. ." Jaina wouldn't be visiting, not without him feeling her resentment and mistrust marching ahead of her like a vanguard. And it wouldn't have been Tenel Ka. He missed her, and he missed Allana even more. I don't have to kill them. I'd know if I had to, wouldn't I? "Bring her in."
"Yes, sir." Lekauf turned to go.
"Lekauf. . ."
"Sir?"
"Have you ever considered a commission?"
"Not sure if I'm officer material, sir."
"I think you could be. I'm not forcing you, but we need good officers coming through the ranks, because we'll have a challenging role in the years to come."
Lekauf seemed dubious. "I'm willing to give it a go, sir."
"Excellent. I'll get the adjutant to fix the paperwork. We'll probably have to delay staff college until the security situation is more stable, but I'm sure Shevu or Girdun will be happy to guide you. And you'll be able to keep an eye on Ben. He really trusts you."
Lekauf blinked, but there was no expression on his face. "Captain Shevu looks after me very well. I'll learn a lot from him."
Non sequiturs said a lot. Lekauf wasn't naive, for all his cheerful schoolboy appearance. His careful avoidance of Captain Girdun's name confirmed Jacen's observations that the ex-Intel man wasn't a popular officer with troops from the military and CSF side. Spies had that effect. Shevu had come from the CSF—familiar, visible, reliable folks you were happy to see
in a crisis.
Jacen couldn't afford divisions. "You might do Captain Girdun good, too. It's interesting how a good apprentice creates a better teacher."
"Thank you, sir." Lekauf showed not a flicker of reaction. "I'll show your guest in."
Jacen kept one eye on the silent holoscreen while he looked through the reports, one of which he forwarded for Niathal's immediate attention—the Bothans had a new class of frigate coming into service in a matter of days. The P&R meeting had reached Item 102. A busy day: a lot of rubber- stamping was going on. He opened his corn-link and switched the signal to the small bead deep in his ear. Lumiya had a concealed receiver in her cybernetic implants and would hear it in the depths of her skull, silent as a thought.
He used her cover name, the one he'd used in front of Ben. It was common enough. It also helped avoid accidental slips. "Are you helping them make decisions, Shira?"
"Giving them a sense of urgency, that's all. Not that they don't have fancy lunches on their minds anyway."
"Does it look as if anyone troublesome has read the agenda sheets in advance?"
"Not as far as I can see. But don't worry. I can deal with that."
Jacen felt Mara approaching down the corridor, a little tornado of determination. Unlike Lekauf, she walked straight in. Jacen projected a veneer of weary good humor in the Force and smiled at her.
She glanced at the holoscreen. "That looks thrilling."
"Just making sure we get our supply issues worked out." Hiding in plain sight was always the best option, Jacen found. "An amendment so that we can cut the red tape and get our people the right kit. It's been an issue with
the troops."
"I'm all for that." Mara sat down in the rickety chair across from his desk —Jacen believed in being seen not to spend budget on himself—and crossed her legs. She'd taken to wearing a gray jacket that looked more like battledress, an indication of her state of mind lately. "I've come about Ben."
"He's doing well. He's doing very well, in fact."
"You've certainly focused him. Quite the responsible young man now." Mara glanced at the open doors as if they troubled her. "Let's get to the point. I know Lumiya's trying to kill him. Whatever he did or didn't do, Lumiya thinks he killed her daughter. Now, seeing as we also found evidence that Lumiya has a mole in the GAG, that concerns me somewhat. A lot of somewhat. If anything happened to my boy from inside the GAG, I'd take it pretty badly, I think."
Ah. Has she worked it out? Has Mara actually seen what's coming?
Jacen felt a moment of sinking dismay as he wondered if this last mystery about his path was transparent to everyone. She was Palpatine's Hand. If anyone on the Jedi Council can see it, she will.
Jacen managed to project genuine concern. His link was still open: Lumiya could hear all this. "I've investigated that, and I can assure you I found nothing to support it."
"Is Ben around? I don't see much of him these days."
Ben was out on patrol, on routine weapons searches. Mara didn't need to know that. "He's doing some research for me."
"Okay," Mara said. "Just asking you to bear in mind that it's not the Confederation that's most likely to threaten his life, and even if you don't think Lumiya has an insider in your ranks, then I'm assuming she has until I'm convinced otherwise." She stood up slowly, and Jacen was on the edge of believing that she could see what was happening. "Just ask yourself
Jacen expected to hear some sigh or other reaction from Lumiya, but either she was more concerned with the passage of the amendment or she couldn't hear after all.
"I'll certainly ask that question, Aunt Mara," he said. "Just bear in mind that Ben's learning to take care of himself."
"And are you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if nobody else is going to say it to your face, I will.
What's happening to you, Jacen? Why did you run out on your parents like that? Okay, there's a warrant out on them, but—"
Jacen wondered why it had taken so long for anyone to confront him.
He'd expected Jaina to be the first, given her perpetual sulk with him, but Mara probably felt her defense of him had now made her look stupid.
"My fault," he said. "I assumed they were okay and could get to safety, so I decided to get to where I could make a difference to the battle—my ship."
"Right," said Mara. "Just a lapse in judgment."
"I'm human."
"We all have times when our judgment lets us down. I certainly do."
Mara gave him an unconvincing smile, turning for the doors. "Thanks for your time."
She knows.
She knows because it's inevitable, and that proves it has to be Ben.
It wasn't his parents, or Tenel Ka, or Allana. It was Ben. He wondered how long he could go on facing the boy, knowing that. How would it happen? Would he have to kill him in cold blood? Or would they end up in some violent confrontation, where death was so much easier to deal out?
Lumiya's voice was a breath in his ear. If anyone overheard her, she sounded like any bureaucrat having a discreet comlink conversation, not a Sith planning the greatest coup of all time. "I think my former colleague will be looking for me now, with maximum disapproval."
Jacen closed the doors with his remote control. "It was you who engineered the attack on Ben on Ziost, wasn't it?"
"He'll never be your successor. He hasn't got what it takes to be your apprentice. It's my duty to retire the unsuitable."
"Stay away from him from now on. You've gone too far, and I think Mara suspects what's happening."
"My former colleague can't touch you if—wait, they're taking your amendment out of sequence. Someone has asked to speak on it."
"Who?"
"Someone in the public gallery—they've invoked the right to address the council, and they've identified themselves as Citizen Watch."
It was interesting to note how fast things could come unraveled.
The civil rights lobby was largely drowned out by events, but he still didn't want them to point out what nobody seemed to have spotted hidden in his amendment. "You know what you have to do."
"Indeed." Lumiya went very quiet, her voice almost inaudible. "I think . . . that they're going to decide . . . that they wish to ask if this is going to be retroactive legislation . . . yes, they have. How vigilant."