School of Fear (9781484719770)

by Watson, Jude

  Ferus held up the datapad. “They left me alone, so I was able to read this. First of all, look—it has a Senate seal.”

  Obi-Wan took it. He recognized the symbol of Andara on the back. “This belongs to Berm Tarturi.” He thought a moment. “Maybe Tarturi was right. Someone did break into his office and go through his things. But it was his own son.”

  Ferus nodded. “That’s not all. There are ransom notes on this pad. Two of them have been sent. I think Gillam plans to pin his own kidnapping on his father.”

  “Why would he do such a thing?” Siri asked. “Does he hate him so much?”

  “He must,” Ferus said. “But that’s not the only thing. Are you in contact with Anakin?”

  Obi-Wan shook his head. “He hasn’t reported in. He must be traveling or even on leria by now, but his comlink has been turned off.”

  Ferus looked grave. “The last letter in the file takes responsibility for Gillam’s death. It hasn’t been sent yet, but it’s timed to go out in five hours.”

  “He’s going to frame his father for his own murder?” Obi-Wan said.

  “But how?” Siri asked. “He’ll need a body. There will be some kind of investigation.”

  “That’s what I’ve been thinking about,” Ferus said quietly. He ran his hands through his hair in a rare gesture of agitation. “What if Gillam planned to produce a body? Someone similar in age and build, someone who looks a little like him. They could plant text docs on the body, or near it.”

  “They’d have to count on a great deal of chaos and confusion,” Siri said. “There are many tests that can be done to determine identity.”

  “The secret squad is going to help start a war between Andara and the rest of the planets in the system,” Obi-Wan said. “They may not realize it, but they will. That will certainly create chaos.” He suddenly realized what Ferus, brooding in this damp cell, had already put together. “They just need a body.” He thought back to the information he had on Gillam, to the boy’s height and weight and coloring. “And they’ve chosen—”

  “Anakin,” Ferus said.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “If this doesn’t work, I don’t know you,” Rana Halion said. Her spiky white hair seemed to bristle like fur as she surveyed the secret squad.

  Marit nodded. “Understood.”

  “But it had better work,” Rana Halion added.

  “It will,” Rolai said.

  Rana Halion’s transparent blue eyes swept the group. She sighed. “If you didn’t come so highly recommended, I wouldn’t believe it,” she murmured. “You look like a bunch of kids.”

  Anakin had to agree. Rolai was skinny and pale beneath his Bothan mane. Ze was plump. Tulah always looked as though he had just woken from a nap, and Hurana appeared slight and shy.

  But he had seen that Rolai was tough, almost ruthless, Ze could dissect and solve any technical problem in five minutes or less, Tulah had a brilliant mind for strategy, and Hurana had convictions and no fear. Marit was smart and resourceful. He would put his own trust in this squad.

  Rana pushed a contact button on her gold cuff and watched as a digital coded message flashed at her.

  “I don’t have much time. Who is your lead pilot?”

  Anakin stepped forward. “I am.”

  Rana looked at him intently. Anakin thought it could have been the most intimidating glance he’d ever experienced—if he hadn’t grown up at the Temple. Once you’ve faced Jedi like Mace Windu, no one else could intimidate you. He did not drop his own gaze and met hers without flinching.

  She gave a short nod. “You seem competent. Can you pilot a starfighter?”

  “I can fly anything.”

  “I almost believe it,” she murmured, giving him another glance. “Do you know how to fire laser cannons at a target?”

  Anakin glanced at Marit. “I thought there was to be no active firing.”

  Rana looked exasperated. “Who’s in charge here?”

  “We all are,” Rolai broke in crisply. “And we all know how to fire laser cannons. We’ve been over this.”

  “Have you thoroughly briefed the squad?” Rana asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

  “Not with the final details,” Rolai said smoothly. “We were waiting for the exact time of departure and target details.”

  Rana glanced at her cuff again. “Do it then. You can inspect the starfighters. You leave in thirty minutes.”

  Marit exploded as soon as Rana was out of the room. “What was that all about? What do you mean, you haven’t briefed the squad? What do you know that we don’t know? We’re supposed to vote on everything!”

