Stargate SG1: Suffer the Little Children (14/19)
All disclaimers, notes, warnings and summary are in the Master post: Suffer the Little Children
Chapter Fourteen
Thirty minutes. Half an hour. Eighteen hundred seconds.
That's how long Jack had been in his office. That's how long it had been since he'd slammed the door and decided that he wasn't nearly finished reacting to what he'd heard on the phone.
He'd spent the first five of those minutes clearing first his shelves and then his desk of everything they held - in a spectacularly violent fashion. He'd spent the next ten picking everything back up. He'd spent the last fifteen alternating between storming around the small room in a rage, fidgeting in his chair impatiently, and checking his phone to make certain it was still working. No matter how busy he was doing those three things, he always made time to check the clock.
Tick. Thirty minutes plus one.
Count the minutes as they went by. Watch the second hand sweep around the face of the clock, marking the passage of another. Mentally calculate the miles that could be covered in that amount of time. Think about how much further Daniel and Cassie were being taken from him. Bounce a pencil on his desk. Stare at the phone and will it to ring. Pick it up and check it again.
Tock. Thirty minutes plus two.
Imagine all the ways he could kill Phillips when he found them. A gunshot would be quick, but it would lack finesse and for some reason, Jack just didn't want it to be that easy. Lean back from his desk and run his hands through his hair.
A knife, then - slit the bastard's throat like he'd done to Jenny, and Elizabeth, and Rachel, and nine other little girls whose names he didn't know yet. Drum his fingers on his desk and tap his feet on the floor.
Then again, there was something to be said for plain, ordinary hand-to-hand combat. He didn't imagine that it would be at all difficult for him to beat the man to a bloody pulp before breaking his damn neck. Maybe he'd even let Teal'c help him.
Smile at the thought. No more need to pretend; no more need to hide it. Know that killing Michael Phillips would give him enormous satisfaction.
Tick. Thirty minutes plus three.
The door to his office burst open, and a breathless Sam Carter appeared behind it. She opened her mouth.
He was already on his feet.
"Sir, we found them!"
He was already across the room.
"There's a car waiting for us on the surface, sir. I'll brief you on the way."
He was already at the door.
"Why didn't you just call me?" he asked.
Blue eyes looked from him to his desk and back to him again. "Your phone was off the hook, sir."
Jack glanced back at his phone in disbelief. He'd just checked it, hadn't he? He remembered picking it up, holding it to his ear, then glancing at the clock, and… how many times had he done that? How many of the past thirty-three minutes had he spent listening to the dial tone? How long had he had that phone off the hook?
Obviously too long.
Damn.
He didn't have time to dwell on the stupid mistake his distraction had caused, or the number of seconds it had cost him. With steely calm, he closed the door behind him and walked resolutely down the corridor, with Sam right at his heel. He was a man on a mission, quite literally, and he focused every motion, every thought, every breath, on the task at hand. Daniel and Cassie were counting on him to find them; their very lives depended on him. He would not let them down.
Tock.
He didn't have another thirty-four minutes to waste.
It was dark outside, but he wasn't scared. The moon shone brightly in the sky above him, hanging low in the late August sky and giving him more than enough light to see by. They were young and happy and free. Everything was perfect.
His sister was nearby, and he feared nothing while she was there. Jenny protected him from everything and everyone that tried to hurt him. She never teased him for being different, and she had sent more than one schoolyard bully running away with a bloody nose when they did. She never hesitated to climb into his bed and chase away his bad dreams, or to hold him when he missed his real parents and hug away his tears. She taught him to ride a bicycle, and she cleaned the rocks out of his knee every time he fell.
Things at home weren't bad by any means, but they were hectic. They were getting the house ready for a huge party; childhood games had been put on hold for a few days while they cleaned and cooked. Daniel liked his new parents' parties, and he knew he'd like this one in particular, especially since he was to be the guest of honor. In little more than a week, Daniel would become a full-fledged member of the Miller family. He'd have real parents again, and Jenny would be his sister - completely and totally and forever.
