Corran looked at Booster. "I"ve heard that before."
"If you"d prefer, we could leave that part up to Councilor Organa Solo," Karrde offered.
"In the past she and I have always been able to arrive at a mutually acceptable arrangement."
"I"d hate to think what some of those arrangements might have cost us," Corran growled.
"All right, fine. I presume you"re aware we"ve had a lot of demonstrations and riots lately against Bothan businesses and consulates."
"Over the revelations contained in the Caamas Doc.u.ment," Karrde murmured.
"Right. Well, in and among all these protests we"re starting to hear the name Vengeance"
being batted around. Not as a word, but as a group or organization."
Karrde looked at Odonnl. "Have we heard anything about that?"
"I haven"t personally," Odonnl said. "But there"s a lot of stuff our sources send in that I don"t have time to look at."
"We"ll do a data search when we get back to the Wild Karrde," Karrde said. "What are Coruscant"s conclusions?"
"No conclusions yet, just questions," Corran said. "The main ones being who and what this Vengeance is . . . and whether they"re home-grown or getting help from outside."
"Let me guess. The Empire?"
Corran"s eyes narrowed slightly. "You say that like you don"t believe it."
"Not exactly," Karrde corrected. "I say that like someone who rather cynically notices that whenever anything goes wrong in the New Republic, official blaming fingers immediately zero in on the Empire."
"That"s a little unfair," Booster said. "Especially considering the Empire"s long history of this kind of meddling."
"I"m not saying they"re not involved," Karrde said. "I"m simply warning against the automatic a.s.sumption that they are."
"But-"
"No, he"s right," Corran said reluctantly. "There are a lot of beings who remember the Empire doing exactly the same thing to us: blaming the Rebellion for everything, then using that as an excuse to tighten their grip. That"s why my visit here was supposed to be kept secret, in fact-General Bel Iblis didn"t want it leaking out that we were even thinking in this direction."
Karrde nodded. He should have guessed Bel Iblis would be the one who"d put this Rat.i.tan whisperfly in Con-an"s ear. Unlike some of the New Republic"s leaders, Bel Iblis knew how to keep his eye on his goal. And, when necessary, to ignore the shortcomings of the people he might have to deal with in order to reach that goal. "Understood," he said. "We"ll check our files; if there"s nothing there, we"ll start some quiet inquiries and see what we can find."
"Sounds good," Booster said. "And as long as we"re trading wish lists here, you also had some information you wanted, right?"
"Two simple questions, actually," Karrde said. "First of all: our friend Luke Skywalker is trying to locate the Cavrilhu Pirates. Any idea as to which rock they might have buried themselves under?"
"I know they"ve got a base on Amorris," Booster said, pulling out a datapad and keying it on. "And-let"s see-seems to me their major stronghold is-right, here it is. A hollowed-out asteroid in the Kauron system." Karrde shook his head. "They"ve abandoned their Amorris site," he told Booster. "And according to Mara, Skywalker just finished chasing them off their asteroid."
"What did he do that for?" Booster held up a hand. "Never mind; I don"t want to know.
Well, if those are gone then I can"t help you. Second question?"
"Before he went to Kauron, Skywalker helped stop a pirate raid at Iphigin," Karrde said, glancing casually around the bridge. No one else was in earshot. "No idea which group was involved. During the battle, he sensed what he thought was a group of clones aboard one of the pirates" ships."
No one moved, but the atmosphere was suddenly rigid. "I thought the Empire had already run through its supply of Mount Tantiss clones," Mirax said, a shadow of dread in her voice.
"That"s what Coruscant says," Booster confirmed, not sounding any happier than his daughter. "At least to us outsiders. Corran?"
"As far as I know, it"s the truth," Corran said. "It"s been years since we ran across any clone casualties in military action."
"How long has it been since you looked for them?" Odonnl asked.
"Good point," Corran conceded. "I don"t know."
