Oblivion - Michael Jan Friedman [73]
Picard’s jaw clenched. He hated the idea of disarming himself. But under the circumstances, he had little choice.
Keeping his disruptor out where the Cardassians could see it, he knelt and slid it across the floor. Then he got up and watched one of Tain’s men recover it.
“There, now,” said Tain. “Now we can all relax.” He turned to the Zartani. “I don’t believe you and I have been formally introduced—have we, Demmix?”
The Zartani made a sound of exasperation and turned to Picard. “How could you do this to me, Jean-Luc? I trusted you.”
Picard chuckled grimly. “Believe me, it was not my intention to bring these people along.”
Tain considered Picard. “You know,” he said, “you’ve led me on quite a chase. I admire you for that.”
“Thank you,” the captain said ironically.
“On the other hand,” the Cardassian continued, “it won’t stop me from subjecting you to a very long, very painful death. That’s the only way I can make certain that others aren’t tempted to betray me.”
The Cardassian turned to Demmix next. “As for you,” he said, “you have something I want. That information you were going to give to the Federation…you’ll now be giving to me.”
“And if I do?” said Demmix, a tremor in his voice.
Tain laughed. “Not if, you fool. When. I hope I haven’t given you the impression that you and I are haggling here, because we’re not. You’ll talk, and then I’ll have you killed. The only reward you’ll get for your cooperation is a quicker death than your friend Picard’s.”
Demmix blanched.
Tain seemed to take pleasure in the Zartani’s discomfort. He turned to Guinan. “And of course, you’ll be killed as well.”
“Glinn…” said one of the other Cardassians.
“What is it?” Tain asked, his gaze remaining firmly fixed on the captain.
“Before you arrived, as I was eavesdropping in the corridor, I heard the female accuse the Zartani of deception.”
Now Tain did spare his underling a glance. “What kind of deception are we talking about?”
The underling licked his lips, obviously reluctant to go on. “She said he was trying to pass off false information, which could get the Federation in trouble—perhaps in the course of a military encounter with the Ubarrak.”
Tain looked as if he had been punched in the gut. He glanced at Guinan, then Picard, and finally at Demmix. “I don’t like what I’m hearing,” he said.
The captain didn’t doubt it.
Tain had obviously gone to a great deal of trouble to find Demmix, confident that he would be performing an important service for the Cardassian Union—and perhaps for himself as well, since he would be the one to take credit for it.
Now he had to consider the possibility that he had been led on a wild-goose chase—that all his efforts in Oblivion, all the risks he had taken, had been for naught.
Tain eyed Demmix with cold, dark eyes. “I may have been a bit hasty,” said the Cardassian, “when I promised you a quicker death than Picard’s.”
“Oh?” said Demmix. And to Picard’s astonishment, the Zartani smiled, as if he were no longer the least bit concerned about Tain carrying out his threat.
Suddenly, Picard felt a vibration beneath his feet. If he didn’t know better, he would have said that the hulk’s engine had been activated.
“What’s going on?” Tain demanded of Demmix.
“Isn’t it obvious?” asked the Zartani.
But his voice was strangely muted. It was then that Picard realized a transparent energy barrier had been erected between Demmix and the rest of them.
Tain scowled. “Whatever it is, stop it.”
Demmix’s smile spread across his face. “Why? So I can earn a quicker death than Picard’s?”
As he said it, the captain felt a jolt. It seemed to him that something had collided with their hull.
No, he told himself. That cannot be right. The city’s shields would have deflected any foreign objects.
Then the truth dawned on him. They hadn’t been hit by anything. Their vessel had begun to move, and in the process jerked free of the hulk beside them….
Chapter Eighteen
PICARD SAW TAIN’S LIP CURL as he regarded Demmix. “All right,” he said. “Have it your way.” And, raising his disruptor,