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Author's Chapter Notes: Once again, many thanks to Shane for being a fabulous beta!


John was already there when she arrived at Abydos Park the next morning. He was sitting on a bench, wearing dark sunglasses and a baseball cap. They had agreed to act as if they didn't know each other, so she walked right past him up to the newspaper stand. She bought a copy of the Atlantean Daily News and settled onto a bench on the other end of the park.

Actually, ‘park’ was an exaggeration for this small strip of green in between dozens of high office buildings. There were a few trees and two paths that crossed in the middle. A large and very ugly fountain stood right at that point. On top of it, there was a strange-looking, large metal circle with odd symbols on it.

Not many people were around and they had a clear view in all directions. There was hardly any chance of them missing Kolya once he appeared.

She checked her watch. Three more minutes until ten.

The waiting was always the part she hated most. Fortunately, today she didn’t have to wait long.

Kolya came walking up the path from the direction of the hotel, carrying his own copy of the newspaper under his arm.

He walked slowly up to the fountain and kept standing there, staring into the water.

Another man appeared and stepped up to him. A very familiar looking man. She gasped, unfolded her newspaper and hid behind it before he could look in her direction and recognize her.

It was Ethan Lowe.

**

She paced her office, John watching her from his place on the couch.

“So, Ethan Lowe doesn’t really exist. That’s why his record’s so clean. It’s a fake identity, and not a very good one at that.”

“Good enough that he deceived us and the people at AT.”

“We have to determine how he got into AT. They usually do very thorough background searches on their employees.

“So you think it was his goal all the time to steal the super battery?”

“Possibly. He was just waiting for the right moment.”

“Until they trusted him.”

“Yeah. His sister is probably his accomplice. That part still fits. She could have established contact between him and Kolya.”

“Charming family. So what does Kolya want?”

“He can’t use this to do his own research. He could never publish any of it. After all, he stole it.”

“So he wants to blackmail AT.”

“He wants his revenge.”

“And the Radim siblings gave him the opportunity.”

“Exactly.”

“So, what now?” John looked at her expectantly.

“This sounds good in theory, but we need more proof.” She frowned.

“It would help to find the device.”

“The fact that Kolya’s still in town could mean that Radim still has it.”

“You want to do more surveillance.”

“I want to act before anything happens.” She took a deep breath. “I want to break into his house.”

“I'm a bad influence on you.”

“This has nothing to do with you. This power source is dangerous. We need to get it back before Kolya gets his hands on it.”

“Assuming he doesn’t already have it.”

“Which is unlikely.”

“All right. Let’s break into his house.”

She nodded. “I’m gonna call Sam Carter and Rodney and tell them they’ll have to lure ‘Ethan’ away from his house tonight and keep him occupied for a while.”

**

She went over everything in her head for the hundredth time while she changed into darker clothes.

Sam had called earlier and confirmed that Ethan -- Ladon -- was going to be out of the house by seven o’clock. They’d invited him to a barbecue at Sam’s place. Jeannie would be there, too. The whole team. Elizabeth wasn’t exactly comfortable with the knowledge that her best friend, his sister and a woman she’d come to like over the last few days would be in the company of a guy like Ladon Radim for the next few hours, but she knew Jack would be there also and he was ex-military. He would take care of them, she hoped. Besides, Sam looked like a woman who could defend herself if she had to. And it was very likely that nothing would happen at all. Ladon wouldn’t want to blow his cover just yet.

She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and went into the kitchen to look for something to eat. She had just opened the refrigerator when she heard her apartment door close with a silent, but clearly audible clicking sound.

That had to be John. It wouldn’t exactly surprise her if he had decided to practise his lock-picking abilities on her door.

“You’re early,” she called, turning around.

She came face to face with the gun pointed at her head. Not John. She lifted her eyes and stared into the eyes of Ladon Radim.

“You.”

“I’m sorry about this,” he assured her. And he did sound like he meant it, but it didn’t make him look any less determined. Or threatening.

“What… how…”

“Don’t look so surprised. Makes it harder for me to do this.”

“Then don’t do it.”

“I’m afraid you leave me no choice.”

“There’s always a choice.” It sounded stupid, but it was the only thing she could come up with.

“I saw you in the park today and I knew you’d found out. I can’t let you tell anyone. There’s too much at stake. I can’t let you interfere.”