"It"s hard to believe there could be any of them left," Booster said. "They were some of the best and brightest troops Thrawn had. You"d think Daala or someone else would have spent them long ago."
"Unless Thrawn put some in deep cover where Daala couldn"t find them," Karrde said.
"What for?" Booster scoffed. "Saving them? For what?"
"And why would they suddenly be making their appearance now?" Corran added.
"We don"t know that they are suddenly making their appearance," Odonnl reminded him tartly. "Maybe they"ve been out there all along and it"s just that you hotshot military guys haven"t noticed."
Corran took half a step toward him. "Look, Odonnl, when we"re busy trying to keep peace around the galaxy-"
"Easy, gentlemen," Karrde said, stepping between them and holding up a hand. "Let"s try to remember we"re all on the same side here, shall we?"
Odonnl"s lips puckered. "Yeah. Sure."
"Why don"t you head back to the Wild Karrde, Odonnl," Karrde suggested. "Get started on that data search."
"Sure," Odonnl muttered again. "Good idea."
"I"ll escort you down," Ven offered, stepping forward. Karrde looked at him in mild surprise-the Twi"lek had been so quiet he"d almost forgotten he was there. "It"s easy to get lost on a ship this size."
The expression on Odonnl"s face clearly indicated his opinion of that as an excuse, but he merely nodded and headed aft, Ven at his side. "My apologies, Commander Horn," Karrde said quietly as the two of them crossed under the archway and disappeared into the aft bridge.
"Odonnl doesn"t have the same fond memories of the New Republic military that I do."
"That"s all right," Corran said darkly. "I have certain unfond memories of smugglers myself."
"Corran," Mirax said warningly, taking his arm.
The X-wing pilot patted her hand. "Present company excluded, of course," he amended.
"Let"s get back to business."
"Thank you," Karrde said. What we know for sure-and all we know for sure-is that Skywalker sensed clones aboard those ships. Our first job is to answer one simple question: whether they"re Imperial leftovers, or whether someone else has found an-other cache of cloning cylinders."
"Someone such as the Cavrillhu Pirates?" Mirax asked.
"That thought has crossed my mind," Karrde agreed soberly. "It could very well be that my two questions for your father are in fact interconnected." He smiled at Booster. "In which case, of course, I"d expect a discount on price."
Booster rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. "Oh, for-"
"Yo, Captain," a voice called from one of the crew pits.
What is it, Shish?" Booster called back.
"Got a ship incoming-reads out as the Starry Ice," Shish reported. "Pilot wants landing instructions. You want me to fix her up?"
"Key the transmission over to me," Booster instructed him, pulling out his comlink.
"She"ll probably be asking about you anyway," he added to Karrde as he handed him the slender cylinder. "Might as well save ourselves a little time."
"Thank you." Karrde thumbed the comlink on. "Mara, this is Karrde. How are things?"
"Running quite smoothly, thank you," Mara said. If she was surprised to hear his voice, she was hiding it well. Though now that he thought about it, there weren"t a lot of things that ever seemed to surprise her. "Afraid we didn"t have time to swing by Dronseen for that cargo."
"That"s all right," Karrde said. "Faughn can make the pickup after she drops you here. How did the pirate hunt go?"
"Complete washout," she said. "We tracked their vector to Di"wor but then lost it completely. The traffic around there was fierce-Starspeeder 3000s all over the place."
"It"s pollination season for the singfruit groves," Booster murmured. "Peace breeds tourists."
Karrde nodded. "Don"t worry about it," he told Man. "I wasn"t really expecting them to leave a trail you could follow. Have Faughn bring the Starry Ice aboard and we"ll-"
"Jade!" Faughn"s voice cut in. "Over there-coming in from starboard."
"I see it," Mara said, her tone suddenly crisp. "Terrik, you"ve got company-coming in one-one-seven by fifteen, your vector."
Booster was already running along the command walkway toward the forward viewport, Corran right behind him. "One-one-seven by fifteen, Bodwae," he snapped. "What do you see?"
