Part 14 Sam stood beside O'Neill and General Hammond, and watched with great satisfaction as Mayburne's men loaded everything they had brought with them back into their truck. It had taken over an hour, but Prometheus had emerged from his conversation with Richie and given the Colonel his marching orders. Sam didn't really know who this man was, and she had decided that she definitely wasn't going to ask any questions, she was just pleased he seemed to be on their side. Watching Mayburne get his ass kicked was like a cloud being lifted from the whole base. They were certainly dragging their heels about leaving, but Sam knew she was watching the losers packing their bags. She was quietly smiling to herself when she caught the approaching figures of Adam and Daniel out of the corner of her eye. The Major turned to greet them and realised that they didn't look like winners. "What's up guys?" she asked and saw Jack take an interest. "He's gone," Daniel said tersely. "If you mean Prometheus," Sam said, not quite sure what her friend was getting at, "I don't think he's left yet. The other two lifted off a few minutes ago, but he stayed to look around the complex." "Not him," Adam supplied helpfully, "Richie. He's not in his room, and no one has seen him for at least half an hour." Instinctively Sam looked to where the helicopter had been standing and as she looked around at her companions she realised they were all thinking the same thing. "Prometheus wouldn't have double crossed us would he?" she asked. She really wasn't sure enough of the man to know if it was possible, but from the look on Adam' face it seemed that it might have been on the cards. "It doesn't make sense," the Immortal said after a pause. "He's a devious son of a bitch, but he's never lied to me like this before." There were other possibilities of course, and Sam didn't want to be the first to voice them. "Is it possible that he could have escaped on his own?" the General had to put forward the counter argument. "Richie is many things, General," Adam replied, "but he's not stupid, and he doesn't let his friends down. He wouldn't run out on us." The Immortal sounded so sure, but Sam couldn't quite bring herself to totally believe him. The fact that these people lived their whole lives pretending to be what they were not bothered her a little, although she could see exactly why they did it. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to make this official," the General said and snapped Sam out of her reverie. "Where ever he is we have to find him." Adam opened his mouth to reply and then shut it again, looking back the way he had just come. There was a vague hope in his eyes and Sam realised the Immortal thought he might be about to see Richie. Over the past couple of days the younger of the two had been quite open about his own Immortality, and had explained that he and Adam could feel each other coming. As it was the man who appeared in the entrance was Prometheus. He walked directly over to the group, covering the few feet in only a couple of seconds. "I hear we're missing a piece of the puzzle," he said almost before he stopped. Sam's immediate reaction was to ask how Prometheus knew, but she bit her tongue as her senior officers got there first. "How did you find that out?" Hammond asked pointedly. "I have spent a very long time keeping an eye on things, General," Prometheus replied, "I notice these things. Before you ask, no I did not have anything to do with it. If I had you wouldn't have noticed yet. That leaves two options ... our Goa'uld has gone AWOL on his own, or someone on this base has kidnapped him." There was nothing like stating the obvious, but Sam held on to her reaction to this unsettling man. On the whole Carter believed she could get on with most people, but Prometheus gave her the creeps. "I assume that if one of you gets close enough you'll be able to find him," she eventually heard herself say. Prometheus frowned slight, he didn't seem to like the fact that she knew his secrets, but he nodded, as did Adam. "Then lets divide into two teams and start looking," Hammond decided firmly. ====================================================================== Richie awoke to find that his head hurt. This was not an unfamiliar sensation from over the past few days and he wished it would just go away. A fraction of a second after this he opened his eyes and found that it was very dark and there was very little space around him. He was lying down, and he seemed to be in some sort of box. Following this his memory clicked in and he remembered how he came to be in his current predicament. Mayburne and one of his goons had come into Richie's room and shot him with something. When the Immortal moved he found that his hands and ankles were chained in a similar fashion to when the Colonel had tried to remove him earlier that day. Goa'uld's were not known for their patience, and Richie had a hot temper of his own. His current predicament made him very angry, and as Mayburne's gloating face filled his mind's eye rationality stepped out of the picture. With a roar that came from deep in his chest he took hold of his chains and pulled. No one really knew how much stronger a human could be with a Goa'uld symbiant living inside him or her, but Richie managed to push the envelope. There was a satisfying clink as more than one link