They'd been sitting on his bed talking, and Jenny had mentioned that they hadn't had a chance to play like they normally did. They both wanted to do something, even though it was long past their bedtimes and they knew they'd get in trouble if they got caught. Playing hide-and-seek outside had been Jenny's idea; going to the park had been Daniel's.
They'd played three games already, and Jenny had won them all. She'd looked up at the sky and the ever-higher moon and told him that it was getting too late, that they should go home, but he hadn't wanted to. It was so nice outside, and they were having so much fun and besides, he hadn't won yet. So he'd talked her into playing just one more game before they went home.
His persistence had paid off, and he knew it. He was crouched down behind the first row in a stand of bushes at the edge of the hill they were playing on, and Jenny was looking for him way over on the other side. She wasn't going to find him, and he was going to win.
"Olly olly oxen free!"
He smiled to himself when he heard her admit his victory. He really should have stood up and shown her where he was, but instead, he giggled and stayed behind the bushes. He hardly ever won a game of hide-and-seek, and he wanted to enjoy it. He heard a sound from behind him, like a stick breaking, and he turned around. It was dark at the bottom of the hill, and he couldn't see anything.
"Olly olly oxen free! Daniel, I give up! Come out!"
He turned back around, the sound behind him forgotten. He could hear a little bit of worry in her voice, and he sighed. The sigh became a yawn, and he had to admit to himself that he was tired. It was time to go home and go to sleep. He started to stand up and opened his mouth to call out to her.
Something strong wrapped around his arms from behind, pinning them to his sides. He drew in a breath to scream, but something covered his mouth and nose. He struggled, tried to pull away, but felt himself being pulled back deeper into the bushes. Something breathed against his neck. He wanted to pull away, but he couldn't. He couldn't move, couldn't think, could barely breathe, and he'd never been more scared in his life.
"Hello, Daniel," a voice whispered in his ear.
Daniel's heart felt like it was going to beat right out of his body. A man was whispering in his ear, the same man who was holding him so tightly, keeping him from crying out for help, and pulling him even further into the bushes, away from Jenny. That same man held a knife in his right hand, a knife that Daniel only glimpsed out of the corner of his eye as the moon reflected from the blade.
"Daniel, this isn't funny any more! Where are you?"
"Do you know what I think, Daniel?" the voice in his ear continued. "I think that you and I are going to get along very well."
Daniel tried to shake his head, but it was little more than a twitch. He tried to shout out in protest, but it was nothing more than a muffled grunt. He didn't want to get along with this man; he wanted to get away from this man.
"You are such a beautiful little boy. Has anyone ever told you that?"
Oh, God, he couldn't move.
"I love beautiful children."
He couldn't breathe!
"I didn't know until now; I thought they were all monsters. But now I know."
He had to do something!
"You and I, Daniel, are going to have a lot of fun. I can't even begin to tell you."
He didn't understand what was happening; he didn't understand why it was happening. They'd just been playing, that was all. It was just a game! This man's words made no sense to him, but they frightened him more than anything he'd ever heard. No matter what else happened, he just knew that he couldn't go with this man.
He had to get away, had to do something, so he did the only thing he could think of.
He leaned forward and sank his teeth into the hand that covered his mouth.
"You little shit!" The whisper became a shout.
"Help me!" Daniel's silence became a scream.
"Daniel!" Jenny's search ended in horror.
Free of the hand that had kept him silent, Daniel threw his head back and stomped down on the man's foot, pulling away with every ounce of strength he had left. He felt a sudden pain on the side of his neck, but he ignored it and kept fighting. He had to get this man's hands off of him!
Jenny was suddenly right there with him, throwing herself at the man whose face Daniel still hadn't seen, pushing him away from her brother. There was a second when Daniel thought that he and Jenny would win, that they'd both get away and run home to where Mom and Dad could protect them. Then there was a burning pain in his left arm. He looked down and saw the knife, the handle still in the man's hand but the blade buried deeply in his arm, halfway between his shoulder and his elbow.
