Vision of the future

'Oh, yes,' Karrde murmured. 'How very lucky for her.' The woman's eyes flashed. 'If you've quite finished—'

'I haven't,' Karrde said. 'Clearly, you don't consider Mistryl lives worth anything. What about Mistryl reputations?'

Her eyes narrowed. 'What do you mean?'

Karrde waved toward Flim. 'You were about to make an alliance with these people. You were about to be taken in by nothing more than slick talk, whipped air, and a dirt-level fringe con man. And don't bother denying it; a member of the Eleven doesn't travel off Emberlene just for the exercise.' The woman's eyes drifted away from his gaze. 'The issue was still under discussion,' she muttered.

'Glad to hear it,' Karrde said. 'Because if even your reputation doesn't matter to you, consider what binding the Mistryl to a vengeful man like Moff Disra would have meant. How long do you think it would have been before you became his private Death Commandos?'

'That would never have happened,' Karoly put in emphatically. 'We would never sink that low, not even under a treaty.'

Shada stirred. 'What was it you tried to stop me from doing on the Resinem Complex roof?' she asked quietly.

'That was different,' Karoly protested.

Shada shook her head. 'No. Condoning and cooperating with murder is no different from committing it yourself.'

'She's right,' Karrde said. 'And once you started down that road, it would have meant the end of the Mistryl. You'd have burned your sky-arches behind you with every other potential client; and when Flim's soap bubble collapsed, as it inevitably would have, there would have been nothing left out there anymore for you.

'And with the end of the Mistryl would have come a final end to Emberlene.' He crossed his arms and waited... and after a few seconds the older woman grimaced. 'What is it you want?'

'I want the Mistryl hunter teams called off Shada,' he said. 'Whatever her alleged crime against you, it's to be forgiven and the death mark lifted.'

The woman's mouth twisted. 'You ask much.'

'We've given much,' Karrde reminded her. 'Is it a deal?' She hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. 'Very well. But she will not be reinstated into the Mistryl; not now, not ever. And Emberlene will forever be closed to her.'

She turned burning eyes up at Shada. 'From now on she is a woman without a home.' Karrde looked at Shada. Her face was tight, her lips pressed tightly together. But she returned his look steadily and nodded. 'Fine,' he said. 'We'll just have to see about finding her a new home.'

'With you?' The woman snorted. 'With a smuggler and seller of information? Tell me again how low a Mistryl can sink.'

There was no answer to that. But fortunately, Karrde didn't have to come up with one. There was a sudden bustling at his side, and then he was gently but firmly shouldered away by the medical team as they gathered around the injured woman. He stepped back out of their way, shifting his attention to the security team that had arrived at the same time. With professional efficiency they scanned Flim and Disra for hidden weapons, put restraints on them both, and escorted them back to the aft bridge turbolift.

Another group, following behind them, was carrying Tierce's body.

'Karrde?'

He turned to see Pellaeon walking back along the command walkway toward him. 'I have to go across to the Errant Venture and speak with General Bel Iblis,' the Admiral said as he reached him.

'But before I go, I wanted to discuss the price for the Flim and Tierce information you brought me.' Karrde shrugged. 'For once in my life, Admiral, I'm not sure what to say,' he admitted. 'The datacard was a gift to me. It seems a bit dishonest to turn around and charge you for it.'

'Ah.' Pellaeon eyed him speculatively. 'A gift from those aliens whose ship scared the stuffing out of my sensor officers at Bastion?'

'From an associate of theirs,' Karrde said. 'I'm really not at liberty to discuss the details.'

'I understand,' Pellaeon said. 'Still, your ethics apart—which I find laudable, incidentally—I'd like to find a way to thank you with something more concrete than just words.'

'I'll see what I can come up with.' Karrde gestured toward the Star Destroyer visible out the viewport. 'In the