Part 9 (2/2)

We're busy right now trying to figure out how this thing works.”

”But, sir,” the droid said. ”I already know how it works.” All four stopped what they were doing and turned to C-3PO.

”Well?” Han asked after almost fifteen seconds. ”Come on!”

”It would seem, sir,” C-3PO said, ”that the flash of light contained a compressed message-a holographic page of writing, to be precise. My photoreceptors were able to collect the data and store it in my memory banks.”

”A note?” Tahiri asked excitedly. ”What does it say?”

”It appears to be written in an obscure Givin code.”

”But can you translate it?” The droid bristled at the very idea he might not be able to. ”Of course. The message reads: 'Malinza Thanas has information you will need. She is being held in Cell Twelve-Seventeen of the Salis D'aar Penitentiary. You can gain access through Rear Entrance Twenty-three at midnight tonight. The code word is fringe dweller. I will try to contact you properly tomorrow.' ' Jaina committed the details to memory. ”Is that all?”

”I'm afraid so, Mistress Jaina.”

”It's not much, is it?” Tahiri put in, disappointed.

”It's enough for now,” Leia said. ”I'll go and find out what Malinza has to say as soon as the time is right.” Jaina shook her head.

”Let me go,” she said. ”You'll be missed. They'll expect you to stay to investigate the situation with the P'w'eck. If you send me or Dad in your place, they'll wonder why.”

”Will Malinza listen to you, though?” Leia asked. ”Right now she has no more reason to trust you than we have to trust her.”

”I'll just have to use my winning ways, I guess. Be - sides, it's not as if she's going to find many willing-ears in prison. This could be the last chance she gets.”

”Okay.” Leia stood and put a hand on her daughter's shoulder. ”But be careful, won't you?” Jaina smiled, then brushed off her mother's concern - sweet though it was-and went to her room to prepare.

”Halt!” The image of a guard appeared in the stolen villip. Nom Anor watched as the Shamed One carrying the villip-cunningly concealed in a dead and - hollowed k'snell vase-unhesitatingly obeyed the warrior's command-as would be expected of a member of the lowest social cla.s.s who had just wandered into Lord s.h.i.+mrra's antechambers.

The guard advanced slowly upon the Shamed One, his face set in a sneer. ”In your haste to rejoin Yun-Shuno, you have forgotten that no one enters these chambers without permission from the Supreme Overlord himself.” He stopped a couple of paces from the Shamed One, his grotesque visage thrust into close focus. ”Explain why it is that your vile presence now dirties these floors.”

”I-I was sent by High Priest Jakan,” stammered Nom Anor's spy. She had practiced the excuse many times before leaving on her mission, but it had never before sounded so unconvincing. ”He or-ordered me to present this offering-”

”Lies!” The warrior's amphistaff uncurled from around his uniformed waist, snapping into an attack position. ”You will tell me what it is you are doing here, and then, for your transgressions, you will feel the wrath of Lord s.h.i.+mrra's palace guard.” As the warrior took another step closer, the Shamed One dropped to her knees, clutching the k'snell vase and the villip within to her chest. ”Please-” Nom Anor couldn't see her face, but he could imagine her fear.

” Your begging is an affront to all Yuuzhan Vong!” the warrior growled as he raised his amphistaff. ”Prepare to die!”

”Jeedai!” the Shamed One screeched suddenly, her tone no longer obsequious and sniveling. As was planned, she triggered the patch at the base of the k'snell with the palm of her hand. ”Ganner!” The image died with the villip and the Shamed One a split second before the amphistaff came cras.h.i.+ng down. The last thing Nom Anor saw of the antechamber was the twisted and hateful snarl of the warrior.

”She wasn't supposed to say anything about the Jedi,” he said, using the infidel p.r.o.nunciation he had become accustomed to during years of undercover work. A rising tide of anger was hard to contain. They had been so close!

”At'raoth was devoted to the cause,” Shoon-mi said. He stood to one side of Nom Anor's new throne, situated in a hiding place that was far removed from the last one. The former Shamed One was clearly uneasy in the aftermath of their failed attempt to infiltrate s.h.i.+mrra's chambers.

”She went willingly, knowing that she might die.”

”But whether she died the right way remains to be seen,” Kunra said. ”Will she be captured and tortured? Will they learn about us?”

”No!” Shoon-mi seemed shocked by the suggestion. ”She will have taken the appropriate precautions.” Nom Anor was certain his highest acolyte was correct. ”The appropriate precautions” meant, in this case, breaking the false tooth at the back of her mouth and swallowing the irksh poison they had provided her with. It would have killed her instantly. Her fanatical loyalty to the cause guaranteed that she would have obeyed that last command.

