LII.

"Who are we talking about, Captain?"

"What is this?" Picard looked down at the data pad which B-4 had just handed him. He looked up to see B-4 staring at him with wide eyes. "Bee?"

"It has been twenty-four hours. Anna told me to give this to you in twenty-four hours."

Picard expelled a harsh breath. "Bee, please tell me you didn't know about Lt. Hall's plans with regard to Lore."

B-4 cocked his head, "Okay. I did not know about Lt. Hall's plans with regard to Lore."

Picard shook his head and hoped B-4 was not merely telling him what he wanted to hear. The rest of them could keep their mouths shut, but he could only imagine what would happen if B-4 mentioned to the wrong person that he had known something. He glanced up at LaForge, who was standing on the other side of the control table. Picard had been in main engineering for hours, doing what little he could to assist with their continued examination of the surveillance footage. Considering the delicate nature of what they were doing, it would have been unwise to involve any more people.

"Bee, why didn't you give this to us earlier?" LaForge asked. Before B-4 could respond, though, he quickly raised his hand, "Never mind. I know. Because she told you not to."

B-4 nodded.

LaForge placed the tiny pad on the uplink surface and began the process of accessing it as Picard joined him around the table. Picard did not know Lt. Hall very well, but what he did know had always been exemplary. He was suddenly reminded of a similar incident of which he had not thought in many years. Lt. Hall was not the first under his command to 'go rogue', and some commanders liked to call it. Ensign Ro Laren had done something similar many years before, giving up her career and her very freedom in the Federation to pursue something she believed in. This situation as not entirely the same, but Picard had a sneaking suspicion that what he was about to read would be very similar to the last words Ro had had for him.

Tell the Captain I'm sorry.

LaForge pressed a final key and brought up a screen of text:

Captain,

I know everyone believes Lore is guilty, and I know the evidence is overwhelming. As biased as my opinion in this may be, I must beg you to at least entertain the idea that he has been set up. I think we both know who would benefit the most from all of this, and I will not be vague about it. I truly believe that Captain Maddox murdered Owen Warrick and has managed to fabricate evidence against Lore. I don't know how he did it. I don't pretend to have an explanation, but I know it's true. If only Guinan were still on board, I know she would agree with me, and I know how much you value her opinion.

As right as I believe I am, I still feel that I owe you an apology, Sir. The actions of your officers and crew reflect upon you, and I can't begin to count the number of laws I am about to break. But, they will be no more in number than the laws that were broken when they decided to treat Lore like an object for their convenience. I think the rule of law became a joke yesterday, and I see no reason to treat it better than it has treated Lore.

As a last request, Sir, if you can forgive me enough to undertake it, I would hope you would deliver the letter I have attached in this file to Owen's parents. I feel he has been forgotten in all of this, and he doesn't deserve that. I can't begin to imagine what I would say to his mother, because I know that the reason Owen was targeted was because of his relationship to me. Maddox had to make Lore's crime believable, and I think everyone knew about the tension between them. Please give them the letter and my sincere condolences. He was a wonderful doctor, and a good man.

Sincerely,

Anna G. Hall

(I suppose I will not be calling myself Lieutenant anymore)

PS: Should Starfleet order the Enterprise to search for us, I will understand. If that does happen, please be aware that Lore and I intend to make that task as difficult as possible.

"Wow." LaForge brought his hand to his mouth and actually laughed.

Picard too was smiling, though in a rueful sort of way, "I think one of my old Academy professors would have termed this chutzpah."

"Chutzpah?" B-4 repeated, trying the word.

"Never mind." Picard replied. "Geordie, where are we with the work terminals from holo-engineering?"

"I wasn't able to dive too deep without getting noticed, but I can tell you that Maddox did a lot more than just consult. He logged almost twenty hours in a day."

Picard's frown deepened, "There's no indication what he was working on?"

"Not on the surface, which is suspicious in itself. It means he at least did a first stage deletion on everything he was doing. He might have done a deeper erasure, but I can't know without really pulling that console apart. That will definitely get noticed."

