Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 06_ Balance Point - Kathy Tyers [73]
“Very well.” Mara overlaid her voice with a measure of irritation. “Emlee, come along.”
Jaina bowed slightly. “Yes, Baroness.”
Mara led the way downstairs, found the breath masks where the harried tech described, and headed straight for the tunnel entry. It dropped quickly at first, then more slowly, scantily lit by occasional overhead glow rods.
Mara slowed enough to murmur, “You’re all right with this?”
Jaina shrugged. “I’ve gotten used to feeling my way in the dark.”
“All right. Back into character, then. And stay in character unless I make it obvious that we’re through playacting.”
“Right,” Jaina whispered.
Mara led on. The tunnel gradually curved right—headed, she guessed, through the soft-rock cliffs toward the flatland she’d seen on approach.
“Wait,” she murmured.
She backstepped several meters. She’d heard a faint change in their footsteps’ echo.
At the darkest point between two glow rods, a side passage had been cut. A sheet of stiff fabric, roughly the shade of the surrounding stone, covered the passageway.
“Ah,” Mara said, slipping back into character. She peeled the fabric away from the stone’s edge and found a faint glow, illuminating a narrower passage. “This way, I think.”
She marched five meters to a ninety-degree bend in the passage, turned left, and found a sizable chamber. Standing beside a lab bench was a tall, slender Duros, holding two flasks of opaque brown liquid.
“Dr. Cree’Ar.” Mara raised her chin. “You are difficult to find. I hope you will make this journey worthwhile.”
The Duros scientist set down his flasks. “Madame,” he said sternly, “this is my prrrivate research area. State your business.”
The chamber’s walls, floors, and ceiling were bare stone. Mara spotted a sleeping pad against an inner wall and several elevated … were those reagent tanks? The petcock assemblies looked organic. In a compartment along one wall, she recognized an open water-bath incubator, warmed by a flame from below. It looked like a storage facility.
Jaina shuffled forward, keeping her hands inside the drape of her sleeves. “Doctor,” she said, “this is Baroness Muehling of Kuat. She has come to you with a grave concern.”
Mara spotted a backless chair that had the look of a cutout shipping crate. She strode toward it and seated herself.
Finally, Cree’Ar stepped toward her. His large red eyes seemed to glow. “Why have you honored me with a visit, Baroness?”
“Even on other worlds,” she said, “word has reached us of your fine work, your dedication. Indeed, Administrator Organa Solo calls you a miracle worker.”
He spread his hands modestly.
“Duro,” she said, “has obviously been made a dumping ground for other species. My people may face a similar fate. Contacts whom I met up in Bburru City say that you are a close disciple of someone who is trying to turn that tide, on behalf of your own people.” In the baroness role, she usually got further by piling flattery on a subject than by bullying.
She piled it deeper.
From the moment they entered the chamber, Jaina had sensed something odd. She hadn’t encountered any Duros here—her med runner had been cleared directly to ground, without stopping in orbit—but she didn’t like this guy.
Hesitantly, she reached out with a flicker of the Force. How hostile was he, really?
She felt nothing. She couldn’t even find him.
She kept her eyes lowered with an effort. She hadn’t heard of Yuuzhan Vong masquerading as Duros, but if they could breed creatures that made them look convincingly human, this would be only a small step further. The only way she’d know for sure would be to unmask him.
One problem. The masquers’ activating spot was alongside the nose, and Duros had no noses.
Cree’Ar’s face was only a blur, anyway. Jaina hesitantly directed a flicker of the Force toward it. She stroked the spot on his face where she thought his nose would be, if he were