Star Wars_ X-Wing 08_ Isard's Revenge - Michael A. Stackpole [105]
Vessery nodded. “That’s to be desired.”
Telik turned back toward Wedge. “I would have preferred to be in on the planning from the start, but I was on Commenor and have only recently returned. While I was there I saw two acquaintances of yours: Mirax Terrik and Iella Wessiri.”
Wedge blinked. “What were they doing on Commenor?”
“Following up on the leads planted by Krennel’s people to lure Rogue Squadron to Distna.”
“Interesting.” Wedge scratched at his throat. He’d noticed that Telik had referred to “Krennel’s people” and not “Isard’s clone” as the one who had been planting those clues. Either he didn’t know, or didn’t feel he could pass that information on to Wedge if he did. Wedge expected no less in the way of informational security by Isard’s people, which was why the whole mention of Commenor struck him as odd.
Telik smiled. “The Wessiri woman impressed me a great deal. She was in a difficult situation and I managed to slip her a blaster, which she used to effect her escape. Terrik went with her and, later, I saw they were fine. Not but one out of a dozen people could have done what she did.”
“For as long as I’ve known her, she’s been very good.” Wedge pasted a smile on his face. There was no way Telik would have mentioned his run to Commenor, his having helped Iella and Mirax, and their escape, if Isard had not told him to do so. Hearing what he’d heard certainly put Wedge in Telik’s debt, which would help inspire the sort of trust that would make the mission work more smoothly.
By the same token, I’ve just been told that Isard has a line on two friends of mine. If things do not go the way she wants them to go, Iella and Mirax could be killed, or worse. The sorry plight of the Lusankya prisoners had not escaped Wedge’s mind. Just because Isard wants me to trust Telik isn’t a reason not to trust him, but I will guard against problems, somehow.
Wedge sighed. “Well, we’ll be going back and forth over these plans for a long while, I guess, since we don’t have someone as good as Iella here to tell us how to fix them. It strikes me that the only remaining part of the plan to put into place is for me to record a message for Admiral Ackbar that will get him to bring a New Republic fleet with him to destroy Krennel.”
Vessery nodded. “Two messages, actually. One will outline the plan and prepare the New Republic to move. The second will contain the order for them to go. Moving forces around a galaxy seldom allows for split-second timing—as we have all learned—but it can be closely simulated and we’ll have to settle for that.”
“Worked when we took Coruscant.” Wedge suppressed a smile. “Well, let us cook up the text of the first message I’ll send, so the Director can approve it. Then we can set about ending Delak Krennel’s long reign.”
28
Whistler dodged around workers stacking crates on binary load lifters and shot down the ramp from the Worldhopper’s cargo hold. The captain, an older man with two twin sons who crewed for him, glanced in his direction but did nothing to stop him. Rennik had been paid to get Whistler and Gate to Oradin, on the planet Brentaal, and no further. He’d done his job and turned his attention back to adjudicating a dispute between his sons.
Whistler whirled his head around and piped a call to Gate to join him. The R5 droid whistled back mournfully, then slowly rolled down the ramp. His previously pristine red and white exterior was stippled with a series of black and brown burn marks. More galling than that, however, Gate had been fitted with a conical scrap-metal cap that trailed a long ribbon of bright blue fabric. A few spot welds held it in place and, despite their best efforts, neither droid had been able to free Gate from the cap.
Whistler fixed his visual lens on the Rennik brothers and digitized