet. Todd spouts poetry and we're recording it all, even though it is all nonsense."
"Probably." John couldn't shake the suspicion that it wasn't all nonsense. He turned as Moira was heading for the cell. She stopped. Todd was standing in the middle of the cell, arms at his sides. Staring at nothing, as if listening to something only he could hear
Moira took a step closer, alternately fascinated and repelled, but John's hand on her wrist halted her advance.
"Let's go." He moved to Rodney. "I need to talk to you about work, but later," he said, as Moira followed him out of the room. "All that science is giving me a headache."
Todd watched them leave. He had been intently watching them, listening to them as they spoke. These primitive humans and their theories. What they laughingly called their science. Realizing they were destroying their own planet but they did nothing about it. They had no idea. Not a clue. It was too late and they didn't even know it.
He had watched the woman approach, saw her interest and her revulsion.
He had seen John Sheppard stop her. And he knew.
It was a small motion. Not even a word. A small gesture, a negligible touch. His hand on her wrist. His fingers sliding to her inner wrist. Not at all intimate. Not at all noticeable. Yet it had halted her. It had made her acquiesce to him. This small touch that was so familiar, yet so innocent. Unremarkable.
But Todd knew. He knew at last the final piece. The one thing he had been waiting to learn. He knew at last what would break John Sheppard.
Todd smiled.