Chapter 40: Assistance

It felt like a powerful mind rush.

All the information.

Blowing through the backs of his eyelids.

Electric blue energy.

And as quickly as it appeared, it dissipated. Pulled back, until just a trickle.

Long range sensors. Internal sensors. Alarms blaring that something was not right. Maps highlighting the areas of dissonance.

Alex tried to sort through it all, looking for the important bits.

Communications.

Not the internal communications – like the Trust lady had used for her announcement – but the external communications.

The shield.

The lockdown system.

The door locks in specific regions that were offline for some reason.

As soon as he tried to grab onto a concept, it seemed to branch into fifteen different ones and he couldn't keep up.

Alex squeezed his eyes shut and let out a long breath, trying to focus.

Communications.

Long range communications.

External broadcasting system.

Not external alarms.

The city was both intent on broadcasting its imminent destruction and keeping things so locked down that no one would ever know they were in turmoil.

Long range sensors.

Fifteen objects within a day of the planet.

Ten objects that conducted power of some sort.

One object housing five smaller objects that matched current earth technologies.

Current earth technologies?

Alex wasn't sure how he knew that, but… That one, he thought.

Current rate of speed predicts arrival in 3 earth hours and 48 earth minutes.

Alex flinched, hands pulling away from the connective gel for a moment and creating an uncomfortable crackling in the connection. He pressed his fingers in again, focusing.

Communicating with the Daedalus was probably the only way they were going to have a chance. And it would be cutting it extremely thin.

He sorted through the variable commands, until he found one that would effectively hide the Daedalus from the control room sensors. It wouldn't vanish completely, but would instead freeze in place. If anyone up there was watching, they hopefully wouldn't raise the alarm.

Long range communications.

Probable earth frequency.

Pre-input override codes with communication signal code.

"Atlantis. This is Colonel Anders of the Daedalus. We're receiving an unusual signal. Over?"

Alex nearly laughed in relief.

He had done it.

"Atlantis?"

"Oh, oh, fuck. Uh…" Alex sorted through the commands and hoped that there was no way for the communications to be intercepted. "Colonel Anders, this is Atlantis. We have a… bit of a situation down here."

There was a long pause.

So long, Alex wasn't sure he had actually managed to make it go through.

"You're not Dr. Radek Zelenka." There was very heavy note of suspicion in his voice. "Who are you and how did you get access to these codes?"

Of course. Dr. Z's codes. They would think it was him. "Dr. Z, I mean, Dr. Zelenka gave them to me. The city is—"

"Who are you? And why was he giving out unauthorized codes?"

"Alex, Alex Rider, and the city is—"

"Rider?" There was another voice, also laced with incredulity.

If he didn't already have his eyes closed, Alex probably would have rolled his in exasperation. "Listen! The Trust are in the city. They've got McKay and Sheppard – not sure who else. I got separated from Dr. Z when he sent me to the chair room."

"And you got sent to the chair room because…" That was the Colonel again.

"Stronger gene than Dr. Z. Not important!" Alex took a deep breath, tried to refocus. The chair, the city, was trying to distract him with the alarms all over the place. "They're in the city. They've got some sort of invisibility devices they're using to get around. Most of the military are confined to…" He sorted through the inputs, looking for the hotspots on the sensors. "The west side of the city."

"What kind of invisibility devices?" The second voice was back.

"How am I supposed to know?" Alex peeked down at his wrist once again. "It's a leather bracelet with a green gem. Seems to—"

"Fuck, Sodan cloaking device. Did you get one? Those are radioactive."

"Uhhh… yes?" Though radioactive versus getting shot up with bullets was probably a better choice. At least in the short term. "Just how radioactive are we talking?"

"Use it as little as possible and you'll get to take some pills for the next two months." Alex dubbed the voice as Helpful. "Stay out of phase for more than twenty-four cumulative hours and you'll start feeling symptoms." There was a short pause, a rustle of paper, and then Helpful came back. "What's the status of the city shield?"

