06 - Siren Song Read Free Page B

chuckle. “You aren’t going to get through
the door until I let you, and the only other way out of there is the rings.
You’ll want to hold your breath, though, if you go that route.”
    “You first,” Carter grumbled as she leaned close to the open panel again and
started pulling out crystals and putting them in her pockets for safe-keeping.
    “I heard that,” Aris responded, sounding wounded. “And you’d better put those
crystals back like you found them. Since I am going to have to let you
out of there eventually.”
    Jack rolled to his feet, looking in the general direction of Aris’ voice.
“And why is that? What the hell do you want with us this time?”
    “With you? Nothing. But Dr. Jackson there is going to be useful. As is Major
Carter.”
    Jack leaned closer to the com panel and said, “Nobody’s doing squat for you, so forget it.”
    “Maybe,” Aris conceded. “Or maybe…” This time his pause lasted so long
that, by the time he took up the thought again, they were all looking at the
ceiling and the hidden intercom speaker, waiting. “Maybe I’ll appeal to your
nobility.” Somehow he made the word sound nasty. “You like to be heroes, right?”
When none of them bothered to answer, he snorted, half-amused, half-disgusted.
“Or maybe I’ll shoot off your fingers or something, Colonel, until Dr. Jackson
does his job. Either way, I’m going to get what I need.”
    With a frown, Daniel got slowly to his feet. He chewed his lip for a moment,
staring at the floor. His hands found their way into his pockets as he assumed
the casual, thinky pose that invariably made Jack nervous, and said, “What,
exactly, do you need?”
    “Daniel,” Jack warned.
    “Just tell me,” Daniel said, holding up a hand to silence Jack.
    Jack wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard Aris sigh. “Nothing much. Do some
reading. Keep the Goa’uld from killing everybody.”
    “Oh,” Daniel said, ducking his head and then looking up at Jack, a little
grin giving him crinkles around his eyes. “That again.”
    Carter smiled, not quite showing teeth.
    Jack sat down next to Teal’c and laced his fingers over his knees. “You
remember how to do it?” he asked Daniel.
    Daniel shrugged. “Like riding a bike, right?”
    “A little, only usually with more—”
    “Gunfire,” Teal’c said.
    “And yelling,” Carter added.
    “And insolence,” Jack said. “You remember your insolence?”
    Daniel patted his pockets. “I know I’ve got it here somewhere.”
    “You are all very amusing.” Aris didn’t sound all that amused. “Sebek is
going to laugh the whole time he’s killing you.”
    “Sebek?” Jack looked the question at Daniel, whose face had already lit with
puzzled recognition.
    Daniel shook his head. “According to Tok’ra intelligence, Sebek—also known
as Sobek—is dead. Bastet and Kali the Destroyer allied against him and killed
him. Bastet took his head as her trophy.”
    “Or not,” Jack said.
    “No, that was reliable intelligence,” Daniel said. “In fact, other Goa’uld
believed it to be true. Yu didn’t contradict me, when I mentioned it.”
    “While you were his slave?” Jack raised his eyebrows. “You and Yu had a lot
of these little conversations?”
    “A few,” Daniel said, raising his eyebrows back. “Sebek was never one of the
big players, I don’t think. But I could be wrong. There’s still stuff—” He
fluttered his fingers next to his temple. “—missing.”
    “That’s inconvenient,” Jack observed and, ignoring Daniel’s half-pained,
half-pissed expression, turned to Teal’c. “T? You heard of this one?”
    “There are many minor Goa’uld in service to the system lords, and many
planets to be administered.”
    “Administered.” Aris’ voice crackled over the intercom, brittle with irony
and anger. “Right. That’s what he’s doing, administering.” The intercom clicked
off.
    Slumping down next to Jack, Daniel leaned his head back against the