"I understand. See if we can come up with some kind of maintenance excuse that would allow us to—."

"This is for you, Geordie." B-4 said suddenly. Both men looked up to see B-4 standing on the other side of the table, his arm outstretched with a data chip.

"What is it?" Geordie said as he took the small piece of plastic.

B-4 smiled broadly. "It is for Lore, to show everyone that he is not bad."

Picard and Geordie exchanged glances. "What do you mean?" Picard said.

"I was very focused." He said proudly, "I did a good job, and I saw the difference. Now you will see it too."

Another set of curious glances were exchanged, but both men seemed to understand that further questioning wasn't likely to reveal anything. Picard nodded toward the data chip, and Geordie inserted it into the table top. The screen before them came up with the same footage they had seen a hundred times, the narrow corridor intersection in docking leg D. Picard folded his arms and watched. And watched. Seconds turned to minutes, and nothing happened. Warrick did not enter the frame, and Lore did not attack him.

"Bee, I'm not sure what you intend for us to see here." Geordie said, "How far back did you run the footage?"

B-4 tiled his head as if thinking, then said, "This is four point six hours before Dr. Warrick enters the corridor."

"Yes." Geordie nodded, seeing the time clock at the bottom of the screen, "But why?"

Another pause from B-4, then, "Because Dr. Maddox did not believe that anyone would search that far back for a splice point."

"What?" Picard was shocked, not only by B-4's sure use of the terminology, but by his plain assertion that Maddox had anything to do with this. "B-4, how did you come to—."

"Please watch, Captain." B-4 interrupted. "You must be focused. Like me!"

Reluctantly, Picard returned his attention to the screen. Because everything in the image was so still, the change came like a flash. There was no shake of the frame, or grainy line. Nothing so rudimentary as that. Just a single shift on the wall at the right side. Picard's jaw clenched. When he looked at Geordie, his expression was the same.

"I don't believe it." Geordie muttered. "You've got to be kidding me!"

Picard leaned forward and placed a hand on B-4 shoulder. He looked at him for a few seconds, then said, "Bee, I'm starting to think that all of us have been severely underestimating you."

He paused again, then said, "Thank you, Captain."

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SIX HOURS LATER

"Captain, I hope you have a very good reason for asking us here. I have already tasked the Titan with searching for a warp trail on Lore's vessel." Admiral Roth said as he took a seat at the other end of the conference table.

"Believe me, Admiral. I have a very good reason." Picard intoned. He nodded his head to the other man who had taken his seat at the table. "General Cross, thank you for coming as well."

Cross nodded. Since Lore had fled the system the man no longer had jurisdiction and really no longer had anything to do with the case. Still, Picard wanted to make certain that the proper authorities were there to hear everything.

"I don't see any reason to delay this. In fact, I see a lot of reasons not to, so let's get started. Geordie." Picard nodded toward LaForge, who was standing near the screen at the other end of the room.

He nodded back, "Okay. What we have here is the footage that everyone has already seen." He pressed a few keys and the screen began to play the short ten seconds of action they already knew. Geordie stopped the image just where Lore was about to walk off screen.

"You're about to tell us this is fake?" Roth said skeptically, "The best people have looked at it, repeatedly."

"That's right, Admiral. There is no manipulation with the footage here. What I mean by that is that the camera did record what was happening in front of it. That's why the experts found no evidence of overlay or computer generation. However, that does not mean that what we are seeing is real."

"A hologram?" Cross offered, "We thought of that. There's no holo-emitters down there."

"I know." Geordie continued, "Whoever did this didn't manage to get a hologram into that corridor. He didn't have to. Lore isn't the hologram here. Everything is. It's all fake. The only real thing here is Dr. Warrick." Geordie raised his hand quickly as both men started to speak. He ran his fingers over the screen again. It split, producing two images, both apparently identical. "On the left, Admiral, is the footage we've all seen, just seconds before Dr. Warrick enters the frame. On the right is footage of the same corridor taken from this morning. Do you see the difference?"

