Star Wars_ X-Wing 08_ Isard's Revenge - Michael A. Stackpole [113]
Booster laughed. “Is that all?”
Cracken snarled. “You have two weeks in which to do it. Maybe less. If she discovers Whistler and Gate are gone, she may bolt.”
Booster smiled. “Records will show the two droids were destroyed on Brentaal.”
“Nice work, Booster, but this is Isard we’re talking about. If anyone will see through that deception, she will.” Cracken straightened up and folded his arms over his chest. “You’ve got to see through her deception and, for all our sakes, I hope your first guess is your best guess, because we won’t get another shot at her.”
30
Wedge Antilles looked at the datapad in his left hand and nodded when an ALL CLEAR message flashed across it. He unplugged the small surveillance device detection scanner from it and tossed the wandlike item to Corran. The ex-CorSec officer wound the cord around the wand and slipped it into his pocket. Wedge hoped he’d be able to slip it back into the base’s security office before it was noted as missing. And I hope this meeting is over before security comes in to see why the bugs Corran deactivated aren’t working.
He looked around at the other eight pilots gathered with him in the small briefing room. “I don’t know how much time we’ll have before someone is sent to look in on us, but we’re clear for the moment. I know you’ve been briefed on the plan and we’ve run some very good sims of it, but I’m sensing some anxiety. Tell me what’s going on.”
Down in the front row, Gavin leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on his knees. “We’re taking all the risk on this run. We go in first, we’re there for a week before the attack comes. We have a lot of exposure, and I can’t help but feel that Isard might just betray us to Krennel.”
Wedge nodded. “Of course, if she wanted us dead, she could have killed us at Distna, or at any time she’s had us here. She could have even brought us to Krennel as prisoners.”
“But by having us inserted into Ciutric, she shows Krennel the weakness in his security setup.” Inyri Forge fingered her lower lip for a second. “Revealing that breach to him could reinforce the idea that Krennel needs her.”
Tycho disagreed from his position by the square room’s only door. “Allying herself with Krennel would put her in an inferior position. If we pull this off, if she’s instrumental in taking Krennel down and freeing the Lusankya prisoners, she’ll put the New Republic’s government in a difficult position. They will be in her debt, but she’s the one who had the Krytos virus created. How she is dealt with could create major human-nonhuman fractures in the New Republic.”
“I agree with Tycho, but I think that political pressure angle is too slow for her.” Corran sat back, tugging absently at one end of the long mustache he’d grown as part of his disguise. “I think we can all agree that she’s going to backstab us somehow, right?”
Wedge saw everyone’s head bob in agreement with Corran’s question. “Okay, so now we have to figure out how she’ll do it.”
Myn Donos raised a hand. “Look, I don’t have the same history with her that the rest of you do, but from all I’ve heard I get the impression she’s very pragmatic.”
“Keep going, Myn.”
“Okay, so if she’s pragmatic, it strikes me that she’s going to use the group that beat her—Rogue Squadron—to hurt Krennel badly. You did it before on Axxila and Ciutric, so you can do it one more time, putting an end to him. This suggests to me that whatever she’ll do to us, she’ll do after we take Krennel down.”
Wedge felt a chill run down his spine. “Or she’ll do it before we take him down, but have it take effect after we’ve succeeded.”
Gavin frowned. “I’m not sure I follow that.”
“Remember the mess she made with the Krytos virus?” Wedge, feeling weary, rubbed his eyes with his left hand. “She gets someone into the facility where the Lusankya prisoners are being held and infects them with a deadly virus that takes a long time to manifest: a