Shadows of the Empire (21 page)

“And …?”

“And it would seem more than coincidental that this woman who is known to be close to Luke Skywalker is probing Black Sun.”

Xizor glanced away from the holoproj at his most trusted lieutenant.
There
was a dry understatement. A man who believed in such heavy coincidences was a fool. Somehow, Leia—he was already beginning to think of her on a first-name basis—somehow she had figured out more than she should have been able to figure out. Although he had taken great pains to separate himself from the planned assassination of Skywalker, she had happened upon the plot and managed to connect it to Black Sun. It was not good, but it was somewhat amazing. Another point in her favor.

“Your suggestion?”

“Kill her. Kill her Wookiee and gambler companion. Wipe the protocol droid’s memory and melt it down. Eliminate Avaro as well, just to be sure. And anybody in the casino who might have recognized her.”

Xizor smiled. Guri was ruthless and efficient; that was part of her charm. If she had to flame a building to rid it of termites, so be it. Given leave, she would do exactly what she suggested.

“I think not,” he said. “Go back and meet with her again. We should find out exactly how much she knows and to whom she has told it, if anybody.”

“I can get that information before I terminate her.”

“No, I would rather conduct this particular interrogation myself. I want you to bring her to me.”

Guri was silent.

“Go ahead, speak your mind.”

“You are attracted to this woman in a romantic way.”

“So?”

“Such attractions have been known to cloud the minds of otherwise rational beings.”

He laughed, something he did all too seldom these days. Nobody but Guri would have the nerve to speak thus. Another of her endearing traits. “Do not fear, my dear Guri. She could never replace you in my affections.”

Guri did not speak. He didn’t think that thought had crossed her mind. She was immune to jealousy as far as he’d been able to determine. Guri would stand by and hold the clothes of his mistress while Xizor had his way with her, apparently unaffected by what she saw. “Princess Leia will surely be useful in locating Skywalker, one way or another. After that, then you can dispose of her.”

Guri nodded once.

“Go.”

When she was gone, Xizor considered what she had said, then dismissed it. He walked the cold road, and his passion was always safely leashed until he let it free. Guri worried; that was her job and how she had been programmed, to protect him at all costs, even if it extended into his love life. He did not need to be protected there. In such matters a Falleen was quite capable of taking care of himself.

And in this case, it would be a pleasure to do it, too.

L
uke’s X-wing dropped from hyperspace in the vicinity of the planet Kothlis. The world had three small moons, was the fourth of seven planets circling the local primary, and did not appear to be swarming with Imperial Navy, at least not where Luke was. He scanned the local comm bands and picked up normal traffic, nothing alarming.

“Artoo, lay in a course for the rendezvous Melan gave us.”

Artoo whistled his acknowledgment.

D
arth Vader’s spies told him that Xizor had gone once again to see the Emperor. The man was involved in something dangerous to the Empire, he was certain of it. But he had to have proof before he went to the Emperor. Xizor was currently enjoying favor, and if Vader wished to stop that, he must find out exactly what the Dark Prince was up to. He must have evidence that was irrefutable.

“Bring one of my dueling droids,” Vader said to the air. “No. Bring
two
of them.”

T
he Rebel fighter squadron bore in, a dozen Y-wings led by a single X-wing, and a larger unidentified and heavily armed vessel.

The target of the attack took evasive action and opened fire.

The fight was furious but over quickly. The pilot of the X-wing came in fast and crippled the freighter by killing its main engines after the larger ship had destroyed half of the attackers.

“I think we’ve seen enough,” the Emperor said.

The recording of the attack, taken from within the freighter and without sound, vanished.

“It went exactly as we planned, I see,” Xizor said. “They had to work a little for it. We didn’t want it to seem too easy.”

A long silence passed before the Emperor spoke. “I do hope you know what you are doing, Prince Xizor. I agreed to allow the plans for the new Death Star to fall into Rebel hands on your advice. You had best be right.”

Xizor said, “I am, my master. Once the Rebels find
out exactly what it is they have been given, their trust in me will be complete. It will be an easy matter to lure the leaders of the Alliance into your grasp. I will deliver the Rebellion and you can crush it at your pleasure.”