Roth narrowed his eyes while Cross actually rose up in his seat and leaned forward. It was Cross who finally spoke, "That...that light there. It's broken."

"Exactly." Geordie said, slapping his hands together. "In the footage with Lore, this light fixture is broken. The entire casing is missing and the light doesn't work. But this morning, suddenly the light is in perfect order."

Roth's skeptical expression fell and he started to lean forward, "And I'm going to assume no one went down there and repaired it since the murder?"

"Oh, it was repaired all right." Geordie said, "Ten days ago. I searched through the station's maintenance logs, and I have it in black and white. That light was reported broken months ago, and was only just repaired in the regular course of maintenance ten days ago. Now, how could it be broken only three days ago when Lore supposedly killed Dr. Warrick, then once again be repaired today?"

Picard leaned forward and slid a data pad in Roth's direction, "Admiral, these are the maintenance records that show that light being repaired days before Lore was even in the system. It will also show that the last time that section of the station was imaged for security purposes was months ago. In other words, if someone wanted to bring up a holographic image of that section of the station, they would get an image still showing a broken light."

Roth's forehead was starting to bead with sweat. Cross sat perfectly still, though, his arms folded.

"But…that still doesn't explain why we found Dr. Warrick in that corridor." Roth said, though there was practically no weight in his words. He no longer knew what to think.

"That's because part of the real footage was cutout." Picard replied, "We've spent the last six hours digging through computer consoles in holo-engineering and through the buffers on the station's holodeck." He turned to General Cross, "Sir, this is why I have requested that you be here. Geordie."

He nodded, "We dug this out of the sub frame of holodeck three. When you delete something, it's never really deleted."

Roth stood now and watched the screen like a hawk. The corridor was gone, now replaced by a picturesque mountain climb. The view appeared to be coming through some branches, almost as if the camera were obscured in shrubbery. Dr. Warrick stood by a large boulder, stretching his shoulders and looking out over the artificial terrain with a look of relaxation. He bent down to adjust the cuff of pant leg when suddenly the entire scene around him shifted. The rocky mountainside was transformed into none other than the docking leg D corridor.

"Where is he?" Roth demanded.

"He's further back in the simulation. Watch." Geordie replied.

They watched the empty corridor for several seconds until Warrick appeared. Just as they had seen before, he was moving quickly, looking around in confusion until he saw Lore appear in front of him. He took a hesitant step back and said, "You did his?"

What followed was what they already knew. After Lore dropped Warrick's body and disappeared off screen, the image continued rolling on and on. Roth looked at Picard. He nodded and Geordie stopped the playback.

"It continues for another three hours, Admiral." Picard said, rising from his seat, "He needed to have enough lead time for a believable loop, plus it was unlikely that footage experts would search so far ahead for a shift point. I myself didn't look back or ahead any further than an hour."

Roth brought his hand to his mouth, "I don't believe this….How—?"

"Dr. Warrick's body must have been transported from the holodeck to the corridor after this point. The way his body was found would have perfectly matched what was recorded on the holodeck." Geordie said, folding his hands in front of him, "There's no transporter record, no indication that Dr. Warrick suddenly changed location, because at this time the station main computer was still down. As for getting into the surveillance system, well….That would only require a level two access code, which wouldn't have been recorded anyway because the computer was down!"

Roth was staring at the table top, his mind reeling with thoughts that Picard could only imagine, but he hoped among them was a heavy sense of embarrassment.

Cross rose from his seat suddenly, "You said 'he needed enough lead time.' Who are we talking about, Captain?"

Picard glanced at Roth, "We recovered these files from a terminal in the holo-engineering lab. The onboard access logs clearly show that Captain Maddox was the only person to use that terminal in the last three days. Plus…Captain Maddox used his position in the holo-engineering lab to reserve one of the station holodecks for more than seven hours. That would have given him all the time he needed."

