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“He’s made himself an obvious target.” Elscol had opened her arms to emphasize her point. “If we take him out we will rock Xucphran society to its foundations.”

Iella had protested the whole idea. “Dlarit is hardly a military target in any real sense. He’s a fop. We can undercut him by hitting other targets and making his assurances lies.”

“We could, but hitting such sites still doesn’t bring the nature of war home to the people. We need to frighten them, deeply.”

“And hitting military targets won’t do that?”

“Eventually. This will be faster.”

Iella frowned. “Wouldn’t just shooting random people accomplish the same thing?”

Elscol shrugged. “Probably. It’s a backup plan.”

“You can’t be serious.” Iella looked at the smaller woman in utter disbelief. “That would be murder. This is murder, for all intents and purposes. You can’t kill innocent people.”

“Look, Iella, there are no innocent people here.” Elscol planted fists on her hips. “Over the years I’ve helped dozens of worlds liberate themselves from the Imps, and part of each fight is making the populace wake up to what’s really going on. People assume that if they say nothing and do nothing they’re not involved in the fight, but the fact is that their apathy is a tacit vote of support for the status quo. They have to be made to see that by making no choice they have indeed made a choice. When they understand that, they begin to think about those choices, and we make choosing the Imps out to be a very bad choice.”

Iella’s head came up. “Black Sun used to use that same rationale to justify murdering all sorts of folks.”

“There’s a difference between Black Sun and us.”

“Oh, do tell.”

“Black Sun was all about greed and selfishness.” Elscol looked around at the humans and Vratix gathered in the room. “We’re fighting for freedom, for the right to live the way we want to live. We’re fighting for the only thing worth fighting for.”

“And if these people want to be ruled by the Empire?”

“They can consider our action an eviction notice.” Elscol’s brown eyes narrowed. “You come from a law-enforcement background where you were out to protect the innocent from the ravages of the criminals. You could do that without resorting to this drastic an activity because you had the weight of the government behind you. You had a justice system that would reinforce the will of the people. I understand that and respect it. By the same token, I also know that you saw criminals out there that you knew could only be stopped by a blaster bolt.

“That’s what we’re up against here. Dlarit might seem harmless, but he’s helping prop up a system that keeps the Vratix in virtual slavery. He’s propping up a system that means billions of individuals suffer needlessly from diseases because they cannot afford the cure. He’s got the blood of everyone who died because of a lack of bacta on his hands, as well as that of the families of the Alazhi’s crew.”

Iella had nodded. “I can’t deny the validity of what you’re saying about Dlarit. Add to it the fact that his daughter spied on the Alliance for the Imps and got Corran captured. The problem still is that I’m uncomfortable with assassinating him, especially in his home.”

“The act has much more impact there. We’ll make a hologram of the execution and start circulating it. That will get our point across, and fast, too.”

“And it will make us into ghouls. What about Dlarit’s staff and his family? What do we do if they find us there?”

The muscles at the corners of Elscol’s jaw bunched. “Blasters do have stun settings.”

Iella had raised an eyebrow. “You sound as if you would kill his children, too.”

“Erisi’s his daughter—Huttlings grow up to be Hutts.”

“But leaving his minor children alive would show us to be capable of mercy for those who realize the error of their ways, correct?” Iella had looked hard at her. “Correct?”

“It’ll make the operation more difficult, but it can be done.” Elscol had looked around the briefing room. “Any other philosophical objections, or can we get to planning?”

There were none, so