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“Daeshara’cor, we need to talk. What you are doing is not right. It will not help the situation.”

“Master, if I thought you could understand, I would have spoken to you. I know you cannot and it is not a failing of yours.” She hesitated for a moment, then plunged on. “You’ll be blocking access to the information I need, so I propose a trade. The data I want, for your nephew. Think about it. Daeshara’cor out.”

“Blast!” Luke wasn’t really aware he’d yelled out loud until Mara and Mirax both came out of their chairs and into the antechamber. The anxiety rolling off them reached him before he focused on its mirror on their faces. “Daeshara’cor found Anakin, somehow, and took him.”

Mara’s green eyes narrowed to malachite slits. “How could she? Do you know she has him? Perhaps she just nabbed his comlink.”

“I can’t get a good feel for him through the Force. Her, either. She’s definitely hiding, and he’s holding himself close, much as he did when you two were running on Dantooine. Her getting his comlink means he’s out and about somewhere—and that somewhere has got to be with her.”

Mirax snapped a comlink into a socket on her datapad, then frowned as words scrolled up on the screen. “Whistler says Chalco talked Anakin into checking out local information sources. Says it’s a standard investigative technique, though Whistler’s got the old CorSec disdain for amateurs playing detective. They left the Skate about an hour ago, and Whistler’s not heard from them since.”

Luke closed his eyes and rubbed at his forehead. He felt Mara’s hand stroke his back and smiled at her. “Thank you.”

“What do you want us to do?”

The Jedi Master opened his eyes and sighed. “Daeshara’cor wants to trade Anakin for data files relating to the Eye of Palpatine or anything else, I suspect. Now, if what little I’ve understood from what the director is telling us is true, there are no such files. So, no exchange.”

“That’s one problem.” Mara scowled. “The second is that Daeshara’cor can’t let Anakin go, since she knows we won’t let her get away and continue this search. She has to keep him. She may not have figured that out yet. She will, though, and she isn’t going to like it. She’ll know we have to move against her.”

“But without data to trade, we can’t even get close.”

Mirax held up a hand. “Look, negotiations and trading are what I do. We could dummy up a data card and stuff it full of reports and things that only the swelled brains here can understand. We slice a few to have key phrases she can scan for, and she’ll think it’s all legitimate at first glance. That’s all we need to draw her out. Do you think she would put Anakin in a life-threatening situation?”

Mara nodded, but Luke disagreed. “I don’t get that feel from her.”

“Luke, she’s seeking superweapons.”

“I know, but I don’t think she’s really considered what the result of their use is. We all know the story of Alderaan. We know what happened to Carida. We remember the Krytos virus, but somehow, getting your brain around the idea that billions of people are dead is very tough. You can feel very bad, devastated, over the death of one person, but can you multiply that a billion times when a planet is destroyed?”

“Especially a planet full of the enemy?” Mara shrugged.

“Despite what she has done so far, Mara, she’s not yet strayed to the dark side. She has always been good.” He sighed. “If we knew what had set her off, we could help her.”

“Big if.” Luke’s wife nodded slowly. “I think Mirax’s plan has merit. Let’s do it.”

Luke smiled and returned to the director’s office. “Forgive me, but something urgent has come up. I really need your help.”

The woman smiled. “I’m ready to assist in any way I can.”

“Good, thank you, then just back away from your terminal.” Luke glanced at R2-D2. “Yank down everything you can on the Eye project’s history, then a data card’s worth of the most technical stuff you can find. We’re baiting a trap and we can only afford bait that’s irresistible.”