"The Wire" is the 42nd episode of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the 22nd episode of the second season. This was the first episode that dealt with Garak's past, and set up several later plotlines involving Enabran Tain.

In order to save Garak's life, Dr. Bashir must unravel some of the secrets in the stations Cardassian tailor's past.

As he and Julian Bashir wait in line for lunch, Garak appears to be having severe headaches. He refuses to allow Bashir to help, becoming irritable and leaving to Bashir's bemusement. Confiding in Jadzia Dax, Bashir realizes he hardly knows the man with whom he has been eating lunch for almost two years. He later hears Garak discussing a deal of some sort with Quark and becomes suspicious. The next day, Quark calls the Infirmary and asks Bashir to come to the bar immediately. There he finds a heavily intoxicated Garak who, after a brief struggle, collapses in pain.

Bashir finds that Garak has an implant of some sort in his brain, which he believes is related to whatever Garak and Quark were discussing the night before. He solicits Odo's help and the two of them eavesdrop on Quark later that night. Quark tries to order a piece of Cardassian biotechnology, which turns out to be classified by the Obsidian Order. Constable Odo explains that the Obsidian Order is "the ever-vigilant eyes and ears of the Cardassian Empire", an intelligence service more ruthless than the Romulan Tal Shiar. When Bashir returns to the Infirmary, Garak is gone.

When he arrives at Garak's quarters, Bashir finds the Cardassian has taken massive doses of a tranquilizer, enough that any normal person would have passed out. Garak is obstinate but eventually reveals that the implant was given to him by the head of the Obsidian Order, Enabran Tain. It was designed to make him resistant to interrogations if caught, but he has been using the implant to cope with the pain of living in exile. However, it was never designed for continuous use and is breaking down. Garak claims he deserves his punishment and tells how he once destroyed a ship containing 98 Cardassians, including his best friend, Elim. He then collapses.

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