Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 06_ Balance Point - Kathy Tyers [76]
“Do you think it’ll work?” Jaina sounded dubious.
Mara frowned. “I’d love to hear your better plan.”
After several seconds, Jaina answered glumly. “Can you picture what it is you want to do?”
“I’m working on it.” Visualizing this wrong would flatten their bubble of safety. She needed to move about a hundred rocks simultaneously, up, over, and behind them. Then another hundred, and another. It could take hours. “Open to me, Jaina. The way you used to do in training.”
She was glad they’d grabbed the masks.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Still wearing his Kubaz disguise, Luke paused in a tall residential tower’s hallway, where Jacen had been escorted. Another sudden crisis had caught Mara unawares. Again, adrenaline gusted through him. Again, he had to fight the urge to drop everything, dash to the docks, and go to her. Instead, he reached deep and listened.
Details didn’t reach him. Her alert level dropped rapidly to her usual deadly calm under fire. He couldn’t make out much else.
Anakin hurried back toward him. “What?” he demanded.
“Your aunt.”
Luke shut his eyes, alert for details. Earlier, he’d caught the sense of danger, then anger, then a moment of painful decision, of shoving aside her considerable pride. It was harder to flee than to stand and fight. Didn’t he know it …
Now he plainly caught her flicker of assurance, focused toward him. Unbeaten, she was exerting herself powerfully. He caught the image of darkness, and thousands of stones, and the daunting job of repositioning them.
He formed a query. It would take him hours to reach her. He wouldn’t hesitate to get to his X-wing, though.
He’d barely shaped the thought when he felt Jaina’s presence alongside Mara’s. With Jaina’s help, she felt confident that she had her situation under control.
And his child’s!
He sensed her gratitude, though. That fortified him like few things he’d ever felt. Reluctantly, he turned to follow Anakin through the twisting halls of the massive residential complex’s twelfth story. As he did, he tried threading some of his own strength—love, and calm power—into the bond that joined him with Mara. He had no idea if that would give her more energy, but he sensed she was drawing something. She could need everything Jaina had, and more. It comforted him to try, even if he had no assurance this would work—no assurance but his faith in Mara, and in the Force itself.
Concluding his business with Vice-Director Brarun hadn’t taken long. Brarun had nothing to sell, and that seemed to confirm the theory that some of the Duros were stockpiling goods, hoping to take one of their orbital cities and leave Duro entirely.
Luke could see them doing that only if they’d sold out the rest of the system, particularly the refugees dirtside, laboring to build a new world. He’d sent R2-D2, plugged in back at the hostel, another message: Search CorDuro records for anything that smacked of Peace Brigade involvement with CorDuro or SELCORE itself. He hadn’t forgotten Karrde’s warning that there were suspicions that the Intelligence division, maybe even the Advisory Council itself, had been infiltrated. Maybe SELCORE had, too. Unfortunately, he hadn’t had the opportunity to evaluate the different councilors during that last meeting.
He glanced at the tiny heads-up display inside his goggles. If R2-D2 found anything, he could send an alert, then a message that would repeat until Luke signaled him by comlink.
First, though, he had to find Jacen. Luke had seen clearly, in Brarun’s office, that Jacen stood at a major junction on his journey. Forsaking the Force might not be as deadly as turning to the dark side, but that