CHAPTER FIVE

They were finally on the move again.  Jack kept a half-mile between them and Howell, not wanting to be so close that the man could spot them, but not so far away that there was any danger of losing the guy.

About a mile and a half beyond the accident site, Howell turned off onto a side street.  He went to the end and pulled into a long driveway that led to a large house.  Jack pulled over just out of sight of it.  He, Sam and Teal'c exited the car and silently made their way to a location where they could see the front of the house.  Jack pulled a pair of binoculars out of the backpack he'd brought.

"There are two men on guard out front," he announced.  "We need to take them out without alerting those inside."  He dug into the bag and extracted two tazer stun guns.

"Sir?" Sam said in surprise, wondering where the colonel had gotten the stun guns at such short notice.

Jack smiled faintly.  "You'd be surprised at what I have lying around my house, Carter."

"I bet."

Jack handed one of the stun guns to her.  "We need to be within fifteen feet of the targets, closer, if possible.  That clump of shrubbery to the right of the driveway looks like it'll do.  Aim for the widest part of the body.  Teal'c, I need you to create a distraction that will draw their attention away from us.  Circle around to the left and make a little noise.  Not too much, just enough for them to hear and make them turn in that direction."

The Jaffa quickly yet silently went down the driveway far enough that he wouldn't be seen by anyone at the house.  He crossed the driveway and made his way back up to a spot across from where he knew his teammates were.  He positioned himself behind some shrubs.  Waiting one minute to be certain that Jack and Sam were in position, he reached his hand into the bushes and shook them vigorously.  The two men on guard immediately turned toward the sound.  An instant later, Sam and Jack jumped up and fired their stun guns.  The probes hit the men and delivered the paralyzing electrical current.  The men shuddered and jerked violently, falling to the ground as the charge from the tazers robbed them of neuromuscular control.

SG-1 quickly approached the men.  Using the butt of his gun, Jack clubbed the two men in the head.  Making sure they were unconscious, he pulled the probes out of their bodies, being careful not to touch the probes themselves since they were still delivering a current.  Jack and Teal'c then dragged the men into the bushes, bound their hands and feet, and gagged them.

SG-1 cautiously made their way to the back door.  Peeking in through the kitchen window revealed that the room was empty.  They slipped inside and found places to take cover.  They could hear someone moving around beyond the kitchen.

Using hand signals, Jack told Sam and Teal'c what he wanted them to do.  All three of them crept toward the doorway that led out of the kitchen.  A swift peek out into the dining room revealed two men sitting at the table, drinking coffee.  SG-1 prepared themselves to rush the men.

And that's when disaster struck.  A third man, who must have been outside, came in the back door.  He let out a shout upon seeing SG-1 and grabbed his weapon.

With the speed of all his years in the military, Jack shot the man dead center in the chest.  At the same time, the two men in the dining room leapt from their chairs, guns drawn, and were promptly shot by Sam and Teal'c.

"Go!  We need to find Daniel!" Jack yelled to his teammates, knowing that, at this very minute, someone could be killing the archeologist.

They all rushed out into the living room.  Two men came running down the stairs.  Jack, Sam and Teal'c took cover as bullets hurled their way, ripping into furniture and the floor.  Sam and Jack got off shots, bringing down the two men, who toppled down the stairs and lay still.

There was a moment of complete silence.  Before SG-1 could move, two shots rang out from upstairs.  Then there was more silence.

'God, no,' Jack whispered in his mind, terrified that those shots heralded Daniel's death.

SG-1 hurried up the stairs and straight toward where the gunshots had originated.  Standing on the right side of the door, Jack sent more hand signals to Sam and Teal'c, who were on the other side.   He then placed his hand on the door knob.

'One . . . two . . . three,' he mouthed.  On three, he turned the knob and pushed open the door.  He and Sam swung their arms through the doorway, guns ready.  What they saw made them freeze.

Major Howell was lying face down on the floor, blood puddling beneath his head.  A few feet away, strapped to a wheelchair and facing away from them, was Daniel.  He wasn't moving.

Their hearts hammering in their chests, Sam, Jack and Teal'c slowly approached their teammate, fearful that they'd gone through all this only to be moments too late to save Daniel's life.

No blood met his eyes as Jack knelt beside his friend.  He raised a hand to Daniel's neck and felt for a pulse.

"He's alive," he said, a powerful wave of relief flowing through him.

Sam moved around to the other side of the chair.  She was reaching out to Daniel when she suddenly froze, her face paling.

"Carter?  What is it?" Jack asked.

"Sir, they . . . they've used the memory device."

Dread rising inside him, Jack rose to his feet and moved around to Daniel's right.  There on his temple was one of the tiny discs that Jack had hoped never to see again.

"God, sir.  What if—"  Sam's voice broke off.

"We don't know if they did, Sam.  He might be okay."  'Dammit, Daniel.  You be okay, you hear me?'

Sam knelt and began checking Daniel out.  The archeologist's face was white as chalk, his skin cool and clammy.  His pulse was racing, respiration short and fast.

"Sir, he's in shock," Sam announced.  "We need to get him to a hospital."