Daniel screamed again, this time in pain, and spun away. He felt the knife ripped from his flesh and he saw the man's hands reaching for him again. Daniel saw Jenny jump forward and grab the man's arm, trying to stop him. Instead of latching on to Daniel again, the man's hands landed flat against his back and shoved him forward, and he was falling, rolling, head-over-heels, down the side of the hill.
"Someone help us!"
Jenny's voice was the last thing he heard before he felt a sharp pain behind his left ear, and the world went black.
"There are only a few cell phone towers up here, one in Balltown and two in Leadville. The reason he was having trouble getting through was the storm, but once we picked up Daniel's signal and traced it to the towers, all we had to do was calculate the distance from each tower based on the ping time..."
Jack was only half-listening to what Carter was saying, but he didn't suppose it really mattered. He'd heard the important part; they'd managed to pinpoint Daniel's exact location when he'd made that phone call to within just a few feet. There was only one road they could have been on, and it was a dead end. According to the satellite images Carter had shown him in the elevator, there was a cabin there, five miles from Balltown.
Daniel and Cassie were in that cabin; Jack was positive of it. Now all he had to do was get there.
Doug's plane had landed not long after Jack had destroyed his office, and he'd wasted no time in rounding up enough field agents from the Colorado Springs office to organize a search team. Jack assumed that Doug was briefing his team just as Carter was briefing them, giving them the information that Jack hadn't wanted to wait at the mountain to hear.
His first thought had been to get a chopper from Cheyenne Mountain AFB and fly up, but the massive snow storm that had settled over the Rockies had made the base commander ground all flights to the west, no exceptions. So instead, they'd grabbed two SUVs and were heading up in them. What should have been a three hour drive to Balltown had been done in two, flying snow notwithstanding, as the two black vehicles flew down Highway 24 at speeds far too high to be safe. The FBI vehicle, with its flashing red lights, had been left behind long ago, and Jack actually pitied the state cop that tried to pull him over.
Teal'c sat in the passenger seat at Jack's side, his posture rigid and all of his attention seemingly focused on the road ahead of them, though Jack knew he was listening closely to Carter's explanation. The Jaffa's eyes were harder and colder than Jack thought he'd ever seen them, and he wondered briefly what his own looked like. With all of the anger and hatred that was swirling around in his mind, he knew he couldn't possibly look any more approachable than Teal'c did.
Carter was behind Teal'c, still talking. Now she was saying something about parts per million of carbon dioxide, and when Janet's voice joined in, explaining the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, Jack forced himself to pay attention and relate what she was saying to the way Daniel had been acting on the phone. Dizziness - check. Fatigue and headache - check and check. Irregular breathing - check.
Jack was actually hoping against hope that Phillips had taken Daniel out of the trunk and into the cabin, if only because it meant that Daniel would be breathing normal oxygen again. Daniel and Cassie being alone in an isolated cabin with a mad man who wanted at least one of them dead was in no way a good situation, but he supposed it was better than Daniel suffocating to death in the trunk of a car. At least if they were in the cabin, there was still a chance to save them.
Janet was moving on to treatment scenarios now, so Jack tuned her out slightly.
Janet's addition to their impromptu search and rescue team had been one that Jack had initially thought was a very bad idea, but once he'd seen her face, he'd known that there'd be no arguing her out of it. It hadn't stopped him from trying, though, and his protests had been met with a response that was both calm and incredibly logical.
"When you find them, Colonel, they're both going to need me. Cassie will need her mother, yes, but Daniel is most definitely going to need a doctor. Would you honestly want that doctor to be anyone but me?"
From Teal'c, Jack had learned that General Hammond had likewise protested Janet's inclusion, and he had actually gone so far as to order her to stay in the mountain. Janet had looked him straight in the eye and told him in no uncertain terms that she was fully prepared to resign her commission on the spot, if necessary, but that no one was going to stop her from going with them.
