[Legacy Of The Force] - 02(112)

“You can detect weapons and explosives. You’re really good at it.” Jacen jerked his thumb in the direction of the holomap on the wall. “Go on. See if you can sense anything by looking at the map.”

Ben jumped up out of the chair and scanned the map. Like most holomaps of Galactic City, it was multilayered and he could peel away levels of each grid or dive deep into them by touching the light grid with his finger. He passed his hand above the surface to concentrate on the Force and found nothing.

Perhaps it wasn’t on that section of the map. He tapped his finger against the far left of the display, and the map shifted west to take him farther from the Senate Building and toward the business districts. He found himself drawn to a quadrant a few kilometers southwest of the Senate, but he sensed nothing specific.

“In there somewhere.”

“Good.” Jacen stood right behind him and put his hand on his shoulder. Normally that was reassuring, but right then Ben had a sudden memory of Ailyn Habuur. “Go on.”

“Something’s about to happen.” Ben felt he was being tested. “Do you feel it?”

“Yes, I do. And the World Brain’s Ferals report activity there.”

“What is it, then?”

“I want you to work this one out for yourself as part of your training. I’ll be there to help you out if you need it, but I think it’s time you learned to make decisions. I trust you.”

For a few moments Ben was wildly excited at the trust Jacen was placing in him. Then he lapsed back into being torn between fear of failing and remembering Ailyn Habuur.

“Do you trust me, Ben?” Jacen asked suddenly.

“Of-of course I do.”

“Tell me the truth.”

Jacen could sense everything. Sometimes he seemed almost telepathic. Ben knew there was no point lying to him, and he didn’t want to. He wanted answers.

“Okay, I don’t understand how you could hurt that woman so badly,” he said. “You’re not a bad person. You don’t like violence. It scares me, because I don’t think I could ever do that and that means we’re different, and I wanted to be just like you and now I’m not sure.”

Jacen didn’t look upset or offended. It was hard to tell how he had taken the admission.

“I can understand that,” he said quietly. “And we all have to find out for ourselves how far we can go and what we’re prepared to do. You won’t know until you have to do it.”

Ben wasn’t sure that he understood, but he knew he had to go through with this. It couldn’t be that different from what he’d been doing for the last couple of weeks. He knew what he could do-and what he wasn’t prepared to do. He was certain of that.

New black GAG assault vessels-CSF ships in new livery-were waiting for them at the landing pad. Captain Shevu leaned out of the troop bay of the lead ship, hanging on one of the overhead straps with one arm.

“Quadrant H-Ninety’s not secure yet,” he told Jacen. “They’ve barricaded the skylane intersections with speeders.”

Jacen jumped up into the bay and hauled Ben aboard. “Are they still in position?”

“CSF wants a bit of backup before they move. There seem to be a lot of Coruscanti involved.”

Jacen frowned. “You sure?”

“Sure. Not every taxpayer here seems to agree with the Alliance line.”

Ben pondered that as they rose into the air and banked left to head for H-90. It was an ordinary neighborhood as far as he knew: shops, bars, apartments, and a market, with a cosmopolitan population. He’d assumed that it was the non-Coruscanti section that was the source of the growing discord and danger that he’d detected by concentrating on the holomap. It had never occurred to him that the people he thought he was protecting would object to being protected.

Every day brought new revelations about the confusing adult world. Just when he thought he’d worked it out, he found he hadn’t. Jacen and Shevu shouted a conversation above the noise of the drives that filled the open bay. Coruscant lay like a map beneath them, filtered slightly by haze.

“It started when CSF arrested someone for painting antigovernment slogans on the local Galactic City Authority offices, sir. There’s a full riot squad deployed now.”

“Any more incidents?”

Shevu paused and put his hand to his ear, concentrating on his comlink earpiece. “Twenty public order arrests. No serious casualties. Pretty quiet.”

“Worse to come, though, Ben?” Jacen asked.

Ben nodded. The wind whipped the legs of his uniform. “Yes.” Shevu simply looked at him with that intense stare that said he preferred hard facts to Force impressions. Confronted with that expression, Ben had his doubts, too.