Corellian Trilogy_ Ambush At Corellia Part 22

"But we fought the war against the Empire to put an end to that sort of thing," Han said.

"I know," Leia said. "And just think what it will be like to get that sort of policy approved, and how expensive it would be. But the alternative is to stand back and let a bloodbath happen."

"I am not even sure, even sure, we can impose a peace,"

Micamberlecto said. "We have no heavy ships to speak of in the sector.

"Can't we bring in ships and troops from elsewhere?"

Han asked.

"That would cost a tremendous amount of money that we just don't have," Leia said. "Besides which, there's not much call for warships or armies at the moment, thank the stars. Most of the forces have been disbanded. We've got lots of New Republic and captured ex-Imperial ships, but most of them are mothballed, or being broken up for sc.r.a.p. And a lot of the supposedly active-duty ships are in drydock getting upgrades; What few ships are effective are on duty in other sectors.

"There must be some sort of forces in reserve," Han said.

Leia shrugged helplessly. "There are, but there aren't many. And what reserves we do have will take time to activate. We're stretched awfully thin. Readiness is at its lowest ebb in years.

"Then let us hope there is nothing we need be, need be ready for,"

said Micamberlecto. "I suspect it is a forlorn hope, but there it is."

"But what are we to do?" Leia asked.

Micamberlecto shrugged again. "There is nothing we can do," he said. "However, there is another point, another point. Although it sounds as if Captain Solo's capture was almost at random, it could have been a deliberate threat directed at all of you. A warning. A warning."

"You're saying they might be trying to chase us off,' suggested Han.

"Possibly," Micamberlecto said. "The staged attack certainly makes it seem that way.

"Well, we're not going to let them win," said Han. "I don't cut and run. I say we stay-that we stay and do exactly what we would have done otherwise."

"Excellent," said the Governor-General. "However, I would suggest taking one or two precautions. I know that your ship is under guard at the s.p.a.ceport, but it is not the most secure of locations. Someone could place a traceror, ah, other device-aboard it."

ther device,' " Leia said. "You mean a bomb."

Micamberlecto nodded. "Well, yes, I do. In any event, it might be best to place the Falcon elsewhere."

"I've been thinking on that point myself," said Han.

"But there's no place out by the villa that would be any better."

"I was about to suggest that there is a small, a small landing pad and hangar complex here, on the roof of Corona House," said Micamberlecto. "You could store the ship there, and I could have my own personal technical staff examine it to make sure that no one has played any games with it already."

"Can they be trusted?" Leia asked. "You've made it clear that you can't rely on most of your staff.

"My technical staff, and my personal bodyguards, are all decorated veterans of the war against the Empire," he replied. "They are all handpicked, handpicked, and all of them have been vettd. I am quite comfortable with my life in their hands. It is the locally recruited people working in other departments I suspect."

"Okay, then," Han said. "I'll have Chewbacca fly the ship over tomorrow morning, first thing. It'll give him something to do. More to do than we'll have, in any event."

Leia smiled, with at least some hint of real humor in the expression. "Oh, we have a lot to do, Han, if we're going to keep up appearances."

"Like what?" he asked.

"We have to play tourist."

Han let out a low moan. "I don't know," he said.

"That's what I was doing today, and look how it turned out." -* *

The next morning was not a pleasant one. The weather had shifted, and rain was lashing down on the villa. That meant the kids were trapped inside, and that meant they were restless, and that meant noise. Despite the best efforts of the CDF medical droids, Han's head was still throbbing from the beating he had taken, and that did not help either.

Han sat in the living room and watched the children set to work once again, attempting to build another impossibly tall and spindly tower out of the blocks. Blocks. All the super-duper high-tech toys in the universe, and they were playing with blocks.

At least Chewbacca had managed to escape. He got to fly the Falcon from the s.p.a.ceport to the top of Corona House. Han reflected that things had to be pretty bad if the idea of flying a s.p.a.cecraft in a rainstorm through congested airs.p.a.ce to a rooftop landing sounded like fun by comparison. On the other hand, Leia had retreated to her office with Ebrihim to plan their itinerary, and that didn't appeal to Han at all.

