6

Ro stormed into her quarters and threw her padd across the cabin. She knocked over a chair and paced the room, trying to rein in her seething emotions. Akaar, Asarem—all of them were wrong. She felt it in her bones. Whatever Captain Mello had detected, it wasn’t a ship making off with Gard. He was still on the station. Every instinct she had screamed it. He would wait for an opportunity, when he was sure everyone’s attention was elsewhere, and then he’d escape for real. She would need to post guards at every transporter and airlock….

No, don’t be an idiot,she told herself. You were wrong. Get over it. Clinging to your interpretation when all the evidence points the other way is just foolish. It’s better this way. Now you can resign without any doubt that this job was a mistake. Let theFederation come. Once this case is closed, you’re out of here—

“Ro,” a voice said in her ear. She spun around at once, launching a punch at the intruder—

Taran’atar caught her fist in his own hand smoothly, without even flinching. Ro shook her hand free of his grip and stepped back. “Who the hell do you think you are? These are my quarters!”

“I know,” Taran’atar said. “I followed you from the Promenade. I needed to speak with you privately.”

“I don’t give a damn what you think you needed,” Ro snapped. “I’m getting a little sick of your unshrouding right next to me whenever you feel like it. And I don’t appreciate you violating my private space uninvited.”

Taran’atar tilted his head slightly as he studied her. “You’re angry, but not at me.”

That’s it.“Get out,” Ro said.

“No,” Taran’atar said. “I was monitoring communications from the Gryphon—”

“You were spying—?”

“Call it what you will,” Taran’atar interrupted. “I do what I deem necessary to carry out my assignments. But I’m growing weary of the way in which everyone in this quadrant questions my actions. Do you want to know what I’ve learned, or are your moral sensibilities too offended by my tactics to listen?”

Ro narrowed her eyes. “Report,” she said through her teeth.

“During my search for the assassin, I stopped to monitor all incoming and outgoing station communications from a backup subspace tranceiver in upper pylon one.”

“You shouldn’t even have been able to gain access to the tranceiver assemblies,” Ro noted.

“Be that as it may, I did,” Taran’atar said. “And since a stationwide communications blackout had been implemented for all but authorized transmissions, it was a simple matter to sift through the existing comm traffic. I learned nothing new from this…until Captain Mello contacted Admiral Akaar from the Gryphon.It was then that I detected a brief anomaly in the transmission: an echo.”

“Meaning what?” Ro said.

“Meaning I was not the only unauthorized listener aboard the station.”

“Quark,” Ro whispered. Please, no, don’t let it be Quark.She knew he sometimes hacked into the comm system….

“No, not Quark,” Taran’atar said. “I checked, and the Ferengi was fully occupied in the affairs of his establishment at the time. But someone else aboard the station was listening when Captain Mello was in contact.”

“Then it’s Gard,” Ro said. “It has to be. I was right after all. He’s still aboard the station.” If so, she’d have to act quickly, before he escaped or did something worse. And there was a personal consideration as well: she now had the chance to make things right before she resigned. Before she turned in her combadge, she was going to bring Shakaar’s assassin to justice.

“That’s my conclusion as well. It wasn’t possible for me to know where he was listening from, but there are a finite number of places aboard the station from which such a thing would be possible.”

Ro went immediately to her computer interface and called up a station schematic displaying the locations of all subspace tranceiver assemblies—the twenty-four Cardassian versions that were part of the station’s original equipment, and the six Federation models Starfleet had added after the withdrawal. Thirty sites to check, scattered throughout the station. And it doesn’t preclude the possibility that he’s kept moving. But maybe there’s a way to narrow the possibilities.

“If you could tell someone else was listening in,” Ro asked, “does that mean he could have been aware of you as well?”

“It’s possible,” Taran’atar said. “That may be why the echo ceased so quickly, and why my subsequent attempts to detect him in the same manner have yielded nothing. He may have gone off-line to avoid detection.”

So he wasn’t expecting someone else to be eavesdropping on station communications. He got scared. In his position, Gard would conclude he was better off remaining still than taking a chance moving from his hiding place. So how to pinpoint him?She studied the rotating schematic. Red dots glowed where the transceivers were located: the “antennae farm” right over ops, the lower core, around the docking ring, up and down the docking pylons, along the habitat ring…

Where would I go?she asked herself. I just killed someone and beamed out to escape. But I can’t leave the station, so I hide on board—someplace from where I can keep tabs on my pursuers, but where they’re least likely to look for me….

Wait a second.

“Computer,” Ro said. “Display detail on section 001–020.”

Taran’atar leaned in behind her as the computer zoomed in on the coordinates.

“Enhance,” Ro said.

The computer enlarged the area.

“Again,” Ro said.

The image zoomed in closer.

“Again.”

On the fourth attempt Ro saw what she was looking for. A small space, but big enough for a humanoid.

“Got you,” she whispered.

Akaar scowled and cursed his luck as he studied the tactical display on the situation table in ops. Eight Federation starships were operating out of Starbase 51, the command base nearest the Trill system. He had planned to mobilize most of them to detect and intercept Gryphon’s quarry. Unfortunately, four of the vessels were on battle maneuvers in the Murasaki sector, too far away to do any good. A fifth, the Appalachia,was undergoing refit at the starbase.

That left only the U.S.S. T’Kumbra,the U.S.S. Sagittarius,and the U.S.S. Polarisavailable to assist Gryphon.Akaar knew that four starships should be more than enough for this operation, but he wanted nothing left to chance. He contacted the Starfleet personnel on Trill and coordinated increased runabout patrols on the edge of the system, just in case.

I have done all that I can from here,Akaar thought. The rest is up to them.

He glanced around ops. Everyone, Bajoran Militia and Starfleet, remained on high alert. Intelligence reports continued to pour in on ship movements and strategic operations throughout the Bajoran sector, as well as the situation on Bajor itself. But so far nothing suspicious had emerged that might shed new light on the assassination. There had been no claims of responsibility as might come from terrorists, and no strange activity within the Bajoran circles of power. Cardassia was being watched carefully as well, although its current representatives here on the station, Gul Macet and the elderly Cleric Ekosha, had been extremely cooperative in the security investigation. Nor had they, unlike the members of the Alonis delegation and several other visiting dignitaries, opted to leave the station once departure clearances had resumed.

Lenaris emerged from the station commander’s office and walked down the steps into the pit. “The news is officially out,” the general said. “First Minister Asarem has addressed the Bajoran people, informing them of Shakaar’s death.”