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The reactions were varied. Dejah seemed eager to get at the truth. Den looked dyspeptic but said nothing. It was I-Five who made a most disturbing observation.

“Has it occurred to you,” he asked, “that perhaps this is Pol Haus’s way of gaining access to Thi Xon Yimmon? Access he does not already have?”

Jax went cold to the core. “You think it’s a setup? That he’s hoping to use us to lead him to Yimmon?”

“I don’t think that, necessarily, but it is a point of consideration.”

“Then we have to make sure that when I meet with Yimmon, I’m not followed.”

“I believe we can manage that,” I-Five said. “I also believe we have an important matter to discuss as a team.” He turned to Den, who was hunkered in the chair before the upstairs HoloNet terminal. “If you’d be so kind as to contact Rhinann?”

Den jumped, startled. He’d clearly been lost in his own thoughts. He glanced from Jax to I-Five, then turned to establish the connection. In a moment the Elomin appeared in a life-sized hologram above the holoprojector next to the terminal.

“What’s happened?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Plenty,” mumbled Den.

“Nothing,” said I-Five. “We need to consult. I promised to deliver Tuden Sal an answer to his proposition tonight. While that is still hours away, I don’t have a firm answer for him. I’d like to know where everyone stands.”

“I choose to sit,” said Den. He looked up at the droid. “You know my opinion. I haven’t changed my mind. This is too dangerous—to you, to us, to Jax, to the Whiplash and everything it represents. I vote no.”

“I could not have put it better myself,” Rhinann agreed. “I am, for once, in complete agreement with Den. I vote no.”

“And I,” said Dejah, “vote yes.”

Den and Rhinann both reacted to that with stunned disbelief, and Jax had to allow he was equally shocked, though he managed not to show it.

“I realize this is a radical change of mind for me,” the Zeltron went on, “but I’ve thought about this a lot in the last few days and I’ve come to realize that all we’ve gone through—the running, the hiding, the concealment of Kaj’s talent, now the fear about Pol Haus using us to expose Thi Xon Yimmon and destroy the Whiplash—none of that would have happened if the Emperor was not in power. This Empire is strangling the life out of its people. It must fall, and the sooner, the better.”

“Jax?” I-Five was looking at him, expecting an answer.

Jax didn’t have one. “That’s one of the things I need to talk to Yimmon about, because Dejah’s right—what we decide to do will have an impact on the Whiplash and everyone it touches. It will have an impact on everyone we touch. After I meet with Yimmon I’ll have an answer, I promise.”

“Do you really need to do that, Jax?” Dejah asked earnestly. She rose from her chair and came to take his hands in hers, to look up into his eyes. “Don’t you know your own heart? Can’t you feel what’s right? Can’t you see that the Emperor has to die?”

He did see. He saw it very clearly. Felt it viscerally, but he also knew how seductive the idea of revenge could be. How it could insinuate itself into the heart, and look, sound, and feel like logic, or justice, or righteousness.

He heard Den murmur something acerbic under his breath as he pulled his hands from Dejah’s grasp. “I need to talk to Yimmon,” he repeated.

Dejah turned and left the room, moving out onto the gallery, where she paused to look down at Kaj through the shimmer of his screening light field. Then, with a glance back at Jax, she went into the kitchen.

Jax pulled his eyes away from her with an effort, returning his attention to I-Five. “Can you wait for me?” he asked simply.

The droid inclined his head. “As you wish.”

“Well,” said Rhinann gustily, “that’s a reprieve, I suppose. Before I go, I have a couple of things to report. One is that there have been Inquisitors in the neighborhood again today. Two or three of them—it’s hard to tell. I believe we must abandon this location …”

“Yes,” said Jax. “I agree. Do you need help?”

“I think I’m capable of managing on my own, thank you. I know how to cover our tracks.”