Thrawn continued down the walkway, stopping before Eli and Faro. “Colonel Yularen’s retrieval squad will benefit from diversionary fire elsewhere on the perimeter,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” Eli said, a small part of his mind feeling a twinge of chagrin that he’d been so preoccupied with the attacking ships that he hadn’t put those pieces together. “Sir…the ships?”
“Yes, Commander: the ships,” Thrawn agreed, turning again to gaze out the viewport. “Let us now discover how well I have read our opponent.”
“And whether we’re about to die,” Eli muttered.
“Yes,” Thrawn said. “And whether we are about to die.”
—
Arihnda and her parents were nearly to the insurgents’ outer picket line when the complex to the north and west lit up with blasterfire.
“Talmoor?” Elainye murmured tensely, clutching at her husband’s arm.
“I hear it,” Talmoor said, his voice grim. “So it’s happened. I hoped it wouldn’t.”
Arihnda peered across the semi-lit area in front of them, trying to spot the Imperial troops out there. But they were still hunkered down and quiet, just as they’d been when she and Gudry headed inward earlier across their line. Had those squads missed the order to attack?
Hardly. If they were still in place, it was because they’d been ordered to stay that way.
In which case the attacks in the distance were either a single-vector penetration or a diversion.
She smiled tightly in the darkness. Of course. She’d been ignoring the increasingly frequent calls on her comm and the comm she’d taken from Gudry, not wanting to speak to Thrawn until she knew exactly what she was going to say. If that blasterfire was a diversion, it was so that a team could head in from some other direction to look for her.
Her smile faded. The logical place to start a search would be her parents’ house. If the team made it there and found Gudry’s body…
She might be able to talk her way out of it. But she might not. The fact that Gudry was dead without Arihnda and her parents sporting so much as a blaster scorch would require a very tricky lie to explain.
“We need to go,” Elainye said, her eyes still on the flickering lights in the distance. “Arihnda?”
“In a minute,” Arihnda said, looking around. A few meters to her right was a bulldozer-type machine, probably set there by the insurgents so that this part of their picket line would have somewhere to fall back to when the shooting started. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Gudry’s bag of tricks had included six comm-triggered blasting caps. She had a single one of them left.
Affixing it beneath the bulldozer was the easy part. Keying Gudry’s comm to detonate it was the trick. He’d run through the procedure with her on the transport, but it had been a perfunctory explanation from a man who’d clearly never expected her to have to use that knowledge.
But after a few false starts, she got it keyed to the Signal Three setting. Tucking the comm invisibly in her hand, she returned to her parents.
They were still staring into the distance, as if by sheer willpower they would be able to see what was happening over there. “Time to go,” she murmured to them. “Let me do the talking.”
She’d hoped the guards on the insurgent line would have all their attention directed outward, and that she and her parents would be able to slip through without being spotted. Once again, luck was against them. “Halt,” a quiet voice ordered from just ahead. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I need to get my parents out of here,” Arihnda said. He was an older man, and he held his blaster like he knew what he was doing. A Clone Wars vet, maybe. “Mother’s not well,” she added as she started toward him, gripping Gudry’s comm tighter in anticipation. “I need to get her to—”
“Let’s see some IDs,” the guard cut in. “All of you.”
This was it. So far everyone they’d met had known her father, by name if not by face, and the odds were good that this man would, too. If he did, and if he started asking questions—or worse, if he called over a suspicious superior—
“That won’t be necessary,” Talmoor said, stepping forward. “I’m Talmoor—”
Clenching her teeth, Arihnda triggered the comm.
The blasting caps had only limited power, and the explosion wasn’t a huge one. But it was big enough, and loud enough, to draw everyone’s attention to the bulldozer as it shuddered and rocked up briefly onto one side.
As the guard gaped, Arihnda stepped close to him, pressed the muzzle of her blaster against his chest, and fired.
With the sound of the shot muffled by his body and further covered by the echoes from the explosion, she doubted anyone heard it. The guard certainly made no noise as he crumpled to the ground, his blaster clattering softly against the pavement. Arihnda glanced around as she slid the blaster back inside her tunic, but saw no other pickets.
“Arihnda, what was—Arihnda!” her mother gasped. “What happened?”
“Probably caught a piece of shrapnel,” Arihnda said, taking her arm and pulling her along. “Father? Come on.”
“But we have to help him,” Elainye said.
“It’s too late,” Arihnda said, tugging harder. “Father, come on.”
“In a moment,” her father said, his voice strange.
Arihnda looked back over her shoulder, the movement sending another needle of pain through the back of her head. Talmoor was standing over the freshly dead body, gazing down at it. “Father!” she said in a loud whisper. “Come on.”
He looked at the body for another moment. Then he stirred and followed.
And even in the faint light Arihnda could see the pain and revulsion in his eyes.
She’d expected to be challenged at least once more before they reached the Imperial line. But the explosion had apparently sent the rest of the insurgents scrambling for cover while they figured out whether or not the attack was starting. Ahead, she could see a line of armored personnel carriers, their bulks dark against the lights of Paeragosto City in the distance—
“Halt!” a brisk professional voice came from behind them.
Arihnda looked back. Two men in black navy trooper uniforms were striding toward them, blaster carbines held ready. She had no idea where they’d been hiding. “It’s all right,” she said quickly. “I’m Arihnda Pryce. I’m here on special assignment from Colonel Yularen.”
“Governor Arihnda Pryce?” one of the troopers said, picking up his pace. “About time, Governor. The colonel’s been worried about you. You’d better give him a call—the team’s already gone in.”
“What team?” Arihnda asked.
“The rescue team heading to your parents’ house,” the trooper said. “These them?”
“Yes, these are my parents,” Arihnda confirmed, her heart beating faster. She’d hoped the team would wait until the battle started before going in.
Maybe there was still time to stop them. “When did they leave?”
“I don’t know,” he said, giving her pass a quick look. “Probably twenty minutes ago. You’ll have to ask Colonel Yularen. Wasn’t there supposed to be someone else with you?”
“We got separated,” Arihnda said, clenching her teeth. Twenty minutes. Depending on how stealthy they’d had to be on the inward trip, they could be within sight of the house by now.
For that matter, they could already be inside.
“I’ll call him right away,” she said, glancing up. The stars, what could be seen of them through the hazy glow from the complex, showed the extra flicker that came from their light being sifted through an energy field. They were still under the edge of the Creekpath shield. “Where’s your HQ?” she asked the troopers. “I need to get my parents to the city and some proper care.”
“HQ’s over there,” the man said, pointing to a larger version of the armored carrier. “Major Talmege. He’ll arrange for transport.”
“Thank you.” Arihnda beckoned to her parents. “Come on, let’s find a place where you can sit this out.”
They headed off, Arihnda herding her parents in front of her. Another few steps, she told herself. Just another few steps.