Beside him, Chewbacca growled something derogatory. "Well, what do you expect with Admiral Ackbar sitting on the Council?" Han shrugged. "The Calamarians were death on smugglers even before the war, and everyone knows it. Don't worry, they'll come around. Some of them, anyway. Dravis can blather all he wants about profit and excitement; but you offer them secure maintenance facilities, no Jabba-style skimming, and no one shooting at them, and they'll get interested. Come on, let's get going."
He slid out of the booth and headed for the bar and the exit just visible beyond it. Halfway across, he stopped at one of the other booths and looked down at its lone occupant. "I've got a message for you," he announced. "I'm supposed to tell you that you're the worst excuse for a backup man that Dravis has ever seen."
Wedge Antilles grinned up at him as he slid out from behind the table. "I thought that was the whole idea," he said, running his fingers through his black hair.
"Yes, but Dravis didn't." Though privately, Han would be the first to admit that Dravis had a point. As far as he was concerned, the only times Wedge didn't stick out like a lump on plate glass was when he was sitting in the cockpit of an X-wing blasting TIE fighters into dust. "So where's Page, anyway?" he asked, glancing around.
"Right here, sir," a quiet voice said at his shoulder.
Han turned. Beside them had appeared a medium-height, medium-build, totally nondescript-looking man. The kind of man no one would really notice; the kind who could blend invisibly into almost any surroundings.
Which had, again, been the whole idea. "You see anything suspicious?" Han asked him.
Page shook his head. "No backup troops; no weapons other than his blaster. This guy must have genuinely trusted you."
"Yeah. Progress." Han took one last look around. "Let's get going. We're going to be late enough back to Coruscant as it is. And I want to swing through the Obroa-skai system on the way."
"That missing Elomin task force?" Wedge asked.
"Yeah," Han said grimly. "I want to see if they've figured out what happened to it yet. And if we're lucky, maybe get some idea of who did it to them."
Chapter 3
The fold-out table in his private office was set, the food was ready to serve, and Talon Karrde was just pouring the wine when the tap came on his door. As always, his timing was perfect. "Mara?" he called.
"Yes," the young woman's voice confirmed through the door. "You asked me to join you for dinner."
"Yes. Please come in."
The door slid open, and with her usual catlike grace Mara Jade walked into the room. "You didn't say what-" her green eyes flicked to the elaborately set table "-this was all about," she finished, her tone just noticeably different. The green eyes came back to him, cool and measuring.
"No, it's not what you're thinking," Karrde assured her, motioning her to the chair opposite his. "This is a business meal-no more, no less."
From behind his desk came a sound halfway between a cackle and a purr. "That's right, Drang-a business meal," Karrde said, turning toward the sound. "Come on, out with you."
The vornskr peered out from around the edge of the desk, its front paws gripping the carpet, its muzzle close to the floor as if on the hunt. "I said out with you," Karrde repeated firmly, pointing toward the open door behind Mara. "Come on, your dish has been set up in the kitchen. Sturm's already there-chances are he's eaten half your supper by now."
Reluctantly, Drang slunk out from behind the desk, cackle/purring forlornly to himself as he padded toward the door. Don't give me that poor-little-me act," Karrde chided, picking a piece of braised bruallki from the serving dish. "Here-this should cheer you up."
He tossed the food in the general direction of the doorway. Drang's lethargy vanished in a single coiled-spring leap as he snagged the mouthful in midair. "There," Karrde called after him. "Now go and enjoy your supper."
The vornskr trotted out. "All right," Karrde said, shifting his attention back to Mara. "Where were we?"
"You were telling me this was a business meal," she said, her voice still a little cool as she slid into the seat across from his and surveyed the table. "It's certainly the nicest business meal I've had in quite a while."
"Well, that's the point, really," Karrde told her, sitting down himself and reaching over to the serving tray. "I think it's occasionally good for us to remember that being a smuggler doesn't necessarily require one to be a barbarian, too."
"Ah," she nodded, sipping at her wine. "And I'm sure most of your people are so very grateful for that reminder."
Karrde smiled. So much, he thought, for the unusual setting and scenario throwing her off balance. He should have known that particular gambit wouldn't work on someone like Mara. "It does often make for an interesting evening," he agreed. "Particularly-" he eyed her "-when discussing a promotion."
A flicker of surprise, almost too fast to see, crossed her face. "A promotion?" she echoed carefully.
"Yes," he said, scooping a serving of bruallki onto her plate and setting it in front of her. "Yours, to be precise."
The wary look was back in her eyes. "I've only been with the group for six months, you know."
