Brotherhood (2b/27)
Title: Brotherhood ( Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen
Chapter1 Chapter2a-- 2b
25 August 1999; Washington; 1500 hrs
"I know who you're talking about," the sheriff said. "I had a lot of parents come into my office--they lost their kids to this nut. They got shipments of what looks like a bunch of arms recently."
"You didn't think that was suspicious?" Sam asked.
"Didn't have--whatchacallit--probable cause. Even if I did, I don't have the manpower." At that, his gaze passed over their small, eclectic group. "You sure you folks can shut this guy down?"
"Don't worry about us," Jacob said. "You ever seen the man in charge?"
The sheriff narrowed his eyes, but he didn't question them further. "The property's owned by a guy named Fargough. His record's clean."
"Seth," Daniel said, then remembered he was supposed to let the others lead this and fell silent. He tried not to squirm as the sheriff stared at him.
"This one of the boys who got out from there?" the man asked.
Surprised, Daniel looked sideways at Jack, who raised one eyebrow very slightly. Jack's hand fell protectively on his shoulder as Jacob said, "That's classified. We can't discuss any details of this investigation." Daniel glanced up at the sheriff, who seemed to have decided he was one of Seth's former followers, anyway. Jack's finger poked him hard in the back of his shoulder, and he looked back down at the floor.
"Well, you're a brave young man to help out like this," the sheriff said gruffly.
Daniel cleared his throat awkwardly, trying not to do something that would make them all look like idiots--like laugh--and said, "I'm, uh...I'm not supposed to talk about the--"
The sheriff waved a hand. "Yeah, I know. All right. That's all we know. I'll show you to the main building--you can follow my car."
Jacob smirked at Daniel as he walked out. Daniel waited until the sheriff had climbed into his car before pulling out from under Jack's hand and climbing into the back row of seats in the car with Sam and Teal'c. "What exactly am I allowed to do while we're here?" Daniel asked as they followed the sheriff's car down the road.
"We'll see, Danny," Jacob said.
"It's Daniel," he said sharply this time. "Don't call me Danny. Sir."
Jacob's eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror, and he said with a bark of a laugh, "They make 'em with spirit on Abydos! I like that."
"Dad," Sam said, but half-heartedly. Maybe she was reluctant to say any more, for fear that her father would start calling her Sammy.
"You kids," Jacob chuckled.
Daniel huffed. Turning back to business, he imagined he was at a customs and courtesies briefing, about to step off-world with a team. "What do I need to know to deal with law enforcement officers?"
...x...
"That's the main building," the sheriff told them. "About three-quarters of a mile up that drive. Gimme a call if you need me."
"Will do," Jack said with a tight smile.
"Colonel," Sam said quietly, and Daniel turned to follow her gaze to a man rapidly coming toward them. He didn't look like a military-trained man of any sort, but Daniel knew very well that 'civilian' didn't mean 'harmless,' the way airmen at the SGC tended to assume.
"You people the FBI?" the man said.
"No," Jack answered. "Who're you?"
"Jason Levinson," the man answered. "I've been camping out here for the past month, hoping to catch a glimpse of my boy Tommy. He's been in there nine months now."
Teal'c touched Daniel on the shoulder to catch his attention and said quietly, "Wait here."
Daniel hung back near the car as the others approached Jason Levinson, talking quietly about the compound behind them.
Suddenly, Teal'c stiffened slightly. Levinson didn't seem to notice, but Jack had--his hands were sliding out of his pockets to hover casually closer to where his sidearm was hidden. Daniel had no idea what they had seen or heard or felt, but he slid closer to the car, anyway, where he'd have a better chance of finding cover or reaching a weapon if it came to that.
"The fence is in the wide open and around most of the property," Levinson was saying. "But I'll show you a brush cover if you wanna go in."
"Good," Jacob said, leading him a few feet away, toward the property.
As soon as there were a few paces between Levinson and the team, Teal'c said, "O'Neill, we are being surveilled."
"Yeah," Jack agreed. "I saw them. Probably FBI, maybe ATF."
Daniel started to turn, then stopped when Teal'c said, "Do not look toward them."
