Star Wars_ Labyrinth of Evil Part 9

"This hardly seems the time to bait him, Anakin. Have you had a look at those point-defense arrays?"

"When are you going to learn to trust me?"

"I do trust you! I just can't keep up with you!"

"Fine. Then I'll be right back." Anakin pushed the starfighter to its limits, paying out plasma and missiles that exploded harmlessly against the great ship's deflector shield. He peeled away from the fiery wash, only to fall back at the ship in predatory banks, breaking ultimately for its 200- meter-tall conning tower. The cruiser's in-close batteries came alive, chundering, gushing enormous gouts of spun plasma at the pest that was attempting to besiege it. Snap-rolling, Anakin slid the starfighter hard to port, belly-up, and continued to fire. Again he tried to harry the invulnerable bridge with bursts of his lasers. And again the batteries of the colossal vessel tried but failed to get him in target lock.

Anakin pictured Grievous standing stalwart behind the transparisteel viewports. "A taste of what's coming when we meet in the flesh," he growled.

Grievous's reptilian eyes tracked the audacious maneuvers of the yellow-and-green starfighter that was attempting to strafe the bridge. Firing with precision, antic.i.p.ating the responses of the forward batteries, taking chances even a clone wouldn't take... the pilot could only be a Jedi. But a Jedi unafraid to call on his rage. Grievous could see that in the pilot's dauntless determination, his abandon. He could sense it, even through the Invisible Hand's shimmering shields and the viewport's transparisteel. Oh, to have the lightsaber of that one dangling from his belt, he thought. Anakin Skywalker. Certainly it was him. And in the starfighter that was guarding Anakin's stern: Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi.

Thorns in the Separatists' side. Elsewhere in the battle arena Republic forces were demonstrating similar enthusiasm, atomizing droid fighters and punishing the capital ships with long-range cannon fire. Grievous was confident that, if pressed, he could turn the tide of battle, but that was not his present mandate. His Sith Masters had ordered him to safeguard the lives of the Council members - - though, in fact, the Confederacy needed none other than Lords Sidious and Tyra.n.u.s. He turned to watch the simulation playing above the tactical console, then swung back to the viewports, recalling the ARC-170 pilots who had hounded Gunray's shuttle only days earlier. He waved for one of the droids.

"Alert our vessel commanders to stand by to receive revised battle orders."

"Yes, General," the droid acknowledged in monotone.

"Raise the ship. Prepare to fire all guns on my command."

There is no death; there is only the Force. Obi-Wan wondered if he had ever witnessed a more lucid demonstration of the Jedi axiom than Anakin's Force-centered, death-defying hara.s.sment of Grievous's ship. His speck of a starfighter all but nose-to-nose with the mammoth cruiser, leaving Obi-Wan to deal with the vengeful droid fighters Anakin was either ignorant of or deliberately disregarding.

"He really is going to be the death of me," Obi-Wan mumbled. But he was indifferent to his own fate, wondering instead: What if Anakin should be killed? Could he even be killed? As the Chosen One, was he destined to fulfill both the t.i.tle and the prophecy? Was he immune to real harm, or - - as someone born to restore balance to the Force - - did he require defenders to guide him to that destiny? Was it Obi-Wan's duty - - more, the duty of all the Jedi - - to see to it that he survived at all costs?

Was that what Qui-Gon had intuited so many years earlier on Tatooine, and had motivated him to attack with such resolve the Sith who had revealed himself in that parched landscape?

Though the cruiser's shield was removing the sting of Anakin's laser bolts, he could not be deterred from persevering. Even Obi-Wan's repeated attempts to hail him through the battle net had had no effect. But now the huge ship was beginning to climb and reorient itself. Obi-Wan thought for a moment that Grievous was actually going to bring all forward guns to bear on Anakin. Instead, the cruiser continued to rise until it was well above the plane of the ecliptic, with its bow angled slightly Coreward. Then it fired. Not at the Republic battle group, nor at Belderone itself, but at the convoy of evacuees and its escort starfighters.

Obi-Wan felt a great disturbance in the Force, as ship after ship disintegrated or erupted in flames. Thousands of voices cried out, and the battle and command nets grew shrill with shouts of dismay and outrage. The follow-up volley Obi-Wan waited for never arrived. Tri-fighters and Vulture droids were suddenly slinking back to the ships from which they had been disgorged. At the same time, the entire Separatist fleet was turning tail. Of course Grievous realized that his barbaric act had caught the Republic forces by surprise, but he had nothing more in mind than escape into hypers.p.a.ce.

