him. Sisko hadn't heard the last of this, he thought.
Smoke roiled around him, thick and choking. Hold-
ing his breath, he rose to his knees and peered to the
left, trying to spot Kloran or Etkar or any of DS9's
security guards. If he only had a disruptor, he
thought, they'd stand a chance of making it out of
here alive.
His eyes began to sting, and suddenly everything
turned blurry. lt the smoke. He blinked at his tears
and felt his lungs start to burn. Dropping down as
close to the floor as he could, he sucked in a breath of
foul-tasting air. At least there didn't seem to be any
fire, but that was small consolation.
He began to crawl toward the door, and suddenly
he found heavy boots blocking his way. He glanced up
and found a phaser pointed at his head. Behind the
phaser, wreathed in swirls of smoke, stood a Bajoran
with a respirator over his mouth and nose. Hard,
angry, fanatically crazy eyes glared down at him.
"Butcher!" the Bajoran cried. He pulled back his
leg and kicked with all his strength.
Hardly able to breathe, hardly able to see it coming,
Mekkar couldn't dodge in time. The kick caught him
in the side of the head, stunning him for a second. He
fell, gasping. The Bajoran kicked him a second time,
in the side, and he felt ribs crack. Sharp, raw pain
blossomed in his side.
Whimpering, he doubled up. What had he done to
deserve this? he thought. Why did they keep calling
him "Butcher"?
"Up!" the Bajoran called, nudging him with the toe
of his boot. "On your feet, Mekkar! Up/"
Mekkar tried to rise but couldn't get his legs under
him. Pain stabbed through his stomach and ribs. He
couldn't hold his breath anymore. He sucked in a
lungful of smoke and began to cough and wheeze.
Two more Bajorans in respirators joined the first.
They seized Mekkar's arms and hauled him forward,
through the smoke, to a hole in the wall. They'd
blown it open with a bomb of some kind, Mekkar
realized. They really were insane. They could have
depressurized the entire station and killed everyone
aboard!
At least the air on the other side tasted better, he
thought, wheezing and gasping. If he could just get his
breath, maybe he could try to grab a phaser from one
of them.
Suddenly someone grabbed his hair and forced his
head back. Mekkar found himself staring up at Vedek
Werron's hard, cold face.
"Justice," the Vedek said, "will be served."
Turning, the Vedek strode to the door, then out into
the corridor. The alarm klaxons were still ringing.
People were screaming and running everywhere.
Mekkar thought he was going to vomit.
The three Bajorans dragged him down one of the
small crossover bridges to the station's core, then up
to the Promenade. There, men and women clustered
along the huge viewports, trying to see what was going
on. The alarms sounded far-off here. Probably more
than a few blast doors had already closed, Mekkar
thought.
"Help!" he tried to shout. "Help!" What came out
was a wracking cough that shook his whole body.
They would pay for this, he vowed, as soon as he had
his strength back.
Vedek Werron strode into a huge bar like he owned
the place. He now had a phaser in each hand, and he
fired them both at the ceiling. Mekkar winced, certain
they were all going to die from explosive decompres-
sion, but the phasers must have been set on stun since
nothing happened but bright lights and a whining
sound.
Inside, the effect was devastating Men and woman
shrieked and dove for cover.
"Everyone out!" Mekkar ordered. "This place is
closed!"
"You can't do that!" a Ferengi called from behind
the long bar against the wall.
In answer, Vedek Werron fired both phasers at him.
"Don't shoot! You can do it! You can do ifi" the
Ferengi called.
Men and women stamp eded for the exits, shouting
and jostling one another in their haste. As the bar
cleared out, the two Bajorans holding Mekkar's arms
dragged him to a round table, threw him on top of it,
and began tying him spread-eagle across it.
For a second he struggled, but the one on the right
turned and punched him in the head as hard as he
could. Darkness swept over him.
Quark motioned for Rom to stay down, then
peeked around the end of the bar. Two of the Bajorans
were tying down their prisoner. Another had taken up
a position by the front door. Vedek Werron seated
himself at a nearby table, putting both phasers before
him. From a pocket he drew a white candle, which he
lit and set down before him. He stared at the flame as
though in a trance.
They were out of their minds, Quark thought. Did
they think they could possibly get away with kidnap-
ping a Cardassian and holing up here? As soon as
security arrived, it would be all over. He eased back
out of sight.
"What are they doing, brother?" Rom asked in a
whisper. Quark didn't think he'd ever seen Rom
looking so frightened. Nothing like a true emergency
to bring out the coward in someone, he thought.
"Not much," Quark said. He was concerned him-
self, but most important, he wondered how he could
possibly turn things to his own advantage. After all, as
the Ninth Rule of Acquisition said, "Opportunity
plus instinct equals profit." And his every instinct
said he was looking at a latinum-plated opportunity.
