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Chapter 6: Needle in a Haystack

The team met up in the university they had chosen to begin their search. Sam had already phoned and arranged a meeting with the Dean, Jeannot Fournier, adding that it was a matter of some urgency. He had been able to schedule a meeting in the early afternoon despite his professional obligations which until two weeks ago had been a real battlefield. Before they had to attend that meeting, the team decided to split off into groups and ask the students or lecturers milling around questions relating to their mission. Upon seeing just how bustling this place was, they suddenly got an uncomfortable feeling in their stomachs; there really were such a lot of people that they had no idea where to even begin. Jack paired up with Daniel, John with Mitchell with Teal'c teaming off with Sam and Bryan. They decided to head for strategic points: the first team would make its way around campus asking the students what they knew, the second decided to head for the Dean's office where there were fewer people for Mitchell's sake as much as anything else, all the hustle was making his head spin. The third team would make for the cafe.

Mitchell and John headed over to the office complex. The secretary, less than likeable, was not in the mood to help them, telling them that nobody was allowed access to the files. She soon changed her mind when John Smith showed her his NID badge. Embarrassed at the way she had behaved and more than a little confused, the secretary dutifully went about finding them an empty room and put the files at their disposal. She even brought them some coffee to try and make up for her error.

"Which documents are you looking for exactly?"

"We're looking for a student, so if it's possible, we'd like to see all the student files grouped by order of subject," Mitchell asked her.

"Of course, we'd be happy to help you, if you need anything just let me know. I hope this student isn't in any trouble."

"Stop asking so many questions," John cut her off.

"Alright, I'll go and look for the documents you asked for." She headed out of the room, leaving the two men alone with their coffee.

"She likes you, Mitchell."

"She does not, she just feels bad for her attitude and she's making up for it, that's all."

"Okay, then how come there's so much milk in your coffee and not a drop in mine?"

"Huh, you don't have any milk?"

"So, where should we start? We only know her first name and we have her photo, that's provided she hasn't changed too much since it was taken. Got any ideas Mitchell?"

"Nope and anyway what d'you mean 'changed'?"

"Ah you know all those things girls her age are into: makeup, hair dye, clothes, tattoos, piercings..."

"Piercings!"

"Yes, she must have changed the way she looks to have been able to blend in and hide. I'll bet she looks good with tattoos and piercings, that whole rebel look."

"Well that's not good, so if she doesn't look like she does in the photo we have of her, then how are we supposed to recognise her?"

"By her eyes, Mitchell."

"Are you feeling alright, John?"

"I'm serious, everyone has unique eyes and I'd recognise hers anywhere, I know that light, that flame that feeds off the fire in those eyes and it's where all her strength lies. All we need is to get her angry enough and I would know her by that look that could kill and freeze you where you stand."

"Get her angry? You're sure about this? And then what, she kills us or do you have some plan to catch her this time, John?"

"All we'll need is for her to see my face, for our gazes to meet for a few seconds so yes I think I'd be able to recognise her unless she's wearing lenses."

-"Even if she hasn't changed that much, how are we going to find her amongst 100,000 students, Mitchell, we can't look them all up?"

"Bryan said she loved science and that's why I asked the secretary to group the files according to the subject they were studying. And Sam told me how good she was in chemistry and physics so we'll start off by looking at the 'scientific' students.

"Ah, now I get it, that's why she was so good with explosives, knew when to run and how to take a bomb apart."

"She sure is taking her sweet time, this secretary, I hope she didn't forget about us," Mitchell said.

"Show her your badge next time so she doesn't forget. Failing that, just flash her your winning smile and I'm sure she'll hurry up."

Just then, the secretary arrived with two others carrying a trolley full of files. On seeing that particular sight, Mitchell's head started aching."

"These are all the files we have, grouped by UFR."

"ufr, what's that?" Mitchell asked.

"No, U-F-R," she said with a good English accent. She proceeded to give them the acronym's English definition.

"Oh, you can speak English, and good English at that?"

"It's required because of all the foreign students. We are an international university and anyone can study here whether they speak French or not," the secretary went on in English.

"I see, well if you're okay with that, then can we carry on speaking in English? I've reached the limit of my French and I'm not that comfortable speaking it," Mitchell suggested.

