Anakin sat on a chair and focused his concentration. 'Vox was afraid,' he said at last.
Obi-Wan nodded. 'Good.'
'It is hard to separate fear from anger,' Anakin went on slowly. 'Yet I sensed the fear propelling the anger.'
'We don't know if he can pinpoint that we were looking for information on Kern,' Obi-Wan said. 'I have to assume that Den was smart enough to cover his tracks in that area. But he knows we were searching the text-doc files. That was enough to unnerve him. It's a good sign. Den was right. Something is wrong here. Anything else?'
'The point where he should have been nervous, he wasn't,' Anakin said. 'Most beings in his situation would worry about the Senate's reaction to kicking two Jedi off the ship. After all, they had no evidence we were involved in the text-doc theft. Uni looked worried. But that seemed the least of Vox's concerns.'
'Very good, Padawan,' Obi-Wan congratulated him. 'I could not ask for a more perceptive reading of the situation.'
Anakin gave him a sidelong look. 'If I am so perceptive, why don't you trust me?'
Surprised at the blunt question, Obi-Wan sat opposite from Anakin. Memory flooded back. Qui-Gon had kept things from him, too. Now Obi-Wan understood his Master's caution. But he also remembered how Qui-Gon's decision to share his past had deepened their connection. It was what he wanted for himself and Anakin.
It was time to tell his Padawan about Bruck.
He took his time, explaining theTemplesabotage, his history with Bruck, and the agony of seeing a boy he'd known die. He explained the hearing but did not tell Anakin of the guilt he felt. Anakin did not have to know every detail.
Anakin shook his head in disbelief when Obi-Wan had finished. 'How could they suspect you?'
Obi-Wan's gaze grew cloudy. 'Bruck and I had never gotten along. After his death I wondered if I had been the best Jedi I could have been. Instead of meeting his anger with my own, could I have absorbed it without complaint? Could I have tried to understand the source of it? Would that have changed the course of Bruck's life?'
Obi-Wan's gaze cleared, and he looked at Anakin with his usual keenness. 'You see why the Jedi Masters at theTempleoften speak to you of anger and fear, Anakin. They have seen what it can do. So have I.'
'I have, too,' Anakin volunteered. 'I was a slave, remember, and the son of a slave? I was not brought up in theTemplesurrounded by fountains and peace and gentleness. I think I know better than anyone what fear and anger can do.' Anakin's voice was suddenly harsh.
Obi-Wan paused, letting the tone remain in the air between them. 'I have not forgotten that, Anakin,' he said quietly.'Nor should you. It is part of what shapes you. But if that memory always brings you back to your anger, you must find a way to think of it differently.'
A soft knock came at the door. 'Are you in there?' Den called softly.
Obi-Wan quickly crossed to the door. 'We've been locked in. Can you get us out?'
Den chuckled. 'Does a dinko bite? Does a howl runner howl? Does a nightcrawler-'
'All right, Den,' Obi-Wan said through the door. 'But first we need a comlink. I have to contact theTemple.'
'No problem,' Den murmured. 'I'll be back before you notice I'm gone. Don't go anywhere.'
They heard his footsteps recede.
'Let's get back to Vox Chun,' Obi-Wan said. 'If we both picked up that it was odd he wasn't nervous about the Senate reaction, we should wonder why.'
'I don't know,' Anakin confessed.
'There are two possible answers,' Obi-Wan said thoughtfully. 'One, that Vox has a powerful ally in the Senate who will smooth over any difficulties for the BioCruiser. Or two-and this is more disturbing-that Vox is allied with an organization that is even more powerful than the Senate.' Obi-Wan stood up and began to wander around the room. 'The galaxy has changed. It's full of criminal organizations. Some of them are enormously powerful. With the Senate mired in debate, there is little they have done to control this. Even Chancellor Palpatine is powerless to stop their growth.'
'If the second guess is true, do you think this powerful organization is interested in the BioCruiser?' Anakin asked.
'Well, it does have a large treasury,' Obi-Wan mused. 'But attacking a ship this large has logistical problems. They wouldn't want to destroy the ship-they'd lose the treasury. There could be another reason, something else we don't know yet.'
They heard a series of beeps at the door, and it slid open. Den jumped inside quickly and the door hissed shut behind him. He tossed Obi-Wan a comlink.
'You see? I can always get you out of trouble,' he beamed.
'You got us into trouble,' Obi-Wan pointed out. 'Vox and Uni figured out that someone had broken into the text-doc files.'
'Kill me now!' Densaid, his hand over his heart. 'I did my very best. Nobody's perfect.'
Obi-Wan signaled Tnani at theTemple. A moment later his voice came through. 'Obi-Wan, I have been trying to signal you. Someone answered but they did not use the coded frequency.'
'My comlink was confiscated,' Obi-Wan explained. 'What do you have?'
'The text-doc for Kern checks out on all the normal channels for deep background,' Tnani said. 'But a little further digging tells me that Kern is actually a fabricated identity. This being called Kern died eight years ago. Here is the odd thing-he was a Senate operative.'
