“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Karrde said as Luke approached. He picked up a silvery pitcher from the low table at his side, poured a reddish liquid into a pair of cups. “I must apologize for having kept you asleep all this time. But I’m sure you appreciate the special problems involved in making sure a Jedi stays where you’ve put him.”
“Of course,” Luke said, his attention on the two animals beside Karrde’s chair. They were still staring at him with an uncomfortable intensity. “Though if you’d just asked nicely,” he added, “you might have found me quite willing to cooperate.”
A flicker of a smile touched Karrde’s lips. “Perhaps. Perhaps not.” He gestured to the chair across from him. “Please sit down.”
Luke started forward; but as he did so, one of the animals rose up slightly on his haunches, making a strange sort of choked purr. “Easy, Sturm,” Karrde admonished, looking down at the animal. “This man is our guest.”
The creature ignored him, its full attention clearly on Luke. “I don’t think it believes you,” Luke suggested carefully. Even as he spoke, the second animal made the same sort of sound as the first had.
“Perhaps not.” Karrde had a light grip on each of the animals’ collars now and was glancing around the room. “Chin!” he called toward the three men lounging in one of the conversation circles. “Come and take them out, will you?”
“Sure.” A middle-aged man with a Froffli-style haircut3 got up and trotted over. “Come on, fellows,” he grunted, taking over Karrde’s grip on the collars and leading the animals away. “What hai we go for a walk, hee?”
“My apologies, Skywalker,” Karrde said, frowning slightly as he watched the others go. “They’re usually better behaved than that with guests. Now; please sit down.”
Luke did so, accepting the cup Karrde offered him. Mara stepped past him and took up position next to her chief. Her blaster, Luke noted, was now in a wrist holster on her left forearm, nearly as accessible as it would have been in her hand.
“It’s just a mild stimulant,” Karrde said, nodding to the cup in Luke’s hand. “Something to help you wake up.” He took a drink from his own cup and set it back down on the low table.
Luke took a sip. It tasted all right; and anyway, if Karrde had wanted to drug him, there was hardly any need to stoop to such a childish subterfuge. “Would you mind telling me where my droid is?”
“Oh, he’s perfectly all right,” Karrde assured him. “I have him in one of my equipment sheds for safekeeping.”
“I’d like to see him, if I may.”
“I’m sure that can be arranged. But later.” Karrde leaned back in his seat, his forehead furrowing slightly. “Perhaps after we’ve figured out just exactly what we’re going to do with you.”
Luke glanced up at Mara. “Your associate mentioned the possibilities. I’d hoped I could add another to the list.”
“That we send you back home?” Karrde suggested.
“With due compensation, of course,” Luke assured him. “Say, double whatever the Empire would offer?”
“You’re very generous with other people’s money,” Karrde said dryly. “The problem, unfortunately, doesn’t arise from money, but from politics. Our operations, you see, extend rather deeply into both Imperial and Republic space. If the Empire discovered we’d released you back to the Republic, they would be highly displeased with us.”
“And vice versa if you turned me over to the Empire,” Luke pointed out.
“True,” Karrde said. “Except that given the damage to your X-wing’s subspace radio, the Republic presumably has no idea what happened to you. The Empire, unfortunately, does.”
“And it’s not what they would offer,” Mara put in. “It’s what they have offered. Thirty thousand.”4
Luke pursed his lips. “I had no idea I was so valuable,” he said.
“You could be the difference between solvency and failure for any number of marginal operators,” Karrde said bluntly. “There are probably dozens of ships out there right now, ignoring schedules and prior commitments to hunt for you.” He smiled tightly. “Operators who haven’t given even a moment of consideration to how they would hold on to a Jedi even if they caught one.”
“Your method seems to work pretty well,” Luke told him. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me how you’ve managed it.”
Karrde smiled again. “Secrets of that magnitude are worth a great deal of money. Have you any secrets of equal value to trade?”
“Probably not,” Luke said evenly. “But, again, I’m sure the New Republic would be willing to pay market value.”
Karrde sipped from his drink, eyeing Luke thoughtfully over the rim of the cup. “I’ll make you a deal,” he said, putting the cup back on the table beside him. “You tell me why the Empire is suddenly so interested in you, and I’ll tell you why your Jedi powers aren’t working.”
“Why don’t you ask the Imperials directly?”
Karrde smiled. “Thank you, but no. I’d just as soon not have them start wondering at my sudden interest. Particularly after we pleaded prior commitments when the request came in for us to help hunt you down.”
Luke frowned at him. “You weren’t hunting for me?”
“No, we weren’t.” Karrde’s lip twisted. “One of those little ironies that make life so interesting. We were simply returning from a cargo pickup when Mara dropped us out of hyperspace on the spur of the moment to do a nav reading.”
Luke studied Mara’s stony expression. “How fortunate for you,” he said.
“Perhaps,” Karrde said. “The net result, though, was to put us in the middle of the exact situation that I’d hoped to avoid.”
Luke held his hands out, palms upward. “Then let me go and pretend none of this happened. I give you my word I’ll keep your part in it quiet.”
“The Empire would find out anyway.” Karrde shook his head. “Their new commander is extremely good at piecing bits of information together. No, I think your best hope right now is for us to find a compromise. Some way we can let you go while still giving the Imperials what they want.” He cocked his head slightly. “Which leads us back to my original question.”
“And from there back to my original answer,” Luke said. “I really don’t know what the Empire wants with me.” He hesitated, but Leia should be well beyond Imperial reach by now. “I can tell you, though, that it’s not just me. There have been two attempts on my sister Leia, too.”
“Killing attempts?”
Luke thought about it. “I don’t think so. The one I was present for felt more like a kidnapping.”
“Interesting,” Karrde murmured, his eyes defocusing slightly. “Leia Organa Solo. Who is in training to be a Jedi like her brother. That could explain … certain recent Imperial actions.”
Luke waited, but after a moment it became clear that Karrde wasn’t going to elaborate. “You spoke of a compromise,” he reminded the other.
Karrde seemed to pull his thoughts back to the room. “Yes, I did,” he said. “It’s occurred to me that your privileged position in the New Republic might be what the Empire was interested in—that they wanted information on the inner workings of the Provisional Council. In such a case, we might have been able to work out a deal whereby you went free while your Artoo droid went to the Imperials for debriefing.”
Luke felt his stomach tighten. “It wouldn’t do them any good,” he said as casually as he could manage. The thought of Artoo being sold into Imperial slavery … “Artoo has never been to any of the Council meetings.”
“But he does have a great deal of knowledge of you personally,” Karrde pointed out. “As well as of your sister, her husband, and various other highly placed members of the New Republic.” He shrugged. “It’s a moot question now, of course. The fact that the focus is exclusively on the New Republic’s Jedi and potential Jedi means they’re not simply after information. Where did these two attacks take place?”