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“I still don’t understand why Solo had to take it upon himself to send them back,” Scaur grumbled. “No, belay that. Knowing Solo as I do, those actions are entirely consistent with his brash character.”

“In defense of Solo’s actions, sir, he was being pursued by an enemy warship.”

“Yes, but the enemy obviously didn’t want the defectors returned.”

“Solo was convinced that Elan had already killed once and would do so again—perhaps even kill him to safeguard her secret, which in fact she attempted to do. Had Solo died and had Elan been brought into our midst, who knows what she might have done. In addition, sir, this defection has been suspect from the start. The commander of the cruiser Soothfast will attest to that.”

Scaur nodded at Kalenda. “Granted, Colonel. Assuming for the moment that Solo’s actions were justified, the New Republic’s success in the Meridian sector must be reassessed, along with the victory at Ord Mantell.” He shook his head regretfully. “We should have allowed military intelligence to handle this. Do you realize how this makes us look?”

“Sir?” Kalenda asked.

“The command staff is convinced that we bumbled the job. Despite the fact that Elan posed a threat, much could have been gained from having her in custody. What’s more, it’s apparent that someone with top secret clearance apprised the Peace Brigade of the plans to relocate Elan to Coruscant.”

Scaur extracted another durasheet document from the sheaf and glanced at it. “Six members of military intelligence, fourteen in-house officers, the half-dozen senators who make up the Security and Intelligence Council … Someone leaked the information—either directly to the Peace Brigade or to a third party who did so.” He looked around the table. “Do any of these individuals appear a likely source for a leak of this magnitude?”

“All of them had access to the same information,” Kalenda supplied. “But whoever it was not only made contact with the Peace Brigade, but also managed to slice into our network and discontinue surveillance on the group. Traces of that slicing are still being analyzed.”

“All well and good,” Scaur pronounced, “but the real question to ask is whether we have a traitor in our midst or a mole—an enemy agent?”

“Someone wearing an ooglith masquer?” a Mon Calamari officer asked from the far end of the table.

“Not necessarily. The Yuuzhan Vong probably bought the services of the Peace Brigade. The same could hold true for whoever passed the information on to them. Members of the New Republic government could be in collusion with the enemy.”

“But returning Elan to the Yuuzhan Vong ran counter to the entire plan,” the Bothan deputy director of intelligence thought to point out.

Scaur plucked at his lower lip. “It’s possible our traitor wasn’t aware of the plan, only of the defection. Our seeming win at Ord Mantell convinced the traitor that Elan needed to be retrieved before further harm was done.”

“Could have been someone testing the waters,” Kalenda mused. “Reaching out to the Peace Brigade, without having any affiliation with the Yuuzhan Vong.”

“Perhaps the Peace Brigade had something on the traitor,” a human officer suggested. “The traitor may have been erasing a debt.”

Scaur put his elbows on the table. “Did we get anything from the captured Peace Brigade members?”

“Two of thirteen we have in custody maintain that the only person who had contact with the traitor was Reck Desh, who died aboard the Peace Brigade shuttle. They claim that the initial contact was made by comlink, and that the only meeting between Desh and the source took place on Kuat, where Desh apparently met with a telbun.”

Scaur grimaced. “A telbun?”

“The telbun could have been an intermediary for the one we’re actually looking for,” Kalenda said.

Scaur snorted. “So what you’re really telling me is that we’re without leads.”

Kalenda nodded. “Thanks to Elan, Reck Desh took his secret to the grave.”

In lofty Coruscant—though not so high up that the skyscraping spires, obelisks, and towers of