“You don’t have to-“

“Oh, I don’t want to kill you,” he assured her. “I just have to make sure you won’t let anyone find out about me.”

“Afraid of losing your deal?”

“Deal?” A smirk spread across his face. “So you didn’t get it right, after all.”

“You stole the device.”

“Actually, it’s called a Zero Point Module. I’m surprised Dr. McKay didn’t tell you the correct term. He’s so fond of talking, usually.”

“You’re selling it to Kolya.”

“In a way, that’s even true.” He gave her an arrogant grin.

“What I don’t understand is why.”

“Oh, I’m sure you must have a theory.”

“I don’t believe you’re doing this for money. You get paid quite decently at AT. And your sister doesn’t seem to have financial problems either.”

“My sister?”

“She’s in with you on this, isn’t she? She’s your accomplice.”

Ladon didn’t reply immediately. “Go on,” was all he finally said.

“You use a fake identity and you cooperate with a former competitor of Atlantean Technologies. My guess is that you only started at AT to get your hands on their research.”

“I thought you were smarter than this.”

Keep him talking. It was all she could think of. John would be here soon. “Then tell me where I went wrong.”

“You said it yourself; I have no motive for stealing from Atlantean Technologies. Why would I risk my position there? I like working there.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I live for the job. I’m sure that’s something you do understand.”

“You could say that.” It was almost half past six. John should be here any minute. He’d wanted to pick her up.

Ladon nodded. “That’s what I thought. I assure you, I only started at Atlantean Technologies because they’re the best and I’m a scientist. I like to work with the best and learn from them. But, you see, there is one thing that’s even more important to me then my work.” He paused, and she thought he didn’t really look arrogant. He looked nervous.

The doorbell rang. Ladon turned his head and she seized the opportunity, jumping and crashing into him. He almost lost his balance, but not quite. She grabbed for his gun, trying to keep it away from her.

“John,” she shouted. Ladon yanked at her arm, making her stumble. She didn’t let go of the gun. Or of him. He tripped and they both fell over, rolling around on the kitchen floor. She was fighting with every trick she knew, but Ladon was strong and she felt like she couldn’t keep this up much longer.

She sank her teeth into his wrist at the first opportunity she got, making him drop the gun. He got furious.

In a matter of seconds he was on top of her, his hands around her throat and she couldn’t breathe.

She fought for air, her hands trying to get hold of Ladon somehow, to get his hands off her throat.

Then suddenly, a large shape appeared out of nowhere, lunging itself at Ladon with a cry of rage. It was John. He yanked Ladon off her and the two of them crashed to the ground, wrestling with each other.

Elizabeth rolled over, coughing and sucking air into her lungs.

The gun. She needed to get the gun. And then she saw it. It was only a few feet away. She crawled toward it and picked it up, stumbling to her feet.

“Ladon!”

He froze as he saw the gun in her hand, letting go of John, who got up, pulling Ladon with him. “It’s over, Radim!” He had him in a secure grip, and with the gun pointed at him, Ladon’s eyes turned pleading.

“It’s not over, you don’t understand.”

“Oh, I think we do.” John tugged at his arms none too gently, making him stumble a bit. “Looks like you won’t sell any AT property today.”

“I wasn’t going to sell it.”

“Nice try.” John snorted.

Elizabeth thought Ladon looked serious. There was something in his eyes that she hadn’t expected. Panic. She had expected anger, hatred, maybe even fear. This was far beyond fear.

“John, we should let him talk.”

“He’s only gonna lie to us.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

John sighed. “I don’t believe this.” He shook Ladon a little. “So, talk. You heard her.”

“I stole it for Kolya, that’s the part you got right. But it wasn’t for money.”

“Then why did you do it?”

Ladon’s eyes turned hard, full of hatred. “He has my sister. Giving him the ZPM is the only way of getting her back alive.”

John and Elizabeth exchanged a look.

“You should have talked to the police,” John said

“And what would I have told them?”

“The truth?”

“And trusted them to handle it?”

“That’s what they do.” Elizabeth said.

“You don’t know Kolya like I do. He is a very determined man. If I had told the police and he had somehow found out before they got to him, he would have had my sister killed instantly. Forgive me if I value the life of my family more than some power source that’s kept so secret it will never be put to any use.”

