Stargate SG1: Suffer the Little Children (12/19)
All disclaimers, notes, warnings and summary are in the Master post: Suffer the Little Children
Chapter Twelve
Daniel didn't know how many times he'd actually pushed the speed-dial button for Jack's phone. He checked the screen again, only to see that the bars were still gone and the tiny words still said, "No Signal." At least, he thought that's what it said. The lines were all starting to blur together, but since there was no blur where the bars were supposed to be, then it had to say "No Signal."
He sighed and shifted onto his back on the floor - hadn't there been bars when he'd started? Why would he have started dialing if there weren't any bars? Why was he dialing in the first place? Why was this room so small and why was it so cold and loud and smelly in here? Oh... yeah. That's why he was dialing.
He pushed the button again.
His shoulder hurt more than he wanted it to, but less than it had when his arms had been trapped behind him. His hands were so cold that his fingers were stiff, and they ached when he moved them. The constant roar of the tires on the road and the muffler beneath him had gotten much louder since they'd been traveling, and the air in the trunk was starting to reek heavily of gas fumes. His hair was sticky with the blood that had run down from the gash above his left eyebrow. His head, which had been hurting when Phillips had shoved him in here, had begun to throb incessantly. He'd had headaches before and could usually work through them, but this one was making it almost impossible for him to think.
Where'd those bars go now? Why did he keep pushing that silly button? Without the bars, nothing was going to happen.
No matter how hard Daniel tried, he couldn't even begin to understand what was going on. Phillips said they'd known each other for years, but Daniel just couldn't understand how that could be possible when he'd only met the man two days ago. He knew Phillips was telling the truth about the little girl in the park, and doubted that he was lying about the 'others,' but that still didn't explain anything. It didn't explain Phillips claiming that he'd killed those little girls because they weren't Daniel. Or thinking that Daniel should have known he'd done it. Or what this Jenny person he didn't even know had to do with it.
Or what any of it had to do with him.
He was starting to think there was something wrong with him, but he couldn't afford worry about it. What exactly could he do about it, anyway? He was locked in a trunk; Cassie was in the front seat with a psychopath. He was hurting and cold and tired... so tired.
His ears had started ringing a while ago, but they seemed to be getting worse. It definitely seemed like the ringing was getting louder, but only every now and then, almost like they were ringing in some sort of sequence.
He held the phone up in front of him to push the disconnect button and was surprised to see a blur that vaguely resembled the word "Connected." That couldn't possibly be right, could it? He squinted at his phone, trying to see if the blurred bars had returned, but the screen had gone dark and he was afraid to push any buttons for fear of hanging up.
"O'Neill."
The voice was muffled, but it did sound like Jack. Daniel didn't care if it was real or not, though he doubted it was. He had no signal here, wherever 'here' was. He shrugged one shoulder and decided to talk to the voice anyway, if only to keep himself awake. If he were hallucinating, then so be it.
"Jack?" he mumbled. "Jack, I... I think I need your help."
"Daniel!" Daniel flinched at the tone of voice; Jack sounded angry. Or rather, he imagined that Jack would sound angry if he ever managed to get a call through, since he was imagining this entire conversation. "Where the hell are you?"
"Colonel?"
It was General Hammond who had spoken. Jack glanced back over his shoulder, not entirely surprised to see the man on his feet and walking toward him.
Jack took a few steps back toward the table and shouted in the direction of the speakerphone. "Doug, Daniel's on the phone. Can you trace a call coming into my cell?"
"I might need a little help on your end, if you can access the FBI's system from there."
Jack almost smiled; Doug knew very well they could do that. After all, they'd already done it once - that's why Doug was on that plane.
"Carter?" he said.
"I'm on it, sir." Sam jumped out of her chair and headed for the computer in the corner. She quickly logged onto the system, picked up the phone at the terminal, and patched it into the call with the FBI agent.