"Five and a half, actually," he corrected her. "But time has never been as important to the universe as ability and results . . . and your ability and results have been quite impressive."
She shrugged, her red-gold hair shimmering with the movement. "I've been lucky," she said.
"Luck is certainly part of it," he agreed. "On the other hand, I've found that what most people call luck is often little more than raw talent combined with the ability to make the most of opportunities."
He turned back to the bruallki, dished some onto his own plate. "Then there's your talent for starship piloting, your ability to both give and accept orders-" he smiled slightly, gesturing to the table "-and your ability to adapt to unusual and unexpected situations. All highly useful talents for a smuggler."
He paused, but she remained silent. Evidently, somewhere in her past she'd also learned when not to ask questions. Another useful talent. "The bottom line, Mara, is that you're simply too valuable to waste as a backup or even as a line operator," he concluded. "What I'd like to do is to start grooming you toward eventually becoming my second in command."
There was no chance of mistaking her surprise this time. The green eyes went momentarily wide, and then narrowed. "What exactly would my new duties consist of?" she asked.
"Traveling with me, mostly," he said, taking a sip of wine. "Watching me set up new business, meeting with some of our long-term customers so that they can get to know you-that sort of thing."
She was still suspicious-he could tell that from her eyes. Suspicious that the offer was a smoke screen to mask some more personal request or demand on his part. "You don't have to answer now," he told her. "Think about it, or talk to some of the others who've been with the organization longer." He looked her straight in the eye. "They'll tell you that I don't lie to my people."
Her lip twisted. "So I've heard," she said, her voice going noncommittal again. "But bear in mind that if you give me that kind of authority, I am going to use it. There's some revamping of the whole organizational structure-"
She broke off as the intercom on his desk warbled. "Yes?" Karrde called toward it.
"It's Aves," a voice said. "Thought you'd like to know we've got company: an Imperial Star Destroyer just made orbit."
Karrde glanced at Mara as he got to his feet. "Any make on it yet?" he asked, dropping his napkin beside his plate and stepping around the desk to where he could see the screen.
"They're not exactly broadcasting ID sigs these days," Aves shook his head. "The lettering on the side is hard to read at this distance, but Torve's best guess is that it's the Chimaera."
"Interesting," Karrde murmured. Grand Admiral Thrawn himself. "Have they made any transmissions?"
"None that we've picked up-wait a minute. Looks like . . . yes-they're launching a shuttle. Make that two shuttles. Projected l
anding point . . ." Aves frowned at something offscreen for a moment. "Projected landing point somewhere here in the forest."
Out of the corner of his eyes, Karrde saw Mara stiffen a bit. "Not in any of the cities around the edge?" he asked Aves.
"No, it's definitely the forest. No more than fifty kilometers from here, either."
Karrde rubbed his forefinger gently across his lower lip, considering the possibilities. "Still only two shuttles?"
"That's all so far." Aves was starting to look a little nervous. "Should I call an alert?"
"On the contrary. Let's see if they need any help. Give me a hailing channel."
Aves opened his mouth; closed it again. "Okay," he said, taking a deep breath and tapping something offscreen. "You have hailing."
"Thank you. Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera, this is Talon Karrde. May I be of any assistance to you?"
"No response," Aves muttered. "You think maybe they didn't want to be noticed?"
"If you don't want to be noticed, you don't use a Star Destroyer," Karrde pointed out. "No, they're most likely busy running my name through ship's records. Be interesting to see some day just what they have on me. If anything." He cleared his throat. "Star Destroyer Chimaera, this is-"
Abruptly, Aves's face was replaced by that of a middle-aged man wearing a captain's insignia. "This is Captain Pellaeon of the Chimaera," he said brusquely. "What is it you want?"
"Merely to be neighborly," Karrde told him evenly. "We track two of your shuttles coming down, and wondered if you or Grand Admiral Thrawn might require any assistance."
The skin around Pellaeon's eyes tightened, just a bit. "Who?"
"Ah," Karrde nodded, allowing a slight smile. "Of course. I haven't heard of Grand Admiral Thrawn, either. Certainly not in connection with the Chimaera. Or with some intriguing information raids on several systems in the Paonnid/Obroa-skai region, either."
The eyes tightened a little more. "You're very well informed, Mr. Karrde," Pellaeon said, his voice silky but with menace lurking beneath it. "One might wonder how a lowly smuggler would come by such information."
Karrde shrugged. "My people hear stories and rumors; I take the pieces and put them together. Much the same way your own intelligence units operate, I imagine. Incidentally, if your shuttles are planning to put down in the forest, you need to warn the crews to be careful. There are several dangerous predator species living here, and the high metal content of the vegetation makes sensor readings unreliable at best."
