A Fistful of Latinum - 20801.01

T'Kir ducked as the glass flew over her head. Another few inches and it would have knock her cold.

The voice of Kalag, the Blue Mugato's owner and bartender, filled the air. “That's it! I warned you once,” shouted the Klingon. “I don't allow fighting in here.”

T'Kir didn't turn around to watch as he dealt with the problem customer, feeling content just to hear the sound of Kalag trouncing the offender and tossing him out the door. She'd seen it too many times before, and it bored her.

As the Klingon was busy taking care of the troublemaker, a man sat down beside her at the bar. He faced her, and she glanced at him. The tall, dark-haired human seemed somewhat out of place in the tavern, a bit too clean cut and innocent looking perhaps. She doubted he'd been in the Neutral Zone long, and he didn't seem like he should be in the Blue Mugato at all. He smiled and made a motion near his waist with his right hand. She looked down to see a disruptor partially visible beneath his coat. He had it pointed at her.

“Someone wants to talk to you,” he said.

The part-Vulcan, part-Romulan woman sighed and took the last swig of Saurian brandy in her glass. Picking up a half-empty bottle, she poured another drink.

“I’m on my lunch break,” she told the man. Her tone of voice held a complete lack of interest in his threat. “Tell them to make an appointment during office hours.”

The man’s smile widened, though it was hardly friendly. “I’m afraid you’ll have to cut your meal short. This is a rather urgent matter.” T’Kir sighed and turned towards him. She wasn't in the mood to put up with amateur bounty hunters or wanna-be thugs.

“Look,” she said bluntly. “I think you've bitten off a little more than you can chew here, so why don't you just go away and play somewhere else?” He shook his head. “We're both leaving together.”

“So what are you going to do if I don’t come along?” she asked. “Stun me and drag me out of here? This is a crowded bar. I have friends. You saw what the Klingon just did.”

“Friends?” said the human with a chuckle. “Is that what you call them. No one has friends here. People are loyal to you because they’re paid to be. Either that or they’re too scared to cross you, and for you, it’s mostly the latter. I don’t think there’d be any love lost in this room if I hauled you out of here unconscious. And I doubt the Klingon cares what I do as long as I don't break anything.”

T’Kir smiled at the man’s assessment of her popularity. It amused her. She hated to admit it though; he was probably right. She'd built her reputation on fear, and she’d earned quite a few enemies in the process. The only people she could truly count on were the other Federation intelligence agents on the planet, but none of them were in the bar at that moment. She might as well go with the man, at least as far as she had to. By his looks and demeanor, she could probably gain the advantage over him at some point in time. He certainly wasn't a professional. Right now though, she could do little while he had his finger on the trigger of a disruptor.

Downing her glass of brandy, she capped the bottle and shoved it across the bar.

“Keep this for me, Kalag,” she told the tall bartender as he stepped back behind the counter. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Kalag eyed the man who stood with her and frowned. “If you're going to kill him, please do it outside in the street,” he told her. “I still haven’t gotten the bloodstains out of the booth from the last guy you killed in here.”

She grinned. “I paid you for the mess I made. Besides, he deserved it.” She glanced at the human, who was trying to keep his disruptor pointed at her while also still concealing it from public view. “Junior here is a bit annoying, but so far he hasn’t pissed me off too much. If he doesn’t stop waving his weapon at me though, I’ll have to reconsider my opinion of him.”

Kalag laughed and leaned over towards the man. His seven-foot tall frame towered over the human. “My condolences to your family.”

The man smiled in a condescending manner. “If you’re trying to scare me, it’s not working,” he replied confidently.

Kalag shook his head. “If you’re not scared then you’re a fool,” he warned. “T’Kir's a real bitch.”

The human ignored him and gently prodded T’Kir to move forward. She shrugged her shoulders at Kalag and smiled as she started towards the bar’s exit. Once outside, the man motioned her down the dirt street that ran in front of tavern. As they walked, he reached up and removed the disruptor from her belt.

