Star Wars: Republic Commando II: Triple Zero by Karen Traviss

Author:Karen Traviss
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307795922
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-05-03T23:00:00+00:00

17

So you want a knife, a nice sharp knife. You hone that blade to its limits. It even cuts through stone when you want it to. It saves your life. And then you’re outraged when it cuts you accidentally. You see, knives don’t switch off. And neither do people, not when you hone them to a fine edge.

—Sergeant Kal Skirata to General Arligan Zey, on the nature of training

Operational house, Qibbu’s Hut, 0115 hours, 385 days after Geonosis

The Gurlanin opened its eyes, panting.

Etain couldn’t tell one Gurlanin from another unless they allowed her to. They could shut out her Force-senses just as easily as they could reach out to her. She could detect nothing from the creature: no sense of identity, no emotion, and no purpose.

And then the air around her came to life with a shuddering sense of past, of long memory, and of betrayal.

“Girl,” it said in a familiar liquid voice. “Can you do nothing right?”

“I … I know you,” Etain said.

“Several of you know me.” The creature lifted its head and tried to rise, but sank back down again. “Darman, is Atin well?”

“Fierfek.” Darman edged forward and knelt down by the head of someone who had carried out vital intelligence work for the squad on Qiilura. Etain could see the pain on his face. Niner caught her eye and simply looked resigned, as if he expected everyone to betray them in the end. “Jinart?”

“Yes. I expect we all look the same to clones.”

Darman almost grinned but appeared to stop himself. “Atin’s fine.”

Ordo cut in. “Just explain why you think killing my brothers is going to help Qiilura.”

Jinart focused wild orange eyes on Etain and struggled into a sitting position, flanks heaving. Etain could sense her fully now, bitter and determined, calling out to the void with her mind: she was probably reaching telepathically to her consort Valaqil, once General Zey’s agent both on Coruscant and Qiilura. Skirata had his right arm across his body, almost but not completely casual, clearly ready to reach for his Verpine and take a shot if Jinart moved.

“You think I am giving the Separatists information.”

Ordo stepped in and Darman got out of his way. “I’m inclined to think that anyone who bothers to shapeshift into Vinna Jiss might do that, yes.”

“She disappeared, like she often did. I simply adopted her form to move around unnoticed.”

“I noticed. We’d already executed her.”

“Then I made an error in taking her form.”

“Too right you did. Now, what’s your problem with the Grand Army? Why not target politicians? You could walk in anywhere—even the Senate chamber itself.”

“You assume too much. Are you one of the renegade clones that Zey so dreads?”

“That’s me,” Ordo said.

“I am not the one leaking information to the Separatists. And I am not targeting anyone.”

“Are you still working for General Zey?” Etain asked.

“No. My people no longer serve the Republic—if we ever served you at all. We had an agreement. You broke it.”

“But—”

“We had an agreement, Jedi. You said you would give us back our world and stop the farmers from destroying us.

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