Alex sorted through the inputs again, trying not to follow the rabbit trails that the city all but placed right in front of him. "Beaming shield is active." There was even a handy schematic showing how to deactivate it, but – it had to be changed from the control room. And based on life signatures, that was exactly where the Trust was camping out. "There are entire sections of the city I don't have access to. They've managed to shield it from the city's central systems somehow."

The entire area around the infirmary was still offline. A null zone, just like Rodney had said. He couldn't even see life signatures there.

He filtered through the data, highlighting and amplifying as he went. There had to be a way— "What's the frequency of the subcutaneous transmitters?"

"13 Hz." Helpful didn't even hesitate.

Filter.

Sort.

Highlight.

"Hah!" The life signs on the map lit up in different colors. Friendly versus foe. "Life signs detectors can be recalibrated to highlight our people. If I can get the beaming system down…"

"Alex, focus. What is the Trust's goal?"

"They've got McKay and Sheppard. Execution is scheduled for… oh, four hours from now. So, you know, stopping that is probably the main priority."

"Executi—"

"Some lady said that resistance is futile, blah, blah, blah, generic bad guy stuff. But not like, monologuing." That would've been too easy. "The Trust wants the city and they have gene carriers of their own now. I'd suggest stopping them."

There was a muffled snort from the other side.

Which, were they laughing?

Now?

When people were dying?

Maybe they weren't so Helpful…

"Hey, if you don't want to help, I'll do this all myself—"

"No, no, no. Listen Alex, don't go out there, guns blazing and get yourself killed. We're pushing the drive to the max and will be there in three hours. If you can get the beaming shield down…"

Alex figured he wouldn't mention that the beaming shield controller was in the control room. That would probably count as going out guns blazing. "Will do." But first, he would try to open up some of the sealed doors on the west side. It would always help to have at least a few more friendly people roaming the city.

"Hey, don't do anything stupid."

Alex snorted. It was like they knew him, or something. "Of course not. I'll radio back in two hours."

"Wait—"

He cut the connection before they could make any more demands.

It was going to be hard enough getting into the control room without getting caught. The invisibility – cloaking device – was going to make it easier, but apparently, he had to contend with radiation poisoning. Not that he was planning for it to take anywhere near twenty-four hours.

Sheppard would be dead within four.

Alex leaned forward in the chair, pulling his hands up and effectively disconnecting from the system.

Everything felt muddled and blurry for a moment, and he blinked rapidly into the bright light. That was a mind rush.

He grabbed for the data pad and started scrolling through the outputs.

It all made sense now.

God, it was like a download to his brain.

But better.

Was this why Sheppard could read Ancient so fluently? How had no one figured this out before?

Shield cloak stabilizer.

Shield general override.

Shield generator.

Shield override beamer.

There were so many options and so little time to figure out the right course of action. Alex settled down in the chair, very carefully not activating it, and scrolled through the options. He would have to be ready to take the right steps in the right order almost instantaneously.

He would have one shot at it and it was going to literally be life or death.

Alex pinched his bicep, trying to find the implant under his skin. It wasn't much larger than a grain of rice and was meant to be invisible to most palpitation. But he had found it once and he was going to find it again.

If he didn't…

There were few cameras left active in the city, but thanks to the cloaking device he had managed to get a few glimpses of the people roaming the corridors. Several had had life signs detectors that were, of all things, connected into the city mainframe.

They were using the city's technology against it.

But it meant that if he got rid of the subcue, he could convince the city to erase him from its sensors.

Provided everything worked as it should.

There.

Just barely noticeable, wedged in-between the muscle. He couldn't help the slight shudder of revulsion at having something under his skin, tracking him. And the knowledge at the end of all this, he was just going to have to get it replaced.

That was a problem for later.

Keeping a finger over the spot, he lined up the pair of wires he had carefully selected for this crazy plan of his.

Operation Complete Invisibility.

