Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 01_ Outcast - Aaron Allston [67]
Valin was not a silent, immobile patient. He twisted and strained against his bonds, loudly talking all the while: “Look at you, all of you. You think you have everyone fooled. But you'll make a mistake. They'll see through your deception as I have. What have you done with the real Jedi? What have you done with the real Horns? Did you kill them? Bring them back alive and unhurt or I'll make you suffer. You'll suffer like you were swallowed by a sarlacc, forever and ever, once I get my hands on you …”
Another lift opened, disgorging a squadron of GA Security troopers, who swarmed forward and rapidly formed up around the procession.
Dab recorded the progress of the bed and its guard. “They made a very public event of this,” he said, so quietly that Jaina barely heard him. “Not nice.”
“You have no room to talk.” Jaina's tone was angry. “You're part of the problem.”
Unperturbed, he continued recording. “I'm qualified and even sympathetic. If I quit, who replaces me? Maybe a one-armed convict with a grudge against the Jedi, released from prison just for this job? Would you prefer that?”
She didn't answer. Instead, like many of the Jedi present, she followed the procession.
It reached the end of the hall and exited, passing Master Cilghal and a human security captain who looked as though this assignment was making him miserable. Valin, still haranguing the onlookers, was loaded into the ambulance. The security operatives, medical personnel, and bounty hunters took their places in their vehicles.
The captain, pallid and sweating, raised a hand to prevent Master Cilghal and Jedi Tekli from boarding the ambulance. Then the caravan of official vehicles got into motion and was gone.
As Master Hamner reentered the hall and passed her, Jaina caught his eye. She whispered, “This is going to get worse and worse as long as we let it.”
He nodded, somber. “And yet I have to stay on this course. I need to be able to look Chief of State Daala in the eye and say, There is no resistance in the Order to your measures. Just ask me. Ask any Master.” He continued on his way.
Jaina felt a rush of elation. As stuffy as Master Hamner was, as creased and starched in his personality as any of his old dress uniforms, he did know what was needed. He wasn't just a stooge for the government.
“You look suddenly happy,” Dab told her.
“Ever been given permission to do what you planned to do anyway?”
“Sure. What were you given permission to do?”
“Have lunch,” she lied.
CALRISSIAN-NUNB MINES, KESSEL
HALF AN HOUR LATER—A TIME THAT WAS MERCIFULLY UNINTERRUPTED by energy spiders—the bogey's residual energies that had crippled their electronics began to dissipate. The monitors in the speeder came up with patches of static; Leia tested her lightsaber and it came on, fitfully in the first few seconds and then reassuringly steady. Han got behind the speeder's controls and tried to coax the vehicle into life; a few minutes later, its repulsors kicked in and lifted the vehicle off the floor.
As Leia climbed in, Han mopped imaginary sweat from his brow. “Ready to go back up?”
“No, we haven't really found anything.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that.”
“While we were waiting, I felt more of them in the Force.”
“Bogeys?”
She nodded. “Deep, deep down. Maybe they're somehow related to the groundquake phenomenon. I've also traced paths of lower life-forms that I think correspond to tunnels.”
“Going down, I assume.”
“That's the direction I was looking.”
He sighed and put the speeder into motion. “Point the way.”
Kilometers up and to the southeast, in the surface buildings of the Calrissian-Nunb Mines, Allana sat in a secondary