"Michael Stackpole "The Krytos Trap"" - читать интересную книгу автора

not to assume was the key to his continued existence. Her
supervision made up in severity what it lacked in duration,
putting him through a grueling regimen that rehabilitated his
cognitive abilities. By the time she fled Imperial Center, Isard
had clearly been confident in his ability to annoy and con-
found the Rebels.
More importantly, Kirtan Loor had become certain that
he could do all she wanted and yet more.
From his vantage point he looked down on the distant
blob of dignitaries and mourners gathered at the memorial
for Corran Horn. While he despised them all for their poli-
tics, he joined them in mourning Horn's loss. Corran Horn
had been Loor's nemesis. They had hated each other on
CoreIlia, and Loor had spent a year and a half trying to hunt
Corran down after he fled from CoreIlia. The hunt had
ended when Ysanne Isard brought Loor to Imperial Center,
but he had anticipated a renewal of his private little war with
Horn when given the assignment to remain on Coruscant.
Of course, Corran's demise hardly made a dent in the
legion of enemies Loor had on Imperial Center. Foremost
among them was General Airen Cracken, the director of Alli-
ance Intelligence. Cracken's network of spies and operatives

had ultimately made the conquest of the Imperial capital pos-
sible, and his security precautions had given Imperial
counterintelligence agents fits for years. Cracken---or Kra-
ken, as some of Loor's people had taken to calling the
Rebel--would be a difficult foe with whom to grapple.
Loor knew he had some other enemies who would pur-
sue him as part of a personal vendetta. The whole of Rogue
Squadron, from Antilles to the new recruits, would gladly
hunt him down and kill him--including the spy in their
midst since Loor presented a security risk for the spy. Even if
they could not connect him with Corran's death directly, the
mere fact that Corran hated him would be a burden they'd
gladly accept and a debt they would attempt to discharge.
Iella Wessiri was the last of the CorSec personnel Loor
had hunted, and her presence on Imperial Center gave him
pause. She had never been as relentless as Corran Horn in
her pursuit of criminals, but that had always seemed to Loor
to be because she was more thorough than Horn. Whereas
Corran might muscle his way through an investigation, Iella
picked up on small clues and accomplished with ~lan what
Corran did with brute strength. In the shadow game in
which Loor was engaged, this meant she was a foe he might
not see coming, and that made her the most dangerous of all.
Loor backed away from the window and looked at the
holographic representation of the figures below as they
strode across his holotable. The ceremony had been broad-
cast planetwide, and would be rebroadcast at various worlds