The Federal Officer pushed his cap up with the back of his hand and sighed. 'What's this,' he demanded kicking at a crate with his boot. Mal winced.

'Whiskey,' he replied, 'a gift'.

Luckily they'd unloaded their cargo this morning and this was a gift from a satisfied customer, not enough to cause problems but it might make the officer look further, maybe discover the well-stocked infirmary and wonder who the medic was on board. Mal realized too late, he should have asked Inara to stay around to lend that much needed air of respectability. The officer had his quota to fill and searching these old Firefly ships often brought up a bit of contraband that looked good on the statistics. He glanced around the cargo bay at the crew, two women, four men, nothing very interesting.

'You have papers?' he demanded, grabbing the papers from Zoe and inspecting them closely.

Zoe stared impassively back at him, her eyebrow lifted scornfully.

'Your official seal is still out of date Captain Harbatkin,' the officer frowned suspiciously at Mal, 'checked but not authorized on the cruiser Magellan. I think we need to search this ship from aft to stern.'

He spoke into his com and two more officers appeared outside. They began searching through the crates of supplies.

'You have any passengers? I'll need their ID,' he said, taking Book's ID as the preacher stepped forward at the same time. He scanned it through as he peered into the nearest crate hoping to find some unauthorized cargo. Book's details came through and he read them thoughtfully.

'OK, forget it. There's nothing here, you can go.' Mal showed faint surprise then, not giving him the chance to change his mind, quickly signalled to Wash to head for the bridge and take off.

-------------------

Mal and Zoe sat at one end of the table. Jayne sat at the other, digging little chips of wood out of the end with his knife. For once no-one stopped him. 'I knew something' weren't right,' he snarled pushing the knife in further. 'Jayne's right sir,' said Zoe, ' Somethin' about this bothers me. The Shepherd gets priority treatment at an Alliance hospital an' then he knew way too much about police juristiction when they tracked down Tracey.' 'Yeah, the feds left too quickly today. I reckon we'll search the preacher's room, see what's there,' Mal replied. 'Yeah, 'cause somethin's not right,' said Jayne. Inara appeared at the doorway and made her way gracefully across the room. 'Inara, could you keep Book busy for a bit,' Mal requested, 'There's somethin' we need to do.' 'Of course,' she replied, 'I enjoy our discussions and I promised to make him some hodgeberry leaf tea.' 'Huh, might as well kill him right now,' Jayne scoffed. 'Let's go,' said Zoe, leaving Inara gazing at them in astonishment.

Making sure the berth was empty, Mal, Zoe and Jayne looked around, opening cupboards and lifting bedding. Jayne broke the silence, 'If there's any porn in here I'm keepin' it.' 'JAYNE,' Mal and Zoe yelled together. 'What, he aint gonna say nothing is he,' replied Jayne. Zoe just glared at him. 'Well, I aint seen anyone with so little stuff, outside a battlezone,' said Mal, 'if there's anything bad it aint here.' Zoe flicked through the small Bible that had been left beside the bed, carefully turning the pages that had been repaired after River fixed them. Suddenly she paused and frowned, 'Sir, What do you make of this?'

