11

Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.

—RULE OF ACQUISITION #9

Krax entered his home in a fairly good mood, right up until the point where he felt the sharp edge of a knife blade on his neck.

“If you move,” said a deep voice from behind him, “I’ll slice open your throat.” A pause. “Well, start moving, already! I haven’t killed anyone in days.”

Another voice came from in front of him. “Oh, don’t kill him yet, Leck. He has a few questions to answer first.” That’s Quark, Krax thought.

This thought was confirmed a moment later when the lights went on, and Krax saw Quark and that Bajoran Starfleeter he’d brought with him.

Leck’s presence also answered the question of how they got into his private residence. After all, if Leck could penetrate the Glat Archive, getting into Krax’s home, which was secure, but no more or less so than the average Ferengi citizen’s house, would be child’s play.

“I’ve been suspicious of you from the start, Krax. Remember what happened eight years ago on the station? You tried to blow me out an airlock!”

“Th-that was a long t-time ago, Quark.” Krax didn’t want to sound quite so craven, but that was difficult when a psychopath had a knife at your throat.

“And yet, you haven’t changed a bit. You’re still trying to destroy the Grand Nagus. Then it was me—now it’s my brother.”

“You—you’ve got me all wr-wrong!”

“I don’t think so. You see, we’ve been looking into the ‘Brunt for Grand Nagus Campaign,’ and imagine my surprise when the trail led right to you.” Quark pointed an accusatory finger at Krax. “You were the one who arranged with Nik to have the Chek stocks given to Rwogo and Gash.”

“I—”

Quark wasn’t done. “Furthermore, Nog talked to his mother. She described the two men who came to Dav’s house to plot the contract-forging scam. One of them was Gash—the other one was you.”

“I—”

“You introduced Gash to Dav! You set my brother up!”

“Yes!” Krax blurted out. “I set him up to win!”

Quark and the Bajoran exchanged confused looks, then both regarded Krax. “What?”

“Yes, I set this whole plan in motion, so Rom would come out on top.”

Frowning, Quark said, “Once more, with clarity.”

“C-could you get this lunatic off my throat first?”

“No.” Quark smiled. Leck then tightened his grip.

“O-okay, okay—he can stay, that—that’s fine.”

“I’m waiting.” Quark folded his arms.

Krax took as deep a breath as he could while in Leck’s duranium grip. “Dav has been trying to bring Rom down ever since he became Grand Nagus. He’s invested hundreds of bars of latinum into Chek during its hard times.”

“I didn’t know Dav had hundreds of bars.”

Trying and failing to shrug, Krax said, “It was a good year for mold. Anyhow, Dav was the one who spearheaded Chek’s little meeting of businessmen in your embassy, he’s the one who brought Chek and Brunt together, and he’s the one who sent your cousin to bring Zek back here—he figured that Gaila’s family connection to Ishka would do the trick, and he was right.”

“Nice way to fob the blame off on someone else. But we have—”

“I’m not finished!” Krax cried, worried that Quark would tell Leck to slice him open. “I found out about what Dav was doing. It was a long-term plan, one that would give Dav and Chek and Brunt plenty of time to undermine Rom. They’d slowly build support and gradually sway people away from Rom’s camp. That’s when I brought myself to Dav’s attention—myself and Gash.”

The Bajoran frowned. “I don’t understand.”

Quark nodded. “I do. You gave them Gash and the idea of the broken marriage contract.”

Grateful that Quark understood, Krax said, “Exactly! Instead of going long-term, I gave them this scheme which would necessitate accelerating their plan—not taking the time to build the support, but going for one big play. By doing that, their attack would be more intense, but also wouldn’t have the time to take root. So when Gash’s existence was revealed before the entire congress, they would be discredited in one fell swoop, and all their support would go away.”

The Starfleet female held up a hand. “Hold on a minute—you mean that Gash’s confessing to the forgery was part of the plan all along?”

“Yes.”

“Did Gash know this?”

“Of course! He didn’t care—he just wanted the challenge of forging a contract.”

From behind him, Krax heard a wistful sigh from Leck. “So nice to see another artist who takes pride in his work.”

Giving Quark a very nasty look that scared Krax almost as much as the knife at his throat, the Bajoran female said, “We’re going to have a long talk about that deal we made with Gash, Quark.”

Waving her off, Quark said, “Later. So tell me, Krax, when were you planning to share this little scheme?”

“There—there was no need to! It worked out a lot differently than I expected—I didn’t think you and this female and your nephew would find out so much on your own—or that you’d get someone to break into the archive. I didn’t even think that was possible!”

“Thank you,” Leck said.

“You’re—you’re welcome.” Krax felt odd exchanging pleasantries with someone about to kill him, but anything to appease the lunatic was worth it. “But the end result is the same—Brunt, Chek, and Dav have been discredited, Rom’s position as Grand Nagus is stronger than ever, and the market’s even gone back up fifty points, and it’ll probably go up again tomorrow.” Another thought occurred. “And—and—and as an added bonus, Eelwasser will probably take a huge hit, which will make Nilva happy, since Slug-O-Cola’s sales will go up! He’s a good ally to have.”

Quark stood rubbing his chin. The Bajoran was still staring daggers at Quark. Leck’s grip has loosened a bit. Krax’s left leg was starting to cramp.

Leck finally spoke. “Can I kill him now, please?”

“No,” Quark said, causing Krax to let out the breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding. “Not yet, anyhow.”

The knife came away from Krax’s throat, the grip on his torso released, and Krax stumbled forward into his sitting room. Holding a hand to his throat, he asked, “What—what do you mean, ‘not yet’?”

“We’re going to leave now. I’ll even make sure Rom doesn’t know what you almost did to him. But let’s just say there’ll be a price.”

“What will that be?” Krax asked with a nervous glance at Leck.

Quark smiled. “Someday, I’ll let you know.”