  “Calm down,” Rolai said with a glance at the door to make sure Rana was out of earshot.

  “Don’t tell me to calm down,” Marit answered hotly. “Tell me the truth!”

  “The mission just changed a bit,” Rolai said. “We’re supposed to fire on the fleet.”

  “Fire on the fleet?” Anakin asked. “But that’s a declaration of war!”

  “That’s not our problem,” Rolai said. “We’re hired to do the job. That’s all.”

  “Wait,” Marit said. “Why didn’t you tell us this?” She looked at Ze, Hurana, and Tulah. Their gazes slid away. “You all knew, and I didn’t?”

  “I didn’t know, either,” Anakin pointed out.

  But no one was paying attention to Anakin. “We all voted to wait to tell you until we got here,” Hurana said. She didn’t meet Marit’s hot gaze.

  “We thought you might object,” Rolai said. “After the last mission, you had some misgivings about organic damage.”

  “Organic damage?” Marit said in disbelief. “Is that what you’re calling it now? They were living beings!”

  “Marit, what do you think we’re doing?” Rolai asked. “This isn’t school. It isn’t a game. We all agreed we would start this as a business and run it as a business. We all agreed that we would make our own destinies.”

  “That’s the point,” Marit said angrily. “We all agreed. We didn’t leave someone out.”

  “I get your point, Marit,” Rolai said. “Now let’s move on. Here we are. Are you going to join us, or not?”

  Anakin watched Marit’s face. He could see that she was torn. No one cared what he thought, but he would throw his support behind Marit if she voted to back out.

  “I’m in,” she said in a low tone.

  The group looked relieved. Even Rolai did, although he tried to hide it.

  “Hold on,” Anakin said. “What about me? I’m part of the squad. Don’t I get a vote, too?”

  Rolai gave him a glance that was so neutral Anakin felt a chill. It was as though Anakin wasn’t even there.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Rolai said. “Let’s inspect the starfighters.”

  Rana Halion suddenly appeared again. “We have a slight change in the timing of the attack. We need to go over the coordinates and warning systems now. You’ll have to come to the briefing room.”

  Rolai gestured to the group. “Let’s go.”

  “While you’re doing that, I’ll check out the starfighters,” Anakin said. “I need to look at the controls and see if I can handle them.”

  Rolai gave him a glance. “I thought you said you could fly anything,” he hissed so that Rana could not hear.

  Anakin shrugged. “I sure hope I can,” he murmured. “I don’t tell you everything. But then again, you don’t tell me everything, either. Do you?”

  Rolai shot him a murderous look. “We’re coming,” he called to Halion. “You,” he whispered angrily to Anakin, “check out those starfighters. You’re going to have to give the rest of us some quick lessons.”

  Anakin waited until the group had left with Rana. Then he hurried to the hangar. There wasn’t much time. He didn’t have a choice now. He couldn’t let the mission go through. He had to disable those starfighters. He knew that now. He was nowhere near discovering what happened to Ferus or Gillam, and he was about to start a war. He was proba
bly breaking every Jedi rule in the archives.

  The Ierian starfighters were modifications of the Delta-6 Aethersprite that he was used to. Anakin knew every bolt on the engine. He thought for a minute. He needed to disable something that would show up as a warning light midflight but wouldn’t put the ship in danger. He wanted to give the pilots plenty of time to turn around and land. It would have to be something that would immediately lead them to abort the mission.

  The laser cannon capacitors. Anakin swung open the maintenance panel. Small tools were snapped onto the panel within easy reach. He selected a small servo-driver and within minutes had disabled the capacitators.

  He started toward the next ship, wondering if he should alter the engine cooling system just enough to cause the engines to overheat slightly. That might add a little urgency to the decision to abort the mission…

  “What are you doing?”

  Marit’s voice echoed across the hangar. Anakin paused and peered around the control panel.

  “Just a little tweaking.”

  She walked forward and peered into the system controls. “Do you think I’m stupid, Anakin? You’ve neutralized the laser cannon capacitators. I’ve studied the blueprints of this engine. I came back to see if you needed help. I guess you don’t, do you?” She turned and looked at him. Their faces were very close. He could see the speculation and the disappointment in her eyes. “Why?”

