“Because I’ll pay you twice your usual fee for harassing New Republic shipping.” Disra let his voice drop to a soft purr. “And because if you do, the Cavrilhu Pirates will be first in line to reap the rewards when all of this is over.”
“You’re expecting there to be enough rewards to be parceled out, are you?”
“More than you can possibly imagine,” Disra assured him. Zothip snorted. “You’d be surprised how much I can imagine,” he said. But there was a thoughtful edge to his gaze now. “Okay, I’ll run with this a while longer. Pesitiin, you say?”
“Right,” Disra said. “One other thing: I want whatever ships you send against the Chimera to be marked with Corellian insignia.”
“Do you, now,” Zothip said, scratching under his beard again. “Any particular reason?”
“The same reason I don’t care whether or not you actually inflict any damage on him,” Disra said. Why don’t you see if you can figure it out for yourself?”
“I’ll do that,” Zothip promised. “In the meantime, you see if you can figure out how to deposit the fee into our account, all right?”
Disra smiled thinly. “A pleasure doing business with you, Captain Zothip.”
“As always, Moff Disra,” the other countered. “I’ll be in touch.”
The display blanked. “Through the proper channels next time, if you please,” Disra muttered toward the empty screen, allowing himself to slump slightly in his seat. Conversations with Zothip always left him feeling drained. “At any rate, that should keep him off our backs for a while.”
“As well as performing a useful service for us,” Tierce said, taking the datapad back and blanking it. “There’s another military virtue for you, Flim: never throw away allies until you’re absolutely sure you won’t need them anymore.”
“We have similar rules in the fringe,” Flim said dryly. “Not so eloquently put, of course. What exactly was that all about?”
“What, Zothip’s attack on Pellaeon?” Disra asked.
“The attack itself I understand,” Flim said. “You’re trying to make Pellaeon think the New Republic has rejected his peace offer and is ambushing him instead.”
Disra cocked an eyebrow at the con man. “Very good-you’re learning. Though of course vision is always clearer in backsight.”
“You’re too kind,” Flim said, tilting his head slightly in a faintly mocking salute. “What I don’t understand is why Corellian insignia instead of New Republic ones.”
“Because that would be too obvious,” Tierce told him. “It would imply all of Coruscant had flatly rejected the idea of a meeting. Pellaeon knows they wouldn’t do that, and would guess it was a setup.”
“This way it will look like it’s just Bel Iblis, who’s a Corellian, who is turning him down,” Disra added. “Pretending they’re Corellian defense ships should also help explain why there aren’t any Star Cruisers or other major capital ships in the attack.”
“Right,” Tierce said. “Also bear in mind that we don’t want Pellaeon giving up entirely on this surrender idea, at least not yet. If Bel Iblis has rejected his advances without official sanction, then Pellaeon’s next move would be to seek someone else to make his overtures to. That will take time, which plays into our hands. More importantly, it will also require him to leave Pesitiin prematurely. Even if enough of Major Vermel’s message got through before he was captured at Morisbim, chances are Pellaeon and Bel Iblis will miss each other.”
“It should work quite well,” Disra said casually, carefully concealing his own surprise. That last part hadn’t even occurred to him until Tierce brought it up, but he had no intention of letting either of the others know that. Tierce was entirely too self-assured as it was, and Flim wasn’t nearly respectful enough toward either of his superiors for Disra’s taste. “In the meantime, in Major Tierce’s words, our stew needs a little more stirring. Are we ready for the Bothawui riot yet?”
“If not, we’re very close,” Tierce said. “We’ll use Navett’s team, I think-they’ve been the most successful agitators.”
“And we definitely want this one to be memorable,” Disra agreed. “I’ll order them into position.”
“We should also start activating the rest of the sleeper groups,” Tierce said. “There’s no way to precisely plan our timetable, and we don’t want them still asleep when we need them.”