John bit his lip, considering. The jumpers had plenty of drones, but at the moment, he didn’t want to waste anything. “How long before we have to do something about it?”
“Several weeks,” Zelenka answered. “Perhaps longer. I will run more exact calculations today.”
“Good.” John paused. “And second?”
“Second — ” Zelenka grimaced. “Second, I think Mrs. Miller and I need a word with you privately.”
That did not sound good. “All right,” John said, warily, and started for his office.
Jeannie Miller was waiting in the control room, pretending to look out over the city, swept bare now of snow by the steady wind. She turned at their approach, her face lightening, and John waved her ahead of them into the office. The door closed softly behind them, and John leaned on the edge of Woolsey’s desk.
“OK,” he said. “What’s going on?”
The others exchanged glances, and then Jeannie drew a breath. “It’s Rodney,” she said. “I think he’s left us a message.”
“What?” John winced at his near-shout, and Zelenka nodded.
“I agree. You know that we have been finding and deleting pieces of Rodney’s code after each attack.”
“Meredith’s been trying to set up new backdoors,” Jeannie interjected.
“And so after the last time, we found another subroutine that had burrowed in,” Zelenka said. “But this one was different.”
“It’s a code we used to use when we were kids,” Jeannie said. “Something only Meredith would remember.” She reached into her pocket, pulled out a slip of paper and handed it across. “He wants to meet you.”
John took the scrap, smoothed it carefully twice before he could bring himself to look. For John Sheppard, it read, in Jeannie’s neat printing, I’m on Gaffen. Help me. Rodney McKay.
“You’re sure it’s him,” he said, and both of them nodded.
“It is McKay’s hand, no question,” Zelenka said.
“He must have remembered who he is,” Jeannie said. Her eyes were bleak. “We have to help him, John.”
It took Ronon and Teyla a few minutes to get up to John’s office. Time enough to think about what he was about to ask them to do, and about whether he was entirely sure it was a good idea. There was something about sitting behind that desk that made it seem harder to tell what the right answers were.
“What’s going on?” Ronon said, stepping back in the doorway to let Teyla come in before him.
“Shut the door,” John said. Ronon raised his eyebrows but shut the door.
“Are we in trouble?” Ronon asked.
John frowned. “For what?”
“That just usually means somebody’s in trouble.”
“Somebody sent us a coded message,” John said, laying it down on the table in front of him. “It says it’s from Rodney.”
Both Teyla and Ronon glanced down at the paper, as if needing to see even that much concrete evidence for themselves.
“So, we go get him,” Ronon said after a moment.
Teyla shook her head immediately. “We must take time to think,” she said. “We could very well be walking into a trap.”
And of course she was all too aware of the possibility, having walked into Michael’s trap herself intending to rescue Kanaan. He didn’t think she’d ever be quite as quick to throw herself into danger again. They’d all been younger five years ago, and more fearless, if probably not as smart.
“We still have to go,” Ronon said.
“I agree that we must,” Teyla said before John could. “But we must think of the fact that it may not truly be a call for help.”
“Believe me, I am,” John said. “We’ll take a Marine team for backup, but we need to act fast. If he was able to send a coded message through the gate, he must have at least radio equipment with him. That suggests a Wraith scouting party or something like that, and they may not hang around the area for long.”
Teyla looked at him a little too perceptively. “What do colonels Caldwell and Carter say?”
“I haven’t asked them,” John said. He looked from her to Ronon, knowing the one he really had to convince here was himself. “I don’t know what Colonel Carter would say, but Colonel Caldwell thinks that it’s time to eliminate Rodney as a threat. I’m not ready to do that yet, not if he’s remembered who he is and is trying to escape.”
“Nor am I,” Teyla said. “I think that changes the situation.”
“I don’t think Caldwell’s going to see it that way,” John said. “But he’s senior to me and Carter both. If he really wants to arm-wrestle over who’s in command in Atlantis, we’re going to have a problem.”
“Mr. Woolsey left you in command,” Teyla said.
“That’s the way I see it,” John said. “It’s my responsibility to make a decision, and I’m making one. But if we have to have an argument over whose responsibility it is right now, we could be losing our last chance to get Rodney back.”
And with Caldwell and Carter both on station, it wasn’t like he was leaving Atlantis undefended if this went badly. Carter had certainly done a fine job when she was in command, and as many times as he’d clashed with Caldwell over the years, John did at least trust him to take care of the city if he wasn’t around.
Ronon shrugged. “You’re in charge of Atlantis. We work for you, not for the Air Force. It’s not a problem for us.”
“All right,” John said. It wasn’t exactly disobeying a direct order. They hadn’t gotten the orders yet, although he knew they would as soon as they got back in contact with Earth, as soon as he reported in. And he’d do it, if there wasn’t any other way, but not without trying one more time. If that didn’t work, if this was a trap, then he’d do what he had to do and try to live with it.
It was the best decision he knew to make, the best he could do for Rodney and for everybody who was screwed by the way the Wraith were using Rodney, for everybody who was also going to be screwed if they didn’t get Rodney back to saving their asses on a regular basis. The best he could do for Atlantis. He’d think about whether it was the best he could do for the Air Force later.
“Let’s go get Rodney,” he said.