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

My jaw dropped. I knew there were holographs of the cere-monies, but I had forgotten them. Our original copies had been destroyed when our home had been leveled, but Mirax had obtained new copies from her father. I wanted to turn to the cabinet where we stored them and play one immediately, but I hesitated. I couldn't risk finding them as emotionally empty as I had the replay of Mirax's message.
УAre you all right, Captain Horn?Ф
I frowned, then nodded slowly. УI don't know, Emtrey. Is the colonel available?Ф
Emtrey's eyes flickered for a moment. УThe colonel is in his office. He has a meeting scheduled thirty standard minutes from now.Ф
УAsk him to cancel it or postpone it, please. I have to talk to him.Ф I stared intently at Emtrey as if I could reach into his robotic brain and communicate my urgency. УMirax is gone, I mean really gone, and I have to find her. I'll be there in a half hour. Horn out.Ф
I arrived at headquarters a little later than expected because of gross indecision on my part concerning clothes. I went to toss almost anything on, but I saw too many shirts and pants and jackets that Mirax had bought for me and, rather often, trans-ported from all over the galaxy. Try as I might, I couldn't re-member what she had said about any of them. I couldn't remember her smiles or laughter as she dressed me up, or what she'd said as she later worked me back out of the clothes. Each shirt hung there like a ghost of a memory, all two dimensional and lifeless.
I'd finally shrugged something on-a hideous matching of patterns and colors, as it turned out, but I had dressed in the dark. I had a haunted look on my face so people on the hoverbus shied away from me. I would have taken our air-speeder and doubtlessly salvaged some of the time I'd lost dressing, but even as messed up as I was, I knew I had no place piloting anything through Imperial City even if the traffic was light.
Emtrey made no attempt to stop me in the antechamber to Tycho's office. I shot in past him, then snapped to attention and gave Tycho as crisp a salute as I could manage. УThank you for seeing me, sir.Ф
Standing at his desk, with a big transparisteel viewport fram-ing a view of the Imperial Palace behind him, Tycho looked every bit the recruiting hologram image of a pilot. Steel-spined straight, wasp-waisted, with his light brown hair cut short and just beginning to show some white at the temples, he returned mv salute sharply. Sympathy softened his blue eyes. УEmtrey told me about your problem, though he didn't give me much detail.Ф
УI didn't have much to give him. I'm sorry.Ф
Tvcho shook his head and pointed me to a chair in front of his desk. УNot your fault, I think.Ф He glanced back at the doorway. УThat's why I asked General Cracken to join us.Ф
I turned back and saw Airen Cracken enter the office. Though an older man, he had not thickened around the middle with age. White predominated in his hair, but tinges of the red hair he'd passed on to his son Pash still lingered around the sides and back. His eyes were green, like mine, but more of a sea-green, which did not make them lack for intensity. He waited for both of us to salute, which we did, and he returned it sharply.
Tycho waited for General Cracken to take the other chair and sit before he sat himself. УGeneral Cracken was my ap-pointment anyway, and one I could not postpone.Ф
УNo, sir,Ф I said, as I sat. I had first met General Cracken on Coruscant, when I showed up at Tycho's treason and murder trial. My arrival seemed to surprise the general, but that was the first and last time I'd seen him taken unawares by anything. He'd asked me to help him negotiate with Booster Terrik for possession of an Imperial Star Destroyer, and I had failed in that mission rather dismally. The infrequent times we had met since then had been more satisfactory, but his presence here did nothing to put me at ease.
Cracken smiled carefully. УI wanted to discuss with Colonel Celchu the intelligence we obtained from Phan Riizolo, the Booty Full's captain. From him, really, we learned very little that will help us deal with the Invidious and solving the mystery of its location.Ф
I frowned. УI'd really rather talk about my wife .... У
УI know, but this is germane, believe me, Captain Horn.Ф He leaned forward and plugged a cable from the datapad he carried into the holoprojector pad on the corner of Tycho's desk. An image of an Imperial Star Destroyer hovered there as if in orbit around the crystalline model of Alderaan centered on the near edge of the desk. УThis is the Invidious, represented in old Imperial holo-images because we have no current ones of any reliable quality. At the time of the Emperor's death, it was part of a task force commanded by High Admiral Teradoc and served as part of the fleet with which he secured his holdings as the Empire crumbled. That was a good seven years ago. Then, approximately six years ago, Leonia Tavira appears to have ob-tained it.Ф
Cracken hit a key on his datapad and the image shifted to that of a very young woman in an Imperial Naval uniform, with the rank insignia of an admiral. I'd seen enough of those rank badges on self-styled warlords to make me imagine the Empire had given them away as party favors at the Emperor's funeral, but I'd never seen them on someone so young. Her black hair had been cut to the line of her jaw, emphasizing her youth, but an ancient hunger played through her violet eyes.
