But you wouldn’t want one of those nice courtyard offices, would you, Taun We?
So, somewhere in the square heart of the complex, not on the periphery or in the strings of building that ran from it, was a lab or an office that a Kaminoan would feel at home in. Me, too. Not the rain so much as the plain walls and the lack of clutter. He thought of the simple toys and his austere childhood home and knew why possessions seemed a burden he didn’t really want.
She’s probably in there right now, building more clones. If she raises the alarm when she sees you, would you shoot her? Shoot someone old and weak?
He set his visor to full-range magnification by tapping the control plate on his left forearm-he preferred that to the blink-activated HUD system-and tried to get a better line of sight into the security booth at the gate. They were bound to have some repeater system. Every security station needed to be able to communicate with the rest. That meant there might be an indication of floors below ground.
From the air, only single-story buildings were visible. He needed to know if he faced a more complex layout once inside. It wasn’t a good idea to get pinned down below ground level.
Fett needed a better observation point.
He looked around, calculating the angle of elevation he needed to get a clear view through the transparisteel window. If he sent a remote in closer, it would be spotted. He’d do this the old-fashioned way. Backing out of the bushes, he walked a hundred meters to the next lot and checked out the roofline. Fine: plenty of flat-topped warehousing to choose from. He slipped between two buildings, took out his rappelling line, and then decided a simple burn with the jet pack would save his shoulders a lot of wear and tear. He was up on the roof in under three seconds, lying flat and peering down the scope of the blaster to get a better look inside the security booth.
There was a status screen on the guard’s desk all right. He eased along to the far edge of the roof on his belly and racked up the scope’s magnification. The image shimmered, unsteady at that range, but he could see a grid of white lines on a blue background, with green lights winking at points along the grid-probably intruder sensors. There was nothing that indicated multiple layers.
One level. So far, so good.
The next step was to work out how the building was organized, and all that took was a little guesswork backed up by information that was usually public. Fett lowered himself from the roof on his rappel line, letting the pulley take the strain, flicked the cord clear, and settled down in the shelter of waste storage sheds to browse the local comlink directory system from his datapad.
It was fascinating to see how much information one could put together just by seeing how companies listed their departmental comlink numbers. Names and numbers scrolled across the screen of his pad.
Arkanian Microtechnologies
DELIVERIES
PERSONNEL SERVICES
PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND INVESTOR RELATIONS
He scrolled farther. What was Taun We’s specialty?
DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCES AND EDUCATION
Taun We was an expert in human psychology. She knew enough about humans to make sure the ones the Kaminoans bred under the most unnatural conditions imaginable were conditioned enough to prevent them from becoming basket cases.
She wouldn’t be splicing DNA. She’d have brought her little case of datachips with her as some kind of employment dowry, and Microtech would have been glad to have that data, but her day-to-day work-the work she loved doing-was making sure clones didn’t go crazy. Profiling, testing, flash-teaching, accelerated socialization: giving clones the right attitude to be useful tools.
Hi, Taun We. I hope you’re enjoying your new job.
Fett could have waited to see when she came out-almost certainly by vehicle, probably obscured from view-and followed her to wherever she called home. But it wasn’t that much harder to walk in and find her. If he could get close enough to the building, he could use the penetrating terahertz radar sensor in his helmet’s visor to look for a long body with pockets of low-density tissue, quite distinct from a human radar profile. It could see through walls. Infrared couldn’t.
And it had been a long time since he had broken into a laboratory for data retrieval. A bounty hunter had to keep his skills sharp.
GALACTIC ALLIANCE GUARD HQ QUADRANT A-89. GALACTIC CITY: 0830 HOURS.
Jacen came out of the GAG briefing room to find Mara standing with her hands on her hips as if he’d kept her waiting a little too long. She looked more under control than relaxed: her expression was carefully neutral, but he could feel the fear in her and see the dark circles under her eyes.
She stared. “When did you start wearing a uniform?”
Jacen glanced down at his black fatigues, hands held away from his sides. “I should have changed before we carried out the raids. Jedi robes and police actions don’t mix.”