Jenna Zan Arbor looked at Vader. “Did he sign a release?”
“Not yet”
She looked exasperated. “Can I proceed without it? I don’t have time for difficult parents.”
“Now, who are you calling difficult? I’m easy.” Bog smiled “But I guess I have to point out, because maybe you don’t know, but I’m an Imperial governor. Just want to make that clear. I’ve got clearance. Maybe more than you.”
Zan Arbor sized him up. “I doubt it.”
“So, what’s the project? I deserve to be in the old laser-loop.”
Vader controlled his irritation. Divinian was making a demand? His self-importance needed to be checked, but not here. Not yet.
He needed the boy.
“This is Dr. Zan Arbor,” Vader said. “She is doing a series of tests on memory.”
“That’s all?” Bog looked relieved for a moment. Then his forehead creased. “But what… exactly will you do?”
“Pinpoint certain areas of the brain,” Zan Arbor answered. “Identify memory receptors and target them for elimination.”
Bog swallowed. “Elimination? What does that mean, exactly?”
“Well, obviously, some memories that the child has will disappear,” Zan Arbor said. “As if they had never existed.” She waved a hand. “Just inconsequential ones. Naturally I’ll just take random memories from different time frames. He’ll never know what’s missing.”
“Wait a second here,” Bog said. “I don’t know about this. I didn’t know… his brain would be involved. Brains are important.”
Zan Arbor rolled her eyes, but Vader silenced her with a look. Bog was an idiot, but he could make trouble.
Vader turned to Bog. “We all have memories we might wish to obliterate. Even a child. Especially a child. You could give direction to Dr. Zan Arbor.”
Zan Arbor understood his meaning immediately. It would take Bog longer. She looked alert, excited. “You mean target something big? With this boy? That would be… helpful.”
“My boy is not an experiment!” Bog boomed, but Vader wasn’t about to stop.
“It is to help him,” he said. “Maybe your boy has memories that could be … painful. Memories of… his mother, for example?”
He watched as Bog recoiled. And then he saw the greed take over.
Greed for control. Control of his son.
Bog licked his lips. “You could… pinpoint that area?”
“If you give me a time frame,” Zan Arbor said. Speaking in a low tone, she drew Bog away.
Vader didn’t care particularly if Bog gave permission or not, although it would be easier that way. On second thought, Lune was the perfect subject. He was Force-sensitive. Vader wasn’t sure if the Force would be an obstacle to the success of the experiment. He doubted it. Lune wasn’t in control of the Force, for one thing. But if, in fact, the Force would interfere with the procedure, he would need to know that.
He watched as Bog allowed Zan Arbor to take his retinal print to authorize the procedure. Then the scientist left Bog and entered the locked examination room where Lune was waiting surrounded by med droids.
“You can go now,” Vader said. “I will contact you when it is time to pick him up.”
Bog looked disappointed that he couldn’t wait. But he knew better than to argue.
Vader turned and headed toward the inner core of the tower. Success would mean an end to torment. It was unsettling being in the place where he had learned about Padme… and after the battle with Obi-Wan.
Yet there was compensation here, Sith crystals and artifacts that would restore him. And there was hope here now. Hope for the end of Padme at last.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Interesting, Ferus thought. He was definitely on to something. He’d gone through the blueprints and then, once Jako had fallen into a deep snore, he’d left the room to do a visual surveillance at the Coruscant EmPal med center, using the terrace that circled the building and then some judicious Force-leaps.
He knew one thing for sure: The windowed gallery at the top of the tower was there just for show. The top of the tower wasn’t the storage area the blueprints had claimed. It only looked that way.
Ferus had used a Force-technique called “thoughtful looking.” It involved shifting one’s concentration back and forth from the big picture to the microscopic. The method often helped a Jedi to be able to see things that even electrobinoculars didn’t pick up. Ferus had seen the tiniest flaw on the metallic skin surface of the high levels of the tower. It had probably been hit by some stray debris -just a slight, glancing blow, but it was enough to ripple the metal sheeting.