Part 10 (2/2)

They were crossing the street when Lorana heard a soft tone from behind her, and glanced back to see the smaller Brolf draw a comlink from his tunic. ”What?” he muttered.

She couldn't hear the voice coming from the comlink, but it was impossible to miss the sudden spike in the Brolf's tension level.

”Right,” he muttered, then put the instrument away. ”Change of plans,” he announced, stepping close to Lorana and pressing the muzzle of his blaster against her back. ”We're going to that house over there.” He pointed to a blue house to their left.

Lorana felt her throat tighten. The indicated house had the look of a place that had been abandoned for years. The only reason to take her there would be for a serious interrogation, or to shut her up permanently.

On the other hand, they didn't know who they had here. She could play along and wait for her opportunity, watching for the warning signs that the game was nearly over With the Brolf's intent masked by his overall anxiety, the stun blast that rippled across her back came as a complete surprise. Before she could even begin to run through the countermeasures she'd been trained in, the nerve-deadening wave swept over her, plunging her into darkness.

”Well?” the Brolf who called himself Patriot growled.

Doriana didn't bother to answer. Standing at the window, he watched as Vissfil and his brother worked their way up the uneven walkway toward the dilapidated blue house, carrying the unconscious form of Padawan Lorana Jinzler between them.

And the two idiots had nearly brought her here. If Doriana hadn't been watching out the window and seen them coming .. .

He waited until the group had disappeared inside. Then, slowly and deliberately, he turned to face Patriot. ”If this is an example of your security,” he said, measuring out each word, ”it's a wonder you're not all pinioned to shame posts by now.”

”There is no problem,” Patriot insisted. ”It's only a single human, who had no time to alert any friends she might have.”

”Any weapons?”

”None,” Patriot said.

Doriana frowned. ”None?”

”We are not children, Defender,” Patriot growled. ”We know how to search someone for weapons.”

”Of course you do,” Doriana said, feeling his skin p.r.i.c.kling. Jinzler must have left her lightsaber with Ken.o.bi and Sky-walker, knowing it would be a dead giveaway as to who she really was. Did that mean the other two were already nearby, waiting an opportune moment to move in?

Regardless, it was well past time to wrap this up. ”Do you have the final two burst thrusters?” he asked.

”Jhompfi just arrived with them,” Patriot said. ”He's pa.s.sed them to Migress, who's already on his way to where the missile is being prepared.

They'll be installed within the hour.”

”Jhompfi being the one the human female was following, I presume?”

Patriot's eyes narrowed. ”I've already said she can do us no damage.

We'll be leaving this house ring as soon as you fulfill your part of the bargain. All is well.”

”Of course,” Doriana said. All was well; except that Jinzler could identify Jhompfi by face, and had obviously seen him with the thrusters .. .

He took another calming breath, keeping his tirade to himself. Yes, Patriot and his fellow conspirators were idiots. But then, he'd known that going in.

”I still don't understand why so many thrusters are needed,” Patriot said, a hint of suspicion creeping into his voice. ”A normal missile would require only two.”

”A normal missile would arc high over the marketplace, where Argente's security forces could destroy it at their leisure,”

Doriana pointed out. ”The weapon I've designed for you is known as a slinker: a projectile that will fly at waist height directly through the archway of the administration building, find its way along the corridors to the conference room, and there explode, destroying the traitors and would-be traitors alike.”

”So you claim,” Patriot said, his tone still suspicious. ”I've never heard of a weapon that was able to find its way through a building without a full droid control system.”

”That's because no weapon you've heard of has had my special guidance system,” Doriana said, pulling a data card from his pocket. ”It will locate the outer archway and seek out its targets, wherever they hide.”

”Without its sensor emissions being detected?” Patriot asked, taking the card carefully.

”Neither detected nor jammed,” Doriana a.s.sured him. ”It doesn't rely on sensor frequencies the security forces will be monitoring.”

In actual fact, of course, the card didn't rely on sensors at all. It was nothing more than a geographically programmed course director that would take the missile on the precise path Doriana himself had systematically paced out on his last trip to Barlok. And far from seeking out the negotiators, if C'baoth suddenly decided to hold the meeting in a different room tomorrow morning, the missile would find itself going to the wrong place entirely. That would be embarra.s.sing, not to mention disastrous.

But that was as unlikely as Patriot and his simple-minded conspirators realizing how thoroughly the flopbrim was being pulled over their eyes.

Nothing impressed people more than the perception that they were being entrusted with exotic technology.

”Then our victory is a.s.sured,” Patriot said, fingering the data card almost reverently.

”It is indeed,” Doriana said. ”One final matter, then. Were you planning to return to your homes when you leave here this evening?”

”Of course,” Patriot said, frowning. ”We'll need a good meal, and sleep-”

”And you'll get them as far from your homes as you can travel,” Doriana interrupted. ”From this time onward, you must stay strictly away from your families and your other friends.”

Patriot's whole body jerked in stages, from his feet up to a little whiplash jerk of his head. ”What are you saying?”

”I'm saying that by noon tomorrow, with Magistrate Argente and Guildmaster Gilfrome lying dead, the authorities will descend upon the homes of every member of your guild,” Doriana said coldly. ”You and your friends must not be there, nor can anyone know where you've gone.”

”But for how long?”

”As long as necessary,” Doriana said. ”Make no mistake, Patriot. From now on you and the others will be fugitives, running and hiding from the very people whose lives and prosperity you will have risked your lives to protect.” He lifted his eyebrows. ”If you aren't strong enough to pay that price, now is the time to renounce your oath.”

Patriot straightened up, the resolve in his face visibly hardening. ”We do what is necessary for our guild and our people,” he said firmly. ”We will pay the price for all.”

”Then you are a Brolf of high honor indeed,” Doriana said gravely. For some people the prospect of life on the run would be grounds to take a second, harder look at what they were doing. But for Patriot and his friends, such a potentially bleak future merely added to the perceived n.o.bility and glamour of their insane plot.

Which was why Doriana had recruited them for this mission in the first place. Stupid, angry, and malleable, they'd been the perfect p.a.w.ns for his plan. The deed would be done, and Doriana himself long gone, before any of them realized what had actually happened. If indeed they ever did.

”Then here and now we stand together on the path to glory and destiny,”

he continued. ”By tomorrow noon these traitorous negotiations will lie crumbled in the dust of history, and the precious minerals of Barlok will be forever held in Brolf hands.”

”And those who would betray us will know the cost of such betrayal,”

Patriot intoned solemnly. ”The Brolf people arc deeply in your debt, Defender. Someday, I swear, this debt will be repaid.”

”And I swear in turn that I will return to collect that payment,” Doriana said, though offhand he couldn't imagine anything he was less likely to do. ”I have one more small adjustment to make to the missile after the burst thrusters are in place, and then will leave to prepare my own part in this redemption of the Brolf people. Be certain you place the missile at precisely the spot we agreed on. Only there will it be inside the sensor shadow that guarantees it will not be spotted.” And only from there, he added to himself, would the pre-programmed path take it where it had to go.

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