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“Why Remus?” Kira asked.

“Most of Remus is a barren wasteland,” Daniels said. “They use it for mining and some heavy-weapons construction, but that’s it. It’s a lot less secure than Romulus, so it’s safer to orbit there.”

“Once we have found an insertion point,” Worf continued, “we will do a near-warp transport of the attack team. Are there any questions?”

No one had any.

“Dismissed.”

To Worf’s great annoyance, scans of Koval’s mansion revealed nothing of use.

Once the cloaking device was hammered out, the next task given to Sisko and Scott was to adjust the sensors so that they could scan a particular location on one twin planet from orbit around the other. The best they could do was allow such a scan of Romulus from Reman orbit during those occasions when the Defiant’s orbit brought it as close to Romulus as possible, and then only for a few minutes at a time.

But for a full two days, there was never a sign of a transponder of any kind in Koval’s mansion. There were plenty in Tal Shiar headquarters-which Worf had scanned only in order to be thorough-and sensors, as expected, couldn’t penetrate the sensor-proof shielding on the mountain retreat in Kor Thon.

Just finding that shielding was a victory of sorts, however. Kor Thon was a massive peak on which there were no known constructions. That there was a sensor-proof rectangular shape dug into the mountain whose floor was parallel to the surface many kilometers below meant that there was certainly something there. Whether it was Koval’s mythic retreat or something else, they could not determine.

The Defiant bridge came equipped with a small table aft on the bridge, in lieu of a captain’s ready room. Worf sat there now with Sisko and Eddington. “Is there any way,” Worf asked his first officer, “to penetrate the shielding?”

Shaking his head, Sisko said, “No. Whatever they’re using, it just bounces sensors right off.” He smiled. “Scotty’s had a few choice words on the subject.”

Worf said nothing to that, though he was grateful that his first officer and chief engineer had reached a rapprochement. He had no desire to walk in on another shouting match in engineering.

“I think we have to send in two teams,” Eddington said. “One to the mansion, one to the retreat.”

“No,” Worf said. “We only have one of the devices.”

“So?”

“Without it, the shapechanger can transform into anything, and will easily escape.”

Testily, Eddington said, “You’re not giving my teams enough credit.”

“According to Kira,” Sisko said, “the shapechangers can change into water and leave through the plumbing, change into an avian and fly away, or change into gas and just disperse.”

“At which point,” Worf added, “your team will be exposed as having invaded Romulus and will be captured, and the mission will have failed. A second insertion team will not be possible after that.”

“You’re assuming,” Eddington said, “that that Bajoran woman knows what she’s talking about.”

Growing weary of Eddington’s constant questioning of Kira’s bona fides, Worf folded his arms over his baldric. “Yes. We will send one team into the mountain retreat. If Koval is there, Kira will activate the device, and you will neutralize him. If not, we will retrieve you at the next window.”

“All right,” Eddington said. “I’ll take Corsi’s team down.”

18

Space Station Terok Nor In Orbit of Bajor Cardassian Union

Corat Damar had awakened to a message from Gul Dukat requesting that he report to the gul’s office in ops first thing in the morning. Not being one to shirk orders, Damar dispensed with all but the most minimal of morning ablutions, put on his uniform in record time, and jogged to the nearest lift.

When he arrived at ops, the door to the gul’s office opened at his approach before he had a chance to signal-meaning Dukat had set it to open automatically upon reading his biosigns.

That was unusual enough; even more so was the fact that the office was empty. However, once the door closed behind Damar, the pleasant feminine computer voice spoke. “Message for Dalin Damar from