Vision of the future

to introduce myself. I'm Grand Admiral Thrawn.'

* * *

It took Commander Dreyf less than a minute to locate the secret drawer hidden away beneath the ivrooy desk's writing surface. It took only two minutes longer, with the help of some rather illegal tools, for him to force it open.

Inside were eight datacards. Three of them carried the labels of official governmental briefings: one from the Ubiqtorate, the other two from Fleet Intelligence.

But the other five...

'Make copies of them,' Pellaeon ordered as Dreyf slid one of the unlabeled datacards into his datapad. 'All of them, even the official ones. We'll see what the Chimaera's decrypt section can do with them.'

'Let me try something first, if I may, sir,' Dreyf said, pulling a datacard from his pocket and inserting it into his datapad's auxiliary slot. 'One of the little extras that fell out of my backcheck of Lord Graemon's finances was the encrypt he was using to communicate back to Bastion. Let's see if Disra was careless or overconfident enough to use the same one here... Well, well. Our clever little Moff seems to have missed a bet.'

He smiled tightly at Pellaeon. 'It's here, Admiral. It's all here.' Pellaeon stepped to his side and looked over his shoulder. It was there, all right: names, dates, amounts, details of the various transactions. Everything. 'You'll be able to link this with Graemon's end of the operation?' he asked.

'Easily,' Dreyf assured him, still scrolling through the files. 'Disra was even kind enough to supply dates on everything. All I really need to do—'

'Wait,' Pellaeon cut him off, slapping fingertips at the other's arm. Something had caught his eye as it went past. 'Back up a few files. No, try one more. One more.' And there it was: the name Pellaeon had spotted going past. The name, current location, imprisonment order—

'Colonel Meizh Vermel,' Dreyf read, frowning. 'Isn't he one of your aides, Admiral?'

'He is indeed,' Pellaeon said, his satisfaction with the catch they'd just made vanishing suddenly into the haze of dark fury. 'He vanished while on a special mission for me.'

'Did he, now,' Dreyf said, his own voice darkening. 'So Disra's branched out into kidnapping now, has he?'

'Only on special occasions,' Pellaeon said, looking at the hidden drawer. Dreyf had done an efficient job of forcing the lock, but there was no way the damage could be covered up. The minute Disra opened the drawer again he would know someone had been in there.

And Pellaeon came to a decision. 'Never mind copying them,' he said, gathering up the datacards. 'We'll take the originals.'

Dreyf blinked. 'Sir? But—'

'And we're leaving,' Pellaeon added, looking over at one of the troopers guarding the door.

'Signal the Chimaera,' he ordered. 'Captain Ardiff is to prepare for departure as soon as I'm aboard. Then call Lieutenant Marshian at the shuttle and tell him we're on our way.'

'Yes, sir.' The trooper pulled out his comlink.

'What about Disra?' Dreyf asked. 'We haven't settled with him yet.'

'Disra will keep,' Pellaeon said grimly. 'Right now, my main concern is to get Vermel free before Disra decides he's a liability.'

'You'll be going yourself?'

'Yes,' Pellaeon said, sliding the hidden drawer closed. 'Depending on how Disra's set up the imprisonment order, it may take my personal authority as Supreme Commander to get him out. Besides, at this point I don't trust anyone off the Chimaera not to be in Disra's pocket.'

'Or in Thrawn's?' Dreyf murmured.

Pellaeon grimaced. 'If Thrawn is indeed alive,' he said. 'Regardless, I'm going.'

'It could be tricky,' Dreyf warned, dropping into step beside Pellaeon as they headed for the double doors. 'Rimcee Station is a couple days' flight away. Disra's certainly going to miss these datacards before then.'