A muscular man who had a talent for going unnoticed in a crowd despite his height, Isard was dressed in an unadorned gray uniform. His black hair matched the l.u.s.ter of his knee-high boots. Leaving the red carpet for the relative solitude of the tier's forest of ornate columns, he depressed the comlink's ACCEPT b.u.t.ton and glanced down at the device, whose small screen displayed the face of the bureau's a.s.sistant director.

"I just wanted to alert you to a little confab that's transpiring in one of the lower-tier berths," the a.s.sistant director said.

Isard's dark eyes continued to track the movements of the welcome committee. "Go on."

"Senators Des'sein, Largetto, and Zar have taken possession of a carry case delivered by the pilots of an old YT freighter."

The three Senators were well-known members of the Delegation of Two Thousand, a loyalist coterie opposed to the strong measures Chancellor Palpatine had enacted since the start of the war.

"Jedi Master J'oopi She is also present."

"Technical division?"

"That's the one."

Isard walked while he spoke. "Interesting that they should be holding a private meeting while several of their cohorts are up here."

"Which ones?"

"Danu, Male-Dee, Eekway . . . the usual bunch. Do you have audio of the meeting?"

"No. Countermeasures were taken. But we were able to snake a snoop-cam through the landing bay's intake vents, so we have acceptable video."

"The carry case . . ."

"Too soon to know what it contains. Our people are working on cleaning up the surveillance feeds."

"Do we have anything on the couriers?"

"Nothing yet. The freighter carries a Ralltiir registry, and is owned by a company called the Republic Group."

"Thar could be telling."

"I thought so, too. The pilots transmitted a valid authorization code to Senate Airlane Control."

Isard paused at the edge of the stark atrium, where the Chancellor and the others were awaiting a turbolift. The area was filling fast with Senators who had emerged from the shelters and wanted to offer their congraturations to Palpatine. Isard found the lack of security appalling. Have fighting had occurred in the vicinity of the annex while Palpatine had been held prisoner, and it was possible that the Separatists had Infiltrated flesh-and-blood or droid a.s.sa.s.sins. Yet here Palpatine was, acting as if he'd only been out for a stroll, a pair of Republic guards his only protection. But that was typical of him, despite the strain it placed on the Intelligence Bureau. Typical of him, too, to admit only loyalist senators to the docking berth, in full knowledge of their growing impatience with the sweeping changes he had made, the liberties he had revoked. Palpatine had at least agreed with Isard's suggestion that the media be held at bay for a while longer.

Isard thought about the clandestine meeting. The Senators were harmless, but he didn't like the idea of a Jedi being present. Members of the Order had been doing more than their usual share of snooping about of late. Eavesdropping on Senate sessions, investigating old tunnels that ran beneath The Works and the sub-bas.e.m.e.nts of 500 Republica ... It had to stop.

"Send a squad of shock troopers to disrupt the meeting," he said, "with orders to hold the Senators for questioning."

"What about Master She?"

"Supply a credible pretext for the intrusion. Senate security concerns, a bomb threat, whatever you need. She will keep out of it."

"And the couriers?"

"Charge them with possession of stolen security code, impersonating emergency personnel, and violating restricted airs.p.a.ce." Isard paused, then said: "I'll see to their interrogation myself."

"It should hold," Jadak said into the mouthpiece of his headset from beneath the YT's port mandible. "But we might want to pick up a replacement on Kuat before heading to Toprawa."

Reeze was crouched inside an access bay at the tip of the mandible, evaluating the braking thruster from the inside. His response came through the earphones. "You don't have to twist my arm."

Jadak gave the damaged jet another look. Wiping lubricant from his hands, he walked around the bow of the ship and nearly collided with Master She as he was hurrying down the boarding ramp. The installation apparently completed, the Jedi had the tool case in one hand, an activated comlink in the other.

"Shock troopers have been dispatched to arrest the Senators," he said, without slowing down. "I will lead them to safety. Raise the ship and be quick about it." He stopped a few meters from the ramp, then turned. "Good luck, Captain."

Halfway up the ramp, Jadak waved a casual salute. "Thanks for the heads-up." He brought the headset microphone to his mouth and commed Reeze. "Company's coming. Haul yourself out of there."

Reeze was climbing from a hatch in the main hold when Jadak entered.

"Clones?"

"Shock troopers."

Reeze scowled. "We're not being paid enough."

"Noted."

"Especially now that they're taking the ship."

