After receiving the mysterious phone call, ten minutes saw West and Lee Carter leave their luxurious motel suite and wind their way down the twisting backways of Lake Town to the Ogopogo Bar & Grill. West stopped outside the dilapidated front entrance and gave the building an appraising once-over. Turning to Carter, he said somewhat apologetically, "Well, it ain't the Tea Room on Risa, but it ain't all that bad."
Carter had a different opinion though. "This place makes the Salty Spittoon look like a four-star restaurant."
Cacophonous, discordant Klingon rock and roll music pounded from within, making the very walls shake, dislodging fine dust from the patio beams overhead in time with music's rhythm and setting it drifting slowly to earth, but even over that noise, the occasional scream, shout and gunshot could be discerned.
West turned from his careful scrutiny of the edifice back to Carter and proceeded to examine her with the same intensity. Carter felt acutely self-conscious under his inspection. "Almost perfect," West concluded finally. He reached across, and with a lightening quick and very expert flip of his fingers, undid the top two buttons of Carter's shirt. "There. Now that's perfection," he said.
"What the hell are you doing?!?" yelled Carter, reaching up to stop him but not being nearly fast enough. She immediately started rebuttoning her shirt.
"Leave it undone," ordered West in a tone that made it clear he would brook no argument, but seeing that he was about to get one anyway, he added, "Trust me," in that sincere, confidence-inspiring voice that always made Carter acquiesce to his lead.
Not for the first time since meeting this mysterious, aggravating, compelling, insane, brash, handsome, compassionate, infuriating man did she find herself thinking about him in a totally different way than just the man who was helping her to rescue Sam Beckett. She found herself almost daydreaming about him -- how things might be like if the two of them had met under different circumstances. The moment didn't last however, and any romantic notions Carter may have secretly harbored were quickly shattered with West's next words.
"You don't want to hide those babies," observed West jauntily, pointing at Carter's breasts. He flashed her his trademark grin and sauntered off into the bar. Carter winced at the sophomoric chauvinism and stomped after. West held the door open for her and she entered the dark building.
Carter's first impression outside did not belie what she thought of the inside. Dark and smoky, populated by a mixture of disreputable humans and even more disreputable looking aliens, the place was clearly a mecca for lowlife scum. To her relief, West seemed to know exactly where he was going and led the way quickly through the close-pressed rabble in the bar proper to a set of worn stairs along the back wall leading up to the second story.
At the end of a narrow, smelly corridor was a small room containing an old table and four chairs, three of which were already occupied: two humans and a Cardassian. West and Carter were both patted down for concealed weapons by a thug at the door, after which West proceeded to take his place on the remaining chair. Lacking direction from him, Carter took up station just behind. The three other seated men leered at her with undisguised lechery. Carter studiously ignored them.
"Mr. Smith, I presume," stated the Cardassian, addressing West. "Let me introduce Mr. Smith and Mr. Smith," he went on, indicating the two humans. "And my name is Mr. Smith."
"Smith, Smith... Smith," said West, nodding to each in turn. "Shall we get down to business?" The other three nodded, clearly eager to commence, and West continued. "What am I bid?" he asked.
"Five hundred," offered Smith #1, looking at Carter with unpleasant interest.
West looked indignant, causing Smith #2 to jump in. "One thousand!" he declared.
"Fifteen hundred!" barked Smith #3, not wanting to be left out.
"Gentlemen! You insult me! We're not haggling over some secondhand shuttlecraft! Take a look at this prime specimen of human Starfleet breeding!" West's hand shot out and clasped a firm grip on Carter wrist, yanking her ungently out from behind his chair and into full view of the Smiths. "Just take a look at this beauty -- the youthful vigor, the shapely curves--"
"What?!?" cried Carter, full realization hitting her like a ton of neutronium. "Why you son of a--" She swung a wild roundhouse punch at West's head but he managed to duck under just in the nick of time to avoid being beheaded. Staggering up from his chair, he grappled desperately with Carter, trying to pin her arms at her sides to avoid being brained.
"What fire!" shouted Smith #2, the avaricious gleam in his eyes burning brighter. "I like that! Five thousand!"
"Good!" shouted back West from where he was still wrestling with a fiercely struggling Carter, then looked expectantly at Smith #1.
Smith #1 didn't disappoint. "Twenty thousand!" he barked.
"Fifty thousand!" roared Smith #3, the Cardassian, rising halfway from his chair.
