Chapter Four

Daniel sat at his desk pouring over Tok'ra reports of recent Goa'uld activity. However, the only good it was doing was making him feel like he was at least trying to help Sam. The reports were so vague that they were useless, and there were whole sections missing, sometimes even just half a sentence. It was as though they didn't even care if he noticed that the records were incomplete.

"It's like reading every other page in a mystery novel." Daniel sighed.

He put down the ream of paper that he had been sifting through. Lost in thought, contemplating his next best move, he was startled nearly out of his skin when there was a light knock at his door. A young man with bright red hair peeked into his office.

"Dr. Jackson?"

"Yes...um...Taylor." Daniel replied.

"That's right." Taylor smiled and stepped completely into the office.

"Of SG-6." Daniel recalled. "How can I help you?"

"I was actually hoping that I might be able to help you."

"I have to admit that any information at this point would be greatly appreciated."

"I just got back from PX4-927, where we were...um..."

"Cleaning up the mess from SG-1's last mission?" Daniel supplied with a rueful grin.

"Basically." Taylor agreed. "Anyway, one of the dead Jaffa had a different tattoo than the other seven."

"That's not unusual, anytime a Goa'uld kills another they take over their armies."

"Yeah, but this one was wearing this."

Taylor drew a small plastic evidence bag out of his breast pocket and handed it to Daniel. Turning it over in his hands Daniel made a noise of surprised disgust as if he'd just found a cockroach in his salad. In the bag was a golden First Prime Seal. Daniel put it down and pushed it away.

"Please don't bring me miscellaneous parts off of dead Jaffa without at least warning me first." Daniel instructed.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry...it's not real." Taylor said quickly.

"What?"

"It's fake, some sort of latex." Taylor explained. "He was wearing it over his real tattoo, a plain black one."

"Now that is unusual." Daniel muttered as he picked the Seal up again. "Was the pattern the same underneath?"

"No." Taylor answered and reached back into his pocket and pulled out a Polaroid photo. "As a warning, this is a picture of a miscellaneous dead Jaffa."

"Thanks for the heads up." Daniel smiled.

Taking the photo Daniel studied the pattern tattooed into the Jaffa's forehead. It looked somewhat like two intertwined snakes. He was so intend on trying to identify the mark that he completely forgot about Taylor until the young man cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry," Daniel said automatically. "Lost in thought there for a moment."

"Do you recognize the symbol?"

"No." Daniel admitted. "But this is a tremendous help. Thank you for bringing it to me, I realize that it goes against protocol."

"Practically stealing, but it's worth it if it helps bring Colonel Carter back."

"I'm sure it will. Thank you again."

"Anytime."

Taylor smiled once more and ducked out of Daniel's office. Having a fresh place to start Daniel pulled about a dozen books off his shelf and started combing through them. He wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, but there had to be some reference to twin snakes somewhere.

It seemed like only minutes before someone was knocking on Daniel's door again. However the fact that he'd taken nearly ever book off his shelves said that it had been hours since Taylor had paid him a visit.

Jack had not knocked to gain permission to enter. He had knocked to try and pry Daniel's attention away from his books. Daniel looked up and then started casting about his disaster area of a desk. He picked up a few of the books, but didn't seem to find what he was after.

"What are you looking for?" Jack asked.

"My glasses." Daniel answered irritably.

"Um...you're wearing them."

Daniel stopped cold. He reached up and pulled his glasses off and stared at them for a moment before putting them back on.

"I knew that." Daniel lied.

"Daniel, I'm not going to ask you to go home, because I know you won't. However if you don't go and lay down in one of the VIP rooms for a few hours I'm going to have Dr. Brightman come in here and sedate you forcibly."

"I need to figure this out."

"You need to get some sleep."

"Have you slept?"

"That's not the point."

"I didn't think so." Daniel replied seeing right through Jack's weak attempt to change the subject. "I have a new lead on which Goa'uld took Sam, I just can't seem to quite figure it out."

"What cha got?"

"A Jaffa symbol. I don't recognize which Goa'uld it belongs to. Perhaps we could ask the Tok'ra..."

"Oh...um...no can do." Jack forced an innocent smile.

"Jack...what did you do?" Daniel demanded.

"Let's just say that we're not exactly enemies with the Tok'ra, but we're no longer exactly allies either."

"Jack!"

"Hey, I say 'good riddance'." Jack snarled. "They weren't going to lift a finger to help us. Worse yet, they knew about Mila."

"What?" Daniel asked incredulously. "They new she was a Goa'uld?!"

"Okay so 'knew' is a strong word." Jack admitted. "They 'suspected'."

"And they didn't tell us?"

"Tal'es said, and I quote, 'we didn't want your people going in there guns blazing in case she was still one of us'. I didn't take too kindly to that. When I told them that their little 'omission' cost us the capture of one of our own I was informed that they couldn't really help us, but that they would 'keep an ear out to see if she turned up and would let us know'."

"Let me guess," Daniel sighed "you told them not to bother."

"I didn't say it that nicely, but yeah, that was my basic message."

"I don't understand, I mean they've been difficult to work with before but they've never just abandoned us like this."

"Well, apparently someone is 'hunting' them."

"The Gou'ald have always hunted them."

"Well now they are doing so with amazing efficiency. In the past six months nearly a dozen Tok'ra have disappeared."

"There's a leak somewhere." Daniel guessed.

"And they think it's us."

"What?!" Daniel exsclaimed. "They didn't say that, did they?"

"Not in so many words, but it was clear that they think we're to blame."

"Jack...that's a dangerous thing to say."

"Is it?"

"If that was true then what happened on PX4-927 was..."

"A trap."