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“Hello,” she said, her voice warm. “Jedi Solo, Jedi Dinn, young Skywalker.”

“You know us,” Jacen said.

“Of course. I’ve been meddling in your business for some time.”

“You admit it.”

“I admit to that, yes.”

“You admit to inciting people to acts of violence and terrorism.”

“Certainly not.”

“Then you’re denying that you had anything to do with the actions of Ordith Huarr, Movac Arisster, the Lorrd Logistician Liberation League, and…” Jacen frowned, trying to remember.

“Borth Pazz, Jedi candidate,” Ben said.

“No, I admit that. Certainly.”

Jacen gave her an exasperated look. “Your confession and your denial are mutually exclusive.”

The woman’s mood began to alter from cheerful to irritated. “Of course they aren’t. Involvement is not the same as guilt. Who taught you to think, boy? Certainly not your mother. She’s brighter than that.”

“Leave my mother out of this.” Then he gave in to curiosity. “You know her?”

“We’ve met.”

“So what’s your story? A story that magically involves you in all the tragedies I’ve mentioned, yet leaves you blameless.”

“I’m a Force-sensitive.”

“I’m shocked.”

Finally the woman’s demeanor became chilly, hostile. “Sarcasm is inappropriate. That’s bad manners. If you’d like me to continue, you will apologize for your rudeness.”

“You’re out of your mind.”

“Then you can go to hell.” She fell silent.

Jacen let the silence grow between them. Finally he said, “I’ll refrain from interrupting for purposes of scoring conversational points.”

“Good for you.” She fell silent again and waited.

Jacen sighed. “I apologize for my manner. Please continue.”

“I’m a Force-sensitive, and in my dreams I hear people planning evil deeds. ‘I will kill that woman.’ ‘I will make them understand, and if they don’t, I’ll wipe them all out.’ But they’re dreams. I know they’re grounded in reality, but when I awaken, not all the details are available to me. So in my dreams, I’ve been telling them, ‘Bring in the Jedi. Your victory will be greater if you defeat the Jedi. You’ll never be famous if you can’t outwit the Jedi.’ That sort of thing.”

Ben watched as Jacen fell silent, considering the woman’s words for a long moment. Ben knew that each Jedi experienced the Force, including the possible future events the Force had to show them, in different ways; he supposed that someone could experience them as dreams.

“What was your involvement with the events at Toryaz Station?” Jacen asked.

“I was there to observe you. I used my arts to stay out of the sight of the Jedi and the station’s security forces, and I spied on you. Then, when everything went wrong, I decided that I needed to get out of the way until that mess was settled for the time being. I left something to lead you to me—”

“The tassels.”

“Yes, of course.”

“You were pretty confident that they would lead me to you.”

She nodded. “I knew one would speak to you and you alone. And from my own researches I already knew that this collection of tassels would inevitably point to Dr. Rotham on Lorrd for decipherment; any other so-called experts in the field would eventually refer you to her. So you’d be here, sooner or later.”

“You killed the security captain, Tawaler.”

She shook her head. “I saw him killed, from a distance. A hooded figure spaced him through an air lock. Knowing that the Jedi investigations would lead to that air lock, I chose to leave the tassels there. Then I walked out of the Narsacc Habitat before security measures closed off the corridor to the main station.”

“And you coincidentally ended up in the same shuttle by which the soldiers arrived at the station.”

“No coincidence. I used my own resources to track it down. Not tricky at all, since I assumed it would go to the Corellia system; and there it was, hangared at the main Coronet City spaceport. I confronted its pilot, but he attacked me rather than answer questions, and I was forced to kill him. Which left me in possession of the shuttle. When I ran its identification numbers, I found that it had been stolen on Commenor a few months ago, and the title