"Aaron Allston "Iron Fist" (STARWARS. X-Wing #6)" - читать интересную книгу автора
Wedge smiled. "Those improvisational strengths are be-ginning to give me gray hairs, Admiral. But thank you in spite of that." He let the smile fade. "1 hope I'm not being presump-tuous, sir, but I was wondering if you'd heard anything about Fel."
Ackbar pulled out his datapad and tapped at it. Wedge wondered if the admiral really was accessing data, or whether this was a delaying tactic, a moment to give him time to pre-pare an answer.
Baron Soontir Fel had been the Empire's greatest star-
fighter pilot in the years after Vader's death. Leader of the elite
181st Imperial Fighter Group, he had bedeviled Rogue Squadron
on occasion, and had been a lethal weapon used against the
New Republic on many missions. Later, he had changed his al-liance to the New Republic and had even been a part of Rogue Squadron.
What wasn't as widely known was that Wedge's sister Syal was Fel's wife. Or that both Fel and Syal had disappeared, years ago. The 181st was theoretically now under the com-mand of another Imperial officer, serving the coalition of Moffs and military officers that now acted as the unofficial heir to the rule of what was left of the Empire. And this made Fel's sudden recent reappearance, commanding portions of the 181st as part of the complement of starfighters aboard Star Destroyer Implacable, particularly unsettling. Fel and many of his pilots had escaped Implacable's fate and their location was now un-known to the New Republic... but Wedge had a suspicion that Fel would be found serving Warlord Zsinj.
Ackbar met Wedge's gaze again and shook his head. "We have no news on any official cooperation between the remains of the Empire and Zsinj. No idea why the Empire would loan the One Eighty-first to the warlord. No news of Fel, the details of his return... or his family. I am sorry. I will let you know if his name crosses my desk."
"Thank you, sir. I appreciate it."
In the hangar temporarily assigned to the vehicles of Wraith Squadron-seven battered X-wing snubfighters, two battle-scarred captured TIE fighters, and a comparatively pristine-looking Lambda-class shuttle-they explained the colonel's decision to the Wraiths who had not been called in for the sec-ond stage of interrogation. "I hate to say it," Wedge said, "but leave is effectively canceled. I want volunteers to act as guards for Runt and Wes until they're discharged. I want someone on duty here with our vehicles until we lift for our next assign-ment, and I want everyone walking around with eyes behind as well as in front. Understood?"
The Wraiths nodded. "I'11 work out a duty roster," Face said.
"Why you?" Kell asked.
Face smiled at the big man. "Because Janson's not here to
do it. Because I was promoted two minutes ahead of you, so I outrank you. Check back with me in a few minutes and I'll have assignments ready to transmit."
As the Wraiths moved their separate ways, Phanan threw
his arm over Kell's shoulder. He looked at Tyria. "Tyria, if
you'd excuse us for a moment, I have a few words to say in pri-
vate to your toyfriend-"
She gave him an arch look. "My what?"
off, and glared. "Her what?"
"What did I say?" Phanan shrugged. "A few moments."
She shrugged and moved to her X-wing.
"Did you catch the name of the colonel?" Phanan asked.
Kell's scowl turned from irritation to confusion. "I don't
think Commander Antilles mentioned it." "Repness."
Kell glanced over at Tyria, but she had one of her snub-fighter's engine ports open and was intent on the machinery within. "That's the name of the trainer who tried to get her to steal an X-wing. Before she joined the Wraiths."
"The same. I checked on him as we were marching back from the interrogation. He's still training pilots, now here on Coruscant, though he's about to be assigned to the training frigate Tedevium. He has other duties as well, mostly high-profile volunteer stuff not unusual for an ambitious officer. He was officer of the day today for the subbase the military po-lice belong to, which is why he debriefed us on the incident."
Kell took a deep breath. Atton Repness was an instructor for New Republic pilot trainees who were on the verge of washing out of the training program. He had a reputation as being good at salvaging pilots thought unsalvageable. But Kell and Phanan knew that he had secretly altered Tyria's failing grades to make them passable, then tried to enlist her in an ef-fort to steal an X-wing, and had used the revelation of the grade forgery to blackmail her into silence. "You wouldn't have mentioned him if you didn't already have a plan," Kell said. His voice was hard.
Phanan smiled. "That's what I like to hear. Acknowledg-
ment of my superior intellect along with a desire to hurt some-body else very badly. It's a good day for me.
"Yes, I have a plan. We know of one and only one tactic he has used. He approached a struggling pilot candidate, female, attractive-we don't know whether those characteristics are important to his thinking, but let's put a skifter in the deck and make sure-and helped her two ways. Extra training, for le-gitimate gains in her scores, and doctoring of her grades, to en-sure she passed... and to ensure that she was in debt to him, or could at least be blackmailed into silence. If we wave some bait around in front of him, maybe he'll snap at it."
"Bait." Kell scowled and leaned against the strike foil of the nearest X-wing. "Phanan, I don't know about you, but I haven't had enough time to make enough friends and acquain-tances that I can just snap my fingers and find someone with the qualities you're talking about."
"Ah, but you don't have my superior intellect, do you?"
"One more mention of your superior intellect and I'll make
it necessary for you to install a brain that's all mechanical."
Phanan leaned close, unfazed by or oblivious to the threat. "When I was in the hospital on Borleias, the patient in the next room was a woman. A beautiful woman. A survivor off the Implacable."
"So she's a military prisoner now? Ton, we can't break her
out of jail for your plan-"
"Not a prisoner now. She was a prisoner aboard the Im-placable. Admiral Trigit's mistress-unwilling mistress. She was snatched off a planet colony Trigit bombarded into sand, she was kept drugged... you can guess the rest." Kell grimaced.
"She had a whole lot to tell New Republic Intelligence about Trigit and his methods. A very observant, intelligent young woman. Not to mention a beauty."
"You've already mentioned that she was a beauty."
"Yes, but I'm still not over her. I heard she was being
transferred to Coruscant for further debriefing. If we can find her and convince her to help..."
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