“I was wondering when you were going to get to that,” she said. “I see you at least passed the basic course on how to kidnap people. Somehow, though, I don’t think you attended any of the advanced classes.”

“Just shut up and keep walking,” he said, indicating for her to turn right.

“Who is it that you’re working for?” she asked as she followed his directions.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

She smiled and glanced back towards him. “I’m rather impatient. I’d prefer to know now.”

Suddenly, she kicked backwards with her right foot, landing her heel solidly in the man’s crotch. He gasped for breath, and she turned around to watch as he slowly sank to his knees. She grabbed her disruptor and his weapon both from him as he descended.

“See, I knew you’d skipped class a few times,” she commented.

She bent down beside him, her disruptor pointed at his head. Passers-by cast disinterested glances at them, either unconcerned with their situation or not caring to get involved. That was how it usually went on a planet like this. Miners made up most of the permanent population, with a steady flow of smugglers and pirates making up the rest. No one really cared about anyone else, unless there was a personal connection.

“So I ask you a second time,” she said, as his initial pain began to wear off, “who sent you?”

“I don’t know,” said the man, his breath still weak.

T’Kir sighed in irritation. “Would you like me to kick you again?”

“Uh, no!” replied the man quickly. “No, that’s okay. I don’t think that’s necessary. I'll tell you. Some Romulan named Tharak approached me at another tavern. He offered me five bars of latinum to bring you to him.”

“Five bars,” said T’Kir, raising her eyebrows in mock amazement. “I’m flattered. I’d have only paid you two for myself. Of course, I have low self-esteem.”

The man shook his head. “All I wanted was to earn some money to get off this damned planet. I lost all my latinum on a dabo wheel. I've been stuck here for two months.”

“My heart bleeds for you,” said T’Kir sarcastically. “What’s your name?”

“Adam,” he said.

“Tell you what, Adam. If you still want to earn that latinum, maybe we can strike a deal.”

He cast a wary glance at her. “What do I have to do?” he asked with a frown. He clearly didn’t trust her.

A slightly dangerous smile crossed T'Kir's face, and she handed him back his disruptor. “Take me to Tharak.”

After explaining what she wanted from Adam, the two of them set off for their initial destination. He led her into the town's warehouse district and up to a rather nondescript metal building.

“Right here,” said the human, indicating a door with his disruptor. “This is where he said to bring you.”

T’Kir glanced at the building. It appeared to be the branch office of a prominent Romulan mining company.

“Looks deserted,” she said.

“Well, I certainly hope it isn't,” he replied. “I want my latinum.”

He knocked on the door, and a few seconds later it opened. The face of a Romulan man appeared in the crack.

“Tell Tharak I brought T'Kir,” said Adam.

The man glanced at them for a moment and then opened the door wide enough to enter. He led them down a narrow hall and into a small, dimly lit interior room with no windows. Along the way they passed several other Romulans, four men and one woman. T’Kir took note of them. Each was wearing everyday work clothes, and they didn't appear to be armed.

Once they'd stepped inside the room, their escort left, and T'Kir glanced around, taking in every detail she could. They didn't have long to wait though before the man returned with another Romulan, an older male. The new man looked at T'Kir as he pulled up a chair and sat down behind a desk. The younger man took a tricorder from his pocket and scanned her. He then reached inside her jacket and removed the phaser and knife she had hidden. She smiled at him as he did so.

“Is that everything,” the older man asked.

The other Romulan nodded.

“When do I get my latinum?” asked Adam.

“In just a moment,” said the older man. “I'll get it to you on your way out.”

He looked at T'Kir. “My name is Tharak. This is my associate, Varta. It's an honor to meet you. I've heard a lot about you. Most of it probably not true, I'm sure.”

“Most of it probably is,” bragged T'Kir, correcting him.

Tharak smiled. “Well, at least I see your ego hasn't been exaggerated.”

She smiled at his remark.