Jack began reaching for their equipment. "Daniel, stay in the car and lock the doors while we check this out. We'll only be a few minutes, but there's a Beretta just in case--see it? Everyone else, we're going to look and only look for now."
Daniel opened his mouth to argue, because surely he was as qualified as Jason Levinson not to make a mistake, but Teal'c warned, "Daniel Jackson..."
It wasn't until Daniel was sitting in the passenger seat of the car and everyone else was sneaking past the fence that he realized with chagrin why Jack had told him to listen to Teal'c: Teal'c didn't need to give him orders very often outside of the gym, so he'd never gotten into the habit of thinking twice about those orders the way he had with Jack. He frowned, wondering if they'd planned it like this, and resolved to pay more attention to that in the future.
"ATF! Step out of the vehicle!"
He jumped and turned in his seat to see a man outside the car, a gun leveled in his direction through the closed window. There was another man with another gun behind him and three more who'd crept up without his notice. Daniel's hand was halfway to the bottom of his seat where Jack had left him a pistol before he remembered that the ATF was the agency that had taken charge of this investigation.
The agent saw his movement anyway and ordered, loud enough for the sound to carry through the closed door, "Freeze! Federal agent! Step out and keep your hands where we can see them."
Daniel froze, then raised both hands so they could see he was empty-handed. He glanced back toward Seth's compound, but the others were still out of sight.
"Now!" the agent demanded, more sharply, so Daniel swallowed and slowly opened the door before someone shot at him through the glass. Jack would never let him forget it if he was responsible for a bullet hole in a government car. Also, it would mean he was being shot at, which was, in his experience, a bad thing.
"Sir," Daniel said loudly enough to be heard from where they stood several wary yards away, stepping back so there was no doubt that he wasn't doing anything suspicious in the car. "Uh, Agent. Please just...let me explain."
"Who are you?" the agent asked. "And where are the people who were with you?"
"I'm Daniel Jackson, with the US Air Force," he recited. He reached for his ID and stopped when everyone tensed, guns rising. "I'm just--my identification is in my back pocket. I'm unarmed."
"Keep your hands up," the agent in charge said, then nodded to one of the other men. "You're one of Fargough's kids, aren't you."
Trying not to squirm as the other agent pulled out his identification, patted him down briefly, then looked inside the car, Daniel said, "No, I'm not. I'm here with a team that's trying to remove...Fargough. The others are looking for a way into the building right now."
"It looks authentic," the other agent said. "Dog tags, ID card--civilian, Air Force affiliation, in the capacity of 'Special Liaison.' But there's a pistol in the car, and it looks like more artillery in the back."
"We've come across Fargough's kids before with illegal permits and weapons," the first agent warned. "IDs and tags are easy."
"They've attacked people before?" Daniel asked, surprised. They'd expected some details not to have been available so easily online, but they'd also been assuming that this Cult of Seth was more or less self-contained, with the exception of the assault on Area 51. That didn't make sense--the previous cults had all stayed fairly private until someone else tried to attack them first.
"We'll ask the questions," another agent said. "Fadman, search the car." A woman stepped out of the crowd and started toward the car, but the others didn't move.
"Hey!" Jack's voice called, and Daniel sighed in relief. "What the hell are you doing!"
Most of the agents shifted their aim to SG-1 and Jacob.
"Daniel?" Jack barked, fury and worry both audible.
"I'm fine, Colonel," Daniel called back. "They're ATF, investigating Seth Fargough."
Jack was glaring murderously at the agents. His submachine gun was pointed at the one who still held a gun on Daniel. Sam's hands were on her gun, too, while Teal'c--well, he probably had a zat'nik'tel hidden away somewhere, and no doubt it would be in his hand in half a second if a fight erupted. "Looked more like you bozos were investigating the contents of my consultant's pockets," Jack snapped to them.
"I'm Special Agent James Hamner," the man in charge said. "Who're you?"
"Major General Jacob Carter, US Air Force," Jacob said before Jack could answer. "These are my people. I suggest you return Mr. Jackson's belongings to him and lower your weapons."
