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Nenn, eyes downcast for the last part of Luke’s recitation, sighed. “You may be right. Perhaps we need to understand more of closing ourselves off from the Force. This is something we normally never need to learn.”

“I can teach you. As can my son.”

“And I.” Sel offered a faint smile. “One of the few things I remember.”

“So can I.” Vestara surprised herself by saying those words. She was no stranger to working toward common goals, team goals—personal advancement sometimes called for that tactic. But she had as yet found no common ground with these Oldtimers and their insular, self-limiting ways.

“Now my news.” Nenn raised his eyes to meet Luke’s. “There was a Listener adept named Cura. Her body was found this morning.”

Others of the Listeners murmured in surprise. Evidently that news had not previously spread to this entire gathering.

Nenn continued. “She bore terrible injuries on her body. They appeared to be the sort that would cause great pain rather than death under normal circumstances. We think she was tortured.”

Ben frowned. “Why would Abeloth torture her when she could just incorporate her instead, and have all her knowledge?”

Nenn shrugged. “I don’t know … perhaps Cura was too strong in the Force to be incorporated against her will. But she was not strong in body; her heart was weak. Perhaps Abeloth was wearing her down and her heart failed.”

“Perhaps.” Luke sounded thoughtful. “Could the killer have been someone else? A case of more ordinary murder?”

“Possibly. The other news is even less informative and even more potentially distressing. In Hweg Shul there is a doctor, a Latecomer scientist named Cagaran Wei.”

Vestara had now heard the term Latecomer a couple of times, mostly at the Admirable Admiral. Oldtimers were descendants of the original settlers, Newcomers descendants of settlers who had arrived within the last century or so … Latecomers were those who had arrived in the wake of the New Republic’s assumption of control of this world.

Luke frowned. “I know that name. He’s been here for a while. I talked to him many years ago.”

“Yes. He makes medicines for the offworld companies. He is also interested in the effects being a Force-user has on the body, and in all chemical and energy interactions of species from differing worlds. Drochs fascinate him.”

“What about him?”

“He is gone. Disappeared. As of three days ago, when the Bleak Point station saw the arrival of what might have been your enemy. But he was not in Hweg Shul at the time, so it may be that he has a homestead out in the wilderness, a private one. A secret one.”

Luke winced. “I hope you’re wrong. It’s not usually a good sign when a brilliant researcher chooses to maintain a secret facility.”

“Yes, Master Skywalker. Especially on the world where the Death Seed plague survives.”

“Especially here.”

Nenn gestured at the Listeners in the cave. “I will begin a notification of all of our order to be aware, alert for possible signs of this Abeloth. I will supply you with Listener teachers who will learn your techniques of closing one’s self off from the Force. My people will look for Dr. Wei.”

Luke nodded. “As far as Wei is concerned, do you have anything to go on?”

“Yes … Perhaps his home in Hweg Shul will offer some clue as to the location of his other home. And his landspeeder is serviced in Hweg Shul. Its memory may have been backed up at the repair facility.”

Luke opened his mouth as if to reply, shut it again.

Vestara thought she knew what he had intended to say. Couldn’t we have had this meeting in Hweg Shul? It’s two hours’ speeder time back to town. Four hours of search and investigation time lost. But the Jedi Master withheld this implied criticism. He merely nodded. “Thank you for your help.”

QUARTERS OF THE GALACTIC EMPIRE

HEAD OF STATE, CORUSCANT

SURROUNDED BY THE DARK, EXPENSIVE, INNOCUOUSLY TASTEFUL FURNISHINGS and fixtures that suited Jagged Fel with such predictable and ridiculous accuracy, Jaina