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FIREWORKS.

SOLO KNOWS.

FIREWORKS.

“You all right, Lando?” Mara was giving him her concerned look from clear across the galaxy.

“You said Han is all right?”

She nodded.

“Who did this?”

“If they knew,” Karrde said, “Coruscant wouldn’t be in such an uproar.”

“Lando?” Mara asked.

Lando frowned. “Talon, what’s Jarril been up to these days?”

Karrde leaned back in the chair. Then he glanced at Mara. She shrugged. “I haven’t worked with Jarril in two years, maybe more.”

“You’re not answering me,” Lando said.

“I think you should make a trip to the Run,” Karrde said.

“I can’t go to the Run,” Lando snapped. “I thought you knew that.”

“What’s Jarril got to do with this?” Mara asked.

“Ask your friend there,” Lando said.

“Talon?”

“The Run’s a different place these days,” Karrde said. “Not a place I enjoy discussing, Calrissian.”

And not on an open line. Karrde’s message was clear.

FIREWORKS.

Jarril had just been to Coruscant.

SOLO KNOWS.

And now Jarril was dead.

“Thanks,” Lando said. “I’ll be in touch soon.”

He signed off before they could say anything else. His dreams had been right.

He couldn’t risk sending a message that wouldn’t get through.

He had to go to Coruscant.

He had to warn Han, before it was too late.

Kueller shoved open the door to Femon’s office. His guards flanked him, but he waved them back. He wanted them to observe, not to act.

Femon had taken her death masks off the wall. The room looked odd without them. But that wasn’t the only change. She was different too. She had scrubbed her face clean. He had almost forgotten what she looked like without the makeup. The years showed. But she was still a striking woman, with her alabaster skin and dark blue eyes.

She didn’t seem surprised to see him.

But the fifteen guards who had accompanied him seemed surprised to see her. Even with their faces hidden in their stormtrooper helmets, he could sense their shock at her appearance.

“I didn’t order anyone to stand ready,” he said.

She got out of her chair. “I did. You’re too bent on revenge, Dolph.”

He started at the name, but he didn’t allow it to show. His mask was working again, ever since he had returned to the artificial environment on Almania, and it gave him more control of his movements than a normal person had.

“We aren’t ready,” he said. “To do this your way would invite disaster.”

“To do it yours loses our advantage.” She was nearly as tall as he was. Her eyes sparkled with fury. He had never expected her to cross him, but he should have foreseen it. She was more passionate about the mission than about anything else in her life, even him. She needed this to succeed. She needed to control everything around her so that nothing bad would happen again.

His understanding gave him no compassion, only a muted pity that her needs had driven her to oppose him.

He turned to one of his guards. “Rescind the orders. Tell everyone to stand down.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” she said to the guard.

The guard, to his credit, turned to Kueller, nodded, and said, “I shall do as you wish, milord.”

“No!” she shouted.

“Thank you,” Kueller said to the guard. Then he walked closer to Femon, his black cape swirling about him. Her body odor was sharp in the close room; she was nervous, no matter how she presented herself.

He tilted his head and looked at her from the corners of his eyes. She lifted her chin, defiant to the last.

“You think I’m bent on revenge,” he said.

“I know it.” She kept her arms free, but he saw no weapon. She had to have something planned. A woman like her would leave nothing to chance. “You and Brakiss talked often about repaying Skywalker.”

“And I intend to.”

“Do it after we take over the Republic,” she said. “We have everything in place now.”

“Not everything,” he said.

“Enough.”

He shook his head. “Impatience is the downfall of most megalomaniacs, Femon.”

“I am not a megalomaniac.”

He smiled. “Neither am I.”

The guards were watching, clearly unable to understand the conflict. They edged closer to him.

“I have studied the history of this galaxy, Femon,” Kueller said softly.