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With his Starfleet assignment temporarily on hold, Odo needs a distraction. He welcomes Chief O'Brien's offer to loan him some of the action-packed books that both men relish: tales about hard-boiled private eyes, threatening thugs, and duplicitous dames. Then Quark suddenly goes missing during a hastily planned trip to Ferenginar. His concerned friends on Deep Space Nine feel that Odo, as the station's former chief of security, is uniquely suited to track Quark down. But once on Ferenginar, Odo learns that Quark is trapped in the seamy underbelly of a criminal enterprise that could have been ripped from the pages of one of O'Brien's novels. To find the bartender, Odo discovers that he must rely not only on his law enforcement background, but his knowledge of all things noir....

Business is down at Quark's Public House, Café, Gaming Emporium, Holosuite Arcade, and Ferengi Embassy to Bajor. Way down. Lower level of hell down. The station is bustling, but residents and visitors are spending more time (and latinum) at the new Deep Space 9's park, sports fields, theater, swimming complex, and who knows what else, than they are at Quark's establishment. All of Quark's misfortunes just could be reversed, however, when he finds out that one of the steamiest holonovels to hit the Alpha Quadrant in years is up for grabs. And he has an inroad to acquiring it before anyone else. Or does he?

On the space station Deep Space 9, Quark's Public House, Café, Gaming Emporium, Holosuite Arcade, and Ferengi Embassy can't legitimately be called an embassy until the Grand Nagus--namely, Quark's brother Rom--dedicates it as such. Not that Quark really cares about Ferengi protocol, but a well-publicized dedication ceremony will naturally draw people to the bar. Everybody loves a good open house--free appetizers, half-price drinks, door prizes, etc.--all of which Quark can write off as Embassy expenses. It's a win-win situation, with him on both sides of the win. There's even a plan to display the original scroll of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition--which no one has seen for decades given that it's been held in protective storage--and charge patrons by the minute to look at it up close. Nothing, of course, could possibly go wrong with this big plan. Absolutely nothing at all...