CHAPTER 18 – STANDOFF
She was unable to scream – the hand clamped over her mouth was hard and unforgiving and she knew that she had made a terrible mistake in coming here without any sort of plan, and knew that she had likely put the rest of the team in jeopardy because of it.
His voice growled softly in her ear. "Bitch! I know who sent you through the stargate to Atlantis – and he has been taken care of. Weak links, they bring the chain of command to a grinding halt. You should have taken that second chance you were given and gone quietly back to earth and lived a peaceful life. Stupid fool. You meddle in things you have no knowledge of."
The marines were well out of sight now, and he stood pulling her back further into the bushes. "What are those marines looking for? Did you lead them here?" Dani's eyes widened briefly. He had not connected the marines with the meeting between John, Ronon and his rogue team, but had assumed that some unlocked memory had led her here with back up.
"Damn it Ted, let me go. You're an idiot. You think you'll get away with what you've done? The commander at stargate command knows all about you, all about the vice president and the little game he has going on here in the Pegasus Galaxy. It's only a matter of time before you all get pulled in. You've been identified through photos."
"You, sweet Dani, are the stupid one. Where's you proof? Lost that, didn't you – along with your memory."
"Memories come back Ted, when you least expect them..." He saw the challenge in her eyes, and saw the strength was back, from the woman she had been before. Strong willed and determined, yes – that is what had drawn her to him in the beginning. But she had gotten in the way of his plans and had become a liability. He had been ordered to get rid of her as soon as it became clear that she held vital evidence that could incriminate the entire rogue operation. And it hadn't been hard. He was a trained killer – but he had to learn the location of her hidden files first, so that relied on a certain amount of torture. Unfortunately she had passed out before she could give the location, and the member of their group who had felt remorse at what they had done, and sent her back to Atlantis before she regained consciousness.
"Tell you what Dani? I'll give you one more chance to tell me where those files are hidden. Just tell me where they are, I won't hurt you again, and you can stay here on Atlantis, and start over, a new life. This will all go away and we need never see each other again. Does that sound like a viable plan...hmmm?"
"Go to hell Ted! You'll get nothing from me!' He hit her then, hard and her scream of pain as he struck her broken ribs echoed through the forest area and he was quick to pull her up by the hair and clamp a hand back over her mouth.
"Shut up bitch! I'm not finished with you yet!" With his hand still over her mouth, he banded his other hand around her stomach and pushed her along in front of him and she felt the sharp pain in her ribs with each movement and knew that he had done more damage to them.
Dani's echoing scream had been heard by Lorne and his men, and they had halted. "What the hell was that?" whispered one of the marines urgently. "There should be no one out here, except perhaps some of the rogue team members if they arrived earlier than we did. That sounded like a woman and she sounded scared."
"Yeah, I'm getting a bit of those spidey senses happening that Sheppard is famous for. I'm going to contact Atlantis, warn them that something is not right." Lorne activated his radio and contacted Atlantis.
"Dr Weir, Lorne here. Has Colonel Sheppard left yet?"
"Not yet Major Lorne, he is with me now, just about to leave. Has something happened?" Elizabeth was immediately concerned.
"I don't know Dr Weir. We heard a woman scream and we're in a pretty remote area here, there should be no one else around, other than members of the rogue team."
John had been silent, but now turned urgently to Elizabeth. "Where is Dani? Has anyone seen her in the past two hours?" In response, Elizabeth activated her comm and opened up several channels to check on her whereabouts and came back with the response that she had not been seen since she left the mess this morning.
"Damn. Got a bad feeling about this..." He dragged a hand through his hair. "Lorne, Sheppard here. Any chance that you had a stowaway on one of the jumpers?"
"Are you serious Colonel? Why the hell would she do that?"
It was Ronan who answered. "She said it was her problem and that she felt bad for making it your problem. She wants to finish this, confront him."
"Damn!" Lorne swore into his comm. "If that was her we heard scream, then that can only been she's been caught. What do you want us to do Colonel?"
"Ronan and I can't jeopardise the mission at this stage, so you and your team will have to try and track her down. She's going to get more than a good talking to when I get my hands on her."
"Roger that Colonel, I just hope that there is something left of her to get your hands on..." and left John with a sickening feeling in his stomach.