Read STARGATE ATLANTIS: The Furies (Book 4 in the Legacy series) for Free Online

And when Ember returned… His feeding hand flexed. He would get answers this time.

Chapter Five
     

Rain
     
     
    The IOA preferred to meet at Homeworld Command rather than at the SGC. There were many more five star restaurants in Washington, Jack thought cynically. And besides, it was the least he could do for Hank Landry. Keeping the IOA firmly in DC and out from under the feet of the Stargate program was worth a good deal.
    Also, when you met at the SGC something unexpected might happen. And it was almost never good.
    The downside was that in DC they tended to meet and meet and meet. Their meetings in Colorado Springs were shorter. They were all in a hurry to blow this taco stand and get home. In DC there was no reason not to just go on meeting and meeting.
    Especially when there was fun to be had. Crucifying Dick Woolsey was a blood sport.
    He’d been their darling and he’d disappointed them. It wasn’t enough to fire him. They were going to get their full money’s worth out of seeing him fight hopelessly for his job first. Clausewitz, or whoever it was, was right. Politics was crueler than war.
    They sat around Homeworld Command’s tidy conference table, coffee and tea and water continually resupplied by a nearly invisible lieutenant with enough security clearance to go to the moon, in their fifth hour today of savaging Woolsey. Lesser men would have already resigned. It kind of made Jack O’Neill feel sorry for the poor bastard, for all that Woolsey had been a thorn in his side enough times.
    Roy Martin, the new American representative, wanted to go over everything in tortuous detail and wanted hard copies of everything, ‘not these fancy electronic files.’ Another job for the highly cleared lieutenant, running out to the printer like the model of twenty four year old efficiency. Next month she’d be training to be on an SG team. If she didn’t wash out, she’d be past getting the coffee. But as it was, Anderson (he thought her name was Anderson, he’d look when she came back in) was taking the opportunity to impress rather than sulking about being a glorified copy girl. There was something about her ramrod straight posture and the quick click of her heels that reminded him of somebody.
    “Is that not the case, General?”
    Everybody was looking at him. And he had no idea what the question was. “It might be,” Jack said.
    Woolsey looked exasperated. “It might be that it is our policy to require an IDC before we drop the shield or open the iris on the Stargate? Hasn’t that been hard and fast for the last thirteen years?”
    “It is absolutely our policy,” Jack said decisively. “But there are always exceptions. For example, if the incoming traveler sends a video message providing positive identification in the absence of the equipment to transmit an IDC properly.”
    Woolsey looked at him like he was needlessly muddying the waters. Which he was. Jack shut up.
    “And so we did not lower the shield when the message came in from New Athos. We responded by radio with assurances that a team would be on the way until the transmission ceased on the other end,” Woolsey said.
    “And why did you provide them with the vital information that we were about to send men through the Stargate?” Shen asked.
    Woolsey’s mouth twitched. “Because,” he began.
    S.R. Desai, the Indian representative, folded his hands on the table before him. “I don’t believe that our new colleague, Mr. Martin, has actually heard the message in question. Perhaps it would be instructive to play it for him so that he can better understand the decisions that were before Mr. Woolsey in the moment.”
    Shen pursed her lips. “We all have a transcript,” she said shortly. “I don’t see that we need to waste…”
    “It’s a proper request,” Desai said mildly.
    “I’m happy to provide that if it’s necessary,” Jack said, not looking at Desai. He thought he understood what he was up to. He glanced at the officer