It took the four men just over five minutes to reach the security offices in the lower levels of the hotel. And to Evan, it was five minutes too long.
Agent Marks immediately commandeered the security office, gaining them access to video footage from all the cameras in the entire hotel complex. The young security guard seemed more than compliant with turning things over to the agents as soon as Marks and Ryan flashed their badges, and introduced the Colonel and the Major.
"The IOA owns the hotel." Marks answered John's quizzical look.
"What do you need, Sirs?" The young man asked, swiveling his chair around to face the bank of monitors in front of him.
"Footage from the north-west corridor, seventeenth floor." John ordered. "Last forty-five minutes."
With a few keystrokes, he pulled up the image of the hallway on the screen in front of him, the digital clock showing the scene from forty-five minutes earlier. The camera looked down from its vantage point high in the ceiling, portraying a sloped view of the entire corridor, ending with the stairwell doors at the far end.
They began scrolling through the footage, stopping every time someone appeared.
First up was a patron coming from the elevator bank and letting himself into a room down the hallway. Then, Evan and Jen walking down the hall, arm in arm, heading for the suite. Evan opening the door and holding it open for her. Fast forward to the arrival of Agent Ryan, then an elderly couple exiting their room and moving down the hallway towards the elevator bank.
"Stop." John ordered, pointing to three men exiting from the stairwell at the end of the corridor.
The first man was big and burly, at least three hundred pounds of solid bouncer. Dressed in jeans and a leather jacket, he was gripping the upper arm of a young business man, and half dragging him down the hallway. Behind them followed a third man, tall and skinny, who was dressed in a dark suit, his hand tellingly tucked inside his suit jacket.
"Shit…" Ryan exhaled. "That's Christophe Kotko." He pointed to the bulky man. "Goon for hire. The guy would kill his own mother for a penny." Then he pointed to the skinny man. "Larry Rousseau. Franks' go-too guy."
Marks leaned closer and pointed to the young man in the gray business suit who was being urged down the hallway. As they watched the men on the video closing in on the door to the suite, Marks glanced of his shoulder towards Ryan.
"Is that Liam?"
Ryan stepped forward and squinted. "Sure as hell looks like him."
"Who's Liam?" John asked.
Evan joined the crowded group around the monitor. "Why does he look familiar?"
"You saw him this morning." Marks looked up sharply. "That's one of Director Wilsher's assistants."
Evan nodded, now recognizing the young man as the one who'd carried in the box of damaged hard-drives from the burnt out lab.
On the video, the trio stopped in the hallway just down from the door to the suite. Liam was talking animatedly – perhaps even pleading by the look of his arm movements, but his over-sized companion didn't seem impressed. A few short words from Kotko and Liam stilled and nodded, stepping back quickly when his arm was released.
Kotko walked past the double doors to the suite, then set himself against the wall. His skinny companion, Rousseau, took up the same position on the other side of the door, removed something small and black from his pocket, then nodded to Liam.
"Oh, hell." John muttered, immediately understanding what was about to happen.
After wiping his hands on the sides of his jacket, Liam knocked on the door.
At this point on the video, Evan was pretty sure no one in the security room was breathing.
When the door opened, they saw Liam step back, his hands moving while he spoke, then Jennifer stepped into the hallway. With a blur of movement, Kotko had his hand over her mouth while Rousseau jabbed the object he held against her side.
Evan felt his own body jerk in response to the image of Jen sandwiched between the two men, her body convulsing stiffly before crumpling. His heart stopped beating long enough for him to feel the slamming pain when it kicked in again.
"Oh god…" The young security guard exclaimed, rocking back in his chair. "Please tell me he didn't just…"
Evan didn't want the kid to complete the thought… or the sentence. He wouldn't… couldn't let himself think anything other than the fact that she'd be just fine.
"Fuck…" John cursed, his hands tightly clenched at his sides while they watched Kotko toss Jennifer's limp form over his shoulder like she was nothing more than a sack of feed grain.
