Star Wars_ Splinter of the Mind's Eye - Alan Dean Foster [32]
Grammel eyed it, asked a question Luke hadn’t prepared for. “What’s the combination?”
For a second, Luke panicked. If he confessed that he didn’t know the combination, his whole carefully fabricated lie would disintegrate here and now. So he took the only gamble he could.
“It’s open.”
Both he and Leia held their breath as Grammel touched the tiny catch. There was an audible click. Luke had never bothered to rescramble the combination after Halla had given him the box.
Captain-Supervisor Grammel stared fascinated at the fragment of glowing crimson. “Very pretty. What is it?”
“I don’t know,” Luke lied. “I have no idea what kind of gem it is.” Grammel looked sternly at him. “It’s true … I’m no gemologist or chemist.” There, that much was easily said.
“Is the glow natural,” Grammel inquired, “or the result of external excitation?” He moved the gem around in the box with a probing finger.
“I’ve no idea. It’s glowed ever since we’ve had it, so I’d hazard a guess that it’s a natural property of the stone.”
The Captain-Supervisor smiled at him in a way he didn’t like. “If you know so little about it, why did you steal it?”
“I didn’t say we stole it.” Grammel snickered derisively and Luke, playing the part willingly, assumed a defensive attitude. “All right, so we stole it. It was pretty and I’d never seen anything like it. Anything pretty and rare is likely to be valuable.”
“You told me your field of expertise was extortion, not burglary,” Grammel countered.
“The thing intrigued me and I had the chance to swipe it, so I did,” Luke responded with a touch of belligerent bravado.
Apparently that was the right approach. “Sensible,” Grammel conceded. He turned his gaze back to the splinter. “I don’t recognize it either. As a gem it’s not very impressive … not faceted or even trimmed for cutting. But you’re right about it being unusual. The radiant property alone is enough to mark it as that.” Abruptly, he stopped turning it over and over with his finger, moved his hand away.
“It’s not harmful, is it?”
“Not so far,” Luke conceded, affecting an attitude of sudden concern. Let Grammel sweat a little!
“You haven’t suffered any ill effects since it’s been in your possession?”
“Not until we were brought here.” That almost produced laughter from the administrator.
“I think,” he went on slowly, putting the box down on his desk and moving away from it, “that I’ll have it analyzed professionally before I come to any conclusions about it.” He looked up amiably at Luke.
“It’s been confiscated, of course. You may consider it your fine for being involved in the fight.”
“We were the ones assaulted,” Luke argued, for appearance’s sake.
“Are you disputing my judgment?” Grammel asked dangerously.
“No, Captain-Supervisor!”
“That’s good. I can see that you’re an intelligent young man. Pity your companion works her mouth to the exclusion of her brain.” Leia glared at him, but for once had the sense not to say anything.
“I believe we can work something out. Meanwhile, it remains that you two are here on this world illegally, in defiance of a great deal of Imperial effort to keep this installation a secret. So you will be detained until I can verify your story.”
Luke started to speak but Grammel waved him to silence. “No, don’t bother with names. I’d expect you to offer me an alias anyway. We’ll take retinal prints, natural portraits and other suitable information. I have contacts on Circarpous, both legal and not so.
“If they send me back information that you two are known petty criminals on that world, and judging from your story you ought to be known, then what you’ve told me will be substantiated and we’ll adjust relationships accordingly—and not necessarily to your detriment.
“If it turns out that no one unearths any information on you, or information that conflicts with what you’ve said, then I’ll have to assume that everything you’ve told me is pure fabrication. In that unfortunate event I’ll be forced to resort to indelicate methods of obtaining the truth.” Luke would have preferred