Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 06_ Balance Point - Kathy Tyers [90]
Jacen was watching the crowd watch the practice duel when a faint tapping caught his attention.
He pushed away from the transparisteel window. He’d never deactivated the listening devices in here, but now he had a hunch—not the Force, just a hunch—that with Luke, Anakin, and Mara in plain sight, twelve floors down, this could be Jaina.
He made a fast circuit, gathering the snoops before he touched the door’s interior opening panel.
It slid open, and his sister slipped through. “Hey,” she said.
He poked his head out the door, glanced left and right, and spotted his guards, slumped comfortably against the wall. Shaking his head, he tossed the snoops onto one guard’s lap, then stepped back into his room and sent the door shut.
“Hey,” he answered. “Nice of you to visit.” She’d thrown on a vest over her brown flight suit and black utility belt. He also noticed the close-fitting cap. “Great hair.”
She glared at him. He’d left his own cap on the bedside. “Speak for yourself. What are you doing here, waiting for Hoth to melt?”
“Vice-Director Brarun did send down a message that Uncle Luke had been spotted, out at the docks. He wants to talk with us all. Want some cold kroyie?”
“You’ve got to be kidding.” Jaina strode across to his window. Instead of looking out, she stood alongside it and cautiously peered up, down, and to both sides.
“The only guards are in the hall. Were in the hall,” he corrected himself. “Doesn’t look like they gave you any trouble.”
“As guards go, they weren’t real impressive.”
“I think,” he confessed, “that their only real job is to let Brarun know if I decide to leave.”
Jaina pointed down at the platform. He could plainly see the green and amethyst spark and flash of lightsabers engaging. “See that?” she demanded. “That’s going on in your honor—a distraction, so I can get you out. We’re headed back down to Gateway.”
“Is it necessary? I’m waiting to talk to the Vice-Director—”
She whirled around. “Are you even marginally aware of what’s going on around you?”
“How about you?” he asked softly. “How’s the vision coming back?”
“Well, for one thing, I’d forgotten how big your nose and chin are getting.”
He snorted softly. His features had matured, this year. Hers had looked womanlike for three or four years—one of the temporary injustices of having a female twin.
“Listen,” she said. “Aunt Mara and I just exposed a Yuuzhan Vong agent down at Gateway, and he nearly killed us both.” She snatched off her cap to reveal a synthflesh strip above her right ear. “And Uncle Luke just found connections between your precious vicedirector and the Peace Brigade.”
Jacen felt his insides shrink. “That’s why Brarun’s anxious to get a Jedi in custody? Because the Peace Brigade has figured out that the Yuuzhan Vong want to neutralize us?”
“Give the boy a medal. And meanwhile, you’re just sitting here, blind to it all. Aren’t you listening to the Force at all? Can’t you tell? Something’s about to happen. Again.”
He thrust both hands into his pockets, feeling guilty. “Actually, I … decided to stop using it. Completely. Uncle Luke challenged me, and I … I’m tired, Jaina. If I can’t fight darkness with darkness, then maybe I can’t fight violence with violence. I just feel like I’m … waiting for something to happen.”
Her eyebrows rose. “What’s going to happen is another invasion, Jacen. And you’re coming with me, whether you want to or not.” She flipped back her vest and laid one hand on a holstered blaster.
Startled, he sat down on the bed. “You’d make me come with you?”
Jaina drew the blaster, and he saw that she’d set it for stun. “You may want to set yourself up as a tragic hero,” she said, “but it isn’t going to happen. Yes, idiot brother. I would make you come.”
He half smiled, almost relieved. The universe had been knocked out from under him, and his vision beckoned him to a destiny he didn’t understand, but Jaina hadn’t changed. She’d just matured.
“I’ll come,