"Give him anything he needs, Captain," Hammond said. "The Colonel's phone number, Dr. Jackson's... everything he asks for. If it applies to this situation, he gets it."
"Understood, sir."
Jack glanced across at Teal'c, who looked very much like he'd rather be doing anything other than what he was doing at that moment, which was nothing. Jack nodded his head in understanding and went back to the phone.
"Okay, Daniel, tell me where you are."
"Tell me where you are."
That sounded a lot more like the Jack he knew, Daniel thought. His imagination was getting better.
"I have no idea," he answered.
"Daniel, where are you?"
Daniel closed his eyes and sighed; his imaginary Jack didn't listen to him any better than the real one did. "I told you, I don't know where I am," he whispered. "I don't know if Cassie's still here... but we haven't stopped since we started, so she probably is." He could feel himself starting to drift off to sleep, and he had to force himself to get the words out at all.
"Are you hurt, Daniel?"
Daniel nodded his head but didn't speak. Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard a woman's voice saying, 'He can't hear you nod your head, dear.' For some reason, it struck him as funny, and he giggled.
"My mom always told me..." he said softly, but he stopped himself and shook his head. That wasn't his mom's voice he'd heard, was it? "I know her, though. Heard her before... Wait, what was I talking about?"
"Are you?!"
Jack's voice jerked him back to wakefulness, and his eyes flew open. "Am I what?" Daniel asked, suddenly awake again.
"Damn it, Daniel!"
"What the hell is wrong with him?" Jack asked the air in front of him.
An answering question came from behind him, in Carter's voice. "What's he saying, sir?"
"A lot of nothing! He's not making any sense."
"It is possible that Daniel Jackson is injured," Teal'c said. "If that is the case, he might not be aware that what he says is confusing."
"And he is in the trunk of a car," Sam added. "I hate to be the one to suggest it, sir, but if the exhaust is leaking even the tiniest amount, after three hours? He might be starting to show signs of carbon monoxide poisoning."
Jack hated hearing the words as much as she hated saying them, but he had to admit that he'd been starting to wonder about that himself. He nodded at both Sam and Teal'c, took a deep breath, and refocused himself.
"Let's start this again, Daniel. Are you with someone?"
"Hm?" came the groggy response.
"Wake up, Daniel," Jack ordered gently. "You've got to stay awake."
He heard Daniel clearing his throat and shifting around in the trunk. There was a loud bump, as though the phone had been dropped.
"Daniel?"
"Awake," Daniel answered, though from the sound of his voice it didn't seem likely that he'd be staying that way for very long. "I'm awake."
"Okay, so tell me... are you with someone?"
"No, I'm alone in here."
"Where's Cassie?"
"Not here," Daniel said, as though that explained everything. "She's with him. I think..."
"Who's 'him,' Daniel?"
"Hit my head, on my car. I'm sorry..."
"Daniel!" Jack wasn't shouting in anger, but to get Daniel's attention, because apparently Daniel couldn't concentrate for more than a few seconds at a time. Something was wrong, and though they didn't know exactly what it was, Jack knew that it was more serious than busting his head open on the trunk of his car.
"Who is 'he'?"
"What? Oh, Agent Ph... no, Michael. Supposed to call him Michael. Gets mad if I don't."
"So it was Phillips that attacked you in the driveway? You're in Phillips' car right now?" Silence was the only response. "Daniel?"
"Jack?" There was a sudden clarity in Daniel's voice, along with a healthy dose of confusion.
"Yeah?"
"Jack, is it... are you real?"
Jack closed his eyes and sighed deeply.
"Yes, Daniel, I'm real. You hear my voice, don't you?"
"Yeah... yeah. I just thought I... I'm so tired. Keep falling asleep."
Jack glanced at Sam in the corner. She looked up from her conversation with Doug long enough to give him a quick nod, her way of saying, 'He's working on it, sir.'
"Well, that makes sense, Daniel," Jack said into the phone. "You haven't really slept the past two days. Just keep talking to me, okay?"
