Part 13 (2/2)

Mereel was deep in conversation with his comlink pressed to his ear, and all Skirata heard was, ”. . . that's useful any-way . . . don't worry . . . yes, whatever you get. . .” Then he handed the comlink to Ordo. From the way the lad's face lit up, it was clear that Mereel had been talking to Besany Wennen. Skirata caught his eye and gestured to him that he was excused and he could take the call elsewhere. Ordo got up to stand by the aft engineering hatch, looking uncharacteristically embarra.s.sed.

Skirata dragged the attention back to the conversation. ”Ask away, Bard'ika”

Jusik's face was all reluctance. ”I can't keep covering for you unless I know what you're up to, Kal. And I know you're not telling me things.”

”You mean like you didn't tell Zey about the little mishap on Mygeeto.”

”There's not telling people because you don't want to compromise them, and not telling them because you don't trust them.”

”I trust you to be a good, decent man,” Skirata said softly. ”But I don't trust events, and once you know something, it shapes everything you do even if you never breathe a word. That's hard on you at best, dangerous at worst. Fierfek. Walon doesn't know half the osik I get up to, and vice versa. Eh, Walon?”

Vau nodded. Mird yawned ma.s.sively, looking like a miniature sarlacc pit. ”And I prefer it that way.”

”I told Zey I was doing a morale visit to some of Bralor's squads in the field,” Jusik said. ”Which is partly true.”

”So what bit isn't?”

Jusik was a general, and he had his own issues back at HQ. Skirata had to remind himself of that occasionally. He wasn't always off the chart and doing as he pleased; he commanded five companies, a whole commando group, five hundred men who operated in the field without him but who still had to be given objectives, briefings, and support. There was plenty Jusik knew that he didn't share. There was just too much of it.

”That I'm going to disobey an order and give you information you shouldn't have.”

”Are you certain you want to tell me, son?”

”Yes.” Even so, Jusik dithered for a moment, staring down at his hands. ”The Chancellor's ordered Zey to find Ko Sai, top priority.”

Skirata”s stomach knotted. There was always the outside chance that someone might get to her first, and he could never let that happen. ”Everyone's been looking for Ko Sai since she went missing at the Battle of Kamino. So?”

”He's sending Delta to do it. They picked up a sighting at Vaynai.” Jusik held out his datapad. ”Read for yourself. That's all the voice traffic and messages between Zey and Palpatine, and Delta's briefing. Zey specifically didn't want you to know.”

Skirata s stomach sank. Zey wasn't a fool, and he had a good idea what a Mandalorian with a personal grudge might do to his quarry. ”You're taking a risk showing me that, Bard'ika.”

Sometimes Jusik had the look of an old, weary man. He was in his early twenties, all of him except his eyes. ”I know. You'd never forgive me if I didn't, and I wouldn't have for-given myself, either.”

Jusik had shown his true colors, then. Skirata marveled again that most of the Republic's citizens saw clones as high-spec droids, conveniently on hand to save their shebse, and yet others would put everything on the line to help them. Skirata got up to take the datapad, read it without comment, and pa.s.sed it to Mereel.

”Thanks, Bard'ika.” Skirata ruffled Jusik's hair. He wasn't sure how he would have felt if the kid had divulged his critical information to Zey, though. ”So you and the boss think I'm going after Ko Sai, too.”

”I know you are. You said more than once that if you could, you'd grab a Kaminoan and force them to engineer normal life spans for the clones.”

”You left out by its skinny gray neck, I think.”

”Well?”

”Yes. I intend to find her.”

”Is that what you're doing now? With a submersible? And why the urgency?”

Skirata didn't blink. How could he expect Jusik not to work it out? They'd all fought together: they could think like each other with surprising ease. And-fierfek, Jusik was a Jedi. He could sense things.

