They had waited a couple of days until Janus was transferred from the infirmary to guest quarters before enacting their plan to gain access to his laboratory. Trying to sneak him out from under the nose of an assigned guard was one thing; getting him past said guard, a team of nurses and techs, and an attending doctor was a whole other feat entirely. Today was only his first day in temporary quarters, but there was no time to lose. The Wraith could arrive in Atlantis any day now. The two needed to act as quickly as possible or risk missing their only opportunity.
The lower levels of the city always felt colder. That wet cold you can smell in addition to feel. No one could see Eva beneath Janus' cloaking device - she made sure of that when she passed by what should have been her reflection in the windows - but she still felt exposed.
All she had to do was dislodge a pipe. Enough to create a distraction, but not enough to cause irreversible damage. The city had been through much worse than what she was about to do. The tricky part would be pulling the pipe loose without getting wet. Even invisible, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to follow a trail of watery footsteps away from the scene of the crime. She had purloined a sparring spear from the gym earlier in the day and figured she could use that to dislodge the plumbing – it would keep her at a far enough distance so as to avoid splashback, but was hopefully solid enough to provide leverage against the pipe.
This area of the city was almost always empty, but she triple-checked that there were no people, abandoned rooms, or nooks or crannies where someone might be hiding before choosing her ideal spot. The majority of the piping ran through the ceiling, but every twenty feet or so, it would snake down the side of the wall to a height she could reach. Finding a rather narrow pipe, she threaded the sparring spear underneath it and leaned her weight against it and away from the wall. The pipe groaned but otherwise didn't budge. She tried again, the spear bowing under the stress, but still the pipe remained unaffected.
It was time for a less sophisticated approach. She took a cautious glance around her before gripping the spear like a baseball bat and whacking the pipe with as much force as she could muster. It was loud as hell, but there was no one down there to hear it. On the fifth or sixth hit, the pipe slipped. With the slight change in water pressure, what began as a small spray quickly built up to a deluge that finished the job for her, fully unseating the pipe. It was only a matter of minutes before flooding would begin and set off the city's sensors.
She left a different way than she came and made her way toward guest housing in the Central Tower.
"We need all engineers and available security to the lowest level of the West Pier. All engineers and security personnel with C-level assignments and under, please report to the lowest level of the West Pier."
It had taken less than fifteen minutes for command to organize a response to the flooding, and for the last six, Eva had been waiting – still cloaked – in the hallway of the guest quarters wing. Getting security to the flooded area hadn't been a guarantee, but she knew someone would need to establish a perimeter while the engineers actually got to solving the problem. Now, she just had to hope supervision of Janus was considered a C-level assignment or below.
Sure enough, about thirty seconds later, Janus' guard left his post at a quick clip. Eva waited a few minutes before quietly approaching Janus' door and knocking gently. In a move they had previously discussed, necessitated by the presence of a security camera aimed at the entrance of his quarters, Janus opened the door, looked curiously outside, and retreated back into his room. Before the doors could shut, Eva quickly enveloped him within the circumference of the personal cloak and whisked him out of his room.
"I see you were successful," Janus said without preamble.
She nodded. "Should take them a while to fix."
"Yes." He held out his hand. "Perhaps I should operate the device since I am the taller of the two of us?"
Staring down at his empty palm, something told her to hold onto it.
"I think it's best if I drive," she said, nodding to the IV pole in Janus' other hand, still pumping a steady supply of Wraith enzyme into his veins. "You've got enough to maneuver."
He hummed low in his throat. "Perhaps you are right."
Like a gentleman, he offered his forearm to her, which she took, before leaving for his laboratory.
It had been a long trek – they had avoided the transporters out of fear of being traced – and Eva could tell Janus was winded by the time they reached the lower level of the East Pier. Despite the fatigue, his sweaty face lit up when they reached a long corridor that culminated in a dead end. There was nothing remarkable about this place – no windows, no balcony, no potted plants – except for three round sconces on the wall. Still, there was a guard posted in the corridor, which served as more confirmation than anything else that they had come to the correct place.
"Think we can slip past him?" Eva whispered to Janus.
He shook his head gravely. "Not if he knows what to look for. There is a…unique sound that needs to be emitted in order to gain entrance to the lab. He would undoubtedly hear it and know our plan. Even if he doesn't see us, he would likely alert others to our presence."
