Star Wars_ Death Star - Michael Reaves [97]
“And?”
She turned to the console’s controls. Another image appeared, this one a routing manifest.
“The rigged container’s ID number is not visible in the recording, but the number of the one eight down is, so it was a simple matter to figure out the one we want.”
True, Tarkin thought. Loading droids were not known for creativity. They stacked cargo containers by the numbers.
“You can see that this container came from the cargo vessel Omega Gaila, itself from the ammunition stores at the Regional Naval Supply Area near Gall. The container carried high explosives, so that’s what a scan would show—if anybody bothered to do one.”
She waited again.
Tarkin thought about it. “The RNSA at Gall is a high-security facility. Extremely tight. Nobody on or off the base without top clearance, even the cargo handlers.”
“Yes.”
He frowned. Shook his head. “Not possible.”
“Yet somebody got into a container and rigged it with a bomb powerful enough to blast a Star Destroyer apart. And they weren’t shooting in the dark, hoping to hit something, because it took somebody on the other end to arm the device.”
“So they knew where it was bound,” he finished for her. “No way to have agents at every possible destination. Once it got to our storage facility, it could have gone to any of several ships.”
“Or to this station,” she said. “It was the luck of the draw that Undauntable needed ammo before we did.”
“So it’s being run by somebody higher than a cargo handler. At the very least, there had to be somebody from Routing involved, and enough of a conspiracy to be able to place or contact an agent already here. We are talking about a Rebel spy in the Imperial Navy with more than a little reach.”
“Just so.”
“We can probably determine who loaded the container, and who routed it.”
“Which is good, but also doesn’t stop something similar from happening again if the next shipment comes from a different source.”
“Correct. We need to find whoever is running the agents here,” he said.
“I concur.”
He looked at her. “How do you plan to do this?”
“I’m assuming that the agent did not choose suicide. We have the day and time the device was activated. He or she would have had to arrive before that time, and depart before the explosion. Undauntable’s operational logs were backed up on the station’s computer, the last entry coming just before the ship’s destruction. It might take some time, but we can access those and narrow down the possibilities.”
“Good,” Tarkin said. “Do so immediately.”
She smiled and adjusted the lapels of her robe. “Immediately?”
He did not return her smile. “Yes. There are times for dalliance, and times for action. I want a report by zero five hundred hours.”
Daala nodded and began to dress, quickly.
45
MEDCENTER, SECTION N-ONE, DEATH STAR
Uli looked at his commander incredulously. Since Hotise had arrived and set up shop on the station, they hadn’t seen each other that much, and Uli wasn’t happy to be seeing him now.
“What?” Hotise said. “You seem to think that I personally run this war, Doctor. Believe me, if I did, it’d be run a sight better. As it is, there are things that are simply in short supply. Medical doctors, not to mention psychiatrists, are hard to come by, even here with the big green light. It won’t kill you to step into the breach now and then. You did rotations in both disciplines during your residency.”
“Of course I did. I’m not complaining about the work. But I’m a surgeon, not an internal meds doctor. My skills are rusty outside my specialty.”
“Well, you have state-of-the-art robotics backing you up, as well as the top-of-the-line diagnosters in the galaxy. A first-year medical student or a competent droid could run those and hit the mark ninety-five percent of the time.”
“You’re making my point for me, Doctor.” Uli held his hands up. “These are for cutting, not tapping knees and treating headaches. It’s not the best use of my talents.”
Hotise shrugged. “Making best use of talent has never been the military’s mission, son. They change about as