[Legacy Of The Force] - 05(57)

“Nothing like a united front in wartime.” He leaned back in the chair, fingers meshed behind his head. “So we’re not the flavor of the month. Our glorious leader didn’t exactly spring to our defense.”

Niathal’s white uniform didn’t look crumpled, even though she’d just disembarked from a warship fresh from a battle. “Smacks of ingratitude, I’d say.”

She wasn’t one for humor. Jacen knew enough about Mon Cal body language now to know she was angry. She kept rolling her head slightly, as if she was getting hot and her collar was pinching her neck.

Her nostrils flared. That meant she was ripe for a few radical suggestions about Omas.

He laid the bait. “You realize that when Gejjen says someone has to go, he doesn’t mean a golden handshake and a framed certificate thanking them for loyal service.”

“Spit it out, Jacen.”

“He was behind Sal-Solo’s premature death—”

She narrowed her eyes, heavy with sarcasm. “I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked.”

“—and the attempt on the Hapan Queen Mother’s life.” My lover. Mother of my daughter, my little darling. I wish I could see them. “We’re next.”

Niathal’s nostrils closed tight for a second. It was a giveaway with Mon Cals, a little sign that said they were surprised, and not in a good way.

“He wouldn’t be stupid enough to try that.”

“Right now I don’t know what he’d try.”

“Omas isn’t a fool,” she said. “He must have a good idea of what he’s dealing with.”

“What do you think he’s he up to?”

“All he wants to do is hold the Alliance together. He always thinks a few raps over the knuckles can bring naughty governments into line. Well, it didn’t work with Corellia, and now he’s watching the Alliance shrink a planet at a time.” She kept looking at the chrono on her desk. “My rules say we should notify the chair of the Security Council about the meeting. He’s beginning to feel sidelined as it is. I’m not sure what outcome that will have, though.”

Jacen kept G’Sil sweet by delivering results on terrorism and not telling him anything he would have to deny knowing later. If he had serious designs on Omas’s job, he hadn’t shown any sign of it—yet.

“Senator G’Sil would simply task me to take care of it,” Jacen said. “I’m saving him the trouble of knowing. Plausible deniability.”

“Do you enjoy the irony?”

“What?”

“Bypassing the Senate about our head of state bypassing the Senate. Nice job with the procurement amendment, by the way. Slipped through like an oiled eel.” Niathal got up and wandered around her office, long, webbed, bony fingers clasped behind her back. She had that upright bearing all the GA military had, regardless of species or spinal arrangement. “Now that we both have the ability to vary statutes—any statutes—within budgetary limits, I imagine you’ve given its potential plenty of thought.”

Jacen wanted her to stand still and look at him, but she continued her slow amble around the office.

She plays these games beautifully. I’ll have to be careful not to cross her.

“It’s an emergency kit,” he said. “If we need to, we can change any minor law, and we can also change any big one if we play this smart.” We. Not I. He thought it important to emphasize that they were partners. “For example, if Aitch-Em-Three were to amend the Emergency Measures Act to include in its scope the GAG’s powers to detain heads of state, politicians, and any other individuals believed to be presenting a genuine risk to the security of the Galactic Alliance, and to seize their assets via the Treasury Orders Act, then I suspect people would look at Prime Minister Gejjen and nod approvingly.”

“You even talk like a legislator now …”

“But am I right?”

Niathal turned. She couldn’t smile like a human, but the amusement was written all over her face in a slight compression of the lips. Jacen felt her shift from her perpetual wariness and impatience to a satisfied warmth—even triumph—for a brief moment.

“That nobody will think of asking if the Chief of State of the GA is covered by that amendment? Yes, Jacen, you’re right.” She made a gesture, holding her hand like a blade and weaving it through imaginary water. “That eel of yours will slip through again.”

“If I feel we have to … act to restore stability and security, will you be standing with me?”

Will you stage a coup with me? Did I really say that?

Niathal did pause. But it wasn’t the taken-aback pause of someone shocked by an outrageous proposal; just a moment of sizing up Jacen Solo.