Gazing down at the tricorder, he confirmed that Tartovsky’s signal was coming from a position nine-and-a-half meters from where he stood. He was also picking up a human life sign. How the hell—?Then he realized—from the ground, he could detect Tartovsky through the mouth of the cave in which she hid. But that also meant that those Cardassians—who were now just one kilometer away and closing awfully fast—could also detect that life sign. Not to mention Vaughn, T’Prynn, and the shuttlepod…
Pumping his legs—with, he was proud to say, the same vim and vigor with which he ran as a youth in the Academy—Vaughn dashed toward the cave mouth. Pulling up seconds later, he saw a two-meter-wide opening in a large chunk of rock that looked like it was embedded in a grassy hill. Not a bad hiding spot,Vaughn thought, revising his estimate of Tartovsky upward a bit.
Proceeding slowly into the much cooler cave, he activated the light beacon on his tricorder. All it served to do was illuminate sheer rock.
“Don’t move!” cried out a female voice from deeper inside the cave. Vaughn shone his light toward the voice, and the beam framed a round face that blinked in the onslaught of light. Said onslaught did not cause her to lower the phaser pistol she held in her right hand.
“Special Emissary Tartovsky, I presume. I’m Lieutenant Elias Vaughn from Starfleet. I’m here to get you out of here. I have a shuttle.”
“Nice try. You should tell your Cardassian masters to train your spies better.”
What the hell is she talking about?
“That rank insignia on your shoulder patch is for a lieutenant commander, not a lieutenant.”
Hell’s teeth,he thought. Of all the times for a slip of the tongue…“I was only recently promoted, ma’am. I need you to put the phaser down so we can get out of here.”
“Recently promoted? You look like you’re at least fifty. Still only a lieutenant?”
“Lieutenant commander, as you pointed out, ma’am. We really need to leave.”
She shook her head and made a tchanoise. “You Cardassians are pathetic. You definitely need a better breed of spy. If you’re so damn good at rescue missions, why are you still a lieutenant at your age?”
Because the kind of work I do requires a low profile, but telling you that would go against that very principle.“Ma’am, there are actual Cardassians on the way who will most likely shoot both of us if we don’t get to my shuttlepod and get out of here. In fact—oh, the hell with it.” With one swift motion, he unholstered his own phaser and shot the special emissary.
She crumpled to the ground, stunned.
Vaughn ran over to her unconscious form. He saw that she was bleeding from a badly bandaged wound in her leg. She’d have fallen unconscious from blood loss if we’d kept up that inane conversation much longer.Under any other circumstances, he would have been willing to wait her out, but they didn’t have the time. Picking her up in a rescue carry and securing her with his right arm, he ran back out the way he came, the hot air blasting him in the face as he exited the cave.
Tapping his combadge with the butt of the phaser he held in his left hand as he ran, he said, “Vaughn to T’Prynn. Get ready to go, Commander.”
“Cardassian patrol approaching. They will be within sight of theWoodlawn in thirty-five seconds, Elias.”
No way he’d be able to close the distance that quickly—not while burdened with Tartovsky. And the Woodlawnwasn’t armed.
“The hatch is open, and I am armed with a phaser rifle, Commander. I will cover your approach.”
Vaughn grinned. “You read my mind, Commander.”
“Hardly.”
The Woodlawncame into Vaughn’s sight just as the phaser fire went flying over his head. Dammit,he thought as he fired back.
Another shot hit about a meter in front of him, tossing rocks and dirt into the air. Pain sliced across Vaughn’s head as one rock collided with his forehead. And here I was hoping to stave off that headache.
He ran around to see a Cardassian trading phaser fire with T’Prynn. Said Cardassian was between Vaughn and the Woodlawnhatch. Vaughn fired off a quick shot, which missed, and a second, which didn’t. Between those two, the Cardassian took a shot into the Woodlawnbefore collapsing to the ground.
Vaughn yelled, “Go!” even as he leapt into the Woodlawn’s rear two seats, his own body and that of Tartovsky forming a rather ungainly pile in the shuttlepod.
To his irritation, the shuttle did not move.
Clambering up from under the unconscious special emissary, he saw why: the Cardassian’s last shot had apparently hit T’Prynn in the shoulder. Green blood pooled under her red uniform and also poured forth from a wound in her head. Dammit.
Slamming his hand on the control that would close the hatch, Vaughn got into the pilot seat and noted that T’Prynn had already run the preflight sequence—all that was left was for the hatch to close and for Vaughn to engage the engines. Pausing only for a half a second to smile at his comrade—a pause he needed to take while waiting for the hatch to seal in any event—he then lifted off, the sound of Cardassian phaser fire hitting the shuttlepod’s hull with the same intensity that the rain was hitting it less than half an hour earlier.
Now let’s hope we’re small enough to stay off the sensor screens of those big ships in orbit—which are now looking for a small Starfleet shuttlepod. Well, nobody said this job would be easy.
Chapter 20
Cardassia Prime
It had been fifteen years since Corbin Entek had set foot in the Obsidian Order’s fifty-story public headquarters in the cul-de-sac. Back then, he was being debriefed by Enabran Tain himself on the disastrous Raknal V negotiations. Since then, Entek had thrived, becoming a top operative for the Obsidian Order.
In all that time, he had never again laid eyes on Tain. He had simply received instructions from assorted supervisors and then carried out his assignments. He had the feeling that soon he would be one of the supervisors rather than the supervised, and in fact he’d hoped that this summons would be a prelude to that.
A different receptionist sat at the main desk, of course, and instead of a retinal scanner, he now had to place his hand on a device that would verify his DNA.
Once again, Entek was to report to Room 2552. Tain again.Entek was pleasantly surprised.
When he arrived on the twenty-fifth floor, Entek saw that a different woman, this one with longer, blacker hair, now sat at the workstation outside Tain’s office. As her predecessor had a decade-and-a-half earlier, this woman activated her comm unit and said simply, “He’s arrived.”
“Send him in.”
Entek entered Tain’s office to find that, unlike the identity of his assistant, very little had changed. The office was still sparsely furnished, the east wall still contained a large viewer—this time the image was of the Dakhur Hills on Bajor. Entek chose to take this as a good sign. He knew that there was a supervisory position open administering Order affairs on Bajor, and he had hopes for it. Central Command had, typically, let the situation on Bajor get out of hand. The resistance movement was growing in strength and needed to be crushed. Central Command’s more overt methods were not getting the job done, and it was Entek’s considered opinion that more subtle means were required.