“One thing at a time,” Lorne said softly. “First we find our missing people. Then we deal with the Wraith. Remember what we’re here for.
“Two doors,” John said. “The old two doors, one to the left and one to the right.” They were more like openings, really, leading into another pair of torchlit corridors. No doubt they had the obligatory cameras too. Down the one to the left he could see another door thirty feet or so along.
“Left?” Teyla said.
Nevin was standing beside Jitrine, looking the worse for wear but a bit stronger since Teyla had given him one of her granola bars and told him how well he was taking his injury.
“Yeah,” John agreed. He led the way down the hall, poking the floor every few feet as he went, Jitrine and Nevin behind him. It seemed a little odd that none of the groups behind them had run up on them while they had paused, but maybe taking the door in the same wall a ways back had been an unpopular choice. It was fine by him if they went through the entire maze without running into anybody.
The floor seemed solid and good, and listening at the door produced nothing. John flung it open, then laid about on the non-hinged side with the stick, whacking the bare wall with great enthusiasm. Nothing. Jitrine looked at this little performance skeptically.
“Ok, then.” John sauntered into the room. “Just checking.”
Another made to order dungeon. Ten by ten, with two torches and two cameras.
“You’d think these guys could do better than this,” he said to Teyla as the others filed in. “Maybe a large chest to check for traps.”
Teyla crossed her arms across her tank top, her head to the side. “Because spandex can be dangerous?”
“Trunk!” John said quickly. “Chest like trunk! A trunk kind of chest.”
Teyla looked like she was going to laugh. “I do not see any trunks in here. Why would there be one?”
“They just…go in dungeons.” John shrugged. “To hold treasure. Or magic weapons. Or giant poisonous snakes.”
“Why would a giant poisonous snake be in a trunk?”
John blinked. She had a point. “You know, I’ve always kind of wondered that.”
Jitrine looked at Teyla curiously. “And you’re not his wife?”
“I have better taste than that,” Teyla said seriously, but the way she looked at him sideways took the sting out of it.
John looked up at the ceiling. “You know, this is pretty lame.” The cameras were right there where they ought to be. “No traps, no special effects, nothing more lethal than a stairway. This isn’t right. This isn’t legendary danger.”
“Perhaps we are not to the dangerous part yet,” Teyla said.
John nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe. Maybe they figure these first rooms are for the contestants to thin each other out a little bit. The obstacle is the other contestants. And then further along comes the good stuff. This is all totally straightforward. Nothing to it.”
“Empty rooms,” Teyla said.
“There’s only one way out,” Nevin said, looking at the door in the opposite wall.
“Then I guess we go that way.” John opened the door and half turned toward it when a fist connected with his face, spinning him around. The floor came up with amazing speed.
“Cameras,” Radek whispered.
“I see them.” Ronon crouched in a shadow just ahead of him.
“They are on both sides of this corridor,” Radek whispered, craning his neck to see. “I do not think there is a way to pass that is not in view of one camera or the other.”
“Backtrack again,” Ronon said.
Radek shook his head. “We cannot. There were only two converging corridors at the end, and we have tried them both. Unless we go back to the very beginning by the guard post, we must go through one or the other.”
Ronon’s brows twitched, and he moved back quietly to Radek’s side. “Any bright ideas?”
Radek looked up at the cable running camouflaged along the ceiling. “We could cut the electric cable. I cannot reach it, but if you lift me up I will be able to. We must be far ahead of the contestants, since we are working this back to front, so perhaps they will think it is a camera malfunction if they lose the visual on a corridor that no one has come to yet. I doubt they will send someone to fix it, with contestants in the maze.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Ronon said.
Radek looked at the cables again. “I have another thought.”
“What?”
“If we trace the cables we should be able to find the control room. It might be a remote routing center. They may have this running on automatic so that they can sit back somewhere and relax while they watch it.”
Ronon nodded. “Or it might be full of Wraith.”
“I thought that was your department, my friend,” Radek said with a smile.
Ronon loosened his energy pistol in its holster. “I’m beginning to like the way you think.”
Feet spun around him. Teyla’s feet. Teyla’s feet in her black boots were doing an elaborate dance, forward and backward, now advancing, now retreating. Other feet were dancing too, four other feet in leather sandals. Some of them belonged to someone who said, “Ooof.”
That would be Teyla getting him in the stomach with a stick.
John reached out and grabbed the nearest foot and yanked as hard as he could. It slid out from under its owner, and the person attached to the foot came crashing down, landing hard on the floor with a crack. The other feet retreated.
“Sheppard?” It was Jitrine kneeling beside him, helping him to sit up. “Sheppard, can you speak?”
“Yeah,” he managed, turning over. His jaw hurt. A lot. He moved it experimentally. “That was not fun.”
“I should think not,” Jitrine said.
There was a flurry of blows behind him, and then a strangled noise. “Mercy,” a man’s voice groaned. “Mercy, please…”
John twisted around.
Teyla had the other man down, her foot on his back forcing his throat down on the stick. Much more pressure and he would surely black out. Why should I do that? she asked, tossing her hair back from her face. You will just try to ambush us again.
No, I swear! he croaked.
John got to his knees. I'm ok, he said to Jitrine. I'm good. Nevin watched, wide-eyed.
I see no reason to trust you, Teyla said, but she did ease the pressure of her foot enough to let him breathe.
I just want to get through this thing, the man mumbled. That's all.
As do we all, Teyla said. But we do not do it by ambushing others. She jerked the stick from beneath his throat, letting him sag to the floor as she took a few steps away. Keet up.
Jitrine's hands were under John's arms, but he shook her off to get to his feet himself. I'm ok. Really.
The other man got up rather more slowly and laboriously. The way he clutched his side suggested Teyla might have cracked some ribs too. John knew the feeling. But then, one of his friends seemed to be out cold on the floor.
What is your name? Teyla demanded.
Suua, he said. Look, I'm a fisherman. I mean, I'm rather be a fisherman. I just want to get home.
Why did you do this? she asked.
I ran into those guys, and they said I was with them or against them, so I said I was with them. He rubbed his throat with one big hand. We heard you coming up behind. We didn't see you. I didn't know that you had a kid with you.
Nevin bristled visibly.
The guy's eyes strayed to Jitrine. You are a doctor. I don't go around attacking doctors.
So, just me, John said. So why shouldn't she lay you out again?