Star Wars - X-Wing - Krytos Trap

by Michael A. Stackpole

  "Sir, when do we strike?"

  "Court begins early in the morning. Time the strike to

  occur with the first witness. That gives you approximately

  five hours."

  "It's done, sir."

  "Very good, Helvan. You make me proud."

  "Thank you, sir."

  The SIO man turned and practically ran from the office.

  Loor would have laughed, but he feared that might have

  betrayed his true intentions. The attack he had designed

  would call for a strike force of thirty SI operatives--three

  cells' worth. He designated a bacta facility as the target be-

  cause he knew lsard would approve of it and might set aside,

  even for a moment, her fears about him. He chose Vorru as a

  target both to strike at the man's vanity and so be could hurt

  the man personally before he sold him out to the Rebels.

  Stick the vibroblade in and modulate the oscillation rate.

  Loor prepared the plans for transmission to Isard by

  adding a note stating he intended to personally supervise the

  operation, and then sent them. He shut down his datap ad,

  then took one last look out the window of his sanctuary at

  the brilliant galaxy of synthetic stars bek)w him. There will

  be other towers and other chances to rise to such heights.

  On a whim he turned on all of his lights and left them

  burning like a beacon in the night as he abandoned his office

  and set out on the most dangerous mission he had ever un-

  dertaken.

  Rubbing sleep from her eyes, leila Wessiri entered Halla Et-

  tyk's office. "You look as haggard as I feel."

  Halla looked up at her with bloodshot eyes. "You don't

  know the half of it. Nawara Ven called me just past mid-

  night. l've spent two hours meeting with him and various

  Provo Council members. This is all madness." "Why tractor-beam me into it?"

  Halla smiled. "Because you've been the one who's har-

  bored little doubts about Tycho Celchu's guilt. We've got a

  witness now who can confirm his innocence. We have to

  bring him in, and you're going to help Nawara do the job."

  leila blinked her eyes. "A witness? Lai Nootka came

  forward?"

  "Nope." Halla sat back and mischievous light played

  through her brown eyes. "Someone who demanded your

  presence. Said he'd only trust you to bring him in."

  Who could that be? Iella's eyes narrowed. "Give me a

  name."

  "Can't. This office isn't secure enough." Halla pointed

  toward the office window and the drapes drawn over it.

  "Someone you knew well, once upon a time."

  leila frowiled. Drapes? Curtains? tter jaw dropped

  open. Kirtan Loor? "It can't be."

  "It is. Code name is Behemoth."

  "Right." He's the biggest Intelligence agent we've

  brought in so far. "What's the drill?"

  Halla yawned. "Sorry. Nawara just gave his little media

  conference so Behemoth knows the deal is set. Nawara will

  be coming here and will be waiting until Behemoth can get

  him a message about pickup. I've arranged for you to get an

  armored airspeeder. You'll take Behemoth to a safe house,

  Nawara Veil will depose him, then you'll pack him up and

  bring him here in time for court. We want him in and out

  fast--we're counting on secrecy because he should have

  enough information about Imperial ops that almost anyone

  could want him dead."

  Iella nodded. "You're not afraid I'll kill him?"

  "Not before he clears Celchu of Horn's murder, no, I'm

  not. Cracken will want him after that, but my only concern is

  his impact on this trial." Halla shrugged, then blew a lock of

  black hair from in front of her face. "I've already told you he

  cut an immunity deal, so the only justice that will be done in

  this case is getting Celchu off. You know how these deals

  work."

  "Yeah, they stink worse than Hurt-sweat, but you give

  something to get something." Iella sighed. "Don't worry, I'll

  bring him in safely."

  "Never was worried about it."

  Iella pointed to the hololink on the office's other desk. "I

  need to speak with Diric."

  Halla frowned. "Not a good idea."

  "If I don't, he'll wait up. He always has, but he's really

  not that strong anymore."

  "No details, right?"

  "Right."

  "Go ahead." Halla stood and smoothed the wrinkles in

  her skirt. "I'm going down the hall to brew up something

  hot, dark, and stimulating. Can I bring you some?"

  "Please." Iella sat down at the desk and entered her

  home link number. She smiled reflexively when Diric an-

  swered. "It's me."

  "So it is, and with a smile." Diric stifled a yawn with his

  hand. "Forgive me. How are you? Is there anything you

  need? I can run it over."

  "No, no, I'm fine, really." She forced her smile to

  broaden. "I just called to let you know I'm not going to be

  coming back home this morning."

  "Anything wrong?" Irritation washed over Diric's face.

  "No, can't be if you're smiling. Something good, then?"

  "Work, work I can't tell you about. You'll find it fasci-

  nating when I can."

  "I can't wait. Sounds as if you have a big day ahead of

  you." He glanced off to the side for a moment, then nodded.

