Chapter 26

ONE WEEK LATER . . .

Should I tell him? Odo wondered as he stared at Chief O’Brien.

O’Brien took another long draw of his drink—something dark brown and foamy that looked thick enough to stand a spoon in. When he lowered his glass, the faint foam mustache that Odo had noticed earlier was even more pronounced.

Ah. There’d be no point, Odo thought. It would just reappear with each swig.

O’Brien placed the glass on a coaster, then leaned back and followed up on his earlier question to the Changeling. “But you must have enjoyed it, right? Participating in a real-life caper?”

Odo sighed. He’d explained this twice already, but either O’Brien didn’t remember or he didn’t believe him. “I’m not sure that I’d refer to it as a ‘caper,’ Chief. It was just a routine investigation. I followed the clues, just the way I would have in the old days.”

O’Brien shook his head. “I don’t know, Odo. Greedy people. Seedy neighborhoods. Murder. Kidnapping. A femme fatale masterminding the whole operation. Sounds a lot like a caper to me.”

“Yrena was hardly a ‘femme fatale,’ ” Odo insisted.

“Probably the closest thing to one on Ferenginar,” chuckled the chief, finishing his drink. He closed his eyes and smiled happily. “Nectar of the gods,” he said. Then he opened them and waved to Frool. “Another bottle of my special stout, please.”

“Coming right up,” said Frool, hustling to the stockroom.

“I don’t recall seeing you drink that in the past,” Odo remarked.

“I got Treir to order it for me while Quark was away. A pity you don’t drink, Odo. I’d treat you to one.”

“You can treat me to one,” said a new arrival, joining them at the bar.

O’Brien looked at him dubiously. “It’s stout, Nog. Not root beer.”

The smile on the young Ferengi’s face faded. “Oh. But it looked like . . .” His voice trailed off.

“Looks can be deceiving,” noted O’Brien. “Right, Odo?”

“Undoubtedly,” said the shape-shifter.

Although he wasn’t sure that he’d admit it to anyone here, Odo felt good being back at the station, and pleased to be considered part of the family, albeit a very motley family. It’s how he’d felt being a part the Great Link, but that feeling had faded when members of the Link scattered, leaving nothing behind . . .

Not even a forwarding address, as Quark had put it, a surprisingly apt observation for the typically insensitive bartender.

But here on this station . . . For some reason, the crew of Deep Space 9 still welcomed him as family. Even though he’d separated himself from them years ago. Odo wasn’t sure how long he’d stay among them this time. But for the moment, he was content to remain.

“Hey!” shouted Nog. “My dad! Frool, turn up the sound!”

The big monitor above the bar revealed an image of the nagus and Nog’s stepmother, Leeta, seated together on a large sofa in the Nagal Residence.

“Wow!” the Ferengi engineer said excitedly. “He’s being interviewed by that Federation News Service reporter!”

O’Brien squinted at the screen. “Wasn’t she here a couple months ago? What was her name? Eisla something . . .”

“Darvis,” said Odo, turning his attention to the screen.

“—Ferenginar,” the reporter was saying, “where a mysterious crime spree involving murder, kidnapping, larceny, and embezzlement has at last been brought to an end, thanks, in part, to the heroic efforts of Ferenginar’s own Grand Nagus Rom.

“I’m here at the palatial Nagal Residence for an exclusive interview with the nagus about the events leading up to the arrest of Yrena—widow of the nagus’s uncle, Frin—and her two sons. The arrest took place last week in Upper Bowog Bay, where Yrena was building a large recreational casino using funds that she had funneled from accounts belonging to the late Frin, and Frin’s two other wives . . .”

“What’s going on?” said Ro as she walked in and joined the men at the bar.

“They’re interviewing my dad!” Nog answered proudly, his grin practically as wide as Bajor’s Holana River.

“I understand that you arrived at the Bowog compound before Ferenginar’s Chief Quirk. So you were one step ahead of law enforcement. Some of your followers have started calling you ‘Ready-for-Action Rom’—”

“What?” Rom’s eyes flashed an expression of surprise and embarrassment, while Leeta beamed with delight.

“—and that you single-handedly destroyed Yrena and her gang’s escape shuttles—”

“Oh . . . oh . . . that was just . . .”

“—and that you broke your brother out of his confinement, while you were being assaulted by one of Yrena’s sons—”

“I just . . . it was an accident. I don’t really know how to . . . I was just eager to save my brother so . . . I acted on instinct.”

“His instincts are amazing!” Leeta interjected, unable to contain her pride. “Everything about my husband is amazing!”

The bar erupted in laughter. “You tell her, Leeta!” shouted Nog, but even he was chuckling.

“Who’s that?” asked Ro as the interview with Rom ended and the visual cut to Eisla Darvis talking with an unfamiliar Ferengi.

Odo looked up. “That’s Quirk.”

“That’s not Quark,” commented Frool as he raced by carrying a tray.

“Quirk,” repeated Odo, emphasizing the pronunciation.

“Oh—your cop friend,” said O’Brien. “Shh—I want to hear what he has to say.”

“And what information led you to believe that Yrena and her sons were responsible for the deaths of Financial Manager Hilt and . . .”—Eisla paused—“a bartender named Pug?”

“Well, I can’t take all the credit. Before I got involved, the nagus had engaged an outside investigator—a retired constable from Deep Space 9—to help him find his brother, who’d disappeared during a visit to our fair planet. As it turned out, the brother was a witness to Hilt’s murder. I believe Yrena kept him alive to use as a potential bargaining chip in dealing with the nagus.”

“Some bargaining chip,” said O’Brien.

“I understand you were able to rescue the brother.”

“Why,” Ro asked suddenly, looking at her friends, “does she keep avoiding using Quark’s name?”

“Bad blood,” O’Brien said, sipping his stout.

“She’s still mad at him,” confided Nog. “He wouldn’t give her a sneak peek at the Sacred Scroll during the embassy dedication. Right, Morn?”

At the end of the bar, on his usual stool, the big Lurian looked up from his drink and gave Nog a thumbs-up.

“It was the nagus who found his brother,” Quirk was saying on the screen. “He busted him out of the shed Yrena had him confined in. And Constable Odo provided the clue that allowed me to track the financial trail that led directly to Yrena.”

“And what was that clue?”

“Three words: Sludge Liquid Assets.”

“What are ‘Sludge Liquid Assets’?”

“A shell company that Yrena set up to cover her illicit transactions.”

“Well, bravo, Odo!” O’Brien said, gently tapping the Changeling’s shoulder.

Odo shrugged. “All in a day’s work,” he said.

“I knew you could do it,” Ro said with a smile. She glanced around the busy room. It was noisy with people having a good time. “Where’s Quark?” she asked. “It’s not like him to avoid the bar, particularly when he has this many customers. I’ve hardly seen him since he got back.”

“Office,” Frool informed her as he skittered past.

Ro turned to Odo. “Is he all right?”

Odo started to answer, then realized he didn’t really know. And he wasn’t one to speculate when interrogation was an option. He stood up, looked at Ro, and said, “Let’s ask him.”