Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [63]
Suddenly he needed two hands.
“I would hear more of this, Lord Tyranus,” Sidious said with purposeful slowness.
“I have since learned that these same two Jedi recently visited the Xi Char world of Charros Four.”
Well ahead of Dooku, Sidious said: “The engraver of the mechno-chair …”
“The same.”
Sidious pondered it for a moment. “From Viceroy Gunray to the Xi Char engraver to the Bith who implemented my designs for the hyperwave transceiver and holoprojector …”
“The Jedi mean to expose you, my lord.”
“And what if they should?” Sidious snapped. “Do you think that would bring an end to what I have set in motion?”
“No, my lord. But this is unexpected.”
Sidious eyed Dooku from beneath the hood of his cloak. “Yes. Yes, it is, as you say, unexpected.” He returned his gaze to the far-off towers. “Someday I may choose to reveal myself to the galaxy, but not now. This war must be made to continue a while longer. There are worlds and persons we still need to convert to our side.”
“I understand.”
“Tell me, who is conducting this … search?”
Dooku exhaled with purpose. “Skywalker and Kenobi.”
Sidious took a long moment to respond. “The so-called Chosen One, and a Jedi with enough good fortune to almost make one believe in luck.” Without turning from the view, he added: “I am displeased by this turn of events, Lord Tyranus. Greatly displeased.”
Once Master and Padawan, Kenobi and Skywalker had become the scourge of Dooku’s existence. On Geonosis he had deliberately allowed them to pursue him—just as Sidious had instructed him to do. Also as instructed, Dooku had made Kenobi aware of the existence of Darth Sidious, as a means of confusing the Jedi Order by telling them the truth. In the sloop’s docking bay he had demonstrated his mastery to Kenobi and Skywalker—although Skywalker hadn’t been as easily defeated the second time they had dueled. Enraged, the young Jedi had proved a powerful opponent, and Dooku suspected that he had grown only more powerful since Geonosis.
Long have I watched young Skywalker, Sidious had once admitted.
And all the more so of late.
“My lord, the Jedi may search for others who contributed to fashioning the communications devices you distributed to Gunray, myself, and others. Also, there is the matter of Grievous’s defeat at Belderone.”
Sidious made a gesture accepting that defeat. “Do not trouble yourself about Belderone. It may suit our ultimate purpose to have the Republic believe that they have chased us from their precious Core. As regards your concern for keeping secret my whereabouts, I am moved. But here, too, I begin to see a way to engineer events in our favor.” He paused to consider something, then said: “Yes, I begin to see the blazes along the trail Skywalker and Kenobi will follow.”
Sidious turned to Dooku, grinning malevolently. “Their single-mindedness will deliver them into our hands, Lord Tyranus. We will set our trap for them on Naos Three.”
Dooku allowed his skepticism to show. “As remote a world as can be found in known space, my lord.”
“Nevertheless, Kenobi and young Skywalker will find their way to it.”
Dooku decided to take it on faith. “What would you have me do?”
“Nothing more than make arrangements—for you are needed elsewhere. Employ outsiders.”
Dooku nodded. “It is done.”
“One small addendum. See to it that Obi-Wan Kenobi ceases to be an irritant.” Sidious sneered the name.
“He represents so forceful a threat to our plans?”
Sidious shook his head. “But Skywalker does. And Kenobi … Kenobi has been as a father to him. Orphan Skywalker once and for all, and he will shift.”
“Shift?”
“To the dark side.”
“An apprentice?”
Sidious gazed at him. “In good time, Lord Tyranus. All in good time.”
Having suffered through all four hours of Palpatine’s State of the Republic address to the Senate, interrupted dozens of times by standing ovations—an archaic tradition not practiced since the era of Supreme Chancellor Valorum Eixes—Bail Organa watched from the backseat of the air taxi as a trio of assault cruisers lifted off into Coruscant