"We knew this could happen."

"That doesn't soften the blow."

"How 'bout we have this conversation later." Jadak extended a hand and yanked Reeze up onto the deck plates. "Do a readiness check and get her warmed up. I'm going see about delaying them." Moving to the engineering station, he pulled a small blaster from a compartment below the console.

Reeze planted his hands on his hips and laughed. "I'm sorry, Tobb, but that's the funniest sight I've seen in a long while. That toy against a couple of DC-fifteen blaster rifles?"

Jadak frowned at him. "I'm not planning on a standoff. I just want to slow them down."

"I guess you can try." Reeze laughed again as he made for the c.o.c.kpit.

Jadak raced down the ramp and hurried to the landing bay's rear door. Taking aim, he sent a bolt directly into the door controls, step-ping back while sparks and tendrils of smoke erupted from the switch and the smell of fried circuitry stung his nostrils. Broader and taller, the cargo door was a vertical hatch in the bay's west wall. Rearming the blaster, Jadak fired two bolts into the control, one of which sizzled past his right ear in sibilant ricochet. He was hastening back to the ship when gauntleted fists began to pound on the exterior of the frozen hatch. Amplified-though m.u.f.fled by the durasteel door-the voice of a shock-trooper rang out.

"Senate Security! Raise the hatch and move to the center of the bay with your hands above your head. Make no attempt to flee."

A smile of satisfaction was just taking shape on Jadak's face when he heard noise from above. A blade of white-hot light was tracing an an through the ceiling. Taking the boarding ramp in long strides, he skidded into the connector, ducked into the c.o.c.kpit, and threw himself into the pilot's chair.

"You tell them to go away?" Reeze asked, eyes on the status displays.

"I toasted the door locks, all right. But they're rappelling through the kriffing ceiling!"

Reeze glanced at him. "They want us that badly?"

"We're not waiting around to find out."

Jadak was strapping in when sounds of impact issued from the Envoy's roof. Above the modulating whistle of the warming engines came the throaty rasp of a cutting torch.

In a rush Jadak enabled the repulsorlifts. The YT was a few meters off the floor when blaster rifle bolts began to sear into the hull.

"Bork them!" Reeze said.

Jadak grabbed the yoke and whipped the Envoy through a rapid about-face, trusting that centrifugal force would hurl the clone soldiers from the hull. A trooper in red-emblazoned armor flew past the c.o.c.kpit viewport, arms and legs flailing.

Reeze winced. "That's not going to earn us any points with them."

Without a thought for approaching traffic, Jadak took the ship hurtling out of the landing bay.

Chapter four.

I have them," Isard said into the mike secured to the short collar of his uniform. Standing at the rim of the speeder bus berth, traversed the macrobinoculars to keep the fleeing YT centered in 1C visual field. Far below him, the freighter dived into the broad cleft opposite the Senate Annex.

"Captain Archer's ARC squadron will take up the pursuit," the a.s.sistant director said through the comlink. "What about Fang Zar and the others?"

"Gone by the time the shock troopers entered the bay. Someone had to have tipped them off."

Isard lowered the macrobinoculars and hurried down the red carpet toward the atrium. "We'll see to them in due time. Right now that freighter is our priority."

"Disable or destroy?"

"Archer's call. Have a forensics team standing by to retrieve the bodies and pick through the wreckage if it comes to that."

Blaster bolts nipping at her stern, the YT dropped from the high ground, nearly colliding with a speeder bus that was making a stately approach to one of the upper-tier berths. Whizzing from around the east curve of the annex dome flew a pair of speeders with front-mounted repeating weapons. Jadak pushed the yoke forward, plunging the Envoy into one of the canyons that radiated from the Senate circle. Cutting through traffic lanes, he tilted the freighter up on her side, then completed a rollover and clawed for the sky. The speeders were soon a memory, but the Envoy hadn't ascended to the penthouse levels of 500 Republica when the threat-a.s.sessment board began to chime.

"V-wings and ARC-one-seventies," Reeze said. "Count five . . . six, seven. Closing from our four and nine."

Jadak nudged the throttle and pulled the yoke into his lap, fomenting chaos in several midlevel airlanes as the YT executed a vertical climb of several hundred meters, ahead of her own sonic boom, the threat board hollering all the while.

"More ARCs."

Jadak glanced at the instrument panel's main screen. Heat-shedding S-foils parting into attack position, the pursuit ships were flying full-out, laser weapons and proton missile launchers coming alive.