"I tried to call you... my phone isn't working."
Jack dropped his head in frustration - so much for the moment of clarity.
"Your phone's fine, Daniel. You're talking to me, aren't you?"
"The little bars went away. It's too dark to see if they came back."
"They came back, Daniel. Your phone's working just fine." Jack covered the mouthpiece with his hand and turned his head toward Sam. "He had no signal for a while. So wherever he is, there aren't many phone towers."
"I really need... need... something..."
Daniel's voice was growing softer; he was drifting off.
"What you need is to talk to me, Daniel. You can't go to sleep. Why don't you tell me about the..." Jack thought quickly, trying to come up with something that might get Daniel interested enough to pay attention. "... post-dynastic kingdoms of ancient northeastern Egypt?"
"Is no such thing."
Jack waited for Daniel to launch into one of his lectures, but apparently he'd said all he had to say on the matter. If any doubt had remained that Daniel wasn't unwell, that one simple fact would have eliminated it.
"Daniel?" he said, hoping to prompt at least a few more words out of him.
"I don't feel..." Daniel's voice faded away, and Jack's heart jumped into his throat. He opened his mouth to call Daniel's name, but closed it when Daniel started speaking again. "Jack... can you help me? I think I need help."
"We're trying, Daniel."
"I don't... Jack, I can't... God, why is it so hard to... think straight?"
"Hang in there, Daniel."
"Tired," Daniel mumbled. Jack could see him in his mind, his eyes drifting a bit further closed with every word. "Cold... so cold..."
"Just stay with me," Jack said. He spun back toward Sam, impatience and frustration evident in his voice. "Does he have it yet?" he demanded.
Sam looked up at him again, this time with an apology in her eyes. "We've found the signal, sir. We just have to follow it back to the towers it's hitting."
"Head hurts," Daniel said, though it was so soft that Jack had to strain to hear it.
"I know, Daniel. You told me you hit your head on your car." Again to Sam, Jack said, "Tell him to hurry the hell up! Something's wrong; Daniel's sick or something."
Daniel had gone silent; the only sound coming through the phone was the roar of the car's tires as it drove down the road, carrying Daniel and Cassie even further away. Daniel had finally succumbed to his body's demands, and had fallen asleep.
"Daniel, wake up."
"I don't like the dark."
The voice was small, frightened, and had a slight lisp. Jack had heard this voice so many times in the past two days that he recognized it immediately. Sleepwalking, Daniel had said. He talked like this when he was sleepwalking.
"Come on, Daniel."
"Too many shadows... can't hide... he's gonna find me..."
"Please, Daniel," Jack heard himself saying as he closed his eyes. "You can't do this right now."
"I don't like it here!" Daniel cried out suddenly. "I wanna go home. Jenny's gone, and there's so much blood..."
"Oh, God, Daniel." Jack opened his eyes and looked at the worried faces that surrounded him. Everyone else in the Briefing Room had frozen in place and was looking to him for an explanation. "Those repressed memories of his?" he asked. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, and then shrugged. "Yeah, not so repressed any more."
"Daniel Jackson is remembering?" Teal'c asked.
Jack shook his head quickly. "Not exactly."
"Let me out! God, please, let me out!"
Jack felt his breathing speed up and his heart start to pound in his chest. Daniel was pounding on the lid of the trunk and screaming for help that Jack couldn't give, caught in the throes of a waking nightmare that he'd been running from for twenty years. Jack was powerless to help, and he hated knowing that his ability to act was totally dependant on someone else's ability to do their job. And all he could hear on the other end of the phone was Daniel's frantic pleas for help, though they were beginning to abate...
Wait... all he could hear?
"Daniel?" he asked hesitantly. "Are you still moving?"
"Spinning," was the shaky, breathless response. "Falling..."
"No, Daniel, you're not. Now concentrate."
"Jack?" The clarity seemed to be back, at least for a few seconds. Jack was grateful for that much, because he really needed Daniel to be lucid right now.
