Part 34 (1/2)

”You must breakfast with me,” Xizor said.

Leia looked at him. He had come to her room early, but she had already dressed, and her costume was once again that of the bounty hunter she'd affected earlier, sans the helmet. She didn't want to wear the clothes this sc.u.m provided.

”I'm not hungry,” she said.

”I insist.”

Even now that she knew he had tried to kill Luke, she could feel the ghost of that attraction to him. Fortunately, she was able to resist it.

Anger made a good antidote.

She decided to see if Xizor would reveal anything to her. Said, ”Will Chewbacca be joining us?”

”Alas, no. Your Wookiee friend has... taken his leave of us.”

”Got away and you can't find him, huh?”

Xizor gave her a thin smile totally without humor. ”You think he escaped on his own? Really, Leia. I allowed him to break free.”

”Come on.”.

”I want Skywalker. Skywalker wants you. I have you. Surely I don't need to draw you a diagram?”

She felt her belly twist and go cold. He was toying with them. The whole reason to have her come here was as bait for Luke. Oh, no.

She'd been hungry, but breakfast no longer held any appeal. This creature was evil. Twisted, brilliant, and evil.

Where are we going?” Luke asked. Dash said, ”I know a place we can hide.

We can figure out what to do from there.”

Luke felt a sudden rush of something in him. A kind of powerful knowledge that filled him, made him grin. Of a second, he had become one with the Force-and he hadn't even tried to do it. It just happened.

”What?” Lando said, noticing. ”We'll go to this place and make plans to rescue Leia,” Luke said.

He wasn't sure what he expected, maybe that Lando or Dash or even Chewie would stare and shake his head, ask who had abdicated and left Luke in charge, something. But the other three exchanged glances, looked back at Luke, and when they did, it was apparent that something had changed.

”Right,” Lando said. ”Of course.”

Chewie moaned his a.s.sent.

”What else?” Dash said.

It was simply the right thing to do, and it felt as natural as breathing.

That's what the Force was, he realized. A natural phenomenon. He had struggled so hard to attain it, and all that it required was that he relax and allow it, instead of trying to create it. Simple.

Too bad ”simple” and ”easy” didn't mean the same things.

Never mind. Because a thing was difficult did not mean it could not be done. With the Force, manythings were possible. He still had much to learn, more than he'd ever thought before. He smiled. What was it Master Yoda had said? Recognizing your ignorance is the first step to wisdom?

Yes.

Guri stood in front of Xizor as he stripped from his breakfast outfit and began to dress for his appoint-ments. She took no notice of his lack of clothing.

”Our agents say that a Corellian freighter answering the description of the Millennium Falcon is hidden somewhere in the Hasamadhi warehouse district near the South Pole.”

Xizor selected a tunic and matching pants from the closet and examined them under the artificial sunlight. ”So? There are hundreds of Corellian freighters thatlook like that, are there not?”

”Not hidden in the Hasamadhi warehouse district.”

”Are you saying you think Skywalker and the gambler have come here? Have eluded the Imperial picket line and landed on the planet as bold as you please?”

”Any halfwit pilot who knows the freighter trick can manage it. Our own smugglers do it all the time.”

Xizor rejected the outfit. Tossed it onto the floor andpicked another suit of a darker hue and more conservative cut.

”All right. Check it out. If it is Skywalker's s.h.i.+p, have it watched.

When he shows up, have our people kill him. Circ.u.mspectly, of course.”

She nodded. Turned and left.

Xizor considered his image in the mirror after he dressed. Very impressive. He also considered what Guri had just told him. He didn't really expect Skywalker to arrive here so soon, but it was possible. If it was him, so much the better. Vader would be made to look a fool by having Skywalker killed under his very nose.

And there was Leia, a problem he would eventually unknot to his satisfaction. He had plenty of time to play with her.

Things could hardly be moving along any smoother, could they?

Business had to go on, however, and Xizor could delegate only so much of it. Certain matters required his attention. He finished his inspection and headed for his receiving sanctum.

Once there, Xizor said, ”All right. Who is my first appointment?”

”General Sendo, Prince Xizor.”

Well. The device had been repaired enough to get his name right. ”Send him in.” General Sendo entered, bowed low. ”Do sit down, General,” Xizor said. ”Your highness.” The man obeyed. There was the obligatory chitchat.

Then Xizor gave him a plastex envelope containing ten thousand in worn, used credit notes, his monthly stipend for keeping Black Sun abreast of things Black Sun might wish to know about. Sendo was a do-nothing officer in the Imperial Intelligence's Destab Branch who had never seen battle but who could access all kinds of information from where he worked keeping a chair warm.

Xizor put the envelope into the man's hand and waved him away. There was no chance of any betrayal here-every supplicant who arrived was scanned and body-searched for recorders or holocams, and any who happened to have such things upon his or her person was summarily executed once he stepped inside. The rules were simple, and everybody who entered Xizor's castle had those rules made known to them each visit.

And if the courier decided to try to tell what he saw without proof, he would be wasting his time. Not to mention that the high-ranking officers of the local police, the local Army garrison, and Imperial Navy Intelligence were also on retainer to Black Sun, and any such reports concerning Xizor would find their way to his desk within moments of being given. Such reporters would simply... disappear, courtesy of Black Sun's secret employees in the appropriate agency.

Mayli Weng arrived with a pet.i.tion from the Exotic Entertainers' Union asking for general pay increases and better working conditions for the twenty thousand workers who were members. Xizor was disposed to grant her request: Happy entertainers made for happier customers. Black Sun's percentage of the profits-donated by the owners of the businesses in which the entertainers were employed-would thus increase. Weng always asked and never demanded. He'd never even had to use his pheromones on her, she was so polite. Of course, he could not actually make the change himself; that would still be up to the Owners' League; but they had yet to refuse a recommendation from Black Sun, and he thought it unlikely they would do so now.