Star Wars_ X-Wing 01_ Rogue Squadron - Michael A. Stackpole [129]
“I saw. I remember.”
Isard’s harsh expression slackened slightly. “I recall your visual retention rate.”
Toprawa must have been meant as a lesson in contrition. Kirtan raised his chin slightly, exposing his throat. “Madam Director, I regret deeply not having completed my mission.”
“You do?” Isard opened her hands and surprise widened her eyes. “How is it you believe you have failed?”
“You sent me out to destroy Rogue Squadron.” Kirtan’s head twisted slightly to the side. “I have failed to do this.”
“It is true that Rogue Squadron still exists, though for how much longer is in serious debate. The attack on Borleias hurt them badly. Your report made this quite apparent.” She smiled and Kirtan had to suppress a shudder. “More important than that was the information you provided about General Derricote’s private enterprise on Borleias. You could not have hidden it from me, of course, since it was key to the defense that sent the Rebels away without a victory.”
Kirtan Loor bowed his head to her. “I am glad you were pleased.” As he looked back up her expression changed again and it did not speak to anything even approximating pleasure on her part. It also missed mild discomfort by a wide margin, turning his mouth into a desert and his stomach into a home for a Sarlacc.
What did I do? When he swallowed his larynx scraped in his throat as if both were made of stone. What did I fail to do?
“I had expected something more of you, Agent Loor. Can you imagine what that is?”
He shook his head. “I cannot.”
“No, indeed you cannot. And do you know why you cannot?”
“No.”
Her hissed words echoed through the nearly empty chamber. “It is because your imagination has atrophied to the point of lifelessness. Recall, if you will, what Gil Bastra thought of you.”
Kirtan’s face burned. “He felt I relied on my retention of knowledge too much and used it to compensate for a lack of analysis. I remember this, and I have tried to change my ways. I had done an analysis of probable Rebel strategies and I isolated a number of worlds where I felt they would strike after they hit the Hensara system. And I was right, because Borleias was on that list.”
“And how did you come to be at Borleias?”
“You sent me there.”
“I sent you there.” She held her right hand out to her side, then brought the left hand into the same position with a similar gesture. “Therefore you concluded?”
“That your analysis of Rebel strategy paralleled mine, hence you sent me to Borleias.”
She brought her hands together, interlacing her fingers. “You began analysis, found what you thought was corroboration for it, and then, instead of further testing your analysis and this corroborating evidence, you stopped thinking. Consider the utter absurdity of your conclusion.”
“What?”
“Kirtan Loor, are you so simpleminded to assume that if I could predict where the Rebels were going to strike I would send you and you alone to be there and observe their attack? I assure you, I do not think so highly of your martial skills.”
The Sarlacc in his stomach grew restless and began gnawing its way free of his belly. Borleias should have fallen, and did not only because Derricote had hidden resources available to defend it. If she were able to predict where the Rebels would show up, she would have opposed them with significantly greater force and have struck a solid blow against them.
“From the beginning, Agent Loor, the difficulty with the Rebellion has been in locating them. Since the Emperor’s death, they have been able to spread out and diversify their bases, making them more difficult to destroy. Your effort against the base at Talasea was commendable—had Admiral Devlia not been stupid, Rogue Squadron