“We thought that the Ejhoi Ormiinwere primarily interested in keeping the new stardrive out of the hands of the Romulan military,” Phuong said, his brow furrowed almost as deeply as Ehrehin’s was. “In order to halt the Praetor’s plans for conquest and expansion.”

“That’s only about half right. They certainly don’t want the military to possess the advantage of the new drive, because that would interfere with their ownplans for conquest. Once the technology is in Ch’uihv’s hands, he plans to use it to oust the Praetor and have the Ejhoi Ormiinstage a coup that will place them firmly in control of the imperial government.”

“I thought you weren’t all that comfortable with the Praetor’s ambitions yourself, Doctor,” Phuong said.

“That’s never been a secret,” said the old man. “If the military hadn’t needed my expertise so badly, I would almost certainly have been imprisoned or executed for having spoken my mind on the matter. But at least the Praetor always had the virtue of a certain… predictability. There’s no way to know for certain exactly what the Ejhoi Ormiinradicals would do with my technology.”

Trip looked over to Phuong while Ehrehin was speaking. The Section 31 operative seemed almost to deflate before his eyes as he no doubt was coming to the awful realization that the intelligence the bureau had gathered concerning the Ejhoi Ormiinwas at best badly incomplete, or at worst flat‑out wrong.

It was easy for Trip to imagine what Phuong must be thinking, since the shock of the same realization was settling over him as well. I guess this is the kind of intelligence failure that’s toughest to avoid,Trip thought. Especially when you’ve got to run all your information through the filter of secondhand facts and bribable third‑party information brokers like the Adigeons.

“Help me, Cunaehr,” the old man said, almost begging. “Help me get out of here, and back to the protection of Admiral Valdore’s fleet.”

Trip exchanged another wordless glance with Phuong, who gestured with his head toward the door. He needs to talk with me, but he can’t do it in here,Trip thought, understanding that the room had to be crawling with listening devices.

“I promise you that we’ll do whatever we can to help you, Doctor,” Trip told the old man. “But first, I’d like to know exactly what you’ve revealed to Ch’uihv so far.”

With tears pooling in his eyes, Ehrehin nodded, then began speaking in a low, halting voice….

“I didwarn you that Doctor Ehrehin might not be entirely rational,” Ch’uihv said, his expression dour as he and a pair of his grim uniformed guards escorted Trip and Phuong back to the quarters they had been issued for the duration of their stay at the Ejhoi Ormiinfacility. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he blamed us for the harsh treatment the Romulan military visited upon him in order to ‘motivate’ his research.”

Trip nodded to Ch’uihv as they walked, but he schooled his face into blank impassivity. He simply wasn’t buying Ch’uihv’s story; the old man’s wounds had appeared far too recent to have been inflicted by the Romulan military to which he was so eager to return.

Trip was absolutely convinced that Ehrehin was indeed here entirely against his will, just as the old man had said.

And as he followed Phuong into the spacious guest suite they were sharing, Trip was just as certain that Ch’uihv–or Sopek–had listened to every word of their exchange with the elderly scientist, no doubt hoping that he and Phuong would unwittingly function as Ejhoi Ormiininterrogators, using Cunaehr’s privileged relationship with Ehrehin to entice him to divulge some previously hidden fact regarding the new stardrive.

“Well, what do we do now?” Trip asked Phuong once they were alone together in the suite’s common area.

Phuong tipped his head to one side, as though listening to voices that no one else could hear. Trip realized that he must be consulting the microelectronic gear sewn into his clothing, checking the room for listening devices.

“At least we can speak freely here,” Phuong said at length. He looked Trip squarely in the eye, his face pale even for a Romulan. “I think we screwed up badly in trusting these people.”

Trip’s brow furrowed. “‘We’?”

“I mean the whole bureau. All right, me. They followed myrecommendations, after all.”

Holding up a placating hand, Trip said, “I’m not keeping score. At least we were bothcompletely right about at least one thing.”

“And what’s that?” Phuong wanted to know.

“The fact that the Romulan Empire really is the biggest danger facing Earth right now. The only real question is whichRomulan regime is going to take charge of going to war against us.”

Phuong chuckled, but the sound contained no mirth. “That’s pretty cold comfort.”

Eager to rescue his partner from a funk that wasn’t going to do either of them any good, Trip decided to change the subject. “At least we’re pretty sure we know how much Ch’uihvknows so far.”

Phuong shrugged. “Thanks presumably to Ehrehin’s contacts in the Romulan military, we know that a Romulan admiral named Valdore is planning to launch an attack against some unspecified Coalition planet–most likely Coridan Prime–in the very near future. One of their goals is no doubt to discourage the upcoming signing of the Coalition Compact. But that really isn’t much more than we knew or suspected already.”

“At least the old man hasn’t drawn diagrams of the new space drive for Ch’uihv’s people,” Trip said. Yet,he added silently, feeling a distinct chill at the notion.

“That’s according to Ehrehin,” Phuong said, still sounding disconsolate.

Determined to keep Phuong focused on keeping them both alive, Trip said, “As I think I heard somebodysay not very long ago, we have to make our leaps of faith somewhere. Speaking of which, I’m guessing you’re taking the rest of Ehrehin’s claims at face value.”

Phuong nodded emphatically. “I don’t believe what Ch’uihv says about Ehrehin being only ‘intermittently rational.’ I’ve seen enough prisoners–hell, I’ve interrogatedenough of them–to know the difference between a lie, a delusion, and the plain truth. That man is as rational as you or I, and I believe he’s telling the truth.”

For a moment Trip wondered how much that opinion was worth; after all, it was obvious that Phuong had begun to question his own ability to read people accurately. And weboth voluntarily marched right into this situation,he thought. Just how “rational” does that make either one of us?

And something else was gnawing at Trip as well. “At least he seems rational now,” he said. “And frankly, I have one major doubt about even that.”

Phuong raised an eyebrow quizzically. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that it seemed a little bit too easy to convince him that I was his assistant, miraculously returned from the dead. If Ehrehin was really on top of his game, wouldn’t he have asked a few more questions? If it were mein Ehrehin’s situation, I’d just assume I was dealing with somebody who’d been disguised as Cunaehr.”

A thoughtful look crossed Phuong’s face, then he shrugged. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than to be good. Maybe we were just fortunate enough to stumble onto an advantage that we can exploit once we get Ehrehin out of here.”

Trip nodded, though his engineer’s instincts rebelled against the whole concept of relying on luck. On top of that, he wasn’t feeling at all sanguine about taking advantage of the grief and hope of such a frail, vulnerable old man–especially someone who had already suffered such barbaric treatment as Ehrehin had already endured at the hands of the Ejhoi Ormiin.

But he knew he didn’t have any alternative, especially not when the stakes were as high as they were right now. Maybe having ‘Cunaehr’ at his side for a while will give the poor old guy some comfort after everything he’s been through,Trip thought, trying to assuage his conscience with only partial success.