Star Wars_ The New Rebellion - Kristine Kathryn Rusch [22]
Kueller remembered the delicious feeling of all those screams, all those lives, all that fear filling him. “He hadn’t found a clean way yet. Maybe he didn’t look for one. Sometimes I think Palpatine was less interested in power than in destruction itself.”
“But you’re interested in power.”
She seemed to be making a statement, but he thought he heard a question beneath it.
“You have an opinion?” he asked in a way that made it sound as if she had no right to one.
“It would seem to me,” she said slowly, “that if we are going to conquer, we should do so now. Everything is in place.”
“Only on Coruscant,” he said.
“But that’s where it’s needed.”
He brought his hand down. Her questions were interrupting his fine mood. “It’s needed on all the designated planets. The secret to control is thoroughness.”
“So we do Coruscant first. Everything else will be in place in a few days.”
“Timing is everything,” Kueller said. “I will wait.”
“If you get rid of the leaders—”
“Others will rise in their place.” He resisted the urge to turn, to glower at her through the mask. The mask wasn’t working, and he didn’t want her to see his face. Sweat dripped off his chin onto his linen shirt.
“Is that why you’re trying to get rid of Skywalker?”
He hesitated, unsure how much he wanted to reveal himself to her. Then he said, “Skywalker’s sister leads the Republic.”
“How do you know she survived the attack on the Senate Hall?”
“She survived,” he said softly.
“So go after her.”
“I am.” He clenched his fists, careful not to let his temper show on such a fine, successful day. “I most assuredly am.”
The ship hung in space. Lando Calrissian peered out the cockpit on the Lady Luck. He was alone on this trip, having dropped Mara Jade off at the Minos Cluster to run some errand for Talon Karrde. Lando didn’t like their continued association, but he had no real right to complain—and he wasn’t sure he wanted that right.
Still, the last few weeks with Mara in the floating cities of Calamari had been delightful. He hadn’t seen her in a long while. He had enjoyed her company, and only a few times had longed for solitude.
He had the solitude now, but he no longer wanted it. At the moment, he’d give anything to have someone to consult about the ship spinning slowly in front of him.
It looked familiar. At first he had thought it was the Millennium Falcon. Then he realized that the Arakyd concussion-missile tubes weren’t just missing. They hadn’t been there at all. Something had been built to fill the area and that something was long gone. He had only seen one other stock light freighter that so closely resembled the Falcon, and that had been the Spicy Lady. Although the Spicy Lady had a modified A-wing where the missile tubes had been.
An A-wing that could fly on its own. A separate ship, for escapes and escapades.
Lando hailed the Spicy Lady, his heart pounding. “Spicy Lady, this is Lady Luck. Are you in distress? Over?”
No response. The ship looked abandoned. Only he had never known Jarril to leave the Spicy Lady for long. Jarril had invested his personal fortune in her, and used her to make more money. He never let her drift. Even when he was in the A-wing, he made certain she looked powered-up so that no one would board without major preparation.
“Spicy Lady, this is Lady Luck. Over.”
Lando swore under his breath. This was supposed to be a simple trip. He didn’t like flying solo. He had a new astromech droid that Mara had bought with profits from their most recent shared venture, but even with the modifications, the droid wasn’t a lot of help in a situation like this.
He scanned the Spicy Lady for life signs. None. She was dark. Life support wasn’t even functioning.
He sighed. He couldn’t board her. He didn’t want to leave the Lady Luck without good cause. Instead he checked to see if the Spicy Lady had slave circuitry. He doubted it. Most smuggling vessels avoided slave circuits, which allowed remote control of the ship from other ships. But business had changed since Lando entered