By the time everyone decided that the others weren't the enemy, Jack had turned his scowl onto Daniel, as if to say, 'see what you got into?' Daniel tried to communicate wordlessly that he'd only been following orders--first Jack's, then Teal'c's, then Special Agent James Hamner's--and see, look where that had gotten him. Maybe that was too complicated a thought to be expressed with shrugs and eyebrows, however (or maybe everyone was just annoyed), and Jack simply scowled harder.
...x...
"This compound is home to some kind of cult," Agent Hamner said. "It's run by a charming guy who goes by the name Seth Fargough. We've recently acquired intelligence to confirm they have a hoard of prohibited weaponry here."
"That's some mighty fine intelligence you've got there," Jack said, clearly resisting the urge to roll his eyes.
"They've also begun to get more violent. As I was telling your...consultant earlier, about two weeks ago, they received a big shipment of something we haven't been able to identify yet. Since then, there have been three incidents of members leaving the property. At first we thought they'd snuck out to escape Fargough."
Jack shot his team a significant look, then turned back to Hamner. "But...?"
"We lost two agents the first time, and Fargough's people killed themselves once they were surrounded. The second time, we attempted to subdue them, but, again, they turned their guns on themselves before we could get them," Hamner said.
Daniel saw Sam and Teal'c exchanging a glance as Jack and Jacob continued their questioning. The shipment had to have been the sarcophagus, and even if Seth wanted to hide on Earth, perhaps his greed overcame his caution once he'd found a way both to subdue people and to regenerate himself or even his followers with a sarcophagus. If they'd thought this situation was urgent before, it was rapidly becoming even more so.
"Do you know what they were targeting?" Jacob asked.
Hamner hesitated, then allowed, "They were looking for information--one person managed to hack her way into a government computer, but whatever she was looking for, we think it was too high-security for her to get to it. She escaped our agents, though."
Perhaps they were trying to find out where the sarcophagus had come from, or get into Area 51 files, perhaps even looking for the location of the Stargate. Setesh would surely be interested now that he knew about Goa'uld devices being stored somewhere.
"So what do you plan to do?" Jacob said.
"Surround the compound and negotiate," Hamner said. "Try to get 'em to come out peacefully."
Daniel made a face. "That won't work," he said before he could remember to shut up, but no one berated him. Well, someone else would have said it if he hadn't.
Hamner gave him a narrow-eyed stare. "I suppose you could tell me why not."
Daniel bit his lip and looked to Jack, who said, "Classified."
"You were in there with Fargough and his followers?" Hamner pressed. "Undercover or deprogrammed?"
Daniel was quickly realizing that there were severe limits to the advantages of looking like he couldn't possibly be an agent and therefore had to be a victim or a possibly a spy of some sort. It would be a useful trait for a spy, but he wasn't even cleared for a mission like this, except as a consultant.
"Hey," Jack snapped. "You've heard of 'classified,' right?"
"Fine!" Hamner snapped back, equally irritated now. "Well, I'll tell you what. The United States Air Force was not invited to participate in this operation; therefore, you're out of your jurisdiction. Therefore, I'm ordering you all to leave, or I'll have you arrested."
Daniel squinted at the wall behind Hamner, not sure how to respond. Jacob asked good-naturedly, "This is a secure phone, isn't it? Could we use it to place one call?"
They were ushered out as Jack picked up the phone. Daniel turned in time to catch a particularly gleeful look on Jack's face before he walked back toward the car.
...x...
Ten minutes later, the President of the United States called and put Jack in charge, and the SGC took over the ATF's workspace. Jack looked satisfied. Hamner didn't.
"I think it's safe to say we're dealing with Seth," Jacob said immediately. "From what we saw, he's probably using nish'ta, and we know how to reverse the effects."
"Go in with zats," Jack said. "The shock should do it."
"And shoot fifty people before Seth notices?" Jacob said. "Or before they kill us with that stockpile of weaponry they've got? You heard Hamner--Seth's getting antsy."
"Then we need to get in without being noticed," Sam said. "We can't walk in the front door or he'll just brainwash us before we can do anything."