As Sam called 911, Jack and Teal'c freed Daniel's arms.  Jack carefully ran his hands over the archeologist's body.  It took only seconds to find the spot on his lower left chest where the give in his rib cage told him that Daniel had at least two broken ribs.  He noticed that Daniel's abdomen looked wrong, though it was hard to tell while his friend was sitting upright.

"Teal'c, we need to lay him down.  Be careful of the ribs."

Very carefully, the two men got Daniel's unconscious body out of the chair and onto the floor.  Jack could now see that Daniel's abdomen definitely appeared to be distended.  He knew what that meant.

"Carter, he's bleeding internally."

Sam relayed the new information to the 911 operator, who told her that an ambulance was on the way.  As soon as she disconnected the call, she contacted the base.

"General, it's Major Carter.  We've got Daniel.  He'd badly injured, sir, broken ribs, internal hemorrhaging and what looks like a head injury.  We've called for an ambulance, but you need to get Doctor Fraiser out here as fast as possible."  She gave him their location.

"Major, what about. . . ."  Hammond's voice trailed off.

"We don't know, sir.  They've used the memory device on him, but we don't know if . . . if he's okay or not."

"All right.  I'll send some men with Doctor Fraiser just in case."

Sam knew what he meant.  They'd need those men just in case Daniel had to be restrained.

Jack and Teal'c had elevated Daniel's legs and covered him with Jack's jacket.  There was nothing else they could do for him except hope and pray that the ambulance got there in time.

Sam looked over at the body of Major Howell.  "Who do you think shot Howell, sir, and where did they go?  They couldn't have gotten past us."  She looked around and saw a door on the left side of the room.  She cautiously approached it and swung the door open, using the wall for cover.  Peeking her head around the door, she saw that the room beyond was empty.  The window was wide open.

"He got out the window, sir."

"Okay.  The question is, why did he shoot one of his own people?" Jack asked, not really expecting Sam to have an answer.

"Good question, sir."

As they waited for the ambulance to arrive, Jack instructed Teal'c to go get the emergency flares out of his pack and light them around the house so that the helicopter would be able to find it more easily.  As the Jaffa did that, Jack searched the house.  He found a room with a TV monitor showing an image being broadcast from a closed circuit camera.  The image was of a room with a bed, and he guessed that's where they'd been keeping Daniel.  Beside the monitor was an empty VCR.  Jack recalled seeing a VHS tape lying on the table where Daniel was and guessed that whatever was recorded by the VCR was on that tape.

After going through the rest of the house and checking to see of any of the men they shot were alive – which they weren't – Jack returned to where Sam was watching over Daniel.  Teal'c had finished outside and joined him.

"How's he doing?" the colonel asked asked the major.

"Not good, sir.  If he isn't gotten to a hospital soon, I don't think he's going to make it."

Not wanting to think about that, Jack looked at the video camera that had been set up in the room.  The object that Sam had said was a holographic projector was gone, most likely hidden away in one of her jacket pockets.  Also gone was the tape from the camera and the one that had been on the table.

"They're right here, sir," Sam told him, patting her pockets.  "If they got anything from Daniel, we'll know.  I also removed the memory device from him."

To their relief, they all heard the sound of approaching sirens.

"Carter, get down there and instruct the EMTs," Jack ordered.  "Make sure they come straight up here.  Everyone else is dead."

A short while later, the EMTs came rushing in.  They paused upon seeing Major Howell's body, then moved toward Daniel.  Jack and Teal'c got out of their way.  Two cops entered the room, quickly assessed the situation, then went straight toward the two members of SG-1.  After Jack showed them his ID, he was questioned over what had gone down.  He suspected that Sam was suffering the same thing outside since she was not back yet.

Jack told the cops an abbreviated version of the truth, leaving out, of course, the real reason why Daniel was kidnapped.  He merely told the cops that Daniel possessed top secret information that the men were trying to obtain.

Jack was relieved when he heard the approach of a helicopter, guessing that it was from the base.  Sure enough, the chopper landed out in the yard.  Janet, Sam and two SFs came into the room a few moments later.  The doctor went over to where Daniel was being worked on and introduced herself to the EMTs.  They filled her in on the archeologist's condition.

"How is he, Doc?" Jack asked as she came up to him, Sam and Teal'c.

"He's holding on, Colonel.  My guess is a ruptured spleen.  There is significant internal hemorrhaging.  He needs to get into surgery right away.  We're going to taken him to the hospital in the helicopter.  Thankfully, I brought a stretcher with me just in case."

"Sir, SG-5 came with Janet and the SFs to secure the premises," Sam told him.  "Should we give the tapes to them?"

"No, I want us to hang onto them.  I don't want anyone but us and General Hammond watching them."

Sam nodded, agreeing with the colonel.

The next few minutes were a flurry of activity as Daniel was put on a gurney and taken outside, where he was transferred to a stretcher and loaded into the chopper, a plethora of medical equipment surrounding him.  Janet and one of the EMTs also got in.  The two SFs were about to get in as well, but Jack stopped them.

