“Like a gundark in a petting zoo,” Mara replied. She turned her gaze back to the Anakin Solo, which was steadily growing in the center of the canopy. “But there’s a big difference between suspicion and fact. What if Lumiya wasn’t working for GAG? What if someone in GAG is working for 6er?”
“You think she subverted one of Jacen’s subordinates?”
“I think we need to be open to the possibility,” Mara corrected. “You don’t like what Jacen’s doing with GAG, so you’re predisposed to assume the worst. All I’m saying is we can’t let emotion color our judgment.”
Luke fell silent a moment, then let out a long breath. “You’re right-maybe I’m assuming the worst because I don’t like Jacen’s methods. But your advice is good for both of us, you know. I think you blind yourself to what’s happening with Jacen because he’s the one who convinced Ben not to hide from the Force.”
Mara nodded. “Guilty as charged,” she said, keeping her eyes forward. “That’s why we have to work together on this, Skywalker. We need to keep each other honest… and if we don’t like what we find, we’re going to need each other more than ever.”
Her tone made Luke frown. “What are you saying?”
“You know what I mean, Skywalker,” she replied. “If you’re right-if Jacen has been making a fool of me-he won’t be easy to handle. It’ll take both of us.”
Luke raised his brow, surprised by the ice in Mara’s voice. “What about that sense of certainty you experienced back at the Sparring Arena? You said we had to let Ben follow his own path, that you thought the Force had drawn him to Jacen for a reason.”
“I still think that,” Mara said. “But we have a path to follow, too. Maybe this is where all our paths converge-where Ben’s path finally joins ours.”
“Only Ben’s?” Luke asked. He was beginning to sense some of the old ruthlessness in Mara, some of her old assassin instinct-and it scared him. “What about Jacen?”
“If I’m wrong, Jacen won’t have a path,” Mara said. “We’ll have to end it.”
“Now I think you’re the one who’s assuming the worst,” he said. “I’m worried about Jacen, but I’m not ready to kill him.”
“Then you’re not being realistic,” Mara said. “If he is working with Lumiya, we won’t have a choice. I won’t let him take Ben down that path with him.”
“Of course not-but whatever Jacen has become, it’s due to what happened after he was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong-and I’m the one who sent him on that mission.” Luke paused, still struggling with the decision that had cost the life of his nephew Anakin and so many other young Jedi Knights-still wondering what else he could have done to save the Jedi. “I won’t give up on Jacen just because he’s lost his way. If he has fallen under Lumiya’s sway, I’m going to bring him back under mine.”
Mara’s gaze strayed back to Luke’s reflection in the mirrored panel. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
Luke flashed an innocent smile. “Because you’re used to me doing the impossible?”
Mara sighed. “Something like that.” She looked back to the Anaktn, which was now an arm-length wedge silhouetted against the sparkling waters of a Hapan ocean. “But you’d better not be intending to redeem Lumiya, too. I draw the line at ex-girlfriends.”
“Don’t worry,” Luke said. “Even I’m not that naive. Lumiya is going down.”
The comm channel squawked as a traffic controller issued approach clearance for the Shadow. For the next few minutes, as the dark mass of the Anakin continued to swell in the canopy, they were kept busy making course corrections and providing identity verifications. A pair of XJ5 ChaseXs flew by to confirm their identities visually, then irritated Mara by looping around to fall into the kill zone directly behind the Shadow.
Finally, when the Shadow had drawn so close they could see nothing ahead except the dark tiers of the Star Destroyer’s blocky superstructure, the traffic controller gave them clearance to berth in the Command Hangar. Mara dropped beneath the sky of black durasteel that was the Anakin’s belly, then angled aft to a small launching bay defended by two quad cannon laser turrets.
She used the attitude thrusters to rise through the barrier shield into the hangar, where a set of beacon lights led her to the designated berth.
No sooner had the Shadow set down than an honor guard of twenty GAG troopers emerged from an access hatch. They arrayed themselves in two columns and came to attention facing each other, and a moment later Jacen appeared and strode down the aisle between them. A black cape billowed from the shoulders of his black colonel’s uniform.