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Aberrant: Stargate Universe - Mr. Specialist goes to Washington


Mr Fox

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Exactly one and a half hours after the group of specialists had gathered in the mess hall and been told about the escort mission the group of all the current specialists were formed up in uniform and armed as if for battle. The mission to escort the two of the three most important Air Force generals involved with the Stargate program on a tour of the Beta Site. With the large combined team under Cam's command gathered and ready to go the two General's O'Neill and Landry came through the blast door and into the gate room. It was the first time anyone had seen Landry in regular BDUs instead of a dress uniform, but O'Neill despite his recent promotion still seemed far more comfortable in BDUs than the more formal outfit. He seemed right at home and gave a private smile as he looked up at the gate as it locked in the seventh chevron and formed the seemingly liquid vortex that settled into the wormhole.

Landry looked to O'Neill who in turn looked to Cam and said, "Let's move out."

Cam grinned and motioned for Hawke, Omar and Vinny to be the first through the gate, he followed next and called out before going though, "Give me a 20 count before the next group comes through with the generals, everyone else followup." Many soldiers would check their weapon right before going through the gate, but Cam had done that while waiting for everyone to appear. P90 held ready he moved through as if expecting attack.

On the other side the meadow was peaceful and the sky was a little over cast but otherwise it was a warm pleasant day. Nothing threatened and indeed not a single other human was on the planet besides the ones exiting the gate. Cam reached into his pack and pulled out the datapad and and entered a series of symbols that would summon the Al'kesh they had liberated from Yu's ship yards. It would arrive in about 20 minutes, having been parked many hundreds of miles away in a secluded valley.

The Army Corp of Engineer guys had been evac'ed that morning for a day of R&R. As the group headed to the site of the new base it was surprising just how much work had been done in only a couple days. The ground that the Specialists had cleared had been further leveled with heavy equipment that stood silent around the clearing. Concrete foundations for several buildings were already poured and several more were being prepped. In the direction of the river a number of tents could be seen set up for the crews doing the building.

The O'Neill and Landry walked about the place. Landry seemed genuinely interested and impressed in what had been done so far. O'Neill was his usual less than impressed self, but he did look everything over with a careful eye. When the tour of the future base was done he motioned to Cam, "So, do your thing and let me know if it's safe to talk." When he said 'thing' he had waggled his fingers in a mock mystical way.

Cam chuckled and concentrated for a few moments. "I don't detect any listening devices sir, but if you don't mind waiting just another minute or so and stand right there." He indicated a spot on the ground, "I can provide us with a much more secure place to talk."

O'Neill raised a skeptical eyebrow but did as he was asked. Cam motioned for a couple of the others to also join them inside a circle he'd outlined on the ground. He looked at his datapad again and punched a single button. Rings seemed to erupt from the ground and those in the circle were turned into energy and shot up into the waiting Al'kesh in orbit above. Cam grinned at the surprise on peoples faces. The other specialists had known what must be coming, but it was still startling.

"Welcome aboard Earth's first Al'kesh bomber sirs. Courtesy of Yiu."

Not surprisingly at all, O'Neill's response was, "Me?" It was hard to tell sometimes when he was joking or when he was serious and this was one of those times.

Cam chuckled, "No sir, courtesy of System Lord Yiu. We acquired the ship from his ship yards."

"I knew that." O'Neill said it deadpan serious making it even harder to tell if were actually dense or just playing dumb. Cam moved everyone aside and sent the rings down to whisk up the next group, and repeated until everyone was aboard.

Of course he and the other members of the strike team that had stolen the ship had many hours to explore it on the trip back to the beta site, but for most of the others it was both their first time at seeing a Goa'uld ship up close.

"Unfortunately there is no nice briefing room on the ship like back at the SGC but perhaps the galley would be ok."

Cam led the way through the ship to what must pass for a mess hall for the Jaffa. There was food aboard, but no one here knew how to cook Jaffa recipes and the group was here for discussion and not food anyway.