  'TII get some fruit and put it together with your lunch so you

  can snack on it if there is a break. Will that work?"

  "That'll be perfect, darling." Iella touched the hololink's

  screen and caressed her husband's face. "It really is going to

  be a big day tomorrow. You'll see why I can't say anything."

  "1 understand. Thank you for letting me know you're

  safe. I can try to get back to sleep now."

  "Please do, Diric. Get all the sleep you can--enough for

  both of us."

  'Tll do my best." He smiled at her. "Be careful. I love

  yOU."

  "I love you, too." leila hit a button and broke the con-

  nection. She sat back and sighed deeply. It's very strange to

  find myself having to safeguard a hated enemy so he can

  exonerate a man in the murder of a good friend. l'm not sure

  Corran would appreciate the irony of the situation, but I do

  know he wouldn't want an innocent man imprisoned for a

  crime he didn't commit. I think that's as close to peace of

  mind as I'm going to get out of this. I just hope it's enough

  when all is said and done.

  35

  Never, in all the time he had secretly worked for Ysanne

  Isard, had he gotten a message that revealed her to being

  close to panic. The messages she had sent concerning the

  remnants of Rogue Squadron and the need for their elimina-

  tion had been more controlled and confident. Even after the

  Alliance took Coruscant and she disappeared, her messages

  had revealed a core of confidence that her activities would

  bring about the destruction of the New Republic.

  He had to admit that she had not been far wrong in her

  beliefs in that regard. The Krytos virus had created such a

  demand for bacta that the New Republic had all but bank-

  rupted it
self trying to meet the minimum demand for the

  lifesaving liquid. They had been desperate enough to strike a

  deal for ryli with the Twi'leks, a gamble that could have

  caused angry Thyferrans to cut off the bacta supply com-

  pletely.

  Confidence in the government had begun to erode be-

  cause of the bacta crisis. Warlord Zsinj's predations on a

  bacta convoy had dealt the public's belief in the government

  a serious blow from which they would attempt to recover by

  sending a task force under Han Solo's leadership to kill

  Zsinj. In fact, however, the more insidious damage to the

  government had been done by the government itself with the

  Celchu trial. Originally Tycho Celchu had been held up as an

  example of the evil perpetrated by the Empire, but Nawara

  Ven's spirited defense had pointed out that the evidence

  against Celchu was circumstantial and probably manufac-

  tured. The obvious displeasure expressed by Rogue Squad-

  ron's cherished heroes at Celchu's trial helped underscore the

  weak foundation for the government's case.

  He neither knew nor cared if Celchu was innocent. lsard

  was very capable of arranging it so an innocent man ap-

  peared to be guilty or vice versa. He did know she was using

  the trial to hurt the government, and her efforts clearly were

  succeeding--which is why the tenor of the note surprised

  him.

  In addition to summoning him to a meeting place, the

  note directed him to dispatch teams of his people to various

  sites in the Imperial Palace and Senate Hill areas. They were

  to go armed and shoot on sight the individual whose file

  she'd appended to the message. Many of the locations would

  be all but impossible to get to at this hour a forty-third floor

  foyer in the Imperial Palace, an tinused area of the Galactic

  Museum, an old Imperial Senate subcommittee room. More-

  over, it struck him that the only place she wasn't asking him

  to send his men was the Imperial Courthouse. Since she

  wanted everyone in place before court could open, and since

  the target apparently possessed information she didn't want

  revealed, he assumed she had the Courthouse covered her-

  self.

  Fliry Vorru frowned. She should have gotten Loor to

  send people out to these other sites, too, not just the Court-

  house. He flicked on his datapad and called up the reports

  from the people he had monitoring the activities of Loor and

  his operatives. Of Loor there was no report within the last

  hour, when he left his tower. Loor had gotten much better at

  eluding surveillance over the past several weeks, but he al-

  ways showed tip again in places that made re-acquiring him

  painfully easy.

  The reports on some of Loor's operatives, on the other

  hand, sparked Vorru's interest. Three teams, a full thirty in-

  dividuais, had congregated at the warehouse facility Loor

  used to store his heavy weaponry. That makes for a big oper-

  ation, and I've given Loor no targets for such an operation.

  Fliry Vorru realized that one of his facilities was going to

  be the target of that operation. Isard's orders were scattering

  his troops so he couldn't defend against the assault. It has to

  be coming against the bacta storage facility--that's the only

  target I control which she would see as valuable. She wants

  to take it down to hurt the Republic, but hitting any of the

  others would make as much sense. The only thing this gives

  her is a terrorist strike against me, which strengthens my

  cover and distances me from association with her.

  Ordering him to be in a meeting place at a specific time

  was meant to get him out of the bacta storage area so he'd

  not be killed. If she confided in him the reason she wanted

  him out, he'd refuse to do what she wanted, choosing instead

  to protect his bacta and the profits he could reap by selling

  the "wastage" that occurred with each shipment. As well as

  the other loot I have stored there.