"Daniel, is the car still moving?"
A few seconds of silence passed, and Daniel didn't really need to answer. "No... no, it's not."
Jack gripped the phone tightly and exploded from his chair. "Hide the phone! Hide it now! Daniel!"
It took Daniel far too long to process what Jack had told him to do. By the time the command had traveled from his unfocused brain to his frozen fingers, the trunk was already open. He turned his head toward the sudden burst of fresh cold air, looking around the phone that he held to his right ear. Looming over him in the night, illuminated by the red of the taillights, glowing like a vision from hell itself, stood Michael Phillips.
"Ag... M... Michael," Daniel breathed. He dropped the phone, but he knew it was too late. His only connection to the rest of the world, the only hope he had of getting help for himself and Cassie, was about to be severed.
"Who are you talking to, Daniel?"
"N... no one," Daniel stammered as he pulled away, trying his best to sink into the trunk. "I swear."
"Don't you lie to me!" Phillips roared as he reached into the trunk.
Daniel ducked his head and threw his arms over his face. "No, please..."
Phillips grabbed Daniel's hair with one hand and his shoulder with the other. Still roaring, he pulled Daniel from the trunk in one motion. Daniel felt the sharp edge of the latch digging into his back. "No!" he cried out, wrapping his hands around Phillips' wrists and trying to break free of his grip.
Then the hands were gone, and he was flying through the air. The momentum flipped him over, and he landed face-down in the rocks on the side of the road. He lay there for a moment, trying to clear his head enough to grasp what had just happened. Fresh blood dripped into his left eye, and he blinked it away.
He turned his head slowly and looked back over his shoulder, not surprised to see Phillips standing between him and the car. He was surprised, however, to see Phillips holding a phone that looked painfully familiar.
Who was he calling?
The ringing in his ears finally died down enough for him to hear what Phillips was saying, and then it dawned on him, slowly, why the phone in Phillips' hand was so recognizable. He knew with absolute certainty who the man was talking to.
"So, Colonel, how badly do you want to hear the boy's voice?"
Chapter Twelve
Daniel didn't know how many times he'd actually pushed the speed-dial button for Jack's phone. He checked the screen again, only to see that the bars were still gone and the tiny words still said, "No Signal." At least, he thought that's what it said. The lines were all starting to blur together, but since there was no blur where the bars were supposed to be, then it had to say "No Signal."
He sighed and shifted onto his back on the floor - hadn't there been bars when he'd started? Why would he have started dialing if there weren't any bars? Why was he dialing in the first place? Why was this room so small and why was it so cold and loud and smelly in here? Oh... yeah. That's why he was dialing.
He pushed the button again.
His shoulder hurt more than he wanted it to, but less than it had when his arms had been trapped behind him. His hands were so cold that his fingers were stiff, and they ached when he moved them. The constant roar of the tires on the road and the muffler beneath him had gotten much louder since they'd been traveling, and the air in the trunk was starting to reek heavily of gas fumes. His hair was sticky with the blood that had run down from the gash above his left eyebrow. His head, which had been hurting when Phillips had shoved him in here, had begun to throb incessantly. He'd had headaches before and could usually work through them, but this one was making it almost impossible for him to think.
Where'd those bars go now? Why did he keep pushing that silly button? Without the bars, nothing was going to happen.
No matter how hard Daniel tried, he couldn't even begin to understand what was going on. Phillips said they'd known each other for years, but Daniel just couldn't understand how that could be possible when he'd only met the man two days ago. He knew Phillips was telling the truth about the little girl in the park, and doubted that he was lying about the 'others,' but that still didn't explain anything. It didn't explain Phillips claiming that he'd killed those little girls because they weren't Daniel. Or thinking that Daniel should have known he'd done it. Or what this Jenny person he didn't even know had to do with it.
Or what any of it had to do with him.