They all stared in silence as the large man quickly carried her down the hallway, while Rousseau dragged Liam along behind. It wasn't missed that Liam turned and stared pointedly up at the camera.
"He knows we're watching." Marks said with a frown.
"Here's the feed from the stairwell." The security guard switched the video, and after a few seconds, showed the group descending down to the tenth floor.
Rousseau entered the hallway, then returned a few moments later with a housekeeping bin filled with sheets or towels. Lifting several layers, he pulled out a large chunk of cloth, then stood aside as Kotko unceremoniously dumped Jennifer into the bin.
"Jeezus." Evan cursed, taking a step back, then forward again. His fingers rubbed the cutting pain he could feel in his chest.
Removing his leather jacket, Kotko dropped it into the bin right on top of Jennifer. Rousseau quickly covered her with the white towels, effectively burying her body.
Kotko then unrolled the cloth and stepped into a pair of gray coveralls. With a nod to his companions, he pushed the cart out into the hallway of the tenth floor. Liam and Rousseau continued on down the stairs.
"Follow Kotko." John ordered, clamping his hand down on the security guard's shoulder.
Several minutes later they had the entire scene played out. The bin was moved from the service elevator to the loading docks in the basement. Liam, after receiving an obvious verbal threat, ran off into the parking garage and got into a small, red hatchback. Rousseau met up with Kotko on the loading dock, where they wheeled the entire basket into a plain, white delivery van, and drove out into the street.
"Fuck." Evan exhaled, hoping to God they'd want her alive.
"I didn't see any blood." Ryan said quickly.
Evan swallowed hard and glanced towards the Agent.
Ryan pointed to the screen. "Whatever was in his hand? I don't think he shot her. There's no blood. A gunshot wound that close would have left a hell of a mess, and so would a knife."
"If they wanted her dead they wouldn't have hidden her and taken her away." Marks suggested, his tone unsure.
Evan's head swam with a mix of horror and relief. He knew he wasn't thinking clearly. He should have seen that himself. There hadn't been any blood… but… then again… he'd seen weapons that could kill without leaving a mark.
His panic level shot right back up again.
He'd just found out that two years of verbal sparring might actually mean more to her than just words. He'd just found out that someone like her could really be for someone like him. He'd just found a treasure and someone had stolen it right out from under him. He couldn't lose her. Not now. Not like this. Not with so much left unknown and unsaid.
He clenched his fists and held them stiffly at his side, willing himself to breath. To concentrate. To bury the emotions. If they were going to find her – bring her back – he needed to keep a clear head. She needed him to keep a clear head.
"Hang on." The security guard turned the screen back to the hallway shot, and after making some adjustments, zoomed into the object in Rousseau's hand. The room fell silent as he adjusted the image, looking for a clearer shot. He finally nodded. "I think it's a taser."
Evan didn't know whether or not he could breath yet. "You're sure?"
"Pretty sure." He pointed to the screen. "The image is grainy... but the size and shape is right."
John ran his hand through his hair and exhaled. "The charge might be enough to disrupt the transmitter. Would explain why we're not picking it up." He clamped his hand down on the security guard's shoulder. "I need a copy of this footage and everything you have on these guys, especially the kid…"
Marks nodded. "Liam Shannon."
"Shannon?" Evan frowned, and looked directly at John. "Isn't there a Lieutenant James Shannon..."
"Yeah." John nodded. "There is. Could be a coincidence."
"No coincidence." Marks said firmly. "Jamie Shannon is his older brother."
Evan cursed. One brother in Atlantis – accessing the enzyme. And another brother on Earth, involved in kidnapping Jennifer. They'd just found their traitor. Or in this case. Traitors. Plural.
John turned to Marks and Ryan, his face stony. "Get me that kid."
Ryan yanked his phone out of his pocket and called his office, ordering a BOLO on Liam Shannon and his little red hatchback.
