ACT IV

(We pick up where we left off, with a closeup of STARN's horrified face.  We realize that STARN is young, probably in his early 20s; and at the moment he is also white as a sheet.)
 

GARAK: Pull yourself together. I'm not a ghost. No thanks to you, I might add.

STARN: How did you find me?

GARAK: Same way I imagine Tanak found you.

STARN: I don't know what you--

GARAK: (suddenly losing patience) Oh *not* this, Kimin, not with *me.* You cannot rationally expect me to believe that for these nine years the Order hasn't known *exactly* where you can be reached or that when they decided they wanted me back the Protectorate didn't look you up.

STARN: If you're here to blackmail me, name your figure. Otherwise--

GARAK: (hurt and angry) It's been five years since the Order left, have I ever *once* attempted to contact you? (STARN shakes his head) Say the worst is true, say every lie they invented is worthy of belief, do I deserve *that*?

STARN: Then what do you want?

GARAK: (coldly) I want to know what they offered you. (Pause) I'd like to hope it wasn't *money.*

STARN: I didn't need an incentive. (They look at each other)

GARAK: I kept up with your career, through friends I could still trust, or thought I could still trust. You did some of your best work after you left.

STARN: After *I* left!

GARAK: (shrugging) After your promotion.

STARN: Oh is *that* what you call it.

GARAK: That's what it was. A field position with the subversives in the mountains--more opportunity for advancement than being stuck running bloodhearts on Terak Nor. At that age, I suppose, you might not have seen it that way--

STARN: I saw it for what it was. Your  last lesson to me.

GARAK: Kimin--

STARN:  What was it you used to tell me, we exist only in the work we do?

GARAK: You're taking that out of--

STARN: But it was true, wasn't it? If you cared about anything it was what I could do for the Order.

GARAK: That's not--

STARN: (angry) You raised me like a purebred puppy and when I was properly groomed you sold me to the highest bidder.

GARAK: Is *that* what they told you?

STARN: They didn't have to. (Looks at GARAK; in spite of himself) One morning instead of your voice I hear Stenol's telling me my assignment has been changed, I don't even *see* you at my pre-transfer debriefing and
before I know where I am I'm in a cave in the back hills of Zandor getting three, maybe four of those cloaked transmissions a *day* and not *one* of them is from you even to congratulate me on my *promotion.*

GARAK: Kimin--(decides he can't say what he was going to) I'm not the whole Order. They were not going to let you stay with me forever, I told you that.

STARN: If you couldn't keep me you should never have--(breaks off) That's all dead, gone, never happened. You left, they left and I found a home where I *should* have had one all along, with my own people and my own
prophets and if any of what you pretended was real you should have left me alone--

GARAK: Yes, that's exactly what puzzles me, Kimin, why after managing to protect yourself effectively from Order which I might add makes you unique in my experience you should risk your new identity and your new prosperity over *me,* since I'm clearly nothing to you--

STARN: How can you--how--(STARN is now starting to lose control)

GARAK: You wanted that adrenaline rush one last time, was that it, just the challenge of the assignment? Or did they tell you their operatives would help you with the election? (Really hurt) What was worth it to you, Kimin,  what did you sell me for?

STARN: (approaching a breakdown) You can't do this to me, you have no right after abandoning me to *them* and letting me scrabble alone through that nightmare of  insanity and treachery and trusting nothing and no one
and hating everything I saw or touched to show up here nine years *after* I needed you and accuse me of--

GARAK: Was that why you did this, to get *attention?* (The sarcasm stings STARN and he finally snaps)

STARN: I wanted you out, gone, erased--(GARAK moves toward him; STARN flails out convulsively, striking at him blindly with a child's uncontrolled anger) I want you dead, you bastard, I want you disappeared--I
want--
 

(STARN is now screaming at him in Cardassian, red-faced and crying and continues hitting at him hysterically. GARAK catches his arms, holds them still and then pulls him into a hug, rocking him back and forth gently and
stroking his back. After a few moments of continuing to pound on GARAK's back, but not trying to break the hold, STARN hangs onto GARAK, still shaking and crying but no longer fighting him)
 

GARAK: Shhh. Shhh. It's all right. It's all right. (While a dumbfounded KIRA watches, GARAK continues to rock STARN gently. STARN eventually stops crying, but continues to hang on with his eyes closed)

STARN: (sniffling) Jen'traa...

GARAK: (Gently) Of course you hate me. So do I.