Eva furrowed her brow, thinking. She guided Janus and herself as close to the guard as she felt comfortable, enough to see his name and rank on his uniform. She then ushered them back into an adjoining corridor where their voices hopefully wouldn't be heard. Removing the radio from her ear, she dropped it into Janus' palm.
"What's the meaning of this?"
"Put it in your ear. Then, when I tell you to tap on it, say this, 'Control, this is Captain Jones. I need a private channel with Lieutenant Zhang.' And make your voice a little deeper."
Janus looked like he was following along, albeit reluctantly, as he seated the radio in his ear.
"And then once they get you the channel, if they get you the channel," she crossed her fingers, "say, 'Zhang, this is Jones, we need you in the lowest level of the West Pier. Get your arse,' make sure you say, 'arse,' because Captain Jones is British; you've kind of got that accent going on. 'Get your arse down here.'"
He raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Anything else?"
She shook her head. "Okay, tap."
Janus tapped the side of the earpiece and recited his first set of lines, exactly as requested. There was a brief moment of silence as control got the connection established and Eva moved in closer, putting her ear as close as she could to Janus' ear, a feat that proved rather difficult due to the significant discrepancy between their heights.
"Zhang, this is Jones, we need you in the lowest level of the West Pier. Get your arse," he glanced at Eva, "down here."
The reply from the other side was muffled, but Eva made it out well enough. "Sir, only C-class assignments and lower were supposed to report to the area. My station is currently considered B-class."
Thinking on his feet, Janus ad-libbed before Eva could say anything. "I know what class you're assigned to…but we need more men down here."
Eva waved frantically at him and he frowned. "Avoid the transporters," she hissed.
"But make sure to avoid the transporters," Janus said.
"Sir?" she heard him say.
"Combat engineers might need to mess with the power," Eva mouthed, "and I don't want you getting stuck in one. Now…hop to it?" She shrugged. "Jones, out."
Janus dutifully repeated it all and within fifteen seconds, Zhang was jogging past them, all the while cursing under his breath.
"Why did you tell him to avoid the transporters?" Janus asked. "It's a water leak, not an electrical malfunction."
"I don't want him to make it there and actually find himself face-to-face with Captain Jones, only for Jones to tell him to come right back."
"It would raise suspicion."
Eva nodded. "And if they suspect that someone was making false radio calls and impersonating an officer, they'll look closer into radio communications and will trace the call back to this earwig."
"Which you obtained…how?" Janus asked.
The mission to Talus flashed through Eva's memory. The radio had still been warm from being in Coughlin's ear when she took it from him as he lay on the floor of the Hive. "Don't worry about it," she said quietly.
"We'll need to be quick, then," Janus continued, striding confidently forward.
They turned the corner back into the other corridor, and Eva looked from side to side, convinced she was missing something.
"There's no door," she whispered to him. "You see that don't you?"
"Just because there isn't a door, doesn't mean there isn't an entrance," he smiled.
Eva followed as he headed toward one of the circular sconces, IV pole dragging behind him. He touched the first sconce and it emitted a low, pleasing tone. He touched the second and there was a new, higher-pitched tone; then he touched the third and the chord was complete.
"Come," he said, gesturing that she follow him to the wall at the end of the hallway.
He walked toward the wall first, took another step, and was gone.
"Holy shit," Eva muttered under her breath. "It's like Platform Nine and Three Quarters."
She followed and was immediately transported into a dark room slowly coming to life with the glow of Ancient computers that had begun to boot up after eons of disuse.
"What did you say?" Janus absentmindedly asked her over his shoulder.
"Nothing," she called to him, already exploring the room.
The place was littered with different pieces of technology she couldn't even begin to recognize. Every surface was covered with chests, random gadgets, and other larger apparati she had no words to describe. She extended her hand to a gold box to her right and opened it to reveal a reddish-orange velvet upholstered interior and two shiny dark gray stones on display.
"Touch nothing!" Janus called to her.
She jerked her hand away and the lid of the box fell closed with a snap.
"Where might it be?" she heard him whisper to himself.
"You got a cataloging system or something for all this stuff?" she asked, still looking around. "Alphabetical? Chronological? Most dangerous to least dangerous?"
"No catalog. No need," he said, standing up straight, a small oval-shaped device in his hand. "I've got what we need right here."