Once everyone was seated, Landry spoke up, "I'm impressed. Your team of Specialists made it into the shipyards and escaped with this ship. Any chance that Yiu identified you as being from Earth?"

Cam shook his head. "We wore only Jaffa clothing and carried nothing of Earth manufacture with us just in case. As far as Yiu is concerned we were either traitors or Jaffa of a rival Goa'uld." Cam looked to O'Neill, "Sir, I've found a nice hidden place to park the ship here on the planet. Only someone scanning from orbit would stand a chance of locating it and that's pretty unlikely since it is mostly powered down when parked. It's close enough to provide an escape for any base personnel, but far enough out that no one at the Beta Site would know it's there."

O'Neill nodded acknowledgment and turned to Landry, "Have you had the chance to go over what Colonel Mitchell discovered?"

"Yes Sir. It looks very much like Marcus Higgenbottom is compromised, but until we have proof in our hands we can't act, and I am assuming we don't want to reveal how we found out." General Landry looked questioningly to his boss.

"No, we don't want that, we just might lose the Colonel like we've lost the other specialists. And by the way, I spoke with General Hammond and he doesn't know where they are either."

Cam gestured to Dec, "Sir, do you mind?" Seeing the nod, Cam turned to Dec and the other specialists. "Just to make sure everyone is aware of what's going on. There are quite a few specialists who were reassigned, supposedly temporarily, or who just plain never made it to the SGC after the rescue at the NID facility. All Specialists are supposed to be under the jurisdiction of the SGC, but the chain of command is just as much in the dark as we are about what has happened to them. To make matters worse, we know that some of the people in the IOA are not playing fair, and by not playing fair, I'm talking willing to experiment on live human beings or to implant them with Gou'ald larva against their wills. Marcus Higgenbottom, is the personal assistant to Brian Lord the US representative on the IOA board. He is also receiving money, lots of money, from somewhere and his computer contains messages about that suggest he's taking orders from whoever is giving him that money. Whoever that person or group is, they know about the Goa'uld and have access to one in need of a host."

Landry spoke up taking over, "There are no Goa'uld on planet Earth that we know about. The SGC and Area 51 do not have any Goa'uld larva under study, that means whoever this group is they are in contact with a Goa'uld somehow. That could directly threaten the security of Earth."

O'Neill finished, "I spoke with the President and he's given the go to conduct an operation to seize that computer and take Marcus Higgenbottom into custody for questioning. I'm hoping that we'll either get some good information from Mr. Higgenbutt, or it will flush out whoever is paying him." The general looked over the Specialists at the table. "That is your mission, collect that computer and the target and get them safely to Cheyenne Mountain. The Prometheus is on it's way back to the Pegasus galaxy so there won't be any handy 'Beam me up Scotty' on this mission. You will have to get in and out the old fashioned way, and remember he is a US citizen, and this to be done quietly. We don't want the IOA finding out until we've had the chance to suck that computer dry so that we can formally present the evidence to the President. Questions?"

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Whoa. An actual fucking starship.

That was pretty much all Dec had to say to himself about the experience of being beamed up. He felt ill at ease in the large crowd around him. Okay, he knew all the Specialists by face, but only Livy, Gwen and Kyria were familiar enough to be part of his comfort circle. He hadn't realised before now what an introvert he'd become.

He shuffled uneasily and slouched in his seat, gazing around from behind his mirrored Raybans as he listened to the briefing. The burly Sergeant gave every indication of tense nervousness as he imagined Generals O'Neill and Landry were looking at him warily. He forced himself to relax and was partially successful. They'd let him out of the psych ward, hadn't they? And he was in full gear again, armed with the MP7 he'd requested months ago. He was trusted, accepted.

Yeah, for now. There's a war on, and that's the only reason we're not in a cage. Best be ready for the day when we've killed all the bad guys, Dec ol' buddy.

You're full of fuckin' reassurance today.

