Part IV

“You’re not paranoid, if they really are out to get you,” Janet Fraiser told herself. Over the last few years it seemed that most of her coworkers had been kidnapped, or had close relatives kidnapped, at one time or another. That made her really cautious. Everyone who worked for the SGC had had training in how to recognize when they were being followed. Some of the people hadn’t taken the training that seriously, but not Janet. She knew that the risks were real, for her and Cassie more than most. There had been rumblings from time to time that the NID wanted to have a closer look at her daughter. Up until now the main reason that they had left Cassie alone was that there really didn’t seem to be anything all that unusual about her. Janet was afraid that that might change if word of the changes Cassie seemed to be undergoing reached them. They might be less willing to take “no” for an answer, and some of them were unscrupulous enough to try to kidnap her. And now there was a car behind her that had been there for too long. She’d first seen it parked at the side of the road, and it had pulled out right after she had passed it, and followed her out onto the highway.

The one thing that made her feel good about the situation was that whoever was following her seemed to be a complete amateur. She had spotted them before she had even left NORAD Road, and they had stayed right there in her rear-view mirror ever since. They didn’t even know enough to keep a few cars between them. There were good things and bad things about amateurs though: they were easy to spot, and usually easy to shake, but they tended to be unpredictable. They also tended to panic when things went wrong, and someone who panicked might do anything.

She waited until the car followed her onto Cimarron Street. It could just be a coincidence that it had followed her off NORAD Road onto Highway 115. 115 was the main road into Colorado Springs from there, after all, but when it was still behind her after she turned onto Cimarron, she reached for her cell phone.

“Do you get the feeling we’re being led in a circle?” asked Faith.

“Yeah,” said Xander, “but it looks like we’re finally reaching the centre of it. They’re pulling into a driveway.”

“It’s not her home address,” said Faith. “We’re not even in Willow’s circle.”

Xander pulled their car over to the side of the road a couple of houses down from the one where Major Fraiser had stopped. “Who lives there?”

Faith typed the address into her computer. “Looks like a J. O’Neill.” She typed a little more. “Okay, make that Colonel John J. O’Neill, USAF.”

“Maybe they’re just visiting him.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why?”

“Don’t move, and keep your hands where we can see them!”

“That’s why,” said Faith.

Xander looked toward the voice. The man who had spoken looked to be about Giles’ age, and was pointing a gun at him from a few feet away. He was backed up by younger man holding something else in his hands. It wasn’t a gun, but from the way the guy was holding it, it definitely seemed to be a weapon of some sort. It looked a bit like a coiled cobra, ready to strike at him.

He slowly took his hands off the steering wheel and held them up as he looked around. There were two similarly armed people on the other side of the car: one large black guy wearing a toque that was pulled down over his forehead, and a woman with short blonde hair. Xander thought that she looked pretty hot, and he mentally scolded himself over his weakness for dangerous women.

Faith had slowly raised her right hand. She’d closed the lid on her laptop at the same time, not moving fast enough to spook the people aiming guns at her, but fast enough to be sure that it was closed before they could stop her. She held up her left hand too.

“Out of the car,” said the grey haired man.

“I think we should do what the nice man with a gun says,” Xander told Faith.

Faith nodded toward the large black man. “I’m not sure that one’s entirely human,” she said, quietly enough that she wouldn’t be heard outside of the car.

“Stop talking, and get out of the car!” ordered the man.

“They do seem to have us at a disadvantage,” said Xander. “I think we better do what they say.”

Faith shrugged, and opened her door. She seemed to flow out of the car, moving in a way that just exuded sex, and had Xander rolling his eye as she stood, and stretched.

Xander could see that Faith’s performance was having an effect on everyone watching, but not the one she wanted. What he saw on their faces was more disbelief than interest, and the effect wasn’t enough to make the man’s gun waver away from him. “Come on! You too!” he ordered.

Xander got carefully out of the car, trying not to do anything to make anyone nervous. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

“Yeah, you’ve been following a friend of ours. Now up against the car. Assume the position.”

“What position would that be?” asked Faith. “Doggy? Missionary? Cowgirl?”

Xander groaned. “Faith, please stop trying to annoy the people with the guns.” He turned and leaned against the top of his car.

Faith turned and leaned against the other side of the car. Xander could see her grin, and he was pretty sure that she wiggled her ass at the people behind her. He wanted to bang his head against the roof of the car.

