Dalal’s face got a pinched, displeased look Batra was getting to know well. For an instant, Dalal’s eyes slid to Batra’s face then back to Halak’s, but Batra could almost see the wheels turning, the old woman debating just how much she should, or could, say.
“It’s about Arava,” said Dalal then. “She’s gotten herself in very deep, Samir.”
Batra saw Halak go rigid. He replaced his mug upon the small round table next to his plate then leaned upon his right elbow and laced his fingers. “I thought she agreed to go off-world.”
“She had. She did. Then she came back. She,” that quick glance at Batra again, “she changed her mind.”
“What changed it?” Halak’s voice was very low and steady, but Batra heard a trace of menace simmering just beneath. “Why didn’t she stay gone?”
“I don’t know.” Dalal’s eyes shut tight, as if closing off sights only she saw, then clicked open. “She’s taken over where Baatin left off. It’s the boy, I think. They’re controlling her through the boy.”
“You mean she’s working for Qadir?” Halak’s voice notched up. “She’s working for the Qatala?”
Dalal nodded. Halak was silent, and then cut the air with a sharp, violent curse.
Batra leaned forward. “Samir?”
Halak ignored her. “Dalal, I toldher.”
“We all did,” Dalal quailed. She wrung her hands: the first time Batra had seen the woman cowed at all. “I’m sorry, Samir. Maybe I should have called you sooner.”
“How long?”
“I’m not…”
“Dalal,” Halak’s eyes blazed, “how… long?”
“Three years.” Dalal wouldn’t meet Halak’s gaze. “Two, that it’s been worse.”
Halak looked stunned. “Three years? Years?Dalal, I don’t understand. The last time we spoke, yousaid…”
“I know,” said Dalal, in a miserable sort of way that made Batra feel sorry for her. “I hoped that she would…” She broke off, threw up her hands in a hopeless gesture. “I lied.”
“As you lied about where you were living,” said Halak. “Why did you move here? Was it because of the Qatala?”
Dalal hesitated, nibbling her lower lip, then nodded. “I…They forced me. At first, I think they wanted to make Arava behave, but now they don’t need me. They leave me alone. Still, after all that happened, Halak, I…I couldn’t take blood money anymore, not theirs and not the Syndicate’s either. But I couldn’t leave, not with Arava working both ends against the middle and not showing any signs of wanting to leave. Now, I don’t know if it’s that she won’tleave, or can’t.”
Batra couldn’t take being in the dark another moment. “Hello,” she said, loudly. Dalal and Halak both looked at her as if they’d forgotten she was there. Figures.“What is going on, please? Who is Baatin? Who is Arava? And what the hell is the Qatala?”
Halak exhaled hugely. “You wouldn’t understand,” he said, going to rake his right hand through his hair but wincing as the sudden movement pulled at his bandages.
“Oh, no,” said Batra. “We’re not going there again. Listen, Samir, I’m in this pretty deep, wouldn’t you say? Now I’m not asking you for a blow-by-blow, but I’ve been mugged, my boyfriend’s gotten himself knifed, my best clothes have been trashed, my mouth hurts, and I’m likely to miss my connection to Betazed. Now I think I’m entitled to some explanation, don’t you?”
Halak looked from Batra, to Dalal who moved her shoulders in an almost imperceptible shrug, and then back again.
“All right,” he said. He sagged back against a pillow as if he were suddenly tired of everything, and talked to the ceiling. “Here’s the long and the short of it: Arava, Baatin, and I go way back. We lived together after Baatin’s mother died, and Arava’s mother left her. Dalal took care of us all, under one roof. My father did not object. He wasn’t around much to object.”
“And this was on Vendrak IV.”
“That’s right. They’re the closest things to a brother and sister I have…had. Baatin’s dead. He died several years ago…no,” he said as Batra opened her mouth, “I can’t tell you how he died, so don’t ask. Let’s just say, he fell in with the wrong crowd.”
“You don’t trust me.”
Halak made an impatient noise. “It’s not a question of trust. It’s that you don’t need to know. I said before, some things are private, Ani.”
“You mean secret.”
“Secret, private,” Halak rested his left wrist on his forehead and rolled his head aside until his face was in profile, “call it whatever you want. If that means I’m keeping secrets, then so be it.”
Batra’s gaze slid to Dalal. Dalal was staring at some spot on her lap. No help there.
Batra returned her attention to Halak. “All right,” she said. “I don’t like it, but all right. We’ll play it your way. So what about them? And what about this,” she frowned over the word, “this Qatala?”
“You have to understand how things work here on Farius Prime.” Halak spoke as if reciting from a well-memorized text. “You can look it up; Starfleet’s got records. But the gist is, Farius Prime is a good place for business— illegalbusiness.”
“You mean drugs, like that red ice.”
“And more. Syndicate’s just a fancy word for crime families. One’s the Orion Syndicate. I don’t know much about it. Like I said, I’ve only visited Dalal here a few times since I left Vendrak IV.”
Actually, Batra wasn’t sure Halak had said that at all. Quickly, she cast her mind back over what Halak had told her, and she was pretty sure that he’d mentioned only that Dalal lived on the south side of town the last he’d heard.Had she caught Halak in another lie? And then, come to think of it, Halak had justsaid something about the last time he and Dalal had talked, and the way he’d said it made thatsound like it had happened recently, not years ago. What was going on here? Was it hertime sense that was all jumbled? But before she could ask, Halak was talking again.
“The other crime syndicate is the Asfar Qatala. It’s big, really big. Lot of people, lots of money, and you can bet their tentacles reach into some pretty high places. Some Federation governments, for sure, though they’re careful, don’t get caught out. The cover is legit. Mahfouz Qadir deals in the acquisition and sale of archaeological artifacts, antiquities, art. All that lets Qadir use ships to run things covertly.”
“Things like red ice?”
“Whatever will bring Qadir the best price and more power. Anyway, somehow or other, Baatin got involved in their operations, in the Qatala’s. I don’t know how.”
“But what does this have to do with you? If this Baatin was involved, but he’s dead, and Arava…even if she’s involved, why is this yourproblem?”
Dalal answered. “You heard him. Like brother and sister. Blood’s thick.”
“But Samir hasn’tbeen involved.” Batra turned to Halak. “You left.You got on with your life. Baatin and Arava, they went on with theirs. You all made choices. Sounds like they made some bad ones. Why is anyof this yourproblem?”
Halak shook his head. “You don’t understand. When you’ve got nothing left, Ani, you help the people who stuck by you. I can’t explain it any better.”
Batra tried a different tack. “So what does Arava need?”
“To come to her senses, for one,” said Halak, but he looked at Dalal. “Dalal?”
“She might listen to you,” Dalal said, her gnarled fingers picking at her chabor. “She won’t listen to me, or maybe she can’t, I don’t know. But I don’t leave without her.”
“Why won’t Arava leave?” asked Batra. “Is she being held prisoner?”
“Only if you count living in the lap of luxury a prison. She’s making a lot of money, and she’s very rich, and I’m afraid…” Dalal broke off, shook her head.
“Of what?” Batra asked. “What are you afraid of, Dalal?”
For the first time, Dalal looked Batra in the eye, and Batra saw pain, fear. And love.
“I’m afraid she’ll die,” Dalal said, simply. “I’m afraid they’ll kill her.”