The tower of blocks collapsed in a totally predictable roar of noise, and the kids all laughed just a bit too loud.

Han decided to beat a retreat. He went upstairs to the library, in hopes of being alone. He needed to think things through for a while-and maybe a bit of calm and quiet would keep his head from throbbing.

He went into the library and sat down in one of the infinitely comfortable reading chairs. Some part of the back of his mind, trained back when he had been a smuggler, warned him that he had made the double mistake of leaving the door open and sitting with his back to it.

But Han pushed that foolish worry besides. It was just that he was nervous and edgy, and his old reflexes were coming back. Besides, he had other worries. He thought back to the incident-no, use the real name-the kidnapping yesterday. Why had they grabbed him? Why had they held him?

And why on Corellia had they let him go? The only thing he could think of was that, somehow"Master Solo, if I might have a word?"

Han jumped, startled, and turned around in his chair to find Q9-X2, that weird droid of Ebrihim's, floating behind him. So much for the idea of peace and quiet. "Don't do that," he said.

"Do what, sir?"

"Come up behind me so quietly. Make a little noise.

Use your wheels instead of floating around like that."

"But I would not have been able to get upstairs using mywheel system," Q9 said.

and wouldn't that have been a shame," Han muttered.

"Look, I came up here after some peace and quiet. Could you please just roll away, or float away, or something?"

"But there is something of importance that I must tell you," the droid said as it floated around to face the front of the chair.

"Something that I thought that we should discuss in private."

"Yeah?" Han asked tiredly as he leaned back in the chair. "What might that be?" It had been his experience that what droids thought of as important rarely matched his ideas on the subject.

"First, when I learned that Master Ebrihim and myself were to serve in the household of such important persons as yourselves, in a situation as unsettled as that currently obtaining on Corellia I elected to make whatever contribution I could to your security, and I therefore made a number of purpose-built modifications to myself.

"Huh? What?" Han asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Excuse me for taking so long to get to the point, but you must understand that I have installed quite a bit of sophisticated detection and observation equipment. I now carry a wide range of highly capable scanners and comparators, and I have performed repeated sweeps of the vicinity, whenever possible, in between the execution of my other duties."

"Good for you," Han said, still not really paying attention. Why did every droij feel the need to b.u.t.tonhole him and yammer on about its specs and capabilities?

"And good for you, too, Master Solo," Q9 said. "I do think you would be well advised to take what I am saying more seriously.

"And why is that?" Han said.

"Because you are being watched."

That got his attention. "If you mean the CDF agents-"

"Please, Master Solo. I am no addlebrained protocol unit. Give me some credit.

No. In fact, judging by her behavior, I believe the watcher in question is doing her best to stay out of their sight, more than she is worried about hiding from you or your family. ' "She?" Han asked.

"Yes, sir. There is just one, a human female, and she appears to be on her own. At least I have spotted no one else working with her. She has stationed herself in the empty villa a short distance from here. She watches from an upstairs window, doing her best to conceal herself. I might add that she is probably all but invisible to normal human vision.

The window transparency is thick, the room she is in is dark, and she has been quite skillful in keeping a low profile. However, I managed to record a few low-resolution flat-image shots of her in polarized infrared before the rains blew in earlier this morning."

"Let's see." Han had expected Q9 to project a fuzzy holographic image on the wall or something. lnstead, there was a quiet whirring noise, and a flat-image photo rolled out of the printout slot in Q9's chest. Maybe there was something to be said for a droid that upgraded itself. "Most of the time, of course, the macrobinoculars conceal her,"

Q9 went on.

"This is the highestresolution image of her face that I have secured. The quality is still quite low, although I have run it through all the appropriate enhancement routines."

Han took the photo from the slot and looked at it. It was rather grainy and extremely contrasty, and the image itself was a bit blurred.

But there could be no mistake. It was Kalenda, the NRI agent, caught in the act of lifting the macrobinoculars to her face. Somehow, Han was not all surprised. She was just the sort of person who would pop up out of nowhere, light-years from where he thought she was.

