The world went red, the crash of the grenade stabbing through her ears. She flung herself to the ground and clung to it as the world reeled. That was the noise, the effect on her inner ears. She made herself open her eyes, and was pleased that despite black spots swimming in front of her, she could actually see.
When she managed to sit up, she saw Ronon down on one knee next to the woman, who was sprawled unmoving on the ground. The rope was still looped loosely around one of his wrists, but he’d clearly made short work of the knots.
“Good thing you saw the grenade,” Jennifer said.
“I didn’t,” Ronon said. His voice seemed to be coming from a long distance away. “Can’t see anything.”
“Your vision should improve pretty fast,” Jennifer said, moving to his side as fast as she could without falling over.
“It had better,” he said, but he didn’t actually sound angry.
“Is she dead?” She ought to be able to answer that question, being the doctor, but she was feeling a little slow at the moment. She was going to have one serious headache.
“Not sure,” Ronon said, spreading his hand on the woman’s back as if trying to feel her breathing. “I think her pistol went off, but it was hard to hear anything.”
Jennifer leaned over the woman, feeling for a pulse, but when she rolled the woman over, it was clear there wasn’t much she could do. Her stomach roiled, which she tried to tell herself was because her balance was still off. “She’s dead,” she said. “I’m afraid we just attracted some attention.”
“Depends on how close people were,” Ronon said. He sat back on his heels, closing his eyes. If he was as disoriented as she was, he was trying hard not to show it. “Tell me if you see anyone coming.”
“Or we could try to get back to the Stargate.”
“If we’re lucky, that’s where the other Wraith just went,” Ronon said. “If we’re not, they’re between us and the Stargate, and I can’t see to shoot.”
Jennifer retrieved her own pistol from where it lay on the grass, and collected the Wraith worshipper’s weapon as well, shoving it into her pack.
Ronon was undoing the knot around his wrist. “Pack up the rope, too,” he said. “And what’s left of the stun grenade. No point in leaving evidence we were here.”
“It’s still hot,” Jennifer said.
“We’ve got a minute. I hope. If we don’t, it doesn’t matter.”
“I’m sorry,” Jennifer said. “I couldn’t think of any other way to — ”
To her surprise, Ronon grinned. “You did good,” he said, standing up and drawing his pistol. “Do you see a whole bunch of Wraith running toward us, or are we all right for the moment?” He actually sounded like he was happier than he’d been the entire rest of the mission.
“All right for the moment,” Jennifer said, and then she did catch sight of movement in the trees ahead of her, from the same direction they’d come. “Somebody’s there,” she said.
“Great.”
“Can you see anything yet?”
“Not a whole lot,” Ronon said. He was still smiling. “So this could get interesting.”
“We could run for it,” she said, and then, “Wait — that’s Todd.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” she said, but she didn’t lower her pistol.
“I told you to hide,” Todd said sharply when he came in sight. He looked down at the woman’s body and then at them as if at children who’d broken something fragile that he’d unwisely left in their reach. Not something precious and irreplaceable, but something that had made a loud noise and left a mess. Can’t I leave you alone for a minute? she remembered her mother saying.
“That was when we weren’t being attacked by crazy Wraith worshippers,” Ronon said.
“Do the other Wraith know we’re here?” Jennifer asked, since that seemed to be the more pressing question.
“They had already left to make their way back to the Stargate,” Todd said. “If we are lucky, they did not hear you.”
“She said Death would reward her if she handed us over,” Jennifer said. “Whatever arrangements you made with these people, I don’t think they worked so well.”
“This one is the sister of Carlin,” Todd said. “He swore she was trustworthy, for a human. He seems to have been mistaken.”
“You think?” Ronon said. Jennifer couldn’t really blame him.
“He will regret it. He had hoped I would reward him.”
Jennifer really hoped they weren’t around to watch Todd tell Carlin he wasn’t going to ‘reward him’. She expected that wouldn’t be pretty, and she really didn’t want to make Ronon watch the man beg for the Wraith’s healing touch. She couldn’t help glancing down at the dead woman, thinking, now that their lives weren’t in danger, of how desperate she must have been. “Can you heal her?” she asked.
Todd gave her a sharp look. “Why would I do that? She has already betrayed me. If you wished her alive, you should not have killed her.”
“If we hadn’t killed her, would you have left her alive?” Ronon said.
“No,” Todd said. “I will take you back to the Stargate as soon as the others have passed through. You have been a great deal of trouble to me.”
“Why were Queen Death’s people here?” Jennifer said. “What did she want to talk to you about?”
“She has taken a prize,” Todd said after a moment’s hesitation. “A prize belonging to the Lanteans, which she believes will be of great use to her and her loyal followers.” He didn’t sound like he much liked the idea of being one of them.
Jennifer tried to keep her voice steady. “What kind of prize?”
“I have my suspicions,” Todd said. “As do you.”
Ronon was staying quiet this time, letting her play her cards. Either that or he was just feeling worse than he let on, although she thought his vision was improving. His eyes were starting to track Todd as he moved. “If she has Rodney, and you can help us get him back — ”
“Why would I do that?”
“What if she does learn everything Rodney knows?” Jennifer said. “Not just a handful of codes. She could have that by now if she wanted, but it sounds like she’s planning to keep him until she gets everything from him.” She suppressed her fierce surge of joy at that. As long as Rodney’s captors still had a use for him, there was still hope. “The retrovirus that destroyed your entire hive. How to program nanites to take over people’s brains. Everything he knows about jamming your shield technology and infiltrating your computer systems — ”
“You have made your point,” Todd said. “It is still an unacceptable risk. She already does not trust me, and if there are humans here who serve her personally, they may tell her things that will inspire more distrust.”
“That’s too bad,” Ronon said, with an unfriendly smile.
“If I betray her position, I will be under suspicion at once.”
“So tell her you know who actually betrayed her,” Jennifer said. “The Genii have spies all over the galaxy. Tell her they’ve infiltrated her supposedly loyal Wraith worshippers. Blame them for telling us where her hive ship was going to be.”
“It will still be a risk,” Todd said after a moment.
“All we need is information about where her ship is going,” Jennifer said. “That’s got to be worth it to you.”
“It would be better for me if McKay were killed,” Todd said.
“But we aren’t going to do that. And if you try it yourself, then you’re really taking a risk.”
“And then we’d have to kill you,” Ronon said.