"Alright, if you prefer, I'll leave these files with you and if you would like, I can give you private lessons," she left the room, closing the door behind her.

John turned towards Mitchell with a wide grin on his face.

"I told you she had the hots for you."

Not knowing how to respond to that without digging himself a deeper hole, Mitchell took the first file out of dozens of piles of identical folders, hoping that Angela's would be somewhere in this room and not in the larger one.

John and Mitchell started to scan through the piles of folders.

Meanwhile Daniel and Jack were asking passers-by for information without much success. Those they asked either had not seen the person in the photo they were shown, or they didn't recognise her. They decided to take a break in their search and went to the cafe near the main university building. They both bought a soda as they were on duty. They started talking about their respective fields of work. Naturally, such a conversation remained necessarily vague given that they were state secrets. Having exhausted that avenue of conversation, talk swiftly turned to Angela Daniel in particular wanting to know more about the relationship between Angela and Jack:

- "How did you first meet her?"

-"Who?"'

- "Angela"

-"Ah well, my first meeting with Angela was, how shall I say...explosive. What about you, Daniel?"

-'"What do you mean by 'explosive'?"

- "Let's just say she blew up my car, a beautiful Porsche."

- "That's too bad for the Porsche, even for..."

- "Yes, that's what happens when one has a run-in with her. So when did you first meet her, Daniel?"

- "Me? Well, ah, Colonel Carter introduced me to her; they were working on an astrophysics project and Angela was helping her to solve several complex equations. Did you ever see her again after her accident?"

-"Yes, I did, a year later. She was still in the French Army but if what I heard is right, she was planning to quit and offer her resignation just after our last mission together. It was a mission in Iraq a French-British journalist had been kidnapped as well as two doctors working for Médecins sans Frontières by rebels fighting the provisional government. In addition to that, we were to investigate the presence of chemical and nuclear weapons suspected to be in Iraq's possession. Our orders were to destroy the weapons if possible under the strictest secrecy.

They would have discussed their recollections more deeply were it not for Daniel's mobile ringing:

-"Hello?"

-"It's Sam, I'd like you to join me in front of the Dean's office, Jeannot Fournier. We're changing the teams around: Teal'c, Jack and I will head for Angela's old army base to see what else we can learn about her from her time there. While we do that, you and Bryan can have a chat with the Dean.

-"Ok, we'll be right there. I take it you haven't found anything on your end".

-"Negative. The students and staff see so many people every day that they don't remember every face. I hope John and Mitchell have more luck on their end. We'll debrief this evening. After your meeting with the Dean, head back and look through Bryan's files. I've ordered everyone to meet back at the apartment in six hours' time."

-"Ok, I'll see you this evening," Daniel said as he hung up.

-"So, what's new?" Jack asked.

-"We're changing the teams. Bryan and I are going to see the Dean. You are to head off with Sam and Teal'c to Angela's old army base somewhere near the Paris area."

-"Finally, some action. It's not that I'm getting bored of you all but I'm just missing a little action. Speaking of Teal'c, the guy is pretty strange, even kooky. He seems a little aloof and just a little scary; he doesn't come off as normal to me."

-"Why?" Daniel asked, a little surprised as he hoped Teal'c's cover hadn't been blown.

-"Well for one thing he's always wearing a hat whether he's inside or outdoors and it's a pretty awful hat at that, no taste at all. He has a look that says "stay where you are, or else..." and he doesn't always seem to understand what we say. I asked him what he thought of Angelina Jolie and her last film. Everybody knows who she is but it seemed to me like he'd never even heard of her, as if he was from another planet altogether."

-"You may not be far from the truth there," Daniel let slip involuntarily.

But it was now too hard to take that back. Thinking about the gaffe he had just made, he realised he wasn't the best when it came to keeping secrets and he was a terrible liar at the best of times. He just hoped Jack hadn't heard him. That hope was duly dashed when Jack continued:

-"He's really strange, almost like he's lived in a desert all his life. What was that you said?" only now obviously latching on to what Daniel had revealed.

-"Uhh, what did I say now? Well, uh, actually he did spend a lot of time living away from civilisation in the Egyptian desert next to Pharaohs' tombs. He takes part in digs so yeah, I guess he is quite cut off from the media," Daniel attempted to backtrack.

