CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Jack looked down at the sleeping child on the bed. So far, there had been no nightmares, but it was way too early to assume that there wouldn't be any.
The clock was ticking down to the moment when Daniel and Bill would be executed, and the SGC still hadn't received any word on what was going to be done, and the location of the kidnapped men was still unknown.
Jack sighed and rubbed his temples to easy the headache there. It was very likely that he, Sam and Teal'c would be going on a mission to Tartarus, but, like his two teammates, he'd rather be heading off to Honduras to rescue Daniel. They had all talked, however, and agreed that, if one of them was needed to help rescue Daniel, it would be Jack who'd go. He could speak the language and had experience with extraction missions in foreign countries on Earth.
The phone rang. It was General Hammond.
"I didn't know that you were still here, sir," Jack said.
"Like you and your teammates, I haven't left the base since we learned that Doctor Jackson and Doctor Lee were missing. I wanted to be here in case there was news."
"And do you have news?"
"Yes, I was just contacted by the CIA. I'd like you to come to my office to discuss it."
Jack got to his feet. "I'll be right there, sir."
Hoping that Danny would be okay by himself for a while, Jack left the room and went to Hammond's office.
"The CIA operative in Honduras, an Agent Burke, believes he knows where Doctor Jackson and Doctor Lee were taken," the general announced when he got there.
"Burke?"
Hammond saw Jack's expression. "You know him?"
Jack paused before answering. "Yes, I do." 'Unfortunately,' he added silently.
"Anything I should know about? He's the only agent on this."
"We're stuck with him regardless, right?"
"Right."
Jack thought about his reply. "Nothing you should know about."
"I see. He's requested that you participate in the extraction. The president has green-lit the op. There's a C-130 waiting for you at Peterson. It leaves for Honduras in two hours."
"Yes, sir." Jack got to his feet.
"Bring them home, Jack."
"I will, sir."
Guessing that Sam was still working, Jack went to her lab.
As he came in, the astrophysicist looked up from the device she was working on. "Sir?"
"I'm going after Daniel."
Sam felt a wave of relief. "Thank God."
"This other mission. . . ."
"Shouldn't be a problem, sir. When do you leave?"
"Now."
Sam smiled slightly, so relieved that they were finally going to do something to save Daniel. "Good luck."
"You, too."
"What about Danny, sir? Is he in your quarters?"
"Yeah. He was sleeping when I left, so, hopefully, he'll be all right alone for a while."
Sam nodded. "I'll go check on him in a little while."
Jack turned to go. Sam's voice stopped him.
"Sir?"
"Yes?"
"Tell Daniel that I love him."
Jack gave her a small smile and a nod. "I will, Sam."
Jack decided to peek in on Danny just to make sure he was still okay. When he got there, it was to discover that the boy was now awake and looked like he had been crying. Damn. He must have had another nightmare.
Jack knelt beside the bed, his face a few inches from Danny's. "We got the okay for the rescue mission, Danny. I'm going to go find Daniel. I'm going find him and bring him home."
Danny flung himself into Jack's arms. "Take me with you," he begged.
"Danny, I can't. It's too dangerous."
"But I can find him! Daniel found me when I was in the car accident. I can find him. I know I can! Please, Uncle Jack," Danny sobbed. "I can help you. I have to help find him."
Jack's eyes clenched shut at the desperate, heartbreaking plea in the boy's voice. "I can't, Danny. I'm so sorry. I can't take you with me. It's just too dangerous. If you got hurt, Daniel would never forgive me . . . and I'd never forgive myself." He pulled back and held Danny's tear-coated face. "I am going to find him, Danny. I swear I will, no matter what it takes."
It just about broke Jack's heart to leave the boy, to see the terrified plea in Danny's eyes. He called Sam and told her that Danny needed someone, and she promised to go right over there.
As Jack took the elevator up to the surface, he knew that, if he failed that little boy, if he failed Daniel, he'd blame himself for the rest of his life.
