KIRA POPPED a stimulant tab and washed it down with a swallow of bitter brown Kenyan coffee. O'Brien had introduced her to it—a human drink, from their homeworld—and now she wished she'd never started drinking the stuff. It made her hands shake. Or maybe they were just shaking because she hadn't had any real sleep since that last message showed up, now almost seventy-two hours ago.
She was most concerned that the Cardassian agent might have already escaped. Despite warnings, people were still managing to leave the station. But Starfleet personnel were still here, and most of the Bajoran staff, keeping systems working as smoothly as possible, keeping DS-Nine alive.
There were also a number of people still in detention for questioning, and every one of them was protesting as urgently as possible that she had no right to keep them on the station when the whole place was going to go up any minute.
Kira knew that most if not all of them were innocent, and their fears were genuine and well founded—even if false in fact. She had released as many as she could. But she couldn't reassure them about their fates. It would be a disaster if one of them happened to disclose to the Cardassians that the bomb had already been removed. And she was just too exhausted to care any longer. Only one thing mattered now: finding the Cardassian agent, finding whoever had planted the bombs. Making sure they could never set another one.
What kind of Bajoran could work for the Cardassians? Could risk so many Bajoran lives? How could anyone be so misguided?
Kira put down the coffee with a shudder of distaste and went to face her next subject. The woman was one of the technicians assigned to the reactor control room. She was sitting in a position of meditation, but she jumped up nervously when Kira clapped her hands to get her attention.
"Your name is Reis Ilen?"
"Major! This is a mistake! I didn't do anything! You have to let me out of here!"
"You're not being charged with anything. I just have some questions to ask."
"You're asking questions? Now? When the station is about to—"
"The sooner I find the answers, the sooner this will all be over."
The technician's nervousness subsided slightly.
"Now, I understand that you're assigned to monitor the reactor control room on the third alternate shift, is this correct? Was there any time in the last ten days that you missed your shift? Were you ever late?"
"No. Never. You can check my time sheets."
"Thank you, I already have. But was there ever a time during that period when you have might have left the control room, even for a minute? Any time the reactor could have been left unmonitored?"
"No! That would be against regulations. There has to be at least one monitor on duty at all times. In case there's a flux surge, or a drop in power levels."
"Part of your duty is to prevent unauthorized access to the reactor chambers, isn't this so?"
"Someone tampered with the reactors, didn't they? That's what happened, isn't it? The reactors are going to blow!"
"We're investigating a lead, that's all I can say."
"No one will survive—"
"Reis! Please. The sooner we can get this over with, the sooner we'll all be safe." Kira hated this, but it was necessary until they found the Cardassian agent.
She shook her head slightly. "Now, on your shifts during this period, was there anyone who could have gotten access to the reactors? Authorized or not? Anyone who came down there at all?"
"Chief O'Brien—"
"O'Brien. Anyone else?"
"No one. Well, of course, the monk."
Kira's eyes opened very wide as a cold shiver ran down her spine. "What monk?"
"From the temple. Well, you get nervous, you know, down there with those reactors, thinking you're the first one who'll get it if the system blows up. He's been helping me to deal with it, to meditate—"
"A monk was with you in the reactor control room?
When? For how long? What did he do?"
"Major, you can't suspect that a monk—"
"What did he do?"
"Well, I'm not sure, exactly. I mean, sometimes when you meditate, you lose track of external things. You know how it is."
But Kira was already hitting her comm badge. "Security! This is Kira. Someone get to the temple and detain a monk named Leiris! Now!"
Reis was still protesting, "But Major, I mean, he's a monk—"
By the time Kira reached the temple, the security officer had already reported through her communicator: "Sorry, Major. They say the monk Leiris has left."
"Left the temple or the station?"
"I don't know. They just said he'd left. Earlier today."
So maybe it wasn't too late, after all. "Search the temple."
"What? Major Kira? The temple?"
Kira took a deep breath. Why did her people have this blind spot? "You heard me. Search the temple. Respectfully, of course. But if you find Leiris, hold him. And be careful. He may be dangerous."
"Yes, Major." The officer's voice was dubious.
Kira hesitated. Where would he be now? Trying to get off the station, of course, knowing what was supposed to happen. How, though? A monk had no money to bribe a shipping agent or a freighter captain.