"Thank you for the advice," Pellaeon said, his voice still frosty. "But they won't be staying long."
"Ah," Karrde nodded, running the possibilities through his mind. There were, fortunately, not all that many of them. "Doing a little hunting, are they?"
Pellaeon favored him with a slightly indulgent smile. "Information on Imperial activities is very expensive. I'd have thought a man in your line of work would know that."
"Indeed," Karrde agreed, watching the other closely. "But occasionally one finds bargains. It's the ysalamiri you're after, isn't it?"
The other's smile froze. "There are no bargains to be had here, Karrde," he said after a moment, his voice very soft. "And expensive can also mean costly."
"True," Karrde said. "Unless, of course, it's traded for something equally valuable. I presume you're already familiar with the ysalamiri's rather unique characteristics-otherwise, you wouldn't be here. Can I assume you're also familiar with the somewhat esoteric art of safely getting them off their tree branches?"
Pellaeon studied him, suspicion all over his face. "I was under the impression that ysalamiri were no more than fifty centimeters long and not predatory."
"I wasn't referring to your safety, Captain," Karrde told him. I meant theirs. You can't just pull them off their branches, not without killing them. An ysalamir in this stage is sessile-its claws have elongated to the point where they've essentially grown directly into the core of the branch it inhabits."
"And you, I suppose, know the proper way to do it?"
"Some of my people do, yes," Karrde told him. "If you'd like, I could send one of them to rendezvous with your shuttles. The technique involved isn't especially difficult, but it really does have to be demonstrated."
"Of course," Pellaeon said, heavily sardonic. "And the fee for this esoteric demonstration . . . ?"
"No fee, Captain. As I said earlier, we're just being neighborly."
Pellaeon cocked his head slightly to one side. "Your generosity will be remembered." For a moment he held Karrde's gaze; and there was no mistaking the twin-edged meaning to the words. If Karrde was planning some sort of betrayal, it too would be remembered. "I'll signal my shuttles to expect your expert."
"He'll be there. Good-bye, Captain."
Pellaeon reached for something off-camera, and once again Ave's face replaced his on the screen. "You get all that?" Karrde asked the other.
Aves nodded. "Dankin and Chin are already warming up one of the Skiprays."
"Good. Have them leave an open transmission; and I'll want to see them as soon as they're back."
"Right." The display clicked off.
Karrde stepped away from the desk, glanced once at Mara, and reseated himself at the table. "Sorry for the interruption," he said conversationally, watching her out of the corner of his eye as he poured himself some more wine.
Slowly, the green eyes came back from infinity; and as she looked at him, the muscles of her face eased from their deathlike rigidness. "You really not going to charge them for this?" she asked, reaching a slightly unsteady hand for her own wine. "They'd certainly make you pay if you wanted something. That's about all the Empire really cares about these days, money."
He shrugged. "We get to have our people watching them from the moment they set down to the moment they lift off. That seems an adequate fee to me."
She studied him. "You don't believe they're here just to pick up ysalamiri, do you?"
"Not really." Karrde took a bite of his bruallki. "At least, not unless there's a use for the things that we don't know about. Coming all the way out here to collect ysalamiri is a bit of an overkill to use against a single Jedi."
Mara's eyes again drifted away. "Maybe it's not Skywalker they're after," she murmured. "Maybe they've found some more Jedi."
"Seems unlikely," Karrde said, watching her closely. The emotion in her voice when she'd said Luke Skywalker's name . . . "The Emperor supposedly made a clean sweep of them in the early days of the New Order. Unless," he added as another thought occurred to him, "they've perhaps found Darth Vader."
"Vader died on the Death Star," Mara said. "Along with the Emperor."
"That's the story, certainly-"
"He died there," Mara cut him off, her voice suddenly sharp.
"Of course," Karrde nodded. It had taken him five months of close observation, but he'd finally pinned down the handful of subjects guaranteed to trigger strong responses from the woman. The late Emperor was among them, as was the pre-Endor Empire.
And at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum was Luke Skywalker. "Still," he continued thoughtfully, "if a Grand Admiral thinks he has a good reason to carry ysalamiri aboard his ships, we might do well to follow his lead."
Abruptly, Mara's eyes focused on him again. "What for?" she demanded.
"A simple precaution," Karrde said. "Why so vehement?"
He watched as she fought a brief internal battle. "It seems like a waste of time," she said. "Thrawn's probably just jumping at shadows. Anyway, how are you going to keep ysalamiri alive on a ship without transplanting some trees along with them?"