Vision of the future

'Idiot,' Disra snarled toward the empty display. 'Moronic, brain-rotted idiot.'

Across the table, Tierce stirred. 'I trust you're planning to be a little more politic than that with the Kroctari,' he said.

Disra shifted his glare from the display to the Guardsman. 'What, you think I should have let him cry on my shoulder? Or said 'There, there,' and promised to buy him a new battlecruiser?'

'The Cavrilhu Pirates would be a dangerous enemy,' Tierce warned. 'Not militarily, of course, but because of what they know about you.'

'Zothip's the only one who really knows anything,' Disra muttered. Tierce was right—he probably should have played it a little more calmly. But Zothip still shouldn't have contacted him directly like that, especially not when he was away from the security of his office.

Regardless, he wasn't going to admit an error in judgment in Tierce's presence. 'Don't worry—he's making too much out of this arrangement to toss it all over a single battlecruiser.'

'I wonder,' Tierce said thoughtfully. 'You should never underestimate what people will do out of pride.'

'No,' Disra said significantly. 'Or out of arrogance, either.' Tierce's eyes narrowed fractionally. 'What's that supposed to mean?'

'It means you've pushed things too far,' Disra said flatly. 'Dangerously far. In case you've forgotten, Flim's job was to inspire the Empire's military and bring them solidly into line behind us. It was never part of the plan to openly provoke the New Republic this way.'

'I've already explained Coruscant has no legal basis for action—'

'And you think that will stop them?' Disra shot back. 'You really think fine points of the law will make any difference to terrified aliens who think Grand Admiral Thrawn is breathing down their necks? Bad enough that you talked me into letting Flim show himself to the Diamalan Senator. But now this?' He waved a hand in the direction of the planet.

'The Diamalan incident accomplished exactly what it was intended to,' Tierce said coolly. 'It created doubt and consternation, stirred up old animosities a bit more, and silenced some of the last calming voices the Rebellion still has.'

'Wonderful—except that now this little trick has completely negated that one,' Disra countered.

'How can anyone wonder if the Diamala are lying when a whole planet has seen Thrawn?' Tierce smiled. 'Ah, but that's the point: the whole planet hasn't seen him. Only the Lord Superior's handpicked delegation will have seen him; the rest have only their word that Thrawn has returned. And since part of his message to the neighboring systems will be that Kroctar is under Thrawn's protection, his sighting will be as suspect as the Diamal's.'

'You always make it sound so reasonable,' Disra bit out. 'But there's more here than you're letting on. I want to know what.'

Tierce lifted his eyebrows. 'That sounded like a threat.'

'It was half a threat,' Disra corrected him coldly. 'Here's the other half.' Reaching into his tunic, he drew the tiny blaster concealed there.

He never even got a chance to aim it. Before the weapon was even clear, Tierce had thrown himself onto the conference table, the momentum of his leap carrying him sliding headfirst on elbow and hip toward Disra across the polished laminate. Reflexively, Disra leaped to his right, trying to move out of reach of the approaching hands; but even as he lifted the blaster, Tierce rolled partway over and grabbed the center comm display, using it as a pivot point to both change direction and also roll him onto his back, swiveling his feet around in front of him, and then pushing off of it to increase his speed.

The maneuver caught Disra flat-footed. Before he could move again to correct his aim, one of Tierce's feet caught the blaster squarely across the side of the barrel, sending it spinning across the room.

Disra took a staggering step back, the bitter taste of defeat choking his throat, hands lifted in a futile gesture of defense as Tierce hopped off the table. He'd had one chance to wrest control of this grand scheme back from the Guardsman, and he'd muffed it.

And now Tierce would kill him.

But once again, Tierce surprised him. 'That was extremely foolish, Your Excellency,' the other said calmly, crossing the room and retrieving the blaster. 'The sound of a shot would have had a squad of stormtroopers down on you in nothing flat.'

Disra took a careful breath, lowering his hands. 'That works both ways,' he managed, knowing even as he said it that the Guardsman wouldn't need to bother with anything so crude and noisy as a blaster if he wanted to kill