She walked as silently as she knew how, slipped around a corner-there, a Cardassian standing behind a computer console, and before he could even look up, she shot him in the chest with her phaser on its highest setting. He fell backward and seemed to take a very long time to hit the ground. Kira looked to see what he had been doing at the console and was immediately greeted with a grisly scene. Displayed across his viewscreen, Tahna Los hung from the ceiling of a dank corridor that must have been somewhere below her, judging from the sound of his screams, while two expressionless Cardassians were taking turns peeling back slices of flesh from his naked back. Tahna screamed in agony, and Kira threw her hands over her face, but not before she saw that the same Cardassians were carefully, painfully cauterizing the flesh back into place with a crude dermal regenerator, presumably so they could begin to cut once again, after his tender skin had artificially healed back into lumpy scar tissue.

Kira frantically pecked at the computer to try and assess Tahna's location, but after an agonizingly long moment with no success, she decided instead to simply follow the sound of his terrible cries. She found a spiral staircase and quickly descended, discovering a dim and sweltering underground corridor with a line of three doors. Her ears were full of the sound of it now, and the echoing sound of the questions the Cardassians were putting to the hapless Tahna: Kira Nerys-you know her. Where is she?

Had she really heard her own name? Or was her imagination just trying to amplify her own terror? It must be the latter, for their voices were muffled, in part by Tahna's groans. He began to scream again, either determined not to tell them anything, or simply in so much pain that he couldn't speak.

Thinking with some uncertainty that she had found the right door, she took out the lock with a quick burst of her phaser and let herself inside-to find that Tahna was not in this room at all. A nearly emaciated woman was chained to the wall by her wrists. For an instant, Kira thought she was dead, and almost turned to leave her-but the woman suddenly coughed up a bilious spew of green all down the front of the rags she was dressed in, and shuddered with the resultant coughing fit that followed. Appalled, Kira rushed to her, using her weapon to burn away the chains that bound her to the wall.

"Get out of here!" she whispered, but the corpselike figure made no move, only stared at her with confused, dead-seeming eyes.

"It's too bright," the woman complained, her voice husked and raw. "Shut the door."

"You're free, you have to go," Kira insisted, but she could not afford the time it would take to help her, for Tahna's strangled cries had begun again.

At the next door, Kira found her target-but there were three Cardassians in the dark, hot room, not the two she'd expected. She aimed the line of her phaser fire at the restraints that held Tahna to the ceiling, and as he fell to the ground she wasted no time in swinging the beam around to hit one of the two Cardassians who had been administering Tahna's torture. The first one fell, but not before the other two Cardassians in the room could react. The nearest of them, the one she had not anticipated, managed to grab her, and the other relieved her of her phaser, though she kicked and screamed with all of her might.

"Tahna!" she cried. "Los!" But he lay completely still on the floor where he had fallen, apparently dead.

"You killed him," one of the soldiers said cruelly. "He was connected to a life support system, and you put him into shock."

"No!" she screamed.

"I told you she'd come after him," the other Cardassian laughed to his companion. "You owe me twenty lek leks." Kira could feel his groping fingers beginning to travel to places where she could not tolerate them. She screamed louder, but Tahna still did not move, and Kira bit her tongue as the Cardassians continued to hatefully explore her with their hands, tugging at her clothes. Through their sick laughter, she tasted hot salt in her mouth, unsure if it was blood or tears.

The lights flickered before they went out entirely, the Cardassians loudly expressing their angry confusion, and Kira managed to kick one of her assailants hard enough to make him lose his grip on her. The other Cardassian only held her tighter in the blind darkness-until a burst of blue light suddenly filled the chamber, and there was a loud thunk thunk as the soldier who still held her fell to the floor, dragging Kira with him and pinning her to the floor. She struggled to free herself from the weight of his body while she heard some crashing and struggling, the other Cardassian shouting before more phaser fire lit up the room, and then, as suddenly as they had gone out, the lights were powered back up. They were dimmer than before, humming noisily, apparently driven by a crude backup system-but at least Kira could see again. as the soldier who still held her fell to the floor, dragging Kira with him and pinning her to the floor. She struggled to free herself from the weight of his body while she heard some crashing and struggling, the other Cardassian shouting before more phaser fire lit up the room, and then, as suddenly as they had gone out, the lights were powered back up. They were dimmer than before, humming noisily, apparently driven by a crude backup system-but at least Kira could see again.

Breathless, Kira looked around the room to see that Tahna had weakly crawled to his knees. Near the doorway stood the emaciated woman Kira had freed just a few moments before, a crazed, haunted expression lighting up her eyes, and a smoking phaser-presumably Kira's, snatched from the table where the Cardassians had left it-clutched tightly in her hand.

