Chapter Nine

Lee made his way to New Caprica town without any problems. He'd done the journey so many times in the last nine months that he knew the route blindfold – and knew just how to avoid the Cylon patrols.

The next obstacle was getting into the town itself.

The Cylons had made a few changes to New Caprica town after they occupied it. They'd organised the tents on more orderly lines and constructed a few wooden buildings, including their government building and the prison. The most obvious change, though, was the stake fence they had built around the town. Eight feet high, it protected the Cylons from resistance attacks – and kept the townspeople safely penned in.

Their security wasn't as good as they thought, though. Lee had used several tricks in the past to get into the town, and had never been caught at it. He hoped his luck would hold good one more time.

He found himself a hiding place among some bushes at the edge of the dirt track that led from the town to the forest edge, and settled down to wait for dusk.

As twilight fell, he heard the sounds he had been waiting for – the murmur of human voices accompanied by the rhythmic thud of Centurions. A logging work gang returning from their day of forced labour in the forest.

Lee waited until they passed his hiding place and then slipped onto the end of the column. It was unlikely anyone would notice in the dim light, and the Centurions couldn't tell one human from another. He was dressed much the same as the workers, and he pulled a cap low over his face so that someone would have to peer closely to get a good look at him.

Luck was with him. The Cylons at the gate waved the work gang through with only a cursory glance. The workers scattered to their homes and Lee wandered away with them.

He headed for a large tent on the edge of the town, near the fence. Laura had used it as a schoolroom once, but that had ended when she escaped to join the resistance. The Cylons had banned anyone from starting the school up again, afraid that it would be used as a focus for rebellion. Since then the tent had been used for storage and lay empty most of the time. At a distance from the nearby tents, it was an excellent meeting place.

It always gave Lee a feeling of satisfaction to reflect that it was indeed being used as a focus for rebellion, just as the Cylons had feared.

He paused to check his watch in the moonlight. Gaeta should be here soon, if all went according to plan. He looked around to make sure no-one was watching and slipped inside the tent. There was an up-turned packing crate near the entrance and he settled down on it to wait.

----

He didn't have to wait long. Soon enough he heard footsteps approaching, and glimpsed a flash of light from a torch. Then the murmur of a voice, which solidified into Gaius Baltar's unmistakable petulant tones.

"I just don't see why I have to come all the way out here. Can't she visit me in my office?"

"I think she's too afraid of Caprica Six, sir," came Gaeta's soothing reply. "You know how touchy she can be."

"Good point." There was a rustle of canvas as the two men entered the tent. Lee caught a glimpse of them both, silhouetted in the gap, before Gaeta replaced the flap and darkness descended again.

"For frak's sake, Gaeta, switch the torch back on," complained Baltar. "I can't see a damned thing."

"Of course," said Gaeta dutifully. He switched on the torch. It wasn't powerful, but it gave enough light for Baltar to see Lee standing in front of him, less than three feet away.

Gun pointed directly at Baltar's head.

----

Baltar gasped, eyes widening. For a long moment he stood there completely paralysed, staring at Lee.

Lee could see the fear in his eyes and felt a surge of satisfaction. Good. He wanted Baltar to be afraid. Wanted him to be scared down to his bones.

He had to give the man some credit, though. After the initial shock, he did manage to recover himself slightly.

"Adama? Is that you?" The man even had the gall to try and smile at him. "What are you doing here?"

Lee sent him a look that made the smile slide abruptly off his face. "Waiting for you." He looked past Baltar and nodded to Gaeta. "Right on time, Felix."

"Of course." Gaeta pulled a gun out of his jacket and pointed it at Baltar. There was a click as he removed the safety catch. "I wouldn't try anything, Gaius. You might avoid one of our bullets, but not both."

Baltar was looking really frightened now. "Gaeta? What's going on?"

Lee answered for him. "That depends on what you like to call it, Doctor. Retribution? Justice? Either way, your past is finally catching up with you."

Baltar's eyes flicked nervously to his. "I don't know what you mean."

"Don't you?" Lee smiled unpleasantly. "Well, then, let me refresh your memory. You betrayed my wife to the Cylons."

He watched the other man intently as he spoke, and was rewarded by a flicker - a very brief flicker - of guilt before Baltar recovered himself and started blustering his innocence.

"This is ridiculous! I never did anything of the kind. I don't know what gave you that idea, but-"

Gaeta cut him off. "Shut the hell up," he said in a tone of pure contempt. "I know it was you who betrayed her. The Cylons' official report on her case said so."

Baltar paled. "It can't have!"