The sun had been up for perhaps a couple of hours when Daniel was again taken from the shack. He knew what was about to happen, and, in a way, that was worse than the act itself. He'd spent a good part of the night thinking about it, which was probably why Rafael had waited to do the actual deed, figuring that a night of thinking about the torture to come would loosen Daniel's tongue. He was going to be disappointed. The archeologist still had no intention of talking.
He was tied to a chair near the table holding the battery, which was displayed for him to see.
"So, have you reconsidered your position, senor?" Rafael asked. Daniel's reply was silence. "I guess not. Very well, then." He motioned for Chalo to pick up the jumper cables. Daniel tensed as the man approached him. One of the others lifted his T-shirt to bare his stomach.
'You can get through this,' he told himself. And then the ends of the cables were touched to his skin. Agonizing fire burned through his body, through every muscle and sinew, a silent scream echoing through his mind.
Sam splashed some cold water on her face. The shower hadn't done much to wake her up this morning. She'd overslept, not having gotten to sleep last night until after three. At least the reason for that hadn't been Danny. Once he stopped crying, she'd brought him to her quarters. He was soon asleep and did not have any more nightmares. Perhaps the knowledge that Jack was off to rescue Daniel had been enough to chase away the bad dreams.
In the next instant, a piercing scream sent Sam running from the bathroom. Danny was curled into a tight ball on the bed, screaming and crying. For a moment, Sam thought he was having one of the dreaded nightmares, but his eyes were open and filled with horror. She rushed up to him.
"They're hurting him! They're hurting him!" Danny wailed. "He's hurting!"
Sam took his stiff body into her arms. "Danny, stop! It was just a nightmare."
"No! They're hurting him! He's screaming. I can feel him screaming." The boy's body began shaking with sobs.
Oh, God. The telepathic connection. Daniel's kidnappers were hurting him, and Danny could sense it. Dear God. What were they doing to Daniel?
Sam snatched up the phone and called the infirmary. Within a minute, Janet was there. She paused in dismay upon seeing Danny curled against Sam, rocking back and forth, whimpering like someone in terrible pain.
Sam quickly explained what was happening.
Trying not to think about what was being done to Daniel, Janet said, "Let's get him to the infirmary."
Sam gathered the child into her arms and ran with Janet to the infirmary. As soon as they got there, Janet snapped off an order for a sedative and for someone to call General Hammond. Danny was put on a bed and injected with the fast-acting sedative. His whimpers gradually faded away into silence.
Sam wiped tears from her face that she hadn't even known she was crying. "What are they doing to him, Janet?" she whispered in anguish.
The doctor laid a hand on her arm. "I don't know, Sam, but Daniel's strong. He'll get through it. The colonel will be in Honduras soon. They'll get him out."
General Hammond and Teal'c came hurrying in. They stared, dismayed, at the unconscious child.
"What happened?" the general asked.
"It's Daniel, sir," Sam replied. "They're hurting him."
"Has the boy sensed that Daniel Jackson is being harmed?" Teal'c asked, a distinct growl in his tone.
Sam was holding onto her tears with an effort. "Yes. He suddenly started screaming and saying that they're hurting Daniel."
"I had no choice but to sedate him," Janet explained. "I'll keep him under until we know that Daniel's been rescued."
General Hammond's jaw was clenched tightly as he thought about the suffering Daniel was being put through and the suffering it was causing this innocent little boy.
"Doctor Fraiser, let me know immediately if there are any changes," he ordered, then left.
Sam got a chair and put it beside Danny's bed.
"Do you wish me to remain with you, Major Carter?" Teal'c asked.
"No, that's okay. I'm all right." No, she wasn't, but she was not going to admit that.
"O'Neill will rescue Daniel Jackson," the Jaffa stated firmly. "Of that I am certain."
Sam looked up at him. "Thanks, Teal'c."