The Emperor said nothing, but Xizor heard the unspoken threat:
If you are wrong, you will be most sorry
.

To someone watching from outside who knew even most of what Xizor knew, his position might seem precarious. As with a juggler who had half a dozen balls in the air, disaster seemed imminent. But Xizor had the skills and, more important, the will to keep the balls flying smoothly. All part of the game. And what made it so interesting. Anyone could juggle with fewer items; it took a master to do what he was doing.

“Y
ou sure this thing is going to work?” Leia asked.

Chewbacca, busy working on the doorjamb with a small power wrench, said something. It sounded snide.

Threepio quickly translated: “He says that if it doesn’t, it won’t be because it was improperly installed.”

Leia turned and looked at Lando, who shrugged.

“The guy who sold it to me said it was top-of-the-line,” he said. “Got the latest doppraymagno scanner, full-range sensor, a self-contained power supply good for a year. It better work, it cost me enough.”

“Hardly a dent in your winnings, I would think,” Leia said.

“Oh, it was a dent. I hope it’s worth it.”

So do I
, Leia thought.

Chewie gargled something.

“He says it is ready for testing,” Threepio said.

Leia walked to the desk and sat behind it. The computer inset into the desk was off, and she switched it on.

“The unit is under the file ‘Bioscan,’ ” Lando said.
Leia opened the program. A hologram appeared over the desk. “Nonholographic mode,” she said. “Flatscreen only.”

The image vanished. She looked down at the desk. The words “Scanner offline” appeared on the screen. It would be invisible from the chair opposite the desk. “Bioscan on,” she said.

The screen lit up with an image of an eye, an ear, and a nose. Oh, how cute.

“Okay, everybody out. Let’s test it.”

Threepio, Lando, and Chewie trooped out into the hall.

“Close the door.”

They did.

“Okay,” Leia yelled. “Lando, you come in first.”

The door opened and Lando sauntered in. He turned around as if modeling the latest fashions. “Here I am. Enjoy.”

Leia grinned. He was endearing for a rogue. She looked down at the screen.

The scanner newly inset into the frame of the door picked up Lando’s image, and it appeared on the screen. An infocrawl moved up the side of the image as the sensors examined Lando and fed the result to the computer: Human, male, armed with a blaster and a small vibro-shiv in his pants pocket on the left side, heartbeat, respiration, muscle tone index, height, weight, body temperature. Even a refractive index indicating how old his skin was, plus or minus a standard year.

Lando, according to this device, was a little older than he looked.

No bombs or poison gas or commactive material hidden upon his person. No hidden holocams or recording devices.

“Seems to be working on you. Chewie, come on in.”

Again the device scanned and reported. She didn’t know what the normal readings for a Wookiee were,
but the program that came with the scanner apparently did, and it told her that Chewie was within normal limits for one of that species.

She was sure Chewie would be happy to know that.

Finally she called Threepio in. The program had no trouble at all recognizing him as a droid.

“Well. It seems to be working just fine,” she said.

“Why don’t we test it on you?” Lando offered.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” she said. “You were plenty.”

Lando’s comlink bleeped. He pulled it from his belt. Leia looked at him.

“I’ve got an eye at the port,” he said. He lifted the comlink. “Go ahead.”

“A ship has just arrived,” the tinny voice said. “The
Outrider
, piloted by—”

“—Dash Rendar?” Leia finished. “What is he doing here? He’s supposed to be watching Luke!”

“Thanks,” Lando said into the comlink. He shut it off. To Leia he said, “Maybe we better go find out.”

T
hey met Dash halfway. He was in a pubtrans cab heading away from the port. Chewie swung their rental vehicle around, and they quickly caught up with the cab and waved it over.

When Dash got out, he looked terrible.

“Is Luke okay?” Leia said in a rush.

“Yeah, he’s fine.”

“Why are you here? You’re supposed to be guarding him.”

Dash stared at her. “He’s fine. He doesn’t need
my
help.”

“You don’t look so good,” Lando offered. “Trouble?”

