The doors closed again. A steady two-way river of passengers, port workers, flight crew, and the general temporary population of a spaceport stood between Ben and the doors.
“You can do this,” Lekauf said. “How many in there? I can’t place the strip-cam under the doors if someone else is going to come along and open them again. “
Ben closed his eyes and concentrated on the ebb and flow of the Force, the patterns of density that he could both feel at the roof of his mouth and see as speckled color behind his eyelids.
“Six,” he said. That made sense: two close protection agents each, even numbers, two statesmen who didn’t trust each other. “Yes, six. They’re all inside now.”
“Can you see lottery numbers, too?” Lekauf made his way casually through the shoals of people and squatted down to adjust his boot. Ben saw him take out what looked like a small flimsi strip, then slide the thing under the hairline gap with quick ease.
Strip-cams were very small these days, the size of a coat-check stub. They really were flimsi, and just as disposable once they’d finished transmitting.
“Lovely,” said Shevu’s voice in Ben’s ear. “I can see right up Gejjen’s nose. Good clear sound. Nice job, Jori.”
Eventually, Ben glanced around and spotted Shevu leaning against a drinks dispenser on the other side of the concourse. He was recording the output from the strip-cam and transmitting it back to GAG HQ. As soon as he had confirmation that it had been received and stored, he’d erase his datapad and send a code to the strip-cam to shred its data. It’d be just a scrap of garbage the cleaners would sweep up, if they ever came this way. It looked as if they wouldn’t.
Ben and Lekauf could hear the conversation in their earpieces, both of diem monitoring it so they knew when to vanish, wait for Gejjen to emerge, and follow him.
It was a fascinating conversation. Ben had started to get the hang of the code and insinuation that beings in power used to say unpleasant things, a different language that let them deny later that they’d meant any harm. Jacen was good at it. Ben hoped he never would be, because it got to be a habit and Jacen seemed to enjoy playing that game for its own sake.
He recognized Omas’s voice. Gejjen sounded softer than he did on the HNE bulletins.
It was very weird to listen to a man you were about to kill. Ben was hearing the last words Dur Gejjen would ever speak.
“So … can we agree as gentlebeings to cease hostilities while we sort out a compromise?”
“Before or after I take this to the Senate?” Omas asked.
“I’m not referring this to my assemblyyet. You might not need to refer it to yours,” Gejjen replied. “We’ll stand down if you agree to that form of revised wording in the commitment of planetary defense assets to the GA.”
“You might be able to deliver that with Corellian forces, but can you pull back the Bothans?”
“Are you sure Niathal will do as you tell her?”
“She’s a career officer. She will.”
“The Bothans are pragmatists. They will.”
“As a show of goodwill, you’ll commit forces to helping us restore order in places like the Sepan system.”
“Of course. And you need us to come back into the GA fold to stop the membership hemorrhaging away.”
“I won’t ask for any statement that causes loss of face. I know how … proud Corellians are. Just something along the lines of differences being bridgeable.”
“That’s very gracious, Chief Omas. Now, those differences will only be bridged if Admiral Niathal and Colonel Solo no longer carry the military weight that they do now.”
“You want me to fire them.”
“I think you might need to do more than fire them now that they’ve become used to getting their own way.”
“I think I know what you mean, and I don’t care for that solution.”
“Niathalambitious. Dangerous. Soloambitious, dangerous, and Jedi, too. We can solve the problem for you permanently.”
“If you do, I don’t need to know about it.”
“If we do, I’d like your security services to look the other way. Solo has ambitious minions who’d be temporarily blind and deaf in exchange for promotion, I think.”
“I see you know of Captain Girdun, then …”
And they laughed. The two of them actually laughed. Ben heard a faint sound as if Shevu was clearing his throat. When Ben turned his head, Lekauf was looking at him, for once not the permanently cheerful man who looked so much younger than he was. He looked old and angry.
“That’s how much we’re worth,” he said quietly. “I bet our Intel guys in there love the idea of having their man back in command.”