There was only the slightest jolt and twinge of pain, but it hadn't even burned his skin, so he counted it as a win. A quick check with the overhead sensors showed that his signature had gone from blue to red – unidentified life signature. Just like all the other imposters.

And with a few quick keystrokes – only quick because of his new and improved understanding of Ancient – his life signature blipped off the map. A quick push of updates to all life signs detectors within the city meant that they would never see him coming.

Hopefully.

And while the chair room didn't have a handy life signs detector for him to pick up, he knew where to find one now.

All the city's information at his fingertips was a little intoxicating.

Alex unplugged his data pad and slung it back over his shoulder. He grabbed the P90 and hooked the zat on his belt loop once more. He scanned through the overhead of life signatures once more – nothing within the immediate vicinity – then shut and locked everything down. Waiting for another set of override codes.

He tapped the cloaking device once more, sliding back into the world of strange colors and hues – and radiation – and exited the chair room. This was going to be make it or break it.

Alex skidded around the corner, feet barely keeping grip on the slick tile floors.

All good plans went to shit at some point.

He just hadn't anticipated it to go that badly, that quickly.

He had gotten his life signs detector and had almost immediately been spotted by a set of patrols. They hadn't even bothered to fire any warning shots – these were shots to kill.

Apparently, Tully didn't care if he was dead or alive anymore. Maybe taking out seven of his men had caused a grudge.

Alex ducked through the railings on a set of stairs and sprinted in the opposite direction on the floor below. If he had any luck – which was none, so far – they would assume he would continue his trajectory toward the central tower.

That would give him time to regroup and reassess.

Smash and grab was not going to work in this situation.

He skidded around a corner again, this time losing grip and slamming into the wall. He heard – and felt – a painful crunch, leaving a visible dent in the wall, but kept going.

A familiar whine as a weapon powered up was his only warning and Alex hit the floor, tapping the cloaking device in the process. "It's me, don't shoot!" He hissed, already rolling out the way.

The gun never fired, but a hand grabbed him by the back of the collar and dragged him through a doorway. The door slid shut a moment later and Alex flopped to the ground, panting.

"Oh, thank god."

"Thought you were one of the ghosts," Ronon rumbled, frowning down at Alex. "Where are the others?"

Alex rolled his shoulder experimentally, wincing at the pain. Not broken or dislocated though. "I got separated from them. Daedalus is on their way though."

"Beaming shield is up."

Alex wiggled his data pad. "I can take care of that."

Ronon eyed him speculatively. "You can do that?"

"Dr. Z is a great teacher." And being able to actually read Ancient helped a surprising amount. "They're going to kill Rodney and Sheppard, so uh, time is of the essence." Not that he particularly wanted to run anywhere again. Not broken or not, his shoulder fucking hurt.

"How were you invisible?"

Alex raised his wrist. "Got it off one of them."

"You took one out?"

"A few."

Ronon's eyebrows raised, but he didn't question that. "It's not Ancient."

"No, I think it's from the Milky Way." At least, based on Helpful voice's certainty of what it was. And since The Trust was coming from that galaxy. "When you're invisible, you can see everyone else too."

Ronon grinned. "I'm getting one."

Alex open and closed his mouth, then decided Ronon probably didn't care about radiation any more than he did.

"You have a plan?"

Alex blinked, then pushed himself up to a sitting position. Talking while flat on his back just seemed awkward with Ronon looming over him. "Daedalus is coming in hot and I've blocked them from the long-range sensors. Once they get here, I'll drop the beaming shield and they'll pick up our people. Then they can beam in other teams to take out the Trust."

And hopefully they had something – or could jury-rig something – to take out the advantage the cloaking devices gave.

"Command center?"

"Yeah…"

Ronon held out a hand to help Alex and pulled him up to his feet. "Let's go, then." He raised a hand to the sensor.

Moving around the city with two people was both substantially harder and more convenient. It meant Alex could study the maps and life signs for the safest route without constantly being on guard – even though they could technically still track Ronon through his subcue. They had used that to their advantage though by setting traps for unsuspecting groups that thought they had found a lone straggler.