"Why, did they promise you it would all be kept secret?" said Gaeta scathingly. "You should know better than to trust Cylon promises, Gaius. It was all there, in black and white. How you gave Ana up."

"Gaeta, I swear I didn't-"

"The Cylons weren't happy with you, were they, Gaius? You couldn't get the people to co-operate like they wanted, couldn't get them to join the work gangs peacefully or stop the defections to the resistance. They were beginning to question whether you were really on their side, were going to get rid of you and pick a more effective President."

Baltar's eyes were darting around like a trapped rat. "It's not true!"

Gaeta ignored him. "So you had to prove your loyalty, and you knew just how to do it. I don't know how you knew Ana was working for the Resistance, but you did. So you betrayed her to the Cylons, just to save your own sorry skin and keep your pathetic post as President."

"Lies, it's all lies!" Sweat was running down Baltar's forehead. "You can't believe all that just from a Cylon report! You said yourself, Gaeta, they can't be trusted."

"And what about you?" shot back Gaeta fiercely. "Can you be trusted?"

Baltar stared at him in confusion. "What?"

"What about you, Gaius? Because I heard you admit that you betrayed Ana yourself."

Baltar was trembling now. "You can't have done."

"I did. You were arguing with one of the Fives. She was questioning your loyalty, and you reminded her how you handed Ana over. I heard you with my own ears!" Lee had never seen Gaeta so furious. "After that I broke into the encrypted reports and got all the confirmation I needed."

Baltar opened his mouth to protest, but nothing came out.

"Stop lying, Gaius," said Gaeta wearily. "We both know you did it."

Baltar looked at him pleadingly. "I had to, Gaeta! They were going to kill me. I'm sorry about Dee, but I had to do something. It was her or me."

"And you chose yourself. Of course." Gaeta's face twisted. "You disgust me, do you know that? I can't believe I ever respected you."

Baltar opened his mouth to reply, but Lee interrupted him.

"Do you know what they did to her?"

Baltar gaped at him. "What?"

"Her or me, you said. Do you know what the Cylons did to Ana after you decided it was going to be her?" Lee kept his eyes trained on Baltar's face until the other man swallowed and looked away.

"No, I don't."

Lee told him.

Baltar went even paler than before. At one point he looked as if he were going to be sick.

"And by the time Felix got to us, she was dead," Lee finished, in the same even tone he had used throughout. "And that was because of you. You killed her as surely as if you'd beaten her to death yourself." He pointed his gun directly at Baltar's head, gauging the target. "And now you're going to pay for that."

"What the-" Baltar stared at him, shaking. "You can't mean – dear god, no!"

"You killed her," said Lee flatly. "Any last words?"

Baltar looked frantically at Gaeta. "You can't let him do this!"

"If he doesn't, I'll do it myself," said Gaeta coldly. "Ana was my closest friend. I swore I'd see whoever betrayed her dead, and I will."

"Adama! Please! I know you're upset, but you can't do this! Please!"

Lee ignored him. Suddenly, at the corner of his eye, he caught a movement at the tent flap.

"Felix," he said urgently, but Gaeta had seen it. He turned his gun to cover the tent flap as Kara stepped through it.

What the hell was she doing here? Lee didn't have time to wonder. She was here, and she was pointing her gun straight at him.

"Drop the gun, Lee."

"No." He wasn't going to let her stop him, not now. He was going to make Baltar pay. He owed it to Ana.

"Keep out of this, Starbuck." That was Gaeta. "You don't understand. He betrayed Ana."

"I know. I heard." Kara spoke to Gaeta, but she kept her eyes fixed on Lee. "It doesn't matter. You can't do this, Lee."

"I can," said Lee flatly. "He killed Ana. That's all that matters."

"No, it's not. I understand how you feel, Lee, but this isn't the way. You can't just kill him like this, without even a trial-"

Lee laughed harshly. "A trial? What planet are you living on, Kara? Certainly not this one."

"We don't need a trial," said Gaeta. "He did it, and he's going to pay."

"What are you going to do to stop me, Kara?" Lee asked mockingly. "Shoot me?"

Her face paled, but she nodded. "If I have to."

Fine. "Go ahead, then," he said, calling her bluff. "But Felix will still kill Baltar. You can't stop both of us." His finger hovered over the trigger. He was getting tired of this.

"Lee, you can't do this!" Kara sounded desperate now. "You can't just kill an unarmed man in cold blood-"

"Wouldn't be the first time," said Lee, and pulled the trigger.

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Author's note: Well done StarSplit144, you were quite right with your guess about what was going to happen in your review of chapter 7!