Sam's gaze returned to Danny, her hand reaching out to caress his hair. Against her will, a horrible, gut-wrenching thought came to her that made her hand still. What would happen to Danny if Daniel died? Would the boy feel his death? Would it be like Danny was dying as well?
'Don't think that!' Sam yelled at herself silently. Daniel wasn't going to die. They still had two days before the deadline. And what just happened was proof that Daniel was still alive, which meant that the rebels probably had every intention of keeping him alive until the deadline had passed. That was good news. But what were they doing to him? Were they torturing him? Sam knew that they were.
This would not be Daniel's first experience with torture. There were the times that he was ribboned, which could be considered a form of torture, and there was the incident with the Bedrosians. She, Jack and Teal'c would probably never have even known what Rigar did to Daniel if it wasn't for the medical report. Daniel had no choice but to tell Janet about what happened to him. She, in turn, reported it to General Hammond. The general told Jack, who was pretty pissed off that Daniel had kept it from his teammates. Judging by the way the colonel acted, he was probably also wishing that he could tear Rigar limb from limb.
Sam could only hope that, whatever torture Daniel was suffering now, it was something from which he would recover.
Daniel knew that he was being dragged, but he couldn't move. He couldn't think. He didn't know how many times the battery had been used, how many times Rafael demanded that he speak. He only knew, with hazy certainty, that he had not told the man what he wanted to know. And so, the battery had been used again, and again, and again, until Daniel thought his cells would rupture from the power ripping though them. Probably the only reason why Rafael stopped was that, if he'd used the battery one more time, Daniel would have been beyond the rebel's ability to wake up. The archeologist wished that he was unconscious, that the blessedness of sleep would come and take away the pain.
Daniel felt himself being dropped on the hard ground. With what remained of his awareness, he heard Bill Lee's scared voice crying, "I don't know anything! I don't know anything!" Then he was alone. Moments later, the darkness at last closed over his mind.
Sam was still at Danny's bedside when she heard the announcement of an off-world activation. Knowing that it might be her father, she rose and left the infirmary. She found Jacob, Teal'c, Bra'tac and General Hammond in the briefing room.
Jacob immediately noticed her reddened eyes and the expression on her face. "What's wrong? Is it Daniel? George just told me that you found out where he is, and Jack's gone off to get him."
Sam drew in a shaky breath. "They're hurting him, Dad, badly."
"How do you know?"
"Danny."
"What? What do you mean?"
Sam explained to her father about the telepathic connection that existed between Daniel and his clone, citing the other incidents that had occurred.
"You mean that poor kid is actually feeling Daniel's pain?" Jacob asked, horrified.
"No, they've never actually felt each other's pain before," Sam said, "though Daniel did once sense Danny's fear." But it had never been this bad before. What if Danny was feeling the pain? That thought made Sam feel sick.
"What do you have for us, Jacob?" Hammond asked quietly.
"We've confirmed that Anubis has a base on Tartarus. A powerful sensor array prevents anyone from approaching the planet unnoticed. The Stargate on Tartarus is inside the structure and has a powerful force field protecting it."
"We need to know how Anubis created this new soldier, confirm what we believe his intentions are, and, if possible, stop him. Any ideas?"
"Even if we could defeat the force field, we have to assume that the Stargate would be heavily guarded," Sam replied.
"We must gain access to the planet by somehow temporarily shutting down the sensor array," Teal'c stated.
"I agree. The question is, how?"
"I will walk through the Stargate," Selmak unexpectedly stated.
Hammond stared at the Tok'ra. "Selmak?"
"Yes."
"Come again?"
"I wear the armor of Anubis' assassin. According to your account on Ramius' planet, it passed through the force field trap."
"But at what physical cost?" Bra'tac questioned. "We have no way of knowing."
"The force field around that Stargate has got to be more powerful than the one we used," Sam pointed out.
