Star Wars_ X-Wing 07_ Solo Command - Aaron Allston [102]
“Count on it.”
“Two. We retain enough businesses to start again.”
“That will be harder. As much as we’ve done to keep your businesses isolated from one another, some leakage of information has obviously occurred. The more they capture, the more they seem to be able to capture. But, statistically, they can’t find everything. We’ll have a solid core left.”
“Three. We have time to rebuild, repair, recover.”
“For that, we’ll definitely have to use the Second Death for her intended purpose. But we can do that.”
“Four. We come up with our next plan for the elimination of the New Republic.”
“I think that means Rancor Base and the Force-witches. We have to learn what they do and how they do it. Another path we can take, weapons the Rebels and the Empire can’t cope with.”
“And Five. Which actually takes place before Three. We kill General Han Solo and as many of his friends and aides as is humanly possible.”
“That,” Melvar said, “will be the most enjoyable part of the operation.”
Zsinj showed up at Lara’s new work station in the bridge pit, as apparently cheerful as usual. “Lieutenant Petothel. How are you settling in?”
“Very well,” she said. “I can’t describe how good it is to be doing this kind of work again.”
“Good, good. But the first few days you looked, if I may be indelicate, a little tired. Rings under the eyes. A general malaise.”
She nodded. “It took me a while to get used to ship’s routine. I had to make some adjustments to my sleeping patterns.” Not surprising, as it had proved difficult to get any sleep when she was talking and programming with Tonin all night long. “But I’m over it.”
“Have you had a chance to look over the data package I transmitted to you this morning?”
“Yes.”
“Your conclusions?”
Lara became aware that the operatives at the consoles on either side of her, though they were continuing to do their work, were listening intently to this exchange. She smiled. Intelligence operatives were the same everywhere. “Well, first, whoever compiled that data did an inadequate job of making the events anonymous. I recognize the first mission as the Millennium Falcon escort to Kidriff Five. I was there, after all. Which means that Prime Target is the Falcon, and Secondary Target is, roughly, Commander Antilles’s entire command of Rebel starfighters.”
Zsinj nodded, his expression glum. “So much for secrecy. What do you conclude from their behavior?”
“General Solo is trying to separate you from the income that sustains your fleet, and is personally rabble-rousing while he’s at it.”
“Why?”
Lara gave him a smile that suggested contempt for their subject matter. It was easy; she only had to let her contempt for Zsinj rise to the surface. “He thinks he’s an important man. That his presence is the only thing that can inspire Rebel sympathies in the population. Based on what I’ve personally observed of the man, I’d say he’s desperate. He hasn’t had any real success in his mission against you. If he fails, he gets replaced; if he gets replaced, he loses all his status.”
“I never had the impression that he cares about status.”
“He doesn’t.” She almost hesitated on the enormity of the lie she’d concocted, the one that Zsinj, in all his ego, must inevitably accept. “But the woman he loves does.”
“Ahhh.”
“He knows that as a dirt-poor smuggler, he can’t keep a princess’s affection. But as a Rebel general, he can.”
“But only if he’s successful.”
“Correct.”
“Interesting interpretation.”
“There’s more.” Lara pressed on, hoping Zsinj would not detect the queasiness she was feeling.
She had an idea, based on the pattern the Millennium Falsehood was demonstrating, as to which world or worlds the ersatz Han Solo would visit next. But was this a conclusion that Zsinj and his intelligence people were supposed to have drawn, or had she come to a conclusion based on her superior knowledge of the Wraiths, a conclusion that would endanger her former squadmates? She didn’t know, and the