Chapter Text
_______________________
Sam took a deep breath… and infected the SGC system with Ba’al’s computer virus.
Or more accurately, with a modified version of Ba’al’s virus, but Sam wasn’t sure the distinction mattered quite as much as she would have liked. With Lee on vacation, she was mostly certain that no one would detect the virus, but mostly certain wasn’t really good enough, not when she had no good explanation for where it had come from.
She still felt the exercise was necessary; the ease at which Ba’al had accessed their IDCs had shaken her to the core. This way, she could track where in the system the virus was able to retrieve data and from there she could plug the holes in their security. No one would question her updating the system’s security – she did it regularly anyway – but if they found the virus…
It was risk, but one that she felt she had to take.
Sam tracked the virus as it began to spread through the system, it was, she had to admit, a very subtle design and extremely adaptable. It waited until usually separate systems swapped information and then jumped between them.
A knock at the door made Sam jump and she almost reflexively slammed shut her laptop. It was just Daniel and so Sam didn’t try to angle the screen away from him; he’d notice such a move instantly. And he was unlikely to recognise what she was actually doing.
‘We have a meeting,’ he said succinctly.
Sam just blinked at him, wondering what she’d forgotten. ‘When?’
‘Now.’ Daniel pulled a face that let her know it hadn’t been planned.
He disappeared from the doorway again and Sam worried her lip with her teeth. How long would the meeting be? She had no way of knowing, but it was likely to be long enough; emergency meetings always were. The real question was; could she afford to leave Ba’al’s virus unsupervised? It wouldn’t actually do anything, not on its own, but if someone noticed it and she wasn’t around to immediately terminate it, then she’d be in trouble.
Sam left the virus running. Her tracking program would record its progress and she could purge the system again after the meeting. She’d buried both programs under layers and layers of security, so at least no one would locate it from her computer. It didn’t mean it wouldn’t be picked up as an anomaly in the system, though.
Casting one last look at her laptop, Sam hurried up to the conference room. Emergency meetings were never good news.
That opinion was confirmed as soon as she arrived. If the meeting itself hadn’t been enough of a tip off that something was seriously wrong then the grim look on Landry’s face was a dead giveaway. Daniel and Vala were already seated when Sam arrived, but Cam was nowhere to be seen.
‘This morning the NID informed me they’ve been running an investigation into that Trust splinter group we had a brief run-in with,’ Landry started and Sam stared at him.
The Trust splinter group; she remembered them all too well, after all; it was where she’d met her Ba’al clone.
‘I thought we wiped them out?’ she asked. More accurately, she’d thought Ba’al wiped them out with his bomb, but she was hardly going to say that.
‘Apparently there were two members of the group not present at the warehouse. The NID found them, and have been monitoring them to make sure they are the final two members.’ Landry held up a hand to forestall comments. ‘It’s a NID operation and they had it under control, however, they’ve encountered a new development. A few days ago, they were staking out the premises when someone else turned up, they suspected a match and sent the photos to us this morning.’ Landry passed around files. ‘Take a look.’
Sam sent a quizzical look at Daniel before slipping open the file. It was a fairly thorough report on the investigation, which stretched back months, and included photos, two people that had been identified in the report as the Trust splinter group operatives. Sam shuffled through to the next photo and the bottom dropped out of her stomach.
The photo was of the Trust operatives but, right in the corner of the frame, clearly watching them was a very familiar face.
There was no mistaking it, because the photographer had noticed and the next photo was a close up. He wasn’t looking directly at the camera, but the smug look on Ba’al’s face was all too obvious.
‘Oh, hahaha,’ said Vala. ‘I didn’t know the NID had a sense of humour.’
Sam couldn’t tear her eyes away from the photo. What had he been thinking?
‘The next day,’ Landry continued, ignoring Vala, ‘the Trust operatives were found dead. The NID are covering it up, but it leaves us with a new problem.’
Dead. Of course they’d been found dead, Sam thought, latching on to the irritation that thought provoked like a lifeline. They’d captured him, so he’d hunted them down and killed them, without saying a word to her. She could have told him the NID would be looking, but maybe he’d known, maybe that was why he’d wanted the Sodan cloak so badly. Did he know he’d been seen?
