She jerked back to the conversation, blinking. “No. I haven’t. But I know, and I’m the only one who does. And I also know you can hide in the Force like Jacen does, and it scares me because the first time I felt it I thought you’d been killed. Please, Ben, don’t hide from me. Ever.”
“I wasn’t, Mom. I was just trying it out.”
“Okay.”
“Am I going to feel bad about… you know, the other guy? ‘Cos right now I don’t care.”
“I didn’t,” she said, seeming to understand he meant Gejjen. “Not until lately, and then it didn’t feel like guilt. Just … not quite understanding why I did it, because being what I was didn’t explain it all to me.”
“I’d better go.”
“You’ll be okay. I’ll always be there, remember. Call me.”
Ben leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek. He loved her so much right then; what other mom could take news like that, horrific news, and still be there for him? He leaned farther and whispered in her ear.
“He was having a secret meeting at the port with Omas. To discuss a cease-fire.”
When Ben straightened up, she smiled, but there was a real glint in her eye that said she was anything but happy.
“Thank you,” she said. “I love you, Ben. Call me, okay?”
“Love you, too, Mom.”
Ben couldn’t stand it any longer. He walked out of the tapcaf and spent the next couple of hours wandering around, staring in shop windows and not seeing anything, before he got an air taxi back to Jacen’s apartment and shut himself in his room.
It was going to take a long time to make sense of this. He slipped the vibroblade under his pillow, reluctant to let it sit as far away as his desk, and wondered what Captain Shevu was telling Jori Lekauf’s family.
chapter twelve
Ori’buyce, kih’kovid.
All helmet, no head.
Mandalorian insult for someone with an overdeveloped sense of authority
REPUBLICA HOUSE, CORUSCANT:
0001 HOURS, GALACTIC STANDARD TIME
Jacen Solo, in the formal uniform of a colonel of the Galactic Alliance Guard, stood outside the lobby of the Republica building flanked by Sergeant Wirut and Trooper Limm.
It was a real shame about Lekauf. He was a great loss. Ben had done well, but he should have been back at work right away. Jacen planned to talk to Shevu later about sending Ben on leave without clearing it with him first.
“You sure this is going to be enough, sir?” asked Wirut. “Just the three of us?”
Jacen smoothed his black gloves down over his fingers. It was one minute past midnight, and that made what he was about to do thoroughly legal, justified, and overdue.
“I don’t think Chief Omas has a platoon up there, somehow.”
Wirut didn’t reply. Jacen was the first to admit that going to arrest the elected head of the most powerful organization in the galaxy with a couple of troopers was low-key, but he saw no point flooding the area with an entire company. Omas wouldn’t put up a fight. If he did, one Jedi and two armed troopers were ample to deal with it.
Jacen opened the comlink to Niathal.
“We’re in position now,” he said. “We’re going in.”
“I have an emergency appointment with Senator G’Sil in ten minutes,” Niathal said. “He’s not happy about it, but I told him it couldn’t wait.”
“He’s got no inkling of what’s happening?”
“If he has, he hasn’t shown the slightest sign of acting upon it.”
“Okay. There’s no going back now. We’re committed.”
“Just do it …”
The security guard on the front reception was a man used to seeing all kinds of uniforms wandering in and out of Republica House. The luxurious tower housed the elite of the GA, and every Senator seemed to have his or her own entourage of bodyguards as well as military visitors. Most Coruscanti knew what a GAG uniform looked like by now anywayJacen had made sure his secret police were anything but secret, at least in terms of their existencebut he gave the guard proper identification without being asked. There was no point being rude or throwing his weight around. The man was only doing his job.
“No need to announce me,” Jacen said.
The guard checked his datapad. “You’re on his admission list anyway. Go on up.”
It took minutes for the turbolift to reach Omas’s floor. As the cab climbed, the two troopers simply stared at the wail ahead of them. Jacen felt their reluctance, and wanted to know if it was due to a fondness for Omas or a distaste for military coups, but he didn’t ask. Any army that liked the idea of a coup wasn’t worth having. It had to be the last resort.