Chapter Text
Major Livu of the Tal Shiar found herself looking at a dead body and was distinctly unimpressed. It was a simple, clear-cut case of blunt force trauma to the head that had killed him, his green blood splattered carelessly around his damaged skull. The murder was likely a spur-of-the-moment rage that didn’t leave the killer time to properly dispose of the body before they were caught. Livu almost felt secondhand embarrassment on the murderer’s behalf for how poorly executed it was.
“What do you think?” This question came from the woman standing next to Livu, also peering down at the body as if it were unremarkable. Like most Romulans, her voice was guarded, refusing to give away any secrets.
“I think you could do a better job,” Livu decided to reply simply. It was a truth, but one that gave very little away, so Livu was willing to share it.
Livu’s companion sighed exasperatedly. “It wasn’t me, Major.”
“Good. I would be loath to associate myself with someone who would perform such a poorly executed murder. What is it you want me to do, then, if not find a way to quietly dispose of the body?”
Interestingly enough, that comment made Livu on the receiving end of a calculating look. Livu stared back, taking in every aspect of her superior. Senator Riketha was shorter than Livu, giving the Tal Shiar agent the ability to peer down at her suspiciously. The senator, for her part, looked unperturbed by Livu’s height, clearly knowing she was in command of the situation. Though her rounded figure suggested she lived the luxurious lifestyle of a politician, there was a canny glint in her eyes that said her mind was sharp where her body was not. She was not somebody Livu wanted to mess with.
“I had just convinced Senator Nalun,” Riketha said, gesturing at the body in the way that suggested that name once belonged to the corpse, “to add his vote to a proposal of mine. I came to his office this morning to find him murdered, and I suspect foul play. This proposal is contested — to say the least — and the loss of Senator Nalun’s support will devastate it.”
“So you want me to frame your opponent for his murder?”
Riketha gave Livu a look that said she suspected that this was not the first time a senator had asked the agent to do such a thing. It wasn’t an incorrect assumption, though Livu had sworn never to reveal such secrets.
“If it is indeed one of my political opponents,” Riketha said slowly, as if she were explaining a concept to a baby. “I simply want you to find out who did it.”
Livu blinked, taken aback. “You want me to find the truth?”
“If you are even capable of it. I am told that you are supposed to be the most brilliant Tal Shiar agent of your generation, having outwitted every single one of your peers. Was that statement wrong?”
“No,” Livu said firmly. No one would ever say it was wrong to call a Romulan arrogant, but this was also the truth, as slippery as that may be. Livu had shot through the ranks of the Tal Shiar like a rocket, achieving high status despite her youth. Her wily cunning had given her achievement over the others who barely knew what good plotting looked like. She didn’t think it unfair to say she was the most capable agent in the entire organization.
Livu had quietly disposed of bodies, framed people for murders they didn’t commit, and even had carried out numerous assassinations herself. She had schemed her competitors of the organization, covered up a sizable crime that the Federation did not need to know about and lied to the praetor himself. But the truth? She had never bothered to deal with such a thing before.
“What use is the truth if a lie would be more beneficial?” Livu decided to ask. What kind of Romulan was Senator Riketha that she didn’t want a truth that would suit her best interest? Truths were not to be passed around lightly.
“I have a feeling that this is not an isolated incident,” Riketha explained, and finally Livu began to see reason. “I believe there is more to this murder than first appears, so I want to know who is truly behind it before they attempt to do something to me as well. To get back at my enemies, I need to know precisely who they are.”
“Very well,” Livu acquiesced, finally seeing Riketha’s reasoning. “Where would you like me to start?”
“My political rival, Senator Kortir, seems a likely candidate, though I would not have thought him cunning enough to pull off such a thing.”
“It was a very poorly executed murder,” Livu pointed out.
“Indeed. Well, good luck to you, Major Livu. I hope you find the murderer.”
Livu scoffed. Luck and hope were for babies and idiot humans. She didn’t need them when she had her own intelligence on her side. That was infinitely more valuable when she needed to solve a puzzle. It had gotten her to where she was in life, and she knew it would get her much farther as well. She would solve this murder, not luck.