Chapter 56

Meanwhile back in Atlantis things were not going well at all. A computer virus program was wreaking havoc with all the operating systems, and causing chaos and all manner of headaches for Rodney McKay and Dr. Weir.

The fabled City of the Ancients was going through rigorous checks and scans by McKay and other scientists, but it was the lovely Lieutenant Cadman who discovered the underlying system problems.

It was a series of computer entries by Colonel Caldwell that caught her attention, and between her expertise and Rodney's they managed to sort things out and avert a major catastrophe. The incident brought up the issue of how far people were willing to go, especially when the perpetrator was found to be an unknowing Goa'uld infected Colonel Caldwell, and not Dr. Kavanaugh as originally thought. And at the end of that escapade Laura Cadman renewed her romance with Carson Beckett...

Back on the planet, Felix sat down against the rock, placed his CAR-15 across his legs, and removed the NVG's from his head to wipe the cold sweat from his head and neck. He opened the thermos that hung around his neck and drank the last of the coffee from the night before. After stowing the thermos on his Bergen he stood to stretch his back and to look around at the terrain again, then compare it to the map; he had made very good travel time in the hills - he was driven to running and walking fast while thinking about what the kids may be subjected to.

The anxiety and anger had fuelled Felix's fast pace so that he was now only 2 kilometres short of the objective at this point, so he rechecked all his weapons to make sure they were ready for immediate use and silencers attached. It was going to be light soon, so he got moving again, but this time a bit slower as he concentrated on looking for any traps and definitely staying blended into the surrounding terrain.

Felix decided against radioing Arkel until he was a bit closer to the objective area, as the night air carried sound quite well, and he really didn't want to risk tipping his hand at this early juncture.

Over the next hour he closed to within about 400 metres of what looked like an upper cave entrance - he had been cautious in his approach, as a rock tumbling down would signal to the kidnappers that they had been found.

Near dawn he saw what appeared to be a sentry expose his upper body - Felix went prone immediately and brought the CAR-15 to his shoulder and looked through the optical sight to calculate the distance. Once he calculated the distance, he decided against using the rifle, even though it was silenced - but instead opted for the efficient but sarcastic Diablo; he slowly moved the CAR-15 down from the shoulder and drew out the AI gun.

It's diodes lit up as it scanned the area and found a second sentry nearby and told Felix about him, who then asked, "How far to the second sentry? And can you take him out quietly for a change?"

The Diablo snorted sardonically and replied, "Of course I can take him out, you schmuck - and I CAN do it quietly even at this distance."

Felix rolled his eyes and ignored the gun's sarcasm and then told it, "I want flechette for the close sentry and ceramic over-blast for the far sentry - can you do that without too much attitude?"

The lights flashed on the side of the gun then stayed green when the cycle was done - Felix then raised the Diablo and felt it fire the flechette. He heard the sentry drop with the dart in his head then the gun spoke again, "Why do you want to waste a ceramic on the second clown? I can take him easily with flechette - come on - don't be such a baby - I know what I'm doing."

Felix shook his head as he tried not to argue with his gun and said, "I want to make a statement with #2, so stop showing off - I know what I'm doing." If the gun could have, it would have sighed in exasperation at Felix as it fired the ceramic round for the second sentry; Felix heard the muted 'crump' as it exploded about 3 feet above the sentry, ending his existence - period.

Once that was accomplished, he holstered the protesting Diablo and then brought the CAR-15 back up into the shoulder at the ready position, then stood up and advanced cautiously towards the first sentry position. As he got to the now deceased sentry, he listened to the area for a minute, didn't hear anything out of the normal, and then placed a flash-bang under the body as a trap if any enemy decided to check the body.

Then he moved to the second sentry position while keeping his eyes and ears very alert in case there were any more sentries around - things seemed clear so he risked a quick call to Arkel. There was no change at their end, except what they had just seen Felix doing; he ended the conversation and switched the radio off for now, as he didn't need any inadvertent transmissions giving things away at a crucial moment.

With the sun coming up at his back, Felix decided to wait near where the second sentry had been and kept his rifle trained to where he figured the kidnappers would appear.

About 10 minutes later he heard the sound of rocks moving near the upper entrance and saw a head poke up just like a gopher; he waited until contestant #3 got out of the hole and made the mistake of moving the first sentry.