The general had obviously made up his mind that Belderone simply wasn't worth the risk - - not with so many defenseless Outer Rim worlds still up for grabs.

"Anakin, the evacuees need our help!" Obi-Wan said.

"I'm coming, Master." Obi-Wan watched Anakin's starfighter break off its futile pursuit of the cruiser. Farther out, Separatist ships were disappearing from sight as they made the jump to lightspeed.

"Vessels of the main fleet are safely away," a droid reported to Grievous as soon as the cruiser entered hypers.p.a.ce. "Expected arrival at the alternate rally point: ten standard hours."

"Losses at Belderone?" Grievous said.

"Acceptable."

Beyond the forward viewports, the smoky vortices of outraced light.

Grievous ran the fingers of his clawlike hand down the bulkhead.

"Instruct my elite to meet me in the shuttle launching bay on emergence from hypers.p.a.ce," he said to no droid in particular. "When all ships have arrived at the rally point, advise Viceroy Gunray that I will be paying him a visit."

20.

"Trained well by Dooku, General Grievous was," Yoda said.

He and Mace Windu were in Yoda's chambers in the Jedi Temple, each atop a meditation dais. "Entrapped, they strike at the weakest. Force us, they do, to choose between saving lives and continuing the fight." Yoda recalled his duel with Dooku in the solar sailer's docking bay on Geonosis. Dooku bested, left with no alternative but to distract and flee...

"Representatives from Belderone have expressed their grat.i.tude to the Senate," Mace said. "Despite the losses."

Yoda shook his head sadly. "More than ten thousand killed. Twenty-seven Jedi."

The muscles in Mace's jaw bunched. "Billions have died in this war.

Belderone was saved, and, more importantly, we were able to keep Grievous on the run."

"Know where he jumped to, we do."

"We'll chase him to the ends of known s.p.a.ce, if we have to."

Yoda fell silent for a moment, then said: "Speak with the Supreme Chancellor, we must."

"Without apology," Mace said bluntly. "Our deference to him has to end."

"With the war's end, it will." Yoda turned slightly to regard Mace. "A terrible warning, Belderone is. Increasing, the power of the dark side is. Rooted out, Sidious must be."

Mace nodded gravely. "Rooted out and eliminated."

21.

"General Grievous has left the docking bay," a Trade Federation lieutenant relayed to Gunray in his lavish quarters in the core ship's port-side command tower.

"Which docking bay?" Gunray said toward the comlink's audio pickup.

"Below, or in the tower?"

"The general's shuttle availed itself of the tower docking ring, Viceroy.

Gunray swung around to face Rune Haako. "That means he will be here any moment!"

He turned to a large circular screen that displayed a real-time view of the antechamber outside his suite. The Neimoidian guards stationed there had also been alerted to Grievous's arrival. Armed with blaster rifles taller than they were, the four wore bulky torso and lower-leg armor, and pot-shaped helmets that left their red eyes and green faces exposed.

"It has to be the mechno-chair," Gunray said, striding back and forth in front of the screen.

"What did you tell him?" Haako asked.

Gunray came to a halt.

"Immediately on being apprised by Shu Mai of the Belderone rendezvous, I contacted Grievous, expressing anger that he hadn't informed me personally. I accused him of purposely leaving me out of the command loop."

Haako was horrified.

"You said that to him?"

Gunray nodded.

"He maintained that he had attempted to communicate through the mechnochair hyperwave transceiver. I said that I had received no such transmission."

"They're coming!" Haako said, aiming a quivering finger at the display screen.

Gunray saw that Grievous was accompanied by four of his elite MagnaGuards. Fearsome bipedal battle droids built to exacting specifications, they stood as tall as the general and were armed with combat staffs tipped with electromagnetic pulse generators. Armorweave capes fell diagonally across their broad-shouldered bodies, swathing the crowns of their heads and lower faces. Benefiting from Grievous's own programming, as well as from the instruction Grievous had received from Dooku, the elite were trained in the Jedi arts, and more than a match for most.

The four Neimoidians stood their ground, bringing their rifles across their chests in a gesture of warning. Grievous's elite didn't even slow down. Mirroring the Neimoidians, they raised their double-tipped electroshock batons, then swung them forward with such speed and precision that Gunray's sentinels were literally swept off their feet, as if they were children.

Grievous glared into the lens of the holocam mounted outside the hatch.

