John's body was on fire. His bruises stung and blood filled his mouth. Without bothering to turn aside, John leaned over and spit out a fairly large amount of blood. It landed conveniently on Argrose boot. Fortunately for John, Argrose didn't react.
Whether purposefully or not all John's wounds were superficial, with the exception of the knife wound on his still-sore leg. Regardless of the fact that they were superficial, they were still quite painful.
Argrose feeling considerably better having pounded out most of his anger and frustration, checked checked the sensors again, which took another ten minutes to hack. He rerouted his course and lifted John Sheppard, who groaned in pain. John was getting extremely tired of being carried around. He thought over his previous escapes. Clearly he couldn't do what he'd done the first time and stab Argrose. Yanking himself out of Argrose's grasp wasn't an option anymore either, which left two and four out of it. Three though. Hitting Argrose in the head was very appealing at that moment.
Lorne continued through the hallways as fast and as thoroughly as he could. Unfortunately, life signs detectors wouldn't help. Lorne briefly wondered what was hiding the Colonel from the sensors. Turning back to the task at hand, Lorne opened the next door. Same old, same old. Blue walls, bright lights, blue floors, big consoles... red what? He knelt by the blood, mostly it was tiny pools. Looking around he saw red sprinkles on the wall.
This better not mean what I think it means. He thought. Sighing he tapped his radio. "Dr. Weir."
What is it Major? Dr. Weir asked after a moment.
"I've found a room with blood in it. I'm assuming it's Colonel Sheppard's, I don't think it could belong to anyone else."
How much blood. Lorne heard concern in Dr. Weir's voice.
"Not a whole lot, but..."
But?
"Based on the way the blood is also on the wall and some of it is smudged on the floor, it looks like Colonel Sheppard took a few punches." Lorne explained, wincing involuntarily.
Alright, I'll have Dr. Beckett on standby. Sounds like the sooner you find him the better. Dr. Weir said, closing the connection.
"Definitely looks that way." Lorne agreed out loud.
"Rodney, you said you had something." Elizabeth walked hopefully into the room.
"Yes I think I do have something. Its not the fastest plan but its a plan nonetheless." Rodney said turning to look a her.
"Well?" Elizabeth raised her eyebrows, trying not to sound as impatient as she felt.
"Radek and I have been scouring the database for anything that could hide Mr. Bolue and Sheppard from the sensors. I found a drug called Av'b, the ancients have a large section for it but we don't need to go into detail. Av'b, when administered, changes the energy signature the human body gives off. Thus hiding whoever has it from the sensors." Turning to the display, Rodney tapped a few keys to bring up a section of the city schematics. "The room where Argrose spent the last 10,000 years is here." Rodney pointed to a room close to the bottom of the screen. "There is a lab right here, it holds Avb. This is where the Ancients studied it and developed it." This time Rodney indicated to a spot slightly left of the holding room. "I'm guessing that Argrose got his current supply from there." Continuing to speak but tapping a few keys at the same time. "Assuming Argrose stops for more, he'll end up here." The display moved to a different section of the city and Rodney pointed to the room in the center of the screen.
"So we put a team of marines there to catch him, and we find Sheppard." Elizabeth smiled. She felt better than she had all day.
"Maybe two or three teams of marines, the guy is a murderer and escapist." Rodney added.
"Good idea, but Rodney..."
"What?"
"How can you be sure he'll stop for more?" Elizabeth asked, genuinely curious.
"The database said that Avb requires a large dosage to work. Plus it wears off every twelve or so hours. Argrose has to have carried enough for himself and Sheppard. Seeing as how Argrose has managed to keep Sheppard from escaping I don't think could have carried enough." Rodney expanded. Then he frowned. "You know whats really weird though?"
"Is something wrong?" Elizabeth questioned, raising a brow.
"No. Its just," Rodney took a breath before continuing. "The file for Av'b came up almost immediately when I started to search through the database. Its like someone knew I was looking for it, popped up outta nowhere. It should of taken me much longer to find it."
Now it was Elizabeth's turn to frown, it was weird. "Well, let's just be grateful you did find it."
Uh-ho reverberated through John's mind. Argrose was doing an exemplary job of avoiding detection. What was annoying John the most was that since Argrose had tired of holding him off the floor, he was now dragging John on the floor.
Suddenly Argrose let go of John. John rolled into a sitting position, Argrose was hiding behind a pillar and firing the stunner with excellent precision. At who, John couldn't see. Eight times John counted. Eight times he heard the unmistakable sound of people hitting the floor. John got a clear look at the two teams of marines laying on the floor as he was dragged passed. He groaned through the gag, which was blood-red in several places, compliments of Argrose.
Argrose let go of him again and moved out of John's vision. After re-convincing himself that he couldn't remove the cuffs, and crawling wasn't going to help, John let his mind wander. He wondered if he could count a rescue attempt as an escape attempt. He mentally debated for ten minutes, coming to the final decision that it was an escape attempt, just not made by himself. It was the marines failed attempt to help him escape. John grimaced, five then, he was really beginning to wish Atlantis hadn't noticed Argrose's room. Thinking of Atlantis made John slightly sad, he really missed talking to her and feeling her. Returning to his previous train of thought, John hoped there were less attempts and maybe a success in his future.
"Major?" Elizabeth looked up from her computer as Lorne walked in.
"I'm sorry ma'am. This Argrose guy took all eight of us out with his stunner so quick we barely got any shots in ourselves." Lorne said.
"It's alright major." Though Elizabeth's head was screaming it wasn't alright. "Did you at least get a look at Colonel Sheppard?"
Lorne gave a half-hearted smile. "Argrose has him tied head to foot. Guess Colonel Sheppard gave him some difficulties. He was moving though."
"Not much of a comfort there." Elizabeth said.
"I try to stay positive." Lorne answered, trying to lighten the mood, when in reality he felt like strangling someone. Argrose Bolue was cunning and for the people of Atlantis that was a very bad thing.