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Cracken seated himself and passed out the beverages. “Please, drink up. I wanted to tell you that I’m very pleased and grateful for your work. Hmmm, just as well Booster’s asleep for that part. Admiral Ackbar and I have gone over your various scenarios and agree that several are highly probable. We’re focusing in on those that involve the prisoners.”

Mirax lowered her mug and jerked her head toward her father’s sleeping form. “Those were largely Booster’s work. He concocted what he called Isard’s ‘Hierarchy of Hatred,’ then figured out what she could do to maximize damage to her enemies. Something as simple as denying ground support to liberate the prison would result in the deaths of the prisoners, a rough time for the Rogues and ground-based defenses that would make the New Republic’s fight against Krennel much closer. Everyone gets hurt: the prisoners, the Rogues, Krennel, and the New Republic. Just the kind of mischief she’d love.”

“We’re taking precautions that should cover all of those eventualities. No guarantees, but we’ll be doing our best.” Cracken sat back in his chair, wrapping his hands around the caf mug. “The other scenarios, ones based on her repeating the Krytos virus situation, are frightening as well. We’re mobilizing assets that can help us detect, isolate, and cure anyone who is infected, but for all we know Ciutric is just going to be one big sick world. It’s not at all what we want to deal with, but we can’t discount that possibility either.”

Iella shook her head. “It doesn’t seem like we’ve come up with much for two weeks’ worth of work, but we’ve gone over every file that mentions her, all the rumors about her that we’ve heard over the years, and even had Booster trying to think like her. I know we’ve worked hard, but I can’t help feel that we’ve missed something.”

Mirax reached across the table to squeeze Iella’s hand. “Isard is just one big ocean of evil. No real way to know if we’ve found all the currents running deep there.”

Iella arched an eyebrow at Mirax. “We really have been speaking a lot with Admiral Ackbar, haven’t we?”

“Yeah, it’ll be months before I stop using ocean analogies.”

“Well, you’ll get your chance to begin recovering soon. Admiral Ackbar and I leave for the primary staging area in four hours.” Cracken fished inside his tunic and withdrew two datacards. He slid one to Mirax and the other to Iella. “Because you won’t be able to talk to us, I want you to have these.”

Iella picked up the datacard and turned it over. It looked entirely normal, save for platinum triangles at each of the corners. She flipped it front again, then held it up between her left thumb and forefinger. “This contains ultra-clearance codes?”

Cracken nodded solemnly. “Army, Navy, Intelligence, Governmental from the Republic level on down to major municipal levels, and many corporate levels as well. It also has codes that will allow you to access five million credits—each. Based on the authorization in the card, you can go anywhere and do anything you need to do. If you think of something, no matter how wild, and you need to take steps to stop Isard, this will allow you to take them.”

Booster rolled over onto his back. “Good, we can use it to buy more guns for my ship.”

“That’s why you don’t have one of the cards, Booster.”

The smuggler stretched. “The New Republic has no sense of gratitude at all.”

“Go back to sleep, Father.” Mirax slipped her card into a pocket. “I take it you want us to keep working on this until Isard is found or gives herself up?”

“That’s it. Do whatever you have to do. If you have to break laws, try to be discreet, and if you have to kill anyone, well, try not to raze any planets.”

Mirax blinked. “You’re serious about this.”

“Very.” Cracken finished his caf and stood. “May the Force be with you.”

Iella watched him leave the room, then looked again at the card in her hands. “They’re putting a lot of trust in us. They’re giving us a lot of responsibility. We can’t fail.”

“We won’t.” Mirax got up, walked over to where her father