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“We had a deal,” she said. “You promised you’d do a mind meld with him.”

Kaz gazed at her, his thoughts racing. He had no practice in mental control. There was no doubt in his mind that once Vorik had initiated the intimate contact, the Vulcan would immediately know everything that Kaz knew. And he might feel differently about the information.

Vorik might take it to Chakotay. And that would be disastrous.

“Look,” he said at last. “There are things going on, things I can’t tell you about. Important things. Right now, everything is under control. But I can’t take the time to—”

It was the wrong thing to say. “Can’t take the time? Jarem, you’ve got another person sharing your mind and you’re telling me you can’t take the, what, fifteen minutes to mind-meld with Vorik?”

She can be annoying, can’t she? The thought was Gradak’s, but right now Jarem shared the sentiment. He knew and liked the Huanni, knew that she was just looking out for his well-being and that of the crew they had both sworn to serve. But right now, well…annoying was an excellent word.

“Astall,” he said as calmly and as carefully as he could, “I know you are aware that on a military vessel, which is essentially what this is, sometimes there are things that happen on a need-to-know basis. And right now there are things that you don’t need to know.”

“I know that you’re in a difficult place right now,” she said gently, totally disarming him. “I want to help you, Jarem. Don’t shut me out like this.”

Jarem Kaz deliberately pushed Gradak to the back of his mind and closed the door. He reached for Astall’s pale purple hands, running his thumbs along the short, soft fuzz that coated them.

“You’ve been a wonderful counselor, and a good friend to me,” he said, looking into her eyes. “But you can’t help me right now. I need you to trust me.”

Her huge purple eyes searched his, and tears welled in them. She blinked them back, striving to maintain her professional demeanor despite her almost overwhelming emotions.

“I’m worried about you,” she said.

“I know, but right now it’s all right. I need you to behave as if nothing is going on. If you feel you have to check in on me from time to time, that’s fine, but you can’t take me off duty. Not now.”

Quietly she said, “How do I know you’re not suffering from delusions, Jarem?”

He smiled slightly. “Like I said. You’re going to have to trust me.”

She sighed deeply, squeezed his hands, and released them. “I’m popping in every hour,” she warned him, “and if I see something going on that I think you can’t handle, anything that might make you a danger to yourself or this crew, you’re going off duty so fast your head will roll.”

His smile turned into a grin. “I think you mean spin.”

“No, I mean roll, with all that that implies,” she said. “Darn it, Kaz. You’d better be right.”

She stalked out of sickbay, her ears flat against her head shouting her annoyed distress.

Kaz let out a sigh of relief. That had been close—too close. If only someone would get back to him. He had done all he could do at this point.

It wasn’t just a matter of knowing the right codes, Libby Webber thought to herself as she continued to research into the identity of the mole. She was curled up on her bed surrounded by padds, munching on cheese and crackers and absently brushing off crumbs. Captain Skhaa, who had been several worlds away at the time, seemingly had accessed sensitive documents from Voyager. His fingerprints and retinal scan had all been utilized in order for him to gain access. Those were hard things to forge. It could be done, but—

Libby froze.

Her thoughts tumbled over one another. She sprang from the bed and raced to her computer, eager to see if her hypothesis was correct. Her eyes flew over the information as she called it up. She was assembling the pieces now, and they were starting to form a complete picture.

A terrifying, dangerous picture.

If she went on the assumption that the mole was her chief suspect, suddenly everything fell into place.

For the first time in her career with covert