Well, it ain't all bad. We get to kidnap and rough up a two-faced suit. Maybe ice his bodyguards too? If we're really clever, we can help him fall down some stairs. Or an elevator shaft. He just needs to be alive, right? Oh, and talking too I guess. Doesn't need his legs or arms for that. Red's voice was filled with almost childish glee. Dec raised a hand in response to O'Neill's call for questions, ignoring his alter-ego.

"Sir. Whereabouts is Higgenbottom, and what's his travel itinerary? We might be able to pass the snatch off as an accident or something if we're smart about it."

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Kyria nodded in Dec's direction. "Yeah. For a mission like this if you want it to go off quietly and efficiently, then you don't want the full compliment of us trooping about. Besides, there are those of us that aren't as adept at a....hmm....stealth? mission."

She thought for a moment, "And as for the computer, do you need the physical machine or are you soley interested in the information stored on it?"

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Cam looked over, "Physical machine. I've already got the info that is on it. We need the physical proof." He looked over at Dec, "Sgt. we have to get in the man's house anyway to get the computer so we might as well grab him at the same time."

General O'Neill added, "I'll leave the mission planning up to you all. You know the objectives. Snatch the target and his computer. Just don't hurt US citizens in the process. Believe me, you don't want to fill out that paperwork." He made a gesture with his hands spreading apart about a foot, "Pile that thick. I kid you not."

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Gwyn kept close to Dec, he knew the big Sgt was uncomfortable around people, and he smiled internally as Dec asked his question.

He nodded at the answers to the first couple of questions, "how about the Instars, or Zats? How would we stand with them? Otherwise I guess we'd have to sedate him."

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Aradia leaned against the wall quietly, taking in everything the generals and the rest of the specialists had to say for now. After a moment's consideration though, she cleared her throat a little and spoke up. It was one of the few times any of the other specialists had seen her volunteer to do anything without being ordered to, save the ones on her team.

"I could probably help. To get us in, I mean. I could, like, crawl in or something - a rat, a spider. Or maybe just show up. Pizza chick, girl scout. Boy scout, if he's the type.. you know, whatever works. I mean, it'd get us in the door, right? I could zat him, an' we go from there. Unless there's some easier way - I'm not really good at this sh- I mean, this stuff."

But I wouldn't mind getting in on sticking it to the IOA.. that's for damned sure.

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"Good idea Ari." chips in Gwyn, then turns back to Cam, "I can get in through pipes as well, even if they are filled with liquid. Actually I can get in around any gaps in doors or windows as well. It's probably not as subtle as Ari, but it might do at night or as back up."

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"I'd have to leave the stealthy entries to the rest of you" Omar had been pacing as he listened to Cam and O'Neill. "My way of entry would be to run through the walls, grab him, then the computer, and smash my way out."

Pausing, he seemed to chuckle to himself. "Though if he has a Goa'uld/Nova hybrid, it might be useful to have a Hawke, Vinny or myself present. Maybe several of us."

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Ryan nods. "We cannot make it too large a group. That would be suspicious in and of itself. I'd reccomend no more than five people go on this." The ship impressed him, but to him it was a tool.

"Omar, I think stealth is required here. We'll be in the most watched city on Earth. just going in and smashing isn't going to be a good way of doing things."

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"We still don't even know if it's possible for a symbiote to survive inside a nova, and the more this comes up the more I think we should find out. Personally, I would send Aradia, Livy, either Cam or Courier, and Gwyn. That's a good group for stealth and espionage, they keep their tempers and impulses well under control from my observation, and it provides a range of quantum abilities to choose from as necessary. Livy, I'd have you start the mission by imprinting my telepathy so you could know what 'Higgenbutt' is up to, who could get close to him without triggering his own alarms, etc. After the situation is engaged, you could switch out as needed."

She looked around the group of novas and grinned, "Someone have a counter-offer?"

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Dec remained silent as the others spoke up, his shaded gaze fixed on the table as while one part of his brain listened, another analysed and planned with uncanny speed. It was the same part of him that used to subconsciously plot out how to kill anyone he looked at. Nowadays Red handled that completely un-subconsciously, complete with visual flights of fancy and running the scenarios around in his corner of the cortex.