"He must have an escape route," Daniel said, trying to interpret the map that the ATF had drawn and tacked onto the wall. "We've found underground escape tunnels built into almost all of Ra's major facilities in Nagada."
"That was also true of Apophis," Teal'c confirmed.
"So we do a perimeter search outside the fence and look for those tunnel entrances," Sam said.
"And if we find them?" Jacob asked. "We still need a way to get in and not get compromised by the nish'ta. Teal'c and I wouldn't be affected..."
"Not gonna work," Jack said. "You'd be made in a second. I'll go in through a back entrance and try to get close enough to assassinate him before anyone gets dosed with anything."
"Wh--wait," Daniel said when no one objected. "You want to assassinate him? And kill his host, too?"
Jacob looked surprised. "Daniel, there's a bigger picture here than one man."
Daniel frowned, glancing at the others. "I...I know that. I just want to make sure I understand this clearly if we're designating an innocent man collateral damage. The Tok'ra know how to remove symbiotes, don't they?"
"I get it," Jacob said tensely. "Obviously, we'll capture him alive if the opportunity arises, but if it's one man with a Goa'uld in him versus the lives of fifty of his followers--and probably the rest of us standing around here, too, and who knows how many afterward--then we can't hesitate for one life." Jack made a face but shook his head when Daniel looked to him.
That was the policy, and he knew it. They were supposed to subdue the Goa'uld with minimal injury if there was a chance of saving the host, but ultimately, the host was a relatively low priority in most missions. Daniel bit back another protest, reminding himself that they couldn't risk an angry, former System Lord to be freed and many people killed simply for the chance to save one person. He hoped that choice wasn't one they'd have to make if--when--they found Skaara and Sha'uri. "Yes, sir," he said unhappily. He wondered, suddenly, if Jack or Sam had ever tried the same argument before, back when they'd first started fighting the Goa'uld, then said 'yes, sir' and stopped finding it strange.
But they were at war. Daniel knew that. He'd pledged himself to it, and he wouldn't go back now.
"So," Jack said, "I go in through the back--"
Teal'c interrupted, "Your chance of success is extremely low, O'Neill."
"He's right," Jacob said. "At best, Seth realizes you're useful and you end up working for him. At worst, you're dead, and so are the rest of us."
"Actually," Sam said thoughtfully, "I think I have an idea. I can fix something--an earpiece, maybe, to deliver an electrical shock upon remote command. We'd just need someone listening in through the earpiece and ready to deliver the jolt, and the nish'ta would be killed without Seth's knowing it."
Jack nodded. "You start working on that, Carter. Daniel, you...stay here and help her. Everyone else, let's round up Hamner's men and see if there's an underground entrance somewhere."
Catching Sam's worried frown, Daniel waited for the others to leave and said, "Sam, the sheriff said a lot of parents have been calling about kids they lost to Seth. Look at the reports--I don't think he's seeking them out actively; he's waiting for interested people to seek him out." He held out the abbreviated missing persons reports to let her see. "A lot of people get recruited pretty young--around their late-teens to late-twenties."
Sam skimmed over the reports, caught his meaning, and looked up. "Yeah, I see," she said, "and no, you're not going to."
"Lieutenant Astor asked me yesterday if I worked undercover a lot, because I look the part," Daniel said. "She was right. I'm the perfect one for it on this team. Who'd suspect me?"
"You're a little on the young side of the profile," she pointed out.
"But I'm big enough--I can pass for a year or two older than I am," he said. Even though Jack thought he'd still grow another inch or two, he'd learned that he was already tall enough to look, at a casual first glance, like he wasn't out of place among the men of the SGC, especially if he walked confidently enough. "And there have been younger. Sam, my age is the one asset I have that the rest of you don't in a mission that requires infiltration. Let me use it."
"That's not true," she said, her voice lowered. "And later, I can explain to you why that line of thinking bothers us."
"And I'll remind you that I am an adult and that you're not breaking international law by accepting what I'm offering," he countered, because he'd read enough to know she was thinking of children who had been exploited on this planet as soldiers or spies in past wars. "Sam, Jack is going to be alone in there, with practically no chance of success. I'm just saying, maybe you should rig up an extra earpiece. It doesn't have to be for me. It's just in case."
