Vision of the future

Fey'lya had known he and Leia were going to the Combined Clans Building to check out the true state of Bothan finances, a job they'd somehow never gotten around to finishing after the riot. And it was just the sort of back-blading stunt the Bothans were famous for. Thrawn shrugged. 'I'm not going to try to convince you. The truth is there for you to find if you care to. In the meantime—' He nodded toward the datacard in Lando's hand. 'Good day, gentlemen. Have a good voyage.'

Without waiting for an answer he turned and headed for the exit, half of his stormtrooper guard falling into formation around him. The remaining three stormtroopers and the major waited until he was out of sight before turning and following. As they too vanished through the doorway the row of stormtroopers above them turned and headed away across the roof.

And a moment later Han, Lando, and Lobot were alone.

Han turned to Lando, found the other staring at him from under hooded eyelids. 'Well, Lando,' he said, trying to keep his voice calm. It wasn't one of his better efforts. 'I guess I owe you an apology.'

'Never mind the apologies,' Lando said, stooping to retrieve their weapons as he ran a quick glance around the empty rooftop. 'Let's just get out of here, okay?'

'Yeah,' Han said, taking Lobot's arm and turning him toward the Lady Luck's ramp. 'Let's.'

* * *

'You should have seen their faces,' Flim said, swirling his drink around in his glass, his moody voice in odd contrast with what should have been gloating words. 'They were so petrified, and trying so hard not to show it. It was really rather funny.'

'I'm sure you could hardly keep from breaking out laughing,' Disra said sourly. 'The question is, did they buy it?'

'They bought it,' Tierce assured him, sliding a datacard out of his datapad and picking up the next one from his stack. Alone among the three of them, he seemed to have no doubts about Flim's performance. 'Our Grand Admiral was as smooth as polished transparisteel. He didn't even flinch when Solo threw the Bothawui commando team in his face.'

'The Bothawui team?' Disra demanded sharply. 'Our Bothawui team? Navett's group?'

'Relax—he was talking about them in conjunction with the Combined Clans Building riot,' Tierce said. 'There was no indication they know Navett's back there now.'

'I hope not,' Disra growled. On the other hand, that whole scheme was listed on the datacards that Pellaeon had stolen from him. Still, it was unlikely Pellaeon would run straight to Coruscant to warn them, even if he stopped sifting through the financial data long enough to notice it was even there. 'How did they find out we staged the riot?'

Tierce shrugged. 'Who knows? It doesn't matter, though—the Admiral deflected them nicely.' He looked over at Flim. 'What was all that about a weapons cache being stolen from Marquarra? I don't remember hearing about that.'

Flim sipped at his drink. 'You don't remember,' he said, 'because I made the whole thing up. I figured it would —'

'You made it up?' Disra cut him off. 'What kind of fool stunt was that?'

'One that got Solo off my back,' Flim said stiffly. 'Why? You disapprove?'

'Yes, I disapprove,' Disra bit out. 'It's out of character. Thrawn didn't go around making things up—if he didn't know something, he said so.'

'Calm down, Your Excellency,' Tierce said. But he didn't look all that happy, either, as he gazed at Flim. 'He had to say something—we can't be offering Coruscant the Caamas Document with one hand and helping foment riots with the other. At least he's bought us the time it'll take them to check up on it.'

Disra snorted. 'However little that is.'

'However little it is will be enough,' Tierce said firmly. 'In seven days the New Republic's civil war is set to begin. At that point, no one's going to care about a few riots and a handful of Xerrol Nightstingers.'

He nodded back toward the secret door. 'And speaking of buying things, how did your talk go with our guest? Are we going to be able to buy their services?'

'I don't know,' Disra said, his mouth tightening briefly. 'Mistryl don't work for Imperials—she must have told me that fifteen times. On the other hand, she did agree to call one of their leaders to come talk to us. And there is something they very much want, but I wasn't quite able to get her to tell me what that