'I guess.'
He stopped and turned to face her. 'We'll be each other's family.' He held up his hand. This time, she pressed her palm against it.
The wind picked up, cutting through their cloaks and making them shiver. Still, they kept their palms together. Obi-Wan felt the warmth of Cerasi's skin. He could almost feel the beating of her blood against his.
'You see,' he said, 'I have lost everything, too.'
A tool box from the servo-utility unit Holographic files and computer records for students with names A through H A teacher's meditation robe A fourth-year student's sports activity kit Qui-Gon stared at the list. It was such an odd assortment of items. He could see no pattern there. He and Tahl were working on the assumption that these were petty thefts. That would be the easy answer. Somewhere there could be a student who seemed to be adjusting but who was hiding resentment or anger. He or she had lashed out.
But Qui-Gon had learned through long experience that the easy answer usually just led to a harder question.
The holographic files on the students were kept by Jedi Master Tun. Tun had a record of long years of service. He was several hundred years old, a wizened being of great learning. He had kept the records of the Temple for the past fifty years. Each year he was aided by two student helpers who volunteered for service. Tahl and Qui-Gon had interviewed both of them. They had answered steadily and clearly. Only Tun and other members of the Council had access to the private files. The students were never alone in the filing office without Tun.
It was typical of their investigation. Every lead had turned into a dead end.
An urgent knock came on his door. 'Qui-Gon,' Tahl called softly. 'I need you.'
He opened the door. 'More bad news,' she said with an anxious frown.
'The senior training rooms have been vandalized. All of the lightsabers have been stolen.'
Dismay made him slow to respond. Obi-Wan's lightsaber had been in the senior training room. Qui-Gon had left it there. Part of him had hoped that someday Obi-Wan would reclaim it.
'This is no longer petty theft,' he said.
'Yoda has cordoned off the room until we see it,' Tahl explained.
'Hurry, before TooJay catches up with me.'
They walked quickly to the lift tube and took it to the training floor.
Qui-Gon strode into the changing rooms. He stopped short, and Tahl bumped into him from behind.
'What is it?' she asked. 'What do you see?'
Qui-Gon couldn't answer for a moment. Sick at heart, he surveyed the room. Training tunics had been ripped to shreds, the pieces flung around the room. Lockers were flung open, their contents spilled onto the floor.
'I can feel it,' Tahl said. 'Anger. Destruction.' She picked her way through the debris, reaching down to pick up a scrap of fabric. 'What else?'
'A message,' Qui-Gon said. 'Scrawled on the wall in red.' He read it to her.
COME, YOUR TIME WILL BEWARE YOU MUST, TROUBLE I AM
'It's mocking Yoda,' she said. 'I know the students imitate him sometimes. Even I do. But we do it with great affection. Qui-Gon, there is hate here.'
'Yes.'
'We have to get to the bottom of this. And the students must know. We must go on alert.'
'Yes,' he agreed. 'This cannot be secret any longer.'
The Temple went on high-security alert. It was a decision the Council was reluctant to make. It made prisoners out of the students. They needed passes to leave the Temple, passes to use the gardens and to swim in the lake. They needed to account for their time at every minute of the day. It was for everyone's protection, but it violated the spirit of the Temple. The Temple's philosophy was that discipline needed to come from within. Security checks contradicted that concept.
But Qui-Gon and Tahl had insisted on the measure, and Yoda had agreed.
The safety of the students was their primary concern.
An atmosphere of mistrust grew at the Temple. Students eyed each other with suspicion. As they were called into interviews with Qui-Gon and Tahl, they watched each other for guilty signs. Yet no one could believe that a student could be capable of such vandalism.
Bruck was one such student. 'I know it can't be any of the senior students,' he told Tahl and Qui-Gon quietly when they called on him. 'We have been through training together. I can't imagine any one of us wanting to damage the Temple.'
'It's hard to see into another person's heart,' Qui-Gon remarked.
'I was the last person to leave the training rooms last night,' Bruck said. 'And of course you know that months ago I was disciplined for my anger. I've worked with Yoda, and I've made progress. But I guess I'm still a suspect.' Bruck met Qui-Gon's gaze steadily.
'We suspect no one as yet,' Tahl assured him. 'Did you see anything odd last night? Think carefully.'
Bruck closed his eyes for a long moment. 'Nothing,' he said finally. 'I powered down the lights, and I left. We never lock the training rooms. I took the turbolift to the dining hall. I was with my friends all evening until bed.'