“If you truly know a lot about me, then you also know I hate small talk,” she said. “So let's get right to the point. Why did you bring me here? Surely it wasn’t just because you wanted my autograph.”

“I need information from you. It’s as plain as that. You're also under arrest.”

T'Kir snorted in laughter. “Arrest? You've got to be kidding me. Who are you? You’re surely not Tal Shiar or part of the Romulan military. If you were, you wouldn't be hiding in this rundown warehouse and sending Junior here to fetch me.” She thumbed in Adam's direction.

“I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss the seriousness of this situation,” said Tharak. “Maybe I should clarify who I am. I'm Colonel Tharak, of the Democratic Romulan Republic. You murdered one of our agents last week.”

She smirked. “I murdered a lot of people last week. You'll have to refresh my memory.”

Tharak sighed and shook his head. “I've always hated the arrogance of Tal Shiar agents.”

“Tal Shiar?” said T'Kir, almost laughing again. “You think I'm Tal Shiar?”

“You told one of our other agents that you are,” he said.

“Yeah, but I’m a big liar. You can’t believe everything I say. I often use the Tal Shiar cover to make people scared of me. That comes in handy in my business.”

“And just what is that business?”

She smiled deviously. “A little of this. A little of that. Mostly that. It’s more fun.”

“So, you’re not Tal Shiar?” he asked, somewhat sarcastically.

“Nope. Sorry to disappoint. I’m just plain old T’Kir, smuggler, rogue and all around bad egg.”

He frowned, and T’Kir could see that he was beginning to lose his temper. “You expect me to believe that and to just let you walk out of here?”

“Well, I was hoping you might,” she said, echoing his sarcasm.

“You don’t seem to understand,” he replied, raising his voice and standing up. “We're going to execute you. Don’t you have anything serious to say in your defense, or are you just going to sit there and crack jokes? Because if you are, then I might as well just kill you now and save myself the grief.”

“I thought you needed information from me?” she said, catching him in a contradiction. “You at least need to keep me alive long enough for that, don't you?”

Tharak growled in frustration. “You’re twisting my words!” he yelled.

“Well, get to the point,” she said, raising her voice also. She'd begun to get irritated herself. “I haven’t got all day. I have places to go, people to kill.”

“Silence!” yelled Tharak. He pounded his fist on the desk. “I’ve had enough of your insolence!” He indicated for Varta to approach her.

“Uh, excuse me,” said Adam, suddenly speaking up. “I’d prefer to get paid now, because I really don’t want to stick around for all this.”

“I’ll pay you when I'm good and ready to pay you,” retorted Tharak, extending his annoyance to the human.

T’Kir glanced at Adam. “I don’t think he intends to pay you at all,” she said. “I think he just used you to do his dirty work, and he’ll probably kill you at the same time he kills me.”

Adam glanced at her and then back up at Tharak. “Are you going to pay me?”

“I told you I would!” yelled Tharak. “Who are you going to listen to, this obviously unbalanced woman or me?”

Adam sighed and pulled out his disruptor, pointing it at Varta.

“What are you doing?” asked Tharak. “Don’t be a fool. You wouldn’t make it out of this building on your own.”

“I won’t be alone,” said Adam.

He pulled T’Kir’s disruptor from an inside pocket of his vest and handed it to her. “I certainly hope your reputation is well deserved,” he told her.

T’Kir smiled. “You’re about to find out for yourself.”

She reached up to Varta's neck and promptly pinched it. He collapsed to the floor with a thud, and she retrieved from him her phaser and knife. Pocketing them, she turned her attention back to Tharak.

“Sit down on the edge of your desk,” she told him. “Hands in front. If you so much as twitch I’ll burn your ears off.”

“What do you hope to accomplish by this,” he asked her as he complied. “Are you planning on shooting your way out of here?”

