Star Wars_ Rebel Force 2_ Hostage - Alex Wheeler [4]
The man who bore his name—when it suited him—sat down in front of his comlink.
But he paused before switching it on, taking a moment to soak in the silence of isolation.
It wouldn't be accurate to say he enjoyed the solitude.
The man didn't enjoy anything. Nothing made him happy or sad or angry. Emotions were for the weak, for the living. And despite the fact that his heart pumped blood and his lungs filtered air, the man was as dead and empty on the inside as a corpse.
The Commander had seen to that.
He opened a secure channel to the Imperial Center. Almost instantly, Commander Rezi Soresh's face appeared on the screen.
"X-7, report," he ordered.
The Commander had stripped away everything that had once been his life, every face, every name, every memory that had marked him as an individual being. The Commander had emptied him out, and given him only two things in return.
One, a name: X-7. A number, like a droid. Fitting for a creature that lived and breathed only to serve his master's orders. For that was the second thing he'd been given.
Desire. To serve the Commander's every whim. Nothing more.
Never anything less.
"The Millennium Falcon is ferrying Leia to Delaya, in the Alderaan system," X-7
reported in his true voice, blank and toneless. Tobin Elad, the man he was pretending to be, spoke in a dry voice that carried hints of his tragic past. The voice, like the words, had been carefully crafted to gain Leia's trust. But the voice, like the words, like the man, was an act. "The Delayan government has agreed to host her without notifying the Empire of her presence."
"A mistake," the Commander said, his hologram snapping into view, "but a useful one.
And why has she come?"
"Delaya has become a gathering point for Alderaanians who were offworld at the time of the attack. Officially, Leia is here as their leader. She will offer help to the refugees and pay tribute to the memory of the dead."
"And unofficially?" the Commander prompted.
"She plans to recruit as many refugees as she can for the Rebel cause."
"Good," the Commander said. A ghost of a smile crossed his narrow, pinched face.
"This we can use. And your mission?"
"I am closing in on a target. Leia trusts me. They all do. It's only a matter of time before they reveal the name of the pilot who destroyed the Death Star."
The Commander's smile grew wider. "And once we have confirmation?"
"The target will be eliminated," X-7 said. "If and when the Commander wills it."
"You are in a position to do so, when the time comes?" the Commander asked.
"Without getting caught?"
Without intending to, X-7 allowed a hint of Tobin Elad's cocky certainty to creep into his voice. "With all due respect, sir, ferreting out the pilot's name will require some finesse.
Killing him? That's the easy part."
CHAPTER FOUR
Delaya may have looked blue from a distance, but up close, it was nothing but gray.
Leilani, its capital city, was packed with faceless duracrete factories puffing black smoke into the smog. Alderaan had long ago exported its manufacturing facilities to Delaya, and the centuries had taken their toll. Landspeeders clogged the narrow streets, creeping past rows of half-constructed buildings. Durasteel scaffolding flanked their exteriors, but the construction equipment sat abandoned.
"New factories," General Carlist Rieekan said, as he drove deeper into the city toward their lodgings. He had collected Leia from the spaceport; the others were following behind in a second landspeeder. Leia had wanted some time to talk to the general in private. "Or, they were supposed to be. There's no need for them now."
The Rebel General had been on a Delayan transmission station when Alderaan was destroyed, and had spent the last several weeks assisting refugee efforts around the sector.
Tens of thousands of Alderaanians had been off planet when the Death Star struck. They had kept their lives—but lost everything else. "The Delayan economy has been troubled for years. But now? The planet generates most of its income from exporting goods