The grey haired man put away his gun, and came up behind Xander. He kicked his feet farther apart, and away from the car before he did a very thorough job of frisking him. The blonde woman was doing the same with Faith while the black man of dubious humanity covered her, not that there was much chance of Faith actually hiding anything under her tight fitting jeans and t-shirt.

The search came up with a wallet and cell phone from each of them, and some loose change from their pockets. Faith also had a lighter and a pack of cigarettes, but nothing else.

The man looked between Xander, and his driver’s license picture a couple of times. The picture was a couple of years old, and he still had both eyes in it. “Alexander Lavelle Harris?”

“Lavelle?” asked Faith. “Your middle name is ‘Lavelle?’ Your parents must have really hated you.”

“It was my mother’s uncle’s name,” said Xander.

“And you?” asked the woman who was examining Faith’s ID. “Faith Russell?”

“That’s me.”

“Carter,” said the man. He nodded his head off to the side.

“Yes, Sir.” The woman nodded, and pulled Faith upright and away from the car.

‘Great!’ thought Xander. ‘They’re going to question us separately.’

The man grabbed him, and pulled him in the opposite direction. “So, why were you two following Major Fraiser?”

“Following?” asked Xander, loud enough that he hoped Faith’s sensitive hearing would pick it up, without being too obvious about it. “We weren’t following anyone. We were just lost. Pulled over here to look at a map.”

“What were you looking for?”

“Uh…the Manitou Springs Inn,” said Xander. He figured it was best to stick with the truth, for the most part: they really did have reservations there, and telling the truth made it less likely that they’d trip him up.

The man was looking at Xander’s license again. “It says here that you live in Sunnydale California.”

“Uh, well, I did,” said Xander. “Before, you know, it fell into a giant hole. I haven’t actually decided where I’m going to settle down. Thought I’d have a look at Colorado, though if this is the way you treat visitors here, I might reconsider.”

“What about your girlfriend?”

“She’s not my girlfriend! Well, she’s a girl, and she’s a friend, but we’re not friendly if you know what I mean.”

“Is she from Sunnydale too?”

“Yeah, the last couple of years,” said Xander. “I think she’s originally from Boston.” The fake history that Willow had made for Faith was pretty much the same as her real one, only leaving out things like her stay in prison.

“Say, who are you guys?” asked Xander. “Are you cops? Are we under arrest? Shouldn’t you be reading us our rights, and letting us phone a lawyer before you ask us all these questions?”

“We’re not cops, and you aren’t under arrest. You’re just being…detained, while we figure out who you are, and what you’re up to.”

Jack left Jonas watching their two prisoners in his yard while he and Carter compared notes on what they’d learned from questioning them. Both of their stories matched up pretty well. They both claimed that they had just gotten lost while looking for their hotel. All of the girl’s IDs looked new, but she explained that by saying that she’d lost the originals when Sunnydale collapsed, and had had to get replacements for all of them.

Jack was starting to think that maybe this was all some sort of mistake, until Teal’c came back from their car, carrying a duffle bag that he’d found in its trunk.

Teal’c dropped the bag on the ground in front of him. “Colonel O’Neill, this is most unusual.”

“What have you got there Teal’c?”

“Weapons.”

“Guns?” asked Carter.

“Not guns,” said Teal’c. He pulled the bag open, revealing a collection of swords, axes, crossbows, wooden stakes, crosses, and bottles labelled “Holy Water.”

“What the—? What do they think they are?” asked Jack, looking toward where their prisoners were sitting on his lawn. “A couple of vampire hunters?”

“Vampire?” asked Teal’c

“Mythical creatures: drink blood, speak in clichés, only come out at night…”

“Yes,” said Teal’c. “Many worlds have legends of such creatures, and I have seen Interview with the Vampire.”

“Alright,” said Jack. “There’s definitely something not right about these two. Carter, take a look at that computer the girl had. See if there’s anything on it. The way she closed it up, I got the impression she didn’t want us seeing what’s on it. Teal’c, take a look at what else they’ve got in the car.”

It didn’t take long for Carter to discover that she couldn’t get into the computer. When she woke it from the sleep that closing the lid had activated, it asked her for a password. She tried restarting it, but that just took her to another log-in screen, this time with two accounts: one named “Faith” and the second named “Xander,” both of which required a password too. There was a third “Guest” account that didn’t need a password, but it only gave her limited access to the system. “I’ll have to take this back to the lab, to get anything off it,” she told Colonel O’Neill.