Cross spun around, almost sending his chair against the wall as he slapped his combadge, "Cross to Middleton! I want a patrol dispatched to the Daystrom Institute and Captain Bruce Maddox's private residence immediately! I'm issuing an arrest warrant in his name as we speak. No…Don't argue with me!" Cross's voice trailed away as he stomped from the room on the warpath, not even bothering to make farewells. As Picard watched the man go, he could not help but allow himself a guilty smile. In addition to framing Lore and murdered a man, Bruce Maddox had made the head of the THD look like a fool. And if there was one thing everyone in the Terrain system knew, it was that you did not cross Cross.

The three remaining men stood still for a few moments as Roth folded his arms and moved toward the windows. "Captain," He said finally, "I, um…I think it goes without saying that once we've verified everything here through proper channels that we should make certain a more concise version of this new evidence makes it to the media. It would be…eh…."

"Only fair, Admiral?" Picard added.

Roth said nothing. He only nodded.

"What's unfortunate here, Admiral, is that this discovery was entirely predicated on one thing." Picard began, "If Maddox had decided to actually go to docking leg D and do his own imaging scan rather than use the old one from the station computer, this flaw would not be there and we would not be having this discussion."

Roth's expression became stony, "In that case, Captain, what would you have preferred? This evidence was damn convincing as it was, even with this flaw."

"What would I have preferred? I would have preferred that Lore not be railroaded into a death sentence so that the truth could eventually come out. There were enough people who did not believe in his guilt, Sir, and so even without this mistake on Maddox's part I have no doubt his innocence would have eventually been proven." Picard drew back, for his tone had grown increasingly harsh, "This is why the Federation did away with the death penalty, Admiral. So that miscarriages of justice, if found, could eventually be undone. You cannot undo someone's death."

The only reaction Picard could see was the clench of Roth's jaw as he grinded his teeth. It was only a few moments later that the man left the room without saying a word.

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Lore opened one eye just enough to see past the curtain of his lashes. Anna had his arm, which he had draped over her, by the wrist and was very carefully trying to lift it away from her before placing it back on the bed behind her. He smiled and left his arm limb as she released it and sat up. She gently placed her feet on the deck and rose. Trying not to laugh, he watched her walk quietly toward the bathroom on the other side of the room and, just as quietly, close the sliding door with her hand. He surmised that she must have been terribly exhausted, because she had apparently forgotten that he did not sleep. A few minutes later, as she once again opened the door silently and crept back toward the bed, he made a slow tisking sound.

"You woke me." He whispered playfully.

"Oh, sorry. I—." She stopped and suddenly pulled a face, "Ha ha. I've had a roommate for the past five weeks. It's a habit."

He laughed again and lifted his arm, "Come back here so I can 'get back to sleep.'"

"Shut up." She said as she rejoined him, pulling his arm around her like a blanket. "I'm surprised you have a bed." She whispered.

"I had to play human. Remember?"

"Aboard your ship too?" She said, stifling a yawn.

"Yes." He replied as he leaned forward and kissed her shoulder, "Teni was here."

"Here in your room? Why would she be in your room?"

Lore frowned, "Um…she wouldn't be. It was just in case—."

"—just in case she wound up in here?" Anna said, suddenly turning to look at him.

Lore's jaw worked, but all he did was stutter. "No…no. It was…She…."

"Lore!" Anna said, suddenly laughing. "I'm making fun of you! Can't you tell?"

"Mmm…." He narrowed his eyes, but the look was ruined when he couldn't help smiling, "I see. Are you feeling better?"

"Yeees." She said cautiously.

"Good." He suddenly wrapped his arms around her and rolled over, pulling her over him as he placed wild, ticklish kisses against her neck.

"Ah! Quit it!" She cried as she erupted into laughter. In addition to kissing her, he dug his fingers into her side enough to make her truly struggle. "Argh! This isn't fair!"

He laughed, "I know. That's what makes it so much fun for me."

