7.
Jack was laid on his side, facing the door when he noticed a shadow pass the crack of light that crept in through the gap at the bottom. Since the end of usual visiting hours on the ward, no-one had passed his door, there were only a couple of rooms beyond his on the corridor, it made it easier for security. There hadn't been a sound from the airman on guard, neither a greeting nor a challenge, but for some reason the hairs on the back of is neck stood up.
His left hand closed around the zat, priming it, his right hand was on top of the covers, holding his knife just out of sight, he wasn't taking the chance that whoever it was didn't have one of those Goa'uld personal shields that would ignore a zat blast or a bullet. The secret service had installed a camera on the wall behind him, watching the door, and in the room farthest down the corridor, two doors away, six men were watching the video feed.
Jack could FEEL someone, just outside the door, and the troubling thing was the reason he could feel them, Naquadah! Ever since his 'blending' with Kanan he could sense the presence of a symbiote, the same way that Sam was able to and Teal'c once could (Teal'c had lost the ability when he started on tretonin). He had been expecting his visitor to be the ex-cop but now he was more than a little surprised, why the hell would a Goa'uld be outside his hospital room? How would they know where to find him, and why would they CARE? He was no longer on SG1, and as far as the system lords were concerned he may as well be dead, he was that far out of the picture, to them, he was in a totally different art gallery!
The door opened slowly, and a blond head appeared, Jack looked relaxed on the bed, his eyes all but closed as he watched the medium sized body slip totally into the room and close the door behind him.
"Whatya doin' PETE" he asked causing the younger man to jump slightly, "Or are you going to tell me the name of your snake so we know exactly where we stand?"
Pete's eyes flashed, and the hollow deep voice of the Goa'uld spoke out "You are not worthy to speak my name, but you DO know of me, in fact we have met, several times, I once had the pleasure of overseeing your death, more than once actually human"
Shit! Ba'al! Somehow the Ba'al symbiote had infected Sams ex lover, no wonder he had access to the toys of a major player!
"Bocce! How ya doin'?" he said in that light hearted tone he knew annoyed the snake so much "Thought you had left after that damn fiasco in Seattle, bet that cut into the royal treasury losing all that Naquadah, and for gawds sake, why the hell invade this guy? I mean come on, he isn't your usual type of host"
"Ahh but he has just what I need, an insight into the workings of the Tauri way of life, the evils and degradations you put yourselves through, and of course, personal knowledge of a certain female, what does it feel like human? To know that my body once had intimate knowledge of your mate?"
What did it feel like? It made Jack sick to his stomach, he had a hard enough time with his jealous nature accepting that he was not the only person alive who knew Sam in that way, but for Ba'al of all…THINGS…it was almost enough to make him lose his temper and his last meal, there and then, and Ba'al read it in his body language, gloating.
Jack took a deep breath and smiled at his enemy, "Yeah, you must admit though, she chose the better man in the end, I mean, have you SEEN your host? Not exactly tall dark and handsome, not even one of those three!" if there was one thing you could count on with snakes, they were vain. Hopefully he would be causing Pete to struggle in there as well, anything that may distract Ba'al even the slightest was worth it, he may disclose more than the usual 'you are going to die' rhetoric.
"We will be getting her in the end though, I was disappointed that she didn't rush to your side after I arranged the crash, but once you are dead the first thing that will happen will be the hospital will call her and she will rush to your body. In that ill thought time we will be able to take her and make her a host as well, to have, not only the foremost of the Tauri Chaapa'ai scientists, but the knowledge of the systems surrounding your defence network, and her computer skills, well, that is only a part of what makes this whole venture worthwhile. And my revenge as I take her as mate will be sweet as well."
That did it, Jack sat up and discharged the zat straight at him. The usual flicker of the Goa'uld personal shield showed the charge dissipating, and Jack waited until he raised his hand, and in a throw exactly the same as the one he had done to Heru'ur over six years ago, put the knife straight through the palm of his hand. The security force slammed into the room, knocking the system lord to the floor as he cradled his injured limb.
"We will hold him here until someone comes to take him" Jack said, getting slowly off the bed, after all he was still slightly concussed, and had a cast on his leg, he stepped over to where the struggling man was being held and roughly took back his knife, he wiped it on the shoulder of Pete's shirt. "Hold his hand over the sink until he stops bleeding, we don't want anyone slipping in here" Jack said coldly.
"Shouldn't we call a doctor for him, sir?" one of the SFs said
"Naww he'll be fine, wont ya Bocce? The snake will stop the bleeding quickly, but boys, keep your eyes peeled, the snake may not stay in him, if you see it start to leave him, zat it, we will be getting the Tok'ra in to remove it soon anyway, I understand that that is REALLY painful" He shouldn't be gloating in this way, but he was tired and in pain, and the threats the snake had made against Sam were echoing in the back of his mind.
Suddenly Petes voice came out of his mouth "O'Neill, I hope you don't think you have won here! I know my Sam, it is only a matter of time before she gets tired of you, old man, you wont be able to keep up with her and she WILL want me again. Even if you get rid of my partner in here, Sam will still be mine in the end, and I will show her the depth of her mistakes over a long period of time, I will have her screaming my name in both pleasure and pain, and cursing yours!"
Jack was going to lose it! In fact the only thing keeping the man alive was the fact that Jack didn't want any witnesses to what he was going to do to him! As a hand to hand combatant Jack knew lots of ways to kill men, without breaking a sweat, and he had learnt several more in the short time he and Kanan had been joined, most of THOSE unpleasant in the extreme. The leader of the security detail saw the muscles in Jacks jaw tighten and recognised the extreme danger of this man, Generals were not supposed to get their hands dirty, but if the scuttlebutt about this particular one was correct, he may be the one man in the whole of the USA that the team leader could actually FEAR as well as respect! He also realised that if he wanted to keep his prisoner alive he better shut him up, and quick! He took a clean hankie out of his pocket and a couple of plastic ties and went to the man being held, he thumped him sharply in the gut and as his mouth opened he shoved the hankie in and slipped the ties around his head, a crude but effective gag.