Jack allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction at Janet's persistence. Yes, unfortunately it seemed that Daniel was going to need a doctor and no, there was no one else that Jack would rather have along for that purpose. Knowing that Daniel would agree with that put Jack's mind even more at ease.
He turned off of the highway at the road Carter indicated, taking the turn so fast that he was almost certain at least one of the tires lost its grasp on the road. The only sound of protest he heard was a slight gasp from Janet, who quickly recovered and simply continued with her discussion with Carter. They'd moved on to hypothermia now, it seemed, and they'd managed to explain Daniel's constant complaints about being cold, his confusion, slurred speech, and strange behavior.
Jack shook his head as they sped past the last few scattered houses on the small county road. How odd was it that with everything going on, the medical problems that they knew Daniel was already facing had so little to do with the danger he was in, and everything to do with where he was?
"O'Neill."
Teal'c's summons snapped Jack's attention fully back to the road ahead, and he slammed on the brakes.
"Damn it!"
Jack opened the door and jumped out of the SUV, slamming it shut behind him forcefully when his feet his the pavement.
"No!" he screamed at the sudden obstruction in front of him. "God damn it, no!"
Teal'c, Sam and Janet exited the vehicle behind him and walked up to stand at his side. They all stood silently, staring at what was directly ahead of them, until Jack spoke again.
"We're so damned close," he muttered. "This cannot be happening. We're too damn close!"
The snowstorm had obviously done more than create hazardous driving conditions on the roads at the top of the mountain. In fact, it appeared that the storm had actually caused a small avalanche, because directly in front of their SUV was a pile of snow fifteen feet high, and who knew how wide, that stretched as far as any of them could see.
"Damn it!"
Jack turned on his heel and stalked toward the back of the SUV with Teal'c right on his heels. Sam and Janet followed behind them silently.
Only four miles away, the limp body of Daniel Jackson hit the floor of an isolated cabin with such violence that the boards creaked.
Chapter Fourteen
Thirty minutes. Half an hour. Eighteen hundred seconds.
That's how long Jack had been in his office. That's how long it had been since he'd slammed the door and decided that he wasn't nearly finished reacting to what he'd heard on the phone.
He'd spent the first five of those minutes clearing first his shelves and then his desk of everything they held - in a spectacularly violent fashion. He'd spent the next ten picking everything back up. He'd spent the last fifteen alternating between storming around the small room in a rage, fidgeting in his chair impatiently, and checking his phone to make certain it was still working. No matter how busy he was doing those three things, he always made time to check the clock.
Tick. Thirty minutes plus one.
Count the minutes as they went by. Watch the second hand sweep around the face of the clock, marking the passage of another. Mentally calculate the miles that could be covered in that amount of time. Think about how much further Daniel and Cassie were being taken from him. Bounce a pencil on his desk. Stare at the phone and will it to ring. Pick it up and check it again.
Tock. Thirty minutes plus two.
Imagine all the ways he could kill Phillips when he found them. A gunshot would be quick, but it would lack finesse and for some reason, Jack just didn't want it to be that easy. Lean back from his desk and run his hands through his hair.
A knife, then - slit the bastard's throat like he'd done to Jenny, and Elizabeth, and Rachel, and nine other little girls whose names he didn't know yet. Drum his fingers on his desk and tap his feet on the floor.
Then again, there was something to be said for plain, ordinary hand-to-hand combat. He didn't imagine that it would be at all difficult for him to beat the man to a bloody pulp before breaking his damn neck. Maybe he'd even let Teal'c help him.
Smile at the thought. No more need to pretend; no more need to hide it. Know that killing Michael Phillips would give him enormous satisfaction.
Tick. Thirty minutes plus three.
The door to his office burst open, and a breathless Sam Carter appeared behind it. She opened her mouth.
He was already on his feet.