He was starting to think there was something wrong with him, but he couldn't afford worry about it. What exactly could he do about it, anyway? He was locked in a trunk; Cassie was in the front seat with a psychopath. He was hurting and cold and tired... so tired.
His ears had started ringing a while ago, but they seemed to be getting worse. It definitely seemed like the ringing was getting louder, but only every now and then, almost like they were ringing in some sort of sequence.
He held the phone up in front of him to push the disconnect button and was surprised to see a blur that vaguely resembled the word "Connected." That couldn't possibly be right, could it? He squinted at his phone, trying to see if the blurred bars had returned, but the screen had gone dark and he was afraid to push any buttons for fear of hanging up.
"O'Neill."
The voice was muffled, but it did sound like Jack. Daniel didn't care if it was real or not, though he doubted it was. He had no signal here, wherever 'here' was. He shrugged one shoulder and decided to talk to the voice anyway, if only to keep himself awake. If he were hallucinating, then so be it.
"Jack?" he mumbled. "Jack, I... I think I need your help."
"Daniel!" Daniel flinched at the tone of voice; Jack sounded angry. Or rather, he imagined that Jack would sound angry if he ever managed to get a call through, since he was imagining this entire conversation. "Where the hell are you?"
"Colonel?"
It was General Hammond who had spoken. Jack glanced back over his shoulder, not entirely surprised to see the man on his feet and walking toward him.
Jack took a few steps back toward the table and shouted in the direction of the speakerphone. "Doug, Daniel's on the phone. Can you trace a call coming into my cell?"
"I might need a little help on your end, if you can access the FBI's system from there."
Jack almost smiled; Doug knew very well they could do that. After all, they'd already done it once - that's why Doug was on that plane.
"Carter?" he said.
"I'm on it, sir." Sam jumped out of her chair and headed for the computer in the corner. She quickly logged onto the system, picked up the phone at the terminal, and patched it into the call with the FBI agent.
"Give him anything he needs, Captain," Hammond said. "The Colonel's phone number, Dr. Jackson's... everything he asks for. If it applies to this situation, he gets it."
"Understood, sir."
Jack glanced across at Teal'c, who looked very much like he'd rather be doing anything other than what he was doing at that moment, which was nothing. Jack nodded his head in understanding and went back to the phone.
"Okay, Daniel, tell me where you are."
"Tell me where you are."
That sounded a lot more like the Jack he knew, Daniel thought. His imagination was getting better.
"I have no idea," he answered.
"Daniel, where are you?"
Daniel closed his eyes and sighed; his imaginary Jack didn't listen to him any better than the real one did. "I told you, I don't know where I am," he whispered. "I don't know if Cassie's still here... but we haven't stopped since we started, so she probably is." He could feel himself starting to drift off to sleep, and he had to force himself to get the words out at all.
"Are you hurt, Daniel?"
Daniel nodded his head but didn't speak. Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard a woman's voice saying, 'He can't hear you nod your head, dear.' For some reason, it struck him as funny, and he giggled.
"My mom always told me..." he said softly, but he stopped himself and shook his head. That wasn't his mom's voice he'd heard, was it? "I know her, though. Heard her before... Wait, what was I talking about?"
"Are you?!"
Jack's voice jerked him back to wakefulness, and his eyes flew open. "Am I what?" Daniel asked, suddenly awake again.
"Damn it, Daniel!"
"What the hell is wrong with him?" Jack asked the air in front of him.
An answering question came from behind him, in Carter's voice. "What's he saying, sir?"
"A lot of nothing! He's not making any sense."
"It is possible that Daniel Jackson is injured," Teal'c said. "If that is the case, he might not be aware that what he says is confusing."
"And he is in the trunk of a car," Sam added. "I hate to be the one to suggest it, sir, but if the exhaust is leaking even the tiniest amount, after three hours? He might be starting to show signs of carbon monoxide poisoning."
Jack hated hearing the words as much as she hated saying them, but he had to admit that he'd been starting to wonder about that himself. He nodded at both Sam and Teal'c, took a deep breath, and refocused himself.