-"Poor guy, he's never seen Angelina Jolie, I feel sorry for him. Ok, come on, let's get going."

At that they stood up and paid the bill. Jack had trouble paying for it as he was unaccustomed to paying in Euros. Daniel who was far more at ease paid on their behalf and they made their way to their destination.

Daniel was relieved that Jack had stopped asking questions about Teal'c. He was not entirely comfortable about lying in these situations and in fact about lying in general. As far as he was concerned, relationships were founded on mutual trust and honesty. As they walked towards the Dean's office, they scarcely exchanged a word, a pregnant silence between two people in particular, leaving the other uneasy. Finally, they joined up with Sam's team.

-"Well as far as the campus goes, our investigations haven't turned up anything," Daniel began, " and the likelihood of finding anyone who knows Angela seems slim."

-I agree, it's difficult given that everybody's constantly moving around," Bryan added on.

-"I think we'd be better off conducting a thorough search of the university and military personnel files we have for her. Incidentally, it seems like roughly half the students here live in halls. There are five housing areas spread out over the university. I think Angela would have opted for a room near the school," Sam said.

-"So, that means we have half the campus to pay a visit to but that admittedly is based entirely on supposition. On top of that, this university is huge: we could search all week and barely scratch the surface. If she chose to hide in this place, she made the right choice, which does not surprise me one bit," Jack remarked.

-Yes, but all we have for the moment is supposition. Come to think of it, we're not even sure if this is the right university," Sam answered him.

-"I believe we are indeed in the correct place. As Jack Croft says, it is an ideal location for those who do not wish to be found," Teal'c commented.

-"Well, whatever, let's go see. You too, Jack. You know what to ask Daniel," Sam ended.

Daniel nodded his assent. Am, Teal'c and Jack left for the base where they had a meeting set-up for 1600 hours. That time was fast approaching and it was Jack who took the wheel, glad to finally be doing something.

At the same time, Daniel and Bryan sat themselves down in the waiting room, in patient expectation. The secretary, a petite blonde woman whose miniskirt flattered her no end brought them some coffee. It seemed to them that the French drank far too much of this stuff and the strength at which they drank it was very noticeable. In Daniel's view, they were a people who lived in perpetual stress. They waited several minutes until someone neared their room. It turned out to be the Dean; he was a small man, portly and wearing a neat beard and moustache and stood before his waiting visitors. He had more hair on his face than he did on his head. Brown hairs fought a losing battle with white. He seemed far older than his years, doubtless due to the issues caused by being responsible for so many students and his obligations such as the excessive amount of paperwork he was expected to complete and the security measures that had to be taken these days. This ageing was made visible by the small-lensed spectacles balanced on his nose. In spite of his small stature, his calculating stare brought him to everyone's attention; he gave off the sense of knowing all that went on in his university and looked at people as if he could see right through them. This was the first impression those in the room gained of the Dean. He regarded them with those piercing eyes, judging them. He obviously must have thought well of Daniel as he then turned his full attention to the archaeologist smiling and offering the younger man his hand.

-"Welcome to this university, I am truly sorry I couldn't arrive any sooner," he shook Daniel's hand firmly, despite his age.

-"Thank you, and don't worry, it's not a problem, I understand you must be busy what with overseeing this huge place, it can't be easy," Bryan said, in turn shaking the Dean's hand.

-"Yes, it is all becoming a little too much, given my age if you see what I mean," the Dean showed them the way to his office and let them in before stepping in himself. This courtesy, according to Daniel, was French people's best quality. Bryan was less convinced, however; he had no special love of their language, which he found too difficult and still had trouble understanding, the humour especially, which to him were rather stupid. He was relying on Daniel to have the conversation with the Dean. Daniel by contrast seemed perfectly comfortable speaking the language, reflected by how much as he loved the people who spoke it; he just seemed to thrive on contact with people with a different cultural outlook.

-"To what do I owe the pleasure, Gentlemen...?", Dean Jean Fournier began.

-"Let me introduce Dr. Daniel Jackson, an American archaeologist and myself, Bryan, US Air Force."

-"And what can I do for you?" the Dean asked without preamble.

-"We're looking for a former military pilot whose help we need on a vitally important mission," Daniel explained, stressing the word 'vitally'.