"Let's get out of here," Kira said, and helped Tahna to his feet. He leaned on her heavily, barely able to stand. The other woman reached out one terribly thin and dirty arm to steady him, and together, the two women dragged him up the spiral staircase, and outside toward freedom.

Odo could find no words. He watched his forensic analyst go over the scene of the explosion for the third time, apparently trying to find any extraneous evidence that would point to a conclusion other than what they were all thinking-that Odo had condemned the wrong men to death for the attempt on Dukat's life. Not that it would have mattered much to the Cardassians-Bajorans were all guilty of something. Odo had found this assumption to be almost universally held by his Cardassian cohorts. But the shape-shifter had always done his best to refute this prejudice, and he worried now that he had failed.

This new explosion, which had taken place on the Promenade earlier today, had missed Dukat and his entourage by such a narrow margin that the sleeve of Dukat's uniform had been singed, his hand badly burned; but his life had been spared yet again, thanks to one of his soldiers, who had managed to get the prefect out of the way just before the device was detonated. It was, curiously, the same soldier who had saved the prefect during the last assassination crisis, but Odo quickly surmised that it was because Dukat had specifically chosen this man to accompany him on an almost daily basis. At least, that was the conclusion that Odo wanted to be true.

"Can you give me a preliminary picture of what the evidence is suggesting to you, Dal Kaer?" Odo solemnly inquired of the analyst.

Kaer's mouth was an unmoving line as he faced the security chief, and then he spoke. "Whoever committed this crime was apparently in league with our three suspects from earlier in the week," he said without emotion.

Odo nodded. "A fair conclusion," he allowed, though he was thinking something very different. "It is a shame then," he added, "that our three suspects have been executed already. Otherwise they could perhaps help us with this investigation."

Kaer looked taken aback. Odo had not intended to let so much apparent bitterness show in his voice, and he modified his tone. "But there is no reason to speculate on lost opportunities," he said. "We must make the most of the evidence that we have access to."

"Indeed. I'll have Gil Letra round up a sampling of our usual troublemakers from the Bajoran sector and he can begin questioning them right away."

Odo nodded, as he normally did to such a suggestion, but an overwhelming possibility had him deeply troubled-the possibility that Dukat's current Cardassian adjutant somehow knew about the bombings, for it was simply too uncanny, in Odo's mind, that the soldier would have known to push Dukat out of the way just before the explosion erupted. Dukat would reject the hypothesis immediately; Odo knew there was little point in even suggesting such a thing. After all, several identical bombings had occurred in Musilla Province recently, and Dukat would be sure to point out that his assistant could hardly be associated with those incidents. But Odo also knew that it was not unheard of for Cardassians to occasionally assist in Bajoran mischief, for a large enough bribe, or for their own political gain.

Odo wondered if perhaps this soldier had caught wind of a terrorist plot, agreed to help carry it out in exchange for some favor or bribe, and then saved his prefect at the last moment so he would appear to be a hero. It was not beyond the realm of possibility. However, Dukat would never accept the idea. This case would likely remain open, just like that of the Bajoran chemist who had been killed. Dukat didn't care about justice so much as he cared about making an appropriate display of punishment to keep his workers in line, and though Odo wanted to deny that truth, it was in cases such as this one that it became impossible to ignore. That he was an instrument in carrying out Dukat's draconian policies was troubling, to say the least.

The shape-shifter returned to his office to log the evidence into the security database, for all the good it would do anyone. He planned to regenerate immediately after his business with this case was completed, but as soon as he entered his office, he saw that it would be impossible. The Ferengi child was waiting for him.

"Chief," Nog implored him, rising to his feet. "My uncle says to tell you that he's dropping the charges against my father. Please-you've got to let him out."

"Then why isn't your uncle here?" Odo said, brushing past the small alien.

"He's too busy tending his bar. He tried to contact you, but you were unavailable-"

"I'm in the middle of a high-profile investigation," Odo said. "I don't have time to resolve these petty family squabbles right now. Tell your uncle that if he wants his brother released, he'll have to come to my office and fill out the paperwork himself."

"But...chief...there's nobody to tend the bar, and I thought you might-"

"Quark might have thought of that inconvenience when he had your father arrested," Odo said irritably. Of course, it was all utter foolishness. Once again, the Ferengi were having a pointless tiff, and once again, Odo had been dragged into it. This time, Quark was accusing his brother of attacking a customer, a claim Odo found to be unlikely, but the Kobheerian freight officer substantiated the claims, and Odo had no choice but to put Rom in a holding cell until he could be processed and fined.

