Star Wars_ X-Wing 06_ Iron Fist - Aaron Allston [96]
“Why?”
“Security is very high on Mon Remonda. When we return from any leave, anywhere, we get a thorough search of belongings. And they never let us know where we are. All mission briefings use code names. We are kept completely in the dark.”
Rossik’s eyebrows rose. “I wasn’t aware that the Rebels had adopted such sensible security precautions. All their talk of individual freedoms—”
Lara waved his words away. “A lie. I was never under such close scrutiny on Implacable as I have been on the Rebel ship.”
“Well, is there any way to transmit using Mon Remonda’s communications systems?”
“Yes, that could be done.” I could lead you right to the assembled fleet and watch as Iron Fist is blown out of space. “That’s probably our best approach.”
Rossik’s pocket beeped at him. From it he drew out a datapad. He glanced at its display and his shoulders tightened up. “Nobody react. I’m getting a signal from the life scanner inside the house. There is someone a little less than a kilometer to our east. That would put him on the first hill that way.”
Lara tried to remain nonchalant. “That’s my wingman. He accompanied me here for security’s sake.”
Rossik gave her a cool look. “Funny you didn’t mention it before now.”
“It wasn’t relevant, was it? He stayed behind to service the X-wings while I came to visit my dear brother.”
“Well, the problem is, he’s now close enough that he might have seen me. We can’t have that. The Rebels have holos of me in their records. You two keep talking. I’ll go back into the house, exit the rear way, and circle around to get behind him. I’ll need ten or fifteen minutes if I’m to do it quietly.”
“No,” Lara said.
“What did you say?”
“I said, no. I can’t show up on Aldivy with my wingman and then go back to the Wraiths without him. They’d be curious.” She did little to sacrifice the sarcasm in her voice.
Rossik considered. “Very well. New plan. I go and kill your wingman, and then we take you and your two X-wings back to Iron Fist. Right now.”
15
Face was actually enjoying his main course, some sort of fowl in a sunfruit marinade, and idly hoping it wasn’t poisoned, when Zsinj asked a question he wasn’t prepared for. “Am I mad, General Kargin, or do you have an Ewok pilot in your unit?”
Face froze. He swallowed and hastily cleared his throat. “What leads you to that conclusion, sir?”
“Intercepted transmissions. Analysis of the vocal characteristics of your pilot, Hawk-bat One, suggests that he was probably, though not definitely, an Ewok. But I don’t understand how that could be possible.”
Face shrugged and ran through a mental list of a dozen different possible responses. “Well, he is an Ewok. Mostly an Ewok. Lieutenant Kettch. My most ferocious pilot, actually. He can’t really reach the controls, but a somewhat crooked prosthetics expert on Tatooine built him a set of hand-and-leg extensions he can wear, so his height has not limited him in the least.”
“Obviously. But I thought Ewoks were far too primitive to handle complex machinery or astronautics theory and practice. Too primitive even to learn an adequate vocabulary in Basic.”
“They are. But Kettch was … modified. We don’t know where or why it happened. He was taken from the sanctuary moon of Endor as a cub, reared in a laboratory somewhere, and fed chemicals that apparently increased his ability to learn. He’s a genius, especially with mathematics.” That was, in fact, the true background of Piggy, and Face was suddenly very glad to have it on hand as a resource.
Zsinj and Melvar exchanged a glance and Face suddenly felt his heart race. There was something in their expressions, as brief as that glance was, that told Face this subject was of vital interest to them. What did it mean?
“Anyway,” Face continued, “he has a very nasty disposition. I wouldn’t care to bring him to you even if you’d asked about him in your earlier communication. He bites strangers. I’d hate to have him tear away a mouthful of Zsinj and for the rest of us to be spaced for his bad manners.”
Once again jovial, Zsinj turned his smile on Face. “Very