"Let's start this again, Daniel. Are you with someone?"
"Hm?" came the groggy response.
"Wake up, Daniel," Jack ordered gently. "You've got to stay awake."
He heard Daniel clearing his throat and shifting around in the trunk. There was a loud bump, as though the phone had been dropped.
"Daniel?"
"Awake," Daniel answered, though from the sound of his voice it didn't seem likely that he'd be staying that way for very long. "I'm awake."
"Okay, so tell me... are you with someone?"
"No, I'm alone in here."
"Where's Cassie?"
"Not here," Daniel said, as though that explained everything. "She's with him. I think..."
"Who's 'him,' Daniel?"
"Hit my head, on my car. I'm sorry..."
"Daniel!" Jack wasn't shouting in anger, but to get Daniel's attention, because apparently Daniel couldn't concentrate for more than a few seconds at a time. Something was wrong, and though they didn't know exactly what it was, Jack knew that it was more serious than busting his head open on the trunk of his car.
"Who is 'he'?"
"What? Oh, Agent Ph... no, Michael. Supposed to call him Michael. Gets mad if I don't."
"So it was Phillips that attacked you in the driveway? You're in Phillips' car right now?" Silence was the only response. "Daniel?"
"Jack?" There was a sudden clarity in Daniel's voice, along with a healthy dose of confusion.
"Yeah?"
"Jack, is it... are you real?"
Jack closed his eyes and sighed deeply.
"Yes, Daniel, I'm real. You hear my voice, don't you?"
"Yeah... yeah. I just thought I... I'm so tired. Keep falling asleep."
Jack glanced at Sam in the corner. She looked up from her conversation with Doug long enough to give him a quick nod, her way of saying, 'He's working on it, sir.'
"Well, that makes sense, Daniel," Jack said into the phone. "You haven't really slept the past two days. Just keep talking to me, okay?"
"I tried to call you... my phone isn't working."
Jack dropped his head in frustration - so much for the moment of clarity.
"Your phone's fine, Daniel. You're talking to me, aren't you?"
"The little bars went away. It's too dark to see if they came back."
"They came back, Daniel. Your phone's working just fine." Jack covered the mouthpiece with his hand and turned his head toward Sam. "He had no signal for a while. So wherever he is, there aren't many phone towers."
"I really need... need... something..."
Daniel's voice was growing softer; he was drifting off.
"What you need is to talk to me, Daniel. You can't go to sleep. Why don't you tell me about the..." Jack thought quickly, trying to come up with something that might get Daniel interested enough to pay attention. "... post-dynastic kingdoms of ancient northeastern Egypt?"
"Is no such thing."
Jack waited for Daniel to launch into one of his lectures, but apparently he'd said all he had to say on the matter. If any doubt had remained that Daniel wasn't unwell, that one simple fact would have eliminated it.
"Daniel?" he said, hoping to prompt at least a few more words out of him.
"I don't feel..." Daniel's voice faded away, and Jack's heart jumped into his throat. He opened his mouth to call Daniel's name, but closed it when Daniel started speaking again. "Jack... can you help me? I think I need help."
"We're trying, Daniel."
"I don't... Jack, I can't... God, why is it so hard to... think straight?"
"Hang in there, Daniel."
"Tired," Daniel mumbled. Jack could see him in his mind, his eyes drifting a bit further closed with every word. "Cold... so cold..."
"Just stay with me," Jack said. He spun back toward Sam, impatience and frustration evident in his voice. "Does he have it yet?" he demanded.
Sam looked up at him again, this time with an apology in her eyes. "We've found the signal, sir. We just have to follow it back to the towers it's hitting."
"Head hurts," Daniel said, though it was so soft that Jack had to strain to hear it.
"I know, Daniel. You told me you hit your head on your car." Again to Sam, Jack said, "Tell him to hurry the hell up! Something's wrong; Daniel's sick or something."
