"I suspect so. Betrayal is part of life, Qui-Gon, and we can't always see it coming."
Qui-Gon strained against the energy cuffs.
"That won't do anything but exhaust you," Dooku told him. "You must accept that sometimes you are in situations over which you have no control. Accept the situation and wait for your opportunity. Besides, we are farther along than we were before."
"In what way?"
"We were looking for the space pirate, and now we have found him.
We'll get taken to him eventually. He won't be able to resist gloating — he never could. When we find him, we will wait for our opening, and we will not make mistakes."
Dooku closed his eyes. He did not like to feel anger and humiliation roiling inside him. He needed inner calm. He never acted out of anger.
Long minutes passed. He felt his heartbeat slow. Then he heard the swish of the doors opening.
"Old friend," Lorian said.
At the sound of his voice, rage spurted up in him again. He did not open his eyes until he had controlled it.
"I realized some time ago, Lorian, that we were never friends," Dooku said evenly.
Lorian had grown into a handsome man. He was all lean muscle. His thick gold hair was cropped short, throwing into relief the bold lines of his face and his green eyes. "You haven't changed," he said, then smiled. "Yet it's good to see you, even though it's unfortunate for me. If a Jedi had to be tracking me, I would've hoped for anyone but you. You knew me too well. Once."
"Yes," Dooku said. "I knew how you would lie and cheat to get your way."
"What is so bad about what I've done?" Lorian asked. "It was hard being in the galaxy all alone, trying to make my way. All I knew was the Temple. Did that ever occur to you, Dooku? We were raised in a bubble, and then everything I knew was taken away from me. I was forced out into the galaxy, a young boy with no Master to guide me."
"The Jedi hardly set you adrift," Dooku said. "They arranged a position for you in the Agricultural Corps."
Lorian snorted. "Tending hybrid plants on a Mid-Rim planet? Would you be satisfied with that life, after all the training we went through?"
"I had no reason to have to accept it," Dooku said. "I did not violate the Jedi Order. You did. You seem to forget that."
"I was young and made a mistake." Lorian's face hardened. "I paid dearly for it. Was I supposed to turn into a farmer? I was trained as a Jedi! So instead I went into business for myself."
"As a space pirate."
"Just temporarily. I started out kidnapping criminals, but that got risky. You'd be surprised how reluctant gangs can be to come up with the ransom. So I looked to Senators next. The only problem was, they had the best security. But what if their security wasn't as good as they thought it was? When I heard Kontag was sliding into bankruptcy, it gave me the idea. So I bought this factory and offered Kontag a deal."
"A factory that employs children." Qui-Gon's voice was flat. His gaze told Lorian that he held him in contempt.
Lorian strolled toward Qui-Gon, his face alight with curiosity. "So this is your apprentice, Dooku? Qui-Gon Jinn? Yes, I can see you in him. He is as sure of his own rightness as you are. What would you have me do, young Padawan? Fire the child workers? Many of them support families. Parents who are injured or too sick to work, or parents who have abandoned them so they are supporting their brothers and sisters. Would you have them starve?"
"I would find a better way," Qui-Gon said.
"Ah, he is unshakable. Well, I'll tell you this, young Jedi. I am planning to phase out the child labor. Improve conditions. But do you know what that takes? Money. The Jedi don't deal with credits. They don't speak of them. But the rest of us have to eat, you know."
"You are full of justifications," Qui-Gon said.
"They make the planets turn," Lorian said with a shrug. Qui-Gon's words did not sting. "Have you been to the Senate lately? It runs on justifications. I am not evil, Qui-Gon Jinn. I know this for certain.
I've seen the face of true evil," Lorian said, his voice dropping.
"And I have known the terror of it. So don't be too quick to judge me."
"True evil?" Dooku asked. Could Lorian mean the Sith?
Lorian turned back to him. "Yes, Dooku, I did access the Sith Holocron. I was curious. And what I saw chilled my blood and haunted my days for a long time. It haunts me still. And yet it is comforting somehow. Once you've seen true evil, you can be sure that you will never be able to fall that low."
"Don't be so sure," Dooku said. "You're a kidnapper. A criminal. How can you justify that?"
Lorian shrugged, smiling. "I need the money?" Dooku snorted.
"Look, so what if I kidnap a few corrupt Senators for a couple of weeks? Some of them even enjoy the attention. Nobody gets hurt."
"What about us?" Dooku asked.
"I'm not going to kill you, if that's what you're wondering," Lorian said. "I'm just going to hold you until the last job is done. I'm ready to retire anyway. I'd like to return to my homeworld and start a legitimate business. I still owe some credits to Eero for setting up the whole security thing, but I have enough for myself."
"So Eero was in on your scheme from the beginning."
"Pretty much. We ran into each other on Coruscant. He was upset about his lack of a career. He was positive he'd be a Senator by now, but he didn't have enough money to really run an election. So he agreed to use his contacts in the Senate to recommend Kontag. Then once the kidnappings began, more and more Senators lined up for extra security.
It was a truly brilliant plan." Lorian sighed. "Too bad it all has to end."
The doors suddenly slid open, and Eero ran toward Lorian. "Now you've done it!" he cried. Dooku could now see that outside the room was some kind of office. Laying on a console were two lightsabers.
"Calm down, Eero," Lorian said irritably. "There's no need to shout at me."
"Yes, there is!" Eero said. "The Senator is dead!"
"Dead?" Lorian looked confused. "How? He's being held in comfortable surroundings. I even sent in pastries, for galaxy's sake."
"He had a heart attack. He died instantly."