No one ever bothered to look up.

They only had to backtrack once and had avoided being spotted – when they didn't want to be – so far. He was counting that as a win.

Alex forced his way into the transporter nearest the central tower and waved Ronon in behind him.

"These aren't working," Ronon stated, eyeing the closed door with distaste.

"Yes, but they won't look for us here." Alex plugged his tablet into the access panel and pulled up the city sensors. It wasn't perfect, certainly wasn't made for this purpose, but it would do the job.

The city cameras were still down, except for those in the main corridor. It would be a hassle, but not impossible to sidestep those. They still had to make it up nearly 70 floors though – and Alex knew they were running low on time.

"Let me just…" He swiped through the communications systems, bypassing the usual control center and transmitting directly from his device. The override codes provided him access and after a long moment, a tinny, crackly voice came through.

"Atlantis, this is the Daedalus." Helpful voice was back.

Alex shared an almost grin with Ronon, before pressing his own response button. "Daedalus, what's your ETA?"

"An hour fifteen, full throttle. Any luck on lowering the beaming shield?"

"I have the work around and I'll pull it just before you get here." Side step the fact that they still had to get there. "You'll want to focus on the subcues in the gate room. Pretty sure that's where they have Sheppard and McKay." An hour fifteen wasn't going to give much, if any, wiggle room. "Wait for my signal as soon as you're in range. I'm not sure how long it will stay down."

Ronon grabbed his wrist and pulled it away from the microphone. "It won't stay down?" He growled.

Alex shrugged. "Don't know. It should, but…" He wasn't going to guarantee anything.

"You won't get beamed out. You'll be a sitting duck."

Once again, something he was painfully aware of. Which was why he wasn't planning on turning his back on anyone. He had more than enough firepower to take out a few important people in the confusion.

"-lex?"

Alex jerked his hand way and pressed the microphone button again. "Sorry, I have Ronon with me now."

"Oh, good." It almost sounded like relief. "Listen, be careful. If this is Ragamona, she's going to have guards stationed throughout the city. Probably some of the Marines too, if I'm honest. Don't trust anyone you don't have to."

Ragamona. Alex mouthed the name to himself. What kind of name was that? And he didn't really need warning that she was psycho – she worked for the Trust. That was pretty telling of her mental state in the first place.

"We have our own teams standing by for when we arrive."

Alex nodded, as if the person on the other end could hear him. "Okay, well, wait for my signal. Hour fifteen." He cut the connection before they could ask any incriminating questions. Such as how he was planning to do this.

Especially because Ronon was looking more and more suspicious about his plan.

"Okay, we're clear to go. Don't forget the plan."

Ronon eyed him, before raising his gun at the ready. "Don't you forget the plan."

Alex rolled his eyes, focusing on typing in a string of commands he would have had no hope of figuring out hours earlier. The sensors in the stairwell blinked out one by one, giving them an opportunity to get all the way up unnoticed. So long as they didn't run into anyone.

Satisfied that they would have at least a fighting chance, he yanked the cords out, stashed his data pad, and raised his own gun. "Let's go save Sheppard and McKay."

At floor twenty-three, Alex's calves were burning.

By floor thirty-one, he had a stitch in his side.

Floor forty-nine had him gasping for air and wishing he had thought to carry a water bottle. Or that water fountains existed in the city.

Floor fifty-two, they spent a precious two minutes and forty-five seconds hiding in a half-broken supply closet, trying to suppress their breathing and Alex desperately wishing for one of Rodney's power bars.

Near floor sixty-seven, Alex rolled his ankle on a stair. Nothing horrible, but enough to add just an ache to every step further.

At floor seventy-two, Ronon led the way down an unused passageway that everyone had seemingly forgotten about. Just one little door separated them from the main control room. From looking down over the gate room and whatever scene was going on there.

He could really use a camera.

"Attention residents of Atlantis."

Alex flinched at the sudden sound, then turned wide eyes on Ronon. It couldn't be that time already.

