Part 39 (1/2)
”I'll take that as a don't-know, shall I?” Niner said. ”Put him back on life support.”
”He's breathing unaided.”
”Then keep him hydrated, because if you don't, that's basic combat first aid for us. If you don't put a line in the IV cannula, we will. Got it?”
The droid was genuinely perplexed. It had a very specific specialty, and what it was faced with now wasn't how to do something clever, but whether to do it at all. Darman didn't wait and moved in between Fi and the droid. If the tinnie came anywhere near him with anything but a helpful suggestion, he'd use an BMP on the thing. Atin pushed past it and took a big carton of saline sacs, and between them they hooked Fi up to a drip.
”Now either he stays there, or you let us move him to a nice quiet bay where we can keep an eye on him until we get back to Triple Zero,” Niner said patiently, fist relaxing. ''I think a bay would be best. We'll liberate that repulsor gurney and move him, if that's okay with you.”
If Darman hadn't been so focused on Fi's plight, he might have felt sorry for the droid.
”Clones can be very disruptive to the orderly running of this unit,” it said. ”I tire of explaining our protocols to you, which is why I usually bar your kind from the treatment areas.” So this wasn't the first argument the droid had had with a man's comrades, then. ”But I have no authorization to transfer a patient in this state to any facility, so what happens to RC-eight-zero-one-five when we transfer the wounded is outside my authority.”
Niner stood back to let Darman and Atin steer the gurney across to the treatment bays. They now had an audience of droids and walking wounded. ”You mean you don't know what to do with him.”
”That's what I said, isn't it?”
The droid let them take Fi. It was a busy droid that didn't have time to argue with RCs who weren't going to take no for an answer, and Darman felt brief guilt for tying up re-sources when there were wounded vode with less clout in dire need. But Fi was his brother, and if Darman didn't look out for him then the whole fabric of his tight-knit world, the small circle of people who were his life, meant nothing.
Niner pulled the bay shutters across to give Fi some privacy, and the three men crowded in as best they could, shoulder plates sc.r.a.ping one another. They had no idea what to do with Fi, either, except lay him in a coma position, make sure his saline line was clear-Sergeant Gilamar's combat medic course back in Tipoca was ingrained in them-and get on the comlink to someone who'd be able to sweep aside the bureaucracy and osik back on Coruscant: Kal Skirata.
Chapter 15.
The difficulty is knowing not who to trust-n.o.body, absolutely n.o.body-but who can be allowed to know how much about a given situation. It s no secret that we hold Dr. Uthan in a Republic jail, and the a.s.sumption is that we need her expertise to prevent the Separatists from creating another anti-clone virus like hers, or even force her to create a countermeasure. But I prefer to think of her as my insurance policy. Should I ever need to remove the Grand Army-if the clones are not as loyal as the Kaminoans claim, and we all know the claims merchants make-then I have my means.
-Chancellor Palpatine, private memoirs, on the uses of enemy scientists * * *
Special Operations Brigade HQ, Coruscant, 482 days after Geonosis So it was a big pile of rock,” said General Zey.
”Yes sir.” Jusik could do calm like n.o.body else, and it seemed to be getting to his boss. ”I estimate a few tons.”
Jusik sat completely composed, fingers meshed as his hands rested on Zey's lovely blue desk. Sev, in I'll-wait-to-be-spoken-to mode like the rest of Delta Squad, sat to his right, helmet on lap, staring straight ahead, managing to feel that the conversation didn't involve him or his brothers at all. It was, Vau said, probably like a Jedi being in a state of meditation: aware, but not distracted. It was handy to be able to do that when your CO was getting a subtle roasting from his boss right in front of you.
”But we don't have any confirmation that there was a facility under that island,” Zey said, staring out the window with his back to them. ”Or that Ko Sai used it. And even if she did, we don't know if she was at home when Master Dis-aster came to call, do we?”
”We don't, sir.”
If Zey leaned on Sev, he wouldn't be able to tell him any-thing different from Jusik even if he wanted to. That was exactly how it had happened, a very unsatisfactory outcome, and they were now back to square one and casting around for new leads-if Ko Sai had ever left Dorumaa, that was.
