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“So you need only concern yourself with restarting the warp-seven initiative,” T’Leikha continued. “As well as periodically furnishing vital assistance with certain... special endeavors. Like the one our joint efforts brought to fruition today. As well as others that we will speak of in person at your earliest convenience.”

The scientist wasn’t sure whether he ought to feel reassured or worried. On the one hand, she had reminded him that they both would be equally culpable in today’s assassination, should it ever come to light. On the other hand, she had also acknowledged not only her inability to eliminate her political enemies cleanly on her own, but also her continued need for his expert help in covering her tracks. Nijil had always found such matters easy enough to deal with. No one would suspect that the destruction of Valdore’s estate had resulted from anything other than a tragic, if unlikely, malfunction of the public utility grid that served Ir-Dartha. The chiefs of the military, the Continuing Committee of the Romulan Senate, and even Praetor Karzan himself would soon believe Valdore’s death to be merely another unfortunate happenstance. It was a common belief, among the moneyed and ruling elites of Romulus, that such calamities tended to occur in clusters.

But now Nijil had to put all of that to one side. He had to at least keep up the appearance of rebuilding the warp-seven stardrive program. Very shortly he would have a new supreme admiral to manage. And it was all because of one key fact to which he had not yet become accustomed, or allowed himself to accept:

Admiral Valdore was dead.

SIXTY-NINE

Outer ShiKahr, Vulcan

ALTHOUGH T’POL HAD EXPECTED the lights to be on inside her late mother’s home, she kept her phase pistol at the ready as she opened the front door and entered.

“Welcome home, T’Pol,” said Denak, who stood in the entry vestibule, showing no apparent concern over her display of caution.

She lowered her weapon as the door closed silently behind her. “Your request to use T’Les’s home as a safe house was logical.”

“Nevertheless,” he said as he turned and led the way through the narrow entryway toward the dwelling’s broad central living space, “you have my gratitude.”

“Ych’a is here with you?” T’Pol asked as they walked toward the living area.

“Yes. She has just returned from the Atlai’fehill system.”

Achernar, deep inside Romulan space, T’Pol thought. The star the Terrans call Alpha Eridani.

They came to a stop in the main living area, which Denak had left brightly illuminated to accommodate his guests, all three of whom— Ych’a and two Vulcan men who appeared considerably younger than Denak—were seated in one or another of the room’s few low chairs.

The guests rose to their feet, and after T’Pol and Ych’a exchanged perfunctory greetings, Denak gestured toward the two other men and said, “T’Pol, this is Tevik of Raal Province, and Sodok, a dealer in kevas and trillium.”

Tevik raised his right hand in the traditional split-fingered Vulcan salute, pairing the hand gesture with the time-honored greeting, “Live long and prosper.”

The man beside her, Sodok, presented a stark contrast, inarticulately clearing his throat while wringing his hands awkwardly as though he didn’t know what to do with them. As she made the expected response to Tevik’s greeting, T’Pol blinked repeatedly in an effort to conceal her intense surprise. Despite the minor surgical alterations their faces had undergone since she had last seen either of them, T’Pol knew she was acquainted with both men, one via combat, and the other through far more intimate channels of communication.

After her previous encounter with “Tevik”—it had occurred in a Romulan dissident stronghold on Taugus III, where she had stunned him unconscious with her phase pistol, thereby preempting a disruptor blast aimed squarely at Tucker—she had learned that Terix was a Romulan centurion. Although “Tevik” lacked