She gave him a piercing look, then sighed. "Just in case, then."
...x...
"We've got a way in," Jacob said, once they'd found the entrance and had rejoined Daniel in the tent.
"And I've got a way out," Sam said, holding up an earpiece designed to deliver an electrical pulse to kill the nish'ta. "So now, we need a plan."
"I have one," Jacob said. "But I'm gonna want more than one person on the inside."
"I made an extra," Sam said, holding up a second earpiece.
"We're gonna take our chances on Carter, then?" Jack said, examining the earwig.
Sam didn't answer immediately. Daniel looked at Jacob, who was already watching him but didn't speak. "No. I'll do it," Daniel said.
"Whoa," Jack said, looking up sharply.
Jacob looked Daniel up and down. Perhaps he--or Selmak--was remembering that Daniel wasn't from the USA on Earth and was an adult by the standards of Abydos and many other societies. "Can you use a zat'nik'tel? Handle yourself in a fight?"
"Hold it--"
"Indeed," Teal'c answered instead. "Daniel Jackson's skills are sufficient against an enemy that is not expecting an assault."
"The nish'ta will make people very loyal, but it doesn't do any favors in terms of reflexes and quick thinking," Jacob added. "So you'll have the advantage there."
"Just hold on a minute!" Jack snapped.
"We can't afford to sit around much longer if Seth's starting to get bolder," Jacob said. "There's a threat from the Goa'uld, a threat from his followers, and a threat to his followers. We need to get in and get them split up as much as we can if we want to have a chance at neutralizing them."
"Do you people realize that whoever goes in there might not come back out?" Jack said, looking incredulous.
Daniel pointed to Sam's wired earpieces. "Well, that's why--"
"I'm not talking about that! Or don't their guns bother you?"
"In a full attack, yes, they'd probably open fire," Jacob said, "but with a single invader, nish'ta is much more likely. His followers are average, untrained people--if Seth's been getting bolder, someone with your skills will be a lot more useful alive than dead."
"Jack, if you're compromised, we're done," Daniel said. "We should have a backup plan."
"Well, we can come up with a better one," Jack said.
"Remember Cimmeria?" Daniel pressed. "You and Teal'c in armor, dragging me through Heru-ur's camp to get Shifu..."
"That was because we had no other choice!"
"We have few other choices now, O'Neill," Teal'c said, "but we have more time to plan our actions, and Daniel Jackson is more prepared now than before."
"Daniel wouldn't even be in the most dangerous position--that's you, Jack," Jacob said. "We just need him to help get the ball rolling, and then Sam will go in to help you."
Jack seemed to be wavering, so Daniel added, "I'm going to start being sent into the field soon. Why not now, since you need an extra person, and I can do it--you know I can do this, Jack."
Jack paced a few steps, then said, "I'll sneak in alone and try to get him before anyone sees me. If I get hit with this nish'ta stuff, then we can go to a backup plan. But only if I'm caught first."
"Sounds good," Jacob agreed. "If you're caught, we're gonna leave you under the nish'ta and zap you just before Daniel goes in, to keep your reactions real for as long as possible, and we'll listen through your earpiece--it'll give us a better idea of what they'll do to Daniel, so he'll be safer. Seth probably won't care too much what you're doing there--he's gotten used to relying on the nish'ta--but if he starts interrogating you, we'll activate the earpiece and you'll have to make something up."
"Fine," Jack said, his words clipped. "So what's this plan?"
"We want to finish this fast, but we don't want to rush and blow it. If you're caught, Daniel will wait a day or so before following. We'll continue monitoring through the earpieces to make sure you're both okay."
"If the second person is still only a day on the heels of the first," Sam said, "what if Seth realizes it's a backup?"
Jacob looked at Daniel. "That's Daniel's advantage. Jack goes in, armed to the teeth, and tries to kill Seth. Daniel goes in a day later, in civilian clothes, unarmed, looking like a local student--hell, give him a backpack--and no one would connect them."