No-they were back to minus one. Before Dorumaa, they'd at least known for sure that the aiwha-bait was still alive.
It was funny how that phrase stuck. Aiwha-bait. All the Mandalorian Cuy'val Dar used it in the end. Even some of the non-Mando training sergeants did. Kaminoans weren't lovable when you got to know them.
”So if the facility was blown up, to use the technical phrase, did someone else get to her before we did, or did she do it to throw us off her trail?” Zey asked. ”Because I'm get-ting a very hard time from the Chancellor, in that charmingly polite way of his, and if it's not him on my back then it's Master Windu, and I don't know which is giving me more pain.”
”We just don't know, sir. All we know is that she had one pair of bounty hunters after her, who were almost certainly tasked by the Kaminoan government, and that a lot of equipment that could be used for cloning was s.h.i.+pped to Dorumaa-”
”...or that could have been used to pickle vegetables.”
”...and that we found a body with signs of Mandalorian activity right next to a very recent explosion.”
”Anyone can learn to tie a Mandalorian knot if they want to leave a message for the trusting saying, It's okay, she's dead, the Mandalorians got her... can't they?”
Jusik looked unmoved except for a slight twitch in his jaw muscles. Sev was at the right angle to see it.
”They could, sir,” Jusik said at last. ”But we do derive some certainty from the Force, do we not?”
”We do, but Chancellor Palpatine doesn't deal in Force certainty, or in the Force at all. He wants her, preferably alive, but he'll settle-reluctantly, although I shall no doubt feel his reluctance-for definitive proof of death. And I don't mean some half-wit Twi'lek saying he was pretty sure he dumped her body but he can't remember where.” Sev felt the Force that time, all right, and it was probably a largely spent shock wave compared with the one that Zey had to be getting from above. Jusik's calm almost deserted him, and he blinked a few times. ”Find me something solid.”
”It means excavating.”
”Then excavate.”
”But if she surfaces again, she'll show her hand when she starts re-equipping a laboratory. She can't work with a data-pad and a stylus alone.”
”Unless she goes to work illegally for Arkanian Micro or any of the other clonemasters. Does she have any research that Tipoca City isn't privy to, do you think?”
”I have no idea.”
Zey turned to Boss. ”Three-Eight, do you regard the corpse you found as significant?”
”Just the nature of the knot, sir. Especially as it was a long shot that we would find the location based on what the Twi'lek told us. If anyone signposted it, they were subtle.”
”They might have known you weren't stupid.” Wow, the old man was in a real mood today. ”No option but to go back to the last good contact and start over. Although I don't like the idea of digging holes under sports fields deep in enemy territory on the off chance there might be a squashed Kaminoan under the rubble, that's all we've got. Perhaps I should have brought Skirata into the loop on this after all.”
It didn't matter why he said it: he might have meant it benignly, or sincerely, or spitefully. But the end result was the same. It was a slap across the face for all of them. Jusik might have taken that as part of the learning curve of being a baby general, but Delta didn't fail. Dread crept through Sev like the onset of a strained muscle. At least they weren't yet at the stage where Vau had to find out that they couldn't cut it.
No. That I couldn't cut it.
”Leave it with us, sir.” Jusik gave every impression of being okay about the dressing-down-Jedi never shouted or swore, although they did have a savage line in humiliating understatement-but he had to be bruised now. He'd already told them more than once that he was never going to make the Jedi Council. He didn't strike Sev as the type of man who wanted that kind of position anyway. ”Is there a deadline on this?”
”Yesterday, at the latest,” said Zey. ”I can repeat the expla-nation from the top if you like.”
”No need, sir. Resources?”
”You learned your trade from Skirata, young man. What-ever it takes.” He paused. ”If you really feel you're not get-ting anywhere, I might countenance investigating the Mandalorian angle via him or Vau.”
Jusik managed to return some verbal fire. ”They won't like finding out that they weren't trusted to know about this to start with, sir.”
Zey just raised an eyebrow.
”Do it now,” he said. ”I want to be able to tell Palpatine that you're still out there on the case, and not lie. I haven't even told him where you were. Just in case he gets other ideas.”
”Yes sir.”
Jusik dismissed himself and beckoned to the squad to fol-low. They trooped after him in silence.