-"And you believe that this pilot is here and he's studying at my university?" the Dean went on.

-"Actually, the pilot's a woman. She's an excellent student, gifted in computer science, chemistry and physics. She wanted to come and live in Paris and go to a good school where she'd be able to help contribute to the scientific community and develop her scientific potential," Daniel explained.

-So, this pilot is a woman and a genius student," the Dean thought aloud, "it is surprising to find the three things in one package, especially in the Air Force. It is not an easy thing to be a woman in the military."

-"That was her experience of it," Bryan answered him, to Daniel's surprised regard. He had no idea that Angela's life had been quite so complicated, "all we know about her is her first name: Angela."

-"That is a little vague. The problem here, as you have put so well, is that this is an international university. So, you see, there are a lot of genii and I do not believe there is any woman from the French Air Force enrolled here. Soldiers receive separate treatment given the requirements of their career. These individuals are exceptional individuals and as such I know each of their files by heart, as they are filed separately from the rest," the Dean said.

-"The problem is that she is no longer in the Air Force, all we know is that she is gifted. We believe she's here since it happens to be the best place for research as well as the area itself being pretty dynamic, in other words the perfect place for people of her age," Daniel added.

-"If you say so. I only hope she hasn't gotten herself into trouble for the Americans to be so interested in her. There is a good reason for your presence here, isn't there?" the Director asked.

-"No, not at all, she's done nothing wrong if you're talking about terrorism or anything like that," Bryan quickly jumped in.

-"Then there is no reason for me to worry. Do you have any idea when she might have enrolled?" he asked, while he was typing commands into his computer.

-"Not exactly, but at most a year and a half ago. I think she would have enrolled on a one-year course," Daniel calculated.

-"In that case, she must be skipping the first year and catching up with the first-year courses so as to not be left behind the other students. These students are put under special supervision determined according to their needs because it is admittedly difficult to follow a two-year course, being as intensive as they are. This is why they are followed so closely by their instructors, psychologists and me myself when necessary. Do you know if she had studied previously or what level she was at?" he continued typing on hi student database. The Dean awaited their response.

-"I don't think she ever graduated but I do know she was doing a correspondance course in science studies so she could keep her skills up to scratch. What level would we be talking about, incidentally?" Daniel queried.

-"Here, as in the rest of Europe, we're following a brand new system, the BMD: Bachelor's-Master's-Doctorate. Well, my search has not shown me any results, but it has at least narrowed the list of suspects, as there are not many students studying the two-year course," Jeannot finished.

-"My colleagues are already going over the personnel files," Bryan said.

-"I'll ask my staff to send them the classified student files as soon as possible. Do you have a photo of this young lady? I could ask security and staff to look out for her and let us know if they spot her," the Dean suggested.

-"No, that's alright, we might scare her by doing that, but you might recognise her. This is the most recent photo we have of her," Daniel said as he handed him the photo.

The Dean looked attentively at the photo. He spent several minutes like that, visibly racking his brain. Although he saw so many people, this person was reminded him of someone, until a spark of remembrance shone in his eyes:

-"I feel as though I have seen her somewhere before, but I don't remember where. I think you would be better off going to see the psychologist and his team. One of them should recognise her and he knows the files of all his patients by memory. Unfortunately he is in Lyon for a conference today, but he is scheduled to be back tomorrow. I will send him a message that he should make your enquiries a priority and I will forward you a message confirming your meeting. I believe that is all I can do to help you," the Dean finished.

-"Thank you for your cooperation and your help, the fact that you she seems familiar to you helps us enormously. We may well be in the right place," Daniel stood up and shook the Dean's hand once more.

Daniel and Bryan left the room, leaving the Dean alone with his reflections. He had thought long and hard on it but he simply couldn't place her. The woman in his mind was not the one in the photo; a young woman full of life and smiling. The woman he had met was down, only the light in her eyes showed that she was still alive at all. After that it was a total blank. The first thing he had noticed was those eyes. "Those bright eyes were full of both energy and sadness, I thought I saw flames or sparks in them. I must be so tired I'm hallucinating, I'm working too hard." At a single glance, he could tell that the girl had potential despite her health.

Meanwhile, Daniel and Bryan summed up what they had learned:

-"We know one thing at least: she's here. You saw the way he looked at that photo. He recognised her even if he doesn't remember exactly who or where she was," Bryan concluded.