She laughed and struggled against him until he finally decided to show some mercy and took his hands away from her sides. As he watched her laugh and bury her face in his shoulder, he truly wanted to enjoy it. He wanted to forget—or neglect—everything that had happened, and simply pretend that this was all that mattered. But he couldn't.

"What's wrong?" She said after a moment, for his hold on her had tightened but he had stopped kissing her.

He lifted her up so that he could see her face. She was smiling, but he suspected something behind it. "Anna," He said, "are you pretending to be happy for me?"

"No. I…." She sighed and lowered her eyes, "Lore…."

"You miss them, don't you?" He whispered, "Already?" He hated the way his voice sounded, so regretful. He did not regret it, anything. He regretted the necessity of everything.

"There's nothing we can do now." She said. She ran her fingers over his cheek and forced another weak smile, "Besides, I'm not the only person with someone to miss. What about Bee? You won't be able to see him. At least, not for a long time."

He nodded, "I know." But Bee will live for centuries. He did not say it. It didn't need to be said. Anna lowered her face back into the curve of his shoulder. She groaned and hugged him tightly.

"I liked them, you know." He whispered, "I really did."

She looked up again, "You sound surprised."

He ran his fingers through her hair and tried to look careless, "I don't like people who don't like me. So…yes. I am surprised."

She almost smiled. Almost. Instead, she turned her face down and gasped as a sudden bought of sobs overtook her.

"They did like you." She gasped. Fresh tears formed in her eyes and began to fall.

Lore cleared them away with his thumbs and pulled her against him again, "Shhh. Sweetheart, don't cry. Please."

She gasped again and caught her breath, sucking the sobs back. She smiled suddenly, and even laughed a little bit, "Um…what did you call me?"

"I called you swe—. Agh!" He tilted his head back and groaned, "Troi! Troi said that to me!"

Anna was laughing again, covering her mouth as she wiped at her wet cheeks, "Troi called you sweetheart?"

"No." He said through clenched teeth, "She called me a sweetheart, and I don't think it was flattering."

"Oh, yes." She said, rolling her eyes, "That's quite the insult, sweetheart."

"She knew what she was doing." He insisted, frowning.

"Well, I like it. Sweetheart." She laughed again as she leaned forward and placed a kiss directly on his lips.

"You like being called that?" He asked just before he kissed her back.

"Maybe." She shrugged, "But I was talking about you. Yep. You're name's not Lore anymore. It's sweeeetheart."

"Anna." He warned.

"Yes, sweetheart?" She said innocently.

Lore lifted his hands to the sides of her ribcage and held them there, "I'm warning you."

"It's worth it," She said, "Sweetheart. Agh!"

"Do you give up?" He asked as he put on a faux serious expression.

"Never! Sweeth—ah!" She laughed wildly as she managed to get free of him just enough to fall on her side on the bed. Lore followed her, rising to his knees and continuing to torment her sides as he hovered over her.

"I'm not going to be called by that stupid endearment! Do you give up?"

"Yes! Okay! I quit!" She laughed/cried desperately.

"Good." He said just before he took her in a deep kiss. She ran her fingers through his hand and smiled against his lips. "What?" He said.

"I know Troi didn't mean it as an insult. She called B-4 a sweetheart. Several times."

"Uh huh." He muttered, rolling his eyes. "Maybe it suits him better."

"Definitely." She laughed. She kissed him again, but then suddenly broke away, "Oh! I can't believe I forgot!"

"Forgot what?" He leaned back on his haunches as he pulled her up with him. She immediately crawled to the edge of the bed and set her feet on the floor.

"B-4!" She said, "He gave me something for you. I forgot about it."

"He gave you something?" Lore also stood now, making a half effort to straighten his twisted clothes. "You told him you planning to rescue me?"