gave way and then he forced his arms upwards. Wood splintered as his hands connected with it and light flooded into his world. The prisoner bursting out of his captivity was obviously something that had not crossed the mind of the soldier guarding the box. If Richie had been in anything but his current frame of mind he might have actually felt sorry for the man as a look of sheer terror crossed his face. As it was the Immortal took one look around himself, noted that he seemed to be in the back of a truck and then grabbed the shocked soldier before the man could react. One good throw and the unfortunate individual went flying out the back of the vehicle and Richie quickly followed. "Mayburne!" the Immortal yelled at the top of his lungs, barely noticing that his voice held the Goa'uld edge to it. Anger was the only emotion coursing through Richie, and with it came the thought of retribution. His gaze swung around the loading area and he found his quarry with very little trouble. The Colonel was looking surprised and a little afraid; he obviously hadn't expected his captive to be awake let alone free. It was almost as if everything was in slow motion as Richie took a step towards Mayburne. He felt the touch of an Immortal presence, but didn't bother to wonder where it was coming from. All that mattered was venting his fury. Then quite suddenly pain shattered his incoherent state of mind. He came crashing back to himself and looked down stupidly at the front of his shirt as it slowly turned red. It seeped into his brain that someone had shot him and then his legs gave out and he was dead before he hit the ground. ====================================================================== Sam stopped running as she saw Richie fall to the floor; it just didn't seem quite real. One minute the General had been dividing them into two teams and the next people had started drawing guns. Her logical brain told her that Richie was Immortal, that he would get up again soon, but the rest of her was screaming that some bastard had just killed her friend. Carter shook herself out of the shock and realised that there were now two groups out the front of SGC and they were pointing guns at each other. There was Mayburne and his men, and the SGC soldiers including O'Neill. It looked like a war about to happen. "I'm going to count to ten," General Hammond's voice reverberated off the mountain, "and if anyone is pointing a gun at anyone else by the time I am finished I will have you all court marshalled." At first Sam wasn't sure anyone was going to take any notice of him, but as O'Neill put away his sidearm, others followed suit. Slowly the war was being averted. Daniel and Adam were the first to run to where Richie had fallen, but it was Prometheus who caught Sam's eye. There was an expression on his face that could have killed all by itself. "Colonel Mayburne," he said, and he wasn't shouting, but his voice carried everywhere. He had the officer pinned down with his gaze, and he walked over slowly, closely followed by Hammond. It seemed that the General was leaving this to the really big guns. "Would you care to explain what you think you were doing?" It was a simple question, but it caused Mayburne to make like a goldfish. Prometheus had stopped half way between where Mayburne was and where Sam was, and he just stood there. "Come here, Colonel," he said in a completely neutral voice. It was almost like watching the condemned on the way to the executioner's block as Mayburne turned his back on where several people were trying to find out if Richie was alive, and walked to where the other Immortal stood. Sam found herself edging closer, as if her limbs had a will of their own. "Well?" Prometheus prompted again. "I ... I was under orders," the Colonel spluttered. "Orders to kidnap an American citizen," Prometheus said slowly, "orders to shoot him? Orders to destroy what could be the most incredible discovery next to the Stargate itself?" Mayburne seemed to discover at least a little backbone as he pulled himself to his full height. "Orders to remove the deadliest threat to a neutral place," he said, a little foolishly as far as Sam was concerned. Prometheus lifted one eyebrow. "Who's orders, Mayburne?" he asked evenly. "They weren't from the President, and they weren't from the senatorial sub-committee. Is there another player in this game you would like to tell us about?" Finally the Colonel appeared to discover that silence was the best course of action. "I know all the players, Colonel," Prometheus said eventually, "and I have a pretty good idea who would have put you up to this. Believe me when I say that they will leave you out to dry. I could have you court marshalled for this, and they wouldn't lift a finger to help you." Sam was morbidly fascinated by the Immortal's verbal deconstruction of the officer in front of him. Mayburne actually seemed to shrink a little. Then Carter realised that the activity behind the Colonel's shoulder had ceased, and she moved slightly to see what was going on. Her eyes opened wide at what she saw. "Then again there are worse things I can think to do with you," she heard Prometheus say, just as a hand reached out and tapped Mayburne of the shoulder from behind. The Colonel turned and before he could even react he went flying backwards as Richie's fist connected with his jaw. End of Part 14