501st: An Imperial Commando Novel (51 page)

“Master Arligan Zey, a Padawan called Tallisibeth Enwandung-Esterhazy, and a Kaminoan Jedi Knight—Kina Ha. She’s rather
senior
.”

“A Kaminoan? Good grief, I thought that was a
myth.
”

“She’s about a thousand years old, we think.”

Altis blinked a couple of times, then laughed to himself. “At last, someone I can grumble with about young whippersnappers and dreadful modern music. Are you
sure
? No, of course you are. How
extraordinary.
”

Jusik felt a flood of relief. He’d almost expected Altis to be too wary of a trap to cooperate, but he’d forgotten that he was dealing with Jedi, and one thing he could be sure of was that they felt his true intentions. He looked around at the group. Yes, it was a very mixed bag indeed, six different species, male and female, young and old. And he felt that some weren’t Force-sensitive.

The man with the ancient coat still perplexed him. So did a striking woman with flawless black skin that looked almost polished. She dissected Jusik with a glance—not unkind, simply thorough, as if she was used to making fast judgments—and went to speak to Fi.

“Do you know anyone in the Five-oh-first?” she asked.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I knew some very fine troopers from the legion. I’m glad there’s another life for them if they want it.”

“We never close, ma’am. Open all hours.”

“Remember that Imperial Intel is full of dark siders and would-be Sith,” she said. “So watch your back, soldier. It was looking a bit too mystic even when I worked for them. I’m Hallena, by the way. I used to be a spook, but I’m all better now.”

“I leave the intel stuff to my crazy brothers,” Fi said. “I just shoot things. And feed the nuna.”

“Very wise,” Hallena said. “How are we going to do this handover, then? It’s not without risks.”

“Neutral planet,” Jusik said. “We won’t burden you with our location.”

“Are you going to tell us how you found us?”

“Probably not.” It was Skirata’s job to do the bargaining when necessary. Jusik had the feeling the problem would be stopping Altis from being too helpful and ending
up on everyone’s comm list. At least they had a resident spook to keep their paranoia fit and healthy. “I’ll stay in touch. When they’re ready to leave, I’ll comm you.”

Altis shook his hand again, and Fi’s. “You sound like
very
interesting folks. I’d like to meet your father.” He turned Jusik around by his shoulders. “Now vanish. Because we will. You can’t trust anyone here.”

Jusik resisted the urge to look back. Fi glanced over his shoulder just once as he walked, then faced forward again and whistled tunelessly under his breath.

“Nice lady,” he said. “Well, that’s one problem solved. But Mij is going to miss Scout. So will Uthan.”

“Yeah, I know. I might be out of my depth with a memory wipe.”

“You repair brains. How hard can it be?”

“Might be easier with subjects who can consent and cooperate.”

“It’s that, or it’s endex for them.”

“No pressure, then.”

“Nah. Can I drive?”

“Okay. Once we leave orbit.”

Jusik scattered the small knot of local kids with a tilt of his head and climbed into the Aggressor’s cockpit. They looked at him like he was the most
ori’beskaryc
gangster this side of Hutt space. If only they knew his self-doubt at that moment.

He was going to have to wipe his old Master’s memory. It wasn’t the same as healing injury. He wondered how much Zey wanted to forget besides the coordinates of Kyrimorut.

“Are you going to tell
Kal’buir
that Etain had an invite to join Altis?” Fi asked.

“Yeah,” Jusik said. “Somehow.”

Skirata had to be told. It was the kind of thing he’d want to know, even if it hurt.

“A
s far as I’m concerned,” said Melusar, leafing through the Coth Fuuras report, “that’s a
result
. Tidy job. Especially you, Rede. Good thinking. If Intel wants to up their departmental midi-chlorian count, they can do it some other way. One more Jedi off the list.”

And Melusar really
did
have a list. He’d had it neatly printed out on large flimsi poster that reminded Niner of a bolo-ball league table, with colored lines showing which Jedi was linked to another and how. He got up from his chair, scanned the list of names—more of which were crossed out with a red line each week—and ran his marker stylus through
YELGO, BORIK
.