He nodded approval of Kyria's plan, even though it sidelined him. Probably best that way. He cleared his throat quietly as she finished.

"There's one thing we need to consider. Ms McConnell?" He said without looking up. "Can you change shape to imitate our target?" He glanced up then, covered eyes looking round the table. "Thing is, I'm thinking that as soon as this dude goes missing, the bad guys are going to close down all their illegal shit that he knows about and clean it up pronto. If we can stick a double in for just a day or two, we can swoop in on the sites where they're doing this stuff rather than presenting evidence without any substance to it. Bureaucrats are great at weaselling out of crap they've done and blamin' others. They could just cut Higgenbottom loose and say that the stuff on his computer is made-up."

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Cam nodded, "I'm still open to suggestions, but I'd like you involved Kyria. I think we need a command post observing from a short distance away in addition to the group that goes in." He looks to Kyria, "You and I will be in the command post along directing the operation. I want you to monitor the area around Higgenbottom's house for any thoughts that might indicate our people are spotted. Livy, if she wants to copy your telepathy, can be in the strike team focusing specifically on Higgenbottom. That way we have both broad and specific coverage."

He looked at Omar, "You can stick with command post in the event that things go south, you'll be close enough to assist if needed."

"Anyone else want to volunteer?"

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Olivia listened quietly, standing near Vinny. Her expression was set in serious lines when they started their talk; when Vinny's name was recommended, her face went blank. When her name came up, it went blanker. Me?! I'm not a super spy!

But you are the multipurpose tool, she told herself. Better get used to it. She licked her lips and swallowed, but kept her reservations to herself. Try to be helpful. The problem was that she was in a good place now, almost happy. Well, she was getting there anyway. But all it would take is an accident to take it away.

Olivia suddenly realized that was the reason for her reluctance. She was literally waiting for the universe to steal Vinny away again, so sure it would happen, that she wanted to wrap him in bubble wrap and hide him away. He'd hate that, though, and she knew it.

But Vinny wasn't all that she had to lose. Not looking at the girl who was essentially her sister, she straightened up, preparing to speak. The others looked at her as she cleared her throat and said, "Dec, that's not a bad idea, but it requires a bit more than looking like him. It requires that she know his mannerisms and habits, and the IOA knows we have a shapeshifter. They must be looking for ways to negate all of our powers."

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Yseult remained silent as plans were being formed, eyes hidden behind her pair of Prada sunglasses. All she wanted to do was demand from Landry if she was going to be allowed to return to her family, and now wasn't the time for that discussion, especially in front of everyone.

When Cameron asked for volunteers, she stepped forward. "I would like to volunteer, though I am not sure what I can offer for this mission." Doing something was better than doing nothing.

She hadn't done anything really meaningful on the mission to retrieve the ship except for interceding with a public beating, which could have compromised their identities. But she had to do something, otherwise she would just dwell on her family and be of no use to anyone.

"Perhaps, I can remain in the command post, ready to provide any medical aid if necessary."

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Kyria leaned up against the Sargent. *You could keep me company, so I don't die of boredom. I really don't think this is going to be horridly difficult. One baseline man and a computer. More difficult, I think, will be using any information we get from him in time for it to be useful.*

A wicked grin spread across her face. *You could thumb-wrestle Omar while we wait. Keep him out of trouble.* The thoughts were colored with a good-natured teasing.

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*Why sweetness, if you want me to keep you company we could always find a nice restaurant while the others bop Higgenbottom over the head and take him off to be waterboarded. Hell, you keep leaning close and looking so good and I reckon it's worth the fanciest place in D.C - ohshitsorry Kyria!*

The thought, complete with flirtatious emotional content and a mental image of Kyria wearing a sexy little black number similar to the dress she'd worn to Kiki Nass, flashed through the forefront quicksilver of Dec's mind before he realised his mind wasn't entirely private. Pink clouds of embarrassment followed on the heels of his apology, along with a definite and somewhat profanely-phrased wish for the ground to swallow him up, the sooner the goddamn better. Tangled treacherously in and around that primary thought was the figure of how much time had passed since he'd last been laid. Red's hysterical mocking laughter could be heard in the background.

