Colonel O'Neill pulled out his cell phone and called Cheyenne Mountain.
"It's Colonel O'Neill." He gave his recognition code. "Put me thru to General Hammond, please."
"Colonel? What have you found?"
"Two military personnel, a Captain Riley Finn, and a Lt. Graham Miller, both U. S. Army or so they're claiming. They say they're here under special orders, but don't seem to understand there's no legal way such orders could be issued. They also voluntarily stated that they attempted to disarm civilians protecting themselves. They honestly seem to believe they had the authority to do that. The civilians refused and pointed out their error to them. Personally, I don't know what to make of them, sir. They could just be people pretending they're military, because I really hope we haven't managed to recruit such morons."
"Whether they are military or are impersonating military, an investigation is clearly called for. Have them arrested and taken to Vanderburgh. I'll contact the President, he can arrange a full investigation. Good work, Colonel."
"Sir, both Carter and Danny boy would like to stay for a little while longer. There's a few little interesting things they'd both like to check into. Some curiosities."
"Go ahead, but secure them first."
"Yes, sir."
Both Riley and Graham could hear Colonel O'Neill's side of the conversation and Riley, at least, was confused. He understood they were in trouble, but didn't understand why.
"So, you're either impersonating military personnel or following Illegal orders." Colonel O'Neill said, after hanging up. "Either way, you're under arrest. Charges, for now, include willful obedience of illegal orders, harassing private citizens and being morons. Our General has a direct line to the President and is contacting him now to arrange a full investigation of your activities."
"But sir, the President is aware. Our special orders are sealed Presidential orders."
"There's no legal way the President could do that. You should be aware of that. I'm certain he is. If he is involved, and I sincerely doubt he is, it'll destroy his career and life. Are you planning to resist?"
"No, sir. I want this matter cleared up. I'm certain my commanding officer will have us freed soon."
"Have that much faith in them, do you?"
"Yes, sir. I've known Dr. Walsh for over a year now. She's a brilliant and dedicated woman, she wants only to help people."
"You haven't said anything, Lieutenant."
"Actually, I'm not that surprised. My attempts at due diligence weren't getting anywhere and I couldn't get out of the orders."
"Graham! You questioned our orders?!"
"You've got to admit, on the surface they sounded ridiculous."
"But everything we've seen-."
"What have you seen, Captain?" Colonel O'Neill questioned.
"I can't, sir. I still have my orders. And I'm certain we will be released soon."
"You're funeral." And he called Vanderburgh to have MPs come out and pick them up.
Dr. Walsh hadn't been having the best day. Her personnel just weren't finding the numbers of HSTs that were supposed to be in Sunnydale. Not to mention, they weren't finding the ones she needed to make the Adam project work. Only one of the HSTs so far discovered had any defensive or offensive armament. Could this civilian group Captain Finn had run into be responsible?
"Dr. Walsh, George Overby is on the phone, he's demanding to talk to you." Dr. Angelman informed her.
"I'll be right there." She wondered why the NID agent wanted to talk to her.
"Dr. Walsh, you're going to have to shut down your project. The President has been made aware that there is a project and has called for an investigation. Two of your personnel have been arrested by military police, a Captain Finn and a Lt. Miller."
"But my work, I've just barely gotten started on it." She protested. "We aren't finding the numbers of HSTs here that we thought we would and that may be because a civilian group has taken it upon themselves to protect the citizens, if you could just have them arrested-."
"They have a legal right to protect themselves and if I attempted to do so, it would call attention to our work. Shut everything down, kill the hostiles in your holding cells. Anything you can't transport out in twelve hours or less, destroy. We'll set you up somewhere else. This is just a setback, Doctor, that's all."
"Very well. I'll begin shutting everything down."
"Well, Danny, let's start with you. Where's this Dr. Giles you want to talk to?"
"He used to work for the British Museum, but is taking an extended sabbatical, which is in its third or fourth year now. He's working as a librarian at a local High School, Sunnydale High."
"Let's find this High School then. Quite a step down from the British Museum to being a librarian. Tell me about him."
"He's an expert on the occult. PhDs in Mythology and Folklore. He still does consulting work for the Museum. He may have chosen this area for his sabbatical because there's been a lot of very weird stories associated with this area for nearly a century. He may be attempting to find a source for the stories."
"What kind of weird stories?"
"Monsters, Jack. Like the ones the people with ray guns were supposedly dealing with."
"You think the NID was also interested in these stories and that's why those two officers were here?"
"It's possible."
"Huh, but they should have known that just involving military personnel made it illegal."
"Maybe they didn't think anyone would notice or care."
"Then they're even more stupid then I thought."
"Well, they are the NID, when have we yet not caught them doing something stupid?"
"Unfortunately, very, very true."