Star Wars: Republic Commando: Triple Zero (rc-3) by Karen Traviss

Author:Karen Traviss [Traviss, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sf_space
ISBN: 0-345-49009-6
Publisher: Ballantine Books, Del Rey (The Random House Publishing Group)
Published: 2006-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

12

Definitely not one of our speeders, Kal. Look, I know why you think I don't need to know what your boys are getting up to. But someone's going to notice you blew up their people. And so is CSE. What do you want me to tell them?

–Captain Jailer Obrim, to Kal Skirata

Operational house, Qibbu's Hut, 1600 hours, 380 days after Geonosis

“You're sure nobody followed you?” Skirata said quietly.

The strike team, minus. Ordo, was assembled in the main room, sitting where they could. For a moment Skirata was distracted by the way Darman and Etain were positioned. It told him something, but he had more pressing issues right now.

He'd calmed down, too. Red Watch was back safely. Jusik, predictably, was taking his roasting like a man.

“I'm sure, Kal. I felt it.”

“Don't go mystic on me. Did you go through the procedures? Give me tangibles.”

“I didn't return via a direct route. I looped back on myself several times. Nothing.”

There was no point yelling at them. Skirata knew he probably would have done the same. It was all very well to talk about painstaking surveillance and meticulous planning before resolving a threat, but when a truly ripe target walked in front of your scope—no, he would have done the same.

And he was simply relieved that they'd made it back in one piece.

“Okay, surveillance is off for the day. We change vehicles again, and we'll start defense watches, just in case the Force has deceived Bard'ika and we've got a load of bad guys on our case now. Enacca is identifying a second location we can pull back to if this place is compromised.”

Jusik looked crushed. “I'm sorry, Kal.”

“You weren't in command. I should have made sure you were ready for this.” Skirata turned to Fi and Sev. Fi looked crestfallen; Sev was complete blank insolence. “And what have you two got to say for yourselves?”

“It won't happen again, Kal.” Fi looked at Jusik. “And it was me and Sev who decided to go for it. If Bardan hadn't done some clever flying, we'd all be dead now and the op would be over.”

“And you, Sev?”

Sev turned his head with slow deliberation. “What he said.”

“Son, I know you think you're a hard case because you survived Walon Vau, and you probably are. But anti-terrorist ops are more about this.” Skirata walked over to him and rapped his head so hard with his knuckles that the thunk of bone was audible. Sev blinked but didn't move a muscle. “If you'd thought about it for two minutes, you could have relayed that identification back here and we could have planned some intelligent surveillance. But now we've got another prisoner plus a bunch of dead guys, and we have to explain why a GAR employee isn't going back to the office anytime soon. Because if she wasn't working alone, then some di'kut is going to notice she's absent. Have I missed anything?”

Niner, arms folded, looked up. “Yes, who's helping Vau now? He must have his hands full.”

“Enacca. Wookiees are good at looking like a crowd.

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