“You almost killed Radek Zelenka,” John reminded him.

“It was very unfortunate that he found out about me. I always liked him. But he came back to the lab at a very unusual hour late at night and apparently saw me cross the parking lot with the container we use to store the device.”

“You just took it and walked out?” Elizabeth gave him an incredulous look.

“Of course. Anything else would have looked greatly suspicious, wouldn’t it?” He shrugged and went on with his story. “I didn’t want to injure Radek. I only wanted to frighten him enough to make sure he wouldn’t talk. It was a very small bomb. No one was supposed to get hurt. I set the timer on three minutes and activated it myself as soon as Radek went into the store.”

“You were there?” Elizabeth asked.

“Of course.” Ladon nodded. “I even called the ambulance. Anonymously, of course. Anyway, Radek unfortunately seemed to have forgotten something in the car, because he came back outside too quickly. I had no chance to deactivate the bomb, it was already too late.” Ladon really looked pained, as if he regretted what had happened. And Elizabeth found that she actually wanted to believe him.

“So,” he continued, “The bottom line is that Kolya has my sister, and that he wanted to trade her for the ZPM. Once he’d heard of that device, he wouldn’t take anything else. I had to make sure Kolya got what he wanted. It was the only way to ensure my sister’s safety. So I decided to give it to him.”

“Does he have it now?”

“Not yet. We haven’t quite managed to come to an agreement about the terms of the transfer.”

“Meaning?” Elizabeth started to get impatient.

“I wanted to see my sister before Kolya got anything from me. He insisted I give him the device before I get anywhere near her.”

Elizabeth thought quickly. Turning Ladon over to the police would be the appropriate thing to do right now. Only she didn’t want to be responsible when Kolya actually carried out his threat of killing Dahlia Radim once he heard the police got involved. This was a problem. They’d have to make sure she was safe before they could do anything else. “Do you know anything about Kolya’s partners?”

Ladon shook his head. “As far as I know, he doesn’t have any.”

“Then who abducted your sister from Vienna? Who’s keeping an eye on her now?”

“He usually pays people to do those things.”

John and Elizabeth exchanged a look. “He has no loyal partners?” John asked.

Ladon shook his head. “I doubt it. Kolya trusts no one and works only for himself. He likes to have power. He doesn’t share it. People are loyal to him because they fear him, not because they like him.” He turned his head toward John who still had his arms in a tight grip. “I’d really appreciate if you’d let go of me. This is very uncomfortable.”

John looked at Elizabeth and she nodded, raising the hand with the gun again. “Just don’t try to do anything stupid.”

Ladon yanked his arms from John’s grip and straightened his clothes that were crumpled from the fight.

John walked around him to position himself next to Elizabeth. “If you’re sure he has no accomplices, then shouldn’t your sister be safe once Kolya is arrested?”

“Who says the police would actually be able to find her? I’m sure there are a lot of really secluded places in the mountains in Austria. And they wouldn’t have much time to find her.”

“Why’s that?” Elizabeth wanted to know.

“One of Kolya’s precautions,” Ladon explained. “When he told me he had my sister, I kind of lost my temper and threatened to kill him. He informed me that his men in Austria have orders to kill my sister if they don’t hear from him every five hours. I’m afraid giving Kolya what he wants is the only possible course of action.”

John and Elizabeth exchanged a look. It was Elizabeth who spoke first. “We can’t let him get the ZPM.”

“No.”

“But I’m also not willing to risk a woman’s life, hoping that the Austrian police will find her in time or that Kolya will give up her location once he’s in police custody.”

“So, what do we do?”

Elizabeth lowered the gun, trusting that Ladon wouldn’t try to bolt. “I’m not sure.”

John sighed and looked at Ladon, then back at Elizabeth. “I think I have an idea. But you probably won’t like it.”

**

“Where is he?” Elizabeth resisted the urge to check her watch for the twentieth time in five minutes. “He’s late.”

She was back in Abydos park with John, walking down one of the paths toward the fountain with the strange metal circle on top.

“He’ll be here,” John tried to assure her, though he didn’t sound convinced at all.

They walked past the fountain and Elizabeth forced herself not to look too closely at the man sitting on one of the benches right next to it. The man with the large sports bag standing next to his feet. The man who had held a gun to her head about an hour earlier. Ladon Radim.

