Mistaken Identity - Part 2
Created | Updated Feb 22, 2007
Chapter 2
Lorne woke up with a groan; the last thing he remembered was stopping to help that woman on the interstate. He tried to stand, only to find he was handcuffed to the bed. Great! He'd been kidnapped — was it too much to hope that it was that woman and some of her friends? The door opened and a man and woman entered. He could see the woman was the same one from the interstate.
'What the hell do you want?' he said. He winced at the pain in his head. 'If you wanted a lift, you could have said.' The woman didn't smile.
'Still the sarcastic one, Agent Garrity,' said the man.
'Who? Look, you got the wrong guy,' said Lorne.
'Don't play the fool with me, Garrity. What has Jordan Collier done with my promicin?' said the man.
'What? I have no idea what you're talking about. My name isn't Garrity, it's Lorne. I'm a major in the Air Force,' replied Lorne.
'Stop wasting my time. You are close to Tom Baldwin, Tom's close to Shawn Farrell and Shawn is close to Jordan. You must know something, so tell me and I won't let Isabel lose her temper,' said the man.
'Look, I am Major Evan Lorne, not Garrity, but from what I understand he looks a lot like me. I have no idea who this Jordan Collier is — let alone what Promicin is or what he's done with it. I don't know who Tom Baldwin is or Shawn Farrell. Now, you tell me who you are and what this is all about,' shouted Lorne.
The man sighed. 'Be like that.' He turned to the woman. 'Your turn, Isabel,' he said as he opened the door and left. Isabel stood in front of Lorne and stretched her hand out; he felt his throat beginning to close up.
'What are you doing?' he gasped.
'Tell me where Jordan Collier has hidden the Promicin,' Isabel demanded.
'I don't know what you're talking about. Honest, I've never heard of any Jordan Collier,' wheezed Lorne. Isabel's grip tightened. 'I don't know,' gasped Lorne.
Agent Marc Garrity woke up and blinked a couple of times. His head was pounding. The last thing he remembered was someone following him; he moved his arms and found he was handcuffed. The door opened and three men and a woman came in.
'Awake at last, Major Lorne,' said one of the men; his voice had a strange ring to it.
'You ought to take something for that cold of yours, buddy,' said Garrity.
'Still as sarcastic as ever, I see, Major Lorne,' said the man. Garrity blinked again.
'You got the wrong guy. My name's Garrity. I'm an NTAC Agent, not a Major,' he replied.
'Please, Major, we know who you are and what you do. Give us your security code to the Atlantis operating systems,' said the woman.
'My what for the what?' said Garrity 'I have no idea what you're talking about.' Another man stood closer
'It won't do you any good, Major. We know you are second-in-command of the military contingent on Atlantis. We also know you are head of security, so you have access to all the command protocols. We want them to destroy Atlantis; we cannot let the Wraith come this far and interfere with our plans,' he said.
'Military contingent, Atlantis, Wraith, what the hell are you talking about? I work for NTAC. We keep an eye on the 4400,' replied Garrity. The first man's eyes glowed and he picked up a gauntlet with a yellow jewel in the palm.
'I will ask you one more time, Major Lorne. Give me your command protocols,' he said. Garrity sighed.
'For the last time, I'm not Major Lorne, I'm Agent Marc Garrity — but you're not the first person to mistake me for this Lorne guy, I don't know anything about security codes, command protocols, Atlantis or Wraith. I have no idea what you're talking about,' said Garrity.
'That is such a shame,' said the first man as he lifted his hand. The jewel in the gauntlet began to glow and Garrity thought his brain was melting.
Meanwhile, at the SGC...
Colonel John Sheppard barrelled through the door of the briefing room in Stargate Command and saw Elizabeth Weir, General Hank Landry and Dr Bill Lee standing waiting for him. He snapped off a salute to the General.
'What's so important that you dragged me off the beach?' he said to Elizabeth.
'Major Lorne has disappeared,' she said.
'Disappeared? How?' John asked. General Landry took over.
'His brother called late last night, said he hadn't arrived and asked if he'd been detained here. I said no, as I'd seen him leave. Dr Lee was the last to see him,' said Landry. They all looked at Lee.
'I saw him at the gas station, you know, the last one before you hit the interstate. Well, he was filling his tank when this woman approached him,' began Lee.
'Not exactly unusual in Lorne's case,' said Elizabeth, earning herself a glare from John.
'I think this woman had mistaken him for someone else, because she kinda backed away from him all embarrassed-like. They chatted for a couple of minutes. Then her kid called out to her, she went back to the car and she drove off,' said Lee.
'Kid?' inquired John.
'Yeah, little girl of about eight, I should think,' replied Lee.
'That's not the best bit,' said Landry. He nodded at Lee to continue.
'When the woman drove away, the kid yelled "Don't stop on the interstate!" at Lorne,' said Lee. Right on cue, the phone rang and Landry answered it.
'You get the license plate?' asked Sheppard. Lee shook his head. 'Get a good look at the woman?'
'Yeah, I'd recognise her again,' admitted Lee.
'Can you do one of those photo IDs that the police use?' asked John.
'I think Colonel Carter can,' said Lee as he made a move to the door.
Landry put the phone down and turned to them. 'They've found Lorne's car,' he said.
'Let me guess, on the interstate, right?' said John.
'Right,' replied Landry.
NTAC Headquarters, Seattle
Diana Skouris entered the nerve centre of NTAC Headquarters to find it a hive of activity.
'What's going on?' she asked her partner, Tom Baldwin.
'Garrity hasn't turned up for work. Didn't come in yesterday, either,' said Tom.
'Anyone been to check his apartment?' Diana asked.
'Yeah, they said it looked like he hadn't been there for a couple of days,' he replied. Diana smiled.
'Not exactly new, is it?' she said.
'We also found his car, parked in the lot on 15th, right where he left it when he was investigating that arson attack",' he said.
'Who was the last person to see him?' she asked. A man to her left raised his hand slightly.
'That would be me,' said the computer geek known as Marco Pacella.
'Where was he?' said Tom.
'Heading for the lot on 15th, I guess. I was in my uncle's coffee shop. Anyway this woman runs after him and grabs his arm,' said Marco.
'And that's newsworthy how?' said Diana with a smirk. Marco glared and carried on
'Well, I think this woman thought Garrity was someone else, because she looked incredibly embarrassed,' said Marco.
'And?' said Tom.
'And they talked for a couple of minutes, then went on their way,' Marco replied.
'What was this woman like?' Tom asked.
'Tall, well-dressed, elegant, not Garrity's type at all,' said Marco.
'Can you remember enough to make a e-fit picture of her? If she was the last one to have any contact with Garrity we need to find her,' said Tom.
'Sure,' said Marco as he turned to the computer.
'This is looking bad,' muttered Tom to Diana. She frowned as she remembered Maia's words to Garrity's doppleganger in the gas station.
