Broken Bow - Diane Carey [40]
Or more pointedly, were these, Suliban dissidents?
The two Suliban finally let him have his arms back. Without a word or gesture, they turned and left him alone in this chamber—which probably meant there was no easy way out. Judging from the way they came in, he might be lost down here for weeks before he found his way to the surface.
“You’re looking for Klaang,” a female voice said in perfect English. “Why?”
Archer turned, looked. Neither of the Suliban had come back or spoken. Who had?
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded coldly.
The shadows behind a stack of boxes shifted. A woman stepped out. Strikingly lovely and definitely human, the woman strode toward him, studying him as she came.
“My name is Sarin. Tell me about the people who took Klaang off your ship.”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” Archer reversed. “They looked a lot like your friends outside.”
She stepped toward him. “Where were you taking him?”
“How come you don’t look like your friends?” he asked, instead of giving her anything.
She was uncomfortably close now. “Would you prefer I did?” she asked in a sultry tone.
Oh, brother. This dame had seen too many steamy movies. She had the sticky dialogue down pat, not to mention the unoriginal seductive stare and liquid lips. What did they take him for?
Stick to business.
“What I’d prefer,” he attempted again, “is that you give me Klaang back.”
“So you could take him where?”
“Home. We were just taking him home.”
Sarin was now inches away. Less. She seemed to be gauging him. He was returning the favor.
“You’d better be careful,” Archer murmured. “I’m a lot bigger than you are.”
She moved until they were very close and her breath brushed his cheek. “If you’re thinking of harming me, I’d advise against it.”
She ran her hand along his jawline.
“What’re you doing?” he asked, as if he didn’t know.
“Why were you taking Klaang home?”
“Y’know,” he said instead, “under different circumstances, I might be flattered by this, but ...”
Sarin came up on her toes and pressed her lips to his, forcefully and with purpose. Archer coolly accepted what was happening and bothered to relax enough that she might get discouraged sooner. With his ship on the line and his crew in a cage, he didn’t much care how seductive she wanted to playact.
She got whatever she wanted—or didn’t—and stepped back rather abruptly. Her face began to melt.
A moment later, she was Suliban. Archer grimaced in disgust.
“That’s never happened before,” he offered.
“I’ve been given the ability to measure trust,” she said, “but it requires close contact.”
Maybe next time they could just shake hands. He tried to imagine her smooching T’Pol, and shook that image away before it took hold.
“You’re Suliban,” he said, giving her a pretense of the shock she was probably going for.
“I was a member of the Cabal,” Sarin said, “but not anymore. The price of evolution is too high.”
“Evolution?”
Carefully, she moved away, no longer meeting his eyes. “Some of my people are so anxious to ‘improve’ themselves that they’ve lost perspective.”
“So you know I’m not lying to you,” Archer vectored back to the point. “Now what?”
“Klaang was carrying a message to his people.”
“How do you know that?”
“I gave it to him.”
“What kind of message?”
“The Suliban have been staging attacks within the Klingon Empire,” she told him. “Making it appear that one faction is attacking another. Klaang was bringing proof of this to his High Council. Without that proof, the Empire could be thrown into chaos.”
“Why would the Suliban want that?” Archer asked, following her and keeping her from turning away. He knew guilt when he saw it, and was determined to get answers before she changed her mind or had an attack of regret.
“The Cabal doesn’t make decisions on its own,” she went on, more anxious to tell him things. “They’re simply soldiers fighting a temporal cold war.”
“Temporal? You’ve lost me.”
“They’re taking orders from the distant future.”
The announcement stopped Archer in his tracks.