Apocalypse (Fate of the Jedi, 9) by Troy Denning

Author:Troy Denning [Denning, Troy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction
ISBN: 9780345509222
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2012-03-13T07:00:00+00:00

ARMED WITH AN IMPERIAL INTELLIGENCE ID COURTESY OF JAGGED FEL, Tahiri had no trouble securing cooperation at the only spaceport on Hagamoor 3. She simply presented herself at the security commander’s office and demanded to see the file on the Mandalorian who had arrived a few days earlier. The officer—a grizzled old captain—inserted her identichip into his decryption pad, then his face paled. He snapped to attention and offered a crisp salute.

“Sorry, milady,” he said. “I wasn’t informed that Head of State Fel had reactivated the Hands.”

The captain’s anxiety was understandable. Answerable only to the Imperial Head-of-State, the Hands were Force-sensitive operatives whom Palpatine had used as merciless instruments of his will, dealing death and threats to anyone who incurred his wrath. Tahiri knew better than to think Jag would ever employ them in the same ruthless manner—but he was certainly not above trading on the name.

Ten minutes later Tahiri’s StealthX was under guard in a sealed hangar, and she was sitting in front of a vid display. On the display was a four-day-old surveillance vid that showed Boba Fett—or someone in identical armor, with a very similar gait—working his way down an inflatable pedtunnel.

Unfortunately, Fett’s Mandalorian armor did not seem out of place in the tunnel. Hagamoor 3 was an open-access mining moon where claim jumpers, ore thieves, and every sort of swindler were on the prowl for victims, and it had a flourishing bodyguard industry. Every third person on the display was both armed and armored. To make matters worse, once Fett reached the business district in the main dome, the lanes were choked with riot troops facing off against pro-Daala protestors. Both sides were armored, of course. To track Fett, Tahiri finally had to resort to watching for his battered green helmet. With its T-shaped visor and distinctive rangefinder rising along one side, it was the easiest thing to follow from one vid archive to the next.

Fett was taking care to stay close to other armored figures and avoid some of the security cams, but he couldn’t afford to be too obvious. Any conspicuous attempt to avoid surveillance in an Imperial population center—even one as rustic as Hagamoor City—only drew extra scrutiny. As Tahiri watched, the Mandalorian visited a succession of hospitality houses and supply businesses. The Imperial surveillance net did not extend to the interior of most facilities, but on one occasion she did catch a glimpse of Fett through a transparisteel door. A salesclerk was turning a data screen around so the Mandalorian could examine a list of sales.

Fett was clearly hunting someone, and Tahiri was beginning to think he didn’t care who knew it. He could have disguised his purpose by buying a few supplies, varying the length of his visits, or emerging with a handful of sales flimsis. Instead he was simply moving from one business to the next as quickly as possible, staying only long enough to bribe or intimidate whoever happened to be behind the counter. It almost seemed as though he wanted his prey to know he was coming.

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