Star Wars_ Coruscant Nights III_ Patterns of Force - Michael Reaves [92]
Jax sat, while I-Five remained standing. The Jedi accepted a cup of steaming red leaf tea and sipped it, then set the cup down and said, “We have a problem.”
Sal’s eyes narrowed. “I heard about the ruckus down on Gallery Row. That was you, then?”
“During the ruckus, as you so quaintly put it,” I-Five told Sal, “Jax discovered that I generate a sporadic Force signature.”
Tuden Sal’s face was a stupefied blank. The first emotion to display there was disbelief. He looked at Jax. “You what?”
“I was under attack—” Jax began.
“An Inquisitor was half a second away from running Jax through. I prevented him. I was in the grip of rather strong emotions at the time.”
“Which I felt,” Jax added.
Sal gaped. “Strong emotions?”
“I was terrified of losing him, if you must know.”
“The long and short of it,” Jax said, “is that I-Five can’t guarantee he’d be able to keep his emotions in check if he got close to the Emperor. He’s not the ideal assassin you thought he was.”
Sal’s face flushed a darker shade of bronze. “You’re sure of this?”
Jax shook his head. “How can one be sure? But the fact that there’s a reasonable doubt of jeopardy is enough to call it off.”
The Sakiyan’s eyes narrowed again. “Are you the only one who felt it? Did Laranth sense it as well?”
“She was having her own difficulties at the time,” I-Five noted drily. “We were under attack by several Inquisitors.”
“I heard the rumor, but I didn’t believe it. You fought the Inquisitors—in the open?” Sal shook his head. “That’s another strike against our plan. But perhaps that’s what you intended.”
Now it was Jax’s turn to stare in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“You’ve really been against this mission from the beginning, haven’t you? Why? Is it because of your father?”
Jax leaned forward. “What are you accusing me of, exactly?”
“It isn’t difficult to parse. You engage in a public battle with Inquisitors, thereby drawing attention to yourself and I-Five, then claim that, as a result, you can sense him through the Force.” He spread his hands. “No one else has claimed they can sense him.”
“That’s a ridiculous accusation,” said I-Five. “If anyone was going to bear you ill will over Lorn Pavan’s death, it would be me. And ultimately it was Senator Palpatine who had him killed, through the Sith assassin. Research tells me that the assassin, or at least a Zabrak with similar ritual tattooing, was later killed during a fight at a power station on Naboo, so there goes any chance for revenge against him. That leaves Palpatine.
“Jax didn’t engineer yesterday’s incident. We were drawn into a fight with the Inquisitors to prevent the capture of a friend.”
“Another Jedi, no doubt.”
“A potential Jedi,” said I-Five.
“Ah … or a potential Sith, then.”
Jax shifted uneasily, remembering the ease with which Kaj had sent the Inquisitor into oblivion. He’d felt the hot wash of hatred that preceded the act. “Not if we can help it,” he said. “But that’s neither here nor there. I did not blow our cover yesterday, nor am I making up what I felt. I-Five can be sensed through the Force. How, I don’t know …”
“He’s a droid,” Sal said. “He can act like a droid and—”
“Act is the operative term,” I-Five interrupted. “The only way for my intentions to be clear of falsehood would be if someone were to strip my cognitive module down to my basic programming kernel—”
“Ah! Of course!” cried Sal. “That’s what we’ll do.”
“In which case, I would no longer be able to carry out the directive,” I-Five finished. “My BPK does not permit me to injure a sentient being.”
Sal looked glum, then brightened as he snapped his fingers. “What if you had a handler? Someone who went with you and remote-switched off the BPK when you were close enough to the Emperor to complete the mission.”
Jax shook his head. “Too risky. At that last moment, when