Skirata decided to concede. Jusik would know he was holding back, and the mutual trust would corrode. ”Okay, Bard'ika, I bought a hybrid because I intend to find Ko Sai and beat the osik out of her until she hands over the biotech that'll stop my boys from aging fast. Being a useless arrogant piece of aiwha-bait, Ko Sai may well bolt to a maritime environment like home sweet home. Hence the sho'sen. Which I will be refitting shortly with military-grade sensors and weapons systems, at my own expense, although I might well make it available for Republic business as a gesture of good-will. Does that answer your question?”

Jusik looked slightly pained. ”I just didn't know how ... imminent this hunt was.”

Skirata had told n.o.body about the message from Lama Su to Palpatine that Mereel had sliced on Kamino. It was strictly between him and the Nulls, and-inevitably-Besany Wennen, who was smart enough to work things out if she stumbled across any cutoff point for clone funding.

”I'm cracking on with it,” Skirata said at last, ”because my boys run out of time twice as fast as you or me.”

”I don't want you running into Delta and having problems, that's all.”

Vau looked up. ”I'd rather like to avoid that, too.”

Ordo seemed to have finished his conversation. He handed back Mereel's comlink and sat down again with a glazed expression, this time on a separate seat. His thoughts were else-where. Skirata wondered whether to bring Jusik up to date with the hunt for Ko Sai but decided to hang on. It really would place a burden on him, and he'd radiate guilt when-ever Zey came near him. Better that he didn't know yet.

”So tell me what the robbery was all about.” Jusik seemed to want to change the subject. ”It's not like either of you to put your men at risk for personal gain.”

”Well, that's a question for me,” Vau said. ”I reclaimed something that was due to me, but the bulk of the haul is for our men when they leave the army. You might have noticed the Republic hasn't made pension provisions for them.”

”It hasn't made provision for them to retire, either,” Jusik said. ”I think I understand.”

”Vau's handed the stash over to me, Bard'ika.” Skirata was going to have to tell Vau about the apparent end of the Kamino contract, too. He had commandos in the field who were due their chance at life as much as anyone. The more Skirata's plan took detailed shape, the more people there'd be who needed to know things, and that always sat uncomfortably with him. ”What you don't know can't burden you, son. If it all goes shu'shuk, you can at least look Zey in the eye and say you had no idea what I was up to.”

Jusik leaned back in his seat. ”Tell me where you're going to be, and I'll try to stop Delta from falling over you.”

”I can monitor Delta, Bard'ika,” Skirata said. ”If I see them on a collision bearing, I'll ping you. Okay?”

Jusik looked wounded. The idea that Skirata didn't trust him after all they'd been through on Coruscant must have hurt. ”I was useful once . . .”

Skirata ruffled his hair again. ”You're one of my boys, Bard'ika. I said you had a father in me if you ever wanted one, and I mean it.”

Jusik stared at him for a while, and Skirata couldn't work out if he was hurt or just worried. ”I think I can guess any-way,” he said. ”Etain... you know, if there's anything you need me to do...”

Ordo stared straight ahead, but Mereel's stare was searing a hole in the side of his face. Vau looked up, too, and Mird lifted its head in response to its master's interest.

”What about Etain?” Vau asked.

”I know, Kal,” Jusik said. He looked embarra.s.sed. ”I can sense these things. Don't worry about the Jedi Council. They don't know.”

”It's not them I'm worried about,” Skirata said. Shab. Maybe he should have told all the Nulls that Etain was carrying Darman's baby, not just Ordo. ”It's the Kaminoans.”

”Fascinating.” Vau sighed. ”Who doesn't know what you know, or what Kal knows, and that I don't know, but the Kaminoans don't know, either, but if they did know, then Kal knows they'd be a problem?”

”It's not funny, Walon,” Skirata said. Mereel was going to get huffy when he realized Ordo had kept something of so much importance from him. ”We have a personnel issue we have to factor in to all this.”

”I wish I'd never taught you all those big words.”

”Okay-Etain's pregnant. Short enough for you?”

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