Entek could not help but blush with pride at the head of the Order calling him “friend.” He also had a question, but he did not feel that he should speak out of turn again.
Again, his emotions must have shown, for Tain prompted him. “You wish to pose a question.”
“Yes.” Entek waited for formal permission to speak, but Tain simply continued to stare at him. Deciding to take that as assent, he asked, “Do you think the Federation will truly be fair judges? They are allies with the Klingons, after all, and have no such ties with us.”
Tain laughed. “With any other government, I would share your concern, but the Federation is painfully honest and up-front in their dealings. That is both their greatest strength and their greatest weakness. And, like any strength or weakness, it is something that we can exploit.” He smiled. “Besides, as I said, this competition of theirs provides us with a prime opportunity. We will be able to observe the Klingons firsthand. They may seem like buffoons, but they have built one of the strongest empires in the quadrant. If we are to eventually conquer them, we need to know more about how they work, how they think. Sharing a planet with them will be ideal for that.”
Knowing it was presumptious, Entek nevertheless had to ask, “Do you wish me to return to Raknal?”
“No. As well as you’ve done here, you’re still too new for this sort of thing. I’d rather send a more experienced agent. Never fear,” he added quickly, “you’ve proven yourself a valuable resource to the Obsidian Order. I make use of my valuable resources.”
Entek beamed with pride.
“Return to your home. Your new supervisor will contact you with your next assignment within the week.”
New supervisor?That could only mean a promotion. The specifics would not be forthcoming, of course, but still.
Entek rose from the guest chair. “Thank you, sir.”
Tain smiled. “I’m simply putting you in a position to serve Cardassia better.”
“This is madness. Utter madness.”
Zarin silently agreed with Kell as he sipped his kanar.The two legates sat in Kell’s plush office along with Gul Monor. The office was over twenty meters squared, containing a huge desk, a full bar, and several couches and chairs. The east wall was taken up entirely with shelving containing padds, data chips, various odds and ends, and even a few codex books. The west wall was decorated with Lissepian paintings, which Zarin knew to be a passion of Kell’s. On either side of the door on the south wall were numerous medals, citations, commendations, and a holopicture that rotated images of Kell with assorted Cardassian celebrities and notables.
Most impressive of all, though, was the north wall, which was one giant picture window with a breathtaking view of the capital city. This,Zarin thought, will be my office someday.The first thing he planned to do was take down and burn those hideous Lissepian monstrosities. Kell had the aesthetic sense of a Ferengi…
Zarin and Monor were next to each other on an extremely comfortable urall-skin couch while Kell had parked himself in a huge, flared conformer chair that adjusted itself to the contours of the person occupying it. Zarin thought, perhaps unkindly, that it had to do a great deal of adjusting to conform to Kell’s rotund form.
“Absolutely,” Monor said. “We should be taking what we want, not jumping through hoops for inferiors. What’s next, the Federation telling us how to govern Bajor? We shouldn’t be letting them dictate terms to us.”
“Unfortunately,” Zarin said quickly before Monor went on, “we did violate the agreement. If we don’t agree to Dax’s proposal, we’ll risk antagonizing both the Federation and the Klingons.”
“We’ve already antagonized them,” Monor said, slamming his kanarglass onto the metal table that sat between the couch and Kell’s chair. “We’re not Ferengi, we shouldn’t be bargaining our way out of fighting. They want to take Raknal V, let ’em try, I say.”
“All things being equal, I’d agree with you, Monor,” Kell said. “But we don’t have much choice. The Council won’t authorize more funds for a conflict, and we can’t commit the resources.”
“Especially if it’s both the Federation andthe Empire we have to deal with.” Zarin took another sip of his kanar.
“Bah,” Monor said. “The Federation is soft.”
“So is a greeworm, but if you poke it with a stick, it’ll squirt acid on your face.” Zarin leaned forward on the couch. “The Federation hasn’t lost a single war since its founding. I somehow doubt that we’re in a position to be the first to defeat them.”
“A cowardly attitude,” Kell said with disdain.
“No, a realistic one.” Zarin didn’t like what he was saying any more than Kell did, but he also knew that he was right. He just hoped Kell wasn’t stupid enough to let pride get in the way of common sense.
Kell let out a long sigh, and refilled his glass with more kanarfrom the large carafe in the center of the table. “Sadly, you’re right. For the moment at least, we’ll have to play along with this idiotic charade.”
“What about the Obsidian Order?” Zarin asked. He hadn’t been able to trace the Order agent in his delegation, but he just knew there was one there.
Shrugging, Kell asked, “What about them? They’ll probably send someone—or several someones—to the planet to spy on the Klingons. Let them. It’s probably better for all of us if we don’t know the specifics of what they’re doing. If they gather useful intelligence, it’ll be shared with us if we need it. If they get caught, we’ll be able to deny everything.”
“Not to mention the entertainment value,” Zarin said with a smile. “If they doget caught, I mean. I’ve heard stories about what Klingons do to spies. There are several people in the Order I’d like to see get that treatment.”
All three of them laughed at that. Zarin had no love for the Obsidian Order, and it came as no surprise to the legate that Kell and Monor felt the same. One of these days,he thought, we need to do away with those shadowy imbeciles once and for all. Cardassia is ill-served by their backstabbing ways. Perhaps when this office is mine, I’ll be able to implement that plan.
Kell stood up. “Monor, I hereby appoint you the prefect of the northern continent of Raknal V. The Sontokis to be your flagship. Whatever you need, requisition it from Zarin.”
Monor nodded. “If that’s what we have to do, then dammit all, that’s what we’ll do. That’s the problem with these young officers, they don’t know when to shut up and follow orders. In fact—”
“The important thing,” Kell said, cutting off yet another of Monor’s rants, for which Zarin was grateful, “is to make sure that we are victorious.”
“That won’t be as easy as it looks,” Zarin said. “Most of the zenite we need is on the southern continent.”
“Yes.” Kell smiled. “I have to give credit to that Trill ambassador—he put us in charge of what the Klingons want and the Klingons in charge of what we want. But we are Cardassians—Raknal V is ours,and we will not give it up. I am hereby instructing you both to do whatever it takes to ensure that we secure our claim to it. Am I understood?”
Zarin smiled. “Perfectly.”
Chapter 13