"Michael Stackpole "I, Jedi"" - читать интересную книгу автора

УBadly burned.Ф
УRight, but they're not gone. Bodies lit on fire tend to have those little bits burn off quickly. And the fact that he's still got clothes on him, albeit badly charred ....ФI let my voice trail off because the conclusion I was being led toward ran counter to my previous experience. УIt almost seems as if he was burned from the inside out. That would require an incredible amount of energy: a lightning strike or lots of microwaves, and we don't have either here.Ф
УYes, but he had such energy.Ф Luke's voice dropped to a whisper. УHis anger.Ф
УYou think he was consumed by his anger?Ф
УI do. I think he used it to unleash dark-side forces he could not control. Had you not been able to shunt aside the energies you absorbed last evening in the grotto, you, too, might have been burned up by them.Ф
I reached a hand out toward the lightsaber, but could feel no heat from it, nor see any signs that it had been damaged by the fire. УI'd like to get a full laboratory work-up on the lightsaber. Fingerprints, tissue residue matches, the works, both inside and out.Ф
Luke shook his head. УYou will find that only Gantoris and I have touched that lightsaber.Ф УHow do you know?Ф
УI know.Ф Luke raised his hands. УIf you open yourself to this room, you can feel the residue of Gantoris' last moments. There is much pain and much anger, as well as doubt and out-rage. The pain is physical, of course, and mental. It feels as if he was tortured before he died.Ф
I stood again. Gantoris' body lay between us like a wall.
УWho would have done that to him?Ф
Luke shook his head. УNone of you. Shock and surprise and horror radiates off everyone else very openly. They were not involved.Ф
УAnd me?Ф
УSome surprise, certainly, but also a determination to solve this puzzle.Ф Luke regarded me through half-lidded eyes. УIf you were to kill him, you would have goaded him into a duel or used an illusion to make him have a fatal accident. You wouldn't have been this clumsy or left this sort of evidence, you would have been subtle.Ф
УThanks, I think.Ф I folded my arms across my chest. УSo if we didn't do it, who did?Ф
УI don't know.Ф Luke's face darkened. УGantoris did have premonitions of disaster, however. Even when I first met him, he wondered if I were the 'dark man' who would bring him to ruin. He said 'If I go with you, I am lost.' At the time I thought he was just afraid of what would happen to his people if he left them. Then, last evening, as he was leaving the grotto he told me that I was not the dark man.Ф
I chewed my lower lip for a moment. УSo Gantoris positively identified his dark man. You told me that Gantoris also men-tioned to you that you were not the only teacher of the Jedi way. I don't think it's a stretch to think this dark man might be the other instructor. The fact that you can't feel this other indi-vidual here is not a good sign.Ф
УHe cannot remain hidden forever.Ф
УI don't think he intends to.Ф
УWhat do you mean?Ф
I glanced down at Gantoris' body. УYou said that if I wanted to kill Gantoris, I'd have been subtle. This death is anything but subtle. We have someone dead by means that are impossible, and he was killed right here in the heart of the academy. You can see by that one diagonal cut on the wall there that Gantoris apparently tried to strike at his attacker, but that did no good.