But a Cardassian agent …
Kira thought of Garak. The Swift Striker. Then she was running toward the turbolift that led to pylon six. If only she wasn't too late, if only Leiris wasn't already on the ship!
After all the confusion elsewhere on the station, with people camped out in the hallways, waiting in line for passage on any ship they could find, the corridors in this section seemed deserted. These parts of the station had never really been brought back into normal use. And even though people were desperate to leave DS-Nine, they weren't quite desperate enough to seek passage on a Cardassian ship. No Bajorans, at any rate. Only Garak, still locked in his cell, wanted to board this ship. And it looked as if Garak was actually innocent, after all.
The agent wasn't a Cardassian. He was a Bajoran traitor.
Kira supposed she'd been as blind as any other Bajoran, incapable of suspecting Leiris just because he was in a religious order. She knew his views, his past associations with terrorist groups, even Kohn Ma. He was the one, the only one, who could have known those recognition codes. But she'd dismissed him automatically as a suspect. He was a monk.
And if she was too late, if he was already on board, then there was nothing she could do. Frustration made her grind her teeth against each other. In a flash of ironic insight, she suddenly thought that she could even understand Gul Marak, in one way, because right now she wanted to march onto the Swift Striker with drawn weapons and drag Leiris bodily off that ship.
She backed away, around a corner, out of sight of the lift doors. "Security. This is Kira. Has there been any sign of Leiris?"
"No, Major. It's like he's disappeared."
Disappeared onto that ship. Tapping her communicator again, "Ops, this is Kira. Has the Cardassian ship requested clearance for undock yet?"
A moment later she heard Sisko's voice. "This is Major Kira?"
"Yes, Commander."
"The Swift Striker requested undocking clearance only twenty minutes ago. Is there a problem?"
Kira was aware that Ops was full of foreign ambassadors, importuning Sisko with their demands and interfering with operations. They couldn't take a chance of sensitive information reaching the Cardassians. She answered carefully, "I'm just not sure if all the passengers have boarded the ship yet."
"The passenger you were speaking of?"
"Correct. Um, has Chief O'Brien completed the … airlock maintenance?"
"All maintenance is complete. We can clear the Swift Striker for undocking—unless you see a reason for further delay."
"No. If the passenger misses his ship, he'll just have to make other arrangements."
"Understood, Major. Good luck."
Kira stared at the turbolift door. Either Leiris was already on board, or he wasn't. If he was—it was too late. But if the Prophets had listened to her, he'd be hurrying to board now, or else he'd be left behind. She thought again of Garak in his cell. How frantic he'd be if he knew the Swift Striker was about to take off.
And Leiris knew where the bomb was planted, knew there was no hope for anyone still on the station when it was detonated. Odo's staff was monitoring the reactor, just in case he came back to try to disarm it at the last moment, to save himself.
Is that what he would do? Kira shut her eyes for an instant. Leiris. She thought she had known him, once. Of all the people she would have never suspected. Why? What possible reason could he have had to serve the Cardassians? What conceivable motive to betray his own people?
And when she opened her eyes again, she saw a figure hurrying toward the lift, almost at a run. He was wearing drab coveralls, not a robe, but Kira recognized the traitor monk. She checked her phaser and, in a low voice, ordered the computer to record what was about to happen. Then she stepped out into his path.
"Afraid you're going to miss your ship, Leiris?"
He stopped, as stunned as if the Orb of the Prophets had just materialized in front of him, instead of Major Kira Nerys. His face looked very pale. Then he forced a shaken smile. "Well. Major. I see you've managed to overcome your inner conflicts and ambiguities. You've chosen your side."
His eyes were on her phaser. Kira noticed that her hands weren't trembling any longer. "What about you, Leiris? Did you suffer any inner conflicts about becoming a Cardassian agent? Or were you working for them all along? Even during the resistance?"
He laughed ruefully. "Oh, no! I was as loyal to the cause of freedom as you were. Dedicated to Bajor's independence, enduring hardship, deprivation—all of it. Just like any good little Bajoran."
"Then—why?"
"For this." As he reached a hand into the carryall over his shoulder, Kira tensed with her finger on the phaser's trigger. But what Leiris pulled out was a heavy pouch. With a sharp, bitter laugh, he tossed the contents—gleaming gold—high into the air.
