[Thrawn Trilogy] - 02(99)
“Sir, the target has made the jump to lightspeed,” a voice reported. “We’ve got a strong signal from the beacon; we’re doing a probability extrapolation now.
“Very good, Lieutenant,” Thrawn said. “Don’t bother with any extrapolations just yet-she’ll change course at least once more before settling down on her true heading.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Still, we don’t want her getting too far ahead of us,” Thrawn told Pellaeon as he keyed off the comm. “You’d best return to the bridge, Captain, and get the Chimaera moving after her.”
“Yes, sir.” Pellaeon hesitated. “I thought we were going to give her time to get the Katana’s location for us.”
Thrawn’s expression hardened. “She’s not part of the Empire anymore, Captain,” he said. “She may want us to believe that she’s coming back-she may even believe it herself. But she isn’t. No matter. She’s leading us to Karrde, and that’s the important thing. Between him and our Corellian renegade we have two leads to the Katana fleet. One way or the other, we’ll find it.”
Pellaeon nodded, feeling the stirrings of excitement again despite his best efforts to remain unemotional about this. The Katana fleet. Two hundred Dreadnaughts, just sitting there waiting for the Empire to take possession:
“I have the feeling, Admiral,” he said, “that our final offensive against the Rebellion may be ready to launch a bit ahead of schedule.”
Thrawn smiled. “I believe, Captain, that you may be right.”
Chapter 18
They had been sitting around the table in the maitrakh’s house since early morning, studying maps and floor plans and diagrams, searching for a plan of action that would be more than simply a complicated way of surrendering. Finally, just here noon, Leia called a halt. “I can’t look at this anymore,” she told Chewbacca, closing her eyes briefly and rubbing her thumbs against throbbing temples. “Let’s go outside for a while.”
Chewbacca growled an objection. “Yes, of course there are risks,” she agreed wearily. “But the whole village knows we’re here, and no one’s told the authorities yet. Come on; it’ll be okay.” Stepping to the door, she opened it and went out. Chewbacca grumbled under his breath, hut followed after her.
The late morning sunshine was blazing brightly down, with only a scattering of high clouds to interfere. Leia glanced upward at the clear sky, shivering involuntarily at the sudden sensation of nakedness that flooded in on her. A clear sky, all the way up to space:but it was all right. A little before midnight the maitrakh had brought the news of the Star Destroyer’s imminent departure, a departure which she and Chewbacca had been able to watch with the macrobinoculars from the Wookiee’s kit. It had been their first break since Khabarakh’s arrest: just as it had begun to look like she and Chewbacca would be pinned down here until it was too late, the Grand Admiral had abruptly left.
It was an unexpected gift:a gift which Leia couldn’t help but view with suspicion. From the way the Grand Admiral had been talking in the dukha she’d expected him to stay here until Khabarakh’s humiliation period had ended, after which the shipboard interrogation would begin. Perhaps he’d changed his mind and had taken Khabath back early, with a backhand gesture of contempt for Noghri tradition. But the maitrakh had said that Khabarakh was still on public display in the center of Nystao.
Unless she was lying about that. Or was herself being lied to about it. But if the Grand Admiral suspected enough to lie to the maitrakh, why hadn’t a legion of Imperial troops already swooped down on them?
But he was a Grand Admiral, with all the cunning and subtlety and tactical genius that the title implied. This whole thing could be a convoluted, carefully orchestrated trap:and if it was, chances were she would never even see it until it had been sprung around her.
Stop it! she ordered herself firmly. Letting herself get caught up in the mythos of infallibility that had been built up around the Grand Admirals would gain her nothing but mental paralysis. Even Grand Admirals could make mistakes, and there were any number of reasons why he might have had to leave Honoghr. Perhaps some part of the campaign against the New Republic had gone sour, requiring his attention elsewhere. Or perhaps he’d simply gone off on some short errand, intending to be back in a day or two.
Either way, it meant that the time to strike was now. If they could only find something to strike at.
Beside her, Chewbacca growled a suggestion. “We can’t do that,” Leia shook her head. “It’d be no better than a frill-blown attack on the spaceport. We have to keep damage to Nystao and its people to an absolute minimum.”