She had a worried look on her face, and she looked gaunt and worn.

But it was her, all right. There could be no mistaking those disconcertingly wide-set eyes. He thought back to what Leia had said, about her sense of being watched at the s.p.a.ceport. Yes. It all fit.

But what did it all mean? What the devil was Kalenda doing here, and if she was here, why hadn't she tried to contact Han? The only answer he could come up with was that she didn't trust the CDF either.

"Have you told anyone else about this?" Han asked.

"No, sir. It seemed to be that I should come to you first."

Han thought for a moment. "You have done very well, Q9," he said.

"This is vital information-but I must order you to tell no one-no one else about it. Not your master, not my wife, not anyone. It will be bad enough having me wandering around pretending not to know I am being watched. If the whole house had to pretend, someone would make a slip."

"Then this watcher is an enemy, sir?"

"No, no. A friend. I don't exactly know what she intends, but she is on our side. The problem is that we are not at all sure the CDF is friendly. It might be that she is there trying to protect us against the CDF in some way. If their a"gents discovered her, we could lose a very useful a.s.set.

"Useful for what?"

Han shook his head. "I don't know yet. Before I could tell you what we'll need her for, I'll have to figure out what game we're playing.

But she's there, and the people we don't trust don't know it.

That might be useful."

"Shall I attempt to signal her in some way?" Q9 asked.

"By some means that the CDF agents could not detect?"

"No," Han said. "Not yet. Not until I know more. The situation is complicated enough without introducing a new variable. And the CDF might have a few tricks up their sleeve we don't know about."

"Very well, sir," Q9 said. "The situation is rather serious, is it not?"

"More so than any of us thinks, if you want my opinion," Han said.

He handed the photo back to Q9. "Destroy this," he said. "Keep a very low-key eye on our friend.

And do not discuss this situation with anyone. Not even with me, unless I bring up the subject, or unless the situation changes. Is that understood?"

Quite well, sir."

"Thank you, Q9. You may well have just done the most important work in your life."

Q9 backed away, and dipped down on his repulsors a bit, doing a pretty fair simulation of a bow. "So far, at least," he said, without a trace of humor. "So far."

Han watched the droid leave, and swore under his breath.

Something was going to blow. Something. Things could not hold together under all this pressure for long.

And meanwhile, all they could do was play tourist and pretend they knew nothing and that everything was fine.

Han hated politics.

Outside, the rain thundered down.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN Sightseer he rain continued into the next day, but by that time, everyone had had quite enough of being cooped up in the house. Rain or no rain, they piled into a hovercar the governor-general had loaned them, and took off, with Han at the controls. He reached for alt.i.tude as quickly as possible, punching through the gray misery of the driving rainstorm, bouncing and bucking the hover car's way through the storm clouds themselves, and then up into the clear blue gleaming skies above.

It was remarkable what a change the sight of blue skies made.

Everyone's mood lifted, even Chewbacca's, shoehorned though he was into a copilot's seat not nearly large enough for him. The bickering children suddenly went quiet, and forgot the sulky arguments about who was crowding whose seat. All at once they were pointing out the cloud tops below to each other, and telling each other what monsters and aliens the clouds looked like.

Han felt better, too. Getting out from under the rain was part of it, of course, but it was also the idea of getting away-far away-from Coronet, if only for a while. There was something to be said for playing tourist if it kept you out of town.

* * * Kalenda watched the family hovercar with feelings of relief and fear. It was impossible for her to follow them. She could rest, at least for a while. However, it didn't seem as if they had taken a great deal of luggage. Probably they were only heading off on a day trip. But that would be enough for her to wash up a bit, get a decent meal, and catch some sleep. Of course, there was always the chance that the opposition would take advantage of their absence for some sort of skulduggery. But she could set the macrobinoculars on time-lapse record while she slept, and play the recording back later. If there was any hanky-panky, she could still catch it on the recording and take action in time.

The situation was no better, and she knew that she was not likely to do anyone any good anytime soon. But she could think of no activity more worthwhile than staying close to the chief of state's family.

She would figure out what to do next later.