Kira's attention was distracted just for a single instant, but it was time enough for Leiris to grab for the phaser hidden in his bag. Just as he fired, she dropped down and rolled to the side, back into the shelter of the cross-corridor wall.
He was running for the lift, but Kira fired her own weapon—too soon. The blast missed, and Leiris managed to duck behind a deserted kiosk before she could shoot again.
Between them was the empty corridor and beyond it the turbolift. Kira stood between the traitor and his only hope of escape. She hesitated. One mistake already, and she'd almost lost him! Maybe she should call security for backup.
But just then Leiris broke from cover in a desperate attempt to reach the turbolift. Phaser fire beamed from Kira's weapon and impacted on the deck just ahead of him. No. Leiris was hers.
She called out, "Leiris! You mean you betrayed Bajor for Cardassian latinum?"
"That's right. Why—are you shocked?" He looked at her hopefully. "I don't suppose we could come to an understanding, Major? You can have the latinum, all of it, as soon as I'm gone. Just let me get onto that lift. No? Ah, well, I didn't suppose so. You're a patriot, aren't you, Nerys? You're above such petty material temptations.
"What about this offer, then? Let me go, and I'll tell you where the bomb is hidden, exactly when it's supposed to go off. What's more important—arresting me or saving this station for the Federation?"
Kira laughed. "You're too late, Leiris. Your bomb is already disarmed. I don't suppose your Cardassian employers will be very pleased when they find out about that, will they?"
A pause. Then he said, in a resigned voice, "So. I see."
She couldn't see him behind the kiosk, wasn't sure what he was doing. "Leiris. Tell me, why did you do it? For the money? That can't be the only reason."
"Why did I do it? No, it wasn't just for the money. What is money? Just a few pounds of gold-pressed latinum. No, it was what it could buy me. A way out of here. Into a different future."
"I don't understand."
"Don't you? Maybe you wouldn't. During the resistance, Nerys—what were you fighting for all that time? What was all that suffering about? Bajor? Let me tell you: We may have defeated the Cardassians, but we lost Bajor. Our world will never be the same. Our religion will never be the same. Do you think all those temples they demolished will ever be rebuilt? In the name of the Prophets, the Orbs are nothing but alien artifacts now! Heaven is the Gamma Quadrant. Bajorans don't worship the gods anymore, they worship the Holy Wormhole! They worship foreigners and their foreign silver and gold and latinum!
"People like you, in love with the Federation, you keep telling yourselves that we won the struggle. But we didn't. We lost our world, we lost ourselves. When we had the Cardassians to fight, at least we knew who we were. Do you want to see the future of Bajor? Look around, look at this station. We won't have temples on the new Bajor, we'll have gambling halls and sex holosuites and foreign imports and space academies.
"I already lost once, Nerys. I lost the Bajor that I struggled to preserve. Why should I lose again? Why should I suffer for something that's already gone? So I took money from the Cardassians. Why not? Is that worse than taking it from the Federation, or the Ferengi, or any other aliens?"
Kira retorted, "But you did lose again, didn't you, Leiris? You betrayed your own people, and what do you have to show for it? There's your latinum on the floor. There's your Cardassian ship, taking off without you. Where's your new future now?"
There was no reply. "Leiris?"
A weak voice answered, "Enjoy your victory, Major Kira. I have to say … I'm glad … I won't be around. . . ."
"Leiris?" Kira suspected a trap. As she hesitated, her comm badge sounded. "Major Kira? This is Sisko. I want to advise you, the Swift Striker has just undocked."
"Thank you, Commander. And I have our traitor here. He knows he's not going anywhere now."
"Good work, Major! Do you require assistance?"
"No. No, thank you, Commander. The situation is under control.
She tapped the badge to shut it off. "Leiris? The Swift Striker just pulled away from the station. It's all over now."
Again there was no answer, and Kira realized that it was all over for Leiris in another way than she had meant. She stepped out into the lift corridor and approached the kiosk. When she came around it, she saw Leiris's body sprawled on the floor, eyes fixed and staring at death. His phaser lay discarded next to him.
She knelt, picked it up. The weapon was not set to lethal. There was no obvious wound or cause of death on Leiris's body. But his heart—she touched her fingers to his pulse—had stopped.
Some monks, she knew, had developed their powers of meditation to the point where they could stop their bodily functions at will. She wondered if that was what Leiris had done. Not to have to face another defeat.
Still kneeling, she closed his eyes.