The young Ferengi left the office, clearly upset and concerned for his father, and Odo began the process of entering the latest data into the files on the explosion from this afternoon. But something was troubling him-something more than the obvious discrepancies regarding the apparent assassination attempt. He was bothered by the false claims Quark and the Kobheerian captain were laying against Rom. Though it was the sort of thing he usually paid the very least amount of attention to, his thoughts persisted in suggesting that Quark was up to something. There was a pattern in these arrests of Rom, and while Odo might be naive, he was not an idiot.

Odo was tired, and his body was practically quavering with the desire to liquefy, but he decided his hunch was worth a second look. He made his way back to the holding cells, where several imprisoned Bajorans called out to him from behind the force fields. He disabled the field that held the Ferengi, who was sitting silently by himself in the corner, apparently trying to avoid any interaction with the angry Bajorans in the vicinity. He did not immediately realize that the force field had been deactivated, and Odo was forced to call to him.

"Rom," Odo addressed the other man. "Come into my office, please. I have a few questions for you."

"Uh. Okay," the Ferengi replied. "But I already told you. I didn't hit anyone."

"Yes, I heard you the first time. But I'm curious to know-why are you lying for your brother again?"

Rom looked simultaneously astonished and terrified, his mouth falling open to expose his jagged teeth. "That's not true, Odo!" he cried. "I don't know anything-just ask Quark!"

"Yes, so he's told me, on more than one occasion," Odo said, folding his arms and tapping his fingers restlessly against his elbow. The urge to regenerate was becoming a need.

The Ferengi continued to jabber, but Odo already knew what the truth was, for it had happened twice before. Odo would not play along this time. "Your brother and the Kobheerian were conducting some sort of transaction."

"No!" Rom said stoutly.

"The Kobheerian is gone now. Did your brother have you arrested so you couldn't interfere? Or was it because he simply wanted to divert attention away from himself?"

"I don't know anything about any transaction," Rom insisted. "I don't know why he had me arrested. I was just-"

"Yes, how could you have known what your brother was up to, when you were locked in here?"

"That's right," Rom said hopefully, though he didn't seem to understand where Odo's logic was going. Odo knew he had hit on the correct scenario, though there wasn't any way to prove it. He wasn't sure if he was quite so concerned with proving anything anymore, at least, not today.

"It worked the first time he did it, which was shortly after you accidentally implicated him with that business that got him fined for dealing in illegal Jibetian goods. It worked the second time he did it, last month, when the Boslic freighter captain was spending so much time in the bar. But this is the last time he tries it. I want you to be sure and tell him that, Rom. I'm dismissing your case. You're free to go."

The Ferengi did not even stop to thank him; he only scurried out onto the Promenade and back to his brother's crooked establishment. It had occurred to Odo numerous times that if Quark's bar were eliminated from the station, an exceptional percentage of the petty complaints that clogged his arrest roster would simply cease to exist. But then, he considered, the station's residents would find some other means of causing trouble, and anyway, Odo did not have the authority to make such a suggestion.

In fact, how much authority did he really have here? He could release an unfairly accused Ferengi waiter, but beyond that, he was simply adhering to a rigid set of rules laid out by the prefect-rigid for anyone but Dukat himself. And within the rigidity of those laws, Odo had begun to discover that there were many curious instances in which following Cardassian policy to the letter resulted in the conviction of innocent men-as in the case of Rom's frequent incarcerations at the behest of his brother...or the case of the three executed Bajorans.

He pushed away the latter thought yet again, for there was nothing he could do to resolve it. It was time for him to regenerate, and he went to retrieve the vessel where he could be safely contained in his natural state. But before he could be lulled into comfortable senselessness, he recalled some of the incidents from his days on Bajor-days when he had decided that what the Cardassians were doing on this world was wrong in its entirety. Odo had believed it until he had come to Terok Nor, and had met several Cardassians whom he thought he could relate to, on some level. Their laws had seemed sensible to him at the time-comfortably well-defined, unlike the Bajorans, for whom just about anything could fall under the definition of "good." But now he was forced to rethink his assessment of the Cardassians once again, and he was revisiting his previous ideas of the so-called annexation more often than he wanted to.

If it was true that the occupation was wrong, then could any of the Cardassians' actions, their laws, their decisions-could any of it possibly be right? Or must it all be rejected as further extension of their evil? Odo had to acknowledge that he didn't know anymore, that the definition of what was right as it was given by a Bajoran terrorist, or his friend Russol, or the prefect, or the Ferengi bartender, all definitions seemed to intersect, and yet still contradict. As an outsider, Odo should have been in the perfect position, as Russol had said, from which to judge what was truly just. But it was becoming clearer to him all the time-he was not really an outsider at all.

