Star Wars_ X-Wing 03_ The Krytos Trap - Michael A. Stackpole [59]
“The question for you, Agent Loor, is this: how do you want to destroy the Rebellion? Do you want to blast it apart, or distract it until it, too, sickens and dies? What you will find growing up in its place, I can assure you, will be to your liking.”
The Intelligence agent pressed his lips together in a thin line. My refusal to go along will mean my death, so my choice is obvious. And, as with Ysanne Isard, Fliry Vorru will not live forever.
Loor nodded slowly. “What do you want?”
“I want you to hit only one of the six repositories at this time—the one just south of the Senate district. My people have already managed to steal most of that supply anyway, so your attack will cover our tracks and leave us to profit from the spike in black market pricing. I will give you other targets as we go along to further my aims.”
“Consider it done. Tonight, during Mon Mothma’s speech?”
Vorru’s face blossomed in a broad smile. “Ah, you have a taste for irony. Splendid. I think our alliance will be most profitable for the both of us. I anticipate doing business with you, Agent Loor, will be an ongoing pleasure.”
16
Iella Wessiri smiled at Diric as she settled into the witness chair. Diric was in the court for the first time and actually looked excited by the crush of people. The bailiffs had let him sit right behind the prosecution table because that put him in close proximity to where she sat when she wasn’t on the stand.
The ashen hue of Diric’s flesh betrayed his fatigue, but the trial had piqued his interest. If not for the fire that put into his brown eyes, she would have remained adamantly against his attending the trial. She felt the trial had to be on the Palpatine Counter-insurgency Front’s list of targets, and she didn’t want Diric exposed to their violence. The sheer savagery of their strike at a bacta containment facility the previous night had left her shaken and, secretly, pleased to have Diric where she could see him.
Halla Ettyk stood. “Iella Wessiri, could you please tell the court about your personal employment history over the last eight years?”
“I joined the Corellian Security Force just about a standard year before the Emperor dissolved the Senate. I worked there for six years, moving up into the Smuggling Interdiction division, where I partnered for two years with Corran Horn. Approximately two years ago Corran, Gil Bastra, my husband Diric, and I all fled Corellia before our division’s Imperial Liaison officer, Kirtan Loor, could trump up charges and arrest us. From Corellia Diric and I came to Coruscant and remained in hiding for a year. We had enough money that we didn’t need jobs, so I did nothing during that first year here. Subsequent to my husband’s disappearance, about a year ago, I joined the Alliance organization here on Coruscant and aided Rogue Squadron in bringing the shields down. Since then, for the past two weeks, I’ve been assigned to your office as chief investigator on this case.”
The prosecutor nodded. “So, you worked with Corran Horn for two years.”
“I partnered with him for two years.”
“Describe what you mean by partnering.”
Iella shrugged slightly. “It’s akin to being married to someone in that you have to trust them completely. Your life is in your partner’s hands in dangerous situations. The only way you can build up that level of trust is by getting to know one another. The job means you’re together a great deal—in any given week you could easily see more of your partner than you do your own family. Some partners get to know each other so well that they almost get this Gotal-sense of being able to read each other’s moods and react in situations without