Part 28 (1/2)

”Listen!” he said. ”That's not Mom and Dad. It's just one person walking around, and that's not Mom's footsteps or Dad's. There's someone in the apartment.” Jaina sat bolt upright in bed and listened for herself.

”You're right,” she said. ”Come on.” And with that, she was out of bed and over to the door. Jacen wanted to ask her what she thought she was doing, or what she expected to be able to do against a burglar that could get past all the security in Corona House, but it was too late. He knew he would have to follow after her. Otherwise, he would have to spend the rest of his life being told what a coward he was. He went after his sister, out into the upstairs hallway, and was not in the least surprised to see Anakin hopping out of bed and following after him.

The family had been put in a two-level apartment, with the bedroom upstairs and the living room and dining room down below.

The living-room ceiling went as high as the ceiling of the upper floor, like someone had taken all the rooms that should have been over the living room and turned them into extra ceiling s.p.a.ce. The stairs leading from the lower floor came up along the west wall of the high-ceilinged living room, and ended in a landing that ran the width of the north wall. A railing ran along the edge of the landing to keep people from falling off into the living room below. An entryway at the end of the landing opposite the stairs led off into a narrow hallway, where the doors to the bedrooms were. It had taken the children about eighteen seconds after moving into the apartment to realize just how good a place for spying the entryway to the landing was. You could stay in the shadows there, and see practically everything that went on in the living room.

The three children huddled there in the shadows, and looked down into the living room. And what they saw did not look much like a burglary-in-progress. For one thing, burglars rarely turned the lights on.

A tall, pretty lady with red-gold hair, wearing a long black dress, was pacing back and forth. She had a worried expression on her face, and she kept glancing at the door.

It was obvious that she was waiting for someone. And that someone had to be Mom and Dad.

Jacen thought for a moment, then plucked on Jaina's sleeve, and gestured for her and Anakin to follow him back to the bedroom. As soon as they were all back inside, he swung the door shut, but did not let it close all the way, for fear of making a noise. ”Listen,” he said in as low a whisper as he could manage. ”Something is going on. It has to be.

That lady is there to talk to Mom and Dad. As soon as they come back, the first thing they're going to do is check on us to make sure we're sleep so it's safe to talk.”

276 s-kbAaen MallHATcOaaLM 277 ”1 recognize that lady,” Jaina said. ”It's Mara Jade.”

Jacen's eyes widened. She was right. How could he have missed that?

But Jaina was still talking. ”We have to be in bed, and doing the best job we ever have of pretending to be asleep, when Mom and Dad come back. After they check on us, we can sneak back out to the landing.”

Anakin and Jacen nodded, and both of them hurried back to theIr beds and pulled the covers over themselves.

This was going to be interesting.

Leia ushered Han and Micamberlecto into the apartment, and then followed them in, closing the door behind her.

”I'll just be a moment,” she said. ”I want to check on the children.” She crossed to the stairs and hurried up to the children's room. She swung open the door and looked in on three softly breathing small bodies. Anakin's arm had slumped out again. She knelt by his bed, tucked his arm back, and gave him a kiss on the forehead. He muttered something and rolled over on his side. Leia glanced at the tw. Clearly they were fine. Satisfied, she turned and went out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Leia returned downstairs. ”All asleep,” she announced.

”Now then, Mara, what is the message?”

Mara was carrying a small satchel, and she opened it up.

She looked around the room and nodded toward the far end of it.

”Over there,” she said. ”On the couches.”

The room had been designed for holding small, informal meetings. In the center of the living room were three couches, formed in a U-shape, all facing a low table in the center. The open end of the U-shape fazed the south wall, so that anyone sitting in the center couch would have his or her back to the upstairs landing-and anyone standing at the south end of the room would be clearly visible to as many people as you could crowd into the place. There was a flat panel display on the south wall. At the moment it was showing a reproduction of some painting of a stirring moment in Corellian history, but it could be set to display more or less any twO- or three-dimensional image.

Han, Leia and the Governor-General found places on the couches, and Mara pulled the message cube out of her handbag and set in on the low table. She stood over the open end of the U-shape, and gestured to the other three with a sweep of her hand. ”There it is,” she said.

None of the others made a move to touch it. All of them knew it might have been set to activate at the touch of their fingerprints, or body chemistry, or whatever. All three of them leaned in and examined it carefully.

”Any markings on the bottom of it?” Han asked.

”Believe me,” Mara said, ”I've looked at that thing up, down, and sideways. Nothing on the bottom. The only markings are the ones you see on the top.”

”which look suspiciously like an Imperial code I used to crack now and again for very profitable reasons,” said Han. ” 'To be opened in the presence of Leia Organa Solo,' ” he read, ” 'self-styled Chief of State of the so called New Republic, Han Solo, and the de facto Governor General of the Corellian Sector. Code Rogue Angel Seven.” Well, they're not going to get high marks for politeness, that's for sure. what's the Rogue Angel Seven business?”

”Oh, nothing very much,” Leia said. ”Just the key phrse for my private diplomatic cipher. Someone wants us to know they can read my mail.” Micamberlecto let out a low whistle, a sound that somehow seemed wholly incongruous coming from him. He unfolded his long, multijointed legs and leaned in closer to the cube to get a better look. ”Someone knows, someone knows very much about us,” he said.

”The thing I don't understand,” said Mara, ”is why they used me for the courier, whoever they are. They'd have to know that my relations with you people haven't always been of the warmest.”

”1 can answer that,” Leia said. ”You were second choice. Luke.

Luke was intended to be the courier for this 278 a-Mc-eAIcn A-IATCOflRLM

279.

message.” She pointed at the cube, still being careful not to touch it, and pointed at the lettering peeking out from under the label. ”I don't read it myself, but that looks like the written form of Jawa.”

”Jawa?” Mara asked.

”The language of a race from Luke's homeworld, Tatooine. He could read it pretty easily, but most other people couldn't make anything of it without a great deal of effortthe same way you could read the Imperial code. I'll bet that's the same message as the code, intended for Luke's eyes.”

”So why didn't Luke carry it?”

Leia shrugged. ”I don't know,” she said.

”I do,” Han said. ”Remember he was going to go meet with Lando about some business deal just before we left.

Lando told me that he was planning to go off on a trip before he came to the trade summit here. My guess is that Luke decided to go along for the ride, maybe on the spur of the moment.”

”And so he wasn't there to get the message cube,” Mara said. ”So when they couldn't find him, they threw together a backup plan and came looking for me. It makes sense.”

”Well, now that we all feel better apout that, how about reading the message?” Han suggested.

”Right,” said Leia. ”Han, start the sight-and-sound, F will you? I want to have a recording of this, in case this is one of those one-playbacknly units.”

Han flipped open a small panel on the corner of the table and pressed in a b.u.t.ton. ”All set,” he said.

”Okay, then,” Leia said. ”Here goes.” She reached out gingerly with one hand and picked up the cube. It immediately let out a low beeping noise, and there was a loud click. The lid of the cube popped up a millimeter or two.

”Cued to my fingerprints, all right,” Leia said. She opened the lid and looked inside. ”Well, that's a bit anticlimactic.

I thought there was going to be a holographic image popping out of the top. But there's nothing but a data chip.” She took the small black chip out of the cube. ”Han, are the player controls there, too?”

”Yeah,” he said, and took the chip from her. He examined it.

”Well, it's not a one-shot, anyway. We can play it as often as we like.