“It’s coming from over there,” Daniel said, gesturing off to their right.
“Yeah.” She lowered her weapon, jaw clenched tight. “I hope they’re okay.”
It went on for at least five minutes — swift bursts of gunfire and beneath it the sizzling sound of a staff weapon discharging. Then, after a longer and more intensive firefight, it stopped.
They waited, but nothing else happened.
“It’s over,” Sam said tightly.
But who had won? Daniel reached for his radio but Sam shook her head.
“Radio silence,” she reminded him with a grim expression. “The colonel will contact us when it’s safe.”
Behind them, Hunter emerged into the thin light that was starting to lift the shadows from the camp. He looked around with caution and then his eyes fell on something Daniel hadn’t noticed in his concern for his friends: two desiccated bodies, crumpled together amid the trampled shacks opposite. Daniel’s gaze automatically flinched from the sight, but Hunter walked toward them and dropped to his knees at their side. Head bowed, he sat in silence and Daniel wondered if he’d known these people. He supposed that he must have.
At the doorway to the shelter, Hunter’s wife appeared with their son on her hip, his sleepy head resting on her shoulder. She too looked over at the bodies, and all around, Daniel realized, people were emerging from within the ragged camp.
Lifting his head, Hunter reached out his hands and rested one on each of the bodies. “Oh Hecate,” he said, loud enough for his voice to carry, “you are the beginning and the end, Mistress of the Crossroads and keeper of the Gateway. You guide us on our path to the world hereafter. Hail, Goddess, and attend to this our sacrifice.”
Sam glanced at Daniel, but her usually bright curiosity was tempered by anxiety and her attention quickly returned to scanning the camp for signs of Teal’c and Jack.
Hunter rose to his feet. “That’s done,” he said. “Hecate will avenge them in the time to come.”
“You mean the afterlife?”
“I mean,” he said, “when we drive out the Snatchers.”
You and whose army? Daniel thought, but kept his skepticism to himself. After all, at first glance, no one would have thought the Abydonians could have overthrown Ra.
“Daniel?” Sam said suddenly, “I’m going to go check —”
Static burst out of their radios, making them both jump, and then Jack’s scratchy voice said, “Carter, Daniel, report.”
With a grin of relief, Sam toggled her radio. “Good to hear from you, sir. All okay here. What’s your status?”
“Heading your way, Carter. Have Hunter ready to move out.”
“Yes sir.” She hesitated a moment. “Colonel — we heard gunfire.”
There was a pause, another burst of static, then, “The bastards are hard to kill, Carter. See you in five. O’Neill out.”
Sam smiled at Daniel, then Hunter. “You heard the colonel,” she said. “It’s time to go see Dix.”
Rocks, dislodged by the ha’tak, blocked the road up to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex so they had to abandon the SUV and walk the last half mile.
They were in the shadow of the ship now, where it perched on the mountain like some great, ugly bird of prey. Death Gliders swarmed around it, returning to base.
“Ground assault,” Makepeace said, thinking aloud. “That’s why they’re calling the gliders home.”
Maybourne glanced at him. “Then we’d better get inside.”
There were two Marines on the gates; Makepeace recognized them both from the SGC. Nonetheless, he approached with caution, hands raised. He didn’t want to risk anyone’s jittery trigger finger. “Major Jefferson,” he said with a nod. “Lieutenant Booker. Draw the short straws?”
Jefferson gave a small, tight smile. “Something like that, sir.” His eyes darted to Maybourne, disheveled and out of uniform, then back to Makepeace. “General Hammond said to look out for you, sir.”
“How considerate,” Maybourne said.
Makepeace ignored him. “You still got comms, Booker?”
“Yes sir, I’ll tell the general you’re on your way down.”
He disappeared into the guard post and Jefferson came forward. Twenty-something and hard as nails, he’d been assigned to SG-5 for the past three months. He jerked his head toward the city. From this entrance you could see smoke rising over the trees, but the city itself was hidden from view. “What’s it like down there, sir?”
“Bad,” Makepeace said.
Jefferson shook his head. “Glad my folks are still in Austin.”