Ashtarte moved to the window.  Her Lord had retired to his bedroom.

She sensed a presence below her in the darkness.  Reaching out she found a mind.  Flashes of a room with people in uniform, the bridge of a ship, and then the wooded wilderness that surrounded the compound.  In each appeared the tall, dark eyed Jack. 

He has come for them.

Looking over her shoulder at her slumbering Lord, she considered her duty.  She should awake him and tell him that the man who haunts his thoughts was here.  Ashtarte had been very patient.  Since her release from her imprisonment she had waited for this opportunity.  Quickly passing by her Lord she slipped from the room.

"Jack," Daniel's voice came over his earpiece, "we've been made."

Jack and Teal's had entered the mansion and made their way down a long hallway that cornered at the end.  Reaching the end, Jack slid a small mirror along the floor around the corner.  10-12 feet away stood a Jaffa before a doorway.

Jack clicked his radio twice acknowledging Daniel's communication and waited.  If the Jaffa were aware of their presence the one standing guard would likely come their way.  He and Teal'c could take him down.  If they were lucky, Samantha and Kerry were behind that door.  The alternative was that they failed in their mission and would have to pull out. 

As the seconds ticked by the Jaffa remained standing guard.  Whoever made Daniel hasn't alerted the Jaffa. Jack thought.

Turning to check on Teal's position, Jack considered taking the single Jaffa out with a zat blast.  But his debate was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. 

The tin voice of a female Goa'uld ordered the Jaffa, "Mel nok tee go'tar." 

"Kel sha." The Jaffa replied.

A sound of the door closing was followed by several footsteps.

"Colonel O'Neill, I would speak to you."

Getting herself onto her knees and finally standing Samantha made her way over to Kerry who was looking pale.

Keeping her eyes on George who was still on the floor, she handed Kerry the gun and helped her aim it at George.

"If he moves, shoot."

Her hands free, Samantha grabbed the edge of her shirt and eased it over her head, sharp stabs of pain from her ribs nearly doubling her.  The adrenalin that had been surging through her during the struggle with George for the gun was now fading and the pain from her likely broken ribs made its way through her body.

Still cradling her side, she took the edge of her shirt in her teeth and ripped at the seam with her free hand, tearing it into strips.

Kerry's wound was just above her knee.  Her leg was quickly becoming bloodied.

"We have to stop the bleeding.  Let's get this tunicate on you thigh."

Kerry nodded.  A clammy sweat was breaking out over her face.  Wrapping the torn fabric around her thigh, Kerry shutter in pain as Samantha tied the end and twisted to create the pressure to stop the flow of blood.

With Kerry tended to, Samantha reached over to the second cot taking the cuffs that had held her.

"Get over here."  George hissed at her and made to rise.

"No.  On the floor, crawl."

George covered the few feet to the cot.  Tossing the cuff at him Samantha ordered, "Put them on."

George laced the cuffs around the metal frame of the cot and clicked them around his wrists. Samantha reached down and tightened the restraints, cutting them into his skin.

"How far do think you will get Samantha?  She'll," gesturing to Kerry, "never make it far."

He was right.  Kerry may make it out of the room, then what?

"Go."

Samantha turned in shock to Kerry.

"You have a chance." Kerry assured her.

"You will die if we can't get you help."

"We're both dead if you don't go now."

"Samantha, don't fool yourself.  My Lord will -"

Samantha's foot came down upon George's face.  Taking a spare length of material from her shredded shirt, she stuffed it into George's mouth.

Kerry loosely held the gun's handle up to Samantha.  Taking it, Samantha stepped around George heading to the door.

"If you," Kerry started, "If you make it, can you do something for me?"

Samantha nodded, her eyes full of sympathy for the woman.

"Tell Colonel O'Neill...tell Jack, that I wanted..."  Kerry struggled to find the right words.  How does she leave her last words for Jack with this woman?

"Tell him that I want him to be happy and...I'm sorry."

The pain in her side suddenly felt as nothing to her compared to the dark pit that opened in her stomach.  This woman and Jack were... what?  

"I will."  She stared into the woman's eyes before turning and heading down the hall.

Jack and Teal'c stood in the hall aiming their zats at the Gou'ald, Jack stepped up to her.

"Where are they?" he demanded.

"Which one?"

"What?"

"Which one, my dear Colonel?"

Jack grabbed hold of her neck, yanking her toward him, frustration finally breaking him.  Ashtarte grinned slowly, knowing she had been right.

"Oh, my."

"'Listen ass tart-"

"Well, aren't you the charmer." She cut him off.  Stepping closer to him until her breast brushed his ammo vest.  Jack, speechless with rage, stared her down.

"I'll tell you where they are, but only if you tell me, which one."

"Which. One, What?!" he replied in a barely controlled shout, pushing her away from him.

"Which one did you really come for Colonel?"

Jack was now shaking uncontrollably.

Teal'c moved around the pair, clearing his line of sight.

"Colonel, I will tell you where you'll find the women.  All I ask is that you tell me, truthfully, which one?"

From his ear piece he heard Daniel break into the conversation.

"Jack."

"Report Daniel."

"I thought we were spotted, but there's been nothing from the mansion.  Where are you?"

"Stay in position Daniel."  With that he closed the comm link with Daniel.

"Tell me colonel, if as you stand here now, one of your women was on her way to be executed and the other...to be taken as a host, which would you go to save?"

In milliseconds, Jack's mind was permeated with visions of what the Goa'uld's threat implied, Samantha's terror at the sight of a Goa'uld larva, her lifeless body hanging from one of B'aal's torture chambers.

Jack threw the Gou'ald to the ground.  In an instant he had one knee pressed into her chest, while pushing the barrel of his gun into the soft flesh of her throat.

"O'Neill!"  yelled Teal'c.  Jack broke his gaze from Ashtarte.

Suddenly gun fire from beyond the closed door distracted the two men.

"What will it be Colonel?  Save one or loose them both?"

Pulling himself quickly off the woman, Jack retrained his gun on her, as she leisurely raised herself up, body stretched out before him.

"Don't bother.  I have my answer."