Star Wars_ Darth Bane 02_ Rule of Two - Drew Karpyshyn [62]
“My fellow patriots,” Kel began, his voice rising in the manner of a professional orator giving a public performance. “We are united in a single cause—the complete and utter destruction of the Republic. Yet what have we done so far to accomplish this?
“We speak of revolution yet we are afraid to do what is necessary to make it happen. But that will soon change. In three days, we will force the Republic to stand up and take notice of us!”
“Three days?” Cyndra, the Chiss protested. “What are you talking about?”
“Hetton wants us to strike during the Armistice Celebrations,” Paak added. “It will draw more attention if we act on the anniversary of the Ruusan Reformations.”
“Why wait months when the perfect opportunity is right before us?” Kel asked, using the same arguments Zannah had used to persuade him. “Nobody will care about the fate of a single ambassador. We must find a target that will make the entire galaxy sit up and take notice!”
“Who?” one of the young men demanded.
“Chancellor Valorum.”
“Chancellor Valorum’s term ended two years ago,” Paak spat out from over by the door.
“He still serves the Senate as a diplomatic emissary. And it was his so-called Unification Policies that have drawn so many worlds back into the web of Republic influence. He is responsible for everything we are fighting against, the symbol of everything we wish to destroy. He is the perfect target.”
“How do we get to him?” Cyndra asked.
“He has scheduled a secret meeting with the heads of Serenno’s most powerful noble families. We believe he is going to try to persuade them to take steps to put down the separatist movements on this world—movements like our own.”
“How did you find out about this?” the young woman asked.
Kel nodded in Zannah’s direction, his head-tails twitching slightly. She stepped forward and began to speak.
“My name is Rainah. I’m an administrative assistant at the Republic embassy.”
This was the lie she had first used to draw Kel’s attention, and it was a convenient cover for the information she had purchased from one of Bane’s mysterious underground contacts …
“Everything is in place, Lord Eddels,” the Muun croaked, handing a datapad to her Master. “Everything you will need is in here.”
Zannah had never seen a Muun before, and she found something inherently off-putting about this one’s appearance. He was tall enough to look Bane in the eye, but his head, body, and limbs were elongated and thin, as if he had been horribly stretched to reach his current height. His skin was pale, pasty white with a disconcerting hint of a sickly pinkish hue. His features were flat, his eyes and cheeks appeared sunken, the corners of his mouth turned down in a perpetual frown, and he didn’t appear to have a nose. His head was hairless, and he wore drab, brown clothing. He looked extremely uncomfortable beneath Tatooine’s twin suns, but he was too professional to give voice to his complaint.
Earlier, Bane had explained that this meeting in the sandy wasteland of the Dune Sea was the culmination of a plan set in motion nearly a year before, shortly after they had first touched down on Ambria. A plan she had inadvertently been the catalyst for. Scribbled in the back cover of the manuscript she had discovered and presented to her Master at the Sith camp on Ruusan had been a long list of cryptic numbers: anonymous accounts with the InterGalactic Banking Clan.
Lord Qordis, Bane told her, had been a collector of rare and expensive treasures. Over the years he had siphoned off an incredible fortune from the combined wealth of Kaan’s Brotherhood of Darkness and secreted it away, drawing on it whenever he purchased another item to feed his avarice. With the Brotherhood gone, Bane was the only one left who knew about, and could lay claim to, those accounts. But material wealth had no appeal to her Master beyond what use he could put it to.