Star Wars_ X-Wing 02_ Wedge's Gamble - Michael A. Stackpole [30]
Corran nodded. “When persuasion fails, coercion works.”
“I hope so, Lieutenant Horn.”
Nawara Ven sat forward, letting his brain tails dangle over his shoulders. “Commander, I’ve reviewed the list of ransom candidates. Am I mistaken, or do I notice a significant portion of them are Bothans?”
“Is there a problem with that, Lieutenant Ven?”
“On the surface of it, no, sir. On the other hand I noticed that a number of people—many of whom were my clients, in fact—people who truly are political prisoners, have been left off the list. I don’t mean that there was any campaign to keep my clients from being pulled off the planet, just that the list of ‘good’ people has some people on it who could easily be on the other list, and some very deserving, innocent people have been left off the list.”
Wedge smiled, a response that seemed to surprise his pilots. “I’m glad you pointed that out. In presenting this plan to the Provisional Council Admiral Ackbar made very clear that we’d have to be dealing from a position of strength. Councilor Fey’lya provided some deal packages indicating who should be asked for in exchange for this or that person on the ‘bad’ list. With your help and experience in negotiations, Lieutenant Ven, I intend to win more people for each of our prisoners than the Council suggested we might. I do have clearance to supplement my lists to account for marriages and children. I intend us to exploit that latitude as much as possible.”
He looked around. “Any other questions before I deal with Lieutenant Horn’s next objection to the plan?” No one said anything, so Wedge nodded to Corran. “Be my guest, Lieutenant Horn.”
“Not really an objection, sir, but a question—can we exclude any of the people on our ‘bad’ list?” Corran winced. “There are a few on here who really shouldn’t be allowed off Kessel, unless we’re going to dump them in the Maw on our way out of there.”
The image of spacing any number of the criminals into the black hole near Kessel brought a smile to Wedge’s face, but he killed it quickly enough. “These are the people that have been determined to be useful to us. Who did you have in mind?”
“Zekka Thyne—he’s also known as ‘Patches,’ but not to his face. He’s on Kessel because my father and I got him on a smuggling pinch, but he’s been tied to the murders of nearly a dozen people—all of them rivals of Black Sun. Patches was being groomed as Prince Xizor’s man on Corellia. Xizor tried to slice some files to get Thyne shifted back off Kessel but he couldn’t because Corsec’s Imperial Liaison, Kirtan Loor, had accidentally altered the structure of the files with Thyne’s information. But for that bit of incompetence, Thyne would have been long gone from Kessel—it was the only good thing Loor ever did.”
“If we’re lucky, Lieutenant Horn, Thyne will be dead.”
Corran smiled. “We could see to it that he is.”
“Murder, Lieutenant Horn?” Wedge frowned. “Even if he is as bad as you say …”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Corran held his hands up as everyone turned to stare at him. “I’d be the first person who would be glad to dance on his grave, and if he steps out of line at all, I’d be happy to vape him, but I’m not suggesting murder. It does strike me, though, that we could slice some files and report some deaths that prevent us from taking certain people.”
Corran’s suggestion sorely tempted Wedge. The list of criminals Borsk Fey’lya had supplied did scan like a directory of organized crime. Wedge had no love for the Empire, but it had been fairly ruthless at