Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [103]
I stood and narrowed my eyes. “I’ll contribute. You’ve plotted the right course: uniting is the only way to get him. That’s good.”
Brakiss sniffed. “We’re pleased you approve.”
I ignored his comment. “What you’ve missed is the key. Streen, what do you call him?”
The prospector raked fingers back through his frizzy grey hair. “The Dark Man.”
“Right. Master Skywalker described him to me as a shadow, and that was close to what Gantoris reported as well.” I watched Kam carefully. “And that’s what I saw the one time he came to recruit me.”
Kam’s head came up. “So, what is your point?”
“My point is that he’s a creature of shadow, a creature of the dark side. What has Master Skywalker drilled into us since day one?”
Kirana Ti’s eyes widened. “The antidote to the dark side is the light side.”
“Right. It will have to shine so brightly no shadow can withstand it.” I looked around at all of them. “That’s your job. When he comes for Luke again, you give him more light than he can ever handle.”
The Mon Calamari Ambassador cocked her head at me. “Our job? You must be with us, be part of our united force.”
“Not going to happen.” I leaned forward, holding myself up by posting my arms on the table. “Up to this point, Exar Kun has acted on his own schedule. He’s moved when he wants to move, done what he’s wanted to do. Not anymore. Tomorrow evening, as night is coming on, we’ll force him to act. He won’t be ready, but he’ll think he can still beat us. He’ll be wrong.”
Tionne regarded me with her pearl eyes. “What are you going to do?”
I shook my head. “You can’t know, just as I can’t know exactly what you want to do. The key is that when we move,” I pointed at Streen, “he’ll be guarding Luke Skywalker’s body.”
“Streen?” Kam shook his head adamantly. “Impossible.”
“Me?” Streen looked stricken.
“You, Streen. You’re going to be just like the winds you summoned the other night. You’re going to seem weak, but you’ll be strong. You won’t break, you’ll hold.” I smiled. “You’ll all hold.”
The Dathomiri witch watched me carefully. “You make it sound as if you will go after Exar Kun by yourself. You know it will be impossible to stand against him alone.”
Dorsk 81 nodded. “He defeated Master Skywalker. Your mission will be impossible.”
“Could be.” I smiled, remembering similar assessments of missions with Rogue Squadron. “Then again, I’ve been to the land of the impossible before. If we all do our parts, I may even survive another little visit there.”
TWENTY-FIVE
I used the Headhunter’s blasters to burn back enough jungle at the edge of the lake to provide me with a landing site, then I set the fighter down. The landing was a touch rougher than I would have liked. Given that the belly cargo compartment contained a dozen nergon 14 charges all ready to go, I should have focused more on flying, but I couldn’t. Using the same technique Luke had showed Streen to shield his mind against picking up the thoughts of others, I was keeping my presence within the Force as undetectable as I could. I found it tiring, but took heart from the fact that Exar Kun likewise liked to remain hidden, and had to expend portions of his power to do so as well.
I climbed out of the fighter and opened the cargo compartment. I shouldered two packs with the explosives in them, gingerly shifting them about to let me maintain good balance. All I needed was to get careless and slip on my way to my destination. Do that and our war against Exar Kun will be lost before it even starts.
I looked out across the expanse of the lake at the small island centered in it. An obsidian pyramid with smooth sides had been erected there, then a wedge had been chopped out of the center of it. From the shore, the interior angles drew my attention to a massive statue of a man. I was too far away to discern much in the way of detail, but I had no doubt I looked upon Exar Kun—if for no other reason than that someone of his ego never would