The glowing red eyes glinted as Thrawn looked at him. 'We've lost a round, Captain,' he said. 'No more.'
'It seems to me, Admiral, that we've lost far more than that,' Pellaeon growled. 'There's no chance that Karrde won't give the Katana fleet to the Rebellion now.'
'Ah; but he won't simply give it to them,' Thrawn corrected, almost lazily. 'Karrde's pattern has never been to give anything away for free. He'll attempt to bargain, or else will set conditions the Rebellion will find unsatisfactory. The negotiations will take time, particularly given the suspicious political atmosphere we've taken such pains to create on Coruscant. And a little time is all we need.'
Pellaeon shook his head. 'You're assuming that ship thief Ferrier will be able to find the Corellian group's ship supplier before Karrde and the Rebellion work out their differences.'
'There's no assumption involved,' Thrawn said softly. 'Ferrier is even now on Solo's trail and has extrapolated his destination for us ... and thanks to Intelligence's excellent work on Karrde's background, I know exactly who the man is we'll be meeting at the end of that trail.' He gazed out the viewport at the returning TIE fighters. 'Instruct Navigation to prepare a course for the Pantolomin system, Captain,' he said, his voice thoughtful. 'Departure to be as soon as the supply shuttles have been unloaded.'
'Yes, sir,' Pellaeon said, nodding the order on to the navigator and doing a quick calculation in his head. Time for the Millennium Falcon to reach Coruscant; time for the Chimaera to reach Pantolomin ...
'Yes,' Thrawn said into his thoughts. 'Now it's a race.
CHAPTER
24
The sun had set over the brown hills of Honoghr, leaving a lingering hint of red and violet in the clouds above the horizon. Leia watched the fading color from just inside the dukha door, feeling the all-too-familiar sense of nervous dread that always came when she was about to go into danger and battle. A few more minutes and she, Chewbacca, and Threepio would be setting out for Nystao, to free Khabarakh and escape. Or to die trying. She sighed and walked back into the dukha, wondering dimly where she'd gone wrong on this whole thing. It had seemed so reasonable to come to Honoghr-so right, somehow, to make such a bold gesture of good faith to the Noghri. Even before leaving Kashyyyk she'd been convinced that the offer hadn't been entirely her own idea, but instead the subtle guidance of the Force.
And perhaps it had been. But not necessarily from the side of the Force she'd assumed.
A cool breeze whispered in through the doorway, and Leia shivered. The Force is strong in my family. Luke had said those words to her on the eve of the Battle of Endor. She hadn't believed it at first, not until long afterward when his patient training had begun to bring out a hint of those abilities in her. But her father had had that same training and those same abilities ... and yet had ultimately fallen to the dark side. One of the twins kicked. She paused, reaching out to gently touch the two tiny beings within her; and as she did so, fragments of memory flooded in on her. Her mother's face, taut and sad, lifting her from the darkness of the trunk where she'd lain hidden from prying eyes. Unfamiliar faces leaning over her, while her mother spoke to them in a tone that had frightened her and set her crying. Crying again when her mother died, holding tightly to the man she'd learned to call Father.
Pain and misery and fear ... and all of it because' of her true father, the man who had renounced the name Anakin Skywalker to call himself Darth Vader.
There was a faint shuffling sound from the doorway. 'What is it, Threepio?' Leia asked, turning to face the droid.
'Your Highness, Chewbacca has informed me that you will be leaving here soon,' Threepio said, his prim voice a little anxious. 'May I assume that I will be accompanying you?'
'Yes, of course,' Leia told him. 'Whatever happens in Nystao, I don't think you'll want to be here for the aftermath.'
'I quite agree.' The droid hesitated, and Leia could see in his stance that his anxiety hadn't been totally relieved. 'There is, however, something that I really think you should know,' he continued. 'One of the decon droids has been acting very strangely.'
'Really?' Leia said. 'What exactly does this strangeness consist of?'
'He seems far too interested in everything,' Threepio said. 'He has asked a great number of questions, not only about you and Chewbacca, but also about me. I've also seen him moving about the village after he was supposed to be shut down for the night.'
'Probably just an improper memory wipe the last time around,' Leia said, not really in the mood for a fullblown discussion of droid personality quirks. 'I could name one or two other droids who have more curiosity than their original programming intended.'
'Your Highness!' Threepio protested, sounding wounded. 'Artoo is a different case altogether.'