-"We'd be best going back to the apartment and going through the files you have."

-"Let's take the bus, I know this town pretty well, c'mon," he called as they headed for the nearest bus stop.

-"I thought you didn't like this country," Daniel intimated.

-"What I don't like is the language. There aren't that many people here who speak our language well. Having said that, the food is much better than ours and the girls are pretty plus Angela had me visiting Paris quite a few times. It's actually the people themselves, they make me uncomfortable. When I got here, I thought I'd be able to master the language with Angela's help. Truth is though, it's not enough to be able to speak the language; they speak so quickly that it's an achievement if you can keep up with them. I don't know if it's just a Paris thing because people are all so busy and that gets reflected in their language. That was why I asked how well you spoke French. I can't say anything for the others, but apart from your accent, you seem very comfortable speaking."

-"Yeah, I guess when you're an archaeologist, you tend to talk to a lot of foreigners."

-"What time is it?" Bryan asked.

-"Sorry? Ah, it's 12 minutes past 5, why?"

-"The bus is usually here five minutes from now so we should be there around 5:32, how does that sound to you?"

-"Great."

They stood waiting for the bus to arrive.

While they waited, in a room in the administration building, Mitchell looked at hs watch:

-"We're gonna have to quit studying for now. That's a bummer; I was gettin' real worked up to read more of these boring files."

-"Maybe if we ask nicely, they'll let us take our work with us so we can carry on at home," John responded.

-"I hope that was a joke."

-"Not at all."

The secretary arrived :

-"Gentlemen, the Dean has recommended that you should search through..." she looked for one set in particular among the files, then two and finally five, "...these files. These are the students completing a two-year course in one year, which fits the description of your pilot friend. It also makes sense to look through the files of those who enrolled most recently but no earlier than two years ago," she said, still speaking in English.

John looked at the title of the file he held in his hands and then the others they had already looked at and laughed inside:

-"Mitchell, guess what."

-"What? I'm not in the mood for guessing games".

-"Look at your file".

Mitchell looked at his file and then at those he had already read:

-"Aww, shoot, we started in the wrong direction. We did all this for nothing. And it would've made sense anyway, since Angela only had that accident two years ago." Frustrated, Mitchell closed his file. He had just spent several hours reading useless information and all of it to no end. He stood up, "well ma'am, thanks for all your help. Any chance we can take some of these files with us, we're gonna have to go now."

-"I don't know if that is such a good idea. If you misplace even one of them, everything will kick off," the secretary said apologetically.

-"You're right. Do you have a file with just the photos of the students instead?" Mitchell asked.

-"I think we may have something like that, just a minute," she said, leaving the room once more.

-"I think she might have everything you want, if you ask me. If you'd used your charm, we could have made it out of here with those files, Mitchell."

The secretary came in a little while later with two large binders of one- and two-year students according to their enrolment dates:

-"Here, I think this should help speed up your work."

-"Thank you."

Mitchell and John took the binders and headed for the car to make their way for the rendez-vous back at the apartment.

Sam meanwhile was being welcomed by General Giles Prévost. After the introductions had been made, he showed them Angela's effects, which had been left when she resigned her commission. Sam asked if she could borrow them and asked the General some questions. Angela had spent six months at the base having completed three major assignments during that time following which she resigned her commission after discussion with the base physicians.

-"You know that after every assignment, she found it hard to regain her strength. Particularly her last mission, she was so exhausted she couldn't even stand. From that point on, she worsened every day and the pain was unbearable. We talked about it a long time before she made her decision. She was one of my best, and she was a great loss. If you want my opinion, she had a god reason to leave. She deserves a stable life. I know you want to bring her back into the fold, but for my part, I hope you don't find her, assuming she isn't dead."

-"Why do you think she might be dead?" Sam asked.

-"I don't know exactly. On the one hand, she's a fighter, but on the other, her last medical showed that she was in a bad state," the General answered her.

-"Do you have a copy of this medical report?" Sam asked.

-"No, everything was destroyed."

-"Destroyed?" exclaimed Teal'c.

-"Yes, everything pertaining to Angela was required to be destroyed," the General explained.

-"Why?"Teal'c questioned.

