Star Wars_ Legacy of the Force 01_ Betrayal - Aaron Allston [147]
As it turned out, the desperate Jedi applicant had no Force sensitivity whatsoever, and could not bring himself to believe that Force sensitivity could not be taught. Mindful of Nelani’s desire that he talk things out more with the desperate people who provoked such encounters, Jacen argued politely but fruitlessly with the man for over an hour.
“Tell me,” the man finally said, “how to do your Jedi tricks—one Jedi trick—or I’ll step off this roof.”
“I’m tired of talking, and I don’t have the energy to lie convincingly right now,” Jacen said. “Go ahead and jump.”
The man did.
Nelani, assisted by Ben, caught him, slowing his descent with the Force, and the worst he sustained from his twenty-story plummet was a broken ankle. Security agents bundled him off for medical evaluation, and still he shouted that the Jedi had betrayed him.
But Nelani hugged Jacen, when he reached ground level again, for doing his best to argue the man out of a bad decision.
As they stood there, security agents keeping the crowd and the press at bay, a comlink beeped. Jacen and Nelani sighed and reached for their respective communications devices…but it was Ben’s that had sounded. He pulled it out of his pouch. “Ben Skywalker here…Really? Did she put up a fight? All right, we’ll be there in half an hour or so.” He sought Jacen’s face for confirmation, got a nod, and concluded, “Out.”
“You know,” Jacen said, “the more like a Jedi Knight you act, the more likely your father is to send you off to put down a planetary insurrection or delve into the mystery of a Sith Holocron.”
Ben flushed. “This was stuff I’d been communicating with him about.”
“Him?”
“Lieutenant Samran. That woman showed up. Brisha Syo.”
“The shuttle pilot?”
“Yeah. She’s in custody.”
“Let’s go.” Jacen led the dash for the speeder.
The human woman sitting alone in the security interrogation room did not look like a criminal, at least on the surface. Clad in a purple jumpsuit that suggested both money and a preference for simplicity, she was about the same age as Ben’s parents, at the height of vigorous middle age. She was lean, with well-defined muscles suggesting an active life, and had dark hair, slightly curled, cut short in an easy-to-maintain hairdo.
Her features were fine, and she was attractive. Her beauty was very approachable; she looked like the sort of woman who had been a greeter in a shop or hotel in her youth, and still carried the mannerisms of that profession. Alone in the interrogation room, she did not look bored, but seemed to be impatiently awaiting the moment she could begin interacting with others again.
The chamber she waited in featured a one-way reflective panel that showed her a mirrored surface, while the Jedi, on the other side, could look through it like a viewport. Ben had the unsettling feeling that she was restraining herself from looking at the Jedi—that any moment she would look up and lock eyes with one of them, despite the physical impossibility of her seeing them. Ben knew better than to assume that her good looks and apparent friendliness meant she was a good person. His upbringing had grounded him in principles of both logic and the Force, and both disciplines knew that an attractive appearance could conceal malevolence. Still, he detected none in her.
“Perhaps she just isn’t feeling wicked right now,” Jacen said.
Ben looked up at him. “Huh?”
“Your thoughts are very much at the surface. Still, they’re good thoughts. You’re keeping sharp.” He shrugged. “Let’s go in.”
A Lorrd Security guard led them into the interrogation chamber. Jacen waited until the guard had exited, then sat and gestured for Nelani and Ben to do likewise. They took the chairs on the opposite