Strange New Worlds 2016 (23 page)

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Odo snorted. “If you truly respected your wife, you’d make
her announcement yourself. But you’re too cowardly.”

“Who are you to talk to me that way!”

Lubaar’s outburst was so offensive, Odo almost lost his shape. “I’m civil law enforcement
on this station. You’re a material witness. I have the right to talk to you any way
that serves my purpose: justice.”

“You’ve changed,” Doctor Lubaar muttered.

“No,” Odo said softly, “I haven’t. I required an arduous education in the ways of
humanoids to reach this position, but I was always me. You just didn’t have the insight
to realize it.”

Lubaar stared as if seeing him for the first time. “Nevertheless, you can’t make me
tell you.”

“Regretfully, no. But I can have Dal’s padds and any other devices used in her research
removed from your quarters for analysis.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“It’s being done as we speak.”

Lubaar sprang to his feet. “They can’t take my material without a warrant. I’m returning
to my quarters to make sure they don’t.”

“Certainly. Your security detail will escort you.”

“Much good that did Cerys.”

Out of all the rude things Lubaar had said since their interview began, this was the
first Odo acknowledged. “I’m sorry. If it will make you feel safer, I’ll accompany
them.”

“Don’t bother.”

Rising from his chair, Odo followed anyway. He paused in the security office entrance
and watched Lubaar, two guards in front and two in back, cross the Promenade toward
the turbolift. That’s when he noticed that out of the seven workers dismantling the
stage, one had stopped to stare. When the man reached inside his jacket, Odo sprang.

The shapeshifter couldn’t actually teleport, but the stuff he was made of was capable
of an astounding range of activity. With his second leap, he tackled the man. Briefly,
he formed two additional arms to help subdue him. Then Odo heard a shriek.

Whipping around, he saw that in the commotion, Lubaar’s detail had rushed forward
to aid him. Behind them, their charge lay crumpled on the deck.

Hastily, Odo scanned the area. A worker had disappeared—and not the one handcuffed
beneath him. Chagrined, he released the lock, then raced to Lubaar.

His old handler, advocate, and friend smiled weakly. Relieved, Odo tapped the combadge
affixed to his mock uniform. “Two to beam to the infirmary.”

Bashir had faced the ethical tug-of-war between the needs of medicine versus crime
fighting so often with Odo, that he answered the constable’s question before he finished
it: “When I deem it medically safe, you can interrogate Lubaar about the attack—and
not a second sooner.”

“That’s—that’s not why I want to talk to him. Not my primary reason, anyway.” Odo
gazed at Bashir’s unconscious patient. “I just want to know . . . will he make it?”

Catching the constable’s genuine concern, Bashir said more gently, “With the antidote
I gave him, no reason he shouldn’t. Funny thing. He received the same toxin that killed
his wife, except her autopsy also showed traces of a massive sedative. That agent
slowed her bodily functions enough that the toxin didn’t take effect until she was
in her room.”

Odo sighed. “That’s why nobody had realized anything was wrong until her husband went
to scold her for being late.”

“Lubaar received a larger volume—through some kind of dart—but the concentration was
a million times less. That’s what saved him.”

Odo nodded, then paused. “Do you mind if I finish my reports here—by his bedside?”

“Please do.” Bashir left the constable huddling over his padd while he attended to
other duties. When he returned, he found Odo advising Commander Sisko of the situation.
Seeing the commander’s confident face boosted the doctor’s spirits. He had the urge
to wave but didn’t.

“Autopsy found a stinger in Dal’s back, smaller than a Terran bee’s. Forensic examination
of the hall outside her room revealed residue of metals often used in self-destruct
hunter probes. I’m reviewing security footage for anyone possibly operating a probe
at the time Dal felt a muscle twinge.”

“And Lubaar?”

“Use of the same poison suggests the same perpetrator but the dosage and method were
completely different. Instead of a remote-controlled probe, a fake worker shot a poison
dart and fled. We found a biosynthetic mask and overalls discarded nearby.”

Commander Sisko’s forehead furrowed. “As you said, motive is the key. Doctor Bashir
spent several hours with Lubaar yesterday. Ask him to assist you in analyzing his
wife’s notes.”

Bashir brightened. He loved challenges.

“Luckily, the second attempt failed,” the commander continued. “If we let on that
the victim’s alive but critical, the assassin’s likely to stay on the station to try
again.”

While Odo signed off his report to Commander Sisko, Garak lifted his gaze from his
viewscreen to stare at the ceiling. Then he tapped in the series of ones and zeroes
that were Pup’s equivalent of a tummy tickling and gave the command to watch for more
data. The constable preferred relying on his own logic and memory, so Garak didn’t
expect many computer entries, but what there were, Pup would catch. Chief O’Brien
had inadvertently uploaded the electromagnetic entity two years ago. Once the engineer
had intuited that the resulting system malfunctions were just barks for attention,
he’d lured it into the computer equivalent of a doghouse. After overhearing him boast
about how well he’d trained the entity to fetch information, Garak had decided to
become friends. It hadn’t been difficult. Pup loved showing off its tricks.

After a moment’s reflection on the implications of the failed attempt on Doctor Lubaar’s
life, Garak rose from his stool. Time to confront the man who sold physical pets.