“Long story,” Dash said.

“Get into the speeder,” Leia said. “You can tell it to us on the way back to the casino.”

He got into the speeder, and they started off.

When he was finished, Leia shook her head. Luke was okay, that was the important thing. And it appeared that Guri had told the truth, at least about the secret plans.

“Any idea what these plans are?” Lando asked.

“No. The Bothans have some kind of hot specialists on Kothlis who are going to pull them out of the computer.” His voice was almost a dead monotone.

Lando said, “Hey, lighten up, Dash. Things get heavy in the middle of a battle. Anybody can miss—”

“Not me! I don’t miss. I should have clipped that missile! Bothans
died
because I missed, you understand?”

Leia was silent. She didn’t like Dash Rendar; he was a braggart and stuck on himself; but at least he had some feeling for others. Maybe it was more because his self-confidence had been shattered, but she could tell it had really rattled him. It must be terrible to think you are the sharpest thing in the skies and then to find out you have a dull spot on your edge.

Nobody said anything for a while.

Well. As soon as this business with Black Sun was finished, they would go and find Luke. Somehow it would all get sorted out.

L
uke left Artoo to watch the X-wing and made his way to the lounge where he was supposed to meet Koth Melan.

The Bothan was waiting.

“Any problems?” Melan asked.

“No. Now what?”

“We have a safe house here, a few kilometers away, on the outskirts of the city. The computer is already there and the team working on it. We’ll go there and wait until they are done.”

“How long will it take?”

Melan shrugged. “Who can say? Hours, perhaps, if we are fortunate; days if not. The team is very good and won’t take any chances. After what we paid for it, it would be terrible to slip up and lose the information.”

“Yeah, it would.”

“I have a speeder waiting outside.”

“Lead on,” Luke said.

Outside, the daytime air had a funny smell. It took Luke a moment to place it. The odor was of warm and moldy cheese. He smiled to himself. He knew he would get used to it pretty quick and tune it out. That was something they almost never mentioned in the travel ads, that every planet had its own smells and feel. The light was a little redder here than on Tatooine; it was a little cooler than Bothawui, and there was that smell. The thing about alien worlds—well, alien to somebody not born there—was that each one was unique.

Moldy cheese wasn’t so bad. He’d smelled worse.

They walked to Melan’s speeder and got in. Time to go find out what the Empire thought was so valuable.

T
he safe house was a clever setup, Luke saw. What looked like a row of old storage units and run-down office space in an industrial park turned out to be something else behind the facade. Past a security checkpoint with a trio of large armed guards was a modern complex of interconnected units, bright and gleaming with the latest computer and electronic gear, plus a bunch of technicians to operate it. Most of them were Bothans, but there were several other aliens at work.

It was a smart camouflage. From outside, you’d never expect to find all this.

“This way,” Melan said.

Luke followed the Bothan spymaster down a gleaming corridor to a room with yet another armed guard posted at the door. Melan showed an ID, and they were admitted.

Inside the room were half a dozen Bothan techs. One of them tended leads plugged into jacks in the computer Melan had collected; others sat at consoles
tapping keyboards or using voxax controls. Information danced in the air as holographic images formed and re-formed.

“There’s not much to see, I’m afraid,” Melan said. “Unless you’re an expert in this, the information looks to be pretty much a jumble of numbers and letters.”

Luke nodded. “What do they mean?” He waved at one of the screens.

“Got me,” Melan said. “I’m a spymaster. What I know about programming you could inscribe on a microdiode lead with a dull sword.”

Luke smiled.

“Hey, hey, hey!” one of the Bothan techs said. “Look at this, boys! Scan sector Tarp-Hard-Xenon.”

Luke heard the tap of keys, the commands of voxaxes.

“Wow!” said one of the other techs.

“Oh, sister,” said another. “I can’t believe it!”

“What?” Luke said. “What is it?”

Before anybody could say, the door exploded inward and somebody came in shooting.

L
eia smiled at Guri, who was once again seated across from where she herself sat at the desk in their suite. But the smile was to cover her puzzlement.