Carter couldn't believe what was happening -- a merely annoying situation had suddenly turned into a living nightmare! Betrayed! She shuddered to think what would happen to her once in the clutches of one of the 'Smiths', but she knew one thing for certain -- she had no intention of finding out. She tried to scream in rage, but West clamped his hand over her mouth. She bit down on his thumb and was rewarded with a howl of pain. "You bastard!" she spat now that her mouth was freed. "You said you'd help me find Sam Beckett! You're gonna die!!!"
West scrambled to clamp his bleeding hand back over Carter's mouth, but it was too late -- the proverbial tribble was out of the bag.
"Huh?" grunted Smith #2. "What was that the skirt said?" He suddenly began eyeing West suspiciously. "What the hell is she talking about, Smith," he demanded gruffly. "Who's this Beckett? What are you trying to pull here?" Suddenly, there were three disruptors pointed at West's head. "Who the hell are you two?" snapped Cardassian Smith, making sure West saw him thumbing the power level on his weapon up to full.
West had ceased his overt struggles against Carter in the face of this new plot twist, but still held onto her tightly to keep her from squirming away. "Uh... I can explain, fellas," he began, but knew there would be no talking his way out of this one. That only left one option open.
"Look!" he shouted, pointing at the room's door and feigning great surprise. All three Smiths twisted their heads to look at what was behind them, and West wasted no time. Releasing his deathgrip around Carter's waist, he grabbed her by the arm and dove for the window, hauling her after him, she too surprised to offer any resistance. They broke through the pane in an ear-shattering crash of glass and plummeted earthward from the second story window amidst a hailstorm of glittering shards.
It was an unlucky night for the pair of locals passing by underneath at that moment. West and Carter came screaming down on their necks, sending everyone to the ground. Shouts from above hastened West's and Carter's steps as they picked themselves up and ran away from the scene.
West led the way into the dimly lit alleys of nighttime Lake Town with Carter close on his heels, not because she trusted him to lead her to safety but because she still intended to kill him, or at least beat the crap out of him. They ducked behind a building and crouched in the shadows while West listened for pursuit. Satisfied that none was nearby, he let himself relax. When West turned to face her, Carter saw he was grinning from ear to ear like a little boy who had just swiped some candy from the candy store. "Whoa, you sure screwed up that plan, baby!" he said, laughing, in between his out-of-breath panting.
"What the hell are you talking about, West?" demanded Carter in between her own heavy breathing. Why was he suddenly in such a good mood? "What plan? All I saw was you trying to sell me to those... those..." She was at a loss for words.
"You bet!" retorted West. "That was the plan! One of the Smiths works for the same group that kidnapped Sam Beckett, so I sell you to them. Then I follow them and you to their secret hideout. Then I break you and Beckett out. Then we all escape. It was a good plan! Until you screwed it up!" he shouted.
"Me screw it up?!?" snapped Carter angrily. "Did it ever occur to you to let me in on your stupid plan?!?"
"Well, then it wouldn't have seemed very spontaneous, would it?" rejoined West.
"Why you son of a--" shouted Carter furiously, but she never got to finish her sentiment. The corner of the building above their heads suddenly exploded in a stinging shower of cement and rebar as a disruptor blast hit. Quickly they rose from the shadows and began running again in the opposite direction from the rough shouts and gunshots from their pursuers.
Carter couldn't tell how long they ran, zig-zagging in a seemingly random pattern through the alleyways and back streets of Lake Town, but slowly the shouted curses and threats hurled at them by the Smiths and their henchmen grew fainter and less frequent until finally they could no longer be heard at all. By this time, West had led them well beyond the town limits into the rugged hills above Blue Lake, and Carter's legs felt like jelly. Judging from the stars, she guessed it was around midnight.
"Hold up a second!" she called ahead to West, who was steadily picking his way through the jumble of boulders twenty yards farther up the hillside from her. "Time for a break."
West stopped and looked back. "We're almost there," he replied, some of the compassion returned to his voice. "Then we can rest. It's not safe here on the open hillside if they have night-vision equipment." With that he turned back towards the hillside and resumed his climb through the rocks.
Carter sighed and started again.
Five minutes later, Carter stepped out from behind a particularly large rock outcropping at the crest of the hill and beheld a small, ramshackle hut. It was no more than a flimsy wooden barn with half its boards missing, but to Carter it was the best thing she had ever seen. She followed West inside and swung the rickety door shut and collapsed on the nearest pile of hay, exhausted from the day's misadventures.
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