Chapter 13

“How could this have happened?” Quark said. “It’s not possible! It’s a mistake. Or maybe a hallucination. A mass hallucination. Or maybe I’m asleep. Maybe I’m still in bed—”

“Quark, would you please settle down?” Ro said to him.

She had never seen the ever-confident Ferengi so rattled. His agitated behavior was drawing the attention of the guests—which was the last thing Quark would have wanted, had he been in his right mind.

Of course, Brunt was doing an even better job of attracting their attention. “I told you,” he was saying to his cronies. “I told you not to trust him. Once a miscreant, always a miscreant.”

“Everything was so prepared,” Quark rattled on. “I supervised every detail. This can’t be happening. It’s got to be a mistake.”

Ro put her hands on Quark’s shoulders and stared into his eyes. “Quark, listen to me,” she said. “Chief O’Brien is in there now, getting to the bottom of things. You’re not doing anyone any good by panicking. Look at your brother—he’s not panicking.”

Indeed. Rom, bracketed by his loved ones—Leeta, whispering reassurances into his ear, and Bena, hugging him tightly around the waist—appeared calm. Or, perhaps more accurately, catatonic.

“Of course he’s not panicking,” Quark said. “What has he got to lose?”

Ro exhaled in frustration. She turned to Odo, who was leaning against the bar, observing the scene with a great deal of interest.

“Can you talk some sense into him?” she asked.

“What’s the point?” responded the Changeling. “It’s just as I explained earlier.” He held out his hands, fingers splayed as though he were tossing something into the air. “Boom.”

Ro frowned. “I thought you were his friend.”

“What gave you that impression?” Odo responded, his expression unreadable.

Then all conversation in the room ceased as O’Brien, accompanied by Blackmer, emerged from the hallway. Aware that all eyes were upon him, O’Brien addressed Ro softly. “Do you want to discuss this somewhere more private, Captain?”

“I think—”

But she was interrupted by a shout from the crowd. Brunt again. Of course.

“No Starfleet cover-ups!” he cried out. “The citizens of Ferenginar deserve to know the truth about this!”

Whatever O’Brien had to tell her would quickly filter through to the guests anyway, so Ro made a quick decision. “Tell me what you found, Chief.”

O’Brien sighed and lifted his right hand to display a small, inconspicuous piece of equipment. “I deactivated the force field so I could examine the pedestal closely. And . . .” He paused, giving Quark a regretful glance. “And I’m afraid that this holoprojector was the only thing in it.”

He placed the device on top of the bar and pressed a button on its side. And there it was, an image of the portion of scroll that everyone had seen. “Sorry, Quark,” O’Brien said.

The onlookers gasped. Conversations sprang up throughout the room—most of them ugly, and all of them directed at Quark.

Standing next to O’Brien, Blackmer realized that he was witnessing a potentially volatile situation. “All right, calm down, folks,” he said. “We’re nowhere near figuring out just what transpired here.”

“We know what transpired!” shouted Brunt. “Quark tried to fleece us all—pretending that he had the Sacred Scroll!”

“I did not!” Quark responded. “Why would I do something like that? Why would I make people pay to see a hologram of a holy relic?”

Odo and O’Brien exchanged glances.

Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, O’Brien said nothing.

But Odo said, “I can think of two hundred and eighty-five reasons.”

“But it wasn’t a hologram!” insisted Quark.

O’Brien gestured at the photonic image on the bar. “Quark, that is a hologram.”

“I know that’s a hologram. But it’s not what Rom took from the Vaults of Opulence.” He slowly turned to look at Rom. “It’s not, is it? I mean, I asked you to bring the scroll, but I never actually saw it until you had it all set up in the lounge.”

Now all eyes turned to settle on Rom.

“Grand Nagus?” inquired Blackmer.

Before Rom could stutter a word, Leeta, infuriated at the suggestion that her husband had committed chicanery, leaped to his defense. “How dare you! He would never do that! He brought the real thing! Tell them, Rom.”

Stammering slightly, Rom told them. “I . . . I went down to the Vaults and got the scroll. I put it in a little box—a nice little box,” he assured the crowd. “And then I brought it on the shuttle, and when I got here, I carried it into the display area and hooked up the force field. Up until then, I never let it out of my sight. I even took it with me into the ’fresher—”

The crowd gasped again. “You took our most sacred relic into the ’fresher?” Brunt repeated in disgust.

“Of course he did,” Leeta confirmed proudly. “Because he takes his nagal responsibilities seriously. And sometimes he’s in there a long time,” she added.

Suddenly, the subject at hand pierced the usual cloud over Zek’s brain. Realizing what was being discussed, he got to his feet and stared at Rom in horror. “You took the Sacred Scroll out of storage? There are rules against removing the Rules from Ferenginar!”

“Not for the Nagus,” said Quark. “It clearly states in Bylaw Seventeen of the Nagal Immunity Clause that he can—”

“Bylaw, schmylaw!” said Zek. “Fat lot of good that will do you when the Order of Scrutinizers is at your door.” He pointed a finger at Rom. “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes!”

Then a puzzled look came over his features and he turned to Ishka for clarification. “I’m not, am I? In his shoes? He’s the Nagus, right?”

Ishka took his hand and nodded. “He’s the Nagus.”

“That’s what I thought,” Zek said, clearly relieved. “You’re in troooou-ble,” he said, stretching out the first syllable as he smiled pleasantly at Rom.

“Arrest him!” Brunt said to Blackmer. “And Quark too!”

“He can’t,” said Ro. “The embassy has been dedicated. This is now Ferenginar territory. As far as Starfleet and the Federation are concerned, neither of them has committed a crime.”

“No, but a crime has been committed,” Quark said. “Against the embassy. We’ve been robbed. And somebody here is the robber!” He jumped to his feet. “Nobody move!” he shouted. “Nobody leaves until we find the culprit!”

He ran behind the bar, punched the button that activated the force field, and glowered at the startled crowd.