“I won't have to,” she replied. “I didn't see anything or anyone on the way in here that would impede me from leaving this building. Those workers out there are most likely legitimate. They probably don't even know what's going on in this room. If I pointed my weapon at them, they'd faint. I'd say that you and Sleeping Beauty here are the only two Reformist agents in the building, and from what I've heard, probably the only two left on this planet. The Tal Shiar has been pretty effective in rooting you out in the Neutral Zone.”

“And I suppose you'll finish the job for them,” he said sarcastically.

T'Kir shook her head. “Like I said, I'm not Tal Shiar. So why don't you cut the crap and tell me what's going on. Why did you bring me here?”

“If you're not Tal Shiar, then why do you care?”

“You might be surprised at who I really am,” she said. “So why don't you just level with me.”

Tharak stared at her for a moment, and then he sighed. “I guess even if

you are Tal Shiar, you already know everything I do, so it doesn't matter if I repeat it. We’ve learned of a plot by Tal Shiar operatives to launch a terrorist attack on Reformist targets. We don’t know exactly when or where. What little we’ve managed to learn, though, leads us to believe that one of the main targets is the government building on Ecurai, our capital planet. The person you killed last week was our contact man with the Tal Shiar. He supposedly had a list of targets and possible dates.”

“Hmm,” said T'Kir, “sorry about that. Was he the tall guy with the crooked nose? Kind of looked like he was a prizefighter?”

Tharak nodded. “He was a prizefighter, in the Empire's military before he defected to our side.”

“Well, I'm sure he could have taken care of himself in a fair fight,” she commented, “but he probably should have learned how to use a disruptor better.”

“Why did you kill him?”

She shrugged. “He got in the way of business I had with one of my contacts.”

“So you are a spy,” said Tharak.

“Of sorts,” admitted T'Kir.

“Who do you represent?”

T'Kir shook her head. “That's not important. I'll tell you what I do know, though. I know there are two Federation vessels, a battleship and a battle cruiser, headed towards Ecurai at this moment.”

Tharak hesitated for a second, and then he nodded. “Yes. We asked for diplomatic recognition and a possible alliance. How do you know that?”

Adam spoke up. “Because she's a Federation intelligence agent.”

She chuckled softly. “And how would you know?” she asked somewhat facetiously as she turned towards him, curious as to why he'd make that statement. Her expression suddenly changed as she saw his disruptor pointed at her.

“It's my business to know,” said Adam. “And besides, you're hardly Tal Shiar material. We wouldn't waste our time on someone as crude as you.”

Tharak sighed. “Oh, wonderful. So you're Tal Shiar. Great. I really screwed this one up.”

T'Kir smiled maliciously. Her disruptor was still aimed at Tharak, but it'd take little for her to correct its bearing. “You know, I hate to brag, but there are very few people faster than me with an armed weapon,” she told Adam. “Are you willing to take the chance that you're one of them?”

“I don't have to take the chance,” he said.

He reached into a pocket and pulled out a disruptor power cell. T'Kir frowned, and she quickly glanced at her weapon's power indicator. It was empty.

“I replaced the cell on your disruptor with an empty one while you had me hold it,” he told her. “Do you think I'm stupid enough to give you back a charged weapon?”

She sighed and hung her disruptor back on her belt. She felt like beating herself over the head with a brick. How could she have let herself be fooled by him? He seemed so naïve and incompetent, and she hadn't suspected him of being anything other than what he said he was, an ordinary human looking to make a buck. She'd have never thought him to be Tal Shiar.

“So what do you want?” she asked him.

“Well, first let me thank you for the information about the two Federation vessels headed to Ecurai,” he said. “I hadn't heard about them, and my superiors might not have either. I'm sure we can arrange a proper greeting for them as they cross into Romulan space, space illegally occupied by the Reformists, I might add.”

“And what if they kick your butt?” T'Kir asked.

Adam smiled. “If on the off chance they manage to overcome our welcome party, then we'll just shift our plans ahead a little and arrange for a nice fireworks display on Ecurai when they arrive. We need to make sure that they understand not to interfere in internal Romulan affairs.” He pulled out what appeared to be a communications device.

