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Bria nodded. “I’ll be right up, Jace.”

As her aide left the lounge, Bria checked her expensive datapad (a dummy, she committed as little as possible of her real business to any readable form), smiled vaguely at the Barabel, and left the lounge. Time to get on with her mission here in Cloud City.

When she’d discovered that Cloud City would be hosting the big sabacc tournament, Bria had realized that this was the ideal location for a top-secret meeting between representatives of several of the rebellions. Resistance groups were growing by leaps and bounds on many Imperial worlds, and it was essential to establish links between them. But such meetings had to be kept clandestine. The Imps had spies everywhere.

Any intelligence operative knew that the easiest place to hide was in a crowd. And Cloud City was pretty far from the Imperial Core, so the Imps didn’t pay it much attention. A big tournament provided perfect cover. With so many ships coming and going, both alien and human, a few humans, a Sullustan and a Duros meeting in a hotel conference room on Cloud City would arouse little interest from anyone.

Bria wouldn’t admit even to herself that part of her reason for selecting Cloud City during the tournament was that she’d hoped to catch a glimpse of Han Solo. She couldn’t be sure he’d attend, of course, but knowing Han, when there was the chance of winning big, he was there, ready and eager.

As she rode the glidewalk to the nearest turbolift, Bria imagined removing her disguise, then going to Han’s room late that night. He would still have vivid memories of the last time he’d seen her, when she’d been posing as Moff Sarn Shild’s mistress, but surely he’d believe her when she explained—that she’d been spying for the Corellian resistance, and that there had been nothing between her and Shild.

So after she’d told him the truth about their last encounter, they would talk. Perhaps they’d sip some wine. After a while, they’d hold hands. And then …

The Rebel operative closed her eyes as the turbolift swept her upward amid the crystalline and pastel splendor of the Yarith Bespin’s fifty-story atrium. Perhaps, when she’d explained everything, Han would want to join the resistance, help his fellow Corellians as they plotted to free their planet from that tyrant Emperor who held so many worlds in a death-grip.

Perhaps.… Bria envisioned the two of them, doing battle shoulder to shoulder on land or in space, fighting bravely, covering each other’s backs during the battles, winning victories over the Imperial forces … then holding each other close when the day’s fighting was over.…

Bria couldn’t imagine anything better than that.

Feeling the turbolift decelerate, she sighed and opened her eyes. Fantasies were all very well … sometimes they were all that kept her going. But she couldn’t allow them to interfere with her mission.

As the turbolift doors slid open, she was ready. Moving with confident strides, she exited the lift and headed down the carpeted corridor.

When she reached the meeting room, she tapped out her coded signal, and was admitted. She glanced at Jace, and his nod confirmed that he’d checked the room for surveillance devices and found it safe. Only then did Bria turn to greet the other members of the conference.

The first representative to step forward was a typically mournful-faced, blue-skinned Duros, Jennsar So-Billes. He had come alone, as had Sian Tew from Sullust. Bria greeted the two aliens warmly, thanking them and their respective groups for allowing them to make the dangerous journey—and it was dangerous. Just last month one of the high-ranking Rebel leaders from Tibrin had been captured while on his way to such a conference. The Ishi Tib was forced to suicide in order to avoid the Imp mind-probes.

Alderaan had sent three representatives, two human and one Caamasi. The senior member of the delegation was a middle-aged man with grizzled hair and beard, one Hric Dalhney, Deputy Minister of Security,