"Admit us, Viceroy. Or shall I instruct my elite to lay waste to everything that stands between me and you?"

Haako spun on his heel and hurried for the suite's rear hatch.

"Where are you going?" Gunray said. "Running will only make us appear guilty!"

"We are guilty!" Haako threw over his shoulder.

"He doesn't know that."

"Viceroy!" Grievous rasped.

Haako stood in the open hatch.

"He will."

And disappeared through it.

Gunray paced for a moment, wringing his hands, then, straightening robes and miter and pulling his shoulders back, he pressed a fat finger to the hatch release.

The general swept into the suite, the four MagnaGuards in his angry wake spreading out to both sides, ready for violence.

"What is the meaning of this intrusion?" Gunray said from the center of the main room. "Your Masters will not tolerate such ill treatment of me!"

Grievous glowered at him. "They will when they learn what you've done."

Gunray touched himself in the chest.

"What are you talking about, you... abomination. When Lord Sidious hears that you promised us a world you could not deliver - - "

Stepping forward, a MagnaGuard thrust his staff to within a millimeter of Gunray's face.

"Lord Sidious's alloy puppet," Gunray said, his voice quavering. "If not for the Trade Federation, you would have no army to command."

Grievous raised his right claw and pointed to Gunray.

"The mechno-chair. I want to see it."

Gunray gulped. "In a fit of anger, I had it destroyed and purged from the ship."

"You're lying. There was no problem with my transmission to you. The chair relayed my message."

"What are you suggesting?"

"The chair is no longer in your possession. It has somehow fallen into enemy hands, and, through it, the Republic was able to learn of my plan to attack Belderone."

"You're brain-dead."

Grabbing Gunray by the neck, Grievous lifted him a meter off the floor.

"Before I leave here, you will tell me everything I wish to know."

22.

Poor Gunray, Dooku thought. Pitiful creature... But for having left the mechno-chair behind on Cato Neimoidia, he deserved all the fear Grievous had put into him.

Secluded in his castle on Kaon, Dooku had just spoken with the general and was pondering how best to handle the situation. While the incident at Belderone wasn't conclusive proof that the Republic had managed to decrypt the Separatist code and intercept Grievous's transmission to Gunray, it was prudent to a.s.sume that this was the case. Dooku had already ordered the general to refrain from using the code for the time being. But the matter of the expropriated hyperwave transceiver was cause for added concern. The very fact that the Republic had tipped its hand at Belderone, declaring the success of its eavesdropping, implied that the mechno-chair had furnished more than intelligence. Clues to secrets that would astonish even Grievous.

The general was not accustomed to losing in battle. Even when a general among his own species, he had suffered few defeats. That was originally what had brought him to the attention of Sidious. After the Sith Lord had expressed interest in Grievous to Dooku, Dooku, in turn, had expressed interest in Grievous to Chairman San Hill, of the InterGalactic Banking Clan.

Poor Grievous, Dooku thought. Pitiful creature... During the Huk War, and later, while in the employ of the IBC, Grievous had survived numerous attempts on his life, so an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt was ruled out almost immediately. Hill himself had come up with the idea of a shuttle crash, though that, too, presented risks. What if Grievous should actually die in the crash? Then the Separatists would simply have to look elsewhere for a commander, Dooku had told Hill.

But Grievous had survived - - and only too well. In fact, most of the life-threatening injuries he sustained had occurred after he had been pulled from the flaming shuttle wreck, and with great calculation. When at last he had agreed to be rebuilt, promises were made that no critical alterations would be made to his mind. But the Geonosians had ways of modifying the mind without a patient ever being aware that he had been tampered with.

Grievous certainly believed that he had always been the cold-blooded conqueror he was now, when in truth his cruelty and prowess owed much to his rebuilding. Sidious and Dooku couldn't have been more pleased with the result. Dooku, especially, since he had no interest in commanding an army of droids, and already had his hands full nursemaiding the likes of Nute Gunray, Shu Mai, and the hive-minded others who eventually would form the Council of Separatists.

Grievous had been a delight to train, as well. No need to coax him to release his anger and rage, as Dooku had been forced to do during the training of his so-called Dark Jedi disciples. The Geonosians had arranged for Grievous to be nothing but anger and rage. And as to the general's combat skills, few, if any, Jedi would be capable of defeating him. There had been moments during the extensive combat sessions when even Dooku had been hard-pressed to outduel the cyborg.