‘You can say that again,’ muttered Daniel, holding the incriminating photo. ‘I thought we agreed that we’d caught the last clone? How did we miss one?’
‘That’s what I’d like to know,’ Landry said.
Sam was still frozen, her eyes fixed on the photograph, and it took her a moment to realise they’d all turned to her.
‘Sam?’ Daniel prompted.
What had they been saying...?
‘I don’t know…’ Sam tried to pull her thoughts together but they kept branching off. Had the NID followed him? Did they know where he was? Had they been staking out his apartment? Were these all the photos they had? ‘We were basing that off all the clones having locator beacons, I guess it’s possible we were wrong about that.’
Except they hadn’t been. Her Ba’al did have a locator beacon, he’d just found a way to jam the signal, or at least, that’s what he’d said.
‘So there could be more?’ Vala sounded horrified.
Sam immediately had the mental image of another twenty Ba’al’s invading the SGC and had the sudden and inexplicable urge to giggle. It wasn’t funny, though. Not funny at all.
‘Not too many more,’ mused Daniel. ‘He’s too well known in the galaxy, if there were clones everywhere we’d have heard something.’
‘For the moment,’ Landry cut in, ‘we’re worrying about this Ba’al.’
Sam could certainly relate to that sentiment. ‘Maybe he’ll be able to tell us if there are more clones.’
‘And we’d believe him?’ Vala asked incredulously. ‘The other one said he was the last clone!’
‘Actually, he didn’t, what he did say was the original could remove the locator beacon, so maybe this is the original and the last Ba’al.’ Daniel looked hopeful, but not optimistic.
‘We’ll ask him that too,’ Landry said. ‘Colonel Mitchell is currently coordinating with the NID operation to bring him in.’
Oh no. Sam wondered if there was any way she could get a message to him, but how? She couldn’t text him or call him because slipping away to do so would be next to impossible. Also… if they found his mobile it would have her number in it and she would feel really stupid if he got away and left it behind. Actually, it could still have her number in it… Sam seriously hoped that Ba’al had deleted his call history.
And hopefully not saved her as a contact.
If he’d saved her as a contact Sam would kill him herself.
‘We’re hoping to hear from the team any moment,’ Landry was telling them and Sam realised she hadn’t been listening. ‘Since this concerns our off-world allies, the NID have agreed to let us hold him here for the time being.’
‘If we catch him,’ pointed out Daniel, leaning forward.
A big if, Sam reminded herself. Ba’al could look after himself, she knew that. He was an ex-System Lord, he’d survived against all odds and Sam had been wondering for a while if he had a route off the planet which he’d ‘forgotten’ to tell her about. She forced herself to take slow breathes. It would be fine; Ba’al wouldn’t allow himself to be caught.
Landry snorted. ‘If we don’t catch him today, we’ll keep looking until we do. We have his fake name, and all the information he’s collected around his fake identity. The NID have frozen his bank account and believe me when I say he will not be leaving this country.’
Sam was fairly sure Ba’al would have two bank accounts, and if anyone could make themselves disappear it was him. She just had to cross her fingers that he’d escape the NID raid and then he’d be home free.
‘Sir?’ Walter appeared in the doorway. ‘Colonel Mitchell just contacted us, he said to tell you; they’ve got him. ETA; ten minutes, sir.’
Oh God. Sam let her head fall into her hands. He was in serious trouble now. She was in serious trouble now. Of all the things the meeting could have been about… Sam refused to believe that it was inevitable, but a little voice at the back of her mind whispered that she’d been playing with fire.
‘Okay, Sergeant.’ Landry went to turn back to SG-1.
‘Uh, that’s not all, sir,’ Walter said. ‘Colonel Mitchell wanted me to recommend that we send a marine team to the scene to stop the local police getting involved, the NID are there but he really thinks that-‘
‘Walter?’ asked Landry, his eyebrows drawing together.
