'Did you get a written report?' Tierce asked him. He had the datacard in his datapad now and was skimming through it.
'It's at the end of that record,' Flim told him. 'They were quite helpful, actually—asked me if I'd like someone to do a flyby around Kothlis and see what they could find out.'
'Waste of time,' Tierce said, his voice starting to sound a little odd. 'If Kothlis is a cover story, Bel Iblis will have made it far too vac-tight for any casual flyby to pick up on.'
'That's exactly what I told them,' Flim said smugly. 'I'm starting to pick up a genuine feel for tactics, if I do say so myself.'
'Don't flatter yourself,' Tierce said absently, gazing at the datapad. 'And in the future, kindly do not interact with anyone without Moff Disra or myself present. Now be quiet and let me think.' Disra watched the Guardsman's face, an unpleasant sensation creeping over him. Tierce seemed to be doing more and more of this sort of thing lately, this staring off into space as if in some kind of trance as he thought. Was the pressure and strain starting to get to him? Or had he always been this way and Disra simply hadn't noticed?
Abruptly, Tierce's head snapped up. 'Admiral, you said that the D'ulin woman had called one of the Mistryl leaders to come talk with us?'
'Yes,' Flim said. 'Last I heard, she was on her way here.'
'Have D'ulin get in touch with her and tell her to change course,' Tierce instructed him. 'Tell her we'll meet with her instead at Yaga Minor.'
'Yaga Minor?' Disra repeated, frowning.
'Yes,' Tierce said, smiling tightly. 'I believe we may be able to give the Mistryl a live demonstration of Thrawn's tactical genius.
'Wait a minute, wait a minute,' Disra protested. 'You've lost me.'
'I think he's trying to tell us Bel Iblis is going to be insane enough to hit Yaga Minor,' Flim said, staring in obvious disbelief at Tierce.
The Guardsman inclined his head slightly. 'Very good, Admiral. Only it's not insane—it's their very last chance to avert a civil war. Who better to send than Bel Iblis?'
'I think Flim was right the first time,' Disra said. 'You're talking about the Caamas Document; but they've already got the copy we gave Solo and Calrissian.'
'But Bel Iblis doesn't know about that.' Tierce tapped the datapad. 'According to the report, he vanished to this supposed Kothlis buildup eight days before that traitor Carib Devist brought his falsified data to the Parshoone Ubiqtorate station, which was how Solo found Bastion. Assuming Bel Iblis has been basically out of contact with Coruscant—and that's the likely situation—he won't know anything about Solo's Bastion trip.'
'And what if he checks in before he leaves for the attack and they tell him to stand down?' Disra countered.
'Then we simply impress the Mistryl with the size and power of an Imperial Ubiqtorate base,' Tierce said. 'They don't need to know we're expecting an attack until it actually happens.' He looked at Flim. 'It's a classic con technique,' he added. 'If the target doesn't know what's supposed to happen, he can't be disappointed if it doesn't.'
'He's right about that,' Flim agreed.
'All right, fine,' Disra said. 'And what if Coruscant changes its mind and sends Bel Iblis to attack Bastion instead?'
Tierce shrugged. 'On what grounds? We've given them the Caamas Document—'
'Altered.'
'Which they don't know about and have no way of proving,' Tierce reminded him. 'The point is that if Bel Iblis so much as pokes his nose into this system they'll be handing us a propaganda weapon they'll regret for years to come. Give me some holos of an unprovoked New Republic attack on Bastion, and I'll have a thousand systems seceding from Coruscant in the first month alone.'
'Besides, Your Excellency,' Flim said with a casual wave of his hand, 'even if Bel Iblis did hit Bastion, the three of us will still be safe at Yaga Minor. Unless you're so attached to your comforts here you couldn't bear to give them up.'
'I was merely pointing out,' Disra said stiffly, 'that it would look bad for Thrawn to be somewhere else when the Imperial capital was under attack.'
