Allegiance (30 page)

Generally speaking, though, the talker wasn’t supposed to pepper his diversion with genuinely useful information. Either Brock was simply stupid—not impossible with an ISB man—or else he and Gilling were
very sure of themselves. “This isn’t going to work, you know,” Mara called, stretching out to the Force and getting a grip on one of the chairs near where she estimated Gilling was about to make his dramatically lethal appearance. “Even together you two can’t take me.”

“Oh, I think we can,” Brock said. “If not, there’ll be others along to finish the job. Probably any minute now, actually.”

And then, beneath the chatter, she caught the subtle sound of the room door sliding open.

Brock was still blathering away when the room erupted into a thunderstorm of blasterfire.

Mara crouched low behind the console, squinting against the smoke and flying splinters of ceramic and metal as the barrage continued, cutting into Brock’s and Gilling’s positions as it first demolished their cover and then demolished them. She heard a wordless shout over the noise, and the assault cut off as abruptly as it had begun. “Come out, Celina,” the Commodore’s voice said coldly into the silence. “Hands open and empty.”

“All right,” Mara called back. “Don’t shoot. I’ve got a deal to offer you.” Setting the power coupling on the floor beside her, her senses and mind alert, she lifted her open hands into view over the top of the console. No one tried to shoot them off. Keeping them visible, she stood up and turned around.

There were a dozen pirates crowded into the back part of the room, all of them hastily dressed, all of them with blasters pointed at Mara. Vinis and Waggral were among them, their fingers especially tight on their triggers. The Commodore stood in the center of the group, his blaster still holstered, his arms folded across his chest. Beside Waggral at the group’s far left end stood a grim-faced Tannis, his blaster also pointed at Mara. “
Another
deal?” the Commodore asked mildly.

“A real one this time,” Mara said. “I came here for
some information. That’s all, just a little information. You let me have that, and I’ll leave peaceably.”

“What makes you think you’ll be leaving at all?” the Commodore countered. “Peaceably or otherwise?”

“Because it would be in your best interests,” Mara said. “I have powerful friends.”

The Commodore sniffed, his eyes flicking momentarily to Brock’s charred body. “They weren’t all that powerful.”

“They weren’t exactly friends, either,” Mara said. “It was them trying to kill me that I presume woke all of you up. I was referring to other friends.”

The Commodore pursed his lips, measuring her with his gaze. “What exactly is this information you want?”

“You mentioned a patron earlier,” Mara said. “I want his name.”

She reached out with the Force, knowing the question would automatically bring the name to the Commodore’s mind and hoping to pluck it from his thoughts. But his mind was too dark, swirling with too much anger and hatred and insanity, and she got nothing.

“You’re a brazen one, I’ll give you that,” the Commodore commented, his calm voice a stark contrast with the agitation of his mind. “At any rate, your deal is far too one-sided.”

“I can fix that,” Mara offered. “Just tell me what you want in return. If it’s in my power to get it for you—and I have far more power than you think—I will.”

The Commodore’s smile vanished. “I’m sure you will,” he assured her. “Because what I want is you. Dead.” He unfolded his arms and lifted a finger toward the ceiling.

“Wait a minute,” Tannis put in, his voice tight. “Sir—Commodore—she’s not going to do us any good dead.”

The Commodore looked at him, his finger still pointed toward the ceiling. “You think she’ll do us some
good alive, Master Tannis?” he asked. “You who brought her among us in the first place?”

Tannis winced. “I admit she fooled me,” he said. “But she fooled Captain Shakko, too. We could at least—”

“If Captain Shakko was indeed fooled,” the Commodore retorted. “If Captain Shakko is even still alive.” Abruptly, his face contorted into something nonhuman. “Only he isn’t, is he? He’s dead, like the rest of your crew.”

“No, of course not,” Tannis protested, his face going a little paler. “I mean, as far as I know they’re all fine. But if we hold her for ransom, we might at least get some money out of her.”

“An interesting idea.” The Commodore looked back at Mara, his face smoothing back to almost sane. “Well, spy? Are you worth ransoming?”

“There are people who would pay to have me back,” Mara agreed. Stretching out with the Force, she lifted the power coupling by her feet to the top of the console, holding it just out of the pirates’ sight. “I can give you a couple of HoloNet connections you can call.”

