Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 05_ Agents of Chaos 02_ Jedi Eclipse - James Luceno [71]
“Then these Hutts alerted the New Republic?”
“I deem it of little consequence either way, Potent One. As a bonus, the Hutts will make for bountiful sacrifices when we’re finished with them.”
The facsimile’s eyes closed for a moment. “I am not fully swayed. Even if your assumption is correct—that the New Republic is now convinced that we mean to assail either Corellia or Bothawui—surely they have sufficient ships to safeguard both worlds.”
“They do, Warmaster,” Malik Carr said, “although Corellia remains relatively unprotected, while Bothawui enjoys the protection of a large flotilla.”
“The New Republic cares so little for Corellia?”
Nas Choka smiled faintly. “They wish us to think so, Potent One.”
“It has been our hope all along to maneuver them into fortifying only one of those worlds,” Malik Carr explained, “and the gods have favored us by providing help from an unexpected quarter. A New Republic senator informed the Hutts that Corellia conceals a trap of some sort.”
“A deceit.”
“Your pardon, Warmaster, but we have some reason to trust this human being. She may well be the same person who thought she was helping us by apprising our agents that the priestess Elan had defected.”
“Then you already know the identity of this betrayer.”
“Her name is Viqi Shesh, Potent One.”
“This bodes well,” Tsavong Lah’s villip allowed. “But delay any contact with her until your strategy is successfully executed. She may be of greater use to us once we are closer to the Core.” The villip began to close. “I leave the rest to you.”
“Your will be done, Potent One,” the commanders said in unison.
SEVENTEEN
Commodore Brand tried not to be distracted by the traffic that gushed horizontally and vertically past the transparisteel wall of the Advisory Council chambers, or by the cityscape itself, ignited to flickering splendor as that part of Coruscant turned away from the sun. Seated with their backs to the window wall, Chief of State Borsk Fey’lya and the now eight members that made up his council had nothing to focus on but Brand, who stood rigidly at a podium opposite them, reading from a screenful of notes prepared in haste by his staffers after an intelligence briefing on the fall of Tynna.
“What is significant,” Brand continued, “is that the assault was foreseen, and that alone affords provisional corroboration of the Intelligence division’s belief that the Hutts have been supplying us with data. In those systems where the Hutts have curtailed spice operations, the enemy has set its sights on a world. Whether the Hutts were aware of what they were doing in asking for forewarning regarding their smuggling enterprise is presently unknown—though we are looking into the matter—but the fact remains that Tynna, a transshipment point as opposed to an actual market, has not seen a spice vessel since the Hutts forged their pact with the Yuuzhan Vong.”
Fey’lya interjected a transparent snort of ridicule into Brand’s brief pause, then had the gall to offer a pretense of apology.
“I’m sorry, Commodore, but something seems to have become lodged in my throat. Please, carry on with your … report. I know that I speak for everyone in saying that I can scarcely wait to hear the rest.”
Brand refused to be rattled by the sarcasm. “At the moment, the only other systems where spice operations have been suspended are Corellia and Bothawui. It has yet to be ascertained in which order the Yuuzhan Vong mean to strike. But we do expect an attack sooner rather than later. For that reason it is the opinion of Admiral Sovv and the Defense Force that a decision is critical on the matter of the redisposition of New Republic warships.”
Brand activated the holoprojector table adjacent to the podium. Depressing a tile on the console built into the lectern’s sloping desk, he displayed a galactic map, faintly blue in the cone