‘Oh!’ Walter backtracked quickly. ‘The apartment block’s on fire, sir. The NID should have it out soon, but it will have drawn lots of attention and Colonel Mitchell says we won’t want anyone without security clearance going in because, well, he said everything’s upside down, sir. Literally.’
So Ba’al never had got rid of the gravity technology in his apartment. Sam wasn’t surprised, she just hoped he hadn’t killed anyone.
‘Sam, are you okay?’ Daniel was peering at her, his forehead wrinkled in concern.
She tried to pull together some form of composure; she was going to need it.
‘Yeah,’ she lied. ‘I just really thought we’d seen the last of him.’
________________________
A heavy weight settled itself on Sam’s chest as she saw Ba’al leaning against the table in the holding room. She was also feeling a distinct sense of déjà vu, but then, she’d got that the first time too.
How long would he hang about before he started telling them about her… dealings with him? He wouldn’t take the secret to his death, that was for sure; not if he thought it could help him. Then again, Sam had no intention of Ba’al’s death being the end game, and it was possible he knew that. She hoped he knew that.
It annoyed her to think that he might be sitting there, expecting her to just let him die.
‘Can’t we just shoot him?’ asked Vala, hopefully and Sam flinched slightly.
‘No,’ said Cam, folding his arms and watching Ba’al on the screen, but his reply sounded more like a reflex than anything else. Sam knew she was facing an uphill battle.
‘The Tok’ra will want him,’ noted Daniel. ‘It might even improve our relations with them.’
That was definitely something Sam would have to fight tooth and nail against.
‘That’s what I said,’ Landry admitted. ‘But unfortunately, the final decision rests with the IOA and depends on NID input.’
‘Well he’ll be here for a good year then,’ Cam commented and Landry smiled.
‘We could say it was an accident,’ Vala continued as if no-one else had spoken. ‘Or how about self-defence? We say he attacked someone and it was the only reasonable-‘
‘Vala?’ said Daniel. ‘Shut up.’
‘Why don’t we see what he has to say?’ asked Sam, mostly because was struck with the overwhelming urge to actually talk to Ba’al. To see him. Also, if anyone could bluff their way out of a situation, it was Ba’al.
‘Uh, why?’ Daniel asked, raising his eyebrows.
Sam shrugged, going for nonchalant. ‘Find out what he’s doing on Earth, for one thing.’
Landry nodded. ‘I want all four of you in there; see what you can find out.’
Yes, Sam thought, allowing herself a small ray of hope. This was only a small step, but it was in the right direction; no one had contacted either the Tok’ra or the free Jaffa. Yet.
As they headed down, Sam fought to walk at a reasonable pace, resisting the urge to run ahead and straighten out a story with Ba’al. Instead, she let Cam walk in first, and trailed behind him.
Ba’al looked up as they entered the interrogation room and immediately grinned. ‘I am the real Ba’al.’
Sam saw Cam roll his eyes.
Ba’al’s grin only widened. ‘My apologies, I was merely… reliving old times.’
‘Great,’ said Cam, taking the single seat in the room. ‘Well you can relive some more old times by telling us how long you’ve been on Earth and what you’ve been doing here.’
‘Oh, I’ve been on your planet a while. Why? Had you not noticed? Perhaps that was the lack of explosive devices.’ Ba’al’s gaze briefly lingered on Sam and her breath caught, then he looked away. She, at least, was safe for the moment.
‘Yeah, yeah, we get it,’ Cam replied, looking steadily at the Goa’uld. ‘You’re going to say you’re not here to kill us all and try to cut some kind of deal. Kind of predictable, don’t you think?’
Ba’al spread his hands with a slight shrug. ‘Why of course I’m going to try to... ‘cut a deal’. I’m hardly going to answer your questions freely and wind up locked in a small room for the rest of my life.’
‘Actually, we were thinking the Tok’ra might like to see you,’ put in Daniel and Sam had to suppress a wince.