“I’m sure you could.” The Commodore nodded toward Tannis. “What about him?”

“What about him?” Mara countered. This was an old trick, too. “He’s been a useful tool. Not quite as gullible as Shakko, but adequate for our needs.”

“As I thought,” the Commodore said. “Waggral, kill him.”

Without hesitation, Waggral reached over and grabbed the muzzle of Tannis’s blaster, twisting the weapon out of his grip. “Wait a minute,” Tannis said, his voice cracking with tension. “Commodore—”

His protest was cut off as Waggral slammed the blaster grip across his face, staggering him backward. Flipping the weapon around, Waggral brought both it and his own blaster up to point at Tannis’s face.

Lifting the power coupling the last two centimeters, Mara sent it burning across the room to slam into the side of Waggral’s head. Before anyone could react, she stretched out to the blasters in his suddenly limp hands, swung them around toward the row of pirates, and opened fire.

The man standing next to Waggral caught the full brunt of that first salvo, collapsing to the floor without even a gurgle. An instant later the rest of the neat line disintegrated as the pirates dived for cover, all eyes and blasters swiveling automatically toward this new and unexpected threat.

All eyes, that is, except those of the Commodore. “Not him, you fools!” he shouted over the noise, his glare burning into Mara as he grabbed for his own blaster. “Her! She’s a
Jedi
!”

There was no way the pirates could grasp such a concept, Mara knew, not with the Jedi long gone, certainly not in the heat of battle. But the more important military concept of instant obedience they clearly
did
understand. Even as their faces clouded over in bewilderment, they abandoned their counterattack on Waggral and swung their blasters back toward Mara.

Taking a step away from her console, she picked up one of the chairs with the Force and hurled it at a pair of pirates who’d been careless enough to stand too close together. They crashed to the floor, and Mara sent another chair flying into a different part of the group.

And as she did so, her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of silvery metal arcing toward her from the left. Her hand darted up to intercept, wondering which of the pirates had really been stupid enough to throw a grenade in such close quarters.

But it wasn’t a grenade … and as her mind belatedly caught up with the evidence of her eyes, she twisted her hand around, shifting it from block to catch—

And her lightsaber dropped with a resounding
slap
into her grip.

For an instant her eyes focused on Tannis as he dived sideways toward the cover of one of the other consoles, his hand still swinging in follow-through from the throw. Then her thumb found the lightsaber’s activation stud, and the magenta blade
snap-hissed
into existence.

It was as Mara killed the third to the last of the pirates with his own blaster bolt that the Commodore suddenly seemed to wake up to what had happened to his force. With a hoarse shout, he dodged behind the last pirate still standing, a Rodian, firing at Mara over the alien’s shoulder as he backed hastily toward the door. Even as Mara dropped the Rodian, the Commodore made his escape.

“Tannis?” Mara called, closing down her lightsaber and circling through the consoles to where the other had gone to ground. “You all right?”

“Mostly,” he said between clenched teeth as he pushed himself into a sitting position and peered at the mass of bodies. “And I thought you’d been good on the
Cavalcade
. How in
space
did they wipe out you Jedi in the first place?”

“Strictly speaking, I’m not a Jedi,” Mara said, looking around. The once pristine command room was a shambles. “Is there a backup command room somewhere?”

“Yeah, in the emergency bunker,” Tannis said. “I suppose you want me to take you there.”

“If you don’t, all this will have been for nothing.”

“Fine,” Tannis said with a hissing sigh. “Out the door and to the left.” He gave Mara a twisted smile. “I think we’ll let you go first.”

“I was planning to.” Igniting her lightsaber again, Mara palmed the door release and stepped out into the hallway.

There was no one in sight. “You must have some really
sound sleepers here,” she commented as they headed the direction Tannis had indicated.

“More likely the Commodore’s got them prepping the ships for a quick pullout,” Tannis said, glancing nervously at each doorway they passed. “I don’t suppose you happened to take out Caaldra before you came charging in here.”

“Sorry,” Mara said. “Actually, I haven’t seen him since before dinner. Maybe he left.”

“I hope so.” Tannis shivered. “The guy scares me.”