Marks stepped towards John. "I'll get Dr. McKay access to the city wide cameras. If he's as good as you say he is, it shouldn't take him long to piece together which way they've gone."
"He's good enough not to need your access codes." John replied curtly.
The security guard swung around in his chair and held out a small USB jump drive. "All the footage for the entire complex for the last hour."
John nodded and dropped it into his pocket.
"I'll contact you as soon as we have anything." Marks said briskly, stepping out of the way.
John looked at Evan. "Major, it's time to go hunting."
After completing a fast run to the supply room, Evan hurried through the corridors on the Daedalus. Dressing in the familiar BDU's helped clear his mind and allowed him to compress everything save for the mission at hand.
"What have we got?" He asked as he strode into the lab.
Rodney glanced up and waved him over to where he and John were standing next to one of the computers.
"The taser would definitely have fried her transmitter." Rodney was saying, making calculations on his tablet. "There's no way we'll be able to track it until it comes back online."
"Online?" Evan asked hopefully.
Rodney nodded. "Maybe. We're not sure if its dead or just out of whack. In the mean time I'm cross referencing traffic cameras, city cameras, ATM cameras, webcams, security cameras, anything that's recording a digital signal, we're into. I've been able to piece it's route together until it reached the interstate about thirty minutes ago." he pointed out to a highlighted layout of the city map.
"So where is she?" Evan asked.
Rodney glanced at John, and something in his look turned Evan's heart to stone. "What."
John ran his hand through his hair. "Private airfield south of the city. Marks people confirmed that Frank's limo was already there when the panel van pulled up. Something was loaded into the plane, but they weren't close enough to get a good look."
"They let him take her?!" Evan practically shouted.
John shook his head. "They were too far away to do anything before the plane was on the runway, Major. You know as well as I do if they'd have had the chance, they would have taken it."
Rodney switched the map to an overview of the state. "Private jet." He pointed to a red dot tracking slowly across the screen. "We'll be able to tag them as soon as they land. If her transmitter comes back online, we can beam her out of there. But in the mean time…"
"There has to be something we can do…" Evan looked around at the incredible amount of advanced technology he was surrounded by. With all the advances at their fingertips… there was nothing they could use?
John shook his head. "We can't take any chances now that they're in the air."
"Beam us over there!"
John shook his head. "Too risky." He held up his hand when Evan opened his mouth to interrupt. "It's a small plane, Major. There's no room to just beam someone over without an incredibly high-rate of error. Beaming her out would simple if we could get a lock on her transmitter. Beaming someone in, more difficult since we don't have an exact layout or placement of our people. The slightest miscalculation and we could rematerialize the person outside the plane, not to mention get Keller killed if we suddenly appear out of thin air."
"Then beam them all here." Evan suggested, exasperated. Desperate.
"Already thought of that." McKay wriggled his index finger.
"But…" John glared at Rodney. "We can't just beam everyone out of the plane. We'd be leaving it without a pilot and it's flying over highly-populated residential areas. Yes, we could beam them all out except the pilot, but the implications of using a beaming technology that doesn't exist to a ship orbiting the planet is dangerous at best. We have no idea who else is on the plane, what kind of hardware they're carrying, or what kind of damage could be done. If they know about the Enzyme and Atlantis, there's a chance they may also know about the Daedalus and her technology. They could very well be prepared for such an occurrence, and we can't take that chance."
Evan ran his hand over his face and cursed. He knew the Colonel was right. Knew it was logical. But he didn't like it, didn't want to hear it, and didn't want to be agreeing with it.
John sighed. "Look. I want to go in there with guns blasting just as much as you do. But it's not an option. Not yet. Rodney's tracking the plane. As soon as it lands, we're going in. But until then…"
"We wait." Evan exhaled, glaring at the red dot inching slowly across McKay's computer screen.
"We wait." John confirmed.