-"Standard procedure. All documents pertaining to a secret agent must either be burnt or returned to their rightful owner, in order to protect the agent in question," Jack responded.

-"You know, she was very popular here. I think she stayed in touch with one of my men. He may well have warned her that you are looking for her," Prévost advised them.

-"How?"Jack asked.

-"Your colleagues were here two weeks ago; the whole base knew about it."

-"So much for discretion. Can we see him?" Sam asked.

-"I'm sorry, he has been on assignment all week and won't be back for another fortnight, assuming all goes according to plan. However, he has already answered all your colleagues' questions."

-"Ok, well how would they communicate with one another?" Sam asked.

-"They were using some messaging service all the young people are using these day, it's like they're addicted. I believe they call it MSN. Do you have any other questions as I do have other things to be doing?" the General finished.

-"No, that should be everything. Oh, if we could see the doctor who examined her, unless he's on assignment as well?" Sam asked.

-"Of course, take the second corridor on your left and go straight on, ask for Mr and Mrs Carter. Good day to you."

The team went the way they had been instructed.

-"It's odd that this soldier just happens to be on assignment right when we need to speak to him," Jack remarked.

-"Yes, it is. Remind me to look into morgue and cemetary records. The French weren't willing to work with us on this from the start, so this shouldn't surprise us really," Sm thought.

They arrived at the office of the infirmary. There were two rooms facing each other where a plump older woman was typing energetically on a typewriter. On the other side and completely opposite in every way, a young man was hunched in front of a computer screen. He had a fatigued look, more so than his elder colleague. Sam knocked on the door to draw their attention, only the aged woman raised her head.

-"Hello, we're looking for the infirmary and were told to ask for Dr. Carter," Sam asked.

-"Well you're in the right place, which one do you want?" the older woman asked, "I'm Mrs Elisabeth Carter and this is Marc Carter. How can I be of service?"

The team looked her up and down more than a little bemused given the large age gap between the two doctors. The old woman seemed to understand their confusion:

-"Marc Carter is my son", Elisabeth went on, chuckling from where she sat.

-"We came to ask for information about Angela," Sam explained.

On hearing that name, Marc Carter's head went swiftly upwards. Straightening himself up, he stood up to offer his hand to the visitors:

-"Don't worry, you aren't the first people to be troubled by our age difference. Don't pay any attention to my mother; she loves to see people's reactions, "so, you came for information about...?" the doctor went back to his office, inviting the team to sit down in front of him. His mother went back to her work.

-"Angela. General Prévost told us that you gave her a medical to assess her fitness for duty before she resigned her commission," Sam began.

-"Yes, actually I did that at the end of every mission. Her last assignment didn't go well for her; she came back in a terrible condition, but not by her own cause."

-"Who was responsible?" Teal'c asked.

-"I don't know the details; the mission specifics were classified military secret so I dn't know how she received her injuries. She was always returning with injuries so I didn't question her as to how she came by them, but this time they were too severe to ignore. I wanted to know more, but the General refused to tell me anything else and the other soldiers followed suit. I don't like to speculate, but I believe she may have been tortured as she returned much later than scheduled and the General rganised a shock team, which are only mobilised in extreme cases. I would say she took too many risks. She respected no limits and she paid no attention to what her body was telling her. I have heard she jumped through a fifth-floor window to escape on one occasion. Who could walk out of that intact?" Carter mused.

-"That sounds like her and I take it she got up and carried on running like nothing had happened," Jack continued.

-"Exactly, but her body is taking so much strain that her organs and skeleton must be falling apart," the doctor explained.

-"Speaking of her condition, could you tell us more about er last medical exam and how advanced her illness had become?" Sam evinced.

-"Illness? What illness?" Jack asked, surprised.

-"Ah, you know about her illness," he said, paying no attention to Jack as he continued, "I believe that the physiological modifications she underwent should not be considered as an illness per se. The real problem was that she was weakening more and more by the day and she was finding it difficult to control herself. As well as that, her tumour had grown to a disturbing size and the anti-proliferators were no longer having any effect. Same thing for the painkillers. These crises grew closer and closer together. If things carried on at that rate, she will have lapsed into a coma. Unfortunately, these crises affect her heart as well as some of her vital organs. She has already suffered several cardiac arrests. We have already exhausted all existing treatments and techniques, even those still under development at the Pasteur Institute. None of them worked because her cells were in a state of electrical flux far above normal," Doctor Carter ended.