They returned to the galley where Kaylee and Simon were now smiling in amusement at River's attempt to make a cool drink for them. 'Hey, doc,' Mal started to say, 'can you think of a reason....' he paused as Book and Inara's voices could be heard coming towards the galley. They stopped on the steps as Mal turned to look at them. 'Maybe the preacher can explain why there's a whole mess of stuff about Dr. Tam in the back of his bible. A little scrubbed out maybe but still there.' Now he had everyone's attention. Simon looked stunned and started to think back over everything he'd ever said to Book, anything that could mean betrayal. Book sat down and spread his hands on the table. He sighed and looked at Simon. 'Who do you think contacted you from the Academy? Who do you think helped you to get River out? When Kaylee first persuaded me to travel on Serenity it was you I was looking for, not the destinations. I wanted to make sure you'd got away.' He looked around at everyone, 'This boy has many fine qualities but deviousness aint one of them. Did you think he did it all himself?' 'No, I remember Doc said that he had inside help - but for a heap of money,' countered Zoe, eyeing him suspiciously. Wash came down the steps. 'What's going on?' he asked, sensing the tension in the room. 'Hush, we're just waitin' for some answers,' Zoe said pulling him to one side of the galley. Book pushed the palms of his hands together, almost as if he was praying and continued, 'The Director of the Academy is a very religious man....' 'Huh, why doesn't that surprise me,' snorted Mal. 'He even endowed the Abbey with its lands,' said Book, ignoring the interruption, ' but I could see that there were things happening there that weren't right. As one of the brethren of the Abbey it wasn't difficult for me to get access to places in the Academy that were restricted and I knew who could be easily bribed. Once, I got a sight of one of the letters from River and the only thing I owned, the only thing that no-one else would look at was my bible. When I'd made contact with the Doctor the rest was easy, so long as there was money to smooth the way.' River opened her eyes wide and backed away from Book, 'I saw you - I saw you lying there, the blood - I could see you then - when I was a witch - not now, not now.' Simon got up and held her hands, 'When you were a witch? You mean when we were kidnapped? You saw Book being shot?' 'Yes, that's why I couldn't warn you. I didn't see them. I couldn't see them.' Tears welled in her eyes. 'River, that's over now, it doesn't matter mei-mei, it really doesn't matter.' 'So,' Mal said, 'It's likely you did spring our fugitives but, I'm fuzzy here, is that part of the Alliance plan? It still don't seem right that a Shepherd just wandered round the Academy anytime he wanted.' 'We didn't stay alive by trusting everyone we met, sir,' Zoe pointed out. 'We didn't stay alive by trusting anyone,' Mal corrected. 'You must believe in him now,' Kaylee pleaded, 'I trust you Book, I don't need no more telling.' 'Yeah,' Wash joined her,' When's the preacher done us anything but good.' Book stood up and took his bible from the table. He leant one hand on the back of a chair. 'Thank you for your unqualified support Kaylee, Wash, but I can see it's not easy to be trusting. Perhaps even more so when I tell you that my sister is an Alliance councilor based on Bellerophon.' 'Ta ma duh' spat Mal. 'See I knew somethin' weren't right,' said Jayne. 'But I supported unification, I was for the Alliance, I told you so in the beginning,' said Inara, 'surely these things shouldn't matter now.' She poured a drink and placed it in front of Book in a show of solidarity. 'I have no contact with her, our paths took different directions,' Book explained. He looked at Mal and Zoe, 'Before your time, in the old wars, skirmishes, both my brother and I served in the army. My sister wasn't a councilor then but she was instrumental in organising a raid which I was to lead. I had already begun to question my role in warfare. My brother laughed to see me praying before a battle. ' Book's eyes had emptied of emotion now. 'That day we were boarding the ships together, but I'd forgotten my bible, so I went back for it and boarded the last ship. I lived, he died, blasted into fragments of human flesh.' 'Spontaneous - rapid - disassembly - event,' murmured River. 'Yeah, sure,' Jayne muttered. Book continued, 'Some battle - she ordered it, I led it, he died. It didn't take much to be allowed to decommision and join the brethren of the abbey. I think she was pleased to see me go, I was an inconvenience..' He paused and looked up, seeming almost startled to see the crew in front of him. Kaylee put her hand on his shoulder as Simon left River's side and came forward, 'Thank you for all that you've done for River. You're right, I couldn't have got her out myself. I'd have been dead or locked away. ' Mal shifted uncomfortably in his chair, 'Well preacher, I guess we got you wrong. There's a good reason for you to be a part of this crew - if you still wanna be.' 'Yeah,' said Jayne 'If you got Alliance connections we could sure use you in all sorts of scams.' Book smiled ruefully 'I can't do anything against my conscience you know.' 'If you could see your way clear to gettin' our papers updated .........,'said Mal. 'I think I could do that and still sleep at night,' replied Book. 'Shiny. Wash get this boat on course for the nearest checkpoint. We've got work to do.'