Star Wars - Conflic of Interest by Laurie Burns

Author:Laurie Burns
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 1997-05-08T23:05:44+00:00

If she’d known of all the Hall’s hidden passages last night, Selby reflected as she followed Quarle down a narrow corridor, getting up to the Governor’s office undetected would’ve been as easy as shooting mynocks off a power coupling.

The Hall had proven a virtual warren of hidden passages. Quarle’s grandfather had been a careful, one might even say paranoid, businessman — fortuitous, given the present circumstances. It meant they could move within the Hall with astonishing freedom, only needing to leave cover to call the fleet. Selby smiled to think that when the Imperials, no doubt monitoring outgoing subspace transmissions, came running to investigate the call, all they’d find were unconscious guards in an empty room. She and Quarle would slip back into hiding to await the fleet’s arrival before confronting Ein.

“We’re almost there,” Quarle said quietly, pausing at an intersection. “Before we go any further, I want to check the situation outside; see what we’re up against.”

“Sounds good,” she murmured back. “Lead on.”

He hesitated, then turned to look at her. “I’d rather do it alone,” he said. “I know the passage system. You don’t. And this way, if I get caught there’ll still be one of us left to finish the job.”

Selby frowned. It made sense, but she did not particularly want to split up. Quarle didn’t have a blaster and would be unable to protect himself if he ran into trouble. She felt another twinge, remembering Vartos. Team members were supposed to watch each others’ backs. She briefly considered giving him her own blaster for the reconnoiter, but decided not to. Intelligence had taught her to watch her own back, first.

Quarle’s eyes dropped to the blaster too, but when she didn’t offer it, he didn’t ask. “You wait here,” he told her. “I shouldn’t be gone too long.”

Selby nodded. He looked at her a long moment more, as if wanting to say something else, but then merely nodded too. Turning, he started around the corner —

“Watch your back,” she said softly.

He glanced back, raised that eyebrow. “Always,” he assured her, and strode away.

Once he was gone, Selby leaned back against the narrow passage’s wall and sighed. Alone with her thoughts since the shoot-out in the generator room, she could not get Vartos’ face out of her mind. Had it simply been incredibly bad luck, his being discovered by the stormtroopers? Or had Claris already been “persuaded” to talk about her fellow operatives?

Which reminded her —

She reached up, slipping off the now-useless earsculpt. Holding it in her palm, she stared at it thoughtfully.

Claris must have talked, she decided. For the eavesdropper to have cut out so quickly and unexpectedly after her arrest, the Imperials must have known exactly what to look for. She fingered the smooth curve of the metal, feeling it gently flex, then brought it up close to study the intricate scrollwork doubling as a tiny speaker.

When Quarle’s voice sounded from it, she froze.

With hands that suddenly felt like ice, Selby held the device against her ear. Silence; only her pulse pounding in her head.

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