"Well, more or less." She admitted. "I didn't exactly give him details." She picked up her jacket from the floor near the bed and searched through the pockets. She frowned, then searched in both pockets again. Lore watched as her easy expression quickly became concerned.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"B-4 gave me a data chip for you. I put it in my jacket pocket." She turned and began looked around the floor where the jacket had been.

"What was on it?" Lore asked. He stepped around the bed and looked down on the floor as well, but he saw nothing.

"I don't know." She said, "I didn't look at it. I…kind of got the impression that is for you specifically."

Lore immediately frowned. That did not sound like B-4, not at all. "He told you not to look at it?"

She shook her head, "No, not outright. He just said to give it to you once we got away." She continued searching the floor and was clearly becoming very concerned. "It must have come out of my pocket earlier."

Lore followed her as she crossed the room and headed back toward the bridge in her sock-clad feet. Her bag and a collection of data pads still lay strewn across an area of the floor on the other side of the control platform. She began picking up all of the pads and scanning the floor as she did.

"It's small and green. A standard non-secure chip." She muttered.

Lore quickly scanned the deck of the entire bridge. Unless it was underneath something, it was not there. "What about your bag?"

Anna grabbed it and turned it inside out. Books, a few articles of clothing, and a framed picture of her family tumbled out. She sorted through everything quickly and bit her bottom lip. "It's not here."

Lore was truly beginning to grow worried not. Not because of the loss of the chip, but because of what might potentially be on it. Try as he might, he could think of almost nothing that B-4 would have to tell him that he did not already know, and it sounded very much like that was what he had been trying to do.

"He gave you no indication of what was on it?"

Anna stood with the empty bag in her hands. "No. He said, 'Give this Lore. He will understand.'"

Lore frowned. Understand what?

"Oh!" Anna looked up, shaking her head, "There was something else. I asked him if it was a goodbye for you, and he said, 'No. It is an explanation.'"

This can't be. Lore turned away as possible—No! Impossible!—thoughts ran through his mind. He could not pretend that they had not occurred to him before, but they had been so fleeting and so without substance that he had not even given them rational thought. But, this….This was not B-4. There was no reason for him to do something like that.

"B-4 doesn't keep secrets." Lore muttered.

"What?" Anna said as she took his hand.

He faced her and his expression was more anguished than even he realized. He said again, "B-4 doesn't keep secrets, Anna. Not on his own. It's…It's not something he's programmed with, it's just not something that matches his nature. Even when we were together on Omicron Theta, the only things he ever kept to himself were things that I or Dr. Soong or our mother told him to keep private."

Anna shook her head, "Bee told me he could keep a secret. I asked him before I told him about what I was going to do."

"If B-4 is keeping secrets, than it's something he's learned very recently. And he wouldn't have learned it without a good reason." Lore looked away from Anna again. He was afraid to voice the crazy thought that was running through his head. He had no proof. Hell! He didn't even have a decent indication!

"Lore." Looking up at him, Anna's voice was tense and serious, "This might sound crazy, but….Counselor Troi said something to me once, just a few days after Data was killed. She said that reading B-4 was difficult because she felt like he had, eh, 'competing emotions' sometimes, or she would sense something from him but she wouldn't see any kind of outward expression of it. Lore, she…." Anna sighed heavily, "She said it was like sensing two people sometimes."

It took him a moment to show any kind of reaction. He was too stunned and, quite frankly, terrified. If what he was saying, if what Anna was saying, was true, it would be beyond wonderful. And beyond catastrophic. Finally, he let the word escape him.

"Data."

Anna gasped and began shaking her head, "It can't be. Geordie did so many tests—."

"If Data didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be." He covered his face with his hands and groaned as the full reality of it set in. Data was there. He had always been there. In a horrible dichotomy, Lore found himself suddenly wishing that it was not the case, that Data was and remained truly dead. The only reason he would even hope for such a thing was because the alternative was worse for B-4.

"We have to go back." He gasped. He stepped forward and took Anna's hands in his, "We have get him."

Anna nodded her agreement, but she still looked unsure, "What is it? There's something else that's making you so worried."