‘The Tok’ra,’ As usual, Ba’al pronounced the name like it was a curse word, ‘are never pleased to see me, particularly when they believed me to be dead. And on that note… well. I do have information that you will undoubtedly want.’ Ba’al smiled. ‘For example, I believe the clone you did take to the Tok’ra would have told you the original is still out there, and seeing as I am actually not the original Ba’al…’
Sam narrowed her eyes, not because she’d actually believed him when he said he knew nothing about the fate of the real Ba’al, but more because she still wasn’t sure he wasn’t the ‘real’ Ba’al himself. Although the locator beacon jamming story had been fairly convincing… She mentally shook herself; it didn’t matter if he was lying, just so long as it bought them time.
‘We haven’t detected a locator beacon in you.’ said Vala, and Sam was hit with another sense of déjà vu.
‘Oh, I found a way to jam it. Fairly simple, when I designed the beacon in the first place.’ Ba’al smirked and Sam found it hard to believe he would just tell them that. It had to be a lie. Then Ba’al said, ‘I can turn off the jamming signal, if it would make you feel better.’
His gaze flicked up to her and Sam realised that information had been specifically for her. If he could turn off the jamming signal; she could theoretically lock on to the locator beacon. Theoretically, but not while he was in the SGC. So what was the point…?
‘Yes,’ said Daniel, raising his eyebrows. ‘You should do that.’
‘All in good time.’ Ba’al leaned forward, refocusing on Daniel and the moment was lost. ‘I’ve come to like your planet and I wouldn’t mind remaining here. However, since you have made it clear that such a request would not come without a price, I would like to offer to assist you in your understanding of Goa’uld technology, in addition to helping you locate my original.’
Sam resisted the urge to cross her fingers. It was an offer the SGC was unlikely to accept, to say the least, but it might make them pause long enough for her to come up with a better plan. Or to find out if Ba’al had a better plan.
‘Assuming you know where the original is,’ Daniel said, delaying an answer. Not that Ba’al was going to get one straight away. There were at least three government bodies that would fight about it first.
Ba’al laced his fingers together in front of him. ‘Oh, I do.’
Did he? Sam had her doubts. And that particularly information did matter; if the original was still out there, then the SGC needed to know.
‘You could tell us that now,’ Daniel suggested. ‘So we know to believe you.’
Ba’al laughed. ‘Give you the information you want most before agreeing to a deal? No. I could give you the location of some of my old bases, however, if you truly require some information in advance.’ He waved a hand in dismissal. ‘Go and take my deal to your superiors, then I will consider what to give you.’
‘Yeah, except,’ Cam broke in, ‘we already caught your original.’
‘In that case,’ Ba’al raised his eyebrows and fixed Cam with a condescending look, ‘you won’t be interested in the information I have on him.’
Cam stared right back. ‘No, we won’t.’
Looking between them, Sam debated the wisdom of ending the stand-off. Ba’al had called Cam’s bluff, she was sure of it, but Cam was obviously still hoping to convince him and, well, Sam needed them to believe Ba’al and her team couldn’t know that.
Vala ended her dilemma. ‘Okay, so we didn’t knowingly catch him,’ she said, earning a glare from Cam. ‘But you all went your separate ways, we know that, because we were tracking all of you. So you don’t know where he is.’
Ba’al tilted his head to one. ‘You weren’t tracking me… or my original.’
Vala smiled sweetly at him. ‘But you’re the same person, so I would bet that you did exactly the same as the others and kept your distance in case he was caught.’
‘And I suppose you’re also adding to that ridiculous theory that I never used any form of long range communication? Really, Qetesh, you can do better than this.’
‘Vala,’ Sam automatically corrected and Ba’al propped his chin up on his hands and looked up at her.
‘You might want to consider,’ Ba’al continued, with a note of finality in his voice. ‘That the longer you refuse to agree to my terms, the more chance he will realise you’ve caught me and go into hiding.’
Daniel and Cam exchanged a look.
‘Well.’ Daniel raised his eyebrows. ‘We’d better go take your deal to our superiors.’
Sam didn’t glance back at Ba’al as they left the room, but she knew he was smiling.
________________________
The resulting bout of meetings lasted for days. Ba’al’s deal was sent to the IOA, the NID and Homeworld Security and each faction in each group had conflicting ideas of what they should and should not do.
