Well hell...he opened his eyes again and studied Nantz’s slack face. His gaze drifted to the top of Nantz’s head. He frowned, shrugged, and raised his hands. What the hell, might as well try again.
To his shock, as soon as he touched Nantz’s skull, the butterflies and buzzing strengthened. There was fog again, but this time images pierced the fog, rising and falling like serpents beneath the waves. He was so shocked, he jerked back and lost the connection. Thank Christ he didn’t dislodge anything when he recoiled.
He opened his eyes to stabilize himself and reached for Nantz’s head again. This time, he braced himself.
“Fuck you.” A rifle rising. “Nobody is restraining me. Nobody is stealing my ability to defend myself. I’ll see you all dead first.”
The crack...crack...crack...of rifle fire
O’Neill’s breath left in a hiss. He recognized the shooter. One of Aiden’s dead squid brothers.
Another image rose out of the fog.
A body...pale, waxy skin, with greenish tinges...surrounded by the shimmer of stainless steel.
The image vanished, but not before O’Neill recognized the equipment of a lab. Stainless steel counters, microscopes, computer terminals. And the body...the pale waxy,deadbody? It had been standing.
Nantz’s lab? Had to be. But there was no indication where the damn thing was located.
And then a woman’s face rose out of the swirling fog.
Blonde hair, vacant eyes, the rise and fall of her chest beneath a stained and dingy lab coat...
The woman disappeared, replaced bya...a tent? A rickety red bicycle? A bed made of blankets? The underside of a bridge?
What the hell?
And then...the fog vanished...the images disappeared.
A shrill, mechanical scream suddenly sounded. He reeled back. Bumping into the ventilator. A hand latched onto his arm and eased him away from the bed.
The PA system crackled to life. “Code blue, room 52. Repeat, code blue in room 52.”
“We best move out of their way.” Wolf pulled O’Neill toward the door.
A pair of blue-scrubbed nurses brushed past them and converged on the bed. The shrill, electronic scream went on and on. Disoriented, O’Neill stared at the screaming equipment. The EKG line was flat. No spikes. No valleys. Flat.
“Fuck,” O’Neill said. “Did I kill him?” Had he dislodged something while he was beside the bed.
“No.” Wolf’s voice was certain. “He has flatlined before. Twice.”
O’Neill grunted. He suspected they weren’t going to get his heart back online this time. The shrill scream of the EKG alarm broke off mid-shriek.
Two doctors flew past them, disappearing into the room. O’Neill glanced back as Wolf guided him away, but all he saw was blue and green scrubs fluttering beneath frenetic movement...all he heard was the staccato bark of orders.
“Did you see anything?” Wolf asked as they retreated down the hall, finally settling against the wall.
With a grunt, O’Neill scrubbed his hands down his face. “Yeah...but nothing that will help us find those labs. I saw a cadaver, a standing one. The equipment from some kind of lab. A blonde gal in a lab coat. But no location...no city...no building...nothing to identify where the lab is.”
Wolf didn’t look surprised. He just shrugged, glancing back toward the room. Judging by the clipped orders drifting out of the room, Nantz was still unresponsive. Slowly, the urgency of the voices drained away. Thirty minutes later, the nurses and doctors trickled out of the room with slumped shoulders and defeated expressions.
Doctor Brickenhouse, the lead physician, paused beside Wolf. “I’m sorryBetanee.We did all we could. But his heart was too damaged to restart.”
Wolf simply nodded.
“That’s why you wanted me to try?” O’Neill asked as they turned and headed back down the hall. “You knew he was dying?”
“I was warned.” Wolf’s voice sounded weary. His footsteps were heavy against the flooring.