"Sir, we found them!"
He was already across the room.
"There's a car waiting for us on the surface, sir. I'll brief you on the way."
He was already at the door.
"Why didn't you just call me?" he asked.
Blue eyes looked from him to his desk and back to him again. "Your phone was off the hook, sir."
Jack glanced back at his phone in disbelief. He'd just checked it, hadn't he? He remembered picking it up, holding it to his ear, then glancing at the clock, and… how many times had he done that? How many of the past thirty-three minutes had he spent listening to the dial tone? How long had he had that phone off the hook?
Obviously too long.
Damn.
He didn't have time to dwell on the stupid mistake his distraction had caused, or the number of seconds it had cost him. With steely calm, he closed the door behind him and walked resolutely down the corridor, with Sam right at his heel. He was a man on a mission, quite literally, and he focused every motion, every thought, every breath, on the task at hand. Daniel and Cassie were counting on him to find them; their very lives depended on him. He would not let them down.
Tock.
He didn't have another thirty-four minutes to waste.
It was dark outside, but he wasn't scared. The moon shone brightly in the sky above him, hanging low in the late August sky and giving him more than enough light to see by. They were young and happy and free. Everything was perfect.
His sister was nearby, and he feared nothing while she was there. Jenny protected him from everything and everyone that tried to hurt him. She never teased him for being different, and she had sent more than one schoolyard bully running away with a bloody nose when they did. She never hesitated to climb into his bed and chase away his bad dreams, or to hold him when he missed his real parents and hug away his tears. She taught him to ride a bicycle, and she cleaned the rocks out of his knee every time he fell.
Things at home weren't bad by any means, but they were hectic. They were getting the house ready for a huge party; childhood games had been put on hold for a few days while they cleaned and cooked. Daniel liked his new parents' parties, and he knew he'd like this one in particular, especially since he was to be the guest of honor. In little more than a week, Daniel would become a full-fledged member of the Miller family. He'd have real parents again, and Jenny would be his sister - completely and totally and forever.
They'd been sitting on his bed talking, and Jenny had mentioned that they hadn't had a chance to play like they normally did. They both wanted to do something, even though it was long past their bedtimes and they knew they'd get in trouble if they got caught. Playing hide-and-seek outside had been Jenny's idea; going to the park had been Daniel's.
They'd played three games already, and Jenny had won them all. She'd looked up at the sky and the ever-higher moon and told him that it was getting too late, that they should go home, but he hadn't wanted to. It was so nice outside, and they were having so much fun and besides, he hadn't won yet. So he'd talked her into playing just one more game before they went home.
His persistence had paid off, and he knew it. He was crouched down behind the first row in a stand of bushes at the edge of the hill they were playing on, and Jenny was looking for him way over on the other side. She wasn't going to find him, and he was going to win.
"Olly olly oxen free!"
He smiled to himself when he heard her admit his victory. He really should have stood up and shown her where he was, but instead, he giggled and stayed behind the bushes. He hardly ever won a game of hide-and-seek, and he wanted to enjoy it. He heard a sound from behind him, like a stick breaking, and he turned around. It was dark at the bottom of the hill, and he couldn't see anything.
"Olly olly oxen free! Daniel, I give up! Come out!"
He turned back around, the sound behind him forgotten. He could hear a little bit of worry in her voice, and he sighed. The sigh became a yawn, and he had to admit to himself that he was tired. It was time to go home and go to sleep. He started to stand up and opened his mouth to call out to her.
Something strong wrapped around his arms from behind, pinning them to his sides. He drew in a breath to scream, but something covered his mouth and nose. He struggled, tried to pull away, but felt himself being pulled back deeper into the bushes. Something breathed against his neck. He wanted to pull away, but he couldn't. He couldn't move, couldn't think, could barely breathe, and he'd never been more scared in his life.
"Hello, Daniel," a voice whispered in his ear.
