'I see,' Pellaeon said. He took a deep breath and, reluctantly, brought himself back to reality. 'You realize, sir, how improbable this claim of Jade's really is.'
'Certainly it's improbable.' Thrawn raised glowing eyes to Pellaeon.
'But it's also true.' He tapped, a switch, and part of the art gallery vanished. 'Observe.
Pellaeon turned to look. It was the same scene Thrawn had showed him a few days earlier: the three renegade Dreadnaughts providing cover fire off New Cov so that the Lady Luck and that unidentified freighter could escape He inhaled sharply, a sudden suspicion flooding into him. 'Those ships?'
'Yes,' Thrawn said, his voice grimly satisfied. 'The differences between regular and slave-rigged Dreadnaughts are subtle, but visible enough when you know to look for them.'
Pellaeon frowned at the holo, trying hard to fit all of it together.
'Your permission, Admiral, but it doesn't make sense for Karrde to be supplying this renegade Corellian with ships.'
'I agree,' Thrawn nodded. 'Obviously, someone else from that ill-fated smuggling ship also realized what it was they'd stumbled across. We're going to find that someone.'
'Do we have any leads?'
'A few. According to Jade, they escaped from an Imperial force on the way out of a botched job. All such incidents should be on file somewhere; we'll correlate with what we know about Karrde's checkered past and see what turns up. Jade also said that the ship was badly damaged in the process of doing its second jump. If they had to go to a major spaceport for repairs, that should be on file, as well.'
'I'll put Intelligence on it immediately,' Pellaeon nodded.
'Good.' Thrawn's eyes unfocused for a moment. 'And I also want you to get in contact with Niles Ferrier.'
Pellaeon had to search his memory. 'That ship thief you sent out to look for the Corellian's home base?'
'That's the one,' Thrawn said. 'Tell him to forget the Corellian and concentrate instead on Solo and Calrissian.' He cocked an eyebrow. 'After all, if the Corellian is indeed planning to join the Rebellion, what better dowry could he bring than the Katana fleet?'
The comm pinged. 'Yes?' Thrawn asked.
'Sir, the target has made the jump to lightspeed,' a voice reported.
'We've got a strong signal from the beacon; we're doing a probability extrapolation now.
'Very good, Lieutenant,' Thrawn said. 'Don't bother with any extrapolations just yet-she'll change course at least once more before settling down on her true heading.'
'Yes, sir.'
'Still, we don't want her getting too far ahead of us,' Thrawn told Pellaeon as he keyed off the comm. 'You'd best return to the bridge, Captain, and get the Chimaera moving after her.'
'Yes, sir.' Pellaeon hesitated. 'I thought we were going to give her time to get the Katana's location for us.'
Thrawn's expression hardened. 'She's not part of the Empire anymore, Captain,' he said. 'She may want us to believe that she's coming back-she may even believe it herself. But she isn't. No matter. She's leading us to Karrde, and that's the important thing. Between him and our Corellian renegade we have two leads to the Katana fleet. One way or the other, we'll find it.' Pellaeon nodded, feeling the stirrings of excitement again despite his best efforts to remain unemotional about this. The Katana fleet. Two hundred Dreadnaughts, just sitting there waiting for the Empire to take possession...
'I have the feeling, Admiral,' he said, 'that our final offensive against the Rebellion may be ready to launch a bit ahead of schedule.' Thrawn smiled. 'I believe, Captain, that you may be right.'
CHAPTER
18
They had been sitting around the table in the maitrakh's house since early morning, studying maps and floor plans and diagrams, searching for a plan of action that would be more than simply a complicated way of