I looked at Cracken. УShe's a child.Ф
УWas.Ф Cracken sat back in his chair. УWe think she was sixteen standard years old when she began an affair with the Moff on Eiattu 4, the homeworld of a former pilot in Rogue Squadron.Ф
Tycho smiled. УPlourr. We didn't know she was part of the world's ruling family until they came looking for her to come back and guide them.Ф
I concentrated for a moment. УShe was before my time, be-fore the squadron was re-formed and Coruscant was taken. Didn't realize who she was when I met her on CoreIlia, back when I was still with CorSec.Ф
УHer reports on that incident spoke highly of you nonethe-less, Captain Horn.Ф Cracken pressed his hands together. УLe-onia proved to be ambitious, and after the apparently accidental death of the Moff's wife, he married Leonia. Then he suffered a stroke that left him speechless and paralyzed. Because of an allergy to bacta, the road back to health was not easy for him, but he worked hard in physical rehab. He regained use of his hands, a goal he had, it seems, because he then turned a blaster on himself and committed suicide. Leonia assumed his title and duties and ruled Eiattu 4 until Plourr and the Rogues forced her to flee. This she did, with a considerable portion of the planet's wealth.Ф
I felt a chill run down my spine. Over the years I had heard countless stories of people willing to sacrifice others for their own greed. With CorSec I had even investigated a couple of these mourning-murderers, but they were nothing in compari-son to Leonia Tavira. УIs there any question that she did away with her husband and his first wife?Ф
Cracken shook his head. УNot in my mind, but there is no evidence to prove she did. From Eiattu there is no trace of her-she escaped in a shuttle-until she had another run-in with Rogue Squadron. This time she was in command of a small band of pirates that proved somewhat less tractable than the Invids. She fled from that confrontation and hooked up with Teradoc. She obtained the Invidious from him by means unknown and vanished except for the occasional supply raid. She became more bold during Thrawn's campaign, and first appeared with the Invids during the Emperor's return. She was a minor concern then, but she learned very well how to manage her pirates.Ф
An image of the Booty Full replaced her holograph. УWhat she has done is forged a loose coalition of freebooters and marauders into a fleet that looks to her for planning and coor-dination. She provides them times and places for rendezvous, then plots courses, downloads battleplans and uses the Invidi-otts' firepower to suppress planetary defenses. Her allies then loot and pillage to their hearts' content, transferring half of what they take to her. She then vanishes and they return to their bolt-holes, waiting for her next call.Ф
I frowned. УWhy haven't we gone after her fleet? Tracking them can't be that difficult.Ф
УIt isn't. We know, for a fact, that many of them spend their time at Nal Hutta, or lairing up in various and sundry smug-glers' hide-outs throughout the galaxy.Ф Cracken's eyes nar-rowed. УWithout Tarira and the Invidious, her fleet would fall apart and mopping them up would be simple. With her ship intact, we can't begin to prey on the fleet unless we devote sufficient forces to be able to repel an ambush. You were at K'vath. We had a Mon Cal Cruiser and two Star Destroyers there to take down a bulk cruiser and eighteen Tri-fighters.Ф
Tycho leaned forward and rested his elbows on his desk.
УThe fact is, though, sir, that we were not ambushed at K'vath.Ф
УI know, and that is one of the more troubling aspects of this whole affair.Ф Cracken sighed and I felt a wave of fatigue wash out with his breath. УThe source that tipped us to the BooO' Full's raid appears to be one tied to Tavira. Riizolo says he wanted to go out on his own, so he severed ties with Tavira. He says he had been holding out on her anyway, which is why he was able to buy his own clutches. He even sliced the plans for the taking of the Glitterstar from her computer. Because we escorted the liner back to Coruscant, he believes he just got unlucky in the timing of the raid, since we were obviously there to escort the ship, not go after him.Ф
I shook my head. УHe'd not be the first criminal to refuse to believe he was set up.Ф
УHe still is stupid enough to think what little information he was able to give us will save him from prison.Ф Cracken hit another key on the datapad. УAbout the most useful thing he did give us is this updated image of Leonia Tavira.Ф
Gone was the prim vixen from the previous image. Though still very young, Leonia had become sharper and far more beautiful. Her violet eyes had a piercing quality that belied the gentle smile on her face. Her hair had grown out somewhat and was raggedly cut, but held back with a red bandanna of the same hue as the scarlet panels on her black jacket. She wore blaster pistols on either hip, and the gunbelts that encircled her waist emphasized her slender, petite physique. Her black leg-gings clung to her like synthetic flesh, while armored boots en-cased her legs from the knees down.
