Trip suddenly found himself standing between a pair of youthful male Romulans, neither of whom appeared to be any older than perhaps sixteen or seventeen. Both teens distinguished themselves immediately from everyone else he had encountered so far this evening, and not merely because of their age.
They were smiling.
Maliciously.
The solitary streetlamp across the street shed just enough pale light to make the blade in the shorter teens hand gleam menacingly.
Trip offered them a sideways grin of his own. “ Jolantru,boys, he said in his best conversational Rihannsu, relying on the translator mounted inside his artificially pointed ear to smooth out whatever difficulties his persistent Alabama-Florida accent might pose. “Maybe Id better warn you up front: I left my wallet back at the hotel.
The kid holding the knife took a fateful step forward, evidently not about to take Trip at his word.
Trip sighed. This was shaping up to be a complicated evening.
“Youre twenty minutes late checking in, Commander,said a frowning Captain Stillwell, imaged on the little security-scrambled subspace transceiver that Trip had just retrieved from its strategic hiding place beneath one of his bedroom floorboards. Stillwell paused, blinking at his own screen as he studied the image there. “What the hell happened to you, anyway?
Trip grinned, ignoring the slight twinge of pain that lingered in his jaw. “Its all right, sir. Just ran into a little bit of trouble while I was walking home tonight, thats all.
“Looks like you were injured,Stillwell said, leaning forward slightly as he squinted at Trip from across the light-years. Despite the extreme distance, the visual channel looked exceptionally crisp today, probably because of the adjustments Trip had just made to the official subspace array on the roof of Ehrehins lab, which lay only a few klicks away. On several occasions over the past month, Trip had succeeded in quietly piggybacking his own narrow-beam, amplitude-modulated subspace signals onto those of the labs multiband transceiver; this enabled him to send messages that blended in undetectably with both the never-ending torrent of incoming and outgoing lab data and the natural background static of subspaceso far, at least.
“Lets just say you oughtta see the other guy. Although in actuality he had faced two attackers, Trip didnt want to sound as though he were bragging. Fortunately, the toughs who had tried to jump him had only been aggressive teenagers; since they hadnt had the benefit of Starfleet training, theyd been fairly easy to persuade to move on in search of easier prey. On the other hand, even young Romulans had a pretty significant advantage over humans in terms of sheer physical strength.
Stillwell appeared to be scrutinizing Trips bruised face in minute detail. “Youd better tend to those scrapes and bruises carefully, Commander. We cant afford to let these people see you shedding red blood, now can we?
Im so very touched by your concern,Trip thought, though he knew his new superior in the spy bureau was making an excellent point. Nevertheless, Stillwell made Harris, the enigmatic spymaster who had originally recruited him into the bureau, seem almost cuddly in comparison.
Its his job to develop Earths version of the warp-seven drive before the Romulans manage to pull off the same trick,Trip reminded himself. Having spent four years laboring to keep Enterprises frequently beleaguered warp-five engine running with its matter/antimatter needle always necessarily oscillating somewhere between offand kaboom, Trip had some natural sympathy for Stillwell. It wasnt hard to imagine what the crushing weight of so much high-stakes responsibility might do to any mans sense of humor.
“Ive still got a good supply of sulfatriptan salted away, Captain, Trip said, nodding. Thanks to the drugs property of harmlessly binding its sulfur compounds to the human hemoglobin molecule, no cursory glance at Trips blood, mucus membranes, or internal organs would give him away as a red-blooded Terraneven after the new red cells produced by his bone marrow had overwhelmed the initial green-blood treatment hed received on Adigeon Prime. Regardless, he knew he had to remain vigilant about not making anybody curious enough about him to subject him to deep-tissue scans or DNA tests of any sort, or else the jig would truly be up.
“I just took a booster dose, Trip continued. “By tomorrow my blood and innards will look as green as the Chicago River on Saint Pattys Day. I just hope I can avoid spilling any more of it any time soon,he added silently, with no small amount of gallows humor.
“Good,Stillwell said with a sober nod, apparently as unmoved as ever by Trips witticisms. “Now lets discuss your progress monitoring and regulating the activities of your target.
Trip suppressed a wince. Target. He hated that word. “Im still keeping very close tabs on Ehrehin, he said.
“I can see that, Commander. So close, in fact, that you and Doctor Ehrehin iRamnau trAvrak now seem to be on a first-name basis.
Trips frown appeared unbidden, and he felt it creasing the artificially constructed brow ridge that formed a subtle V shape across his forehead. He hoped that Stillwell found it an imposing sight.
“Thats hard to avoid when youre posing as a scientists assistant. And he wasnt posing as just anyassistant; thanks to the skill of the plastic surgeons of Adigeon Prime, Trip had been passing himself off for months now as Cunaehr irRatleihfi trMandak, Ehrehins most beloved and valued aide. “Its part of my cover, remember?
“Then I trust I dont need to remind you not to let it become anythingmore than that, Commander. The old mans work poses the most clear and present danger to Earth since the Xindi came gunning for us. Its a threat to the entire Coalition. Never forget that.
“Youre worried about me going native, like my old pal Sopek, Trip said, not asking a question. Though he had recently almost died at Sopeks hands, he still wasnt entirely certain whether Sopeks primary allegiance had been to Vulcan or Romulus.
“Its a very real hazard every deep-cover agent has to consider, Commander. Youd do well to face that possibility honestly.
Trips jaw hardened in resentment, his sympathy for Stillwell notwithstanding. “Look, Captain. Ehrehin wants to rein in his peoples war making just as much as we do.
“The old man may be a genius whose expertise you admire,Stillwell said, a scowl creasing his already hard countenance. “But hes also a loyal Romulan. Youd do well not to forgetthat either, Commander.
You just cant admit the possibility that a Romulan could be the same as we are, can you?Trip thought, though he managed to hold his tongue.
“If Ehrehin believed in the aims of the Romulan military, he could have completed a working warp-seven prototype long before now.
“Maybe. Or maybe thats just what youd prefer to believe. Whatever hehasnt achieved yet for the Romulan military might not be for lack of trying. Remember, Commander, Ialso have a pretty damned thorough understanding of just what has to go into any crash high-warp research program,Stillwell continued.