"Nothjing," a bewildered Laerdocian voice said from one of the crew pits. "These shas"mink sensors-"
"It"s hard to see," Mara put in, her voice coming now from the Errant Venture"s main bridge speaker system. "Small and dark-looks a little like a severely modified TIE fighter."
"Doesn"t show up well on sensors, either," Faughn added.
"Stjill see nothjing," Bodwae insisted.
"Skip it," Booster said tartly. He and Corran were standing together now by the forward viewports, Booster"s head turning slowly back and forth as he searched the sky. "Get the deflector shields up, and stand by turbolasers."
"Shjields shortjing out agajin," Bodwae said. "Turbolasers-"
"I"m getting a transmission now," Shish barked. "Strong signal. It"s . . . well, stang it all, I don"t know what it is."
"Mara?" Karrde asked.
"We"re picking up the edge of it," Mara confirmed. "Pretty faint out here, though. So far the computer"s not making anything of it."
"There it is," Corran snapped, jabbing out a finger. "Coming straight at us."
"Get that bridge deflector up!" Booster snapped. "Now!"
"Mara?" Karrde called.
"We"re still out of firing range," she said tightly. "Better take cover."
Karrde glanced around, belatedly wondering where Mirax was. He spotted her at once, heading at a dead run back toward the relative safety of the aft bridge, her bewildered-looking son Valin clutched in her arms. For a moment he considered joining her, realized it was already too late, and turned back instead toward the forward viewports. He could see the unknown intruder now, burning s.p.a.ce directly toward them. Like no ship he"d ever seen . . .
"Brjidge deflector not comjing up," Bodwae snarled. "Shjip gojing to hjit."
"Hit the ground!" Booster snapped, grabbing Corran"s arm and dropping them both flat on the command walkway. Karrde took a long step toward the nearest crew pit, realized he wouldn"t have time to jump down into it, and stopped. The intruder was still coming&mdash And then, at the last second, it made a strange corks.c.r.e.w.i.n.g maneuver to one, side and shot around and above past the viewport.
It took Karrde a second to find his voice. "Mara?"
"You all right?" she asked anxiously.
"Yes, we"re fine," he a.s.sured her, breaking his paralysis and starting down the command walkway toward where Booster and Corran were still stretched out on the deck. "Where did it go?"
"Overshot the command superstructure, cut around behind the drive nozzles where we couldn"t see it, then jumped to light-speed," she told him. "Same trick as the one Luke spooked."
Karrde frowned out the viewports. "This was the same type as that one?"
"It looked like it," Mara told him. "Torve"s doing a scrub of the sensor data now."
Booster and Corran were back on their feet by the time Karrde reached them. "Did you see that?" Booster demanded, shaking his head as he brushed himself off. "Of all the stupid, cherfer-brained stunts-"
"Captain, this is Torve," the young man"s voice cut him off. "It"s confirmed: same type of ship as before."
"Where did you see this other ship?" Booster asked.
"In the asteroids near the Cavrilhu"s Kauron base," Karrde told him. "Mara, what about that transmission?"
"We"re running it now," she said. "It consists of what seems to be a short message, followed by a pause, followed by a repeat of the message. So far we"re not coming up with a match to any known language, code, or encrypt."
"Probably something useless like that Qella ship Calrissian chased halfway across the galaxy," Booster said with a scornful sniff.
"That"s what we thought at first," Mara said. "I don"t think so anymore."
"Why?" Booster asked. "Just because it was transmitting something?"
"Because it was transmitting specifically toward this ship," Karrde said. "And the fact that it paused and then repeated itself implies it was expecting an answer."
Booster scratched his cheek. "Does kind of sound that way, doesn"t it? Mara, you"re running Imperial codes against it, too, aren"t you?"
"First thing we tried," she told him. "Nothing came even close."
"Yet they came in for a close look at an Imperial Star Destroyer," Karrde mused. "And before that they were poking around a pirate base with suspected Imperial ties."