-"Yes, I know that, I'm aware of the anomalies. But from what I saw, her body had adapted to those changes. Have you tried gene therapy or modified and therapeutic DNA viruses?" Sam suggested.

-"No, we haven't, as her DNA has already been subjected to significant damage with serious and frequent replication errors in DNA polymerase III. We all agreed that it would be better not to attempt it," the doctor admitted

-"What about mutagenic agents or X-Rays."

-"The tumour was in a difficult place for techniques like that to be effective. There was the risk of damaging irreplaceable cells in her brain like neurons," the doctor explained, "but perhaps you Americans have other solutions. I have conducted extensive research and asked the advice of various specialists: oncologists, neurologists. No-one had the slightest idea and I have had no response from any American specialist. I don't think there is anything else to tell. Mom, did I forget anything there?" he asked his mother.

-"No, I don't think so, except that she's a real nuisance. I could never give her an injection without her trying to kill you over nothing. I remember the last time she had a huge mark on her skin after I took a blood sample. I took a photo of it, look," she took a photo from her drawer, which she handed to Sam.

Sam took it and grimaced. It was not at all a pretty sight to behold: the skin had gone black with scabs covering the wound. The blood looked as if it was crystallising around the wound. It looked almost as if she had been contaminated by the plague or some other illness.

-"But my son has told you all there is to know. Everything except this: before she left, she was doing a little better emotionally. She was even talking about taking up study and researching her illness. In my opinion, she wanted to fight this tumour, but as she said herself: "it's hard to fight an enemy you can't see, don't know and don't have the weapons to defeat." She is a fighter but I think it's a lost cause in her case," Elisabeth continued.

-"She might have decided to take specialised classes, oncology or others related to her illness," Jack wondered out loud.

-"Yes, maybe, I know of one university in Paris where a specialist in cancer research teaches. I don't remember where exactly, but his name is Pascal Martin. If you do manage to find her, perhaps you will be able to do something to help her," Elisabeth ended.

-"I hope so, we'll leave you now. Goodbye," Sam said in parting.

Sam and her team left the office, not talking until they reached the car:

-"I didn't know she was ill," Jack said, "that explains a lot like her death wish tendencies, like the time she jumped out of that window. What did he mean by physiological modifications?"

-"It's a long story, but to sum up, she was exposed to a strong electrical discharge which affected her cell equilibrium in relation to their electrical potential, meaning that the depolorisation and hyperpolorisation of the membranes and the electrostatic equilibrium are totally reversed..."

-"Colonel, I believe you are going into overly complex details," Teal'c interrupted.

-"I'm sorry. Thanks Teal'c. Well, in layman's terms, her body is constantly coursing with electric waves. She's able to control these waves," Sam simplified for their benefit.

-"Ok I understand,you mean she has some sort of powers?" Jack concluded.

"Yes, that's it exactly."

On that, they broke off the discussion. Jack for his part didn't bring it back up. "How did I not guess about her illness? How could I not notice her condition, not to mention her powers? I should have noticed those special abilities, but I never saw anything. If I'd known then what I know now, I might have been better able to understand how she was so strong, so resistant, all those niggling questions I could never answer.":

-"Was she, how do I say this..." he paused over the right word to use, "...? It's a rare condition, surely?"

-"Not as much as you might think; there are other people with this condition, everyone in fact. It's just to different degrees. Say for example when you get an electric shock. In her case, she's attained an extremely high level of energy. Scientists actually studied her against her will which was part of the reason she came back to France, I think. I don't know exactly what happened but I have my own theory. In any case, I studied the scans they took of her. At the time, she was putting out the same level of energy as a nuclear reactor, but by now it must be even greater

-"Wow," Jack whistled, "but how did that happen? She can't have been born that way. And to give off electric shocks, that must be painful for her. I can't stand them myself, so to have them constantly must be intolerable."

-"We don't know for certain, these are just theories I have," she did not elaborate.

-"General Prévost may not expect her to end up anywhere except for the morgue,"

Teal'c mused.

-"We'll see," Sam said.

They changed the subject and went over what they had learned that day as they headed back to their hideout.

End of Chapter Six