"I'm sorry, kid," Jacob said. "I'm with Selmak on this one. He'll keep me alive." He looked at all the expressions of doubt. "Does anyone else have a better idea?" No one replied. Jacob nodded, decision made. "Once I've deactivated the sensor array, a scout ship can then approach the planet. Radioactive isotopes taken beforehand will permit us to move around freely without being detected by internal sensors inside the base."
"What's your exit plan?" the general asked.
It was Bra'tac who replied. "The scout ship. During the mission, I will conceal it in one of the planet's many low lying chasms, powering down to further avoid detection."
Hammond nodded, knowing it was the only feasible plan. He looked at Sam. "Major, you have a go."
Daniel hissed in pain as he pulled his T-shirt away from his skin. He looked down at his torso. He'd have to keep the burns as clean as possible, although, without a way to wash and bandage them, that wasn't going to be easy.
Daniel shifted his position, groaning as his muscles objected. All the times he'd been zatted, he'd never felt this bad, like every muscle in his body had been abused. Not even what Rigar did had made him feel like this. But then, the Bedrosian hadn't used that weapon on him nearly as many times as Rafael used that battery.
Daniel heard a sound outside. A few seconds later, Bill was dragged into the shack and dropped on the mat. The scientist moaned in pain. Ignoring his own pain, Daniel went over to him.
"I never thought I would die like this," the scientist said.
Daniel wiped at small a wound under the man's eye with a dirty cloth. "Ah, you're not dead yet."
Bill met his eyes. "I'm sorry, Daniel. I couldn't take it. I told them."
Dread filled the archeologist. "What? What'd you tell them?"
"Everything."
Daniel sighed. 'Crap. This could be very bad.'
"I'm sorry," Bill apologized again, feeling ashamed over his weakness.
"Don't worry about it. Someone's bound to find us soon. Then we'll get out of here and take the device with us." He gazed at the man sympathetically. "Did they use the battery?"
Bill shuddered and nodded. "I've never felt anything like that in my life. I thought I was going to die."
"Let me see."
Hesitantly, Bill lifted his shirt. Daniel saw three electrical burns from the jumper cables, as well as bruising from repeated blows. "Try to keep the burns clean. They could get infected."
"What about you?" the scientist asked as he lowered his shirt.
"I'm all right," Daniel quickly replied. He didn't want Bill to see his torso, which had a hell of a lot more than three burns.
"Do you really think someone is coming to rescue us?"
"Yes, I do. They'll be able to track our GPS locators to the temple. From there, they should be able to follow our trail."
"Will it be SG-1?"
"No, I don't think so. It wouldn't make sense for anyone to come here from the SGC, not as far as it is, although Jack, Sam and Teal'c would probably want to come, that is unless they're on a mission to find out more about those drones. If that's the case, they might not even know about this."
"What are we going to do now, Daniel?" Bill asked.
"For right now, we wait."
Periodically glancing at the tracking device in his hand, P-90 slung over the other shoulder and ready to be used at a moment's notice, Jack cautiously made his way through the jungle, his guide beside him. As planned, Jack had met CIA Agent Burke at Cantina LaLupita, the last place that Daniel and Bill had been seen. Things did not go so well at the meeting. Many years ago, Burke had been Jack's friend, but that was before the man killed another friend of theirs in a friendly fire incident. Though Jack had told the authorities reviewing the case everything he knew about the incident – which wasn't much since he hadn't been there – he did not go out of his way to speak in defense of Burke, being angry and bitter about the senseless death of their friend. Burke, therefore, blamed Jack for what happened to him, which was to be kicked out of the unit. Later, his wife divorced him, and he eventually got sent to Honduras.
Jack and Burke had argued at the cantina, partially over who was going to be in command, and Burke stormed off. As far as Jack was concerned, he was better off without the man, whom he considered untrustworthy.