Daniel's heart felt like it was going to beat right out of his body. A man was whispering in his ear, the same man who was holding him so tightly, keeping him from crying out for help, and pulling him even further into the bushes, away from Jenny. That same man held a knife in his right hand, a knife that Daniel only glimpsed out of the corner of his eye as the moon reflected from the blade.
"Daniel, this isn't funny any more! Where are you?"
"Do you know what I think, Daniel?" the voice in his ear continued. "I think that you and I are going to get along very well."
Daniel tried to shake his head, but it was little more than a twitch. He tried to shout out in protest, but it was nothing more than a muffled grunt. He didn't want to get along with this man; he wanted to get away from this man.
"You are such a beautiful little boy. Has anyone ever told you that?"
Oh, God, he couldn't move.
"I love beautiful children."
He couldn't breathe!
"I didn't know until now; I thought they were all monsters. But now I know."
He had to do something!
"You and I, Daniel, are going to have a lot of fun. I can't even begin to tell you."
He didn't understand what was happening; he didn't understand why it was happening. They'd just been playing, that was all. It was just a game! This man's words made no sense to him, but they frightened him more than anything he'd ever heard. No matter what else happened, he just knew that he couldn't go with this man.
He had to get away, had to do something, so he did the only thing he could think of.
He leaned forward and sank his teeth into the hand that covered his mouth.
"You little shit!" The whisper became a shout.
"Help me!" Daniel's silence became a scream.
"Daniel!" Jenny's search ended in horror.
Free of the hand that had kept him silent, Daniel threw his head back and stomped down on the man's foot, pulling away with every ounce of strength he had left. He felt a sudden pain on the side of his neck, but he ignored it and kept fighting. He had to get this man's hands off of him!
Jenny was suddenly right there with him, throwing herself at the man whose face Daniel still hadn't seen, pushing him away from her brother. There was a second when Daniel thought that he and Jenny would win, that they'd both get away and run home to where Mom and Dad could protect them. Then there was a burning pain in his left arm. He looked down and saw the knife, the handle still in the man's hand but the blade buried deeply in his arm, halfway between his shoulder and his elbow.
Daniel screamed again, this time in pain, and spun away. He felt the knife ripped from his flesh and he saw the man's hands reaching for him again. Daniel saw Jenny jump forward and grab the man's arm, trying to stop him. Instead of latching on to Daniel again, the man's hands landed flat against his back and shoved him forward, and he was falling, rolling, head-over-heels, down the side of the hill.
"Someone help us!"
Jenny's voice was the last thing he heard before he felt a sharp pain behind his left ear, and the world went black.
"There are only a few cell phone towers up here, one in Balltown and two in Leadville. The reason he was having trouble getting through was the storm, but once we picked up Daniel's signal and traced it to the towers, all we had to do was calculate the distance from each tower based on the ping time..."
Jack was only half-listening to what Carter was saying, but he didn't suppose it really mattered. He'd heard the important part; they'd managed to pinpoint Daniel's exact location when he'd made that phone call to within just a few feet. There was only one road they could have been on, and it was a dead end. According to the satellite images Carter had shown him in the elevator, there was a cabin there, five miles from Balltown.
Daniel and Cassie were in that cabin; Jack was positive of it. Now all he had to do was get there.
Doug's plane had landed not long after Jack had destroyed his office, and he'd wasted no time in rounding up enough field agents from the Colorado Springs office to organize a search team. Jack assumed that Doug was briefing his team just as Carter was briefing them, giving them the information that Jack hadn't wanted to wait at the mountain to hear.
His first thought had been to get a chopper from Cheyenne Mountain AFB and fly up, but the massive snow storm that had settled over the Rockies had made the base commander ground all flights to the west, no exceptions. So instead, they'd grabbed two SUVs and were heading up in them. What should have been a three hour drive to Balltown had been done in two, flying snow notwithstanding, as the two black vehicles flew down Highway 24 at speeds far too high to be safe. The FBI vehicle, with its flashing red lights, had been left behind long ago, and Jack actually pitied the state cop that tried to pull him over.
