Jackson was the one to finally break into their debate. "Actually, I believe Colonel Sheppard may be right." He angled the remote toward the television, and the image abruptly vanished.
That seemed to snap Woolsey out of his fixated daze, because he turned from the screen and, visibly taking control of himself, spoke up. "This tape was made four months ago. Less than a week later, Mark died in that apartment when the dry cleaning store downstairs went up in an electrical fire. I found the tape just recently among some boxes from Mark's office at the Pentagon. When I called the sleep clinic, the patient coordinator explained the reason for the recordings and shrugged off the `anomalous' night as a prank. She very politely informed me what the fee would be for returning the camera late."
A sardonic smirk flicked across his features and quickly vanished as his gaze strayed to the wide windows overlooking the gate room. "After that, I made the call I should have made in the first place. We had Mark's body exhumed and flown here, where General Landry volunteered his medical staff for a full autopsy."
"The fire did mask the actual cause of death." Dr. Lam clasped her hands on top of a plastic file folder she'd placed on the table. "It couldn't mask the residual traces of the Wraith feeding enzyme."
John made an effort not to flinch. A Wraith on Earth. Impossible-yet, even before that thought had fully formed, he reminded himself that the word `impossible' had disappeared from his vocabulary the day he'd flown General O'Neill to the Ancient outpost in Antarctica.
Woolsey might not have been one of John's favorite people, but the guy had lost family, and that entitled him to some consideration. Landry took over, subtly motioning Woolsey toward a seat. "It gets worse. Last night, one of our medical technicians, Logan Cabal, came home to find his wife, Jamie, murdered. He recognized signs of a Wraith attack and called for an SGC response team, but the smoke alarm had already activated and neighbors had called 911."
"Surely the military can play some type of national security trump card on the local cops when necessary," said Rodney, the end of his statement sounding more like a query.
"It's not quite that straightforward," Landry answered ruefully. "These killings are hardly typical, and they've attracted some attention."
"They'? How would the actual circumstances of Payton's death be known?"
"Not Payton. Others °"
John barely had time to process that startling new detail before Jackson reached over to slip the file out from under Lam's hands and rifle through it. Without looking up, he explained, "The FBI and local law enforcement are investigating Jamie Cabal's death as a bizarre ritual sacrifice. I spoke to the Bureau's profiler at the scene, and she informed me of a number of similar murders, including two prior incidents in Colorado Springs within the last month."
"Implying that some of the murders took place elsewhere." Elizabeth's poised demeanor showed signs of cracking at last.
Jackson nodded. "The first case was in L.A. in late 2001. Similar cases have been reported by Interpol, Australian Federal Police, and New Zealand Police. Unfortunately, because the fire is a central part of the M.O., we have no way of determining the actual number of victims."
Which meant that they probably were dealing with more than one Wraith. This day just kept getting better.
"In spite of what television has led most people to believe, a full autopsy isn't standard procedure," Lam pointed out, and for once even the cool, unflappable doctor seemed a mite edgy. "In fact it's a fairly rare occurrence. When a coroner sees significant burns-to the point where some victims were almost incinerated-it's not hard to misinterpret the deaths as being fire-related."
"If the tape of Payton is anything to go by, the victims may not always have been killed immediately," said Jackson. "For all we know, some might have had multiple encounters before the final act."
"Mark suffered from nightmares off and on for much of his life," Woolsey admitted. "He learned to live with them, but then he was diagnosed with chronic fatigue." A spasm of guilt crossed his face. "When we were teenagers I used to tease him because he always described the nightmare in the same way. A woman coming to him in the night, straddling his chest, touching him…" His eyes strayed back to the nowdark screen.
"It's a common enough dream, more so among pubescent boys, for obvious reasons," Lam reassured him. "You can't blame yourself for not recognizing it as something more significant."
John lifted his boot in anticipation of needing to shut Rodney up, but the scientist apparently had enough sense to keep any details of his own adolescent dreams to himself.
Finally locating the page he'd been searching for, Jackson tugged it from the file and set it down on the table's dark leather inlay. "This symbol has been a common factor in all the known crime scenes. The FBI's theory is that it's the emblem of a cult whose members kill with some form of yetto-be identified toxin."
He pushed the photo across the table toward Rodney and John: one large aqua ring inside another, pierced by an elongated triangle. The drawing-or more precisely, spray-painting-was rough and simple, but John hazarded a guess. "A Stargate?"
"And a Wraith Dart," Rodney finished, slowly slumping forward until he could drop his head into his hands.
"We managed to get the authority to perform the Cabal autopsy here," said Lam, reclaiming her file from Jackson. "Waiting on the results is what kept me from getting to this meeting sooner. There were some minor variations in the chemical composition of the enzyme, which I'll be investigating further, but I can confirm that Jamie Cabal was indeed killed by a Wraith attack."
John had almost managed to forget that Radek was present until the scientist spoke up. "We may be able to account for the differences," he began. "Since the-"
"General'?" The respectful yet firm hail drew everyone's attention to Chief Harriman, who had entered the briefing room via Landry's office. "Sir, sorry to interrupt. At least two news stations are reporting that a body was recovered from a fire in a local apartment complex last night. They've gotten word that the coroner's office is doing an autopsy."
Spinning his chair toward Lam, Rodney demanded, "Didn't you say the body from last night's attack is here? Are we now saying that there were two of these murders in one night?"
Harriman clasped his hands behind his back. "General, the reporters are speculating about a potential arsonist serial killer in Colorado Springs."
If anything could have darkened Landry's features further, that information had done the trick. "We were afraid something like this might occur," he said, half to himself. "Just not so soon."
Somewhere amid all this mess, beneath the obvious terror associated with the notion of Earth-based Wraith hiding under the proverbial bed, there had to be a `how' and a 'why'. Although John didn't have the first clue where to look, he was starting to get the idea that finding those answers was about to become his primary goal in life. For that, he needed to get the rest of his team here-a thought that brought the M1M316 mission back to center stage. Just what had Carson been working on?
"The Stargate program needs to assess and eliminate this threat. We can't rely on law enforcement."
Surprisingly, that assertion came from Woolsey. Whether it was due to his recent ordeal on Atlantis or Payton's murder, the IOA's lackey seemed to have grown a backbone, along with some common sense.
Woolsey's gaze moved over Elizabeth, John, Rodney, and Radek in turn. "You're here because you know more about the Wraith than anyone else on this planet. I suggest you get down to the county morgue and find out whatever you can, as quickly as you can."
While the task sounded like a good starting point on Earth, John didn't report to Woolsey. Furthermore, nothing in the discussion had yet told him how the Isla Nubla of the Pegasus Galaxy figured into this. He cast a questioning look at the head of the table. "General'? What about the rest of my team?"