She still wasn’t quite sure how John had been able to convince her that this was a good plan. Why on Earth was she allowing a potentially dangerous device to be turned over to a definitely dangerous man while she strolled through Abydos park, holding hands with a man she hadn’t even known a few days before?

If everything worked out right, Kolya was gonna walk away with very valuable AT property, but also with a miniature GPS tracking device embedded into the casing of the container that held the ZPM.

But still. If anything went wrong…

“Stop worrying,” John interrupted her thoughts.

“I wasn’t worrying.”

He grinned and let go of her hand to drape his arm around her shoulders. “It will all work out as planned. You’ll see.”

“This is just not how I prefer to do things.”

“But it’s exciting, isn’t it?” He sat down on one of the benches from where they had a clear view toward the fountain and pulled her with him. His arm stayed around her shoulders and she couldn’t really deny that she liked having it there.

“We could have talked to the police. You know, if this doesn’t work… We’re not exactly following the rules here. We’re assisting in turning over stolen property to a kidnapper.”

“Rules are important to you, aren’t they?”

She was saved from answering his question by the appearance of Acastus Kolya. He walked slowly up to the bench Ladon was sitting on and sat down next to him, unfolding the newspaper he’d been carrying under his arm as usual.

The paper blocked their view so they couldn’t see what was going on behind it, but they saw Ladon bending down and zipping open the bag, holding it open for a second before closing it again. After about three more minutes Ladon got up and walked away, leaving the sports bag where it had been standing between him and Kolya.

John and Elizabeth kept sitting where they were, waiting. It took almost another ten minutes before Kolya folded his paper, reached for the bag, got up and walked off in the opposite direction toward the Lantea Inn.

John licked his lips. “So, step one is complete.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Let’s go.”

**

They met Ladon in front of Elizabeth's office building, just as they had agreed upon.

“Did it work?” Elizabeth wanted to know.

“Yes,” Ladon confirmed. “I already called my sister’s fiancé in Austria. Nothing yet, but he’ll call me back as soon as he hears anything.”

“Good.”

“What time is it over there, anyway?” John wanted to know.

Ladon shrugged. “About 5 am, I think.”

They walked in, got on the elevator and rode up to her office. Elizabeth switched on her computer. “So I guess now we’ll have to wait.”

**

Elizabeth rubbed her eyes, which were starting to burn from staring at a screen for more than an hour already. Kolya had wasted no time after he got the ZPM. He had gone back to the hotel, probably to get his things, and, despite the late hour -- it was after ten pm by now -- had taken off immediately. Whether he had rented a car or taken some other form of transportation, the tiny dot that indicated his position was moving northward on the screen, away from Atlantis.

John had grabbed the chair from the other side of her desk and sat down next to her, staring at the screen with her.

Ladon was sitting on the small couch, trying to appear calm, but Elizabeth could tell he was nervous. He waited for the call that would confirm his sister was safe.

They all literally jumped when his cell phone started ringing.

He answered, his voice sounding not half as secure as he tried to look.

Elizabeth let out a breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding when a relieved expression spread across his face. “Where? How?” Ladon asked and then listened for a few seconds. “Thank you,” he finally said. “Yes, I’ll be there as soon as possible.” He hung up and looked toward Elizabeth and John. “That was her fiancé. She’s safe. The Austrian police got an anonymous call, directing them to a warehouse near Salzburg. Whoever kept her there was already gone by the time they arrived, but she’s safe. And she’s okay.”

Elizabeth smiled. “That’s good news.” She looked at John. “That was step two.”

He nodded. “And the rest should be easy. Where’s Kolya now?”

Elizabeth checked the screen. “He’s just passed Sateda.”

John got up and reached for the phone. “Time to call the cops.”

**

“What? Say that again.” Rodney was standing in the middle of Elizabeth’s small office, staring at them open-mouthed.

Sam was sitting on the couch in the back, shaking her head, an incredulous look on her face. “Unbelievable. Well, at least we got the ZPM back.”

Rodney rolled his eyes. “Pure luck, I’d say. What if Kolya had gotten away? What if he had found he GPS device?” He dropped onto the couch next to Sam. “So when you called yesterday to inform us that Ethan… that Ladon wouldn’t show up for the barbecue, but that you had everything under control… With under control you meant you were going to give an extremely valuable and, not to forget, extremely fragile device to the bad guy to sell it to the one guy who would like to completely ruin us?”