She was right. His anguish was written all over his face, "Anna, B-4's neural net isn't supposed to be able to handle a personality matrix as complex as Data's. That's why Maddox isn't interested in him. But, if Data is there, it means he transferred more than his memories. He transferred the entire net template. Argh!" He looked up, cursing himself for being such a damn fool, "It all makes sense! All this progress B-4 has made so quickly. It's Data! When he transferred his memories and the net template, he must have updated B-4's. Or…B-4's personality simply became attached to the new, upgraded pattern."

Anna's cheeks went white in a flash. She released his hands and stepped back, "So…B-4 is just like you, and Data? He's exactly what Maddox wants? Maddox scanned B-4 himself. It's possible Bee or Data, or both of them, were somehow manipulating the scan results to show Maddox what they wanted him to see."

Lore nodded, "If I'm right, there's no other explanation. Anna, I know I'm making a leap here. We don't have any proof. There could have been anything on that chip Bee gave you—."

"You don't need to convince me." She said quickly, "If we need to go back, then we need to go back."

He lowered his eyes and struggled for a moment. Perhaps he had never been so torn in his life as he was at that moment. His brother, or the only woman he had ever loved. "Anna, maybe you could take the shuttlecraft and find a place to hide until I'm able to—."

"Stop right there." She pressed her fingers over his lips, "Don't do that. I wasn't about to let Maddox hurt you, and I'll be damned if he's going to hurt Bee."

His objections were too many. He said, "I don't want anything to happen to you. I don't want you to end up in prison."

"The only way I'm going to end up in prison is if we get caught. And if we get caught, well…." She forced a smile as she brought her hands up to his cheeks, "If I can't get away with you, then what does it matter if I'm in prison?"

It would matter to me. Somehow, he doubted that sentiment would sway her. Instead, he pushed his worry aside and decided to focus on the overwhelming feeling that seemed to be pressing of his chest. She was willing to give up everything but her freedom to save him, and now she was willing to risk that last thing for his brother.

Brothers.
"Thank you." He whispered.

She nodded. "What I don't understand is, why wouldn't Bee say something? I mean, if Data's there and Bee is aware of it, why keep it a secret?"

He thought it about it, and it only took him a moment to see the most obvious explanation, "When the Enterprise found Bee, what was he like?"

Anna shook her head, "You could barely talk to him. He just…made observation that made no sense. He said things like 'I am in a room with many lights.' It was like that for a while even after Data."

Lore cringed. What she was describing was rudimentary even compared to the B-4 he had known. It was likely that he had been malfunctioning, or that Shinzon's operatives had done something to him. Regardless, it didn't matter now. "That's right." Lore said, "So, if people had known that Data was in there, who do you think would have taken priority? Either Data is protecting Bee, or Bee is protecting himself."

He laughed suddenly. Why did he seem to be doing that so much lately? Was his life really that bitter-sweet? "I can't believe this."

"I know." Anna agreed.

"No." He shook his head, "It all makes sense now. All of it. I've never been able to figure out why Data wanted me to come back, why he told Troi to send me that message. It's because he needs my help. If I had ever gotten a chance to examine those files in Data's will, I'm sure I would have found that the dates had been manipulated. That letter to Troi was probably written after Data was killed, and I'm willing to bet Bee wrote it."

"With Data's help." Anna added. She looked nearly as bowled over as he did.

"Yes." He took her hands again and gently kissed all over her fingers, one at a time, "I love you."

She beamed, and it was such a beautiful sight. "I love you too. I hope you have a plan."

"We will." He assured her. "I can't imagine getting into the system will be nearly as easy this time, not after I told them how I did it last time."

She nodded, "Well, whatever we do, I think we should hurry."

He couldn't agree more, but something in her expression concerned him. "Why?"

"Because," She swallowed hard, "If I didn't lose Bee's chip somewhere around here, it means I dropped it before I left."

She didn't need to say any more. He understood perfectly. "Right. We have a lot to do."