УIn my time with CorSec I helped track a sociopathic killer or two. Leaving a body out in the open like this was a taunt. It was the killer saying that he's smarter than we are, more power-ful and more cunning. Gantoris tried to kill him with a light-saber and failed. That means the rest of us have little chance of hurting him. He is challenging us and challenging you. He obvi-ously won one of your students over to the dark side, then left him here like a discarded plaything to show his contempt for you.Ф
Luke hugged his arms around himself. УI think he may have been even more direct.Ф
I shook my head. УI'm not tracking here.Ф
УTonight I had a nightmare. I stood with my father on top of this temple, but it was back when the Massassi people still lived. It must have been millennia ago. My father tried to explain to me how it was Obi-Wan's fault that he had been corrupted by his studies of Sith material. What he told me seemed to make sense for the most part, but then he invited me to follow him down that path, which I knew my father never would do. I accused him of not being my father. The image then shifted into that of a shadow that swallowed everything. At that point Artoo awakened me, so I don't know what else would have happened.Ф
УHe became a shadow?Ф I shivered. УGantoris' dark man?Ф
УObi-Wan suggested there was no such thing as coincidence. I would have to suppose that all this is related.Ф Luke's expres-sion hardened. УI have to decide very carefully how to proceed from here.Ф
УIf you will, let me suggest two things.Ф
УGo ahead.Ф
УFirst, this dark man apparently managed to convince Gantoris that he could offer him things you could not or would not. Gantoris' knowledge of and control of the Force was insuf-ficient to allow him to avoid such seductive ideas. I think you need to use the Holocron as a way to instill in us a sense of history and purpose for what we're doing, so we have even more incentive to help rebuild the Jedi.Ф
УAnd avoid the easy solutions offered by the dark side.Ф
УExactly.Ф
The Jedi Master thought for a moment, then nodded. УAnd the other thing?Ф
УIn this dream you said you saw the Massassi and the pyra-mids the way they were millennia ago. I think we might want to do some investigating to see what we can learn about Yavin 4 and the Temples. The Holocron might well be able to give us information. If we can put a face and name to this dark man, or figure out what he's after here, we'll have a better chance of stopping him.Ф
УBoth plans seem to make sense.Ф Luke smiled at me grimly. УI shall work on the first. Tionne is spending a lot of time pulling legends from the Holocron, so she can help me. With your background as an investigator, you should handle the gathering of information about our dark man.Ф
УI'11 build a profile on him. If we can figure out what he wants and how he thinks, we have him.Ф
УGood.Ф Luke glanced back down at Gantoris' body, then up at me. УIf the New Republic is to thrive, we can't allow the Jedi to be destroyed.Ф
There was no returning to sleep that night, so I made my way to the small library where we studied the Jedi Holocron. I really didn't feel up to beginning any investigation at the moment, but playing around with the Holocron and learning how it worked seemed to be something I could handle. The greenish glow making its way out into the corridor told me someone else was using the device, and my curiosity carried me right into the room.
There, bathed in the green glow from Bodo Baas, sat Tionne. She looked long and lean and lovely, with the greenish tint the light gave her hair looking far better on her than it ever did on me. She would have been unarguably gorgeous, except that her hands covered her face and her shoulders shook with sobs.
Bodo Baas' image reached a clawed limb toward her. УFor a Jedi, there is no emotion, there is only peace.Ф
Tionne looked up, her face wet with tears. УIt was more horrible than you could imagine.Ф
The Jedi simulacrum bobbed its head. УBut are the tears for your fallen comrade, or for you?Ф
УWhat'?Ф Shock rode through her voice. She swiped at her tears and pointed a finger at the hologram, then caught sight of me in the corner of her eye. My presence cut off whatever she would have said to him. Instead of replying, she bowed her head toward me and shivered. УHow could anyone do that to Gantoris?Ф
I nodded toward Bodo Baas, then knelt by Tionne's side. I gathered her into my arms and held her, letting her tears stain my emerald tunic. She clung to me fiercely at first, burying her head against my neck. I stroked her hair and resisted the im-pulse to kiss the crown of her head.
УTake it easy, Tionne. What happened to Gantoris was hid-eous, but it's not going to happen to anyone else.Ф
Bodo Baas' inhuman gaze caught and held my own. УYou speak of certainties, Jedi, where there are many unknowns.Ф
I quoted back a piece of the Jedi Code. УThere is no igno-rance, there is knowledge.Ф
УYes,Ф the gatekeeper hissed. УDo you have a question for
me'.)',
УOne moment.Ф I eased my hands down onto Tionne's shoul-ders and pulled back away from her a bit. УCan you help me with the Holocron? You know more about it than I do.Ф
She sniffed and wiped tears away with delicately long fingers.