[Republic Commando] - 02(42)

Vau was watching the exchange like a man being mildly amused by a holovid. The strill yawned with a thin, high-pitched whine.

“The difference the Senate will see,” Zey said, “is that this is Coruscant.”

“General, the days when wars were fought elsewhere while the home fires were kept burning are long gone.”

“I know. But there are armies, and there are … bounty hunters and assassins. And the Senate will be wary of crossing that line on home ground.”

“Well, that’s what tends to happen when you let a bunch of … bounty hunters and assassins train your army.”

“We didn’t know we even had an army until a year ago.”

“Maybe, but the fact that you’re sitting here now with a general’s rank means you’ve accepted responsibility for it. You could have objected, collectively or individually. You could have asked questions. But no. You picked up the blaster you found on the floor and you just fired it to defend yourself. Expedience ambushes you in the end.”

“You know what the alternative was.”

“Look, General, I need to clarify a few things, being just a simple assassin and all that. Answer a few questions for me.”

Zey should have been furious that a mere sergeant was treating him as if he were an annoyingly pedantic clerk rather than a battle-hardened general. To his credit, he seemed more intent on a solution. Ordo wondered where expedience ended and pragmatism began.

“Very well,” said Zey.

“Do you want to stop attacks on vulnerable targets that are starting to compromise the ability of the GAR to deploy and are destroying public confidence in the Senate’s ability to defend the capital?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think it’s a good idea for some of our hard-pressed special forces lads to have an unprecedented break on Coruscant after months in the field?”

Zey paused, just a breath. “Yes.”

“Do you need to ask anyone else to authorize that purely administrative matter?”

“No. General Jusik is responsible for personnel welfare.”

Ordo kept his face utterly blank. Leave? There was never any leave for the GAR, or their Jedi command in the front line. Neither would have known what to do with free time anyway.

Jusik looked pinned down. “I do believe some R and R would be a good idea, actually.” Skirata smiled at him with genuine warmth. Jusik was all right, one of the boys, all desperate courage and desire to belong. It was hard to tell if he was now playing the game or just being a decent officer. “I’ll look into it.”

“And sir,” Skirata said, “is it true that you knew all along that I was a complete chakaar who could never follow orders, who kept you in the dark, who treated his squads like his own private army, and was generally a Mando lowlife just like Jango and the rest of that mongrel scum?”

Zey leaned back in his seat and pinched the end of his nose briefly, staring hard at the blue stone table.

“I do believe I might realize that at some time in the future, Sergeant.” The corners of his eyes crinkled for the merest fraction of a second, but Ordo spotted it. “I have my suspicions. Proving them is hard, though.”

Zey was all right, too, then.

Vau had been watching the exchange with mild interest, and Ordo had been watching him, because he knew the man all too well.

“Sergeant Vau, do you have any view on this … ah… leave situation?” said Ordo.

“Oh no, I’m just a civilian now,” Vau said. The strill rumbled. Vau, apparently distracted, fondled its ghastly, stinking head, his slightly narrowed eyes revealing a doting affection that he never seemed to spare for any other living creature. “I’m just hanging around. When those detainees are released, I’ll offer them a room for a while, and I’ll have a conversation with them. Nothing to do with the GAR or the Senate at all. Merely a private citizen doing what he can to welcome visitors to Coruscant.”

Jusik was watching the exchange with an expression that suggested he was both excited and aware that the stakes had just been raised. They were subverting democracy in one sense, but they were also saving their political masters from a decision they could never be seen to take, yet had to.

“That’s the worst thing about having chakaare like us around,” Skirata said. “We just wander off, find someplace that you don’t know about, and hole up in it and get into all sorts of mischief that you also know nothing about. And then we bill you for it. Dreadful.”

“Dreadful,” Zey echoed. “Is this the kind of thing that CSF might notice?”

“Were we to get a little out of hand, I imagine very senior officers in CSF might need to be reassured, but not by you.”