  “You don’t think we should go on this mission, either,” Anakin said.

  “I voted to go.” Marit’s voice was firm. “The group rules.”

  “But I’m part of the group! The rule is that all decisions must be unanimous. Why isn’t Rolai letting me vote?”

  Marit shifted from one foot to the other. “He says new members shouldn’t have full voting privileges until they’ve completed a mission—”

  “And did you vote on that, or did Rolai just tell you?”

  Marit’s silence told him what he needed to know.

  “So I’m supposed to risk my life without having a say in what we do? Do you think that’s fair?”

  “Do you think it’s fair to sabotage our engines to get what you want?” Marit’s voice rose challengingly. “How could you do this? I trusted you! I brought you into the group!”

  Marit’s brown eyes held anger and reproach. Anakin felt it was time for the truth. He owed her that.

  “I’m a Jedi,” he said. “I’m not really a student at the Leadership School. I was sent there to investigate Gillam Tarturi’s disappearance.”

  “Gillam?” Marit was surprised.

  “Don’t you want to know what happened to him?” Anakin asked. “And before we left, Ferus Olin disappeared. What if Rolai had something to do with it? What if he’s funding the squad with ransom money? He’s the one in charge of your treasury, and he’s the security expert. He’s the one with the connection to Rana Halion. What if she got him to kidnap Gillam? All the pieces fit. Why did he lie to you about this mission? Don’t you want to get to the bottom of it?”

  Marit looked sad. “I wish you’d told me.”

  “I’m telling you now.”

  “You don’t understand anything. Gillam—” Marit hesitated.

  “So tell me,” Anakin said, exasperated. “What about Gillam?”

  “What about Gillam?” A mocking voice suddenly came from behind him.

  Anakin whirled around. Gillam Tarturi stood, leaning against the wing of a starfighter. He was the same height as Anakin, and their eyes met across the space. Anakin felt shock and dismay ripple through him.

  Anakin looked back at Marit. She nodded slowly.

  “Gillam is the squad,” she said. “It was his idea. He formed it. He made up the bylaws. He recruited us. We wouldn’t have done anything without him. We would have been a bunch of miserable outcasts.”

  “You faked your disappearance,” Anakin said to Gillam. “Why?”

  “I have my reasons,” Gillam replied lightly.

  Marit spoke into her comlink. “We need you,” she said crisply.

  “What’s going on?” Anakin asked.

  For his answer, he heard the soft sound of her blaster leaving its holster. He could have stopped her easily, but he didn’t. Marit pointed the blaster at him, a reluctant look on her face. Within seconds, the rest of the squad rushed into the hangar. Their blasters were drawn. They were all pointed at Anakin.

  “I’m sorry,” Marit said.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Marit’s gaze was sorrowful. Rolai and Gillam looked hardened with purpose. But the others—Hurana, Tulah, and Ze—looked afraid. Why were they afraid? Anakin sensed that there was a conspiracy here. Gillam and Rolai were together, and they had roped in the rest of the reluctant squad. Except for Marit.

  There is something going on here that even Marit doesn’t know.

  “He disabled the laser cannons on two of the starfighters,” Marit told the others. “It’s all right—I know how to fix it.” She turned to Anakin. “We’re going to have to restrain you until we’re safely away.”

  Anakin looked at Gillam. “Is that so, Gillam? Why don’t you tell her what you really have in mind?”

  “Sorry, Marit,” Gillam said easily. “That’s not quite the plan.”

  “What’s the plan, Gillam?” Anakin asked.

  Marit gave Gillam a questioning look.

  “How would the kidnapping disgrace Senator Tarturi if he wasn’t implicated in something terrible?” Gillam said to Marit.

  “And we get a very large bonus from Rana Halion, too,” Rolai said.

  “Think about what it will do for the countermovement, Marit,” Gillam said. “The Senator kidnaps his own son to throw suspicion on the Ierians. And then something goes wrong, and his son dies—”

  “And it’s his fault,” Rolai chortled. “He sacrificed his own son so he could keep his power!”