*Damn, but I need a fresh pair of pants, cos I just shit mine laughin'! Way to go, Romeo. Or should I say Charlie Foxtrot?*

*Shut up. Uhh, Kyria... Sorry about that. Wasn't cool. You're, like -* He cut off his train of mental dialogue somewhat ruthlessly, concentrating on images of firearm schematics and statistics in an attempt to stifle what was really on his mind. The sergeant's mood sank from embarrassed to bleakly miserable as he hunched lower in his chair, not really paying attention to what was going on around him anymore as he tried not to think.

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Olivia ignored Kyria and Declan, though it was a little hard. She'd made her choice, no regrets allowed - or wanted. Still, each path taken was another ignored, and she felt that keenly right now.

"Ryan's right," Olivia said, speaking again. "Four would be enough, if one of them was even moderately combat capable." She glanced at Cam and O'Neill. "How much information do we have about his personal habits? If he likes to take women home, one of us would have a very easy time getting into his house, and then letting everyone else in." She had no intention of being that 'one'.

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Olivia arched an eyebrow. "Well, does his wife live with him? That would have been awkward to get into his house and try to snag him, only to find her, too. Knowing our luck, she'd be an invalid in a wheelchair and we'd all feel truly awful for grabbing him." Olivia smiled at Cam. "Come on, don't keep us in suspense. What else do we know, and what else do we need to learn?"

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Kyria kept herself from giggling by sheer force of will; she slipped an arm around him and gave him an encouraging hug. *It's okay, Dec. Didn't you know most girls like to be noticed?* The tone was still teasing and he could feel a thrum a pleased amusement under the thought-words.

She tilted her head and regarded him quizzically after the last cut-off thought. *I'm what?* she prompted him curiously.

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To Dec she nodded slightly, looking unconcerned, but to Livy's response she shrugged slightly.

"I can almost definitely look like the guy - the more I do it the better I seem to get at it. As far as personality or mannerisms, I dunno.. maybe we could get some footage or something? I could probably pass it off for a bit, even if it wasn't perfect everyone has bad days, right? And I don't know how much the IOA knows about my shifting abilities - if it's mostly stuff from training, then I was mostly changing into chairs and bunny rabbits. I didn't start trying people until I got out, so I dunno how much they know.. you know?"

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*I'll tell ya later.* was his cagey mental reply to Kyria, though she could tell her 'tone' and the hug had reassured him somewhat as the sergeant sat up a little, giving her a slight smile. He forced himself to look round at the others as Aradia answered.

"Livy, all we need is for the IOA to not notice he's missing for 24 hours." he said quietly. "If we catch him on a weekend, Ari can do a little mannerism studyin' and hold off suspicion. We can have a team ready to extract her if things go bad. Meantime, we get the information and can swoop on the bastards." He raised his gaze to look over at her. "It's safest to assume that when they clean up evidence, that'll mean to burn any organic evidence, if you catch my meanin'."

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Olivia blinked and then sighed, nodding. "Right," she said, "I guess that's true. Sorry... I was thinking about Aradia's safety, not about the mission or her capabilities. Objection withdrawn." She smiled at her 'sister' even as she thought, You'd better be careful, Ari. Very, very careful. I don't want to lose you.

Her life revolved around what she might lose. Vinny, Ari, Declan, Gwyn, Damien, Wakiki, her parents... the list was getting longer and longer, and Olivia knew that she was actually helpless to protect them. And in the case of the other specialists, they were capable of protecting themselves far better than she was.