STARN: Why *did* you--

GARAK: I could tell you what happened, Kimin, but you wouldn't believe me. (STARN releases him) But you can rest assured it wasn't what they told you. (Gently brushes a strand of hair out of STARN's eyes) You were transferred over my objections, and you didn't hear from me because they didn't want you to. Let's leave it at that.

STARN: If they had let me stay with--

GARAK: You might have stayed in longer, but it would have hurt you more. It's better this way. (GARAK pauses) For what I, we have done to you, you repaid me.

STARN: (now anxious for him to know) I didn't take you, jen'traa.

GARAK: I know.

STARN: I had planned on it but when I--even going into your quarters to plant the bloodheart, just seeing your things and knowing it was where you lived, I knew I couldn't go through with it.

GARAK: So you looked for help at the last minute. (There is a pause while it is unclear if STARN is going to reveal anything further) From who? (STARN shakes his head) Tell me.

STARN: I won't. (Frightened) And you can't make me, not without taking me into one of those rooms and I'll kill myself before I let you do that, I swear--(GARAK pushes his sleeves up and holds his scarred wrists up in
front of STARN; STARN suddenly shuts up)

GARAK:  You'd be smart to do it. I wish sometimes I had. (STARN's eyes start tearing up) Whatever I inflicted on you, I got it back with interest. *You* put *me* in the chair. (STARN is quiet) That is the end of our story.
The only end the Order allows. *Unless* you tell me who helped you. (STARN looks away) I need to know, Kimin. Not for me. What can be done to me has been done. I need to know because Bajor needs to know if it is ever going to get over...us. If *you* are ever going to get over me. (Gently) Who did you go to when you needed help with an Order assignment? (STARN blanches) The Ghii could give you manpower but they don't have the tactical or technical experience to pull it off. Who did you go to? (STARN croaks something in a terrified whisper)

GARAK: Who?

STARN: (Hardly audible) The Kai. (GARAK stares. KIRA is shocked, although not totally surprised) It was her idea to use the Ghii. They believe she has control over the fate of their spirits. They will stick to the story
she gave them if it means imprisonment or death.

GARAK: Who was the second abductor?

STARN: (shaking his head) That's more than I needed to know. She said it was someone I could trust, and that was all. I think...it might have been someone on the station. If I were her, that's what I would have done.

GARAK: (still a little taken aback) If Wynn has been in the life all this time I'm more out of the loop than I--

STARN: She isn't, she just...I knew she would be able to do the job.

GARAK: Because she's done it before.

STARN: But she doesn't work--

GARAK: Of course not. She doesn't work for anyone but herself. (STARN nods) Thank you, Kimin. (He gets up off the bed)

STARN: (plaintively) Are you going?

GARAK: I can't stay here.

STARN: You can't just walk in here and then walk out--(GARAK returns and hugs him again)

GARAK: We can't finish what they interrupted. That path is broken. I have no place in your life and can have no place there and that's as it should be.

STARN: But...

GARAK: It doesn't mean I wasn't ever there.

STARN: Jen'traa--

GARAK: (holding him tighter) Goodbye, Kimin. (Slips a hypo out of a sleeve into his hand and zots him with it. STARN falls asleep with GARAK still holding him) And goodnight. (GARAK lays him on the bed, arranges the covers over him, and stands up, shaking his head to clear it. KIRA emerges, stiffly, from the wardrobe)

KIRA: For a minute I thought you'd forgotten I was in there.

GARAK: I tried. (Looks at her) You have what you need.

KIRA: (still digesting what she's seen) I suppose I do.
 

(The shuttle on the way back. GARAK is brooding; KIRA is navigating; neither is speaking)

KIRA: We're approaching the station. (GARAK nods) Garak--

GARAK: (wearily) Yes, Major?

KIRA: (after an uncomfortable pause) He called you his father. (GARAK shakes his head)

GARAK: He's not my son.
 

(A corridor; it is very late and the station as far as we can tell is almost deserted. KIRA and GARAK come  through an airlock door together)

KIRA: If we *can* resolve it without entering his testimony into the official record I'm willing to honor your wishes. (GARAK nods)

GARAK: Thank you, Major.

KIRA: It will mean going after the Kai instead. (Stops and takes a good look at him; blurting out finally) But I'm going to do it, I'm going to bring her down over this and if you asked me why I could not tell you but it's worth it to me. I'm going to break the Kai over a Cardassian tailor. GARAK: (smiling) That's one thing we have in  ommon, at least. We never liked that woman. (KIRA laughs uncertainly) Good night, Major.

KIRA: Good night. (They move off in different directions.)
 

