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

right?”
    “That is true,” Teyla said. “I am a contractor, and I can quit.”
    “I don’t think that’s necessary,” Sam said. “But you’d better go talk to Keller now so you’ll have time to suit up if Zelenka needs you upstairs to initialize systems on the cruiser. Unless you were planning for Torren to do that.”
    “Torren is on New Athos, and can stay there until I return,” Teyla said. “It is best. And I will speak to Dr. Keller now.”

Chapter Four
     

Quicksilver
     
     
    The visit to Gaffen had been delayed and delayed again after the loss of the queen’s cruiser, but finally Ember had managed to convince someone that it was a priority if they were to make use of the stolen ZPM. What had proven impossible was to convince anyone that Quicksilver should accompany them. Quicksilver snarled silently at the memory. Even Ember had refused — you are too important to risk, he had said, which was probably true, but not really an adequate excuse. Nighthaze had tipped his head to one side, perplexed — your men can’t handle this on their own? — and he had not dared take the matter further.
    Which meant he was stuck here, on the hive, while Ember and the others were on Gaffen, and there was no way he could ask them to investigate the last few addresses in the DHD’s buffer to see if Atlantis had dialed there. He had almost convinced himself that he was mistaken, anyway, that he was truly Quicksilver, brother of Dust, senior cleverman in the hive of Queen Death, but the decision to send his men to Gaffen wakened all his previous doubts. And now he would never know.
    He snarled again, pacing the length of the chamber he shared with Ember, as much at his own melodrama as at the situation itself. He would find another way to test his hypothesis, of course — if it was impossible, he was the man to do it — but that would mean starting over again. And there was no way to predict when the queen would order another attack on Atlantis’s blocked Stargate. If he were McKay in truth, that ought to please him, but at the moment, it was only more frustration.
    At least Ember’s absence gave him a chance to search the other cleverman’s files. He had been through them before, but always in haste, always with one eye on the door, for fear that Ember would return and catch him at it. This time he would have time to work without fear of being interrupted.
    He went to his own console, entered a query. The screen pulsed for an instant, then displayed his answer: Ember’s shuttle had left the hive. And that meant it was time to get to work. He turned to Ember’s console, entered the codes he had stolen, and watched as the system unlocked itself. He would need to be careful, do nothing that could not be erased, but he would at least have a chance to look at Ember’s files on him. He was typing the query even as he thought, scowled as the system returned a null result. All right, maybe Ember didn’t keep a file on him — that was a point in favor of his being Quicksilver — or maybe it was just better hidden.
    At second search, there was a hidden portal, secure storage reached through a second set of codes. Quicksilver stared at the screen for a moment, then entered a code he knew Ember kept in reserve. The subsystem opened obediently, but the screen was blank. Quicksilver narrowed his eyes at the screen. That made no sense; he was sure there was something here, something hidden — the numbers didn’t match, there was something in the volume in spite of the void. He considered it for a moment, then entered another code. The screen shifted, and a gameboard swam into view.
    “Oh, please,” he said, irritated. If he’d wasted time on Ember’s secret plan to win at towers… And then the pattern registered: not a plan, but a problem, and in the moment he identified it, he saw the solution. He moved the silver blade, and the image dissolved, revealed a tiny list of files.
    None of them had anything to do with