Chapter 46

After leaving the garage with the goon hover in tow, Felix decided that it would be better seen if he took the hover to the scrap recycle yard and dispose of the deceased there in amongst the thousands of wrecks, rather than his original plan of the water.

After wrestling the bodies into a car that was ready for the automated compacter, and once that was done he then placed the hover into the compacter and squashed that as well. Then for added realism he compacted a few more vehicles that were slated anyways and had everything blend together. He knew that the operator wouldn't remember how many and what order, so things were easy peasy in Felix's eyes.

Instead of going straight back to the garage, Felix took a very out of the way route towards the Star Gate and his cache, as he decided it was better to have, than not to have — a few goodies with him.

Once he parked the utility hover where it wouldn't be seen, he again checked the area carefully and only then did he dig up the cache for a few items. Once he was done that he again buried things, covered his tracks carefully and went back to town in the utility hover.

When he arrived back at the garage he parked the utility in its normal spot out in the back and went inside to see where Arkel was, or if he was gone home already.

As dinner progressed smoothly for Felix with Arkel and his family, things weren't as smoothly on Atlantis for a few people.

Sheppard came back through the gate with Ronon and both were obviously agitated — Ronon let out a loud war cry of utter frustration that brought the entire gate room area to a standstill.

Dr. Weir came from her position on the balcony and met Sheppard, as he was about to go up the stairs to see her.

She asked the obvious question, "I take it that you had no luck finding Felix yet?"

Ronon answered for Sheppard as he barked, "When I find that little man ... I'm going to..." He couldn't finish his words, as he was so frustrated that he couldn't find any trace of Felix at all. He let out another loud angry yell as he stormed away from the gate room.

Sheppard looked back at Elizabeth and replied, "That would be ... no, we haven't found any trace of him yet. It's like he has vanished entirely — that or we are looking in the wrong places."

Dr. Weir looked at the rapidly disappearing Ronon and asked, "What's got him so worked up this badly? Obviously it's Felix but what exactly?"

Sheppard started walking slowly up the stairs as he replied, "He is royally pissed that he can't find any trace of Felix AND that he can't track any of what we think could be Felix's trail. Anything we have found leads us nowhere, and it has got Ronon really ticked off."

Dr. Weir gave a little shake of her head as she replied, "Don't feel bad about Ronon — he isn't the only one upset that Felix has gone. Lieutenant Cadman has the unofficial nickname of 'Demolition Woman' right now. The team that went with her to the mainland came back rather wide-eyed and in a bit of shock. They hadn't heard that sort of colourful language coming out of her mouth, and she was blowing up anything and everything that she could safely do. When I tried talking to her about it, she started muttering under her breath about what she is going to do to him when she see him next. I won't repeat what she said, but I'll just say this. If I were Felix and knew what might be waiting for him back here, then I'd probably stay away from here too."

They stopped near the gate technician, where Sheppard then asked, "Any word from Rodney and Teyla yet?"

Dr. Weir answered, "Not yet, but they are due to return soon. Hopefully Rodney made some progress and we can figure out where Felix went."

Sheppard commented, "You know what I find incredible about this, Elizabeth? Here is a guy who is currently defeating technology that should be able to find him, and we can't find any trace of him. He is so old style technology that this shouldn't be happening — but it is." He shook his head as he still had trouble dealing with that fact.

Just then the Star Gate dialled in and the technician said, "Incoming wormhole ... It's Dr. McKay."

Rodney and Teyla stepped through the wormhole back in Atlantis and the gate then shut down behind them. Rodney looked up to see Elizabeth and Sheppard and said, "Oh good, there you are. I have something that you may find interesting — it's about someone manipulating the Star Gate."

Sheppard and Weir looked at each other and then back at Rodney as they said at the same time, "Oh?"

Rodney was still pushing the screen as he walked up to where the two leaders were waiting for him, and then he raised his head as he gave his smug smile and said, "It took me a bit but I managed to figure out what Felix may have been doing to the Star Gate." He looked at the gate technician and asked, "Can you bring up all the coordinates that Felix gave us?"