“There really aren’t that many left,” he said. “Look. Scattered ones and twos. Occasional groups of five or six. The only big tranche left seems to be Djinn Altis and
an assortment of other fringe Force-user groups linked to him. Makes sense. He was never part of the mainstream Jedi Order, so his people just weren’t there when Order 66 was called. Never hung out with the Yoda faction. Never got into politics. Never worked for the government. Never led clone troops. Fought the Seps, yes, but only later in the war, and then on their own terms. So more of them survived. And they’re nomadic—based on some ship.”

Niner quite liked the sound of Altis. He guessed that Darman didn’t. As soon as Holy Roly had told that briefing that Altis let his followers marry and have families, Niner could imagine what was going on in Dar’s head. It must have made him as bitter as
haran
. It wasn’t Altis’s fault that the other Jedi banned attachment, but he could see why Darman might blame them all for their dumb rules.

Rede just studied the list on the wall, squinting slightly. Melusar stood in his way and got his attention. “Rede, can you get me something, please? I need the details of the
beskar
extraction deal with Mandalore, and the latest geological survey you can find for the sector.”

“On it, sir.”

Rede trotted off. Melusar carried on talking generally about Jedi numbers, and then switched topics as soon as the office doors closed.

“It’s not that I don’t trust Rede,” Melusar said. “But he’s all raw enthusiasm, and I need to know him better before I tell him everything that I tell you. Now—I want you to go after Altis.”

Niner wanted to check. “Us, or multiple squads, sir?”

“You.”

“I think we might be a bit outnumbered, then.”

“Not a frontal assault. Surveillance, intelligence gathering, and eventually we bring the whole lot down in one operation. It won’t be an overnight job. It’ll take months.”

“Is he that important?”

“Yes, I think he is. We’ve got more than enough commandos
to deal with the other odds and ends. But Altis is the kind of leader that other Jedi might regroup around, not just his own dippy freethinkers. He’s a potential threat now that almost all the other Masters have gone. And he might be a charming chap, but the ones who flock to him will be the usual kind of Jedi, and before long they’ll be back, running the galaxy from behind the scenes.”

It was a helmets-off meeting, because Holy Roly preferred to make eye contact, but Niner—like most clones—liked to keep his helmet on because it gave him precious privacy. No officer could tell what was going on under that frozen mask. A guy could be mouthing obscenities, but as long as he kept his head still his commander would be none the wiser. It was a safety valve.

And it was Niner’s bugging device, too. He hoped it was picking up some of this briefing for Ordo.

He could see Darman’s jaw muscle clenching and unclenching. Melusar probably could, too.
Shab
, as long as that was
all
Dar did; he was still seething because he’d found out the hard way that there were Jedi at Kyrimorut. Instead of calming down, he was getting angrier and more agitated.

Dar was always the laid-back one. Never lost it. So calm that we used to think he was asleep
.

“We’ll rely on our own intelligence,” Melusar said. “I’ll get cover in place so that they don’t start taking an interest in what we’re doing. Right now, all they seem concerned about is recruiting Force-users. Fine. At least I’ll know where they all are, come the glorious day.”

Darman still didn’t say a word. Melusar wasn’t a fool. He was a soldier’s soldier, and he was good at reading his troops.

“Is this a problem I can help you solve, Darman?” he asked.

Darman had to respond now. Niner willed him not to blurt out something he’d regret.

“No problem, sir.”

“You’re a smart man,” Melusar said. “That’s what
whoever bankrolled the army paid for. Really top-notch soldiers. So I don’t think you ever switched that brain off. You know you’ve been used. You’re mad about it. Maybe it’s even personal,
really
personal. And that’s fine. But the deal is that I level with you, and you level with me. I’m taking a big risk here. That’s why I’m keeping this very small-scale. Concealable.
Deniable.
”

“Can I ask why it’s personal for you, then, sir?”

