From Cardassia With Love

Casino Royale

              It was not until the three were sitting in the back of taxicab speeding away from the apartment complex that Bashir noticed that Garak was bleeding from the corner of his mouth

"How did that happen?" Bashir pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and applied pressure to the wound while Garak tried to move out of his reach. Ineffectively as it were, since the three were crammed into the backseat together with Bashir in the middle.

"Part of the bomb's casing must have hit him after it detonated. My apologies, but we didn't have a choice." Komananov explained.

"Oh, so this was your idea?" Garak asked, still trying to dodge any and all medical attention from Bashir.

"But Garak, don't you understand?" Bashir cut in, having managed to pin Garak down and pressed the handkerchief to his mouth. "The safeties that I had built into the program have deactivated, you could have been seriously hurt."

"My God, so much over fuss over a little blood, he'll live." Komananov sighed in exasperation. Bashir, at last, was satisfied that Garak's wound was minor and released him.

"What are we going to do? We can't exit the story because the others might die, but if we try to carry out the mission, we'll probably die." Bashir agonized over the possible outcomes.

"Don't forget that in the event we do die, the program will end, and the officers' patterns could be automatically purged," Garak commented on the side.

"Somehow, that's not making me feel better." Bashir pouted as he stuffed the bloody handkerchief back into his pocket."

"Oh, it wasn't meant to. Tell me, doctor, does intelligence work still seem like a recreational fantasy to you?" Garak snapped back. Komananov and Bashir groaned in unison.

"This is getting us nowhere. We still have to locate Dr. Bare," Komananov managed to get the other two back in line. "To do that, we're going to infiltrate the syndicate itself. Now Soviet Intelligence has discovered that the leader of the organization, Dr. Hippocrates Noah, has only captured scientists with whom he had arranged meetings in a Paris nightclub. That's where we should start."

"And how exactly are you planning on contacting this "Dr. Noah" without getting us killed in the process, hmm?" Garak rubbed his wound inadvisably.

"Stop it, you're just going to reopen that cut. Anyway, the plan is to infiltrate the club where Dr. Noah likely has a contact." Bashir

"But Julian, how will you convince them to let you see him once you get there?" Komananov's voice had taken on a gentler tone.

"He's looking for scientists, right? I'll tell his people that I am a geologist interested in their project and play it by ear from there."

Qadir had reentered the apartment when she heard the explosion from the floor below. The agent had raced back to find the entranceway ajar and the Falcon on the floor with his group, all of them apparently injured. There were pieces of shrapnel and ash scattered across the carpet among them, probably from a low-level explosive. Qadir grabbed Falcon by the hair and pulled him up off the ground.

"Where are they?" the operative growled in his face.

"I don't know, they got away" Falcon responded sheepishly, already dreading the consequences of his misstep.

"How?" Qadir shouted, "Never mind, we need to locate them immediately. You and your men fan out and search the area. I will contact headquarters and inform them that Agent Bashir could be fleeing the city at this very moment. Now get out of my sight you miserable sons of whores!" Her order was all it took for the four to get off their sorry asses and go back to work.