Part 24 (1/2)
”Three of them. One young, two older, judging by the voices-'cos they have helmets like you, don't they?-and they were wearing-”
Jusik cut in, suddenly very intent on the question. ”Green armor. They wore dark green armor, didn't they?”
Leb blinked. ”Yeah.” He defocused for a moment as if he was trying to visualize something. ”Yeah, they wore dark green. How did you know?”
”A hunch,” Jusik said. Sev was almost pushed aside now. Whatever Jusik had on his mind, whatever intel he had, he hadn't shared it with them. He'd busted a gut to get here, though. ”I can work out who they are. Now tell me where you took the equipment.”
”Dorumaa.”
Jusik leaned back as if he had his answer, as if the ident.i.ty of whoever else had shaken down Leb mattered more to him than the delivery destination-Ko Sai's likely location. Sev was distracted by that, trying to construct a scenario in which that information mattered more.
”You want to pin that down?” Boss asked, and indicated Sev. ”Or do I let my colleague ask you?”
”Tropix island resort.” Leb sounded fluent, as if he'd re-hea.r.s.ed it, or at least given the same answers before. ”You want the coordinates? Here they are.” He put his hand inside his tunic and froze. ”Hey, it's just a datapad... take it easy...”
Sev realized he must have looked as if he was going to hit him. He wondered how he managed to give the impression of being more violent than his brothers, because any armored commando with a Deece looked like bad news. He wasn't trying to act like a psycho, whatever buildup Boss gave him, but folks didn't feel comfortable sharing a s.p.a.ce with him, and whatever he intended didn't seem to affect that.
”I'll take the data,” Jusik said quietly. He held his hand out for Leb's datapad, tapped the controls, and keyed something into his own device. Then he handed it back.
”Hey!” Leb stared at his datapad in horror. ”You erased it!”
”I'm so clumsy,” Jusik said. ”Come on. Let's see you safely on your way, shall we?”
”But my data...”
Jusik crooked his finger at Sev to accompany him, and they bundled Leb out of the TIV so fast that he almost fell out of the hatch. The two of them held on to an arm each and steered him toward his freighter.
”Don't I get some creds for my trouble?” Leb said.
Jusik slapped something into his palm. ”Not just that, citizen, I'll make the problem disappear, too.” He stared into the Twi'lek's face and put his hand flat on his chest for a moment. ”In a few minutes, things will be back to normal for you. Now off you go.”
Leb stood at the foot of the ladder up to his c.o.c.kpit and seemed to be contemplating the contents of his palm as Jusik and Sev jogged back to the TIY There was a small anonymous-looking shuttle a little distance from it, one that Sev had seen Jusik use before.
”What did you give him, sir?” Sev asked.
”A few hundred creds and a spot of amnesia.”
”What?”
”I mind-rubbed him.”
”Oh, you can do that, too, can you?”
”No point deleting the records on his datapad if he re-members them and remembers us.”
There was a low rumble behind them. Sev turned to see Leb's s.h.i.+p powering up, driving clouds of dust and grit into the air with the downdraft of its thrusters.
”But whoever's after Ko Sai can still find him, except he won't be able to give them an answer this time, so how does that solve his problem?”
”I didn't say it would solve his,” Jusik said. ”But it certainly solves some of ours.”
It wasn't very Jedi of him, but then maybe Sev didn't fully understand their beliefs. ”What about those Mandalorians? You sounded like you knew something.”
Jusik shrugged and opened the hatch on his shuttle with a gesture of his hand. It might have been some Force trick or simply a remote control. ”Let's just say Ko Sai's in demand.”
”But who are they?”
”Compet.i.tion. I'll catch up with you later.”
Sev accepted need-to-know even if it annoyed him. He watched Jusik disappear into the shuttle and rejoined Delta in the TIV, trying to work out what he felt about Mandalorians, and whether they were all like him.
”The general's scrambled the Twi'lek's brains,” he said, slumping into a seat and fastening his restraining belt for takeoff. ”So he isn't going to be discussing his travel arrangements with anyone else, at least.”
Boss tutted in annoyance. ”We should have asked him for a bit more detail about where he did the drop. But Jusik seemed really keen to get rid of him.”
”Well, he knows something we don't.”
n.o.body said it, but Sev knew they were thinking it. Mandalorians. It was always sobering to run into them-or the mention of them-and find they were on the Separatists' side, or on no side at all, but not the Republic's allies. Like most of the commandos, Delta Squad had been raised and trained by Mandalorian sergeants; men like Walon Vau had done what generations of Mando fathers had done, raising their sons to be self-sufficient warriors, pa.s.sing on a Mandalorian culture that made strong, tight-knit armies.
Yeah, but there s Mando, and there s Mando. Is that me? Is that who I really am? And how do real Mandos see us?
Omega were very Mando now. All Skirata's squads were; he was a real hard-liner, old Kal, all tradition, emotional sentimentality, and-if anyone got in his way-complete no-holds-barred violence. Sometimes Sev preferred Vau's cold distance, because it was for their own good. But there were times he envied Omega; Vau said Skirata was too soft and made weak soldiers, but all Sev saw was someone he didn't have to be afraid of and who would let him make mistakes.
Too late to think about that now.
”Okay, Dorumaa it is,” said Boss. ”Hope you packed the swimwear, Fixer . ..”
Tropix island resort, Dorumaa, Cularin system, 478 days after Geonosis Tropix was a manufactured paradise with every facility a sun-seeking visitor might want, and as far from Skirata's idea of bliss as he could imagine.
It was all bright colors, noise, and heat. Lulari trees imported from Hikil tinkled like wind chimes in the breeze, and their heady scent was pungent enough to give him the start of a headache. Mird bolted along the sh.e.l.l-paved beachfront path ahead of Vau, whipping its tail and whimpering with excitement as it picked up strange new scents.
It was a Separatist planet, at least as far as the Cularin system was Sep-loyal. Skirata felt everywhere was enemy territory regardless of whether it was red, blue, or yellow on the charts, and didn't let the stereotyped idyll weaken his guard.
”Well, this is cla.s.sy,” he said. Beings of various species lounged on a white sand beach lapped by a turquoise sea so vividly blue that it could have been dyed. Twi'lek waitresses whose skin almost matched it wandered among the vacation-ers with trays of drinks. Droids trundled between, raking sand and somehow managing to leave no tracks behind them. ”Imagine being stuck here for two weeks. What do you reckon, Mer'ika?”
Mereel shrugged. Out of armor, in a plain white s.h.i.+rt and beige pants, he suddenly looked so ordinary-so civilian- that Skirata could only think of all the routine things he was denied.
”I could probably find something to occupy me,” Mereel said. ”Do you two realize how much you look like glitterstim dealers?”
Vau looked back over his shoulder, a rather splendid pearl-inlaid blaster s.h.i.+mmering in his holster. ”I'm going for the casual but menacing look. Glad I pulled it off...”
”It's the Arakyd special, Walon. Says more about you than credits ever can.” The gangster look was less conspicuous here than full Mandalorian armor. The idea was to look like they'd come for sportfis.h.i.+ng so that submerging Aay'han offsh.o.r.e didn't attract the wrong sort of interest. ”Looks rather expensive.”
”Another bauble from the Vau deposit box. My great-grandfather is said to have shot a servant with it for serving his caf too hot.”
Skirata almost went for the bait. ”You're just saying that to make me mad, aren't you?”
Vau's expression was unreadable. ”You know I'd never do such a thing.”