“Don’t worry about him,” Mara said. “Thanks for the assist, by the way. How did you get hold of my lightsaber?”

“I went and got it out of the rain catcher where you put it, of course,” Tannis said sourly. “Maybe you thought you were being all cute and stealthy, but I could see the thing floating along the towers and guy lines the whole way. Almost gave me a heart attack.”

“You only saw it because you knew to look for it,” Mara pointed out, nevertheless impressed that he’d caught on to her trick.

“Maybe,” Tannis said. “But I sure didn’t want to count on everyone else missing it. As soon as I got free I went to the roof—”

“Hold it,” Mara said, stopping him with her left hand as she raised the lightsaber to guard position with her right. Directly ahead of them, behind a stack of barrels—

A flurry of blasterfire blazed at her from the edge of the barrels: two men, one low, one high. Mara blocked the bolts with ease, brushing the two attackers back behind their barrier. “Any idea what’s in those barrels?” she asked Tannis.

“Not a clue,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like that stored in the hallway before.”

The attackers fired again. Mara responded, catching a
faint crunching sound as one of the deflected bolts sizzled into the lower barrel, sending a dark liquid pouring out onto the floor. A second later the blasterfire broke off, and Mara saw a pair of shadowy figures beating a hasty retreat. “Come on,” Tannis said, starting forward.

“Easy,” Mara warned, again holding him back. Running through her sensory enhancement techniques, she sniffed cautiously at the air.

One sniff was all it took. “Back,” she ordered Tannis sharply, taking his arm and pulling him away from the spreading liquid.

They’d gotten three steps when the liquid exploded into brilliant yellow flame.

Mara reacted instantly, pulling Tannis to the floor beside her. A moment later the barrels themselves ignited, sending a fireball in both directions down the hallway. Mara pressed herself against the floor, feeling the heat wash over her legs and back and head. Tannis screamed something; only then, and only dimly, did Mara realize that she’d been burned, too.

The sheet of flame passed over them and continued down the hallway, leaving superheated air in its wake. Blinking back tears, Mara rolled back up into a crouch, using the Force to suppress the pain. Her lightsaber had closed down during the mad scramble, and she ignited it again.

She was barely in time. Even as she brought the weapon up to guard position there was a warning flicker, and she spun thirty degrees to her right as a pair of blaster bolts came at her from a dark alcove that had been shielded from the blast.

The blaster went silent, and Mara heard a soft chuckle. “Impressive,” Caaldra’s voice came. “Do I have the honor of addressing the Emperor’s Hand?”

“The Emperor’s Hand is just a rumor,” Mara said.

“Of course,” Caaldra said. “I’m flattered that the Emperor would send someone like you to stop us.”

“Only the best for you and your patron,” Mara said, deciding to pass up the fact that she’d happened on this scheme purely by accident. “Nice trap, by the way.”

“Only the best for you and your traitor.” Caaldra fired again, two widely spaced shots to her head and legs. Mara was ready, blocking both with ease. “You and he must be hurting pretty badly, though.”

“We’ll manage,” Mara assured him. Actually, she had no idea what shape Tannis was in, and she didn’t dare risk pulling any of her attention away from her combat focus and her own pain suppression to find out. “It’s nothing compared with what a full Imperial interrogation will feel like.”

Caaldra snorted contemptuously. “Is this where I’m supposed to spill my secrets and plead for mercy?”

“Spilling your secrets would make things go easier for you,” Mara said. “The pleading I can take or leave.”

“Ah,” Caaldra said. “Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s time to go. Give my regards to your friends.”

There was a last flicker of thought; and to Mara’s surprise, the sensation that had been Caaldra vanished.

Leaving Tannis lying on the corridor floor, Mara took a careful step toward the alcove, stretching out with the Force. Caaldra was gone, all right. Keeping her lightsaber ready, she moved closer to find that what she’d thought was an alcove was actually a large deep-set doorway. Glancing once around the corridor to make sure no one was trying to sneak up on her, she pushed open the door.

The room beyond was considerably larger than she’d expected, dark and musty, its only light coming from starshine through a large skylight in the middle of the ceiling. In the faint glow she could see rusting ground-moving equipment and dusty stacks of conduit and
shoring boards, probably leftovers from when the pirates converted this part of the mining operation into their base.