Part 26 (1/2)

Yoda stretched out farther, immersing himself fully in the Force - - only to feel his breath catch in his throat. Frigid, the current became.

Arctic. And for the first time he could feel Sidious. Feel him on Coruscant!

Captain Dyne stepped cautiously from the platform that had dropped the team into the unexplored depths of 500 Republica. Here, at an intersection of spooky corridors made of permacrete and surfaced with panels of plasteel, no water dripped, no insects constructed hives, no conduit worms nursed on electrical current. Strangely, however, the air was stirred by a faint and fresh breeze. Dyne took a breath to steady his nerves. He was trained for combat, but had spent so many of the past few years doing routine Intelligence work that his once sharp reflexes were shot. Commanding the hovering probe droids to go to stasis mode, he deactivated the handheld processor and hooked it on his belt. Drawing his Merr-Sonn blaster from its holster, he hefted it, then thumbed off the stun setting switch. Ahead of him, ghost-like in the dismal light, the commandos were moving toward the thick door at the end of the hall, keeping close to the walls, with weapons raised. Valiant had the point, with the squad's explosives expert close behind, a thermal detonator in hand.

Dyne stepped between the powered-down pair of probe droids, TC-16 following in his footsteps. They hadn't advanced three meters down the corridor when Dyne's ears p.r.i.c.ked up at the sound of gurgled voices. He could sense TC-16 come to a sudden halt behind him.

”Why, someone is speaking Geonosian,” the protocol droid started to say.

Whirling, Dyne found himself staring down the wide muzzles of two organic-looking sonic weapons, grasped in the thick-fingered hands of two Geonosian soldier drones, barely visible in the shadows, their wings angled down toward the corridor's grimy floor. The next few moments unfurled in silent slow motion. Dyne understood that it wasn't his life flas.h.i.+ng before his eyes, but his death. He saw the commandos drop in their tracks, as if blown over by a gale-force wind.

He watched Valiant and the explosives expert leave the floor and hurtle headlong into the door. He observed a storm of probe droid parts whirl past him. He felt himself go airborne and crash into the wall, and his insides turn spongy. It was possible, in that eternal moment of silence, that the troopers had reacted quickly enough to get off a few bolts, because when Dyne looked to his right, along the way he had come, there were no signs of the Geonosians or, for that matter, TC-16.

Then again, for all he knew he had lapsed into unconsciousness for an undetermined amount of time. He was vaguely aware of being slumped against the wall in a position that didn't come naturally to a human being. It was as if every bone in his body had been made pliant.

Soundlessly, the distant door opened inward, and light flooded into the corridor. The light was either red or tinted so by the blood that was filling his ruptured eyeb.a.l.l.s. Still set on slow motion, the immediate world came in and out of focus. What remained of his vision registered a room filled with blinking equipment, screens filled with scrolling data, a holoprojector table, above which drifted a Trade Federation battles.h.i.+p, halved and in flames.

Two machine intelligences emerged from the room, their slender, tubular bodies identifying them as a.s.sa.s.sin droids. Behind them walked a human of medium height and build, who stepped nonchalantly over Valiant's grotesquely twisted body. His liquefying brain notwithstanding, Dyne found a moment to be astonished, because he recognized the man instantly.

Incredible, he thought. As the Jedi suspected, the Sith had managed to infiltrate the highest levels of the Republic government.

The fact that the man had made no attempt to mask himself a.s.sured and comforted Dyne that he was about to die, and shortly after the realization, he did.

44.

”Were is the Chancellor?” Shaak Ti demanded of the three Red Guards stationed outside the entrance to Palpatine's suite in 500 Republica.

Alongside her hurried Sta.s.s Allie, one hand on the hilt of her lightsaber. In their adamant wake followed four members of the building's small army of security personnel, who had escorted the Jedi women from a midlevel skydock to the penthouse level. Despite having been notified of their arrival, the imposing Red Guards kept their force pikes raised in defensive postures.

”Where?” Sta.s.s Allie said, making it clear that she was going to get past them, one way or another. Shaak Ti had her hand raised to part the doors with a Force wave when the guards lowered their pikes and stepped aside.

One punched a code into a wall panel, and the pair of burnished doors opened.

”This way,” the same guard said, gesturing the Jedi inside. A broad hallway lined with sculptures and holoart images led into the suite itself, which, like Palpatine's chambers in the Senate Office Building, was predominantly red. There was no telling how large the suite was, but the exterior wall of the vast main room followed the curve of the building's crown and looked down on patchy clouds, typical of those that gathered around the building in late afternoon. Distant autonavigation lanes - - transverse, and to and from orbit - - were motionless with stalled traffic. Between them and 500 Republica hovered two LAAT guns.h.i.+ps and a small flock of patrol skimmers. A distinct disturbance at the crest of the Senate District's defensive umbrella meant that continued bombardment by Separatist forces had rendered the s.h.i.+eld permeable.