Melusar blinked a few times. “You were right about Dromund Kaas, Darman. My family did come from there. It’s the cesspit of the Outer Rim. It never had a government, just a cabal of Sith monks. The Prophets of the Dark Side.” He sat on the edge of his desk and folded his arms. “Guys in black robes with black beards. Absolute power. Everything they predicted always came true, and if it didn’t, they’d help it along—death and destruction, usually. But there were never any Republic missions or Jedi armies to liberate us, because Dromund Kaas was erased from the star charts a long time ago. So we
rotted
. And somebody in the outside world must have
known
we were rotting to take us off the chart in the first place. It’s what you do when a reactor blows, isn’t it? Tough luck on the poor fools working there. Lock them in, and stop the contamination getting out.” Melusar leaned forward a little and lowered his voice. Niner could see the pulse flickering in his throat. He definitely wasn’t playing for effect. “My father tried to get people to change the world themselves rather than wait for help that was never going to come. I was six when I watched him get killed. The Prophets predicted he’d be a long time dying. They were right. They always were.”

Melusar seemed to shake himself out of the memory, and stood up with his back to Darman and Niner for a moment before smoothing the front of his tunic and sitting down behind his desk again.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Niner said. “This must be really hard for you.” He had to ask. Ordo would want to know, but
Niner
needed
to. “Has this got anything to do with Imperial Intelligence?”

Melusar shuffled the files on his desk. “They’re all the same,” he said softly. “Whatever brand of cant they mumble, they’re all about power. They’re not on our side. And we have to do something about that.”

Niner found that he’d actually held his breath without realizing it. Darman was frozen. Melusar had
issues
, vast ones. He also had good reasons.

“Understood, sir,” Darman said.

Rede reappeared with three datapads, and the talk of Force-users stopped. “Got it, sir.”

Rede handed them over, and Melusar tapped a few keys. “You should have the documents and plans in your HUD systems now,” he said. “Familiarize yourself with them.”

Every mention of Mandalore now knotted Niner’s gut. It was all getting too close to home in every sense. But that was exactly why he’d stayed. “And the objective, sir?”

Melusar looked up without raising his chin. “Good stuff,
beskar
. Never tackle a Jedi without it. Now get some lunch.”

Niner had no idea what he actually meant—whether he’d just sent Rede on an errand for any old thing, and
beskar
mining was still fresh in his mind, or whether he was introducing them to yet another angle in his personal war on Force-users. Niner needed to check what Ordo or Jaing had picked up via his helmet link, so he steered Darman toward the quartermaster’s store.

“Rede, go grab us a quiet table, will you?” he said. “I’m going to the stores. Won’t be long.”

Rede never questioned why Dar and Niner seemed joined at the hip. He was the new guy. Niner longed to have a tight squad again, where everyone knew everything about their brothers and they didn’t have to think before they spoke. He wanted to bring Rede into that circle of trust, but Melusar was right: he had some way to go yet.

Niner and Dar slipped into a corridor and put on their helmets. They could both hear what was going on when they were connected to the Kyrimorut link now. Niner felt better for that.

“Ordo? Jaing?” Niner said. “Did you get that?”

There was a long breath. It sounded like Jaing. “Wow.” Yes, it was. “Holy Roly makes
Kal’buir
look like the Jedi appreciation society. And that whole Sith thing. No wonder he loves his job.”

“But you got it all, right? I’m going to transmit the Mandalore mining data, too, in case there’s something you don’t have.”

“Great. Just a word, though.”

“What?”

“Best to find a way of stalling the boss on Altis.”

“Sorry?”

“Avoid Altis. Leave him be until we tell you it’s okay.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Jaing sighed, “we need him for the time being. We’ve done a deal with him. It’d be very awkward if you crashed in and found him now.”

Niner was still struggling to understand that news when Darman lit up like a flare. “What, is this another Jedi you’ve chummed up with now? Which
shabla
side are you on, Jaing?”

“It’s
business
. You want Zey and the others out of Kyrimorut, don’t you?”

“Don’t patronize me. I’m going to get back one day and find Kad gone and a thank-you note from the Jedi saying it was all for his own good. What the
shab
is wrong with you people? Why are you helping them after all that happened to us?”