"He doesn't even have to use the tunnels," Sam said, nodding. "Colonel O'Neill will look like he's trying to sneak in through the back, and Daniel can walk up to the front door, like he's just a kid who's curious about this religion."
"You're sure these earpieces will work, Captain?" Jack asked Sam.
"Yes, sir, assuming Dad's right."
"Dad?" Jack asked Jacob.
"It'll work, if the jolt is big enough," Jacob assured him.
"And I will listen to your movements while you are within the compound," Teal'c promised.
Jack took a breath. "Okay. Send me in first. So if I screw up, what's the plan?"
XXXXX
26 August 1999; Washington; 0500 hrs
"The entrance is through Goa'uld rings," Selmak said, listening through the headset.
Daniel stopped his impatient perusal of the interior of the ATF tent. "Rings? Jack was transported from the tunnel?"
"Yes. But they were waiting," Selmak confirmed. Sam hurried in from where she'd been standing guard at the tent flap to put her head together with her father's and listen, too. Daniel grabbed one side of Teal'c's headset to share it. "They have caught him."
"--hate it when that happens," Jack was saying.
"Welcome!" a Goa'uld's voice said--Seth, of course. "Who are you?"
"The name's MacGyver," Jack answered flippantly. "But you can call me Mac."
"Oh, boy," Daniel muttered, relinquishing the headset and reaching for the spare ear piece. "Should I get ready?"
Jacob held out a hand. "No. Wait, like we talked about. Sam, this could work to our benefit--you'll be able to use the rings to get in there for backup instead of sneaking up stairs or ladders."
"What if they grab me too early?" Sam pointed out.
Tapping the earpiece, Jacob said, "Teal'c and I will be monitoring. You'll just stay away from the ring chamber until we hear them"--he pointed at Daniel--"say that they've got the ring activation device, so they'll be controlling it when you try to get in. Daniel, don't activate it until you and Jack find a way to get Seth out of the room."
"General Carter," Teal'c said before anyone else could speak, and they turned to see Jason Levinson entering the tent.
"You're the father, aren't you?" Levinson said to Jacob. "Your kid's in there?"
"No, my son's not in there," Jacob assured him. "Sir, you need to step outside."
Levinson sighed but nodded resignedly. "Can I get some coffee?"
Daniel stood up to finger the earpiece on the table, listening to the stilted conversation between Levinson and Jacob as he reviewed mentally what he was supposed to do once inside.
Finally, when Levinson had left again, Daniel said, "Were you talking about Mark?"
"How do you know about Mark?" Jacob said scowling at the equipment.
Daniel glanced nervously at Sam, then said, "Sam told me last year that she missed him."
Now Sam scowled at him as Jacob gave her a considering look. "Daniel..."
"I was just wondering. Maybe you should talk to him."
"It's complicated," Jacob said, looking like he wasn't sure where to direct his scowl this time.
"In Jaffa society," Teal'c said, "loving one's children is not complicated." Daniel gave him an incredulous look, because he knew of very few parental relationships more complicated than Teal'c's with Rya'c. Then Teal'c returned the glance pointedly, and he understood that that wasn't the point right now; when Jacob was living on another planet and constantly in battle, who knew when it would be too late?
"In human society," Jacob was saying, "sometimes it is."
Daniel barely stopped himself from pointing out that it would be a lot more complicated if he waited until one of them was dead. He supposed this wasn't really the best time to be discussing it, anyway. "I'll go get ready," he said, standing up.
"Wait. Sit down and listen first," Jacob ordered, but he was giving Sam occasional surreptitious glances now.
"What?" Daniel said. He sat.
"You focus on the civilians, like we talked about," Jacob said. "If something goes wrong--if anything goes wrong, a lot of people could die, including us, them, and whoever Seth attacks next. Jack and Sam will worry about Seth and his host, do you understand?"
Daniel took a slow breath, glancing at Sam, and conceded, "Yes, sir, I understand."
"Good. Now, stick to the plan. We wait."
From the next chapter (" According to Plan"):
Daniel had fallen to his knees before he could remember thinking about it. "I am prepared," he said. Words floated into his mind, and he voiced them without thinking, "Seth is life. Seth is happiness. Seth is almighty."