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“I’m not sure. I want to go check.”

“We have a HoloNet node,” said Rhinann, gesturing at it.

As if on cue, the HoloNet pinged to signal an incoming message. Rhinann moved to the floating station in the corner of the gallery and checked the source.

“It’s Thi Xon Yimmon.” He looked up at Jax.

“Open the link.”

By the time Thi Xon Yimmon appeared, Jax was standing on the projection pad, facing him. One glance at the Whiplash leader’s gaunt face made every atom of his body chill.

“What’s happened?”

“The worst, I’m afraid. Kaj and Laranth have been captured.”

Jax realized he was using the Force to hold himself upright, his legs suddenly feeling unequal to the task of bearing his body’s weight.

“How?”

Yimmon glanced to one side. “As near as we can tell an ambush was set up along one of our approach corridors beneath the spaceport. A little-used one we selected especially for the purpose of moving Kaj. I can’t tell you how it was done. Somehow they must have incapacitated Laranth and the boy or … or worse.”

Jax closed his eyes and reached out, uncaring just now if some nearby Inquisitor should feel the brush of his mind as it touched the fabric of the Force.

“No,” he murmured. “No, they’re alive. I would have known it if she … if they were killed. There would be an echo of their life forces. I felt something, but didn’t know what it was. I think they were drugged. Spice gas. I woke up just now tasting it.”

“That, at least, is good news. They were late getting here so we sent out search teams. We’d never have even realized what had happened to them or where if one of our teams hadn’t found this.” He reached to one side, and a hand laid something in his. It was the taozin ward Kaj had been wearing. The woven chain was broken.

Jax felt as if a metal band were being ratcheted tightly around his chest. He forced his mind to prioritize its thoughts, not according to his personal dictates, but according to the greater good. “Do you think you’re in danger of being discovered?”

“The ambush point was some distance from here—in fact, Laranth and Kaj had barely entered the tunnels and might have taken any number of different routes once they got past this particular juncture. I think the ambush was set up by someone with only a cursory knowledge of our routes of access.”

I-Five made a strange sound. “Set up by whom? Only a handful of people knew who Kaj was and that he was being moved today. Only Whiplash operatives, as you point out, know your routes.”

“Yes. Which leads to the unhappy conclusion that the person or persons who arranged this are in Whiplash confidence, but only up to a point.”

The thought sent Jax’s mind reeling. “Someone like Pol Haus?”

“I would not believe it of him,” Yimmon said. “Or perhaps I would merely not want to believe it of him. He is an old and trusted friend.”

“May I remind you,” I-Five said, “that Pol Haus knows about the art gallery. If he had wanted, he could have given up the entire organization.”

Another possibility occurred to Jax that was chillingly reasonable. “Unless all he wanted or needed to do was pacify Vader, which was pretty high on his priority list if you’ll recall. He may not be allied with the Empire, but just trying to keep the peace. In fact, he might have reasoned that giving up the ‘rogue adept’ was the best way to protect the Whiplash from discovery. He may very well have seen Kaj’s presence there as a threat to his old and trusted friend.”

As Yimmon digested that, Dejah stepped onto the holoprojector pad at his end of the transmission. “Jax, Yimmon has told me that some Jedi possess the power of psychometry. Do you?”

“I have some ability. I’ve rarely used it.”

The Zeltron lifted the taozin ward from Yimmon’s hands and held it out. “Would you be willing to try? Even I can sense something about this necklace. Some … emotional resonance from it. Maybe you could divine more.”

Jax nodded. “We’ll come at once.”

Yimmon agreed immediately. “We’ll send runners to all the access points on the outer perimeter.