Daniel had gone silent; the only sound coming through the phone was the roar of the car's tires as it drove down the road, carrying Daniel and Cassie even further away. Daniel had finally succumbed to his body's demands, and had fallen asleep.
"Daniel, wake up."
"I don't like the dark."
The voice was small, frightened, and had a slight lisp. Jack had heard this voice so many times in the past two days that he recognized it immediately. Sleepwalking, Daniel had said. He talked like this when he was sleepwalking.
"Come on, Daniel."
"Too many shadows... can't hide... he's gonna find me..."
"Please, Daniel," Jack heard himself saying as he closed his eyes. "You can't do this right now."
"I don't like it here!" Daniel cried out suddenly. "I wanna go home. Jenny's gone, and there's so much blood..."
"Oh, God, Daniel." Jack opened his eyes and looked at the worried faces that surrounded him. Everyone else in the Briefing Room had frozen in place and was looking to him for an explanation. "Those repressed memories of his?" he asked. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, and then shrugged. "Yeah, not so repressed any more."
"Daniel Jackson is remembering?" Teal'c asked.
Jack shook his head quickly. "Not exactly."
"Let me out! God, please, let me out!"
Jack felt his breathing speed up and his heart start to pound in his chest. Daniel was pounding on the lid of the trunk and screaming for help that Jack couldn't give, caught in the throes of a waking nightmare that he'd been running from for twenty years. Jack was powerless to help, and he hated knowing that his ability to act was totally dependant on someone else's ability to do their job. And all he could hear on the other end of the phone was Daniel's frantic pleas for help, though they were beginning to abate...
Wait... all he could hear?
"Daniel?" he asked hesitantly. "Are you still moving?"
"Spinning," was the shaky, breathless response. "Falling..."
"No, Daniel, you're not. Now concentrate."
"Jack?" The clarity seemed to be back, at least for a few seconds. Jack was grateful for that much, because he really needed Daniel to be lucid right now.
"Daniel, is the car still moving?"
A few seconds of silence passed, and Daniel didn't really need to answer. "No... no, it's not."
Jack gripped the phone tightly and exploded from his chair. "Hide the phone! Hide it now! Daniel!"
It took Daniel far too long to process what Jack had told him to do. By the time the command had traveled from his unfocused brain to his frozen fingers, the trunk was already open. He turned his head toward the sudden burst of fresh cold air, looking around the phone that he held to his right ear. Looming over him in the night, illuminated by the red of the taillights, glowing like a vision from hell itself, stood Michael Phillips.
"Ag... M... Michael," Daniel breathed. He dropped the phone, but he knew it was too late. His only connection to the rest of the world, the only hope he had of getting help for himself and Cassie, was about to be severed.
"Who are you talking to, Daniel?"
"N... no one," Daniel stammered as he pulled away, trying his best to sink into the trunk. "I swear."
"Don't you lie to me!" Phillips roared as he reached into the trunk.
Daniel ducked his head and threw his arms over his face. "No, please..."
Phillips grabbed Daniel's hair with one hand and his shoulder with the other. Still roaring, he pulled Daniel from the trunk in one motion. Daniel felt the sharp edge of the latch digging into his back. "No!" he cried out, wrapping his hands around Phillips' wrists and trying to break free of his grip.
Then the hands were gone, and he was flying through the air. The momentum flipped him over, and he landed face-down in the rocks on the side of the road. He lay there for a moment, trying to clear his head enough to grasp what had just happened. Fresh blood dripped into his left eye, and he blinked it away.
He turned his head slowly and looked back over his shoulder, not surprised to see Phillips standing between him and the car. He was surprised, however, to see Phillips holding a phone that looked painfully familiar.
Who was he calling?
The ringing in his ears finally died down enough for him to hear what Phillips was saying, and then it dawned on him, slowly, why the phone in Phillips' hand was so recognizable. He knew with absolute certainty who the man was talking to.
"So, Colonel, how badly do you want to hear the boy's voice?"