Chapter Seventy Four

* * * * * *

"Who are you?"
Don't answer.
Don't answer.
She meditated on the words, holding on to them.
"What is your name?"
Amber sat there, the chair cold against her bare skin, the long shirt ineffectual in the chilled air.
Don't answer.
Don't answer.
He had been asking the same two questions for a very long time.
"Very well."
Amber felt the prick in her arm but before she could turn her head, her vision blurred.
A moment later, her eyes cleared and she was startled as the lights turned on in the room.
"I hope you rested well. We have a long day ahead of us."
Amber's head swam for a second.
"I didn't sleep, I blinked."
The man paused in his pacing.
"On the contrary. You slept for nine hours. It's now time to start."
Amber shook her head.
"No."
"Who are you?"
"No."
"What is your name?"
"No."
"Who are you?"
Amber just sighed, trying to tune him out.
"Good night."
Amber looked up.
"You just got here."
"No, I've just been wasting my voice for hours. I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning."
Amber's eyebrows pulled together in confusion.
She barely felt the prick in her arm before her vision blurred again.
Her eyes drifted shut.
"Talk to me."
Amber opened her eyes, the exhausted tone catching her off guard.
"No."
"What is your name?"
"No."
Her mind fuzzed as he began to get upset.
She smiled at him, noting the calm his face pretended while he body screamed with anger.
That meant she was doing her job.
She wasn't sure how many days they'd been at this, but she hadn't given in.
That was her job and she'd done it so far.
A prick and she fell asleep again.
"I only need you to answer one more question and then we'll be done."
Amber started at the voice.
She felt exhausted.
Don't...answer.
Don't answer.
"I just need the name of your commanding officer and we'll be finished."
What?
When had they jumped to that question.
She hadn't told him anything.
"Thank you. I appreciate your willingness to talk. That will be all."
Amber started, a small fear running through her stomach.
Had she said something without knowing it?
A small prick, a blink, and then blackness.

* * * * * *

Teal'c picked up the recorder.
"Is it all on this?"
"Yeah."
"Why do you have it to listen to if you do not wish to..."
"It's not mine, Teal'c."
"Then who owns it?"
"I don't know. It was on Danny's desk when I came in."
"Then you assume it has your de-briefing on it."
Teal'c knew his point had not missed its target.
The Colonel grinned wryly.
"Yes, Teal'c. I snooped."
"If you did not bring this in here, O'Neill, then who did?"
"I don't know why anyone who could would give it to Daniel."
"It was placed here after DanielJackson left the base."
O'Neill looked up sharply at that.
"How do you know?"
"I was in here just before you were summoned to the infirmary."
"So you think this was planted?"
"Possibly for you. How easy was your escape from the infirmary?"
"Ridiculously easy. I thought maybe it was just the night staff laxity, but you're right..."
"I saw DoctorCorvores asleep and had thought they would have made you sleep as well."
"No...I mean...no, they didn't. I waited for them to, but they didn't and I got out of there."
"So this was possibly deliberate."
"Yeah...but why?"

* * * * * *

Her eyes opened, slowly, but of course she couldn't see anything.
She'd woken up many times and it was always the same.
The rough texture of the fabric lying across her face made her nose itch, but after hours of the same itching, she'd finally given up trying to scratch it.
The cold floor barely registered in her conscious as she tried to listen for any distinctive sounds, but the muffled noise that had been her constant since her ears had been securely covered with a dark tape and the hood had been pulled over her head, was the only indication she wasn't alone.
Hunger ate at her and she tried to ignore it, knowing that indulging the sensation would only make it worse.
A sharp object...possibly a foot...prodded her onto her side.
The pain hadn't completely returned, yet, dulled by the constant injections she'd been given, but she still ached from the fall she'd taken right before being captured.
She felt hands run over her body and held herself as still as possible, not giving them the satisfaction of making her flinch.
She could feel the person's frustration after awhile as the hands grew rougher.
Then, she was lifted, air rushing to cool the floor where her natural body heat had warmed the ground.
She felt dizzy with vertigo as her sense of direction became repeatedly skewed.
The impact of a hard surface along her back jolted her mind out of it's drowsy nausea.
Pain streaked through her nerves, leaving a burning sensation in their wake.
Her arm was lifted and she felt another prick...another injection more than likely.
She would probably overdose before telling them anything so she just relaxed, trying to concentrate on something, anything else.
The hood was snapped around her face a few times before she was lifted and it was removed.
A bright light flashed in her eyes, making it impossible to see her captors.
No one spoke as hands held her face still and she tried, curious, to figure out what they were doing.
A sharp blade slid across her neck and up her throat.
Terror ran through her and she fought it, desperately, for control.
A glint of fear held on, even as she realized they were shaving her.
Again, she wondered how long she'd been there.
The long shirt, made of the same fabric as the hood, was all she'd been given to wear after she'd been photographed and then interrogated.
She hadn't told them anything.
Not even her name.
All the injections just made her sick.
That was all.
A tearing sensation filled her hearing and the sudden sound shook her.
She trembled against her will as sharp pain echoed through her ears.
"...ful, or you will damage his hearing. I do not want scars from the tape."
Amber turned her head toward the deeply harsh voice, only to have her head held in place until at last the painful pulling sensation stopped.
"Open your eyes."
A soft, lovely and heavily accented voice...she would remember that voice.
Amber carefully opened one and then both eyes, taking a moment to focus on the mask in front of her.
"You are free to go."
Confusion followed by suspicion.
Amber didn't reply, not believing for a moment that she was free.
"I would not lie to you, Major O'Neill."
Major O'Neill?
She hadn't told them her name or rank.
How could they know?
"We know all we need to know now. You have been very helpful. Thank you."
Impossible.
She hadn't told them anything.
Panic rose and she fought it, too.
They were bluffing.
It had to be a trick...yet, they knew her name.
That man had said there was only one question left.
He had to be lying.
"Help him stand. He will be weak at first."
Two other masked individuals...big individuals moved forward and lifted her to her feet.
"How..."
Amber winced at the dry rawness of her throat.

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