Leaving his shop, the Cardassian walked in the direction he’d avoided the day before,
diagonally across the Promenade and through the entrance of The Only Love Latinum
Can Buy.

Inside, Garak marveled at how quickly the Shalozas had set up. Not only were the fixtures
assembled, but half the enclosures already housed cute, furry beasts. He noted Earth
cats, Rafalian mice, and Denobulan lemurs. Then he caught sight of a sleek animal
running a wheel in a cage atop the counter and felt a pinch in his chest.

The older brother emerged from the back room, then stiffened. “We’re not open.”

Garak put on his most ingratiating smile. As he’d predicted, Trestan was nowhere to
be seen. “I’m your neighbor—the tailor from across—”

“I know who you are.”

Same here.
“I came to welcome you and offer my assistance—”

“Don’t need it.”

“Apparently not. The young man I saw—your brother—he’s quite the hard worker. Perhaps
I could ask him to—”

“He’s gone.”

“When he returns, then.”

“He’s gone from the station.” Rokor’s head jerked a little. “He took a job on a Lissepian
freighter.”

As good a story as any.
With a shrug, Garak strolled closer. “You’re already displaying animals.”

Rokor’s eyes remained centered on him. “I disliked leaving them in stasis pods.”

Ignoring the hostile stare, Garak poked his finger into the lemur cage. “I’m surprised
you’re selling Cardassian pets.” The creature hopped off its wheel and scurried over
to sniff. Lifting its head, it inspected its admirer.

“They’re loyal, clever beasts,” Rokor said. “They became popular on Bajor during the
Occupation.”

Unlike us
. “When I was a boy, I had a lemur. But my—the man who employed my mother—he decided
I was too attached.”

“So he made you give it away?”

“Something like that.” Garak inhaled slowly. He knew how he’d obtain the information
he needed: with a story. “Vlatvlat was a bit wild. She hunted all around the neighborhood,
but she always came home to me. One day, she climbed the civil defense spire near
our house. That’s a device atop a pole that can send out a pulse that—”

Rokor’s eyes narrowed. “I know what a concussion shaft is.”

“Quite.” Garak cleared his throat. “At the top of the spire, Vlatvlat caught her hind
leg in a loose wire. Her squeals could be heard for a block. When I began shinnying
up the pole, the neighbors screamed at me to stop, but I wouldn’t. After I untangled
her and brought her down, they cheered.”

“Heartwarming.”

Garak shrugged. “When my mother’s employer came home, he didn’t cheer. He locked me
in my closet for one hour every day for a week to meditate on how I’d disregarded
my duty to Cardassia by risking my life to save a beast.”

“Harsh, but I understand. You’d worried him.”

“So much so that he added one more punishment.” Garak moistened his lips. “He ordered
me to kill Vlatvlat.”

Shocked, Rokor backed up a step. “Is this a roundabout threat?”

“Not at all. It’s not even the end of my story.” Glancing behind him, Garak dropped
his voice. “I hid Vlatvlat in a bag and took a tube to the end of the line. I walked
for kilometers until I reached the wilderness preserve. After I returned home without
Vlatvlat, I spent two hours in my closet every day for a month.”

The frown relaxed from Rokor’s face. “You really are the Cardassian who set Tres free.”

Garak nodded. “But that’s not the point of my story. I parted from little Vlatvlat
for her safety. If somehow we’d been reunited, I’d never have let her out of my care
again.”

Rokor’s mouth quivered. Turning, he straightened a rack of decorative collars. “Thanks
for the welcome. Now if you’ll excuse me—”

“I know your brother was abducted.”

The collar stand swayed crazily. “Preposterous. My brother took a job—”

“Not for a promise of timeless bliss in the Celestial Temple would you ever have let
him do that. Trestan was abducted by the same Obsidian Order operative who assassinated
Doctor Dal. She wanted to coerce you into assassinating Doctor Lubaar, but you botched
it.”

Rokor gripped the edge of the counter. “You know who I am. You know that if I wanted
to kill him, I’d succeed.”

Garak smiled. Nothing like professional pride to make someone slip up with the truth.
“But your purpose wasn’t to succeed. It was to buy time—time to rescue your brother.”
He glanced at the lemur, racing around her wheel. “And I know how we can find him.”

Within two hours of receiving antitoxin, Lubarr Pem began to stir. Odo watched him
twist on the infirmary bed. His eyelids fluttered, then opened. “You’re here.”

Odo nodded. “Now that you’re conscious, I’ll resume my investigation. You won’t be
safe until the murderer is caught. But no questions. You need to rest.”

“I’m sorry we fought. Sometimes, I can’t help myself.” Lubarr swallowed. “I’m sure
you remember.”

“Yes.” Odo made a throat-clearing noise. “I remember you fought with Doctor Mora to
allow me outside the laboratory. You insisted I needed not just trials but experience.
Those parties . . .”

Lubarr grimaced. “Cerys said you hated playing jester.”

Odo jiggled his head. “It wasn’t all bad. Remember when your brothers dared me to
mimic an Algorian mammoth? When I broke your ceiling, they called me extraordinary.”