Eva glanced at the invisibility device still in her left hand. "You know, a lot of your devices look perilously similar to one another."
He ignored her comment. "Have you seen a golden chain with a ruby on it?"
"Your amulet?"
His gaze zeroed in on her and his voice dropped. "Yes. My amulet."
"In here? No. McKay confiscated it. It's locked up in his lab. I've tried to get my hands on it, but have been…unsuccessful."
"That is most unfortunate." His voice returned to its normal volume and he spoke quickly once more. "The amulet is key to our success."
"The key, right? Like literally?"
"Indeed." He stopped to think for a moment before making his way to the back of the lab to rummage through a series of shelves.
"Looking for something else?" Eva called as she slowly approached him.
"A suitable replacement for the amulet." He turned to face her and deposited a large, sparkling emerald into her hand. It had to weigh at least as much as a golf ball and her hand dipped with the unexpected weight.
She held it up to the light, not knowing what to look for but inspecting it nonetheless. "Is this real?" she asked, voice hushed.
"It had better be."
She felt his eyes on her and returned the gemstone to him, which he immediately pocketed.
"Good to go?" she asked. "We had better get back before they fix the leak and your guard returns to his post."
He gave one last, wistful look at his laboratory until he returned his attention to her and nodded. Eva led the way to the exit, now a perfectly visible set of doors on this side of the secret wall, but hesitated once she realized she didn't know how to leave. She didn't see any sconces like the ones in the outside corridor, but there was no set of door controls, either. When she turned her head to ask Janus for help, he was farther behind than she expected. His head jerked up to look at her, just a fraction faster than she would have anticipated from him, and his hand was once again in his pocket. It twitched from beneath the fabric before he hastily removed it to grab the IV pole.
"Ah, yes," he said, turning his attention to the doorway. "Exiting is much simpler than entering."
Eva made a conscious effort to smooth her brow and assuage the gut twinge of suspicion that had so swiftly come upon her.
"You simply walk through," he explained. "You have the cloak?"
"What?" she replied without thinking, distracted. The emerald was the only thing in his pocket, wasn't it? She reached into her own pockets and extracted both the personal cloaking device, as well as the controller for the anti-Ancient forcefield. "Um…which one –"
He pointed to the device in her right hand. She activated it, they linked arms, and together, they exited his lab.
Once more in the hallway, Eva had Janus make another radio call.
"Control, this is Jones again. Get me another private channel to Lieutenant Zhang. Lieutenant, you can belay my previous orders. We're starting to get the situation under control and no longer require your assistance. Return to your post, son."
Thankfully, the walk back to the central tower was uneventful. They crossed paths with a few late-working scientists and even a rather frantic-looking engineer, but managed to pass by them undetected.
"In case my guard has returned, I believe it would be best if we separate before going all the way to my quarters," Janus whispered.
Eva nodded slowly. "I went to one of the balconies on the fifth floor before turning on the cloak. No cameras on the balconies, so that's where I last appear on security footage," she explained. "It would make sense for me to reappear there, leaving that balcony."
Janus withdrew the massive emerald from his pocket and gave it to her. "Here, you keep this as well as the device that controls the forcefield on M5R-233. That way, if one of us happens to get caught for what we have done tonight, the technology is divided amongst us – they won't be able to take it all."
It was a logical plan, she had to admit, but she still didn't love giving up the personal cloak. Given the choices, though, she definitely liked having the two items that would best assist her in a return to M5R-233 in her possession rather than his.
"Besides, I would not want you to confuse the two devices." He looked down at her and gave her a gentle smile. "I will remain cloaked and return to my quarters alone."
They didn't say much else as they made their way to the fifth floor, Eva carrying Janus' IV pole for him as they painstakingly ascended the stairs. By the time they had made it to the balcony, Janus was breathing hard and sweat dotted his brow. He took a few moments to catch his breath in the fresh sea breeze and regain his strength before turning to Eva.
"We have the tools. Now we merely need a plan. Do some thinking tonight and I shall do the same."
"Okay," she said, feeling unsure. "You'll be all right walking back on your own?"
"I will make sure of it."
"Be careful. I'll see you tomorrow?"
He gave her one last nod before reducing the field of the cloak, leaving her outside its perimeter. The doors to the balcony opened and she was alone.
A/N: So what do you think? Do we trust Janus or not?