“As for the two of you,” he continued, “you're sure to offer us much in the way of further information. If you aren't familiar with the current methods of interrogation being used by the Tal Shiar, then you're in for a real treat. You'll get a first hand look.” He smiled proudly. “I'll probably be promoted to major for this, capturing both a Republican and a Federation agent in one fell swoop.”

He pressed on the device. “My associates will be arriving within a couple of minutes,” he told them. “We've been looking for where the remainder of the Reformists have holed up here on Nevas IV. I'm sure they'll be excited to finally know the location.”

T'Kir glanced around the room, trying to find something to use to her advantage. She had no intention of getting taken prisoner by the Tal Shiar or of letting Adam get out of this room alive. He knew too much, both about her and about the Federation's plans to meet with the Reformists. There was little in the office though that she could make use of. She still had her phaser in her pocket, but she'd have to pull it out. Even she wasn't fast enough to do that while she had a disruptor pointed straight at her. She'd have to distract his attention, and there seemed to be only one way to do that. It was corny, but she had to take the chance. Varta's unconscious form lay behind Adam.

A confident look suddenly crossed her face. She glanced over Adam's shoulder and smiled. The Tal Shiar agent noticed her expression and frowned.

“What are you staring at?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Wouldn't you like to know?”

He shook his head. “Are you trying to make me think there's someone behind me? Do you expect me to fall for that old trick? I saw you give Varta a nerve pinch. He'll be down for quite a while.”

She shrugged again, her smile still confident, and his frown deepened. He stared at her for a few more seconds, but then his eyes darted towards the right, and all of sudden he made a quick turn to glance behind himself. T'Kir immediately started to pull out her phaser, but it was too deep in her pocket. Adam caught her movement and began to turn around. There was little else she could do at that moment then but rush forward and shove him backwards. He stumbled into a storage cabinet, and T'Kir slammed herself into him. They both fell to the ground, her on top of him, and his disruptor clattered across the floor. He pushed her off and started for it.

“Tharak!” she yelled. “Get his weapon!”

The Reformist agent was already headed towards it, and T'Kir leapt on Adam's back to slow him down. Adam slammed her into a wall, loosening her grip, and she fell off. He started to kick her, and she prepared for the pain. It never came though as Tharak's fist landed on Adam's jaw, sending the faux human reeling across the room. He stumbled into the door frame, and seeing that T'Kir and Tharak were in between him and his disruptor, he bolted out the door and down the hall.

Tharak bent down to grab Adam's weapon, and T'Kir pulled out her phaser. She flew out the door, but Adam turned a corner before she could fire. She ran down the hall after him, Tharak right behind her. Adam managed to make it outside the building though before either of his pursuers could get off a clean shot. As T'Kir followed him into the alleyway, she glanced both directions and saw nothing. Where he'd gone, she didn't know.

Tharak came up behind her. He stopped and looked around.

“We lost him,” she said.

“Dammit! He knows too much!”

She sighed in frustration and kicked at an empty crate. “We'd better get out of here before his friends show up. I suggest we split up. No sense in both of us getting caught.”

“Agreed,” said Tharak. “Can we meet later?”

T'Kir nodded. “You know my usual watering hole,” she said. “I'll be there; after I let my government know to expect an attack.”

Before Tharak could reply though, the sound of a disruptor beam filled the air, and the Reformist collapsed. His body fell to the ground, and T'Kir saw two Romulan men behind him at the end of the alleyway, their weapons raised. She quickly threw herself down. A second beam narrowly missed her, and she crawled around the corner. Getting up, she ran as fast as she could, ducking down another alley and in through the backdoor of a small office into what appeared to be a storage room.