"It has come to my attention that you aren't paying attention very well. Resistance is futile. The city of Atlantis belongs to the Trust now. Only cooperation will give you any chance to going home to your families. But… someone has decided to strike out on their own. They made some bad decisions, tried to hurt my people. I believe you know him as Sergeant Pilkes."

Pilkes.

He had survived.

Alex's breath caught in his throat at the spark of hope. He hadn't been the only one to make it through. And then that spark of hope was quickly squashed, as reality set in. They were going to try to make an example of him.

"We've got to get in there," Alex hissed at Ronon. Pilkes had been trying to protect him, after all. He couldn't just let them…

Ronon nodded, before pressing a knife blade to the seam in the door. "Older style, wasn't replaced," he mumbled under his breath. The door pried apart, breaking the seal with hardly a sound, then Ronon worked his fingertips in to pull it open. Sheer brute strength. "I'll take care of the Sergeant. You do your thing."

Alex nodded, then crouched low as the doors slid further open.

"—a new order. You too will see that this is the proper way of living. Following antiquated rules and regulations that restrict advancements—"

There was an odd duality to her voice, as Alex crept into the control center. Over the intercom, it sounded normal. But in person…

Alex slipped underneath one of the control consoles, then peeked out the bottom. There was a woman, presiding over the gate room, broadcasting her words to the entire city. Although Alex couldn't see much more than the waist down, there was no missing her homespun style clothes.

Traders.

And next to her, there was no missing the all too familiar pressed trousers and crisp knee length skirt.

Woolsey and Madsen.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuckity fuck.

Since they weren't tied up or being held hostage, there was no doubting that they were complicit in some way. And were continuing to go along with it.

Ronon made a sharp hand gesture as he stalked past, not even bothering to hide his presence. Alex sincerely hoped this didn't all go pear-shaped in a matter of seconds.

"You're just a snake lover!" That was definitely Pilkes. Though he usually reserved that tone of voice for training on the weekends. And strange use of insult…

"Silence, fool," the woman snapped, seeming to forget she was being broadcast. "Your insolence will be your downfall."

Alex reached a careful hand up to the console and grabbed a handful of wires. One of them would do the trick and he was just counting on the back-up gate tech being a little harried after being yanked away.

There was no one guarding the consoles now. A rookie mistake.

Didn't plan for me, I guess.

And Ronon. Ronon was a very important part at this point.

"I thought we were supposed to check for snakes, these days." There was a familiar whir of Ronon's gun, before he let off a shot. That was the cue for chaos to erupt and Alex took the moment to connect in with the communications systems. He released the block on the long-range sensors, noting that the Daedalus was only five minutes out of range.

"Kill him, kill him!" The woman shrieked.

And as much as Alex wanted to intervene, he had a job to do.

Ronon would take care of himself.

A stray shot hit the top of the console and Alex just hoped that no one thought to shoot it any more. He wasn't going to have a second chance if they destroyed it all.

Shield generator power.

Shield generator power analysis.

Scoping maximums.

Fluctuating beam forming limits.

Permissions.

Override temporarily enabled.

Temporary. Shit.

There was no way it was going to be enough time.

Countdown enabled.

Start engagement sequence in five minutes.

"Ronon!"

That was not a shout of glee, however. It was one of terror.

"Don't kill him!"

There was the sound of something heavy hitting the gate room floor and Alex winced. The shooting stopped.

Silence reigned for a few long, awful minutes. Alex peaked from underneath the console, trying to get a better view of the trio placed by the railing. The woman hardly looked ruffled, but even Alex could see the gaping wound on her shoulder, courtesy of Ronon's blaster.

Set to kill, but it hadn't worked.

"The natives have no place in this city." The woman said, not seeming to even notice the injury. "We will put them down like the dogs they are."

And officially off the deep end.

"Residents of Atlantis, you are clearly trying my patience. Let this be an example – kill them all."

