Gaallash paced restlessly, glaring at the two Cardassians. Both Song and Ba'el had insisted that he simply had to listen to them and do not engage in their conversation, but each passing moment it was getting more difficult to stay quiet. The agents kept their friendly chat and he strained for a good argument that would finally get him some information, or at least some fun, because their talk was exasperating.
They were sat in the lower bunk, inches apart from each another, never touching, their voices carrying an intimacy that their bodies refused to give. They were tense, too aware of the other's proximity, and even of spite of the good words there was some coldness enfolding them that would not melt.
Gaallash was glaring at them, but they actually paid him no attention, acting as if he were not in the room with them.
"What Cardassia needs is a good leader," the woman was finally saying after ranting the last ten minutes about how she and other colleagues had had to hire themselves to the Romulans since none in the actual government claimed them.
Garak had told her before that the Cardassian Union needed time to reorganize the country, and even if the Obsidian Order had been dismantled, and the subsequent Cardassian Intelligence Bureau had suffered the same fate, a new organization would be efficiently operating soon. Gaallash kept the suspicion that such organization fully existed already and both worked for it; the fact that they lied now for his sake unnerved him. The Dominion occupation had turned the already crippled Cardassian intelligence agency into one of its tools but it was difficult to believe that they had not regained their independence and their usual ruthless efficiency.
"If just Damar had survived..." the woman lamented. "At first, I thought he was just Dukat's pet, just a fool who soon became Weyoun's puppet, but finally he became a good leader, don't you think?"
"Damar was a box full of surprises," Garak cheerfully replied.
"But when he heroically fell, another man took his place as the leader of the resistance," she said it almost in a spur, but her eyes were void of any emotion.
Garak just said nothing, and simply stared back at her.
"You took his place, Elim! You were the one the people followed!" she insisted.
"No, I wasn't," Garak shook slightly his head.
"Why are you hiding in that old house of yours?" she asked with a hint of distress, and for the first time, she reached out her hand to him, but let it fall before touching him. "Why do you just spend your time at home doing nothing, when you could be the one leading us now?"
"I'm not doing nothing. I've been rebuilding my house and I'm working to start a new tailoring business."
"A tailoring business?" she exclaimed in shock, then quieted, looked up at Gaallash; he had stopped pacing and now listened with keen interest. The Cardassian operative took a second thought at his words then and turned to Garak with a glint in her eyes, "A tailoring business, ok," she said, "but I'm talking about something bigger. What I'm saying is that Cardassia right now lacks, and needs, a strong leadership. And you are that leader. People know you. They consider you a hero!"
"You know well I'm not a hero, Danal," Garak seriously answered, dropping his smile.
"And I don't care! It's what people think what matters and you know it well."
Garak stood up, getting away from his former colleague, "I want nothing to do with politics, so just forget it all." Garak realized that the conversation was starting to unnerve him. It was not the first time someone asked a similar proposal. Several people had insisted on him taking a place in the new Council, but the years spent in exile and his former help to the Federation in detriment of Cardassia were a heavy burden he always bore. And every day since he had returned to his homeland, he had felt the weird sensation of not belonging to Cardassia anymore. Having always lived in the shadows, the possibility of becoming a public person also bothered him; it was bad enough being considered a hero by some, and being recognized when he walked around.
"Ok," she raised her arms in signal of feigned surrender, "So what are you going to do for the rest of your life? Tailoring? Sabotaging your former colleagues' operations just for the sake of it?" Now she was the one smiling the way he used to.
"This has nothing to do with you or any former colleague, my dear," he replied, trying to recover his usual cheerful attitude.
"So what are you doing with the Federation? Do you still make clothes for them? Is that why you refuse the post?" she mockingly asked, but the question was not funny at all.
"You are the one hiring herself to the Romulans, Danal," Garak simply replied.
The woman frowned and refused to say anything else, she just questioned again, "Why are you here, Garak, that's what I'm asking."
He just kept silent for some seconds, then he softly answered, "If you want a lie, you can ask again."
The other operative sighed, and shifted uncomfortable at her place. Garak was already leaning against the wall in front of her.
"But if you really consider me a leader, and you really want to serve Cardassia again, you could start by revealing all you know about your last mess with the Romulans."
An incredulous Danal looked at him with unhidden contempt, "You can't be serious," she muttered.
"Tell me all you know about Koval and his plans," Garak insisted.
Gaallash waited expectantly; he had already come to the conclusion that the Cardassian man would never address the subject, but Garak at the end was pressing his compatriot to talk.
A thin brief smile crossed her lips, and the coldness that never left her became a frozen shield around her. "I never talked with Koval, always with Coltan. You should ask him instead."
"I'm asking you," and his own answer was hard, he lightened his tone next. "You tell me you want me to be a leader for Cardassia, and next you mock me for siding with the Federation. And what are you doing for Cardassia, Danal? Selling us to the Romulans?"
"Don't dare," she hissed, warning him. "It was an ambitious project and if it has been successful, it could have reported many benefits to us."
"But it failed, didn't it?" he smirked. "So report benefits to us the only way you can: denouncing it." He paused just an instant. "After all you were… spying for Cardassia, never really worked for the Romulans, you infiltrated their organization to dismantle it."
Her icy stare drilled on him, weighting both him and his words. "You were always such a good liar…" she commented.
Garak just kept grinning, "Just help yourself."
She suppressed the sigh this time, "So all I did, I did it for Cardassia," she started, "The Tal Shiar was recruiting our own people for some unknown operation and I volunteered, so I could expose them…"
The two Cardassian smiled at each other with complicity. Gaallash was first stunned and next quite furious, but once more refrained himself and said nothing. Let them play their games if this way we learn something. The spy, to his satisfaction, went on.