Star Wars_ X-Wing 03_ The Krytos Trap - Michael A. Stackpole [30]
“They’ll learn nothing from me.”
Isard frowned. “Please, Horn, skip the bluster. We will start with a level four narco-interrogation and work our way down to level one if we must. You know you’ll tell us whatever we want to know.”
Sheer terror froze the lump in Corran’s stomach solid. With a level four interrogation session he’d be remembering things his mother had forgotten while she was carrying him in her womb. I will have no secrets. Hundreds of images flitted through his mind as he sorted valuable memories from the casual ones.
This process, while agonizing, also brought a smile to his face. Gil Bastra, the man who had created a series of identities for Corran to use after he fled from Corellia, had made sure the identities took Corran out into the outlier worlds. From Loor they know everything about my days with CorSec. Thanks to Gil there’s very little valuable information I can give her. I was out of circulation until I joined Rogue Squadron, and I don’t know enough about the Rebellion to hurt it.
“I see your smile, Horn. You may feel bold enough to smile now, but things will change.” Isard herself smiled, and Corran found it a most forbidding thing. “When we are finished with you, smiles will be but a memory, and a painful one at that.”
9
Wedge laughed aloud, telling himself he was laughing at the irony of feeling nervous, not because of being nervous. Here he was, a celebrated hero and the sole survivor of both Death Star runs, conqueror of Coruscant and leader of the most feared fighter squadron in the galaxy, and at Iella Wessiri’s door he felt nervous. Enough ice water ran in his veins, so the rumors went, to replenish Coruscant’s polar caps, yet he found himself clearing his voice and hesitating before he pushed the buzzer button at her door.
On the way over from squadron headquarters he had convinced himself he wasn’t going to be asking her out on a date, really. He’d spent the previous hour being harangued by Erisi Dlarit concerning the Vratix terrorist and his whereabouts after the raid on Warlord Zsinj’s bacta store. He’d done his best, over and over again, to explain to her that he had no reports about the Thyferran native, but promised to pass notice of her interest up to General Cracken. That really was all he could do, but Erisi took a lot of convincing on that point.
The experience had been draining. There had been moments when he considered just cutting her off and ordering her out of his office, but he could tell her concern about the Vratix was based on her conviction that the insectoid creature was a terrorist and a potential hazard to anyone who came in contact with it. He thought Erisi’s reaction might have been born from her frustration at not having been able to do anything to prevent Corran’s death. By making the terrorist her responsibility, she might prevent another tragedy, thereby atoning for her lack of action in Corran’s case. Wedge found her motive noble, but her insistence exhausting. Corran’s death and the misery of millions on Coruscant had everyone in the squadron worn thin, and being dismissive of Erisi’s concerns would not help the situation.
Corran’s death had likewise affected Iella deeply. She had been Corran’s partner in the Corellian Security Force and had fled Corellia at the same time he had. Her flight had brought her to Coruscant, where she joined up with the Rebel underground. Her reunion with Corran had been a joyous occasion. It had been easy for Wedge to see how they complemented each other and must have worked well as a team.
Those qualities that made her well-suited to working with Corran were qualities Wedge found attractive. She was thoughtful and stable, yet possessed of a good sense of humor and a fierce loyalty to her friends and to justice. Unfortunately, her loyalty made her most zealous in helping the prosecution find evidence against Tycho Celchu, but she approached the search so openly