A/N: FFN is being held together by duct tape and chewing gum, so it seems like the site was not pushing newly-published chapters to the top when I submitted Chapter 70 last week. If you are not a subscriber (or maybe even if you are - sounds like email alerts are also spotty now), double check and make sure you've read Chapter 70 before reading this chapter. Chapter 70 is pretty important!
Just so you know, this fic is cross-posted on AO3 if you find that reading experience to be more enjoyable.
Thank you all for reading, commenting, and being so supportive. Hope you're still enjoying.
To see Janus the Ancient with a hamburger and fries stacked on a metal cafeteria tray was surreal, indeed, Eva decided as she approached him and his security detail.
"Do you mind?" she asked.
"Please," he answered, gesturing to the empty seat in front of him.
"How are you feeling?" Eva asked as she set her own lunch tray down.
"Continually better every day," he smiled. "Nice to see the sun. It had gone away for quite some time," he said, squinting. It seemed like the monsoon season was finally coming to an end, and the afternoon sun shone warmly onto the commissary's balcony.
"Hm," was the only reply she managed.
With the small talk already exhausted, they sat in somewhat tense silence, Eva steadily shoveling scoops of mystery meat chili into her mouth as Janus prodded at his burger with knife and fork.
"Have you spoken with Woolsey lately?" Eva asked after a while.
"Yes. I meet with him today to continue discussing the Cruiser's capabilities. I expect the meeting to run rather late, actually. The Wraith draw ever closer, making every moment of our time more precious."
A group of marines came onto the balcony, pulling Janus' guard into their conversation. With the guard momentarily distracted and the sounds of both ocean and chit chat as cover, Eva took her chance.
"And how's…the other stuff?" she whispered, ensuring that she only changed the volume of her voice and not her posture. She didn't want the guard to be tipped off to the fact that they were conspiring. "Any progress on how we can actually get to M5R-233?"
"I still believe a gate ship would be our best bet," he lowered his own voice in kind. "Though…" He paused.
"What?" Eva asked. "What is it?"
"I paid a visit to the Wraith captive."
"YOU what?" she asked, incredulous, immediately quieting herself on the second word. That revelation had shocked her out of their little tête à tête enough to make her forget to monitor her volume. A couple a few tables away gave her an odd look, but returned quickly enough to their meal. Luckily, the marines didn't seem to have noticed.
"I wanted him to telepathically relay a message to my former commander."
"Why the hell would you do something like that?!" she hissed.
"If all goes according to plan, the captive will tell the Cruiser to land at a set of coordinates I gave to him. The ship's crew will believe I will be there waiting for them, but in reality, it will give us an opportunity to get them in an expected location, prime for ambush, at a safe distance away from the city."
"You gonna tell Woolsey about this little plan of yours during your meeting today?"
"For obvious reasons, I cannot. I have faith that this plan will work, but you understand why I could not reveal my intention to involve the Wraith prisoner to Mr. Woolsey in the first place, and I believe you also understand why I cannot inform him of it just yet."
"When do you intend to reveal this to everyone? In the eleventh hour when the Wraith are already knocking at our door?"
"I wish to see how my meeting with Mr. Woolsey goes today, continue to build rapport with him, and decide my best course of action then. Worst case, our meeting goes poorly and I think it best not to tell him about my plan nor follow through with it. The Wraith will still head to the pre-arranged coordinates, realize they have been misled, and make their way to the city, thereby affording us more time to build a defense when they arrive."
Eva had to admit it made sense…so much sense that she wondered why Janus didn't present this rather solid plan to Woolsey upfront and work alongside him to arrange a meeting with the Wraith captive. Why couldn't all of this have been above board?
"Did you use the cloak to gain entrance to the holding cell?"
Janus closed his eyes and nodded once. "I did. I had meant to remain invisible the entire time but…"
"But what, Janus?" Eva's stomach sank.
"But the Wraith insisted on seeing his interlocutor."
"Well – but – aren't there –" Eva was so flabbergasted, she was stuttering. "Aren't there a bunch of security cameras in that room?"
"Precisely. I only lowered the cloak for a split second and since no one came to lock me in my own holding cell this morning, I assume no one was monitoring the feed at the exact moment I revealed myself to him. I fear that it will only be a matter of time, though, before someone does come across the footage and assume the worst. Which is why I require your help."
"Mine?" Eva's eyes widened.
"Yes. I would do it myself, but like I said, my meeting with Mr. Woolsey today may take some time. Would you be able to find the footage and either bring it to me or delete it? The sooner the better."
"I don't have the slightest idea how to –" Eva pressed her lips together upon realizing that Janus' guard had finished his little talk with his buddies and was now turning both his body and his attention back on them.
Janus raised his brows at her, his eyes wide with hope.
Eva rolled her own eyes and shrugged. "Yeah. Fine. I guess. See what I can do."
"Likewise," he smiled.
Zelenka needed to get his shit together. The man misplaced that tablet of his more times in a day than a normal person misplaced their keys on a weekly basis. It had worked to her advantage, though, so she supposed she should be thankful rather than judgmental about his absentmindedness.
As senior staff, Zelenka had both live and archived access to security feeds on his tablet despite his specialty being outside of base security. Unfortunately, his regular access was limited to the common, less-guarded areas of the city: hallways, commissary, embarkation room, etcetera. Eva had tried accessing footage to "Holding Cell 1," but a prompt for an override code kept popping up. She tried the tablet's numeric passcode (which she had deduced the first time she had stolen the device by matching fingerprint grease residue spots with the locations of the numbers on the lockscreen), as well as a few creative variations on the word "pigeon," but after five tries was permanently locked out and prompted to "contact base IT."
"Ugh, this is so stupid," she muttered to herself – both the fact that she had made next to no progress on completing her task, as well as being roped into all of this in the first place. She glanced out the window and was somewhat surprised to see that the sun was starting to set. Maybe Janus would be out of his meeting with Woolsey by now. She knew he said it would go long, but would it really go this long? Into the evening?
In her opinion, she had done everything she knew how to do. It was time to throw in the towel and let Janus know that she couldn't do it. Given that information, he could either figure it out himself or assist her in deleting the security footage. The choice was his. Let him solve his own problem.
With Zelenka's tablet stored in a bag slung over her shoulder, she hurried down the corridors and toward the gate room. She peered up into Woolsey's office and could see both Colonel Sheppard and Janus still in there with him.
"Of course," she muttered bitterly to herself.
"Looking for something, Eva?"
Eva turned to see Lt. Williams coming up to her. "Uh…" She glanced at Woolsey's office again. "Just looking for Col. Sheppard." She figured it was in her best interest to separate herself from Janus as much as possible.
"Well, I could pass a message along to him, if you'd like," he offered. "I'm stationed here all night; I'm sure he'll pass by whenever they're done."
"Sure," Eva smiled. "Um, you can tell him that I was just wondering, with the Wraith ship on the way, if there had been any change in their stance on a return to M5R-233. That's all."
"I'll let him know," Lt. Williams said.
"Great. Thanks." She waved to him and went back the way she came.
"Have a good night, ma'am," he called to her.
"You too!" she was saying back to him, when an idea struck her. If she couldn't gain remote access to the security footage, maybe she could go directly to the source and take care of it there.
She hopped into the nearest transporter and tapped on the North Pier.