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[Hand Of Thrawn] - 01(21)

By:Timothy Zahn


“Nothing readable,” Leia told her. “Maybe the techs on Coruscant can pull something more out of it. I doubt it, though.”

“We were just trading bits and pieces of information on Caamas and the aftermath,” Karrde said. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything to add, would you?”

Mara threw him a cool look. “You mean like the names and clans of the Bothans who sabotaged Caamas’s planetary shield generators?”

“That would be a good start,” he agreed.

Mara snorted gently. “I’ll bet it would. Unfortunately, I don’t know anything more than what’s on that datacard. Less, actually, since I didn’t know there were any Bothans involved. Don’t forget, Caamas was long gone by the time the Emperor found me and trained me to be his Hand.”

“He never mentioned the attack?” Leia asked. “Bragged or gloated about it? Anything?”

Mara shook her head. “Not to me. The only time he even mentioned the Caamasi was once when he was convinced they were stirring up Bail Organa against him and was thinking about sending me to do something about it. But then he changed his mind.”

Leia felt her heart tighten inside her. “He must have decided he had something better to use as an object lesson. The Death Star.”

For a long minute no one spoke. Then Karrde stirred. “What are you going to do with the datacard?” he asked.

With an effort, Leia pushed back the memories of her shattered home and lost family and friends. “I don’t have any choice,” she told him. “Lak Jit’s already read it, and he’s bound to spread the story, out of spite if nothing else. All I can do is try to get word back to Coruscant before that happens. At least give the High Council some time to prepare for the uproar.”

Karrde looked at Mara. “What’s our schedule look like?”

“Busy,” she said. “But we’ve got time to drop her off first.”

“If you’d like a ride, that is,” Karrde said, turning back to Leia. “Though with Solo and the Wookiee off somewhere in the Falcon I suppose you don’t really have much choice.”

Leia made a face. “Was I the last one on the planet to find out Han had left?”

Karrde smiled. “Probably. But then, information is my business.”

“I remember when it used to be mine, too,” Leia said with a sigh. “Yes, I’d be very grateful for a ride. Do you have room for my children and Khabarakh’s team?”

“I’m sure we can squeeze them in,” Karrde assured her, reaching across his desk to the comm. “Dankin? Get us ready to fly. We’ll be picking up Councilor Organa Solo’s children and honor guard at the Noghri’s Mount Tantiss settlement and then heading out.”

He got an acknowledgment and switched off. “Cakhmaim said Lak Jit found six datacards,” he said, eyeing Leia closely. “Was there anything of this magnitude on any of the others?”

“There was one that might be,” Leia said mechanically, a sudden thought jabbing like a blade into her. Mara Jade, once a secret and powerful agent of the Emperor’s … known only as the Emperor’s Hand.

She turned to look at Mara, found those brilliant green eyes gazing with equal intensity back at her. The Emperor’s Hand. The Hand of Thrawn

A memory sparked: ten years ago, soon after the birth of Jacen and Jaina, the two women facing each other in a small room in the Imperial Palace. Leia, staring into those same green eyes as Mara calmly announced her intention to kill Leia’s brother Luke.

Even then, she’d recognized Mara’s abilities in the Force. Now, with practice and some of Luke’s own training, those powers were even more in evidence. She could feel Mara’s thoughts probing at her own, testing her mind and trying to discern what it was that was suddenly troubling her. And it occurred to her-or was perhaps wordlessly suggested-that Mara with her unique Imperial background might already know who or what was meant by the Hand of Thrawn.

But she couldn’t ask her. Not now. Mara and Karrde she considered friends; but this was something that the High Council of the New Republic should hear about first. “I can’t say anything about it,” she told them. “Not yet.”

“I understand,” Karrde said, his eyes flicking thoughtfully between the two women. He knew that something was going on beneath the surface, but was too polite to press the point. Besides, he’d be able to find out about it later from Mara, anyway. “No harm in asking.”

He lowered his eyes to the datapad. “It does occur to me, though, that we might be worrying more than necessary about this whole Caamas thing. That was a long time ago, and it could be that no one will care anymore who was to blame.”