Part 22 (1/2)

”Sounds like they're either already involved with the Empire or else want to be,” Mara said.

”Or maybe it's something else entirely,” Faughn put in, her voice suddenly tight. ”I've just run a phoneme a.n.a.lysis on that transmission; and I think I've found the name Thrawn'

in there.”

Karrde frowned. ”Let's hear it.”

There was a brief pause; and then over the comlink came a sputter of alien language.

Squarely in the middle of the gibberish&mdash ”I heard it,” Booster said. ”It was kind of broken up, like he was stuttering or something.”

”That's because you were getting his full name there,” Mara said, her voice suddenly grim.

”Mitth'raw'nuruodo. Thrawn was what he called his core name.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Karrde saw something flash across Corran's expression. ”So you were on a full-name basis with the guy?” Booster asked with forced casualness.

”Hardly,” Mara said. ”But I did know his full name. And there weren't a lot of people in the Empire who did.”

Karrde chewed his lower lip. ”You know anything about his history? His early history with the Empire, I mean?”

”Not really,” she said. ”Some Imperial commander ran into him on a deserted world just inside the Unknown Regions while chasing smugglers. He was impressed by his tactical ability, and brought him back to Coruscant. Rumor was his own people had exiled him there, incidentally.”

”Why?” Booster asked.

”I don't know,” Mara said. ”But it could be that s.h.i.+p was someone who's finally figured out where he went and has come looking for him.”

Booster snorted. ”They're going to be real disappointed when they find out they're ten years too late.”

”Maybe not,” Corran muttered. ”It could be it's not Thrawn they're looking for.”

Karrde studied the other's face. There was something there, all right. ”I take it that's not an idle guess,” he said mildly. ”Would you care to share it with the rest of us ?”

Corran's lip twitched. ”I wasn't supposed to say anything about this to anyone but Booster,” he said reluctantly. ”But under the circ.u.mstances . . . That Devaronian you got the Caamas Doc.u.ment from, Karrde? He found some other datacards in the same batch. One of them was labeled The Hand of Thrawn.'”

Karrde nodded slowly. So that was the secret Leia had been holding out on him at Wayland.

And the reason she'd been giving Mara such a strange look.

”The datacard was so badly scrambled that they couldn't get anything from it,” Corran continued. ”Councilor Organa Solo thought it might be Thrawn's version of an Emperor's Hand. General Bel Iblis wanted me to ask Booster if he'd run across the term before.”

”Never,” Booster said, shaking his head. ”Karrde? Mara?”

”No,” Karrde said.

”Me, neither,” Mara said. ”And personally, I find it hard to picture Thrawn having that kind of shadow agent. He wasn't into the same kind of political manipulation that the Emperor was. Besides, he had the Noghri if he needed something special done.”

”Yet there was a datacard with that t.i.tle in the Emperor's private files,” Karrde pointed out. ”It must mean something.”

”How do you know it was from his private files?” Booster asked.

”Because if it was something Bel Iblis could have looked up in the Kamparas archives, he wouldn't have sent Corran to ask you about it,” Karrde pointed out ”Point,” Booster rumbled. ”So you figure these s.h.i.+ps are looking for either Thrawn or this Hand of Thrawn?”

”Or else the person in the s.h.i.+p is the Hand of Thrawn,” Mara said. Whichever, it's starting to look more important than ever that we try to track these s.h.i.+ps down.”

”Agreed,” Karrde said. ”How do you suggest we start?”

”We've got the vector from their jump a few minutes ago,” Mara said. ”We' also got the vector from the Kauron s.h.i.+p. Faughn's plotting an intercept point.”

”Got it,” Faughn said. ”It's an unexplored system in Gradilis sector, right on the boundary between Wild s.p.a.ce and the Unknown Regions. It's listed as the Nirauan system, so someone must have visited the place, but there's no other data.”

”Sounds too easy,” Booster rumbled. ”They wouldn't really be stupid enough to jump directly to their base like that, would they? Especially not with us watching.”

”Depends on how they make their jumps,” Karrde pointed out. ”They may not have the computing power aboard to handle complicated hypers.p.a.ce' calculations. Or it could be that their return home is preprogrammed to make sure none of their s.h.i.+ps go astray.”

”They also may not realize we can still pull their vector for a few microseconds after they jump,” Mara added. ”Both times now they've made sure they were out of our line of sight before kicking in their hyperdrive. They might think that's all they need to do.”

”At any rate, it's a place to start,” Karrde said, an odd reluctance seeping into him.

A reluctance Mara evidently could hear in his voice. ”Would we rather not go?” she asked.

”We could just turn all this over to the New Republic and let them handle it.”

”Corran?” Booster prompted.

The X-wing pilot was still staring out the viewport at the stars. ”I can take it back to Bel Iblis, no problem,” he said, sounding vaguely distracted. ”But I doubt he'll be able to do anything about it, at least not now. This whole Caamas thing has everybody in a knot-tie twist.”

Karrde nodded, his instinctive reluctance turning still darker. Booster was right: this was too easy. A trap, perhaps, or at the very least a wild tresher hunt and a waste of time.

But if it wasn't . . .

”No, you'd better check it out,” he sighed. ”Have Faughn transmit her schedule to Chin before you jump; we'll sort her a.s.signments out among the other s.h.i.+ps.”

”Right,” Mara said. ”Anyplace in particular you want us to rendezvous when we get back?”

”Just get in touch with the network-they'll find me,” Karrde told her. ”And be careful.”

”Don't worry,” Mara a.s.sured him grimly. ”If they're trying some game, they'll be sorry they tried it on us. See you later.”

Karrde thumbed off the comlink. ”Good luck,” he said softly.

”Don't worry, they'll be fine,” Booster said, plucking the comlink from Karrde's hand and replacing it in his own belt. ”Mara and Faughn are both pretty sharp, and the Starry Ice is a good s.h.i.+p. Better than this one, anyway,” he added, glowering as he brushed past Karrde and stomped back down the command walkway. ”All right, Bodwae, what the blinking mradhe muck is going on with those s.h.i.+elds?”

He squatted down to hear the Laerdocian's excuses; and as he did so, Karrde stepped over to Corran's side. ”You were right here when that alien s.h.i.+p went past,” he said quietly.

”Did you happen to sense anything unusual about it?”