He had to follow me to ensure he could locate the spice. If he’d have grabbed Arra, he might have lost me, or I might have flown off with the spice without ever knowing he had her.”
Aryn said nothing as Zeerid let his thoughts meander into the briar patch of the criminal underworld.
“Maybe he just wouldn’t hurt a child,” Aryn said.
“Maybe,” Zeerid said, but did not believe it. He hadn’t met many criminals who operated with any kind of ethical code.
“Listen,” Aryn said. “I’ll help you get off the planet or find him here. But first I need to get to the Temple.”
“You came here to kill someone, Aryn. I cannot spare that kind of time.”
Her face flushed, and he saw some inner battle going on behind her eyes. “I can just identify him.” She said it as if trying to convince herself. “I can find him another time. But I must have his name. This may be my only chance.” She blew out a deep breath. “I would welcome your help.”
“Been real useful so far,” he said.
“You got me here.”
“I got us blown out of space.”
“And yet here we are.”
“And here we are.”
“Let me get a name and then I’ll help you get offplanet. Agreed?”
He made up his mind, nodded. “All right, I’m with you, but we have to do this fast.”
MALGUS WAITED FOR ELEENA TO AWAKEN, his mind moving through possibilities, still trying to square a circle. He was beginning to think it could not be done.
Eleena emerged from the bedroom of his quarters, barely covered in a light shirt and her undergarments. As always, her beauty struck him, the grace of her movement. She smiled.
“How long did I sleep?”
“Not long,” he said.
She poured tea for both of them and sat on the floor near his feet.
“I have something I need you to do,” he said.
“Name it.”
“You will take several shuttles to Coruscant. Ten members of my security team, Imperial soldiers, will accompany you.”
In his head, he had already picked the men—Kerse’s squad—men whose discretion he knew he could trust. He continued: “I will give you a list.”
She sipped her tea, leaned her head against his calf. “What will be on this list?”
“Names and locations, mostly. Some technology and its location.”
He had pulled it all from the Imperial database while she had been sleeping.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Find everyone and everything you can on that list and bring it to this ship.”
She sat up straight, looked up at him. The question was in the pools of her eyes.
“The people are to be made prisoners,” he said. “The technology confiscated as spoils of war.”
The question did not leave her eyes. She gave it voice.
“Why me, beloved? Why not your Sith?”
He ran his hand over her left lekku, and she closed her eyes in pleasure.
“Because I know I can trust you,” he said. “But I’m not yet entirely sure whom else I can trust. Not until things progress a bit further.”
She opened her eyes and pulled away from him. Concern creased her forehead. “Progress further? Are you in danger?”
“Nothing that I cannot deal with. But I need you to do this.”
She leaned back into him, her arm draped over his legs. “Then I will do it.”
The smell of her clouded his thoughts and he fought for clarity. “Tell no one else of this. Report it only as a routine transfer of cargo.”
“I will. But … why are you doing all of this?”
“I’m simply taking precautions. Go, Eleena.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
She rose, bent, and kissed first his left cheek, then his right.
“I will see you soon. What are you going to do while I am gone?”
He was going to disobey Angral’s orders yet again and return to Coruscant. “I am going hunting.”
THE SMELL OF SMOKE and melted plastoid hung thick in the air. Aryn and Zeerid picked their way on foot through the streets and autowalks of Coruscant. Aryn was conscious of the fact that level after level of urbanscape extended into the depths below her. She realized that she had never put a boot to solid ground on Coruscant. Not really. Instead she, like so many, simply trod the network of walkways and duracrete streets on the surface level, unaware of most that went on in the lower levels. She had lived on the planet for decades but did not know it well.
The sun pulled itself into the sky, slowly, as if it did not want to reveal the ruin. Her eye fell on a distant, isolated skyrise that leaned precipitously