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*Okay, but I'm holding you to it.*

She nodded to those speaking. "I think we've got a good basic plan, and with the number of novas involved we'll be able to improvise as we need. I assume the target still has a normal job to perform. If we could gain enough general knowledge for Aradia to at least pretend to do such work, we could simply take him on his way to work and substitute her. It may not give us an entire day, but it might and it negates most of the immediate danger to the wife."

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Aradia smiled back a little at Livy, trying to look reassuring. Something about their talk the other day had stuck in the back of her mind, though she wasn't sure what. Maybe it was the disappointed look on Livy's face as they had discussed whether or not this planet was worth fighting for.

I'm still probably right.. and we might have to run. But maybe I can try a little for you, Livy.. even if it feels like a waste of time.

"How long do we have before this happens? What's the ETA or whatever on this assignment, I mean?"

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Gwyn turns to Kyria, "That might be more difficult than if we snatched him at the weekend. As an IOA aide he is likely to be involved in meetings on subjects that are classified, and it could take us a while to compile the information that Ari would need to try to be convincing in his role. If we could choose a weekend, or set up a weekend when he is mainly out of the house might be best."

He turns back to Cam, "Does he have any outdoor hobbies that we could take advantage of, golf, hunting, fishing, sailing? Anything that he might reasonably be doing that would keep him away from home for a chunk of time and away from those most likely to spot the impersonation."

Suddenly he grins, "Actually maybe we could take advantage of this mistress, if we grab him there she is unlikely to go running to the wife, and if we present some credentials it should delay her going to the police."

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"I agree with Kyria. Sounds like we've got a solid grounding for a plan." Dec said, forgetting his usual shyness as his mind fell into analytical mode. He looked at O'Neill, Landry and Cam. "Sirs, we're going to need every scrap of intel on his hobbies, mistress, all that good stuff you can give us. I think the weekend snatch is the best idea if we can pull it off, but we need to go over the data to be sure. And like Ms McConnell said: what's the fuse on this operation? Do we even have time to set it up and run it right, or is it gonna be a Charlie-Fox on-the-fly job?"

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"One other option that does come to mind is a split operation: get me and a cyberkinetic close enough to lift data off of him and his computer and relay it to the second team to start taking action on. We don't go for possession of him or the computer until everything else is in motion, giving us a little breathing room while still keeping him under suveillance. It'll take a lot more coordination that what's already been discussed, but is probably a better bet to getting anything significant accomplished."

She shrugged and gave Dec a smile of thanks for supporting her. "I guess it's not so much a new idea as a modification of the original one."

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Cam considered and decided it sounded like a good plan, but before he could say anything Landry spoke, "Take him as he leaves the mistress. Best time."

Cam nodded reluctantly, "I don't actually have intel on the mistress sir. Marcus is very slick about not putting certain things in writing." He looked at Ari, "His wife's name is Charlotte, from what I was able to gather they are pretty distant from each other. He provides her with lots of money and she spends it, but from his schedule they don't spend a great deal of time together. He is big on fishing, or at least he owns an expensive boat and spends a good deal of his free time on it. Best thing would be to pick him up on a Friday afternoon, let Ari head home looking like him and then leave for a fishing trip. Then she only has to deal with the wife for a few minutes before having an excuse to be alone for the next 2 days. She takes the boat out and we have 2 days to question the slug."

Cam could not, would not suggest it, but in his mind he was seriously wishing that Kyria could just make the bastard confess and avoid all the unpleasantness of a questioning. If they used any Tok'ra memory devices then any trial would be thrown out of court. Can't violate the 5th amendment. Damit! Cam just couldn't bring himself to approach Kyria, it was a line that he couldn't cross even though it would save them a great deal of grief.

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"Sounds like we could combine things. Go in mid-week so a telepath can lift the information on his mistress. That give us a couple of days to arrange a snatch from there on the Friday, and to make sure he hasn't got something else scheduled for the weekend that would make his going fishing instead stand out."

Turning to Cam, Gwyn asks, "Colonel, did you say you had already copied the data from his computer, but that we just needed the original for evidence?" Getting a nod in reply he continues, "In which case we could do as Kyria suggests and get teams in place to bust any other operations he knows about as we move in on him."

