Chapter 11

Reason to Believe

Rodney woke to the sound of running water. He lifted a weary hand and scrubbed at the grit that glued his eyelashes shut. He looked around, momentarily confused, as he remembered where he was and the events of the previous night. He sighed, frustrated with the lack of progress in translating the stone tablet and finding Carson. "Where the hell are you Carson?" Rodney asked the silent walls as if he expected them to provide insight to the question that plagued him for the last fifteen hours.

"Did you sleep at all?" Kiyah padded quietly into the room on bare feet.

"Do you make it a habit of sneaking up on people? Or is it just me?" Rodney snapped at her, annoyance masked his temporary fright.

Kiyah cast him a baleful glance and detoured into the kitchen. Slamming doors and banging dishes communicated her own hostility toward the acerbic man in her apartment. Kiyah liked solitude, valued her privacy over any material possession she owned. She scooped coffee beans into the grinder, pulsed the machine, poured the fresh grounds into a clean filter and started a new pot of coffee brewing. She found comfort in the familiar rhythms of her life.

She stepped out on the small balcony of her third floor apartment and leaned against the railing, her eyes focused on the mist-shrouded mountains in the distance. Kiyah closed her eyes against a flood of memories. She'd tried for five years to put her past behind her. She wanted nothing more than to rewrite those painful chapters of her life, to forget the mistakes that exacted so high a price. She thought she had, until that hike in the desert and the discovery of those characters etched into the sandstone.

Kiyah swiped a hand against the heat in her eyes, pressing back the moisture that threatened. Her shower damp, freshly-washed hair hung limp against her back, bled water into her thin tank shirt. The shivers running down her back had nothing to do with the chilly morning air. She thought about Dr. Jackson, about how she'd approached him when she recognized certain symbols on the rock art panel in the Utah desert. His excitement reignited a passion she thought long tamped down and she cursed the damnable curiosity ingrained in her psyche.

That panel and Dr. Jackson opened the door to her former life. Just a crack, but it was enough. She didn't know how, didn't understand it; but the people he'd brought into her life last night had flung that door wide. Kiyah was drowning in a sea of doubt and fear and conflict. In less than a day, three strangers had walked into her carefully constructed little world and leveled it with all the power of a nuclear detonation. She felt a little like Humpty-Dumpty and doubted she'd ever be whole again.

She sighed, pushed her wet hair off her forehead and turned to study the stocky man in her apartment. He stood with his back to the door, unaware of the scrutiny aimed in his direction. Sharp-tongued and condescending, Rodney McKay was unlike anyone Kiyah had ever met. He wore his ill temper like a mask; yet his face was an open screen to his emotions. Kiyah wondered if he knew just how easily he could be read by observant eyes. She sighed again and turned back to the misted mountains, rubbed her hands briskly over the goose flesh on her arms. She was cold, but preferred standing on the balcony; her apartment was a little too crowded for her comfort. She hoped they found Carson soon. She didn't think she could handle much more togetherness with these people from the SGC.

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Jennifer shifted under the warm blanket and pulled the pillow closer to her face. She'd have to hand it to Kiyah, the guest room was quite comfortable and she slept deeply for several hours, even though she was worried about Carson. The scent of freshly brewed coffee tickled her nose and tempted her out of her snug nest. She dressed quickly, ran her hands through her hair, finger combing the knots woven in during sleep.

She found Rodney much as she had left him the night before; studying the artifacts and muttering under his breath. He looked older; the lack of sleep smudged dark shadows under his eyes and etched lines around his mouth. He frowned at the laptop, tapped keys with one hand while the other clutched a mug of coffee like a lifeline.

"Hey. You have any luck with that?" Jennifer helped herself to a cup of coffee.

"Some. Most of what I've been able to translate is a bunch of medical mumbo jumbo. This really is more up Carson's alley, or yours, but from what little I've found, the Ancients definitely used the device to study ascension. I think it has other functions too, but I haven't figured it out yet." Rodney scowled at the tablet and his notes and sucked coffee from the mug.

"Where's Kiyah?" Jennifer looked around for their reluctant hostess.

"Out there." Rodney waved in the general direction of the balcony. Jennifer followed his gesture, noticed Kiyah leaning against the balcony railing. Her eyes narrowed as she watched the other woman. Kiyah's posture radiated tension, her back rigid, her arms clenched tightly around her torso in a self-comforting hug.

"Rodney, Kiyah told me something last night. I think it might have something to do with Carson." He looked up sharply at Jennifer's comment.

"Oh really."

"Yes. She seemed upset about it last night..."

"And she didn't think enough of it to share with all of us."

"It's not like that, Rodney. She's not sure." Jennifer told him about the photographs and Lydia's suspicious behavior. "So you see its all speculation and coincidence. There's no hard evidence and that's why Kiyah didn't say anything." Jennifer wrapped the story as Kiyah stepped back into the kitchen.

Rodney turned an accusatory stare her way. "So your boss is acting 'weird'" his fingers twitched as he emphasized the word with air quotes "and you didn't think it was important enough to tell us."

