Part 29 (2/2)
”Be careful, Kal'buir. She won't be alone.”
”She's the one who needs to be careful. I'm the one with the tatsus.h.i.+ recipes.”
”We'll get there as soon as we can.”
”I'm sorry we can't wait for you, son. Delta's going be here in less than a day.”
”I understand. Where's Bard'ika now?”
”On his way to divert Delta when they get here, just in case.”
”Have you identified a place to hold Ko Sai while we persuade her to our way of thinking?”
”Plan is to get her offworld as soon as we can. I was thinking of Mandalore. Rav Bralor owes me one. So does Vhonte Tervho. There are still some Cuy'val Dar around.”
”Better transmit the location and an RV point in case you've banged out by the time we land.”
”Will do. I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with the squads. When we get this shabuir, I'm going to take a little time to check in with them all.”
”Tell Mereel to enjoy his toy, whatever it is.”
Ordo hoped his disappointment didn't show on his face. But Etain was a Jedi, and she didn't need body language to work out that kind of thing.
”I've never hated anyone like that,” she said. ”We're not supposed to have extreme pa.s.sions, we Jedi.”
”It's probably better that I'm not there when they find her.” Ko Sai decided which clones met quality control standards and which didn't. She'd pa.s.sed a death sentence on him and his brothers, two years into their lives; Mereel would discuss the many ways he wanted to kill her. ”Extermination is rather personal.”
”He's not joking about the recipes, is he?”
”What makes you say that?”
”Mandos.” The borrowed slang sounded odd in that formal little Jedi voice she had. ”They-you like your trophies. You keep armor from dead loved ones. I hear some wear scalps and... other things on their belts.”
That was how aruetiise saw Mandalorians, then: savages, but handy when you needed them to fight for you. No wonder clones latched on to that ident.i.ty so easily. ”There was a time when we couldn't bury our dead-or anyone else's. But I'm not sure we ever descended into cannibalism. Loud drinking songs, perhaps.” It was always sobering to hear a stereotype of yourself. ”I'm told kaminii tastes like jaal flesh, though, a blend of meat and fish.”
Judging by her expression, it took Etain a few seconds to work out that he was joking. But the body was a sh.e.l.l, a thing for doing deeds and pa.s.sing on knowledge, and once its purpose was completed it didn't seem to matter if it was buried, eaten, or left for the scavengers.
Ordo wanted to savor life for as long as the next being, but part of him was relieved by the thought that if he didn't out-live his father, he would be spared the pain of losing him one day. It was a selfish thought. Life without Kal'buir was unimaginable.
”Funny, I lost my taste for meat when I became pregnant,” Etain said.
They were in enemy s.p.a.ce now. Ordo browsed through a stack of false identichips and inserted one into his datapad to reprogram it with new details. He'd posed as Etain's partner before on surveillance; they could even act like a jaded couple who'd run out of things to discover about each other.
Etain studied the information on the new woman she'd be on Dorumaa. ”If you and Besany marry, she'll have to do the whole Mando thing, won't she?”
Ordo avoided thinking that far ahead. ”Eating prisoners and wearing their teeth for necklaces, you mean?”
”Seriously. It just occurred to me that... well, I have to do it, too. For Dar. Guaranteed to upset the Jedi Masters, that.”
”You'll have some catching up to do with Bard'ika.”
”What's expected of a Mandalorian wife?”
”Fight for eight hours, stop to give birth, then have your old man's dinner on the table. Except on your day off, of course.”
”Seriously...”
”It can be a very hard life. Nothing that would faze a Jedi like you, though. Just get used to braiding your hair. Fits under a helmet better, I'm told.”
Jedi had more in common with Mando'ade than they wanted to admit. Ordo watched the chrono with growing frustration, hoped that Kal'buir might run an hour or so late so they could be there for the abduction, and decided that if the Dorumaa visit was scrubbed, the best place for Etain to hide until the birth was Mandalore.
Skirata could always persuade Zey that she needed a few months to check out whether the Seps were getting beskar, super-resistant Mandalorian iron, from Keldabe. Zey knew when not to ask too many questions.
He certainly hadn't asked them about ARC trooper A-30, Sull.
Island shelf, approximately nine kilometers from Tropix island, Dorumaa, 478 days after Geonosis Skirata checked his weapons with a ritual that had been unconscious habit since he was six years old, when Munin Skirata had found him cowering in the ruins of a bombed building on Surcaris, clutching his dead father's three-sided knife.
The weapons had changed over the years: technology, credits, and experience meant that he now favored small and silent kit, especially if working in aruetyc clothing. But now he was armored for combat. He wanted Ko Sai to understand that she was dealing with Mando'ade.
There was also the possibility that she had protection. Those droids that the Twi'lek had transported had to go somewhere, and there was no telling what countermeasures were waiting down in her lair.
a.s.sume the worst.
If it did turn out to be just a dianoga lurking in a sewage vent, he was determined that the disappointment wouldn't slow him down for one single heartbeat. He'd get back on the hunt, because that loathsome gihaal had definitely pa.s.sed through this planet. He could feel it.
But it would be nice not to have to keep dodging Zey. I'm tired of kissing his shebs. I'm tired of the Republic.
”Tight fit?” Mereel said. He seemed to be having the time of his life, and Skirata was glad to know the boy could find joy in the most unlikely situations. ”Not really built for two men in armor, is it?”- Skirata went through the litany-knife in his forearm plate ejector, short-track Verpine shatter gun, custom WES-TAR blaster, knuckle-dusters, durasteel chain. He didn't count the stun grenades and ordnance in his belt pouches, just the small self-defense items.
”Throwing up in a helmet isn't something I'd recommend, no...”
”You haven't...”
”I came close.”
”I'll try not to roll her too much.”
”Ko Sai?”
”This s.h.i.+p.”
”Ah.” It was definitely the roll, that corkscrew movement, that made his stomach run for the exit. ”Where did you get the harpoon gun?”
”It was in Aay'han's tool locker.”
Yes, Mereel was on top form. And he really hated Ko Sai. Skirata loved his sons without reservation, but sometimes they made him nervous, and their phenomenal intellects were no guarantee that-just occasionally-they wouldn't get out of control.
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