He looks around the group of Specialists and smiles ruefully, "The thing that could trip them off to the operation the quickest is the appearance of all you beautiful people. It's bound to get noticed and commented upon, and if it gets to the wrong ears they may connect it to us Specialists. Unless we can come up with a reason that would appear legitimate to them as to why a bunch of us were in town?"

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"Yeah, we just need his computer as physical evidence. As for other operations, I'm afraid he either didn't record anything in his computer or more likely he's just a pawn and only knows about what his masters tell him."

He thought for a minute, "As for being in DC we'll have to go in as much under the radar as we can. Disguise, dark tinted black SUV, you know, blend in." He smiled at the irony of that blending in, but in Washington it really wasn't that out of place. "And yeah, we can give a couple days to survey the scene and plan the snatch."

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Gwyn smiled at Cam's reference to all the SUV's. He hadn't been to DC for a year or more, but it was certainly true then that they were pretty common and usually in black. "What information do we already have about his schedule, anything on his mistress, and floorplans for relevant locations? Or do we have to gather that once we get to DC?"

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Vinny was here, but he wasn't. If the United States Air Force couldn't do a snatch & grab without 'Specialists', it was a sad day indeed. Even moreso if they only wanted to send Specialists.

Fuckin' waste of damn time. Volunteer?! What the fuck is going on with command these days. Give a fuckin' order, fuckin' latte-drinkin', prissy fucks. Pull the damn tampon outta yer ass and be a fuckin' General.

Vinny was silent as the debate continued, having nothing to add from his expertise on so simple a mission that somehow required the elite of the military.

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Cam looked around but seeing no further questions, "Ok, I think we have a plan. Observation for 2 days to allow Kyria and Aradia to pick up on enough of Marcus' mannerisms to do the switch then we'll bag him on Friday evening when he leaves his mistress." Cam frowns, "Shame it would be a violation of the 5th Amendment for Kyria to simply read his mind..."

General Landry kept a very blank face, but O'Neill said very dryly, "Yes, it would be a violation of the law."

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"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Kyria recited that with the sing-song of memorization. She looked thoughtful.

"Between that wording and a legal system based on precedence, my telepathy would not constitute a violation of his Fifth Amendment rights. The strongest objection that could be raised is a violation of privacy, as thoughts could be argued to not be 'in plain view'. A warrant would solve that issue, though you would need to convince a judge of...." She waved, "All of this. If you could procure that warrant, then there would be little current legal recourse. However, that also entails dealing with your legal system. Do you have lawyers and judges that are aware of the SGC and could navigate your legal system while still maintaining your secrecy?"

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General Landry shook his head, "A trial could be arranged, but I believe what the Colonel means is that reading his thoughts would be tantamount to forcing a person to give evidence against themselves. But let me make something clear, the SGC will not nor can we ever condone the violation of the privacy of an individual's mind if that person is a citizen of this nation. If you are on an off world mission and need to read the thoughts of someone in order to ensure the safety of your team, then by all mean, do what needs to be done. Just be very careful about reading the minds of people here on Earth, the IOA as well as our own President would be very afraid to open that can of worms."

The General tried to think 'loudly' to the young Specialist, If you are reading my thoughts right now Specialist Kyria, I hope you wring the bastard dry. Just do it in a way that isn't obvious that you are doing it. It would scare the hell out of our politicians and might convince them that the IOA is right to try and find ways to control you more closely.

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Ryan had remained silent listening to everything. From the look on Vinny's face he and Ryan were of a similar mind on this. They were greatly overthinking this issue. Were it him, He'd send a very small team to snatch the target and be done with it. What they were doing was already illegal in certain ways, why were they balking at doing this the simplest way?

He kept the thought to himself, so the General would have plausible deniability, but this sort of dancing around wasn't done in the Corps. You had an enemy you smashed them to dust using everything you could while minimizing damage to yourself.

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