He did, however, learn some important things from Burke about the people who took Daniel and Bill Lee. They were anti-Honduran extremists, and this was not the first time they'd done something like this. Last year, they kidnapped an important American engineer working on the Cajon River Dam. The insurance company paid off, and the group financed their war against the government with the ransom money. The fact that the engineer was returned alive gave Jack hope that Daniel and Doctor Lee weren't already dead.
After Burke left in a huff, Jack told his waiter he needed a guide. It turned out that Pedro – whom everyone called Pepe – was a guide.
Following the GPS signal, Jack and Pedro soon reached a waterfall.
"Uh, hold up," Jack said. He looked around. "This is it."
"As I told you, there's nothing here," the other man stated.
They were both surprised by the sound of another voice. "There is this well in the middle of nowhere."
They spun around to see Burke standing a few yards away beside what did look sort of like a well.
"Standard U.S. military boot tread all around." Burke held up a coin. "Make a wish." He dropped the coin into the water. He approached the other two men. "What took you so long? How hard could it be to track their GPS locators?" He held up the locators, which he'd found lying on the ground. Seeing that Jack was not amused, he said with a smile, "I'm just kidding. Only been here a couple minutes myself."
"Change your mind?" Jack queried.
"In a manner of speaking." He turned to Pedro, handed him a roll of money and told him in Spanish to go back to the cantina.
Surprised by the generous amount of money, the young man thanked him and was all set to leave when Jack stopped him.
Burke held up the locators. "This is the end of the road, man. I mean, you didn't think these guys were gonna make it easy on ya, did ya? I'll take you where you need to go."
"For old times' sake?"
"You know, I took an emotional inventory, and I realized that I have some issues. Thought maybe we can put our petty differences aside on this one. You're gonna need me when this one goes down, buddy. Come on, give me a chance. I won't let you down."
Hoping that he was not going to regret this, Jack turned to Pedro and told him to go ahead and leave.
The man wished him goodbye, then disappeared into the jungle.
Burke smiled and gave Jack a friendly punch on the arm. "Now we're talking, sports fans! Okay, my name is Burke, and I'll be your guide. Today, we'll be looking at indigenous vegetation of Central America. Watch your step, ladies. We're not in Minnesota."
"Easy," Jack said, not appreciating the humor, not when Daniel's life was on the line. But, as much as he hated to admit it, he was going to need the man. Jungle foliage grew quickly and would already be partially obscuring any trail made by the rebels who took Daniel and Lee. Jack was a fair tracker, but Burke was more familiar with the territory and apparently had a good idea where the rebels took Daniel and Lee. And, if there was a firefight, another gun would probably be needed.
As they started walking, Burke glanced at Jack. "So, who is this Daniel Jackson anyway? I know he's an archeologist and that he works for the government, but that's all. What was he doing out here, anyway?"
"Looking for something."
"Looking for what?"
"Something that's classified."
"Ah, yes. Classified. I have to wonder what could be classified that an archeologist and another scientist would be sent to find."
"There were reasons for that," Jack told him. "And Daniel's used to this sort of thing."
"Is he used to being taken captive?"
"Actually, yes, it has happened before. Not quite like this, but. . . ."
"Interesting archeologist."
"Oh, yes. Definitely not the run-of-the-mill type."
"And what is he to you? Back at the cantina, you said he was your friend."
"Yes, he's my friend," there was a pause, "my best friend."
"Yeah? Was a time that I was one of your best friends."
"That was a long time ago, a lifetime ago."
"Well, you'd better hope that your new best friend didn't tick off the guys who snatched him. He might not exactly be in very good health, if he did."
'Well, at least they aren't using the battery,' was the thought that went through Daniel's mind as Rafael hit him yet again. He was tied to the chair in the command center, undergoing another interrogation. The rebel leader was demanding to know more about the device, asking questions Daniel couldn't answer without revealing classified information regarding the Goa'uld and the program.
"If you value the life of your friend, you will tell me what I want to know," Rafael said, furious.
Daniel spit the blood from his mouth, saying nothing.
