Star Wars_ Coruscant Nights II Streets of Shadows - Michael Reaves [69]
To Typho, however, they meant a great deal. The strictly prohibited records that the slicer’s family had somehow managed to access indicated that one Darth Sidious had journeyed to Mustafar, was there at the same time as Padmé and Anakin Skywalker, and had returned shortly thereafter.
His mind whirling, Typho excused himself. Now that their mutual business had been concluded, however, Boulad was reluctant to see the human go.
“Stay!” he entreated his visitor. “I would hear more of your excellent family.”
“Sorry.” Typho headed toward the door. “I have pressing business to attend to.”
“A pity,” the jovial Cragmoloid called after him. “If you ever have something similar to trade, you know where to find me.”
Typho spent the rest of the night wandering the underlevels, his thoughts churning. Twice he was approached by footpads, but a glance at his face was enough to convince them that easier pickings lay elsewhere than on the corpus of the half-crazed human.
Padmé, Padmé, he whispered to himself. Retribution is at hand. Retribution and justice. I know now who killed you.
Like any puzzle, it was simple to solve once you had all the pieces. Who could have penetrated her security on Mustafar? Who could have slain the Senator’s resourceful, determined bodyguard and suffered dearly in the fight that would surely have followed any attempt to harm her? Anakin Skywalker would not have gone down easily. Yes, the answer was clear now.
Darth Vader had killed them both.
Therefore, Vader must die.
He wasn’t worried about getting close enough to the Dark Lord to finish him, even though he knew that one as adept in the Force as Vader surely would detect any threat. Typho knew from his own work as a specialist in security that, given sufficient knowledge, determination, and ability, coupled with a disregard for his own life, an assassin could get to any public figure. A soldier such as himself had both of those assets. Early in his quest he had realized that to avenge Padmé, it was reasonable to assume he would have to sacrifice his own life, and he was fully prepared to do so.
The problem lay in getting physically close enough to Vader to strike. What would draw Vader away from the security that undoubtedly surrounded him? What might induce the Dark Lord to forgo his usual caution and meet alone with an unfamiliar intermediary? As aide to the Emperor, Vader needed nothing. That didn’t mean he was devoid of desire, of course. But what could such an incarnation of evil want?
Abruptly, he remembered what the bounty hunter Aurra Sing had said during their confrontation in the ruins of the Jedi Temple: “On behalf of Lord Vader I was hoping to find evidence here of a Jedi named Jax Pavan.”
Vader was looking for a surviving Jedi named Pavan. And Typho recalled seeing the name Jax Pavan listed on the Imperial administration complex readout as being possibly still alive.
So the Dark Lord wanted this particular surviving Jedi badly enough to send a bounty hunter as celebrated as the relentless Aurra Sing after him. She had been searching for him locally, in the ruins of the Jedi Temple. Which meant that, unless the bounty hunter was way off the mark—not likely, given her reputation—Jax Pavan was somewhere on Coruscant. Not only on Coruscant, but somewhere nearby.
That was it. That was the solution. Jax Pavan would serve as the bait to bring Darth Vader within killing range. How precisely Typho was going to carry out the assassination was something he still had to plan, but he had no doubt a means could be managed. Having spent his entire professional life learning how to keep people from being killed had taught him how best they could be slain.
No question about it: Darth Vader was going to die. Padmé Amidala would be avenged and so would Anakin Skywalker. But before he could begin to put the final plan in motion, there was one more thing he had to do.
He had to find Jax