The NID wanted Ba’al’s information. They’d been burnt enough times by the Goa’uld on Earth that they jumped at the idea of getting inside information and finally being able to stop looking over their shoulders in case they’d missed one. Homeworld Security had come to the unanimous decision that Ba’al should be executed; they didn’t care how. And the IOA…
‘The IOA still want the information he could give us,’ Landry admitted, his face clearly showing what he thought of that decision.
Hope blossomed as Sam realised she could be looking at a best case scenario. No one at the SGC would want to take Ba’al’s offer, even if he was actually telling the truth, but the IOA was a different matter. For all their over the top caution, the members of the IOA simply didn’t have the same experience with Goa’uld and were therefore far more likely to accept the carrot that Ba’al was dangling in front of their noses.
Not to mention the fear that the original Ba’al could still be out there, with Ha’taks and an army, waiting to strike…
Which Sam personally thought was very unlikely.
It didn’t really matter because, as long as it concerned the IOA, Ba’al had a chance and Sam had the opportunity to support that chance.
‘They might have a point, sir,’ she said, as though reluctantly admitting it.
To her surprise, Landry didn’t immediately dismiss her comment. ‘How so, Colonel?’
This was her chance. Her opportunity to lay out the reasons why they should accept Ba’al’s terms, why they should let an (ex)System Lord stay on Earth. Coming from the SGC, coming from her such a statement could hold a hell of a lot of weight. If she played it right.
‘Firstly,’ she began, ‘he could actually know where the original is, and sure, getting that information would mean agreeing to his terms, but it also puts us in a much better position. Right now, if the original is still out there, we have no way of finding him, or stopping him from trying to rebuild a power base. If we do a deal with this clone, we’ll capture the original, and be able to keep an eye on the last Ba’al.’
‘If he even knows where the original is,’ Landry said, in an argument that had been thrown around at various people so many times in the last few days that Sam had lost count.
If her Ba’al was lying about that, which he probably was, then he was going to have to figure out a pretty damn good bluff to wriggle his way out of the consequences.
‘Fifty-fifty chance, sir,’ she told Landry. ‘No way of telling. That’s not all. We have huge amounts of Goa’uld technology, most of which we really don’t know how it works. If he actually does cooperate with us, we could shave years of our research, maybe even lifetimes. And we can’t forget this is his technology; he might even be persuaded to help us to build some of our own-‘
Sam trailed off because Daniel’s face had fallen like someone had just refused to let him translate the alien equivalent of the Rosetta stone. ‘What?’
Daniel looked at the NID agent present, Morton. ‘I really thought you were wrong, that they’d been a mistake. I really, really, hoped you were wrong.’
‘What?’ Sam asked again, looking between Daniel, Morton and Landry. ‘What is it?’
‘They took fingerprints from Ba’al’s apartment,’ Landry said. ‘We wanted to get an idea of who his associates were, not that we were truly expecting the get a match.’
Morton interrupted with; ‘Do you want to guess what we did find, Colonel Carter?’
No, Sam didn’t want to guess. She didn’t want to guess at all, she could feel the blood draining from her face.
‘Your fingerprints, Colonel Carter,’ Morton told her. ‘Found all over Ba’al’s apartment, can you explain this?’
Not really, Sam thought, staring at him. She hadn’t considered this. How had she not considered this? She’d assumed it would be her word against Ba’al’s, if he cracked and decided to give the game away, this was different.
‘The NID,’ Landry shot an irritated look at Morton, ‘went straight ahead with this information and sent a forensic team to your house. I may not agree with their methods, but I do need to know why they found Ba’al’s fingerprints… and a broken Sodan cloak.’
‘I have no idea, sir,’ Sam lied, sitting with her back ramrod straight. They’d been through her house. She grimaced; of course they’d been through her house and maybe if it had just been her house, her denial might have stood a chance, but with her fingerprints found at his apartment…
‘I really wouldn’t do that.’ Surprisingly, it was Daniel who spoke and he looked pained. ‘They also spoke to receptionist at the mechanics.’