John had taken up his place on the corner of Elizabeth’s desk. “He wasn’t the real bad guy. He was trying to get his sister free.”

“But he planted the bomb on Radek’s car, right?”

“Yes.” Elizabeth leaned forward on her desk, hands clasped tightly together. “He was desperate. And he isn’t exactly a man with a very strong concept of morality.”

“Meaning?” Rodney still sounded like he just couldn’t believe it.

John shrugged. "Meaning he risked killing Radek, but he felt terribly sorry about what happened."

“But that… that’s attempted murder. It was pure luck that Radek didn’t die. He could have-“

“Yes, Rodney. We know,” John tried to calm him down.

“Apparently, Kolya wanted to re-open Genii Industries, but needed money. So he needed something of real value.” Elizabeth explained. “And because he saw the chance to get a little revenge on the company he held responsible for destroying Genii-“

“How did he learn about the ZPM?” Sam wanted to know.

“Ah, he didn’t!” John jumped in. “He recognized Ladon by accident while he was in Atlantis a few weeks ago.”

“Ladon used to work for him?” Sam frowned. “I thought he didn’t show on that list of employees you put together.”

“He was on a secret team that did morally questionable research -- more morally questionable than what the rest of Genii did -- and was paid by Kolya directly. He didn’t show up anywhere by name.”

“But when Genii went bankrupt, his statements considerably helped in bringing it down completely.”

Rodney’s eyes lit up in understanding. “He betrayed his former boss.”

“Exactly.” Elizabeth leaned back in her chair. “That’s why he took on the fake identity. He was afraid Kolya might find him.”

“And then he thought it was a good idea to work for us?” Sam shook her head.

“Guess he couldn’t live without the danger completely.”

“So, what happens to him now?” Sam wanted to know.

“That’s out of our hands.” John shrugged. “And out of everyone else’s hands, too.”

Elizabeth nodded. “He disappeared. After we called the police and informed them Kolya and the device were on the road just a few miles outside of Sateda, we drove out there ourselves. To make one hundred percent sure Kolya was captured.”

“Ladon had agreed to turn himself over to the police once they arrested Kolya. But when we got there-“

“Kolya put up quite a fight and things got kind of hectic. By the time anyone remembered Ladon-“

“He was already gone,” John looked something in between amused and annoyed.

Rodney’s cell phone rang and he looked on the display. “It’s Kate Heightmeyer.” He picked up and went out onto the balcony where they heard him talking on the phone for a few seconds. He looked a lot happier when he came back inside. “Radek woke up. The doctors think he's gonna be okay."

“That’s great news, Rodney,” Elizabeth smiled. “You wanna go and see him? We can discuss the rest later.”

“Yes, sure.” Rodney picked up his jacket that was hanging over the second chair and turned to Sam. “You coming? We have to pick up Jeannie on the way and then we have to…” They couldn’t hear him any longer as he disappeared into the corridor.

Sam smiled at them. “Thank you.” Then she was gone, too.

John hopped off the desk and grinned down at Elizabeth. “So, that’s that.”

“Yeah.” It occurred to her only at that moment that they were no longer working together. “What are you gonna do now?”

He shrugged. “Sleep for two days straight, I guess.”

“Sounds like a great idea, actually.”

She stood up and walked around the desk. Somehow she didn’t want to say goodbye.

“Hey, thanks for your help back at my apartment. With Ladon.”

“You’re welcome.” His grin turned into a smile. “So, I guess I’m gonna go now.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t forget, I’m going to check on you sometime. Make sure you’re okay.”

She smiled. “I’m counting on it.”

“So, see you.”

“Yes. See you.”

“Hey, and if you ever need help with a case, call me.”

“Maybe I will.”

He was looking straight into her eyes now, standing so close that she could feel heat radiating from his body. Then, suddenly, he leaned forward, cupped her face with both of his hands and kissed her. “Yeah, you’ll call me,” he said, his face still close to hers.

And then he left. She kept standing right where she was, waiting for her brain to start talking to her again. She could still feel his breath on her lips and hear his voice ringing in her ears.

Slowly, a grin spread across her face. Oh yeah, she’d definitely call him.


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