Star Wars_ Coruscant Nights 01_ Jedi Twilight - Michael Reaves [116]
Jax looked at the holocron in his hand, which Rhinann had just given him. He recognized the patterns marking it at once. “A Sith Holocron. Very ancient and valuable.”
“And, perhaps, very useful to you, if Vader lives,” Rhinann said.
I-Five took it and examined it. His photoreceoptors brightened in surprise. “If nothing else,” he said, “it may serve as a piece of memorabilia.”
Jax looked at him. “Memorabilia?”
“It’s the same holocron your father tried to buy from Zippa the Toydarian,” I-Five said. “I recognize it.”
“Come on,” Den said skeptically. “It’s been twenty years, give or take a—”
I-Five just looked at him. Den made a gesture of defeat. “Right, you’re a droid.”
The droid continued, “Supposedly, it contains many lost secrets of the Sith. We had no way to find out, of course, since it can only be opened by someone who can use the Force.”
Jax looked closer at it, turned it over, but made no attempt to open it. He looked at Rhinann. “And why are you giving it to me?”
The Elomin hesitated. “Because,” he said at last, “I know that Vader, no matter what he says publicly about the Jedi no longer being a problem, wants you. He said that he had ‘issues’ with you. I know nothing more about that. Chance, however, always favors the prepared. As you said, only one who can touch the Force can open it. That leaves me out.” The Elomin sounded surprisingly morose.
“Don’t look so glum,” Den said to Jax. “You’re alive, and Vader most likely thinks you’re dead. That sounds like a pretty happy ending to me.”
“It might be—except that I failed to carry out Master Piell’s last request,” Jax said. “I didn’t get the data from Ten-Four-Tee-Oh.”
“There were no data,” Rhinann said.
Jax turned slowly and looked at the Elomin. “What?”
“I don’t know everything about Vader’s plan,” Rhinann said. “I was only told what was necessary. But I do know that the data that were supposedly so vital were, in fact, worthless. The droid was merely a decoy.”
“Master Piell said—”
“The Lannik told you what he believed to be true. It had all been engineered by Vader toward one purpose.”
“To flush me out? You can’t be serious.”
“Vader knew that word of Master Piell’s death would eventually reach you through the Whiplash. That your friend Rostu was there when he died and brought you the news was pure serendipity.”
It seemed absurd at first; and yet the more Jax thought about it, the more everything fell into place. The intervention of Prince Xizor and the avian Kaird had no doubt been unforeseen as well, and evidently had caused Vader a moment of concern. So he’d suborned someone already marginally in the game: Nick Rostu. Part of the confession Nick had whispered to Jax had been about the sword Vader had held over him—the threatened destruction of his people’s home on Haruun Kal.
“Well,” Den said, “if I were you, I wouldn’t want to be within ten dimensions of anything having to do with the Sith. Maybe you can sell it once we get offworld.”
Jax closed his hand around the holocron and slipped it into a pocket. Perhaps he would need the data someday. He hoped never to have to put it to the test, because he hoped never to encounter Darth Vader again.
Only a little more than two days ago, he’d been fully ready to leave—to take his berth on the Underground Mag-Lev and bid Coruscant farewell. No one would look at him askance, because he had earned it. He’d risked his life a score of times, saved people by hairbreadth escapes, gotten them on board freighters, transports, and other craft, barely in time for them to bid farewell to the bright hub of the galaxy, often leaving with little more than the clothes on their backs.
But now, somehow, it was different.
He looked up. “Sorry, Den,” he said. “I’m not going.”
“Ha-ha,” Den said nervously. “What a kidder, huh?” He elbowed Rhinann in the ribs—or tried to. He wound up gouging the Elomin’s knee.
I-Five looked at Jax. “Why?”
Jax