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“It is good.” Kirtan blanched. “I mean, it is the code I was given with my orders.” He started to go on to explain further, but saw the pilot and copilot exchange a quick wink and realized he was being teased.

“Don’t worry, Agent Loor, the days of the Empire blasting one if its own shuttles apart to kill an Intelligence agent are long past. Can’t spare the ships right now, which is what makes me a bit more secure.”

Kirtan forced an edge into his voice. “And how do you know, Lieutenant, that I am not here solely to monitor and report on your attitudes?”

“You’re not the first man I’ve ferried to his death, Agent Loor.”

“Shuttle Objurium,” the comm squawked, “clearance granted. Align course for beacon 784432.”

“Understood, Control, Objurium out.” The pilot punched the beacon number into navigation computer, then gave his copilot a more somber glance.

“What?” Kirtan tried to stop himself from blurting the question out, and began to brace for some stinging jibe from the pilot, but he got none.

“We’re heading to Tower 78, level 443, bay 2.”

“And?”

Kirtan saw the pilot’s Adam’s apple bob up and down. “Sir, the only other time I’ve been given that vector is when I had the pleasure of shuttling Lord Vader to the Emperor. It was after the disaster at Yavin.”

Kirtan felt a chill slowly pour into him and move up his spine bone by bone. Did Lord Vader fear retribution for his actions as I do? Perhaps the Emperor had meant to kill him, but Vader redeemed his life by bringing news of the existence of another Jedi to his master. Kirtan’s fist hammered his right thigh. If I had just a little more time I could have delivered my quarry.

Ahead of the shuttle Kirtan saw lightning flare from the clouds upward toward space. It hit and spread out, faintly illuminating a hexagonal area hanging above the clouds. “What is that?”

“Defense shield.” The pilot punched a couple of buttons on his command console. A miniature model of the world materialized between pilot and passenger, then two spheres made up of hexagonal elements engulfed the world. The spheres moved in opposite directions around the world, constantly shifting, with the hexes in the upper layer covering more area than those below. “Imperial Center, for obvious reasons, has the most sophisticated system of defense shields in the Empire. A small portion of it will come down to let us in, then that section will be reinforced behind us, while another one will open below.”

“Nothing can get in without clearance.”

The pilot nodded. “Or out. More than one Rebel agent has been caught trying to race back out while ships are coming in. It’s a gamble, but not one that pays off very often.”

The copilot pushed a glowing button on the console. “We’re through the first shield.”

“Our next opening comes two degrees north, four east.”

“Course set, sir.”

“Not much longer until we’re down, Agent Loor. Only thing that could go wrong now is a cloud discharging and trying to hit the upper shield through our opening.”

“Does that happen?”

“Sometimes.”

“Often?”

The pilot shrugged. “The power for the upper shield comes through openings in the lower shield. This tends to ionize a lot of atoms, making lightning travel that much faster along those routes. However, doesn’t look like our hole served as an energy conduit very recently, so we should be safe.”

Turbulence hit the shuttle as it pierced the layer of clouds. Kirtan tightened some of the belts restraining him, then clutched the back of the copilot’s chair with white knuckles. He wanted to blame his growing feeling of nausea on the way the shuttle bounced down through the atmosphere, but he knew that was not its only cause. The world beneath these clouds is the last thing I will see before I die.

The shuttle broke through the vapor shell around the planet and the pilot smiled at him. “Welcome to Imperial Center, Agent Loor.”

Despite his fear, Kirtan Loor looked out at the dark world below and felt overwhelmed by the panorama. Instantly recognizable, the Imperial Palace stood tall, like a volcano that had thrust itself