I shook my head. УLooks like life gave her some Iceheart lessons.Ф
Cracken snorted a laugh. УI hate to think what Tavira would have become if Ysanne Isard had taken her on as an appren-tice. Or even Grand Admiral Thrawn, for that matter. She ap-pears to learn from her experiences very quickly and very well, which is part of the reason we have trouble locating her. As we suspected before, and as Riizolo confirmed, she initiates con-tact, not the other way around. None of the Invid pirates know where she hides her ship or when she will show up. Only those individuals recruited to crew on the Invidious learn those secrets, but that avenue of access is one-way only. Once you are invited to the Invidious, you do not leave it.Ф
Tvcho studied Tavira's image, then glanced at Cracken. УI seem to recall a number of other operations launched against her that proved fruitless. Do you suspect she has sources of information that tip her to our plans?Ф
УI certainly would like to think so, Colonel, because that means we could trap her if we could locate her source and feed him bad data.Ф Cracken opened his hands. УSo far all efforts in that area have come up empty. In fact, I have had Iella Wessiri coordinating our efforts to locate any spies working for Tavira, and the both of you know how thorough she can be.Ф
I smiled. leila had been my partner in CorSec and had been the chief prosecution investigator in Tycho's treason trial. УIf she can't find a spy, there isn't a spy.Ф
УA conclusion I am forced, reluctantly, to accept.Ф Cracken shook his head. УSomehow Tavira seems to know when we have prepared for one of her raids and calls it off. We've been able to figure out no pattern of behavior that would tip her off, so we have had to rely on more and more unorthodox methods for trying to locate her.Ф
He turned to face me and ice crystallized in my guts. УPart of those efforts involve Mirax.Ф
I slumped back in my chair, suddenly feeling as old as the galaxy itself. УI know, somehow, that she is not dead, but I cannot feel her otherwise. What do you know, General'?Ф УI know very little, and some of that I cannot tell you.Ф
Tycho frowned. УThis is his wife, General, and she's missing.Ф
УI know that, Colonel, and I know where she might be.Ф Cracken held his hands up to forestall comment by either one of us. He needn't have done it for me because I felt as if all my bones were turning to liquid and the very act of breathing was almost more than I could manage.
УMirax came to me to ask what she could do to help bring an end to the Invid raids. It turns out that a client of hers, a collector of antiquities, had lost some valuable items when an Invid raid hit a vacation home he maintained. He wanted the items back and was interested in having Mirax make some inquiries. She came to me offering her services, noting that such a cover story might allow her to go where my people could not. I explained to her that the Invids could prove very danger-ous, but she was willing to accept that danger-though she did travel alone, not wanting to subject co-pilots to such risk. She said that the sooner the Invids were broken up, the less she would worry about their possibly killing Rogues, and that she and you could get back to your lives.Ф
Somehow I balled my hands into fists and fought to stop the tears threatening to leak from my eyes. If' I had not set the destruction of the Invids as a condition ./br our decision about having a child, she never would have taken this risk. I should have sccn that, I should/lave known what she would do. She never was one to stand around idle when a goal eluded her grasp.
Is it she? With that question, with my realization that I couldn't remember enough about her to answer it, the tears came. I wanted to apologize, but the lump in my throat choked off my words. My mouth gaped open in a silent scream, then I hammered my right fist down against the arm of my chair and snapped my mouth shut. I sniffed, swiped at tears, then sat back upright.
УPlease, forgive me,Ф I croaked.
УNothing to forgive, Corran.Ф Tycho gave me a brave smile. УYou're taking this a lot better than I would if I had the equiva-lent news about Winter.Ф
Cracken reached out and patted me on the knee. УBut for your sense of Mirax's being gone, I would not be overly alarmed, Captain Horn. She is overdue for reporting in, but not by so much time that I see a need to assume the worst.Ф