Beyond the superhot edge of the s.h.i.+eld, light flashed within banks of gray clouds.

Lightning or plasma, Shaak Ti told herself. Scarcely acknowledging her presence, Palpatine paced into the room like a caged animal, hands clasped behind his back, Senatorial robes trailing along the richly carpeted floor. Additional Red Guards and several of Palpatine's advisers stood watching him, some with comlinks plugged into their ears, others with devices Shaak Ti understood to be vital to the continued operation of the Republic military. Should anything befall the Chancellor, authority to initiate battle campaigns and issue war codes would pa.s.s temporarily to Speaker of the Senate, Mas Amedda, who, Shaak Ti had learned, was already safely ensconced in a hardened bunker deep beneath the Great Rotunda.

She couldn't help noticing that Pestage and Isard - - two of Palpatine's closest advisers - - looked nervous. ”Why is he still here?” Sta.s.s Allie directed at Isard.

Isard made his lips a thin line. ”Ask him yourself.”

Shaak Ti practically had to plant herself in Palpatine's path to get his attention.

”Supreme Chancellor, we need to escort you to shelter.”

They were not strangers. Palpatine had personally commended her for her actions at Geonosis, Kamino, Dagu, Brentaal IV, and Centares. He stopped briefly to regard her, then swung around and paced away from her.

”Master Ti, while I appreciate your concern, I've no need of rescue. As I've made abundantly plain to my advisers and protectors, I feel that my place is here, where I can best communicate with our commanders. If I were to go anywhere, it would be to the holding office.”

”Chancellor, communications will be clearer from the bunker,” Pestage said.

Isard added: ”All those familiarization drills you so despised were conducted for just this scenario, sir.”

Palpatine sent him a skewered grin. ”Practice and reality are different matters. The Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Senate does not hide from enemies of the Republic. Can I be any clearer?”

The fact that Palpatine was fl.u.s.tered, confused, possibly frightened was obvious. But when Shaak Ti attempted to read him through the Force, she found it difficult to get a sense of what he was truly feeling.

”Chancellor, I'm sorry,” Sta.s.s Allie chimed in, ”but the Jedi are obliged to make this decision for you.”

He swung to her. ”I thought you answered to me!”

She remained unfazed. ”We answer first to the Republic, and safeguarding you is tantamount to safeguarding the Republic.”

Palpatine deployed his signature penetrating gaze. ”And what will you do should I refuse? Use the Force to drag me from my quarters? Pit your lightsabers against the weapons of my guards, who are also sworn to safeguard me?”

Shaak Ti traded looks with one of the guards, wis.h.i.+ng she could see through the face s.h.i.+eld of his red cowl. The situation was becoming dangerous. A s.h.i.+ver born in the Force moved her to glance out the window.

”Supreme Chancellor,” Pestage was saying. ”You must listen to reason - - ”.

”Reason?” Palpatine snapped. He aimed a finger toward the window. ”Have you gazed into our once tranquil skies? Is there anything reasonable about what's occurring there?”

”All the more reason to move you to safety as quickly as possible,” Isard said. ”So that you conduct Coruscant's defense from a hardened site.”

Palpatine stared at him. ”In other words, you agree with the Jedi.”

”We do, sir,” Isard said.

”And you?” Palpatine asked the captain of his guards.

The guard nodded. ”Then all of you are in error.”

Palpatine stormed to the window. ”Perhaps you need to take a closer look - - ”.

Before a further word could fly from his mouth, Shaak Ti and Sta.s.s Allie were in motion; Shaak Ti tackling Palpatine to the floor, while Allie ignited her blade and brought it vertically in front of her. Without warning, the guns.h.i.+ps closest to 500 Republica were lanced by plasma bolts. Their door gunners blown into midair, the two s.h.i.+ps veered and began to fall through the clouds, trailing plumes of fire and thick black smoke.

”Unhand me!” Palpatine said. ”How dare you?”

Shaak Ti kept him pinned to the floor and called her lightsaber into her hand. A shrill sound overrode the window's noise cancellation feature, and a Separatist a.s.sault craft rose into view from somewhere below the suite. Crowded at the side hatches and ready to deploy stood a band of battle droids and others. As the craft hovered closer to the window Shaak Ti gaped in disbelief.