Sisko watched as Dax used the station's internal
sensors to locate Mekkar. "He's in Quark's," she said.
"Quark's?' Sisko said. He frowned. If Mekkar had
run out for a drink instead of being kidnapped...
"I'm picking up seven life-forms there," Dax went
on. "One Cardassian, four Bajorans, and two Ferengi.
WaitmI lost them!" She looked up. "They've acti-
vated a scrambler of some kind."
Sisko moved to the transporter controls. Maybe
that one brief lock had been enough, he thought. He
fed the readings from Dax's console to the transporter
and tried to get a lock on Mekkar.
Nothing. "I can't beam Mekkar out," Sisko asked.
"It's a subspace distortion field," Dax went on. "I
might be able to punch through it in time, but I
couldn't guarantee getting a lock on any of them."
Sisko nodded slowly. "I see." They also might kill
Mekkar at the first sign of trouble, he thought. "I
guess we'll have to see what their demands are."
He opened a comm link to Quark's, and a second
later Quark's face appeared on the screen.
"Captain Sisko!" Quark said, looking anxious. "I
insist you do something at once! There are Bajoran
terrorists here--"
A fist flashed in front of the monitor, and Quark
/> gave a pained cry. Everything blurred, and then the
monitor swiveled around and Sisko found himself
gazing at Vedek Werron's face. Werron smiled se-
renely.
"Captain Sisko," he said, "the Bajoran people have
spoken. War crimes must be atoned for."
Sisko leaned forward, the muscles in his jaw clench-
ing. He had seldom been this angry. It nearly left him
speechless.
"Werron," he said, deliberately keeping his words
short and clipped. "Put down your weapons, bring
Gul Mekkar out, and I promise you that we will get to
the bottom of this matter."
"You had your chance, Captain," Werron said.
"Here are my demands. You will make a runabout
available to me immediately. We will transport the
Butcher down to Bajor for a fair trial. After his
execution, your peace negotiations can continue."
"And the alternative?" Sisko asked.
"I will convene a military trial here, with myself as
judge, jury, and executioner," he said.
"That is unacceptable," Sisko said. Either way, he
knew Mekkar would be killed.
"It's your only choice. Think about it." Werron
severed the transmission.
"But I've never even been to Bajor before!" Gul
Mekkar continued to protest. "This is insane! I was
busy fighting the Federation during the Bajoran occu-
pation--"
"Lies!" Werron hissed. His face twisted with rage.
"Shut up, Butcher, or I'll kill you here myself?'
Mekkar shut up. Pain speared his side from the
broken ribs again, and he twisted in agony on the
table. Somehow, he managed to keep from screaming.
He wouldn't give Werron the satisfaction.
Quark nursed his bruised cheek. He thought Vedek
Werron had loosened a tooth, and he probed carefully
with his tongue, tasting blood. So much for reasoning
with him, he thought, glaring from across the room.
"Are you all right, brother?" Rom whispered.
"Yes," Quark said, "so far."
"Do yourself a favor... leave them alone! It's
none of our business what they do to the Cardassian!"
"You're right," Quark said. "It's none of our busi-
ness. But I'm not going to let him treat me this way in
my own bar!"
He slid off his stool and stalked forward. Rom
grabbed his arm, pleading silently with him for rea-
son, but Quark shrugged him away.
"Vedek," he said, "there's no reason to let our
misunderstanding get in the way of business. Would
you like to run a tab while you're staying here?"
Werron stared coldly at him. "So you can poison
me?" he demanded.
That was the general idea, Quark thought. "No, of
course not!" he said magnanimously. "Corpses are
bad for business. I'm just trying to make an honest
living, that's all."
"Water," Werron said.
"That's it?" Quark asked. "Would you like it
scented, perhaps? Or flavored with Jonja? Or per-
haps--"
"Water," Werron said. "Pure, unadulterated
water."
"Coming up," Quark said. Turning, he headed for
the bar. He could feel Werron's sharp gaze boring into
the back of his head, and he shivered a little. No
chance of drugging the Vedek's water, he thought, but
if he could win his trust, maybe he'd try some Bajoran
spiced ale later. You could hide some pretty potent
solutions in that, and he'd never know until it hit
him ....
Sisko bit his lip and considered the problem from
every angle. It seemed to come down to two choices,
neither of which appealed to him Let Werron and his
people kill Mekkar on the station or let them trans-
port Mekkar down to Bajor for trial and execution.
He had no doubt that an armed attack on Quark's bar
would result in Mekkar's immediate execution, and it
might also cost the lives of some of the Bajorans and
his own security forces. This would have been a
perfect job for Odo, he reflected.
