Vision of the future

Bel Iblis shook his head. 'No. If we had some Imperial fighters—TIEs or Preybirds—I'd definitely bring them along. But this whole operation depends on dragging out the bluff as long as possible; and a screen of A-wings or X-wings would wreck that bluff rather quickly. No, all fighters will be staying with the outer attack group.'

His eyes found Wedge. 'Including Rogue Squadron.'

He held Wedge's eyes just long enough to make it clear there would be no argument, then looked around the room again. 'Your individual assignments and positions in the battle array will be given you on the way out of the briefing. Are there any further general questions?'

'Yes, sir,' someone said. 'You said you had a false ID set up for the Errant Venture. Is it a real name, or something fictitious?'

'Oh, it has to be real,' Bel Iblis said. 'Twenty years ago there were enough Star Destroyers that an individual Imperial could never keep track of all of them, and might assume that his database just happened to be missing something. But not anymore.

'Fortunately, Intelligence has picked up on three ships that haven't been heard from for several weeks. Presumably they're off on some special assignment; regardless, the chances are slim that any of them will turn up at Yaga Minor. We'll therefore be running under the name and ID of the Imperial Star Destroyer Tyrannic' —he gestured to Booster—'under the command of Captain Nalgol.' Five minutes later, Wedge and Corran were heading back toward the hangar bay where the rest of Rogue Squadron waited. 'It's going to be some trick to protect them from outside the perimeter,' Wedge commented grimly.

'I know,' Corran said, his voice sounding oddly distant. 'We'll just have to be creative.' Wedge frowned at him. 'Trouble?'

Corran shook his head slowly. 'The Tyrannic,' he said. 'There's something that bothers me about Bel Iblis using that name. But I don't know what.'

A Jedi hunch? 'Well, you better figure it out fast,' Wedge warned. 'Launch point is only an hour away.'

'I know.' Corran took a deep breath. 'I'll try.'

CHAPTER

36

'Navett, wake up!'

Navett came awake in an instant, his hand closing automatically on the blaster hidden beneath his pillow. His eyes snapped open, taking in the scene with a single glance: Klif standing in the bedroom doorway, a blaster in his hand and a furious expression on his face, barely visible in the dim light of Drev'starn dawn streaming through the window. 'What?' he snapped.

'Someone's been in the shop,' Klif snarled. 'Throw on some clothes and come on.' Someone had been in the shop, all right. Navett walked through the store in a stunned daze, crunching datacards and bits of random equipment underfoot, staring in disbelief at the carnage that had been visited on their neat little pet emporium.

'I don't believe this,' Klif muttered, for about the fifth time. 'I do not believe this. How in space did she get in without tripping the alarms?'

'I don't know,' Navett said, glancing over one of the rows of cages. 'At least she didn't take the mawkrens.'

'Near as I can tell, she didn't actually take anything,' Klif growled, looking around. 'Just quietly took everything apart and rearranged it.'

Navett nodded. Yet for all her energy and enthusiasm, it looked as if she'd missed the real prize. The section of back wall beside the power coupling box, where he and Klif had installed their hidden storage compartment, seemed to be untouched. 'Well, aside from making a mess, she hasn't really done anything,' he said, circling around the sales counter. The computer was on; she must have gone in and poked through their files. A waste of her time there, too.

'Navett.'

He looked up. Klif was standing at the prompous cage, gazing down on the shelf beside it.

'What?' Navett asked, rounding the counter again and joining him. Lying on the shelf, laid out in neat rows, were the tiny cylinders that had been hidden in the false bottom of the mawkren cage.

And sitting next to them was another binary-linked comlink.

'You going to talk to her?' Klif prompted.

'And do what?' Navett retorted. 'Listen to her gloat some more?'