That obviously initiated the flash-bang right in front of him, blinding him as well as rendering him deaf as a post and partially paralysed. Felix gave him one silenced shot in the leg to incapacitate the kidnapper for the moment, as he had questions for him; the boom of the flash-bang brought another kidnapper out of the hole - he received a pain reliever for all his troubles - period.

Felix then ran down slope just over top of the main entrance, readied and then tossed a tear-gas grenade followed by 2 flash-bangs just for the disorientation towards the kidnappers. He went back up slope to the first sentry position and waited for the next kidnapper to show his face - a minute passed before a gasping and gagging man came out blinking in the early sunlight. The gun he had in his hand was wrenched forcefully from his grasp and flung far away, and then he found himself in a chokehold, which was applied only to the point of unconsciousness and he was laid onto the ground.

The tear gas combined with the smoke from the flash-bangs drove another kidnapper out, but this one had a kid with him - and a gun pointed right at the child's head. Felix bided his time until the smoke cleared for a moment and got a disarming shot off that removed the wrist holding the gun, which allowed the child to run away, and permitted Felix to remove this kidnapper from this life's gene pool.

He removed his Bergen and as he entered the cave he donned the NVG's to maintain his advantage over the kidnappers - even if there were more bad guys than he could safely handle. Again he moved cautiously into the cave, making sure of his footing so as be as silent as possible, and waited patiently until his shots were clear as he methodically eliminated the remaining 6 kidnappers in the cave.

Felix had to make a supreme effort to temporarily tune out the crying and wailing of the children until he confirmed all the kidnappers were down and out for the count - it took a very long minute to confirm that. He then shouldered the CAR-15, removed the NVG's, and then knelt at the first child he saw sitting crying - he reached into a pant pocket, removed a candy bar, opened it and gave the young boy half and the other half to a young girl.

As the children noticed the smoke and noise was gone, as were the voices of the kidnappers - they started to see a strange man handing what appeared to be candy bars. The strange man wasn't yelling at them or threaten them, AND he was handing out goodies, so he must be okay; after a minute all the kids were waiting for handouts from the strange man with the weirdly painted face.

One girl of about 9 years of age boldly asked, "Are you taking us away from here, mister?"

She received a nod and a small smile from the stranger, "I'm taking you back to your parents and families."

The girl looked at a boy a couple of years younger than her and said, "See? I told you somebody would come get us," and stuck her tongue out at the boy to emphasize her point.

Felix shook his head in amazement at the resilience of these children, and then told them, "I have to get my gear from up top - I'll be right back - okay?" He turned and went back up the entrance, walked to his Bergen and was about to grab the rucksack when he felt a big kick in the left side, then heard the shot which came from Arkel's hill as he fell backwards.

Felix lay there as waves of pain wracked his side and he almost gave in to the pain except for one thing: the promise he made to bring the kids back safely. Now he refused to let the pain take over so he deliberately shut the pain away and eventually managed to bring the Diablo around the front of his body, but had a difficult time swinging his body around and barely managed it.

Once he got the weapon in front of him the sweat in his eyes blurred his vision - he wiped that away so he could even remotely focus on the sight at the top of the Diablo. Finally through the waves of pain and the sweat he was able to focus and then he saw Arkel laying on the ground in pain but alive; he then saw Tanek walking away with the rifle from Arkel in one hand - Felix brought the sight onto Tanek.

It took him a long moment to remember the distance between his hill and where Tanek currently was, and then he told the Diablo, "Target Tanek with flechette and take him out when ready - you can do this cause I sure can't."

Felix concentrated on getting something resembling a rhythm for breathing as he still had to aim the Diablo at this range - when the gun told him, "Ready," he squeezed the trigger. The gun gave a brief lurch due to its compensation for the distance, and then Felix barely noticed Tanek falling to the ground, the rifle clattering uselessly next to him.

It was such a relief to Felix that he lowered his head against his arm and slowly passed out; he came to when he heard the crunching and moving of rocks near him. It was such an effort to raise his head to see who was coming to finish him off - but it was Arkel with a bloody head as he leaned down and said, "You don't look so well, my friend." He paused and then added in a rueful voice, "You were right about Tanek - I'm sorry I doubted you."