Oh boy. Sam swallowed nervously. That had been a mistake, but at the time she’d still been thinking about handing him in, had still considered her interests to be the same as the SGCs.
‘I didn’t…’
How far was she willing to go with this? When should she start? At the beginning, probably, but it had been such a long time. Sam could feel an acidic burn at the back of her throat; they were never going to forgive her for this.
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ she told Landry. ‘I judged him not to be a significant threat after the loss of his ships and Jaffa, but I’ve been keeping an eye on him just in case.’
There. That sounded reasonable.
Or as reasonable as it was ever going to sound.
Which really wasn’t reasonable at all. Holy Hannah, she was screwed.
‘Colonel Carter,’ Landry snapped and Sam braced herself. ‘You’ve been concealing an enemy of this planet, hell of this galaxy, and your excuse is that you judged he wasn’t a threat? You should have reported him immediately.’
He was right. Sam flinched.
‘I think the more pressing question is,’ said Morton, ‘when did you first encounter him?'
He wasn’t in her chain of command and technically Sam probably didn’t have to answer. Practically… Landry would ask the same question.
Sam lifted her chin and spoke to the wall across the room. Better than looking her teammates in the eye. ‘He was held captive at the Trust splinter group’s warehouse, that’s why he would have been after any surviving members.’
There was a pregnant pause, which Sam thought was completely unjustified. If they’d spoken to the kid at Ba’al’s work, then they knew she’d been aware of him for a while.
Sam snuck a look over at Daniel; he was covering his face with one hand. Vala was staring at her with wide eyes, so Sam discretely pulled a I’m so screwed face at her and was rewarded with a sympathetic look. Thank God Vala, at least, hadn’t disowned her.
‘Um, the IOA… do they actually want to work with him?’ Sam asked, because, well, she had to know. Particularly as it was looking like she’d just been set up specifically to see if she would jump to Ba’al’s defence and Sam was prepared to get pretty damn angry about that.
‘What the IOA want is unimportant at this point.’ Landry looked over at Cam and Daniel. ‘Go ahead and contact the Tok’ra.’
‘Wait, no,’ Sam protested. They weren’t doing this just because of her… were they? ‘The host is long gone, we can’t just hand him over to the Tok’ra.’
‘Actually…’ Cam shrugged, but he was avoiding her eyes. ‘We know they’ll want him, and they have something we want.’
Daniel leaned forward. ‘Sam… have you considered the possibility of brainwashing?’
Oh God.
‘I haven’t been brainwashed, Daniel.’
‘But how do you know?’ asked Cam.
‘You remember when Apophis brainwashed Teal’c?’ continued Daniel gently. ‘And Ba'al brainwashed Malcolm Barrett?’
‘Of course I do,’ Sam said and they had a point. If she had been brainwashed, then she wouldn’t know it, although she was certain she hadn’t. Well. Ninety-nine percent sure, but that was about as good as you could get. A little flame of doubt lit itself in a far corner of Sam’s mind before she ruthlessly stamped it out. ‘I’m not brainwashed.’
Which was what she would say if she had been brainwashed, of course. Sam had the sinking feeling that she’d just run headlong into an argument she had no way of winning.
Landry looked less than impressed, but he turned to Morton. ‘We’re keeping her here, no arguments. Dr. Jackson, Colonel Mitchell, get me that Za’tarc detector.’
A Za’tarc detector would offer indisputable evidence that she hadn’t been brainwashed, but the cost… They would hand Ba’al over and this would make it her fault.
‘You can’t give him to the Tok’ra! They’ll torture him,’ Sam snapped because this was what had started it all, wasn’t it? Her unwillingness to hand Ba’al over to the Tok’ra for likely torture and execution.
‘We can,’ said Cam. ‘Particularly if it helps show you what he’s done to you.’
And that was apparently the end of that, because two SFs arrived and all but frog-marched Sam to the nearest holding cell. To their credit, one of them looked at her sympathetically… as he closed the door behind her.
Oh yeah, Sam thought bitterly as she aimed a kick at the bunk bed, she’d been playing with fire.
And she’d just been burnt.