He'd scarcely had time to think about the mission
to the Gamma Quadrant, he realized a bit guiltily.
Too much had been going on here. He prayed they
were having better luck than he was.
Now he had to focus on the present problem,
however. What options did he have?
What if I let them take Mekkar to Bajor? he
wondered. That would at least buy us more time. And
if he guilty of war crimes, perhaps he should be
punished... but through the proper channels.
He realized suddenly that he didn't know whether
Mekkar really was this so-called Butcher of Belmast,
as all the Bajorans seemed to believe. Dax hadn't had
time to give him her full report.
"What about Mekkar?" he asked her. "Is he guilty
of war crimes?"
"No," she said. "Gul Rel Mekkar--our Mekkar--
is innocent. He had never even been in Bajoran space
before these peace negotiations, which is why the
Detepa Council sent him. They had hoped to avoid
any problems with the Bajorans. According to
Bajoran records I was able to access, Gul Ren
Mekkar--similar name, similar appearance, perhaps
a relative of our Mekkar--was the one the Bajorans
called the Butcher of Belmast."
"It seems a pretty clear case of mistaken identity,"
he said. "How could Werron have made such a
mistake?"
"He wants to believe Mekkar is the Butcher of
Belmast," Dax said. "Everything I've read about him
leads me to believe he's not stable. He thinks he has a
divine responsibility to bring all Cardassians to jus-
tice. This hostage taking..." She shook her head.
"He's a dangerous man, and nothing's going to con-
vince him he's wrong. Not even the facts."
"1 have to try," Sisko said.
He called Quark's bar again, and this time Werron
answered himself.
"I've had a chance to review the facts of the
Belmast case," Sisko said, "and I agree that it's an
outrage, and appropriate steps should be taken to
punish the guilty parties."
"Excellent," Werron said. "Then you'll provide a
transport for us to Bajor."
"I said the guilty parties, Vedek. Gul Rel Mekkar
isn't the Butcher of Belmast. He's never even been to
Bajor. You're looking for Gul Ren Mekkar--"
"Lies!" Werron screamed. "All lies!"
Slowly Sisko shook his head. "Facts don't lie,
Vedek. If you don't believe me, I'll be glad to supply
you with the appropriate files so you can check for
yourself--"
"Get me that runabout," Mekkar said. His eyes
were wild, dangerous, Sisko thought. "You have one
hour."
He severed the connection.
"He's a fanatic," Dax said. "There's no reasoning
with him."
Sisko sighed. "I'm starting to think you're right,"
he said. 'Tll have to seek a higher authority."
"Admiral Dulev?"
"Kai Winn," he said. As the religious leader of
&n
bsp; Bajor, she might have enough influence with Werron
to talk sense into him, he thought. "Try to keep an eye
on Werron," he said. "Let me know if anything
happens."
"You got it," she said.
Sisko went into his office and shut the door. He
didn't particularly like Kai Winn, but he understood
her. Although she had a ruthless--and sometimes
senseless--drive for power, hers was an honest greed
compared to Werron's.
He put through the call. Would she speak to him?
Would she be available on such short notice? After a
few tense moments of waiting, her face appeared on
the monitor.
"Hello, Emissary," she said, smiling broadly. She
did be atific well, he thought. "As always, it is a
pleasure to speak with you."
"And it's a pleasure to see you looking so well," he
said. "I have a problem with Vedek Werron, however,
and I was hoping you might be able to give me the
benefit of your counsel."
She all but preened herself in satisfaction. Nothing
worked quite so well as playing up to her, he thought.
Quickly he outlined the situation. "Vedek Werron
seems unwilling to listen to reason--or the truth."
Kai Winn sighed. "Werron has always been some-
thing of a problem for us," she said. "If Mekkar is not
the Butcher, he should be released at once. We don't
want another Cardassian incident; this is an age of
healing. We must move on and put the scars of the
past behind us."
"Exactly," Sisko said. "Then you'll speak to him
for us."
"He would never listen to me," she said. "He has
somehow built me up in his mind as his enemy. He
thinks he sees plots of my spinning behind every bush
and every tree."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"Send him to Bajor. We will have a fair trial for Gul
Mekkar, and I will personally expedite it. We will
have him declared innocent and released, if that is the
case, within a single day."
Sisko smiled. "Thank you, Kai," he said. That
sounded like an altogether satisfactory solution.
CHAPTER
25
THE SECOND THE Jem'Hadar surrounded him, Odo let
his body loose its rigid form, morphing back into his
normal humanoid shape. The change served no real
purpose except to show them that he could
shapeshift--that he was, in fact, a changeling. Hope-
fully that would be enough.
"Founder," the leader of the Jem'Hadar squad said,
Star Trek - DS9 - Heart Of The Warrior - Book 17 Page 20