OCCUPATION YEAR FORTY-ONE.

2368 (Terran Calendar)

19.

Tahna Los always appreciated a good excuse to shimmy through the tunnels and speak to Nerys, though Shakaar was usually hovering over them while they talked. The cell leader was ever trying to project his "brotherly" vibe, but Tahna knew better. Edon was a notorious womanizer, and though he hadn't made any advances toward Nerys that Tahna knew about, it was only a matter of time. Anyway, Edon had been bickering with Biran and Jouvirna more than usual lately-trifling over "ethics" as always. Tahna was thankful that on this day, Edon was off in another cavern with Mobara, looking over some piece of equipment or other.

"What do you want now, Tahna?" Nerys griped. She hadn't been doing anything in particular, as far as Tahna could tell. She held a padd in one hand-she had probably been reading something. But she always had to make a show of being annoyed by him. In truth, Tahna welcomed it. After the last time he had been captured by the Cardassians, Kira had been awkward with him for a while, apparently out of guilt-or pity. But now that time had passed, Nerys's manner with him was starting to drift back toward the familiar, and Tahna couldn't have been happier that she was short with him today. "Don't tell me the grid is already back online," she said.

The cells had made numerous attempts to permanently knock out the sensor towers, but the Cardassians were always quick to repair them. Every time they went back online, Kira and Tahna began a wager to see which cell would be first to take them out again. It was unfair, since the Shakaar cell had twice the members of the Kohn-Ma, and pointless, since the two cells were practically converged at this point, but Tahna felt it was useful to have the incentive-especially since he had grown so familiar with what could happen when you got caught.

"They are," Tahna told her, "but there's more to it than that, this time. I've just gotten my hands on a schematic." He pulled an isolinear rod out of his jerkin. "Trentin Fala brought it to us, stolen from the Cardassian records office in Tempasa. Blueprints."

Kira frowned. "What's the target?"

Tahna smiled broadly. "The grind itself-at the source! We won't have to waste our time taking out the towers over and over again, waiting for the spoonheads to just reinstall them every single time. We can sabotage the telemetry processing system on Terok Nor-"

Kira interrupted him. "Terok Nor!" she exclaimed, shaking her head. "No. No, Tahna, I'm never going back to that station. Ever."

"Don't be stupid, Nerys. If we could shut down that grid for good, then we'll never have to argue about knocking out those towers ever again. Anyway, you've already been there, you know your way around-and you're the only one of us who can beat the grid long enough to figure out a way to get smuggled onto a penal transport."

Kira interrupted him again by snatching the rod from his hands.

"Watch it with that thing!" he warned her as she jammed the isolinear rod into her padd. "It's not like I can just ask Fala for another copy!"

Kira ignored him as she looked over the schematic, her lips moving slightly as she read. "I'm not going to Terok Nor," she said without looking up. Tahna started to interrupt, but Kira spoke over him. "I have another idea," she said. "I know someone on the station who can help us."

Tahna shook his head. "No, Nerys. There are only a handful of resistance people left on the station, not enough to-"

"The person I'm talking about isn't in the resistance," she said, handing him back the isolinear rod.

"Well then, how do you propose to...?" Tahna stopped after seeing the look on Kira's face. She could convey her emotions with a single look better than anyone Tahna had ever encountered, and he wasn't ashamed to admit that she intimidated him a bit. She intimidated nearly everyone, even those who were older than she was, though it hadn't always been so. She was a far cry now from the skinny and eager little girl who had joined the resistance over a decade ago.

"He's not in the resistance," she said. "He's in security."

Tahna looked at her doubtfully. "In security?"

Kira finally smiled. "He's the chief, actually."

Keeve Falor did not often have reason to contact Bajor anymore. He knew that Kalem Apren and others on the surface had been trying to coerce him into helping them with their grandiose plans for a very long time, but Keeve couldn't see much point to it. It was all he could do just to keep the people on his adopted world from starvation; he had very little reason to fool around with subspace communication system anymore.