"I'm going," he said.  "There isn't enough room for all three of us, so one of you go with Carter and Teal'c in my car."  He handed his keys to Sam, then climbed into the chopper with one of the SFs.  A few seconds later, they were lifting into the air and speeding toward the hospital.

Jack's eyes stayed on Daniel.  Though he was very worried, he had confidence that Daniel would survive.  The archeologist had proven to be damn hard to kill, having survived many injuries and near death experiences, even coming back from the dead several times.  He would survive this, too . . . at least that's what Jack kept telling himself.

But what would happen to him afterwards?  What if they saved his life only to be forced to imprison him in a secured jail cell for the remainder of that life?  If Daniel's mind was now taken over by the Goa'uld genetic memories and they couldn't find a way of reversing it, that was likely the fate awaiting him.

Silently, Jack cursed Oma Desala and what she had brought upon Daniel.  He was tempted to curse Shifu, too, but didn't have the heart.

The helicopter landed at the hospital, and Daniel was rushed inside, Janet and the EMT sticking to him like glue.  As they went into the ER, Jack was forced to remain out in the waiting room, as was the SF.  The sergeant took a seat, but Jack was too restless to sit.  He paced the confines of the waiting room, ignoring the looks that some of the other people there gave him.

Sam, Teal'c and the other SF arrived a while later.

"Any word yet, sir?" Sam asked.

"No, and I'm right on the verge of going through those doors and. . . ."

Jack's threat was cut off by the appearance of Janet.  They went with her to a spot far enough away from the people in the waiting room that no one would be able to hear their conversation.

"He's been taken into surgery," the doctor announced.  "We confirmed that his spleen did rupture.  If it had happened at the time of the accident, he'd be dead now."

"If it wasn't the accident, then what caused it to rupture?" Jack asked.

"It was the accident that caused it, Colonel, but, sometimes, though the organ is injured, it does not rupture right away.  It can sometimes happen weeks after the initial injury."

"What are his chances?" Sam asked.

"It all depends.  With a ruptured spleen, the longer the delay in treatment, the lower the chances of survival.  We have no idea how long it's been since the rupture occurred.  There was significant hemorrhaging.  He's very weak.  Plus, there's the added complication of the head injury, which is going to cause some concern for the anesthesiologist.  On top of that, Daniel was injected with some kind of drug.  We found two puncture marks on his arm.  The labs haven't come back yet on what he was given, but my guess is that it was something with mind control properties."

Sam nodded.  "That would make sense.  Using the memory recall device without something like that would greatly reduce the chances of finding the memories you want if the person is unwilling.  They'd have to have some way of weakening the person's will power and making him susceptible to mental control."

"I need to get to the O.R.," Janet said.  "I want to be there during the surgery.  The moment he's out, I'll let you know.  You should go to the waiting room for the surgical department.  It will be quieter there."

After Janet left, Jack told the SFs to go back to the base since Daniel, in the condition he'd be in after the surgery, would not need to be restrained or put under guard.  SG-1 then made their way to where they'd await news of their friend.

During the long hours that followed, they did not speak of the possibility that, though Daniel's body might be saved, his 'soul' was already gone.  None of them wanted to dwell on that, but they could not prevent their minds from thinking about it and their hearts from aching at the thought.

Finally, Janet appeared.

"Daniel made it through the surgery just fine," she said with a smile.  "I think he's going to be all right."

Expressions of relief came to the faces of SG-1.

"After he's out of recovery and I'm sure he's stable enough, I'm going to have him transferred to the base.  Under any other circumstances, I'd wait at least a couple of days before moving him, but, if Daniel has been . . . compromised, we need to have him at the SGC before he's fully conscious and aware."  Janet looked at Jack.  "Have you contacted the general?"

"Yes.  I filled him in on what happened.  He called back a while ago to tell me that the two men we knocked out are in the brig.  Not surprisingly, neither of them is talking.  Some prints were lifted from the window that our mystery man escaped through.  They belong to a Lieutenant Andrew Newman, who, like Howell, was stationed in D.C.  His apartment is being watched, but I seriously doubt that he is ever going back there.  He's probably on a plane out of the country by now."

"Does anyone know why he killed Major Howell?"

"Afraid not.  That's something we may never know.  He did us a favor, though.  Howell may have escaped otherwise."

After the doctor called the general to give him an update on Daniel and then returned to Post-Op, SG-1 went back to waiting.  Since they hadn't eaten, they got some sandwiches from the vending machine, though none of them were very hungry.

"Daniel is out of Recovery, and I believe he's strong enough to be moved to the base," Janet informed them after another seemingly interminable wait.  "I've contacted them, and a helicopter is on the way."

"Has he woken up yet?" Jack asked.

"He roused for a few seconds, but he was too out of it for me to tell anything."

Jack turned to Sam and Teal'c.  "Go ahead and head back to the base.  I'm going to hitch a ride with Daniel and the doc."

A while later, as the helicopter headed toward the base with Jack, Janet, two SFs and an unconscious Daniel, the colonel thought about what the next few hours might bring for his best friend and the rest of SG-1.

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