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Something like a smirk pulled at Sopek’s lips for a moment before he answered. “If you must know, Commander Tucker, I have lately been working very closely with one of your closest colleagues.” He gestured with his open hand toward Ych’a.

Trip wondered when his capacity to feel surprise would atrophy.

“Please do not blame Ych’a, Commander,” Sopek continued. “She did not make the essential arrangements: V’Shar headquarters on Vulcan handled those.”

“Arrangements that you have betrayed,” Ych’a said, her frosty gaze focused solely upon Sopek.

“Nonsense,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I never agreed to lay my own agenda entirely aside in favor of that of the V’Shar.”

“And which agenda might that be?” Trip said. “It can be pretty damned difficult to keep track with you.”

Sopek regarded him curiously. “Have I ever been anything other than straightforward in my commitment to the revolutionary goals of the Ejhoi Ormiin?”

“As near as I could tell,” Trip said, “the word ‘straightforward’ has never been part of your vocabulary.”

The man in the chair shook his head slowly in an exaggerated show of patience. “I have always regarded the expansionist ethic of the Romulan Praetorate, as well as the vast military might it has at its disposal, as a threat to galactic peace. Just as the V’Shar does.” His dark gaze locked with Trip’s. “Just as you do.”

But Trip wasn’t ready to buy it, and doubted he ever would. “Sure. That must be why you murdered my partner in cold blood. To protect galactic peace.” In Trip’s mind, “cold blood” was a barely adequate description of what this man had done to Tinh Hoc Phuong, his late partner and mentor in Section 31 field operations. Tucker doubted the image of Sopek burning Phuong to a crisp with a disruptor pistol would ever dim in his memory.

“Mister Phuong,” Sopek said. “Or Terha of Talvath, as he called himself when he infiltrated us. He was an unfortunate casualty of our covert war for survival. My regret over his death has probably disposed me to treat you more gently than I might have under other circumstances.”

“Gee, thanks,” Trip said.

“You must admit that I have ample reason to be aggrieved. You did, after all, cause the destruction of my ship out in the Gamma Hydra sector.”

Trip grinned.

Sopek spread his hands in a gesture of magnanimity. “I do not bear grudges, Commander—even though the destruction of my vessel caused interminable delays in the operation you just watched us conclude.”

“An operation whose scheduling you coordinated with ours for some reason,” Tevik said. Trip realized that a secret Ejhoi Ormiin operation was the best explanation for the dead Romulan soldiers they had encountered during their attempt to exit the shipyard—soldiers who had obviously been killed by someone else.

Sopek nodded. “I supplied much of the intelligence that Ych’a used to carry out your plan to destroy the Aeihk’aeleir facility. My intention was to use that mission to conceal my own.”

Trip thought he was finally beginning to grasp Sopek’s plan. “You snatched the warp-seven ship for your Ejhoi Ormiin buddies, and also grabbed a state-of-the-art Vulcan military vessel while you were at it. And you used the detonation we rigged to cover your tracks and make it look like both ships got destroyed along with the shipyard.”

“Very good, Commander Tucker,” Sopek said. “My only regret was failing to coordinate my efforts precisely enough to leave you and your colleagues believing that scenario as well.”

But Trip was having trouble buying that as well. “That’s bullshit, Sopek.”

Sopek appeared taken aback. “Excuse me?”

“If you’d really intended us to go on believing anything,” Trip said, jabbing a finger at the other man’s chest, “then I doubt you would have destroyed the shuttle we left parked outside the shipyard. That is why we couldn’t get the shuttle’s computer to beam us out, isn’t it? Because you destroyed it?”

“Is this true, Sopek?” Ych’a said. Tevik continued to stare at the man.

Sopek/Ch’uivh went silent,