Sisko, Dax, and Kira are surrounded by a group of Maquis lead by Cal Hudson. Sisko demands to be taken to see Gul Dukat, to which Hudson accuses him of siding with the Cardassians. When Sisko declines his invitation to join the Maquis, Hudson has him and the other officers are stunned while the Maquis leave.
Upon returning to the station, Sisko finds Admiral Nechayev waiting in his office. She informs Sisko that the Cardassian Central Commamd has gone on military alert and leaves him with orders to establish a dialogue with the Maquis and make them see reason. After the admiral departs, Kira comes to tell Sisko that Legate Parn, a representative of the Cardassian Central Command, has arrived and he vents to her about Nechayev’s spectacularly out of touch viewpoint, blaming the naïveté and short-sightedness of Earth-based Federation officials for this mess.
Before he can meet with Parn, Odo calls him to the security office. It seems he’s picked up an accomplice of the Maquis. It is, of course, Quark who’s being held in relation to the deal he made to sell weapons to Sakonna. Quark agreed to provide a list of everything he sold her and adds that whatever she needed the weapons for is happening soon.
During their meeting, Legate Parn claims that Central Command has discovered that Dukat was part of a “small group of misguided officers” who were smuggling weapons to the Demilitarized Zone. Sisko and Kira, however, instantly see this for what it is: a tacit admission that the Cardassians have been arming their colonists and that they intend to pin the blame on Dukat. Later, the station crew receives word of escalating violence in the DMZ and O’Brien manages to reconstruct the Maquis ship’s course. Sisko takes Bashir and Odo in a runabout to mount a rescue mission, reasoning that the Central Command wanting Dukat dead is reason enough to want him alive.
In a Maquis base, Sakonna attempts to mind-meld with Dukat, who mocks her failure to do so and boasts of Cardassian mental discipline. The interrogation is interrupted by Sisko’s arrival. During a standoff, Dukat takes the opportunity to attack Sakonna, triggering a firefight in the process. Most of the Maquis are arrested, but Sisko lets one go to deliver a message: he has not yet informed Starfleet of Hudson’s actions, and Hudson can have his uniform back any time he wants.
Back on Deep Space Nine, Sisko fills a Dukat in on the Central Command’s plan to execute him as a scapegoat. In response, Dukat offers to help Sisko stop the weapons smuggling, provided he helps stop the Maquis. Sisko agrees, inviting Dukat to their next staff meeting. The next day, Odo explains that he has a full list of the weapons Quark supplied but has yet to learn anything from Sakonna herself. The crew thus decides to focus on the weapons smuggling, and Dukat leads them to a Xepolite trader. When the trader belligerently claims to be carrying wheat husks, Dukat browbeats him into submission, giving them hard evidence of the conspiracy.
