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A section of roof slid aside and a metal plate rose to occupy that space, lift-style. On it stood a teenage girl in Jedi robes. She was redheaded, and she nervously twirled one lock of hair in her fingers. At Kyp’s gesture, she approached.

Luke recognized her and frowned. “I know you. Seha, from the Temple.”

She came to a stop in front of him and nodded. “Yes, Grand Master.” Her voice was faint. Her face was so pale Luke thought she might be on the verge of fainting.

He tried to remember her record with the Jedi Order. She hadn’t been with them long. An orphan since childhood, he recalled. She’d been sponsored to the Order by…

By Jacen. Ah. “There would seem to be some question as to your reliability.”

Seha nodded, agitation making her motion fast, jerky. “Some people don’t trust me.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m a traitor to the Jedi Order.”

Corran Horn’s eyebrows rose. He looked faintly impressed. “Well, I’ll give her points for honesty.”

Luke ignored him. “Perhaps you’d better explain that.”

Seha glanced around, as if looking for sympathetic faces, but returned her attention to Luke. “I was little when the Yuuzhan Vong came to Coruscant. When the Vongforming happened. Most of my family died. I don’t remember them, except my father. We lived in the undercity, so deep and out of touch that the Yuuzhan Vong had been driven offworld for months before I even learned about it. My father was dead by then, stung by a Yuuzhan Vong insect he didn’t see in time. I stayed there, with the other refugees and crazies and rejects, because they were the only people I knew.

“But I met Jacen. He’d come down from time to time—sometimes his visits were years apart—to visit his friend the World Brain. My home was close to the World Brain’s lair. I thought it was a horrible, evil thing, but Jacen told me how it was just acting according to its nature, that what it looked like had nothing to do with what it was inside. Jacen figured out I was Force-sensitive and arranged for me to become an apprentice to the Order, even though I was old for an apprentice.”

“I know what it’s like to be old for an apprentice.” Luke’s voice was gentle, but now he let an edge creep into it. “So how did you betray the Order?”

“I did things for Jacen. Kept him updated on goings-on in the Temple. After he became the head of the Guard, he asked me to take things into and out of the Temple for him, like spare datapads and replacement electronic components.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “When your son disappeared…I was the one who helped him get out of the Temple without being seen.”

Luke stared at her for a long moment. “At Jacen’s order.”

“Yes.”

Luke looked away from her as his emotions threatened to spin out of control. Ben’s account of his solo mission had never included a confirmation that Jacen had sent him. Ben had never volunteered details of where he had gone or what he had done. Luke had known intellectually that only Jacen could have dispatched the boy. But now, at last, Luke had proof, a corroborating witness, and the confirmation hit him harder than he would have expected.

This girl had helped effect the plan—had endangered Ben. All out of a misguided loyalty to a very bad man.

Luke stared at her again. He tried to remain impassive, but she apparently saw something in his expression and took an involuntary half step backward.

Luke didn’t bother trying to keep anger from his voice. “How were you found out?”

“She wasn’t. She came forward.” Cilghal put a comforting hand on Seha’s shoulder.

“When we received word about the massacre on Ossus.” Seha blinked, and tears came. “I don’t know how he could do that, send in a crazy man to bargain with the younglings’ lives, to torture Kam Solusar and Tionne and kill all those others.” Her tears flowed freely now, but she ignored them. “I betrayed the Order…but not like that. I’m not going to do that.”

“You’re no Jedi.” Corran’s voice was harsh. “Your emotions are all over the map. Even an apprentice knows that. So we can’t trust you as a Jedi, we can’t trust you to be a calm, collected operative,