Star Wars_ Coruscant Nights III_ Patterns of Force - Michael Reaves [99]
Dejah put her hands to her mouth. “You don’t think he’s dead?”
Jax shook his head. “As I said before, I would have felt that. And it makes no sense for Vader to take him just to kill him. He’s too much of an anomaly for that—too potentially useful to him. They’d want to turn him to the dark side. I also don’t think he’s still drugged. Vader’s no fool; he knows that long-term deep sedation can wreak havoc with the Force in an adept.”
“Then what are the alternatives?” asked Thi Xon Yimmon.
“I think they’re keeping him somewhere else and that they’ve found some way to damp down his powers.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” said I-Five, “but this would seem to put paid to our idea of a rescue mission.”
“Pretty much.”
“I don’t understand,” said Dejah, frowning. “Why would that be?”
“They aren’t together,” Jax explained. “We could go in to get Laranth, but I’m pretty sure we won’t find Kaj in the same place.”
Dejah made a frustrated gesture. “But surely, even if we can only rescue Laranth, it’s worth the risk?”
Jax threw the Zeltron a sideways glance. “I hadn’t thought you cared all that much for Laranth.”
“You’ve got it backward—she doesn’t care much for me. I’m fine with her, although I find her a bit grim. But you … you care for her. That’s enough reason for me to want to get her back.”
Jax shook his head, partly in negation of the words, partly in negation of the manipulative wash of pheromones that came with them. “We can’t just barge in after her. She …” He pressed his lips together, shoving the agony of her last touch away. “I think they’re using her as a beacon. Trying to get us to go in after her. I can get into the building as an Inquisitor, but I’d never convince anyone I had the authority to remove the prisoner. If they were just stormtroopers guarding her, that’d be different. But they’re Inquisitors.”
I-Five said, “You’re saying they’re using her as bait. Not Kaj. Interesting.”
“Bait,” repeated Rhinann. “For the rest of us.”
“Well, more specifically, for Jax and me.” I-Five looked at the Jedi. “And perhaps of the two of us, Darth Vader would be most interested in me—if not for what I am, then most certainly for what he thinks I have. I think we should suggest a trade: me for Laranth and the boy.”
There was dead silence in the room. Jax finally found his voice. “That’s insane.”
“I think not. Nor am I suggesting that we actually give me over to Vader. My thought is that with your disguise—which apparently works admirably—we might enter under false pretenses.”
“Enter where?” asked Yimmon. “You can’t be proposing to go into the ISB.”
“If Vader wants me—and the bota, of course—we may have some control over the exchange point.”
“Even so,” Yimmon argued, “Vader can’t be trusted to keep to a bargain. It would be a trap.”
“Of course,” I-Five acknowledged. “That’s to be expected. We’d consider that in our plans.”
Tuden Sal looked as if he had swallowed something particularly sour. “And may we include in those plans some way of getting the Emperor to the exchange point?”
Jax opened his mouth to say something terse about the new goal of their mission, but I-Five spoke first, his gaze on the Sakiyan.
“I fully expect that the lure of the bota will do that. Consider that, when it comes to that rare and mysterious substance, Palpatine and Vader may find themselves in competition. I would think the Emperor would be adamant about being in on the exchange to be certain the bota falls into his hands, not his lieutenant’s.”
The Sakiyan snorted. “If, indeed, he even knows about it.”
“I can make certain that he does,” said Rhinann quietly.
“And can you get through to Vader and make our proposal?” Jax asked him.
The Elomin nodded. “Yes. It may be my complete undoing, but I’ll manage it.”
“Use the HoloNet system back at the studio. That way, if they trace