Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 05_ Allies - Christie Golden [59]
“That’s terribly unfortunate. You say you represent the Jedi—I hope you represent the families of the Jedi as well when you say that. Good-bye, Master Hamner.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but she had gone. Nor would she respond when he had Kani attempt to raise her. Not even Wynn Dorvan would speak with him. The best Hamner could do was talk to a flustered-sounding female who said, “I’m awfully sorry, sir, but the Chief of State has left me explicit orders that neither she nor Wynn Dorvan are to be interrupted.”
He stood for a moment, calming himself. Then he looked down at his comlink and called Kani. “Summon the Masters. Immediately. The meeting’s been moved up, and I need everyone there.”
Jaina got the summons in the middle of Tahiri’s trial. She frowned at the blinking light on her comlink, stepped out, heard that she had been requested to attend an emergency meeting of the Masters, and let Kani, known to some of the Masters as “K.P.,” Kenth’s Pet, know she was on her way immediately.
Most of the Masters had already assembled by the time she had arrived. She went up to Kyp Durran and said, “We have to stop seeing each other like this.”
“I know,” he said. “It’s just so wrong, but I can’t help it.”
“What is wrong,” Jaina said, too worried to continue the banter, “is that I keep being asked to attend these meetings. I’m not a Master, I’m the Sword of the Jedi, and the fact that I keep getting invited means that someone thinks the Sword of the Jedi might be needed. Also wrong is that this is an emergency meeting when a regular one was scheduled in just a couple of hours.”
Kyp nodded and sighed. “I know. K.P. wasn’t much help at all when I asked what was going on.”
“You shouldn’t keep calling Kani that, she’s a good kid,” Jaina said, glaring at him.
“Doesn’t mean she’s not Kenth’s Pet,” Kyp countered. “And don’t look at me like that. Your dad was the one who came up with the nickname, you know.”
Jaina’s shoulders drooped slightly. “I know,” she said.
Hamner was outwardly calm, and was clearly doing his best to suppress his emotions in the Force as well, but some of his agitation leaked out anyway. Jaina stood close to the door, leaning against the wall, arms folded. This was the closest she’d ever come to seeing Kenth Hamner rattled, and her curiosity was eating her alive.
Eventually, everyone who was going to attend had arrived. They took their seats and waited expectantly.
“A little while ago, I was contacted by the Chief of State,” he said without preamble. “Based upon our conversations, I suggest we brace ourselves for another attack. Most likely, again from the Mandalorians.”
Jaina felt all eyes turn on her, including Hamner’s, which she took as permission to speak. “Then we should be fine, judging by how we handled them last time,” she said bluntly. “We didn’t lose a single Jedi, but they lost quite a few against us. Let’s face it, the biggest consequence of that whole incident was forcing us to delay the launch. The StealthX’s are still trapped here, but I can’t think of anything worse the Mandos could do that they haven’t already done.”
“There was something new this time,” Hamner said, and something in the tone of his voice made the hair on the back of Jaina’s neck stand on end. “Right before she ended the conversation—and, I might add, neither she nor Wynn Dorvan has responded to my repeated efforts to contact her—she said that I had a chance to end this little game we were playing with each other. Before things, and I quote, ‘get so bad I’d give a great deal to be having this conversation again.’”
“That’s a nicely ominous but completely vague threat,” Kyle Katarn said. “Did she honestly think such a thing would make you surrender Saar and Altamik?”
“I can’t be sure. I told her I spoke for the Masters, and we are deeply mistrustful of her right now. That she would have to prove herself to us before any negotiations would resume. Her response was that she hoped