Glancing out the window, she saw three armed Romulans running down the street. Two more came from the opposite direction, and she crouched down behind a large crate and waited. There was little else she could do. The area was crawling with Tal Shiar agents. She'd never get out of there without being caught. She just had to hope they'd give up and go away soon. The Romulans were persistent though. Two hours later, and two of them still stood across the street. They apparently had the area cordoned off, and she imaged they were probably going through the Reformists headquarters with a fine toothed comb.

Nightfall came before the Tal Shiar agents gave up their vigil. T'Kir managed to sneak out into the alleyway again, and in the dim light of the planet's small moon she made her way through the town until she came to the home of Tom Verden, one of her contacts with Federation intelligence. The light was on in his front room, and she quietly knocked on the door and waited. After a moment, the door slid open. No one was behind it though, but that wasn't unusual. Tom had most likely scanned her and opened the door from some other part of the house. Still, she pulled out her phaser, just to be cautious.

She stepped inside and the door slid closed behind her. “Tom?”

There was no reply, and she slowly headed towards the front room. She stopped suddenly as she saw the body on the floor. Tom was lying face down, a knife stuck in his back. Blood pooled on the floor beside him, and she estimated by the visual evidence that he'd been dead for about an hour. She sighed and started to bend down when she heard a familiar voice.

“Looking to send off a message to the Federation?”

She halted and slowly turned around, not making any sudden moves. Adam stood across the room, pointing a disruptor at her. He smiled.

“Did you kill him?” she asked.

“Of course. I knew you'd head here. I've had my suspicions about you for the past few weeks, and I was watching you, or rather having you watched. I figured you'd notice if only one person was tailing you. I was about to make my move on you when Tharak approached me with an offer to kidnap you. I couldn't believe my luck. I think there's an expression for it: killing two birds with one stone.”

He indicated the body. “I had to kill him too. I couldn't have you warning your superiors about our ambush. It's too late now anyway. From my understanding, your two vessels should be under attack, if they aren't already destroyed. Thank you again for the information.”

She frowned. Her anger began to rise. It took a lot to piss her off. She normally could keep her anger under control, thanks to her Vulcan discipline, but the fact that she'd been responsible for such a leak and the possible loss of two starships settled in her stomach like a lead weight. She couldn't believe that she'd been fooled so easily. She prided herself on quickly spotting a con job, but this time she'd slipped up, and it may have cost thousands of lives.

“I'm going to kill you,” she told Adam in a cold tone of voice.

He shook his head. “I'm the one with the disruptor pointed at you,” he said.

A dark smile crossed her face. “But this time I have a fully charged phaser in my hand.”

His expression hardened, and he raised his head slightly. “So I suppose this means I finally get the opportunity to find out if I'm faster than you.”

She nodded. “I suppose.”

He stared at her, and she returned the gaze. Her eyes focused on his hand. She watched for the slightest twitch in his muscles, relying upon her Vulcan reflexes to keep herself from getting shot first. They stood facing each other for several seconds. Her phaser remained pointed at the floor. She wasn't going to make the first move. That would take all the challenge out of it. If she was going to die here, she'd die as she lived, pushing it to the limit.

Suddenly, she saw a muscle twitch on Adam's forearm, and she rolled to the side, bringing up her phaser. His disruptor shot passed only an inch from her shoulder, and she could feel the heat. She tumbled behind a chair and came up on the other side of it, her phaser at the ready. Adam swiveled to catch her, but he was too slow. Her phaser beam hit him square in the chest, and he fell to the ground, dead. She stared at his body for a few minutes, allowing her adrenaline level to drop. Finally, she calmed down enough to turn off her weapon. She held it in her hand for a moment longer before putting it back in her pocket.

“I told you I was going to kill you,” she said, as she walked past Adam's body, heading for the cabinet where Verden kept his liquor. She pulled out a bottle of vodka and took a long swig as she glanced at the two men on the floor. Her mistake had cost the life of at least one Star Fleet officer and may have cost the lives of thousands more. For now, though, there was nothing she could do about it, but try to forget. She took another drink.

“Sometimes I hate my job,” she said, and she slumped to the floor with a sigh.