[Legacy Of The Force] - 01(101)

Teppler stared at him a long moment, then managed a slight smile. “Meaning exactly that.”

Once she was set up before the computer console in Thrackan’s quarters, it took Mara just short of three minutes to crack his security.

First was the medical portion of the identification process. She used a dropper tube to place a single drop of Thrackan’s blood onto a sensor needle resting in a depression on the console surface. The blood, taken during one of his visits to a doctor, had been more recently purchased, surreptitiously and at an extravagant price, by Galactic Alliance Intelligence. Then there were his fingerprints. The transparent, almost undetectable glove Mara wore bore his prints and was sufficient for most security purposes.

Third, there was visual confirmation. Just before the computer got to that portion of its security sequence, Mara activated a small holoprojector-scanner unit that detected her face, mapped it, and projected a three-dimensional representation of Thrackan’s features over her own. No living creature would he fooled by the device-Thrackan’s face glowed, and the effect was made worse in the dimness of his chambers. But the computer scanner accepted the image.

After that, it was a matter of entering the correct password. Mara got it on the third try.

Tiu, now leaning over her shoulder, asked, “What was it?”

“The name of one of his mistresses.” Mara shook her head over the obviousness of that choice. “Now let’s go prowling.”

And prowl she did, downloading everything she looked at into her own datapad. Not that it amounted to much. “He apparently forwards all his files and records to a system in the government halls,” she complained. “He’s very tidy. Not good for us.”

“So this was all for nothing?” Tiu’s serene Jedi mask cracked for just a moment. “All those days of terrible, spicy Corellian food?”

Mara grinned. “Maybe not for nothing. We just need to look farther afield.”

She found security procedures and passwords that would make subsequent departures from and entries into this building much easier-until they were changed, that is. She found poorly hidden personal files kept on the building’s computer system by its security operatives, many of them constituting blackmail evidence against fellow agents, private citizens, and low-level government officials.

And then she found what she was looking for: an incoming message from several days earlier.

” ‘To Thrackan Sal-Solo, Chief of State, Corellia, all greetings and respects,’ ” she read. ” ‘Let me begin this communication by offering you a gift, the gift of knowledge: The impending meeting between representatives of the Corellian and Galactic Alliance governments will take place on Toryaz Station, Kuat System.’ Well, he or she was right about that.”

“Who sent it?” Tiu asked.

” ‘But, sadly, this gift is incomplete by itself, as security at the station will be formidable. Fortunately, I have information on that matter, too-I can provide exact details on the locations of all delegates at all times, as well as the security measures guarding them, for the duration of their stay here.’ “

“Here,” Tiu repeated. “So whoever wrote him was already on Toryaz Station.”

“Not necessarily. The word choice could be deliberate, to convince Thrackan of just that detail. ‘Should this information be of interest to you, please contact me on the HoloNet frequency indicated below, at the times shown. Standard encryption, using the contents of my next message as the encryption key.’ Then there’s the time and frequency information.”

“No name?”

“No name.” Mara scanned the file listing for follow-up messages with the same characteristics as this one. “I’m not seeing any sign of the message with the encryption key. It was probably delivered by other means.”

“I’m not feeling any animosity toward the sender of that message.”

“You’re not?” Mara looked up at Tiu, surprised.

“No. So it’s all right for me to kill him, correct?”

Mara grinned. “Self-deception is always a bad idea, Tiu.”

“Except when it amuses a Jedi Master.”

“Well … true.”

Tiu sobered. “But the fact that Thrackan received this message doesn’t mean that he paid for that information. He isn’t necessarily the one responsible for the attack.”

“Yes, he is. Regardless of whether he received the second information and dispatched the killers. Not reporting it to CorSec and Prime Minister Saxan constitutes treason, betrayal. Whether he arranged for assassins or just sat on information, he’s at least partly to blame for Saxan’s death and the mess we’re in.”