CHAPTER 69 – PROTECT AND SERVE
Everyone seemed to have forgotten one very important thing. Gina had never experienced gate travel before. Compounded with the fact that she was almost three months pregnant – her arrival on the other side had her sitting down suddenly and leaning over to retch. Lorne was at her side in seconds, cursing himself that he had forgotten what that first trip through was like. One took it for granted and it was a traumatic experience that was more intense than the world's fastest rollercoaster, leaving you breathless, freezing and nauseous on the other side. Of course, your body quickly adjusted to it over time, but that first time? Lorne could still recall it, and was crouched beside her, hand at her back and pulling out a cloth to wipe her face.
"Aah hell, Gina – I'm sorry – I should have remembered that you hadn't done this before. Kinda takes the breath away, huh?"
She leaned into him, grateful for his support and let him help her up. They surveyed the area surrounding the stargate where several bodies lay. The MALP had successfully gone through first and after visual had established that it was indeed guarded by unfriendlies, they had remotely activated the firing mechanism and the guards around the gate had been gunned down instantly. Gina pushed the feeling of distaste from her mouth, and the residual taste of the nausea that had just plagued her. She took a swig of the water that Lorne handed her and pushed the cloth into one of her pockets.
"Feeling better?" He looked down at her, after ensuring that there was no further threat around the gate. Teams two and three had already gone through and were searching for the portal, as per his plan. They could wait here for a few minutes to receive updates from them, then their job was to locate Colonel Sheppard and his team. Lorne wanted to wait until Gina had full equilibrium back, then they would move out.
"Yeah, thanks Major. Just needed a moment. Don't know that I particularly enjoyed that little trip. I'll take your word that it gets better, and perhaps I won't have to put it to the test too much."
"Unfortunately it's the way back to earth, and most of our offworld excursions. We use the jumpers from time to time, but if you're going to eventually join one of the teams here, then gate travel is a part of your life."
"Super..." Her dry humour had him chuckling and he gave the sign for his team to move out. He kept her close beside him, the rest of team four fanned out around them, keeping both Lorne and Gina as their centre. Protecting her. They kept close to the buildings as they entered the city and as they arrived on the outskirts, Lorne indicated to his team that they needed to stand down for a moment and regroup. Leaning against the wall, Gina tipped her face up to the weak sun that shone through and briefly thought about her beloved island, where the sun was always hot. She had felt more or less constantly cold since her arrival in Atlantis, and wondered if she would ever see her old home again. Then quickly pushed that unwelcome thought away. This was her new home now – and she had a new life. A new family.
Lorne radioed teams two and three to check on their progress and kept throwing concerned glances at Gina. He had seen the play of emotions on her face and knew what sort of direction they would be taking. A lot happening inside her, he knew that and wished that he could give her back a little of her equilibrium. One friend to another. She sensed him looking at her and saw the question in his look and smiled. Leaned into him. One friend to another. They would be ok.
Lorne received radio confirmation back from teams two and three. So far no sign of the portal and there was still a lot of ground to cover in under 18 hours. Sam had told them that the arranged handover point was the stargate at 0900 hours the next morning. Lorne had assumed this meant that the portal was near the gate. There was no way that they would risk dragging Gina a long distance, knowing that it was likely she would have people coming after her within a short time. Using this premise, Lorne had instructed teams two and three to begin their search from the gate, one team taking the eastern path and the other the western. If nothing registered in either of those directions within a two click radius, then they were to regroup at the gate and take northern and southern paths beyond the gate.
He turned now to address his team, Gina leaning comfortably against him, face still tipped slightly to take in the weak sun. He brushed his hand against hers and felt the chill there, unsure whether her cold came from within or just the fact that there was little warmth from the sun. He hoped it was the latter.
"Ok team. No good news yet from those searching for the portal. We have to proceed with finding the Colonel and his team. This city is larger than we thought and it will take some time to locate the building where they are being held. Remember, you're looking for a large structure, likely resembling a warehouse of some sort. It will be guarded and heavily. Given what we did to them back on the mainland, they'll not be such easy targets this time. Be vigilant. Priority? Get the Colonel and his team out, terminal force required for unfriendlies. Also a priority? Gina is to be kept close at all times, do not allow them an opening to get to her. Bait yes, but protected bait. Am I clear on that one?" He received confirmation from his team and giving her hand a reassuring squeeze, he pushed away from the wall and the warmth he was giving her and took the lead.
