Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [14]
“He still is stupid enough to think what little information he was able to give us will save him from prison.” Cracken hit another key on the datapad. “About the most useful thing he did give us is this updated image of Leonia Tavira.”
Gone was the prim vixen from the previous image. Though still very young, Leonia had become sharper and far more beautiful. Her violet eyes had a piercing quality that belied the gentle smile on her face. Her hair had grown out somewhat and was raggedly cut, but held back with a red bandanna of the same hue as the scarlet panels on her black jacket. She wore blaster pistols on either hip, and the gunbelts that encircled her waist emphasized her slender, petite physique. Her black leggings clung to her like synthetic flesh, while armored boots encased her legs from the knees down.
I shook my head. “Looks like life gave her some Iceheart lessons.”
Cracken snorted a laugh. “I hate to think what Tavira would have become if Ysanne Isard had taken her on as an apprentice. Or even Grand Admiral Thrawn, for that matter. She appears to learn from her experiences very quickly and very well, which is part of the reason we have trouble locating her. As we suspected before, and as Riizolo confirmed, she initiates contact, not the other way around. None of the Invid pirates know where she hides her ship or when she will show up. Only those individuals recruited to crew on the Invidious learn those secrets, but that avenue of access is one-way only. Once you are invited to the Invidious, you do not leave it.”
Tycho studied Tavira’s image, then glanced at Cracken. “I seem to recall a number of other operations launched against her that proved fruitless. Do you suspect she has sources of information that tip her to our plans?”
“I certainly would like to think so, Colonel, because that means we could trap her if we could locate her source and feed him bad data.” Cracken opened his hands. “So far all efforts in that area have come up empty. In fact, I have had Iella Wessiri coordinating our efforts to locate any spies working for Tavira, and the both of you know how thorough she can be.”
I smiled. Iella had been my partner in CorSec and had been the chief prosecution investigator in Tycho’s treason trial. “If she can’t find a spy, there isn’t a spy.”
“A conclusion I am forced, reluctantly, to accept.” Cracken shook his head. “Somehow Tavira seems to know when we have prepared for one of her raids and calls it off. We’ve been able to figure out no pattern of behavior that would tip her off, so we have had to rely on more and more unorthodox methods for trying to locate her.”
He turned to face me and ice crystallized in my guts. “Part of those efforts involve Mirax.”
I slumped back in my chair, suddenly feeling as old as the galaxy itself. “I know, somehow, that she is not dead, but I cannot feel her otherwise. What do you know, General?”
“I know very little, and some of that I cannot tell you.”
Tycho frowned. “This is his wife, General, and she’s missing.”
“I know that, Colonel, and I know where she might be.” Cracken held his hands up to forestall comment by either one of us. He needn’t have done it for me because I felt as if all my bones were turning to liquid and the very act of breathing was almost more than I could manage.
“Mirax came to me to ask what she could do to help bring an end to the Invid raids. It turns out that a client of hers, a collector of antiquities, had lost some valuable items when an Invid raid hit a vacation home he maintained. He wanted the items back and was interested in having Mirax make some inquiries. She came to me offering her services, noting that such a cover story might allow her to go where my people could not. I explained to her that the Invids could prove very dangerous, but she was willing to accept that danger—though she did travel alone, not wanting to subject co-pilots to such risk. She said that the sooner the Invids were broken up, the less she would worry about their possibly killing Rogues, and that she and you could get back to your lives.