  “I don’t get it,” Marit said.

  “I do,” Anakin said. “They want to kill me.”

  Shocked, Marit looked from Gillam to Rolai. “That can’t be true.”

  “Actually, we were going to hand you over to Rana Halion for that particular step,” Gillam said. “But as long as you pushed the issue…” He flourished his blaster and smiled at Anakin.

  “But you’re not Gillam—they’ll figure that out,” Marit said.

  “They have a plan to disguise the body somehow,” Anakin said. “I’m sure Rana Halion can find ways. I’ll be taken for Gillam. And Senator Tarturi will not only be disgraced among his own people, he’ll have a war on his hands. He won’t be able to investigate, even if he wants to.”

  “Which he won’t, because he won’t care,” Gillam said. “He’ll just care about his Senatorial privileges being threatened.”

  “It’s a brilliant plan,” Rolai said.

  Marit stared at the two of them. “You’re both insane.”

  Gillam shook his head sadly. “Poor Marit. You lost your nerve on Tierell. That’s why we couldn’t trust you.”

  Marit looked at Tulah, Hurana, and Ze. “Are you going along with this?”

  The three of them looked uncomfortable.

  “Gillam says we must be warriors,” Hurana said. “This is the only way.”

  “I just do the tech stuff,” Ze said.

  “This has nothing to do with me,” Tulah said.

  “Ah, one thing I should point out,” Gillam said. “Because of the disappearance of another student, the school has gone into security code green. And that means that all passes have been cancelled. You’ve missed three of the hour check-ins.”

  “I knew I should have extended the range on our comlinks,” Ze muttered.

  “Which means we’ve been expelled,” Hurana said.

  “Which means, dear friends, that we have nowhere to go,” Gillam said. “It’s a big galaxy out there. We only have one another. And that’s a good thing. Together, we can be the best. We can have everything we want, if we just stick together. At first we did it because nobody wanted us.
But now we can do it because we’re the best. We belong together.”

  Gillam’s voice was low and compelling. Anakin saw the charisma and charm that had led these students to join him.

  “Maybe nobody wanted the others,” Anakin said. “Or you convinced them that it was true. I don’t know about that. But what about you? You’re the son of a powerful Senator. Who didn’t want you?”

  Gillam’s face went white with sudden rage, and for the first time, Anakin could see that he was quite capable of killing him. “My father!” he shouted. Gillam regained control of himself with an effort. “And now he’ll realize how wrong he was. Everyone will realize who underestimated my resolve. Well, Marit? Are you with us?”

  Marit turned to Anakin. “I have nowhere else to go,” she said.

  “Marit, we’re not doing anything wrong,” Gillam said. “We’re doing what we set out to do. We knew what the stakes were.”

  Anakin held Marit’s gaze. “Did you know the stakes would be murder?”

  “No one is asking you,” Gillam snapped at Anakin. “You’re already dead.”

  “He’s a Jedi,” Marit said. “If you think your plan will be easy, think again.”

  Gillam shrugged, coming closer to Anakin. “He has six blasters pointed at him. Even if you don’t fire, I don’t think we’ll have a problem. I know the Jedi. I’ve seen them around the Senate all my life. They are basically servants of the Senators. Whatever power they had is gone now.”

  Anger coursed through Anakin. He saw the privilege Gillam had been brought up with, and how it had corrupted him. He saw that Gillam had counted on the feelings of the others, how they had felt lost and alone in a world he knew and they didn’t. He had taken their minds and hearts and fashioned them into a weapon aimed at his father. The squad wasn’t about justice. It was about revenge.

  Anakin jumped up and kicked out with one foot in a spinning arc, booting the blaster from Gillam’s hand while he held out a hand and, using the Force, tore Rolai’s blaster from his grip. He landed on one leg and used the other to disarm Tulah with another well-aimed kick, grabbing the blaster from Ze’s hand at the same time. He used his knee to dislodge the weapon from a surprised Hurana and then simply took Marit’s from her hand. The entire series of attack moves took only seconds. The squad barely had time to blink.