"Woah, hey, that's a horrible idea!" Someone – Rodney – shouted. "I can tell you all about these systems, secrets you'll never know—"

"Someone, gag him."

Alex took that as his cue, opening the channel to the Daedalus and sending through a frantic message. "You better take this as your cue. Woolsey and Madsen are in on it. Get everyone out, now!" He left the mic open, then darted out from behind his console, zat taking down Woolsey and Madsen with a single flick.

He ducked underneath the next console as bullets came flying his way.

No zats on their side yet, but he wasn't holding his breath.

He aimed for the woman, but the zat just crackled over her.

A shield.

Just what he needed. More technology that he knew nothing about.

The soldiers around her – or whatever they were – didn't have that advantage though. The zat was quick to take them down and he had gotten the hang of going in and out of the cloak in a second's notice.

Another point to his advantage, because none of them had their cloaks activated.

The woman spun around, looking for him, eyes passing right over him. "Find them," she hissed. "They're cloaked."

And there went that element of surprise.

Alex jumped over the console, toward the top of the stairs leading down to the gate, and quickly shot the guards on the steps. Five down, only… fifteen or so more to go.

"Shoot for the head!" Pilkes shouted. He had a gun to the back of his head, forced onto his knees. Sheppard looked dead already, but since they still had a gun trained on him, Alex guessed he wasn't quite dead yet. There was a Ronon sized lump on the floor, unmoving except for shaky breaths here and there. Rodney was glaring balefully at the woman, gagged.

Alex rolled his neck and swapped to the P90, bracing for the recoil and tapping back into visibility.

One second.

Two seconds.

He tapped back out, darted down the three steps, then tapped in again.

One second.

Two seconds.

Five more down. Ten to go.

"Any day now," He muttered in the direction of the Daedalus. Someone else was going to get trigger happy and McKay, Sheppard, and Pilkes were going to pay for it.

"Rider," The woman spat his name, and took a step in his direction, eyes flaring gold. "Let's not play games."

Oh.

Shit.

That was about as bad as it got.

Goa'uld.

Pilkes comments about snakes suddenly made a lot more sense.

"You could join us." She snapped her fingers impatiently and the man next to her tossed her a small disk. "Malcom went through so much trouble to get you in the right place." She took another step in his direction, holding out the disk as if it were a peace offering. "Why, it was practically your destiny. Time and space bent to bring us all to just this moment." She ran a hand along the railing. "Haven't you wondered why the Trust was so interested in you in the first place?"

Alex gritted his teeth, carefully aimed and tapped in and out.

Nine left. Three of which were actively holding guns to his friend's heads. One of which was an insane lady with a forcefield.

"Why you were practically engineered by us. Even your stint with SCORPIA was orchestrated by us. Don't you ever wonder why your father doesn't remember you? Doesn't remember his time on the other side?" She took another step in his direction and grinned, waving the disk like a prize. "That was all us. It's all right here. I could restore his memory."

Alex pushed down his curiosity. Because he had learned the hard way that finding the answers wasn't always what he wanted. Answers sometimes brought heartache. Answers sometimes caused more problems. And this was neither the time nor the place.

She slipped the disk into a pocket, eyes darting around where she thought he was. "You're the strongest gene carrier in a generation. Two direct descendants merged into one. Little. Baby. And look at you now." Her eyes flashed. "A killing machine, all ready for us."

Alex tapped in, aiming for the two goons on either side of the woman. Direct hits. "No," he growled. "I'm not yours."

She just grinned at him, flashing her eyes. "Oh, you will be."

There was a flash of light in the gate room and Alex took that as his opportunity to tap back out and sprint down the stairs. He tapped in and made three head shots at the ones that had been aiming for his friends, connecting solidly. "Come and get me, then."

Four left. No doubt there were more throughout the city.

But the Daedalus was here. The others were safe. It would be over soon.

He tapped back out and sprinted down the hall.

He could survive a game of cat and mouse.

A/N: Who saw that one coming? Do you think Woolsey is really bad? Did we all make it? And what do we think is going to happen next…