They attracted many curious glances from the city residents and knowing that they were likely dressed in similar attire to the men who were now holding their fellow team members hostage, this at least afforded them some measure of invisibility. At one point Lorne pulled Gina behind him, and back up into an open door, gesturing for his men to do the same. They melted into the shadows,black combat gear dissolving once out of the light and Gina felt her heart racing. Lorne felt it also, she was pressed up against his back and he reached behind with a hand to calm her and he murmured softly. "Some of their soldiers, coming in from our left flank. Shhh.. let them go past us. We'll follow them." He did not need words with his men - a series of hand signals to them and they immediately knew what was going down.
"You think they'll lead us to John?" He voice was hopeful and breathed softly into his ear.
He turned his face slightly and his cheek rubbed against hers and if he'd been any other sort of man he could have moved a millimeter more and his lips would have been on hers. But he was not that man. And was able to breathe normally and reply to her in a soft voice. "That's what I'm hoping Gina. At some point we'll meet up with a group of them who are either going or returning from wherever they're being held. I hope that it's the former."
They waited in the shadows, unmoving and silent as the men went past. There were four of them and Lorne knew he could have stepped out right now with his team of six and taken them down immediately. Simply raised his P90 and opened fire. It would have been open and shut - easy. But they needed to get to the Colonel, and for now, these men were both the link to where they were being held, and in all likelihood, would provide a clue as to where the portal was. Lorne briefly debated leaving Gina here, tucked away securely in the shadows so that he and his men could move with stealth after them. But knew the consequences of leaving her anywhere unguarded. If she was captured they would take her immediately through the portal and it would become next to impossible to get her back. No, he would take her with them, keeping her as close as he could and hoped that her stealth capabilities were a little higher than those she displayed on the obstacle course. And pushed back a smile as her ferocious expression as she became entangled in the low ropes rose into his mind.
They eased their way after the men, Gina keeping tight behind Lorne and he acknowledged that she did indeed possess suitable stealth capabilities. She was small and light and walked quietly with little disturbance in the air as she moved. And he was certainly aware of her pressed up tightly against him, so that their movements became almost one. He halted his group when the men they were following appeared to slow their pace, and melted into a recess between buildings, Gina pushed back behind Lorne still. They had pulled something out of their pockets and they were talking and gesturing in a direction to their right and after much discussion, which Lorne unfortunately could not hear due to their low tones, they turned to their right and Lorne quickly gestured for his group to follow.
By the time they had gotten to the end of that street the men had disappeared, and Lorne thought quickly. They must have gone inside a building, and doing a quick reconnaissance, found that there was indeed a large structure to their right, that looked to be some sort of warehouse.
A series of hand signals and they huddled together, ducking behind a large rubbish receptacle for cover. "I see two entrances to the building. We know that four men have entered and their are likely more in their guarding the Colonel. We are six, three will take the door to the east and my team will take the west. Colonel Carter's intel shows them being held in small cages in the centre of the room. We'll provide a distraction in order to hit both doors at once."
Lorne pulled out two packets of C4,and handing one to one of his men, he kept the other and the two of them quickly set the fuses. He left Gina with the men, and they took the C4, placed them in the doorway and ran back to their cover, detonated the C4 and waited for the explosion. Everything happened at once after that. Lorne had his men move simultaneously with the explosions and they were through the doors, weapons up and ready to fire, gunning down four men before the smoke from the explosion had even had a chance to settle. Gina had hung back when they started to move. She had brought her own P90 up ready, intent on using it just as Lorne had shown her, but decided to let the dust settle a little before she went in. She counted to ten, then moved in quietly through the closer door.
There was still smoke swirling ominously around the warehouse. She heard men coughing and someone was moaning on the ground to her left. She moved that way quickly, just in case it was one of their own men and when she saw that it wasn't she moved further into the room, following the sounds of weapon fire and shouting. When the smoke finally cleared she saw that Lorne had managed to secure the room and was in the process of opening the cages on the floor. She met the angry glare of the man in the centre cage and she knew immediately that he was furious that she was here.
"What the hell are you doing here. What was Sam thinking? Lorne - what were you thinking? Dammit Gina, these bastards are after you, and you get brought here like bait? Jesus, Lorne - get me outta here now!"
His angry roar brought a tight smile to Lorne's face and he answered dryly. "Just about to do that Sir!"
He used his beretta to fire a close range round at each lock and by the time the three were out of their cages, John's temper had escalated to volcanic proportions.
"Gina, damnit - I want to speak to you - now!"
Lorne looked around, as did Ronon and Teyla. They had seen Gina standing more or less in front of the cages. Some residual smoke still lingered, but they did not see her in the room and Lorne, panicking a little now moved to the corners of the room to make sure she had not taken refuge there for any reason.
"Gina?" John heard the panic is the Major's voice and his own anger vanished immediately to be replaced by something else. Fear.
Seems like the rat had taken the bait.