"Michael Stackpole "The Bacta War"" - читать интересную книгу автора

parts, munitions, and goodwill."
"But it will show High Admiral Teradoc and that fool Harssk that they should not
trifle with me and laugh at me. And what need have / of goodwill? Do I not own
all the bacta there is? Others should please me with their actions, not seek to
be pleased by me."
Vorru held his hands up. "There is no question you have power others would do
well to respect, but attacking another place like Halanit will inspire more fear
than you want."
Isard gave Vorru a predatory smile, all sharp tooth and pitiless. "But fear is
exactly what I want, Minister Vorru. However, I take your point. I will still
have my attack, and Commander Dlarit's people will do it, but we'll spare
off-worlders for the moment."
She blithely turned her attention on Erisi, and the Thyfer-ran woman paled. "You
will plan a mission that punishes the Ashern for their boldness in resisting me.
Their antics have been hardly damaging, but I want them to know that to defy me
is to court death. Find something-a munitions dump, a rebel camp, a sympathetic
village, anything. Find it and de-stroy it. No warning, no mercy." She smiled.
"No question who the true power here is."
I
27
Mirax Terrik found herself surprised by the delighted smile on Talon Karrde's
face. A crescent lined with white teeth split his moustache from his goatee and
gave him the rakish air of a space pirate. What surprised her was not that
Karrde could smile so handsomely, but that he dared to, given the scowl on her
father's face. Karrde can't be ignorant of my father's tem-per, so he thinks
he's anticipated our trouble.
Karrde, alone in his cabin, waved both of the Terriks to chairs. "I'll dispense
with greetings because I suspect you'd doubt my sincerity after what happened at
Alderaan." Karrde came around to the front of his desk, then leaned back on its
edge, crossing his long legs.
Mirax sat in the chair she'd been offered, but her father remained standing. He
rested his hands on the back of his chair, then leaned forward to bring his eyes
down to Karrde's level. Mirax knew the posture well-her father lowered his head
like a thirst-mad bantha preparing to sprint to a water-ing seep. She'd seen
other creatures begin to cringe as Booster did that, but Karrde did not.
"Karrde, I've been over the details again and again. I've checked my people."
Booster tapped Mirax's shoulder with
his thumb. "I've even had her CorSec suitor look some mate-rial over to check
this out."
Mirax covered her reaction to her father's statement. Booster had asked her for
advice about making a final check on his security records, and she had brought
Corran in on it. Booster had not been pleased when he found out that
"Cor-ranSec" had gone over things, but he accepted Corran's con-clusions. Now he
makes it sound like he solicited Corran's advice. We're going to talk about
this.
Karrde held a hand up. "I know what you're going to say."
"Yeah?"
"I think so." Karrde's eyes actually twinkled. "You'll tell me that the leak to
the Imps came from my organization."
Booster's head came up. "You knew?"