'Especially with a Grand Admiral in charge of the Empire,' Han pointed out. 'If he catches you here alone, you'll have had it.' Bel Iblis smiled tightly. 'That thought has occurred to me, Solo. Several times a day.' He straightened up.
'The Harrier is leaving in half an hour to take Breil'lya back to New Cov. I'll instruct them to take you and the Lady Luck along.' Han and Lando exchanged glances. 'You think it'll be safe to go back to New Cov, sir?' Han asked. 'There might still be Imperials hanging around.'
'There won't be.' Bel Iblis was positive. 'I've studied the Imperials and their tactics a long time. Aside from not expecting us to show up again so soon, they really can't afford to hang around any one place for long. Besides, we have to go there-Breil'lya will need to pick up his ship.' Han nodded, wondering what kind of report Breil'lya would be giving to his boss when he got back to Coruscant. 'All right. Well ... I guess we'd better get the ship prepped.'
'Yes.' Bel Iblis hesitated, then held out his hand. 'It was good to see you, Solo. I hope we'll meet again.'
'I'm sure we will, sir,' Han assured him, grasping the outstretched hand.
The Senator nodded to Lando. 'Calrissian,' he said. Releasing Han's hand, he turned and walked away across the landing field. Han watched him go, trying to figure out whether he admired the Senator more than he pitied him or vice versa. It was a useless exercise. 'Our luggage is still back at our quarters,' he told Sena.
'I'll have it sent over while you get the ship prepped.' She looked at Han, her eyes suddenly blazing with a smoldering fire. 'But I want you to remember one thing,' she said with deadly earnestness. 'You can go now, with our blessings. But if you betray the Senator-in any way-you will die. At my hand, personally, if necessary.'
Han held her gaze, considering what to say. To remind her, perhaps, that he'd been attacked by bounty hunters and interstellar criminals, shot at by Imperial stormtroopers, and tortured at the direction of Darth Vader himself. To suggest that after all that, a threat coming from someone like Sena was too laughable to even take seriously. 'I understand,' he said gravely. 'I won't let you down.'
From the dorsal hatchway connection behind them came the creak of a stressed seal; and through the Lady Luck's canopy the patch of stars visible around the bulk of the Dreadnaught abruptly flashed into starlines. 'Here we go again,' Lando said, his voice sounding resigned. 'How do I keep letting you talk me into these things?'
'Because you're the respectable one,' Han told him, running an eye over the Lady Luck's instruments. There wasn't a lot there to see, with the engines and most of the systems running at standby. 'And because you know as well as I do that we have to do it. Sooner or later the Empire's going to find out that the Katana fleet's been found and start looking for it themselves. And if they get to it before we do, we're going to be in big trouble.' And here they were, stuck uselessly for another two days in hyperspace while the Harrier took them back to New Cov. Not because they wanted to go there, but because Bel Iblis wasn't willing to trust them with the location of his stupid Peregrine's Nest base 'You're worried about Leia, aren't you?' Lando asked into the silence.
'I shouldn't have let her go,' Han muttered. 'Something's gone wrong. I just know it. That lying little alien's turned her over to the Empire, or the Grand Admiral's out-thought us again. I don't know, but something.'
'Leia can take care of herself, Han,' Lando said quietly. 'And even Grand Admirals sometimes make mistakes.'
Han shook his head. 'He made his mistake at Sluis Van, Lando. He won't make another one. Bet you the Falcon he won't.' Lando clapped him on the shoulder. 'Come on, buddy, brooding about it won't help. We've got two days to kill. Let's go break out a sabacc deck.' The Grand Admiral read the dispatch twice before turning his glowing eyes on Pellaeon. 'You vouch for the reliability of this report, Captain?'
'As much as I can vouch for any report that doesn't originate with an Imperial agent,' Pellaeon told him. 'On the other hand, this particular smuggler has fed us fifty two reports over the last ten years, forty eight of which proved to be accurate. I'd say he's worth believing.' Thrawn looked back at the reader. 'Endor,' he murmured, half to himself. 'Why Endor?'
'I don't know, sir,' Pellaeon said. 'Perhaps they were looking for another place to hide.'
'Among the Ewoks?' Thrawn snorted derisively. 'That would be desperation indeed. But no matter. If the Millennium Falcon is there, then so is Leia Organa Solo. Alert Navigation and Engineering; we leave immediately fur Endor-'
'Yes, sir,' Pellaeon nodded, keying in the orders. 'Shall I have Khabarakh brought up from Nystao?'
'Yes. Khabarakh.' Thrawn said the name thoughtfully. 'Note the interesting timing here, Captain. Khabarakh comes back to Honoghr after a month's absence, just as Solo and Organa Solo head off on secret errands to New Cov and Endor. Coincidence?'
Pellaeon frowned. 'I don't follow you, sir.' Thrawn smiled thinly. 'What I think, Captain, is that we re seeing a new degree of subtlety among our enemies. They knew that the return of a survivor from the failed Kashyyyk operation would catch my attention. They therefore arranged his release to coincide with their own missions, in the hope I would be too preoccupied to notice them. Doubtless when we break Khabarakh, we'll learn a great many things from him that will cost us countless man-hours to finally prove wrong.' Thrawn snorted again. 'No, leave him where he is. You may inform the dynasts that I have decided to permit them the full seven days of public shame, after which they may perform the rites of discovery as they choose. No matter how useless his information, Khabarakh may still serve the Empire by dying painfully. As an object lesson to his race.'