"Your friend told me this device may be the origin of the Fountain of Youth myth."
"Yeah, maybe," Daniel admitted.
"How does it work?"
"I don't know." He flinched as Rafael raised his fist to strike again. "Look, you grabbed us five minutes after we found it!"
"Who is this Telchak?"
"He's a mythological figure, a Mayan god that may or may not have lived here thousands of years ago."
"So this device is many thousands of years old."
"Possibly."
"And this Mayan god brought this device to his temple. For what purpose?"
When Daniel refused to answer, Rafael struck him hard in the face again, making Daniel cry out in pain.
"To hide it! To use it! I don't know!" he exclaimed.
"Use it. On whom?"
"People! Mayan people!"
"And what would it do to them?"
"Look, the research I used to find it just gave a cryptic warning the device was . . . was dangerous, even harmful. That's all I know."
Rafael painfully grabbed Daniel's face in one hand and bent down close to him. There was something in the rebel's eyes that chilled Daniel to the bone. In those eyes he saw madness.
"I do not think it is so harmful," Rafael said. "I have never in my life felt as strong as I do right now."
The rebel leader reached out and uncovered the Telchak device. To Daniel's horror, he saw that it had been activated. An eerie white glow emanated from it.
Fear raced through Daniel's veins. "You turned it on?"
"Yes."
"Turn it off," Daniel pleaded. "You don't know what you're dealing with. The effects of the device may be unstable. It's . . . it's very dangerous. Look, it's beyond our comprehension! Turn it off."
"You're lying."
"What if he isn't?" Chalo asked, a note of fear in his voice. "The device is cursed. Rafael, we should turn it off."
The rebel leader stared at him. "Turn it off? Do you not feel different as well?"
"I do, and it scares me. Por favor, Rafael. If you will not turn it off, I will."
Rafael's face twitched with anger. He turned to the table, but, instead of turning off the device, he picked up a pistol and shot Chalo twice in the chest.
'Oh, God, it's happening,' Daniel's mind cried. 'They're being affected. We have to get out of here!'
Fearing that Rafael would kill him in another fit of maniacal rage, Daniel watched the rebel leader pace about the room. The archeologist's eyes kept drifting to the Telchak device. He'd faced so many dangers since joining the program, faced death far more than once, but he'd never been as terrified of any threat to his life as he was of that box. The things he'd done while under the influence of the sarcophagus and the hell he'd suffered during the withdrawal still haunted him to this day. If he didn't get away from that thing, how long would it take before he began to lose his soul again? How long before he wouldn't care about anyone or anything except the power, the high? The effects of the sarcophagus nearly caused him to let his three best friends die a slow death in those Naquadah mines. What would the Telchak device do to him, a device many times more powerful than a sarcophagus?
Rafael finally turned and glared at Daniel. "Take him back to the shack. We will deal with him later, after we are given the ransom for him." He bent down, getting close to Daniel's face. "I think it will not matter now for you if your government pays or not."
Daniel's bonds were released, and he was pushed and shoved back to the jail shack. They nearly threw him into it.
"We've got a big problem," Daniel said to Bill as he picked himself up off the floor. "They've turned on the device."
"Oh no!"
"Yeah, and it's already doing a number on them. Rafael just murdered one of his own men."
"When I heard the shots, I was afraid they'd killed you."
Daniel looked around the shack, thinking. "We need to get out of here. Even if we're out of the range of the device, this place is a powder keg waiting to go off."
"But how are we going to escape, and where are we going to go? We don't even know where we are. We could get lost in the jungle."
"We can try to find the trail back to the temple. From there, I'll know where to go. As for how we're going to get out of here. . . ." Daniel studied the rickety boards from which the shack was constructed. He wiggled one. It wouldn't take a whole lot to break through. "I've got an idea about that." He peered outside, seeing that there were rebels all around. "But we're going to have to wait to make our break. I just hope we have the time."
