So, silently, Jax had been dismissed. He’d walked back to the art gallery and event center that served as Whiplash headquarters pondering the Cephalon’s words: Choice is loss; indecision is all loss.
Any way he interpreted that, it did not sound good.
Jax stopped in the hatchway of the Far Ranger’s crew’s commons, studying the Whiplash leader where he sat at the faux-wood table. “You’re still not resigned to this, are you?” he asked finally.
“Would you be, if you were being asked to relocate and leave the heart of your operations? The only reason I agreed to this is that if the Emperor suspects I’ve moved, he may focus his efforts on finding me and give the network on Coruscant some relief.”
“The attack near Sil’s Place was too close, Yimmon. And the loss of innocent life involved …”
The Cerean nodded wearily. “Yes. That, too. That bloodbath was … unforgivable. That he would send battle droids, have them kill indiscriminately and widely …”
“Apparently, they knew we were in the area, but their information wasn’t precise enough to target effectively. Photonic charges gave them a shot at killing some of us without extreme damage to the infrastructure.” Jax couldn’t quite keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
“Maybe. And maybe …”
“What?”
The Cerean shook his immense head. “You said it yourself once: It felt as if the Emperor was desperate. If Vader is out of the way for a while and the Inquisitors can’t track us without you sensing them, that makes some sense, but …”
Jax felt a niggle of unease but shook it off. He’d understood the Cephalon’s warning, he told himself, and heeded it.
“Are you suggesting the Emperor might not be as desperate as he seems?” Jax asked Yimmon.
The Cerean sighed, his breath rumbling deep in his broad, muscular chest. “Let us just say that I have never known Emperor Palpatine to be prone to panic. But—as I said—with his champion out of the way …”
“Any more intel from our informants?”
“None. No one has seen Vader or heard so much as a rumor about his condition since your last meeting.”
Their last meeting—in which Vader had tried to punish Jax for still being Jedi, in which he had cultivated a traitor within Jax’s team, in which he had tried to make use of a rare biological agent to enhance his own connection to the Force. Jax found it ironic that, in his unenhanced state, Vader might have succeeded in capturing or killing him … along with all his companions. But the Dark Lord had overreached and defeated himself. There was a lesson in that about hubris and impatience. Jax wondered if Anakin Skywalker—imprisoned in that towering black survival suit, held together by cybernetic implants—would recognize it.
“Then this is a window of opportunity,” said Jax. “To be timid now …”
“Timid?” Yimmon laughed. “Am I not showing timidity by running?”
“No. You’re showing wisdom. Whiplash needs you. The growing resistance needs you. The Emperor’s flailing around almost got you killed.”
Thi Xon Yimmon looked up at Jax with steady eyes the color of old bronze. “What if he is not flailing around, Jax? What if there is a method to these attacks?”
Jax pushed away the cold that tried to invade his core. “Then we’ll remove ourselves from harm’s way. Look, Yimmon, if he’d known Sil’s Place was the pass-through for our operatives, he would have simply taken it off the map. If he’d known where our base of operations was, he would have sent his bounty hunters and his battle droids and his Inquisitors there and killed us in our sleep. What could he possibly have to gain by plunging randomly around like a rancor in bloodlust?”
“Perhaps what he has gained—my leaving Coruscant. My disconnecting myself from the battle long enough to relocate and regroup. Long enough for him to regroup. This may be a window of opportunity for the Emperor, too.”
Jax levered himself away from the hatch frame. “I’ve told you, if you want my team to stay with you on Dantooine—”
The Whiplash leader shook his head wearily. “No. Tuden Sal needs you on Coruscant. He’s unhappy enough that you’re the one serving as my nursemaid on this voyage. He’s right. I’d talk you out of this if I could. I’d like to have our best near Palpatine … and Vader, if he reemerges.”
If? No, not if. Jax knew it was really only a matter of when.
Two
Their route to Dantooine had been decided in a heated consultation during which Laranth and I-Five argued for a direct shot into