"Thank you" Jack said, getting back on his bed, watching with satisfaction as the young man tried to catch his breath through his nose. He reached over and got his phone from the bedside cabinet "I take it you have reported in?"
"Yessir! We reported straight to the White House as soon as he entered the room, and one of my men is still watching through the camera and reporting the ongoing situation as we speak, sir"
"Fine, fine, someone should be here soon to take this…thing… to '51 now if you don't mind I have my own reporting in to do, so could you all be quiet"
The men stood back against the walls, trying to pretend they weren't there, wishing that they could have taken the prisoner and gone back to the end room instead of disturbing the much needed rest of this man who had made himself the bait in what could have been a deadly trap!
"Sam, yeah sorry I didn't call earlier love, got caught up in a meeting, you know how the president is. How was your day?" Jacks was light and normal, showing none of the strain that his face did, as he listened, nodded and made an occasional comment to his wife. "I would love to be able to make it this weekend love, but I have to take a trip to China, Shen Xiaoyi, is still shouting about how she wants to witness the 'wonders of the universe' first hand. Looks like it is definitely going to go ahead… yeah SG3, No giggling Colonel! I'll call you tomorrow morning, Oh, ok… how long a mission? Then I'll call you tomorrow night! I love you… bye"
He looked straight at Ba'al and grinned "She seems happy enough to me Bocce, Pete, think your brains are addled… nothing to say?" he smiled at the gagged man who was trying to spit the hankie out, "thought not" he looked at the men who were trying to pretend they were not there, "It's OK lads won't be long now"
Ten minutes later the transport to '51 had arrived and another airman was on duty outside Jacks door, the one who had allowed himself to be slipped a mickey was sleeping it off in another room. Jack didn't realise it but the six man team were back in the end room watching over him as ordered as he slipped into as deep a sleep as he would allow, given the fact that he wasn't in his own bed.
He woke up after less than two hours, having woken himself by shouting at a nightmare, the watching eyes of the security men were sympathetic, rather than full of pity, as most of them had had similar dreams in their time.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
By the time he 'got back' from China, he had missed a whole roomful of Carters! Damn now that would have been a sight to see, his little general twitched at the thought! The Tok'ra had not got back in touch, which wasn't surprising really given that the 'gate had been effectively shut down for several days, and yet another attempt had been made to get into Sams files from the FBI office!
SG1 were on their way home having 'arrested' themselves and of course Sam had a plan on how to get all the SG1 teams back to their own realities, and Jack was working out how to explain a broken leg in such a way that his wife wouldn't drop everything and rush to his side. Not that he didn't want to see her but the computer breech at the Hoover building suggested that there may still be some danger.
He was back in his office at the Pentagon, reading through some reports when he suddenly shouted "MICHAELS"
"He's never heard of an intercom" muttered one of the juniors.
"I heard that!" his voice came through the door.
"Damn! Busted!" She grinned, she just loved working for this man, he had a sense of humour, that very few of his level did. Or if they did, they never allowed the rank and file to see it!
Sgt. Michaels went into his boss, grinning as well, but soon stopped when he saw the look on his bosses face.
"Sir?"
"This report, from the NID, any chance I can get whoever wrote it on the phone?"
Michaels looked at the file upside down… "Yessir! I think I can get him straight away"
"It's urgent Michales, make it fast if you can"
The sergeant exited the room and went to his machine to type in the agent number, files from the NID didn't come with names on, just numbers, and he had to log into a VERY secure and double encrypted file to find out who was actually who… and it changed month by month as well, so Agent 14 would not be the same person in November as he had been in October, or would be in December. So he had to put the date and file number in as well as the agent number to get the information he needed.
Finally after double blind security checks, he had the name of the agent, and a direct line through to him, he went back into his boss. "Sir Agent Barrett is on line one, he is the one who wrote the report sir."
"Malcolm Barrett?" Michaels nodded, surprised that the General would know this specific agent personally, "Oh goody, there's something I wanted to rub his nose in as well" he had that look on his face that would have made a shark think twice, and reached over picking up the phone "That will be all for now Sergeant" he waited until the door shut before pressing the top button on the phone.
"Malcolm! Jack O'Neill here, whatya doin'?"
"Erm, on surveillance sir, trying to find out if Ba'al is serious about wanting to live here, as he said in his message to the SGC, so far he seems to be keeping his head down"
"Not quite down Malcolm, the Ba'al symbiote infected Pete Shanahan and tried to kill me the other night"
"Your kidding!" Malcolm almost shouted down the phone "Why weren't we informed?"
"You work for ME remember, not the other way on, now what do you mean he is keeping his head down? He's been totally out of sight for how long?"
"Not totally out of sight, just not doing anything suspicious for a few weeks, in fact I was looking at him less than 2 hours ago"
"How can that be? We have been holding Shanahan at '51 for days"
"Sorry Sir, but I can assure you this is not just an empty host, Ba'al is definitely in there, his eyes glowed"
"Could another symbiote be inhabiting Ba'al old body?"
"I doubt it sir, I can't see Ba'al risking anyone posing as him, but there was that report that he could be cloning himself, maybe he cloned just a symbiote, or even a full clone and the symbiote left him, in that case anyone, anywhere could be Ba'al!"
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