  Despite the fact that her summons was meant to save his

  life, he took little joy in it. If things went as they had previ-

  ously, she would appear in hologram and berate him for

  what he had or had not done for her cause. She used the fact

  that she could betray him to the Rebels as a bludgeo n, and he

  cringed suitably when she did so, which seemed to satisfy her

  need to see him under her control. As nervous as her message

  suggested she was, he expected quite a beating.

  What she does not understand, what she has never un-

  derstood, is that I don't fear her at all. The Emperor consid-

  ered me a rival. She is nothing compared to him. I work for

  her because her goals and mine coincide. I can play her off

  against the Republic and benefit in the meantime.

  Fliry Vorru smiled. He prepared orders dispatching mili-

  tia teams to the sites she wanted, though he reduced her

  request for a dozen people at each location to three. The rest

  he ordered summoned to his bacta storage facility. He

  planned to have them moving as much bacta and other loot

  as possible to the various storage facilities he had scattered

  all over Imperial Center.

  When she wants to know why I evacuated my facility,

  I'll tell her the Alliance tipped me to a strike. And to make

  that seem true . . .

  Vorru switched his comlink to a secure frequency and

  initiated a call. He allowed the sleepy individual on the op-

  posite end of the link to awaken enough to understand Basic,

  then he spoke slowly and carefully. "Forgive the hour of this

  call, Councilor Fey'lya, but 1 knew not where else to turn. I

  have learned of an impending PCF strike at a bacta storage

  facility. If we act quickly, a great tragedy can be averted."

  All Wedge could see of Emtrey in the darkness was the

  droid's glowing gold eyes. "What is it, Emtrey?"

  "Forgive the intrusion, Commander, but we have just

  gotten an urgent message from Admiral Ackbar. There are

  terrorists about and we have to stop them."

  Wedge shook his head to clear it. "Terrorists here, in our

  area?"

  "No, sir. They're going to hit a bacta storage site. You're

  to fly cover for our troops opposing them."

  The bedsheet slid down around Wedge's waist as he

  pulled himself tp and pressed his back against the head-

  board. "Call in the squadron."

  "l have, sir. They're all coming in except for Master

  Ven. He's not answering his comlink."

  "Keep trying. When you get him, I want to speak with

  him. Get to Zraii and start pre-flight on our X-wings. Tell

  him I want no fueling delays this time."

  "Done, sir." Emtrey pointed at the datapad on the desk

  in Wedge's room. "The primary briefing document has al-

  ready been downloaded for your review."

  Wedge smiled. "Thanks." He threw back the covers and

  stepped out of bed. "Caf, k)ts of it, for me and for the ready

  room. I have a feeling this mission is not one we can fly in

  our sleep."


  36

  A tone brought Corran awake. A jolt of fear ran through him

  when he couldn't recognize his surroundings. He knew he

  wasn't in Lusankya anymore, or at least he hoped that was

  the case, but the thought that his whole escape might have

  been some elaborate charade staged by Isard to break him

  down gnawed at his spirit.

  He hauled himself off the very comfortable bantha-hide

  divan. He'd not intended to fall asleep, but the tunnel-

  shuttle's appointments were plush and seductive, especially

  in comparison with what he had endured in Lusankya. This

  is more impressive than the Hotel Imperial. The shuttle had a

  small refresher station which had allowed Corran to take his

  first shower since his capture. The Lusankya diet had not

  been very high in protein content, so his hair, beard, and

  fingernails had not grown much during his captivity; still, he

  could have used a shave. Then again, in this tunic, I'm hardly

  presentable. He laughed. If it were really that luxurious,

  there would have been a closet with a full wardrobe on

  board.

  Holdout blaster in hand, Corran walked over to the

  egress hatch and opened it. Waiting for him was what looked

  like a private lift. The box, paneled with dark greel wood,

  was otherwise featureless. This made Corran a little appre-

  hensive; without controls, he had to assume it was pro-

  grammed to go to a specific place. ! don't know if I want to

  be there, but I suspect it will be better for me than here. He

  entered the lift and the doors closed behind him.

  The car ascended quickly and quietly. Corran shook the

  lees of sleep from his head. He squeezed himself into the

  corner of the car just left of the doors, out of direct line with

  the opening. Blaster in his right hand, he was ready to pivot

  on his left foot, duck low, and come out shooting if he had

  tO.

  The lift slowed, then stopped.

  The doors opened whisper-quiet.

  The musty scent of stale air rolled into the lift. Corran

  brought the neck of his tunic up over his nose, then dropped

  it again, realizing it smelled slightly worse than the chamber

  beyond the doorway. He peeked out quickly and beyond a

  gauzy wall of spider webs saw a grey room and shadowy