But today was different. Something had happened in the past week, and Bajor needed to know it. In Keeve's estimation, Kalem Apren was was Bajor, being one of the very few former politicians from his homeworld that Keeve still trusted. Keeve had come to the old hangar on Valo II, the place where ships had once arrived and departed with some measure of regularity-but it was no longer like that here, or anywhere else on this world, for fuel was an import that the people of Valo II could not afford to squander without sufficient cause. The Bajorans of Valo II used the hangar for storage of salvaged parts, but it could also function as a communications center if necessary. A few of these ships still had functional communications equipment, and now that the long-range relays on Derna had been repaired, it was possible to send messages to Bajor, if the need ever arose. It seemed to Keeve Falor that the need had finally arisen. Bajor, being one of the very few former politicians from his homeworld that Keeve still trusted. Keeve had come to the old hangar on Valo II, the place where ships had once arrived and departed with some measure of regularity-but it was no longer like that here, or anywhere else on this world, for fuel was an import that the people of Valo II could not afford to squander without sufficient cause. The Bajorans of Valo II used the hangar for storage of salvaged parts, but it could also function as a communications center if necessary. A few of these ships still had functional communications equipment, and now that the long-range relays on Derna had been repaired, it was possible to send messages to Bajor, if the need ever arose. It seemed to Keeve Falor that the need had finally arisen.

"Apren," Keeve spoke into the pickup, adjusting for interference. He hoped the signal would be strong enough. As he tapped the interface, he could pick up bits of chatter, both Cardassian and Bajoran, coming from Jeraddo, from Valo III, from Terok Nor, from Bajor herself. He fine-tuned the connection when he recognized the Bajoran signal code on the comm's battered readout.

"Apren," Keeve spoke the name again. "Kalem Apren. This is an attempt to reach Kalem Apren, of the Kendra Valley." The channel was almost certainly wide open and traceable, but there was nothing that could be done about it-and it scarcely mattered, since the Cardassians already knew the piece of news that Keeve intended to pass along.

"This is Jaro Essa of Kendra Valley," a voice finally acknowledged. a voice finally acknowledged. "Who calls?" "Who calls?"

"Jaro, it's Keeve Falor. I am trying to reach Kalem Apren, but I don't have the specific channel."

"Keeve! I will bring Kalem here! He will be glad to hear your voice!"

The line went silent but for a smattering of interference and a faint wavering suggestion of another conversation coming in on a similar channel. Keeve waited patiently until someone else spoke, someone out of breath.

"This is Kalem Apren," a crackling voice finally dispatched from Keeve's aged system. a crackling voice finally dispatched from Keeve's aged system. "Falor, is that you?" "Falor, is that you?"

"It is me, Apren."

"I am pleased to hear that you are still among the living! Tell me, how are things on Valo II?"

"Difficult," Keeve said grimly, unaccustomed to the idea of friendly small talk-but then, Apren did always have a talent for being a bit glib, a talent that was helpful in his political career. "I have contacted you, Apren, because of a recent incident in which I was put in touch with a Federation captain."

"The Federation!" Apren exclaimed. Apren exclaimed. "Was this a fruitful encounter for us?" "Was this a fruitful encounter for us?"

"I would like to hope so," Keeve replied, but he knew he did not sound optimistic-for he wasn't. "You must know that I am not especially hopeful where they are concerned...however, I did feel that this encounter was relevant enough to pass the word on to you. The captain with whom I spoke was able to get a firsthand look at the colony here. He had a better idea, I think, of what we are dealing with than Jas Holza has ever given him-"

"This is very relevant!" Apren replied with enthusiasm. Apren replied with enthusiasm. "Things have changed now, Falor. Surely the Federation can see that our current Bajoran government is nothing but an ineffective figurehead. They must have enough sense to deduce what has happened here." "Things have changed now, Falor. Surely the Federation can see that our current Bajoran government is nothing but an ineffective figurehead. They must have enough sense to deduce what has happened here."

"They spoke of diplomacy," Keeve said, "But we both know where that will lead us-into more of the same. You know how the Federation operates. I suppose I wish it were otherwise, but ultimately, I am skeptical."

"You always were," Apren replied. The static was getting markedly worse. Apren replied. The static was getting markedly worse. "The Fed...ration...id they leave you...means...contact...them?" "The Fed...ration...id they leave you...means...contact...them?"

"Only through Jas Holza, but he is reluctant to jeopardize his own standing with the Federation," Keeve replied.

"Any...ther way to reach...m?"

Keeve considered. "I could relay a message to the border colonies, which will eventually find its way to the Federation," Keeve said. "But...I am not sure what we could say to them to make them change their strategy to a proactive one. I imagine they intend to simply discuss it among themselves before choosing to do nothing-just as they did fifty years ago."

"There was protocol that...required to follow," Apren said. Apren said.

"Federation protocol is exactly the reason we cannot rely on them," Keeve said.

"What...bout J...olza. He once sp...e...bout...pons."

"Your signal is getting weaker, Apren. Could you repeat that?"

"I can't...you're...could..."

"Too much interference," Keeve said, though it was futile.

"...if...contact...Nechayev..."