"Has the blockade been lifted?"

"Just," Reeze said, twisting the comm's selector dial and listening through the headset. "Ships are dispersing from the holding patterns. Most of the incoming traffic has been routed to Sectors Thirteen through Twenty."

Jadak changed vectors, slewing widely to the east and calling more power from the engines. The displays told him that the clone pilots had second-guessed him. The closest of the Advanced Recon fighters sent a flurry of warning bolts across the Envoy's bow.

"Well, they mean business."

"Told you you were too rough on them back in the bay."

"Angle the front deflectors and keep an eye out."

Up ahead flew the vanguard vessels of a kilometers-wide swath of ships eager to reach their destinations at long last. Escorted by police vehicles and V-wing fighters, the ships were evenly placed and descending in measured speed, Jadak took the Envoy directly into their midst. Moving against the traffic flow and weaving his way through the pack, Jadak came close enough to some of the ships to see the startled expressions on the faces of the humans, humanoids, and aliens be-hind the canopies. And clearly the pilots didn't have as much trust in Jadak's ability as Jadak had in himself. Like a school of fish dis...o...b..bulated by the sudden appearance of a predator, ships were suddenly diverting from their courses, doing what they could to avoid accidents but in many cases slamming against nearby vessels and initiating chain reactions of collisions. Trying in vain to match speeds with the Envoy, the ARC-170s kept to the perimeter, holding fire for fear of hitting innocent ships. But the pack was thinning before the Envoy had even reached the upper limits of the atmosphere, and the ARCs were climbing at high boost.

"Reallocate power to the rear shields," Jadak said as the Envoy parted company with Coruscant's gravitational field.

Local s.p.a.ce was littered with debris-the smoking husks of Republic and Separatist warships, blackened pieces of annihilated fighter craft, shards of fragmented orbital mirrors. There was no sign of the Trade Federation and Commerce Guild ships that had survived the battle, but the cruisers of the Home and Open Circle fleets were still defensively deployed in the event the Separatists decided to have an-other go at Coruscant.

Reeze muttered to himself while he listened to the battle net. "Ships of the line have been alerted. We're designated an enemy tar-get."

Jadak shoved the throttle home. But instead of trying to distance them from the giant, arrow-headed KDY ships, he brought the YT as close to the tightly arrayed Republic cruisers as he dared, running the hulls, darting from one clear s.p.a.ce to the next, using the ships for cover in an effort to get far enough from Coruscant to make the jump to lightspeed. But the ARC-170 pilots hadn't given up the chase and were no longer worried about innocent parties. The deflector shields of the big ships were more than capable of warding off stray laser cannon bolts.

The Envoy was rocked by the first volley.

Jadak twisted the ship up on her starboard side, as if showing her belly to the pursuit ships. "We've gotta protect that port thruster..."

A deafening sound erased the rest of it, and a tangle of blue energy gamboled over the instrument panel. The c.o.c.kpit lights and telltales blinked, then flickered back to life. Jadak slammed his hand against the ceiling to motivate the few systems that refused to come back online.

"Light turbo from the Integrity. They're coming about to tractor us in."

"You've got the yoke."

Jadak swiveled his chair to face the Rubicon navicomputer and entered a request for jump data.

"We can lose the V-wings," Reeze said, "but those ARCs have Cla.s.s One-point-five hyperdrives. They'll follow us to h.e.l.l and back."

"Then Toprawa's out. We've got to throw them off the scent."

"Where, then?"

Jadak looked over his shoulder at Reeze. "Nar Shaddaa's our best option."

A follow-up bolt from the Integrity dazzled the Envoy.

"Any port in a storm."

Jadak waited for the Rubicon's go-to and reached for the hyper-drive lever. The stars had not yet become streaks when another powerful boom rattled the YT to her bones. The freighter didn't so much jump into hypers.p.a.ce as get kicked into it.

They spent most of the hypers.p.a.ce journey crawling through the ship's innards a.s.sessing the damage and effecting what repairs they could. The energy weapons that had caught them aft at the moment of the jump had dazzled the sublight engine. After conferring, they decided that they could nurse the ship into orbit around Nar Shaddaa by relying on the att.i.tude and braking thrusters.

They returned to the c.o.c.kpit for the remainder of the journey through the netherworld of hypers.p.a.ce, neither of them speaking. Reeze broke the long silence.

"What do you think the Jedi installed?"