(The corridor leading to B&G's quarters. GARAK approaches the door, punches it open and tiptoes quietly in. He is surprised to hear voices coming from the lit living room)

OPHIDIA: I'm telling you it will be all right. It's not going to happen again.

BASHIR: How can you be sure?

OPHIDIA: I just--I can't explain it. But think about it. Why would they make a second attempt, knowing--
 

(They look up as GARAK appears in the doorway. OPHIDIA is sitting across the coffeetable from BASHIR, whose eyes are red and who appears paler than usual. OPHIDIA is wearing a bathrobe over flannel pajamas and slippers and her hair is a giant, bushy unbrushed mess. There is a nearly-empty pot of coffee on the table between them and BASHIR is holding a cup. As soon as GARAK appears, OPHIDIA stands)

BASHIR: (relieved, but still overwrought) Oh my God. (Puts down the coffeecup and sits for a moment with his head in his hands, collecting himself)

GARAK: (looking from one to the other) What's--(OPHIDIA starts walking toward the exit)

OPHIDIA: Good night, Doctor. (As she passes GARAK she pats him on the shoulder) When you speak, speak well. Good luck, my friend. (She exits. GARAK remains standing, flummoxed, as BASHIR looks up at him)

BASHIR: Where have you been?

GARAK: (misinterpreting) After all we've been through, Julian, you're not going to start getting *jealous*--

BASHIR: (standing, angry) I'm not *talking* about that, I'm talking about waking up in the middle of the night not even three months after your abduction and finding you *not there*! (GARAK is taken aback; he hadn't
thought of this)

GARAK: I went--I was--(stubbornness kicking in) I don't have to justify myself to you!

BASHIR: Garak--(GARAK's defensiveness cedes to his understanding of how upset BASHIR is)

GARAK: I was investigating a lead on Bajor with Major Kira. She'll tell you the same, if you don't--

BASHIR: No, Garak, you don't understand this, I * believe* you, I trust you, remember, but you can't understand what happened to me when the computer told me you weren't on the station.

GARAK: Julian...(spreads his hands in defeat) I'm sorry. I don't know why I didn't tell you. I expected you to sleep through it, I suppose, or that if you woke up you'd know I was coming back because I--(he balks at saying
it)

BASHIR: Because you what?

GARAK: (still not used to admitting he does this kind of thing) Because I...left you the bear. (BASHIR laughs, breaking into tears at the same time; GARAK manifests profound embarrassment. BASHIR walks up to him and embraces him)

BASHIR: You left me the bear.

GARAK: (defensively) You want to make something of it?

BASHIR: I must have knocked it out onto the floor in my sleep. I didn't see it. (Holds onto him) Garak, why didn't you tell me what you were doing?

GARAK: Because...it's a very long story. (BASHIR releases him and looks at him) And I will tell you, now, I want to. But it's going to take a while.

BASHIR: (picking up the coffeepot) Well, as you know, Ophidia doesn't do stimulants, and this was full an hour ago. I think I've got enough caffeine to get me through *War and Peace* if that's what it takes. 

GARAK: Oh, it won't be anywhere near that long. (Sits down on the couch next to BASHIR) It's mostly about war, after all.
 

(Cut to OPHIDIA, still in her night attire, straggling down the hall back toward her quarters. She spots KIRA approaching and waves listlessly)

KIRA: Ophidia! Is everything all right?

OPHIDIA: When was my name put at the top of Bashir's "call-in-a-crisis" list?

KIRA: I'm sorry?

OPHIDIA: Never mind. So you were the one he was gallivanting about with, eh?

KIRA: Yes, actually, I need to talk to you about that. (Takes her arm)

OPHIDIA: Major, I need sleep--

KIRA: You'll get it later. We need to move fast.
 

(Back to the living room. BASHIR is listening.)

GARAK: He had been picked up for stealing, but it wasn't your ordinary petty theft. This was a nine-year-old Bajoran orphan who had managed to get through three coded security gates and a locked glass case because he wanted a *book.*

BASHIR: A *Cardassian* book? (GARAK nods) That *is* surprising.

GARAK: He didn't even know how to read. That's what really amazed me. He had the vision to know, knowing *nothing* about print or language, that of all the things that had been withheld from him *this* was what he needed. The attempt itself proved his technical ability and his street savvy, but I knew there was something else there, something that really made him different. And I was right, after all. He's the youngest candidate ever to
run for president of the council. 

BASHIR: So you...