Chuck the technician did that while Rodney quickly interfaced his portable computer to the main one, and after punching more screens all the 6 monitors showed up various charts of the Pegasus Galaxy.

Sheppard asked, "Why do we need to know where Felix has been? What we NEED to know is where he is - that we don't have."

Rodney looked up and said, "Ah, yes, that. Well, I'm making good progress, which I should be able to show you in ... just a second — there we are."

He paused to look around the group to make sure they were paying attention and then started again, "I've been able to figure out that most of the coordinates at the first gate were just dialling and nobody went through."

Sheppard asked, "How did you figure that out?"

McKay replied, "Because I'm smarter than most people." Then he saw the looks of exasperation on their faces and continued, "Yes, well ... You see these readings here? They represent a person or persons going through the gate to the other end. This screen shows what a small object looks like when going through the gate. You see the difference?"

Sheppard asked again, "I don't see what this has to do with finding Felix, Rodney — so what are you trying to tell us?"

Dr. Weir interjected, "Hold on a minute Colonel — I think he's onto something here. Continue Rodney."

McKay then spoke rapidly as he explained the variables, the normal wavelengths, and when he started finishing he noticed the blank looks on Sheppard, Teyla, and Chuck. But not on Elizabeth's face — she was about to have an epiphany.

She looked right at Rodney as she asked, "Would these small objects be as small a rock?"

He shrugged and replied, "They could be, but there is no way to tell yet."

She nodded and looked at Colonel Sheppard and said, "Do you remember when we were debriefing Felix? Specifically when we were in the infirmary and he mentioned he was trapped off world? He said something about throwing a rock through the gate to see what reaction there was, and if I remember correctly he said something about the rock sounding as if it hit a wall at the Earth end."

Sheppard and Teyla were the ones who nodded and Sheppard said, "Yeah, I remember that."

Dr. Weir looked at Rodney and asked, "Does that help eliminate some of the gate addresses that you may have from each DHD?"

Rodney wasn't answering, as he was rapidly punching buttons and checking screens and the going back to other screens. He finally raised his head and said, "That reduces it down to 3 addresses for the first gate and 2 for each of the others. Elizabeth — that's brilliant!"

It took McKay another 10 minutes before he compiled a list of potential worlds that Felix may have gone to, but it was then that Rodney noticed again a problem.

He went back to Dr. Weir's office and with a stricken look on his face he told her, "I think I may have overestimated how to decipher this, Elizabeth."

She stood up as she answered, "What do you mean, Rodney?"

He looked down at his screen and then showed her — it looked like a detailed wiring schematic from hell, and if she were the electrician she wouldn't even know where to start.

Rodney said, "These coordinates are all somehow interconnected like a telephone exchange — they are all dialling at the same time to so many places. I think I'm back at square one."

He slowly looked down at the portable and went away slowly as Elizabeth said, "I'm sure you'll figure it out Rodney — you always do."

From there the Atlantis team went and found an advanced civilization that ended up having formed an alliance with the Wraith — that went horribly wrong for the people.

A short while later McKay blew up an old Ancient experiment when he wouldn't listen to Zelenka and instead listened to his ego, and in the process lost a fair bit of trust with Sheppard.

Then when they were on a planet that supposedly had Wraith activity, which they curtailed, Colonel Sheppard eventually and accidentally got turned into a Wraith. Doctor Beckett with the help of the entire team found the Colonel a cure that eventually got him back to normal.

During that time the most they could do was ask subtly when they were on other planets, or ask other teams to keep an eye open for the elusive Grey Man.

During that time Felix had no choice but to get rid of the local Mafia-style boss, who just wouldn't take no for an answer.

Felix managed to stay blended in the background while working at the garage for Arkel, but his senses were heightened again, always watching and listening, never letting his guard down — even while sleeping.