His organization was small and kept a very low profile, still relatively new to the big league, and were therefore pretty much overlooked by Imperial Intelligence, and at this point, they had nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain in backing what had been, when they first began their wary association, if not actually a rank outsider in the Imperial hierarchy then at best a total newcomer. As it turned out, they'd backed the right runner and now all they had to do was sit tight and wait, and they would soon be in the coveted position that Black Sun now enjoyed - and Karre knew it.
There was nothing concentrated loyalties like the realisation that one's client was next in line to the Imperial Throne.
None of which helped Luke if he couldn't actually get word out to them. Right now, trapped in the Palace, he was completely isolated, unable to give or receive orders from contacts and field agents he had spent the last two years placing.
"Why do you need Karrde?" Reece queried.
"I need the names and locations of any Bothans who supply information to the Rebellion. Any at all, past and present. And I want to know if he's got me my scapegoat yet."
"Why Bothans?" Hallin frowned.
"Because the Rebellion is Lord Vader's mandate- it always was. If I go after them openly then I'm countermanding a direct order from the Emperor, and I need him in an amenable mood when I make my play. The Bothans however are fair game, and everyone knows they would have been the ones who passed information to the Rebels about the Peerless' stop at Kuat Shipyards."
"Bothawuii is in the Rim Regions." Reece reminded, "If you take the Peerless outside the Core..."
"I won't. Covert units from the 701st will go after them - we'll rendezvous close to Devaron. I just need Mothma to know it's me who's doing this." At their bewildered, expectant faces, he finally relented a little and gave them the key; "It was Mon who personally brokered the deal with the Bothans to supply intelligence to the Rebellion."
"You want her to become personally involved?" Hallin asked, uncertain; it wasn't like Luke to expend this kind of energy in simply wounding someone who had wounded him.
"I know Mon and I know that if I harass the Bothans enough, she'll feel responsible. If I can predict where she'll be for just a few hours..."
"You're going after Mon Mothma?" Even Reece was taken aback, "I thought this was to get rid of Palpatine's Rebel spy and reinforce Argot" He paused, clearly searching for the right way to say this... "Is this perhaps dividing your attention a little?"
He knew that The Heir had no particular loyalties to the Rebellion; that had never been his intention in passing select information over for over a year now under the guise of a mid-level officer in the Core Fleet - if it had been, then Wez would never have defected and helped him - but to try to take Mothma down now, with neither backing nor permission from the Emperor, was incredibly risky.
"Palpatine wants a show of commitment from me and I need to remove Mon. She's now given me the perfect opportunity to do both and I won't pass it by." Luke said simply, his tone inviting no argument.
Both men fell to silence, considering The Heir's intentions, looking for flaws in logic or judgment. Luke waited, willing to consider any reasonable opinion.
"How will you know where Mothma will be?" Hallin asked at last.
"Argot will tell me, as well as trying to get Mothma as close to the Core Systems as possible - if I can re-establish contact."
"Why not use Admiral Joss as a go-between for you and Argot - just whilst you're stuck here in..." Hallin began.
"No- absolutely not." Luke cut in decisively, "I won't pass Argot's access codes to a third party- even one I trust implicitly."
"Surely it would be the easiest method right now."
"It would be too much of a risk- I'd have to give him too much. If Palpatine were to find out about Joss's loyalties then he could easily pull that information from him. Plus I need to maintain direct contact with the Al...Rebellion. I need to pass on that The Heir's going after the Bothans to back up the trustworthyness of their supposed mole in the Core Fleet."
It was, Hallin noted, Luke's first slip since the assassination attempt; previously he had always made the subtle differentiation of referring to the Rebels as the Alliance - a name only he used here in the Palace, probably because he had been among them for so long and this was how they referred to themselves - now, he had made a choice, conscious or not, to distance himself from the group.
"The longer I leave it before passing on information again under that identity, the more suspicious they'll be when I do so, particularly after an absence which just happens to coincide with The Heir's stay on Coruscant."
"They won't believe it's you, surely. They'd have no reason to make that connection." Hallin said.
"But they may well believe it's a member of my close entourage, which would put any consequent information under greater suspicion when we're trying so hard to create trust. They've always been encouraged to believe that their contact is aboard the Peerless."
"Which would seem to suggest that Hallin's right. Someone you have confidence in should continue to make contact with them from the Peerless in your absence."
"No. No-one uses those contacts but me."
Skywalker was as always, Reece knew, juggling several balls at once, keeping them all in the air. Reece and Hallin were his two greatest confidants, but Reece knew that even they saw only a fraction of the greater plan. Who exactly in the Rebellion Skywalker had access to, under what false identity and for what reasons were not facts he was willing to share - he simply couldn't afford to tell them more, Reece knew, for precisely the reason that he was unwilling to pass out codes to Joss.
Hallin however, was less convinced. "Admiral Joss could so easily pass information on from a safe location."
Luke shook his head infinitesimally, "First, we would be relying on Joss having a reliably secure channel which he could access regularly without it getting hacked by Internal Intelligence. Second, even if Internal Intel couldn't slice Karrde's encryption, simply catching Joss sending encrypted messages to the Rebels would be enough to condemn both Joss and consequently myself of treason. That would put me back in your medi-bay and Joss in front of a firing squad as well as revealing every active agent I have that Joss had codes to. And third, we now know that Argot's risking discovery from Palpatine's agent Leemarit- which I want to deal with myself."
Hallin frowned at that, unsure why exactly Luke felt the driving need to deal with Palpatine's agent himself. "Joss wouldn't give your name up."
"Maybe not under standard interrogation, but he's still my Admiral - Palpatine would become involved the moment it was reported and I guarantee you he would drag those codes and my involvement from him."
"If you're so worried about Palpatine, then how come Reece and I are safe?" Hallin argued mildly.
"Because Reece is a deep-cover agent so has no contact whatsoever with Palpatine, and I think he probably already knows about you but I would imagine he doesn't want to waste what will be a one-off opportunity to bring you in for information; he'll bide his time until it's worth his while."
"Well that's nice to know." Hallin deadpanned, mouth dry. It had never really occurred to him before that the Emperor may know of his loyalties and be simply waiting for a convenient moment to strike.
Luke smiled tightly, "Relax, Nathan, he has to give me some breaks, some illusion of independence, and you know he's a great advocate of 'better the devil you know'. If it makes you feel any better, it's also why I try to keep you out of the Imperial Palace and travelling with the fleet as much as possible."