GARAK: So I made him an offer. He could serve his time in the cell, or he could work it off. And that's how it started--me using him as an unofficial courier, errand boy, pair of eyes and legs. Of course...(sighs) Of course I
*had* to decide that he could be the most effective operative the Order had on Bajor, and of course I had to send a memo to Enabrin, and of course Enabrin authorized me to train him...(pauses) I thought it would make sense to take him out of his environment, otherwise his friends would notice the transformation--he'd have to be reintroduced in a different milieu after his training was complete. And it made sense, to me, since I was to be in
charge of training him, that he should live with me and that I should see to it his malnutrition was corrected and that he was educated properly so that he would be a more effective agent...

BASHIR: You adopted him.

GARAK: I honestly didn't know that was happening. If I had I would never have done what I did. It would have been--you'll laugh to hear me say it, but it would have been dishonest to pretend that I was anything more than
his indoctrinator because I knew I couldn't--I couldn't do for him what a father should do.

BASHIR: But it happened anyway.

GARAK: He had no one else. He didn't know what had happened to his parents. No one had ever--beyond appreciating him, beyond seeing what I saw in him, nobody had ever even been--been--

BASHIR: Kind to him. (GARAk nods) And you were.

GARAK: (still baffled) I was.
 

(Cut to KIRA's quarters. OPHIDIA is protesting vocally and with broad gestures)

OPHIDIA: NO. NO. I am *not* going undercover with the Kai, I cannot *stand* that woman--

KIRA: We need incriminating evidence *fast* and you're the only one she would trust enough to--

OPHIDIA: Major, after attending our premiere I really don't think she wants anything to do with *either* of us.

KIRA: That may be true, but will you at least try?

OPHIDIA: No, Major, I will not! Where you people got the idea that I am some kind of Caledonian Mata Hari I do not understand--

KIRA: I'll speak to Altaria about it if you want. I'm sure she'll understand.

OPHIDIA: Oh, she understands quite thoroughly how much I *hate* that woman, that's not the issue, the issue is my having to--

KIRA: It is highly unlikely that you will have to do anything compromising--

OPHIDIA: It is highly *impossible,* Major, because if the situation arises I'm backing out, do you understand?

KIRA: So you *will* help us. (OPHIDIA pauses)

OPHIDIA: (resigned) Shoot me now. Please.
 

(Back to the living room. BASHIR is holding GARAK while he finishes the story)

GARAK: Every year he proved himself more and more valuable to us but the upper echelons never trusted the Bajoran operatives. Paranoia was a policy with them. And they trusted Kimin even less because they knew I was close to him. So...(sighs) One day it came.

BASHIR: What came?

GARAK: The interrogation order. (BASHIR looks at him) They told me they had reason to believe that Kimin was actually a Bajoran agent and they needed me to obtain the names of his contacts. (Pause) If I hadn't been so emotionally involved I would have seen it for what it was. (Shakes his head) I took him into the room, I put him in the chair...(BASHIR is starting to look horrified) And then I left the room, closed the door, and just sat in the hallway outside and shook. Literally shook, so badly I couldn't even stand up to go into another room. FAnd then I got up...went back in, and released him. (Takes a difficult breath) I told him I had just wanted him to experience it, briefly, so that when he did his own interrogations he would be able to understand...and I saw him nodding...he wasn't disturbed at all, he trusted me completely. And what really turned my stomach was seeing that he was looking forward to doing his own interrogations because that was what *I* did.

BASHIR: Oh, Elim.

GARAK: I told the Order I had interrogated him and I was satisfied that he was loyal. (Shakes his head) Of course reading the communique they knew I hadn't done it and that was what they were really after. They weren't testing him, they were testing me. (Passes a hand over his face wearily) And I failed. So they took him away from me and put him under another operative.

BASHIR: Elim...Elim is that what...

GARAK: (laughing bitterly) Oh, Julian, the story of what led to my exile is *far* more unflattering. (Thinking) But I suppose even then...I put something else above my commitment to the Order. (BASHIR nods) I discovered
something I could not do for them. After that it was only a matter of time.

BASHIR: (after a long silence) And you never saw him again, until tonight.

GARAK: No.

BASHIR: I would...I don't suppose it will ever happen. But I would have liked to know him.

GARAK: I'm very glad I didn't know you then, Julian. You wouldn't have liked me.

BASHIR: But I like you now, Elim. With all your history. (Takes GARAK's hands and lays them palms up on his knees, running his fingers lightly across the scars) All our history.

GARAK: (in simple awe) Why?

BASHIR: (with a little smirk) Who can explain a heldek? (GARAK smiles and kisses him. Blackout)

*end Act IV*