“To Gejjen personally?” Leia asked. “Not to his assistants?”
“There’s no use acting surprised,” the secretary sniffed.
He understood me very well.”
A cloud came over Leia’s face. “I’m sure he did. Please accept our apologies. The mistake is clearly ours.”
“Obviously,” the secretary replied. “Please be patient. The Queen Mother will see you at her convenience.”
The vid display went blank.
“How rude!” C-3PO said. “He didn’t even wish us a good evening.”
“He wouldn’t have meant it.” Han deactivated their end of the intercom and turned to Leia. “Do you get the feeling this is a setup?”
“Absolutely,” Leia said. “But I don’t understand what Gejjen expects to gain by embarrassing us.”
“There’s no logic to it that I can see,” C-3PO said. “Captain Solo can be quite embarrassing enough on his own.”
Han was too busy trying to figure Gejjen’s angle to retort. Gejjen had to know that sending them to negotiate on a celebration day would only irritate Tenel Ka and make her even more unlikely to cooperate with Corellia … and that could only mean that Gejjen did not care whether he irritated Tenel Ka.
Han began to feel worried. With the Bothans and Hutts both refusing open alliance, Corellia was growing more desperate by the day-and desperate governments took dangerous gambles. Maybe Gejjen did not care about irritating Tenel Ka because he expected to be dealing with someone else in the near future … in the very near future.
Han turned to Leia. “What if it’s not us Gejjen is setting up?”
Leia’s eyes grew narrow. “You think he’s using us to draw Tenel Ka out?”
“Or positioning us to take the blame,” Han said. “If Tenel Ka gets killed, whoever’s getting ready to take her place will want to point the finger at someone pretty kriffing quick. Otherwise, an investigation might uncover them.”
Leia thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Possible, but Tenel Ka is bound to have a first-class security team, and-as a former Jedi Knight-she’s formidable in her own right. Whoever’s behind this, they’re smart enough to realize they’ll need a professional-and a good one.”
“Sure, but I don’t see where we fit in,” Han said. “I don’t either-yet.” Leia thought for a moment, then asked, “Why was it important for us to arrive on the day of the Queen’s Pageant?”
“Oh!” C-3PO raised his hand. “I think I know!” Han turned to the droid. “So spit it out.” C-3PO’s photoreceptors flickered. “Droids are unable to salivate, Captain Solo. But the palace will be filled with handsome young men today, most of them unknown to the staff. It would be the ideal time to slip an assassin onto the premises.”
“Which means security will be even tighter than normal,” Han pointed out.
“Which is why we’re important,” Leia said. “Gejjen knows Tenel Ka will find time to see us-and that will interrupt the security routine.”
“So we’re bait,” Han grumbled. “That really burns my jets.”
Han turned to the intercom and started to reach for the call button, but Leia caught his arm with the Force.
“Han, we can’t,” she said.
Han frowned in confusion. “Sure we can,” he said. “1 love Corellia, but Tenel Ka is practically a daughter. If you think I’m going to let Gejjen assassinate…”
“Han, that’s not what I think,” Leia said. “But if their plan depends on a change in routine, they must have someone close to Tenel Ka to alert them to that change.”
“Right.” Han dropped his hand and tried to hide how foolish he felt for not realizing the same thing. “I knew that.”
“Of course you did.” Leia smiled and gave his arm a reassuring pat. “And you also know that their informant would just intercept your warning and let the assassins know that we’re on to them.”
“Oh, yeah,” Han said. “I knew that, too.” Leia nodded. “I thought so.”
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, obviously preparing to reach out to Tenel Ka in the Force.
It was Han’s turn to grab Leia’s arm. “Can’t do that either, sweetheart.”
Leia opened her eyes again. “We can’t?”
“What about their backup plan?” Han said. “You know they have one-and the minute their informant sees Tenel Ka acting weird, they’ll activate it.”
Leia sighed. “And we’d blow any chance Tenel Ka has of trapping them.”