Part 31 (1/2)

Karrde c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at Skywalker. ”Thank you for your help. I believe it's now my turn to owe you one.”

”Hardly,” the other said. ”Plakhmirakh vastly overrates my a.s.sistance back there.”

”Yes, they don't generally need much help, do they?” Karrde agreed. ”I've been very pleased with their service. Aside from running interference against Hutt hirelings, what brings you to Cejansij?”

Skywalker shrugged. ”The Force, actually,” he said. ”I was trying for a vision of the future, and I saw myself here. So here I am.”

”Ah,” Karrde said. ”Not a scheduling technique I'd be comfortable with, personally.”

”I'm not exactly used to it myself,” Skywalker said. ”On the other hand, I was just thinking about trying to get in touch with you, and here you are, so it seems to have worked. What are you doing here, anyway, if I may ask?”

”It's not a secret,” Karrde a.s.sured him. ”At least, not from you. I've been looking into the possibility that outside agitators might be involved in some of the protests that have been cropping up around the New Republic. Since Cejansij has a long history of peaceful demonstrations, I thought it would be an obvious target for subversion.”

”Makes sense,” Skywalker mused. ”Though maybe it's too obvious.”

”Depends on how subtle our unknown agitators decide to be,” Karrde said. ”I thought it still worth checking out. You said you'd wanted to talk to me?”

”Yes,” Skywalker said. ”I've been wondering if you'd made any progress on our clone hunt.”

”None whatsoever,” Karrde conceded. ”None of my information sources have heard even a whisper of clone activity. If they're out there, whoever's using them is keeping it very quiet.”

”Mm,” Skywalker murmured. ”How about the Cavrilhu Pirates?”

Karrde shook his head. ”They seem to have gone to ground.” He c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. ”Not that I really blame them. Being chased out of your most secure base by a Jedi Master must be a rather disconcerting experience.”

”You were chased off Myrkr by Grand Admiral Thrawn, and you didn't panic,” Skywalker reminded him.

Karrde forced a smile. The memories of that time still provoked unpleasant twinges.

”Perhaps I'm made of stronger stuff. Or perhaps I just don't panic quite so noticeably.”

On his desk, the intercom twittered, and he leaned over to touch the switch. ”Yes?”

It was Dankin, his expression suddenly and uncharacteristically grim. ”Priority message coming through from the Starry Ice,” he said tartly. ”Faughn says Mara's been captured.”

Karrde felt his stomach tighten as he dropped back into his desk chair. ”Is Faughn still on?”

”Mostly,” Dankin said. ”The signal's a little funny-too many relays in the mix-but it's mostly clear. Comm 5.”

Karrde keyed to the channel, dimly aware that Skywalker had circled the desk and come up beside him. ”This is Karrde. Faughn?”

”Yes, sir,” Faughn's voice came, wavering slightly with the distortion of multiple hypers.p.a.ce relays. ”We reached the Nirauan, system and observed an unidentified s.p.a.cecraft land on the second planet. Jade took our Defender and went in. We got a pulse transmission from her recorder that indicated she was in trouble. Captured, maybe worse.”

Karrde could hear his heart thudding in his ears. ”Dankin, do we have a copy of the recording?”

”Right here,” Dankin's voice said.

”Play it.”

He listened as it played through: the flight and landing, Mara's discovery of the cave and fortress, her startled exclamation and that final sickening thud. ”Get H'sis.h.i.+ started on a scrub right away,” Karrde ordered. That thud had sounded far too much like the sound of a body hitting the ground. . . . ”I want everything you can get off that recording.”

”We're already on it.”

”We did some scrubbing of our own on the way here,” Faughn said. ”There's definitely breathing and a human-tempo heartbeat after she goes silent, so at least at that point she was still alive. There are fifty or more flying creatures in the cave-we can sort out at least that many sets of wings flapping-though that may not have been who she was talking to. Oh, and from the different speeds of the sound through air and bone, it looks like that thud was something hitting the front or side of her head.”

Karrde grimaced. ”An attack.”

”Or an accident,” Faughn said. ”We know she was moving just before it happened, and that she was inside a cave. She could have run into a wall or something.”

”We can try an echo a.n.a.lysis,” Dankin suggested. ”Try to figure out how close she was to the wall when she was. .h.i.t.”

”Yes.” Karrde looked up at Skywalker, standing in dark silence beside him, troubled eyes seemingly focused on empty s.p.a.ce. ”You know anything about this?” he asked the Jedi.

”Either the planet or whoever she was talking to?”

Skywalker shook his head slowly, his eyes looking even more troubled. ”No. But I did see a vision of Mara, the same time I saw myself here. And where she was . .

. it might have been a cave.”

”I hated to leave her there,” Faughn said. ”But I also didn't want to risk all of us disappearing without letting someone know what had happened. Especially given those s.h.i.+ps and that fortress.”

”No, you did the right thing,” Karrde a.s.sured her. ”The question now is how we get her out.” He looked up at Skywalker. ”Or rather, who we send to do the job.”

Skywalker must have heard the challenge in his voice. His eyes came back from whatever they were staring at to look down at Karrde. ”You're suggesting I go?”

”Someone there seems to know you,” Karrde pointed out. ”At least, Mara thought so. You may be the only one he-or it, or they-will be willing to talk to,”

”I can't leave,” Skywalker said, the words coming out almost mechanically, his attention clearly elsewhere. ”I have duties here.”

”You have a duty to Mara, too,” Karrde countered. ”For that matter, you have a duty to the rest of the New Republic. You saw one of those s.h.i.+ps-you know we're dealing with an unknown culture here. If that fortress she saw is made of the same material as the one on Hijarna, they'll be able to sit in there and shrug off any attack we could throw at them.

And -”

”All right,” Skywalker said. ”I'll go.”

Karrde blinked, taken slightly aback by the suddenness of the decision. He'd expected to have to argue at least a few more minutes and probably throw in something concrete before the other agreed.

But he also knew better than to question a decision he was already pus.h.i.+ng for. ”Good,” he said. ”Tell me what you need in the way of equipment or supplies, and we'll get it for you. You'll want a bigger s.h.i.+p, of course. Dankin, what do we have available?”

”No time for that,” Skywalker said before Dankin could answer. ”My X-wing's over in Docking Rectangle 16. If you can download a copy of the nay data to Artoo, we'll get it refueled and be on our way.”

”You can't carry a pa.s.senger in an X-wing,” Faughn objected. ”If she's hurt-”

”Then we take her s.h.i.+p and leave the X-wing behind,” Skywalker cut her off. ”We're wasting time.”

”You won't get very far in a Defender,” Karrde reminded him, keying his board on a hunch.