28

Kirtan Loor dropped to one knee before the holographic image of Ysanne Isard but did not bow his head. “Thank you for replying to my request so quickly, Madam Director.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “Displays of ego and spirit always attract my attention, Agent Loor.”

“Good, then I can take it that you will be reprimanding General Derricote?”

“Why?”

Loor blinked, then narrowed his eyes. “Why? Madam Director, he took it upon himself to go into In visee and select subjects for his experimentation who were transported directly to his lab. He violated every known security procedure we have in doing that. The Sullustans he took were not properly screened so we do not know who they were. The other captives spoke of an Alien Combine and the Sullustans might have been able to supply more useful information on that organization.”

Isard dismissed his protest with a sneer. “I have told him you are to be allowed to interview his subjects.”

“Oh, yes, but he immediately injected them with the newest strain of his Krytos virus. The interviews would have to take place with my people in isolation suits, which means the subjects would know they were never getting out. Their motivation to cooperate would be gone. And if he’s right, if this strain has an incubation period of two weeks, the subjects would be well into dementia and death before analysis would let us conduct other interrogations.”

“That is not your concern at this moment, Agent Loor. General Derricote’s Krytos project is of paramount importance. This new strain could be the breakthrough we need to prepare Imperial Center for the Rebels.” Fire flared in her molten left eye. “That idiot Zsinj attacked the Rebels to salve his own wounded pride. He doesn’t realize that if they were to mobilize their entire fleet and devote it to hunting him down they’d have him inside a year. The fool thinks he is powerful, but he doesn’t realize all he has done is to force the Rebels to move more swiftly to take Imperial Center—too swiftly.”

Loor sat back on his heel. “There is no indication of impending operations according to our spy in Rogue Squadron.”

“I know that, but I also know their leadership. They mean to wipe us from the galaxy and they cannot do that if they end up chasing after every Moff who decides he should be the next Emperor. Imperial Center is the key to power in the galaxy. They know that and they know the sooner they sit Mon Mothma on the Imperial throne, the easier their crusade will be.”

The audacity of launching a strike at Imperial Center surprised Loor, but he knew the leaders of the Rebellion often saw the impossible as necessary and their successes against the Death Stars had made them think they could succeed at anything. Isard had purposely left Imperial Center vulnerable, but only so the Krytos virus could cause the Rebel Alliance to collapse. If it were not ready, her plan would fail and the Alliance would be stronger than ever.

“I will monitor the situation, Madam Director.”

“Oh, yes, you will.” She stabbed a holographic finger at him. “The Rogues can plan all they want, but nothing can actually be done for two weeks. I am going to deploy this version of the Krytos virus so it can be introduced to the planetary water supply starting now. We will see if Derricote’s predictions on its speed and lethality are correct, and assuming they are, we will save ourselves two weeks of waiting. If the Rogues strike too soon, all will be lost. Two weeks minimum—a month would be better. Develop the resources you need, do whatever you must, but see to it that the Rogues do nothing substantive before I want them to.”

“It will be done, Madam Director.” Loor bowed his head, but when he looked up again her image had vanished. He stood, slowly, and a smile spread across his features. “Develop resources and do what I must. By your order.”

He walked from his dark, cramped office down a short corridor to another room. The door whisked up into the ceiling, revealing a dark room with a figure bound to a chair and flanked by two stormtroopers. Loor walked in and took the man sitting there by the chin, eliciting a snarl from him.

Loor laughed, releasing the chin, then backhanded the man across the face. “Displays of spirit can be painful.”

“Nothing you can do will hurt me, Loor.”

“Ah, you do remember me. I should be flattered, Patches.” Loor looked down at Zekka Thyne and hit him again. The man’s head rocked back, but the red eyes stared up at him, full of defiance. Striking Thyne had a cathartic effect on him, but Loor refused to indulge himself. “Fortunately for you, I remember you as well.”

“You’ll get nothing from me, Loor.”

“But you have nothing I want, Patches.” Loor tapped fingers against his own breastbone. “I have something to offer you, however. Rogue Squadron brought you and other Black Sun scum to Imperial Center, then they followed you. There is only one implication for this, which is to suppose you and they are preparing for an assault on Imperial Center.”

“I know nothing about that.”

Loor grabbed an ear and twisted it cruelly. “You’re listening now, not speaking.”

Thyne stared vibroblades at him but remained silent.

“Good.” Loor released him. “You will be my eyes and ears within the Alliance community here. I want to know their plans. I want timetables, suppliers, personnel rosters, anything and everything. If you give me what I want, I let you live.”

“If I walk out of here, you will never be able to get me again so your threat means nothing.”

“Oh, I won’t be the one to kill you. Not firsthand, anyway. What I will do is allow Black Sun slicers to obtain files that even go back to my CorSec days noting how you were working for me. They will implicate you in the downfall of Black Sun here on Imperial Center. Your fate will be decided by your brethren, not me.”

That threat damped some of the defiance in Thyne’s eyes. “Do not be disheartened, though, Patches, I would not surrender you unless forced to. These stormtroopers will conduct you to a place to which you will say you escaped after your speeder bike was brought down. We’ve been combing the area constantly for the last three days. You will tell your compatriots that you were in hiding and finally managed to escape. They will believe you.”

“No one will believe I hid.”

Loor looked over at one of the stormtroopers. “He’s right. Before you leave him inflict a nonfatal abdominal wound—one he could survive and one that won’t hamper him too much.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

Loor smiled. “Oh, but I think we do. Verisimilitude. If you can’t believe you would have been hiding, no one else will. People are suspicious, especially people like Corran Horn.”

“Then this will be another thing I owe him for. If it weren’t for him, I’d not be in your custody.”

“Indeed,” Loor nodded confidently. “And just to show you that I’m not a monster, I’ll give you a gift. If you find a convenient time to kill Corran Horn, do so. I consider him a threat to you and your operation. His elimination, therefore, will please me no end.”