Teal’c’s search of the car didn’t come up with much: a map of Colorado, and another of the city, a compass, some empty twinkie wrappers and Starbucks coffee cups on the floor. A copy of a rental agreement in the glove compartment showed that the car had been picked up that day at the Denver airport. The Colorado Springs map had a section in the north-western part of the city circled. Major Fraiser’s home was near the centre, but there were probably thousands of people who lived inside the circled area. Major Carter’s house was inside it too.

Teal’c’s attention was drawn to something else. “O’Neill, this compass does not point north. It appears to be pointing at your house.”

“My house?” Jack held out his hand. “Let’s see.”

Teal’c handed him the compass. Jack could see that it was indeed pointing at his home. “Let’s see where it leads us.” He walked toward his house, with Teal’c following. Jack started to softly hum “Follow the Yellow Brick Road.”

The compass needle swung slowly toward the left as Jack walked up to his front door. Jack entered his house and turned left, following the short hall into his living room. The compass needle was pointing at Cassie, who was sitting nervously on his sofa.

Major Fraiser was on her feet. “What’s happening, Colonel? Do you know why they were following us?”

“Not yet,” said Jack, “but I think that this compass has something to do with it.” He moved back and forth in front of the sofa a couple of times, watching the compass needle pivot, all the time pointing straight at Cassandra. He looked up at her. “You haven’t started playing with magnets again, have you?”

“What?” asked Cassie. “You mean like before, when I had the mind-fire? No.”

“This compass really seems to like you.”

“Let me see that,” said Major Fraiser. Jack let her have the compass, and left it with her while he went to the closet at the other end of the house where he kept his camping equipment. He found his own compass there, and checked it. It seemed to be pointing north, and not toward his living room. He took a detour through his kitchen on the way back, to get one of the magnets holding a Chinese takout menu to his fridge door.

He waved the magnet around his compass, making its needle spin, on his way back to the living room. He got the compass taken from their prisoners back from Janet, and tried the magnet on it. Nothing happened. Its needle stayed steadily pointing at Cassie. “This is weird. How’s it doing that?”

“Could the compass be reacting the naquadah in Cassandra’s blood?” asked Teal’c.

“Then why didn’t it point at Carter?” asked Jack. “She was lots closer when we were outside.”

Jack told Major Fraiser and Cassie to wait where they were, and went back outside. He walked across the lawn to where Jonas was still watching their prisoners. He held up the compass. “Tell me about this.”

“It’s a compass,” said Harris. “The needle points north; helps you figure out where you are.”

“This compass isn’t pointing north.”

“It isn’t?” asked Harris. He looked at the Russell girl. “No wonder we got lost.”

“Do you see me smiling?” asked Jack. “This isn’t a joking matter. You were following an Air Force officer. We don’t take things like that lightly. You aren’t going anywhere until I get an explanation from you. Are you NID?”

Harris looked blank for a beat. “Any idea about what?”

“Huh?”

“You asked me if I was any idea,” said Harris. “Any idea about what?”

“Not ‘any idea.’ N.I.D!” said Jack, enunciating each letter clearly. “Are you with the N.I.D?”

“Never heard of it.” Harris looked at Russell again. “Do you have any idea about the NID?”

“Not about the NID,” said Russell. “Having a few about big, black and bald over there.”

“What’s with you and big bald black guys?” asked Harris. “Willow said you seemed to have a thing for Gunn, too.”

“Hey, I like ‘B’s,” said Russell.

“Oh… Oh! I didn’t need that image!”

Jack couldn’t believe it. These two reminded him of the way SG-1 often reacted to being questioned by a Goa’uld, except Carter never seemed to look at a Jaffa as if she were evaluating its potential for a roll in the hay. “Cut it out!”

“Why?” asked the girl. “Is he yours?”

Jack was left speechless.

“Oh, I know: you can’t say. That whole ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ thing. Silly if you ask me.”

“I didn’t ask you,” said Jack. “And, for the record, he’s not mine, in the way you are implying, or in any other way.” He sighed, and looked toward a plain white van that had just pulled to a stop in front of his house. A couple of SFs got out of it. “We’ll just have to see how a little time in the guardhouse affects you.”

Jack waved the SFs over, and soon Harris and Russell were in handcuffs. They were led away, with Russell making comments to the SFs about how they liked it kinky. He shook his head.

“What was that about Teal’c being ‘yours’?” asked Jonas.

Jack groaned. “Don’t ask!”