Kiyah folded her arms across her chest and returned his glare. "What are you saying, Dr. McKay?" Her voice was soft and dangerous.

"Well, it is strangely convenient; everything that's happening and you seem to be in the middle of it."

"Yeah, lucky me. Look, I didn't say anything last night because I wasn't sure. Lydia's a freak; it's just the past few weeks she's been acting weirder than usual. You met her. She's not exactly what you'd call approachable and if we go charging in with wild accusations...things could get ugly."

"How?"

"I think Lydia had the former owner of Caffiends killed so she could take over." Kiyah rubbed her hands over her arms again and held Rodney's shocked expression. "Lydia is not a nice person. She's not one to let obstacles, people or conditions, get in her way."

Rodney fidgeted with the coffee mug in his hands. Kiyah's words were disturbing and his mind was in overdrive as he reconsidered what Jennifer said earlier.

"So you think Lydia is involved in Carson's disappearance."

"Maybe. Probably. She took a great deal of interest in you yesterday and she was watching you last night. She's up to something, but I have no idea what."

"Then we need to find out."

"How? Rodney, you heard what Kiyah said. We can't just go in there asking questions. If she is behind Carson's disappearance, we could make things worse for him." Jennifer voiced her own concerns.

"It wouldn't do any good anyway. She's not here."

"Not here?"

"Yeah, it's Saturday. Lydia never works on Saturdays. Her office will be empty but she keeps it locked."

"Well then that's a problem."

"Not really." Kiyah grinned. "Jerry used to lock himself out of it all the time. He finally made a spare key and gave it to me for safe keeping. Lydia never changed the locks, so." She ended with a shrug.

"So we have a way in."

"Still doesn't solve the problem, though, of finding anything. I mean, we don't even know what we are looking for, let alone where it might be hidden."

"You said she took pictures of us."

"Yeah, with her cell phone."

"Then she had to download them somewhere. If she's looking for information about us, then she's probably keeping it on a computer."

"So? How are we supposed to access it without passwords?"

Rodney folded his arms across his chest, his face a mask of smug superiority. "I have yet to meet a computer I couldn't hack."

Kiyah studied his face, searched for duplicity. She saw only confident certainty in his ability to do as he claimed. "Ok, then I guess we are going to Caffiends, but we need to be careful. I'm not supposed to be there today either, and if I just show up it could raise suspicions."

"Why? You work there."

"Right. I work there. And since Lydia showed up, no one goes near the place on their days off. If I just show up, for no good reason, it might set off Lydia's radar. And she's likely to find out. Jill and Tim aren't very good at keeping secrets."

"So how are we going to get in?"

"Through the storage room. There's a root cellar in the back of the building. I don't think Lydia knows about it or cares. Jerry used to keep his stash there. Anyway, the root cellar gets us into the storeroom and from there we can sneak down the hallway to Lydia's office." Kiyah sketched a diagram of the coffee shop for them.

"That should do it."

"Yeah, there's just one small problem."

"And that would be?"

"The stairs leading up to the storeroom are broken. Whoever is going has to climb the frame. It's only about 15-20 feet but it is a little tricky."

"Wonderful. And you've done this before?"

"Yeah. Jerry lost the keys to the doors once. He had a spare set locked in his office and I had the office key, so I got volunteered to let us in the building." Kiyah smiled, her eyes sad and distant as she recalled the past. "Anyway, I've done it once. I can do it again."

"So when do we go?" Jennifer was ready. The longer she thought about Lydia and what Kiyah told her, the greater her concern for their missing friend. Carson had been gone far too long in her opinion and the sooner they found him the better.

"Soon. But someone needs to stay here. Daniel's on his way over and I want to get this stuff out of here." Kiyah gestured at the research and artifacts scattered over the table. "If Lydia is involved with any of this, then this stuff isn't safe here. Dr. Keller, would you stay and help Daniel when he gets here?"

"Sure. And please, it's Jennifer or Jen."

"Right, Jennifer."

Kiyah turned to Rodney. "Looks like it's you and me then."

He frowned but nodded. He'd rather have someone else watching his back on this little adventure. If Lydia was as dangerous as Kiyah implied, he wondered how reliable Kiyah would be if something went wrong. And this had Murphy's handiwork all over it as far as he was concerned.

Rodney McKay didn't believe in coincidence, but life in the Pegasus Galaxy had taught him some harsh lessons about best laid plans and teams and trust. Kiyah was an unknown variable in a carefully constructed equation. Unknowns tended to be hazardous to one's health, especially if that one was the most brilliant mind in two galaxies, and therefore were to be avoided. Rodney watched the coffee barista out of the corner of his eye as he saved his work on his borrowed computer. He didn't like it, but Rodney was about to put his trust into the unknown. "Carson, you'd better appreciate this." He muttered under his breath as he shut down the laptop and shrugged into his jacket.

He glared at Kiyah, flashed Jennifer a grim smile. "Let's do this."

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