Teal'c sat in the passenger seat at Jack's side, his posture rigid and all of his attention seemingly focused on the road ahead of them, though Jack knew he was listening closely to Carter's explanation. The Jaffa's eyes were harder and colder than Jack thought he'd ever seen them, and he wondered briefly what his own looked like. With all of the anger and hatred that was swirling around in his mind, he knew he couldn't possibly look any more approachable than Teal'c did.
Carter was behind Teal'c, still talking. Now she was saying something about parts per million of carbon dioxide, and when Janet's voice joined in, explaining the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, Jack forced himself to pay attention and relate what she was saying to the way Daniel had been acting on the phone. Dizziness - check. Fatigue and headache - check and check. Irregular breathing - check.
Jack was actually hoping against hope that Phillips had taken Daniel out of the trunk and into the cabin, if only because it meant that Daniel would be breathing normal oxygen again. Daniel and Cassie being alone in an isolated cabin with a mad man who wanted at least one of them dead was in no way a good situation, but he supposed it was better than Daniel suffocating to death in the trunk of a car. At least if they were in the cabin, there was still a chance to save them.
Janet was moving on to treatment scenarios now, so Jack tuned her out slightly.
Janet's addition to their impromptu search and rescue team had been one that Jack had initially thought was a very bad idea, but once he'd seen her face, he'd known that there'd be no arguing her out of it. It hadn't stopped him from trying, though, and his protests had been met with a response that was both calm and incredibly logical.
"When you find them, Colonel, they're both going to need me. Cassie will need her mother, yes, but Daniel is most definitely going to need a doctor. Would you honestly want that doctor to be anyone but me?"
From Teal'c, Jack had learned that General Hammond had likewise protested Janet's inclusion, and he had actually gone so far as to order her to stay in the mountain. Janet had looked him straight in the eye and told him in no uncertain terms that she was fully prepared to resign her commission on the spot, if necessary, but that no one was going to stop her from going with them.
Jack allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction at Janet's persistence. Yes, unfortunately it seemed that Daniel was going to need a doctor and no, there was no one else that Jack would rather have along for that purpose. Knowing that Daniel would agree with that put Jack's mind even more at ease.
He turned off of the highway at the road Carter indicated, taking the turn so fast that he was almost certain at least one of the tires lost its grasp on the road. The only sound of protest he heard was a slight gasp from Janet, who quickly recovered and simply continued with her discussion with Carter. They'd moved on to hypothermia now, it seemed, and they'd managed to explain Daniel's constant complaints about being cold, his confusion, slurred speech, and strange behavior.
Jack shook his head as they sped past the last few scattered houses on the small county road. How odd was it that with everything going on, the medical problems that they knew Daniel was already facing had so little to do with the danger he was in, and everything to do with where he was?
"O'Neill."
Teal'c's summons snapped Jack's attention fully back to the road ahead, and he slammed on the brakes.
"Damn it!"
Jack opened the door and jumped out of the SUV, slamming it shut behind him forcefully when his feet his the pavement.
"No!" he screamed at the sudden obstruction in front of him. "God damn it, no!"
Teal'c, Sam and Janet exited the vehicle behind him and walked up to stand at his side. They all stood silently, staring at what was directly ahead of them, until Jack spoke again.
"We're so damned close," he muttered. "This cannot be happening. We're too damn close!"
The snowstorm had obviously done more than create hazardous driving conditions on the roads at the top of the mountain. In fact, it appeared that the storm had actually caused a small avalanche, because directly in front of their SUV was a pile of snow fifteen feet high, and who knew how wide, that stretched as far as any of them could see.
"Damn it!"
Jack turned on his heel and stalked toward the back of the SUV with Teal'c right on his heels. Sam and Janet followed behind them silently.
Only four miles away, the limp body of Daniel Jackson hit the floor of an isolated cabin with such violence that the boards creaked.