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“It is rather simple, Minister Vorru.” Isard’s smile became cold. “At great expense I have leased from High Admiral Teradoc a ship, the Aggregator.”

Vorru’s jaw dropped. “An Interdictor Cruiser.”

“Exactly.” She clapped her hands together. “When it arrives at Alderaan and powers up its gravity well projectors, Antilles and his ships will be trapped. There will be another sacrifice at Alderaan—another victory there for the Empire to celebrate. What do you say to that?”

“I say, Madam Director, I will accept that drink you offered”—Vorru smiled—“and raise a toast to victory.”

24

Wedge’s X-wing reverted to realspace above the plane of the elliptic in the Alderaan system. Spread out in a flat disk, the rubble that had once been Alderaan looked like the crumbs left behind after the cutting of a ryshcate. He slowly shook his head. Dying only once isn’t nearly enough punishment for the Emperor to atone for this evil.

Mynock beeped with each ship entering the system. The Rogues in their X-wings had come in first and oriented themselves toward the Graveyard. The most likely threat to them would come from there, from pirates or others hidden amid the debris. Some of the chunks are large enough to screen even a Star Destroyer. If there was one there, the plan was clean and simple: The X-wings would target it with a full salvo of proton torpedoes, giving the other ships a chance to run.

The dozen freighters Booster had rounded up came in next with the Pulsar Skate in the lead. Moments after reversion they made course corrections to get themselves pointed toward their exit vectors. The Chir’daki came in last and split their squadron up so each freighter had a fighter escort. If trouble erupted, the Twi’lek and Gand squadron could reassemble and screen the escaping freighters from any TIEs or other snubfighters, then head out themselves.

Wedge glanced at his screen and saw the names of the various ships in his fleet scroll up. Green letters indicated they were all set to fulfill their part in the mission. At least we’ve gotten here in one piece. Now we need Karrde to do his job.

Booster’s grudging respect for Karrde counted for a lot with Wedge. He’d actually met Karrde years earlier, back in the days before he joined the Rebellion. Wedge had owned a freighter and was hauling cargo all over the Empire. Karrde had inquired if Wedge wanted to move some cargo for him, but Wedge had turned down the offer. He’d heard nothing bad about Karrde and that had set him back a bit. No negative rumors means too little is known about the man, and I wasn’t inclined to trust him as a result.

Since joining the Rebellion, Wedge had not run across Karrde, but he didn’t doubt Karrde’s ability to produce the weapons and equipment they needed. The fact that Booster went to him first is proof enough that Karrde is genuine and can be trusted to deal straight with his clients. The munitions, launchers, and sensor systems would give them what they needed to complete Isard’s downfall.

“Lead, this is Seven.”

“Go ahead, Tycho.”

“Wedge, I’m getting anomalous contacts from the Graveyard on my IFF frequency.”

Wedge frowned. The Identify Friend/Foe system involved the identification beacon all ships carried. It sent out a signal that other ships picked up, telling them the name of the ship and its identification designation. Smugglers often had two or three IFF modules that they could swap in and out to run under clean names. Contacts on the IFF frequency were simple rechecks of a ship’s identity. And if Imps are waiting in the asteroids it’s an unbelievably stupid way to tip us to their presence.

“Tycho, is it the same signal over and over again?”

“Seems so. You thinking an automated beacon of some sort?”

“You are running an Alderaanian code. Perhaps there is an old system traffic satellite in the asteroids wanting to check you for Alderaan control.”

“Probably. I’ll punch up the gain on my passive sensors and see if I find anything in that direction.”

“I copy.” Wedge looked at his main screen as Mynock began beeping again.