But even suicide might not be sufficient to avoid di - saster, Nom Anor thought. The spy had openly declared her allegiance to the Jedi heresy, so s.h.i.+mrra would certainly be alerted now to attempts to infiltrate his walls. It would be even harder to get in next time-and riskier.

That didn't mean he'd give up trying, though. He didn't care how many acolytes died in the attempt. Information on his enemy's activities was vital. Any campaign, covert or overt, depended on intelligence, which meant he needed to get someone on the inside of those walls-and soon. If he couldn't, then he wouldn't know what measures were being taken against him, and that left him unacceptably vulnerable.

”We did well just to get this far,” Kunra said. It was a desperate attempt to make good out of a bad situation, but there was no hiding his weariness.

”At'raoth made it farther than any of the others.”

”I believe I even heard voices,” Shoon-mi said.

Nom Anor nodded. He had heard voices, too, from within the chamber on the far side of the threshold the spy had attempted to cross. He was sure that those voices had belonged to High Prefect Drathul, High Priest Jakan, and Lord s.h.i.+mrra's abominable puppet Onimi. Someone had been arguing with them-one of the warriors, perhaps. The argument had been too faint to discern any actual words, but it had been close. Had At'raoth made it just a few steps closer...

He growled an ancient oath under his breath. Mistakes risked the ruin of everything he was trying to achieve. The heretical movement was still too weak to survive a concerted purge.

”We have to try again,” he said shortly. ”We need access to those chambers.” Frustration boiled inside him like a magnetic storm. He missed his old networks, his chain of informers, the many spies who had fed him information. Bloated on data, he had not known how fortunate he'd been before his fall. Starved, weakened by ignorance, he longed for a return to those glory days. ” If we can't get a villip inside, then we will need an informer.”

”But who?” Shoon-mi asked. ”And how?”

”Our numbers are increasing,” Kunra said by way of reply. ”Word is rising up the ranks. It's only a matter of time before we infiltrate the upper echelons.”

”I cannot wait that long!” Nom Anor snapped. ”The closer we get to the top, the riskier it becomes for us. Without knowing what s.h.i.+mrra knows, we are like one of his sacrifices: on our knees with a coufee at our throats, waiting for the killing blow to finish us off.” He shrugged under his robes. Lately in his dreams he found himself fleeing a band of warriors bent on his destruction. He never saw them, but he could always sense them close behind, and could always hear them. In his dreams, he was nothing more than an animal being hunted.

He shook his head; the waking hours were no time to waste on nightmares.

”I will not die down here,” he said. ”I will not become like the corridor ghouls: blind and vulnerable to anyone with light.”

”It will not happen, Master,” Shoon-mi said lamely. ”We would let no such thing happen to you.” Shoon-mi's attempts to rea.s.sure him were like those he would use on a child, and Nom Anor brushed them aside with the contempt they deserved.

”Enough!” He stalked back to the throne and collapsed into it.

”Find me another volunteer. We will try again; we will keep trying until we have achieved our goal! We must crack s.h.i.+mrra's security before he cracks ours. It's either that, or perish.” Shoon-mi swallowed and backed away, bowing. He didn't know anything about the spy they'd captured at their last headquarters, but he understood the reality of their situation. They were heretics, anathema to s.h.i.+mrra and the priests, a contamination to be purged. A rust, Nom Anor thought, remembering his musing on the rotting of iron he had observed in the belly of Yuuzhan'tar before adopting the mantle of Prophet.

”It will be done, Master.”

”Make certain of it,” Nom Anor said. His glare fell upon Kunra, also. ”Both of you.” Kunra nodded grimly, not needing to say that there were only so many volunteers left to be wasted on such hopeless missions.

The more that failed, the fewer there were to choose from next time.

Sacrifice needed a point to be n.o.ble.

But he, too, understood the harsh reality of the situation. It was either kill or be killed. If the most the Shamed Ones could gain was to choose the manner of their pa.s.sing, then that, at least, was something.

It was certainly more than s.h.i.+mrra had ever offered them.

Jain a crouched behind a stone bal.u.s.trade on the roof of a warehouse across the road from the penitentiary. She kept herself low to avoid being spotted by the powerful floodlights sweeping the area.

Regular patrols around the perimeter of the prison she had expected, but the Ryn hadn't warned them about the swarm of G-2RD sentry droids that accompanied them, and she hadn't antic.i.p.ated them.

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