Shield of Lies by Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell

Author:Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell [Kube-McDowell, Michael P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-79632-5
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

From experience on Coruscant and Mon Calamari both, Admiral Ackbar knew that the line that divided the inner circle from the outer circle in any government was access. If you were part of the inner circle, you could see the President simply by walking down a private corridor and through the back doorway into her office; when you called, the President spoke to you directly; when you transmitted a letter, you got a personal response.

Ackbar had enjoyed that status throughout Leia’s tenure in the top office, first as chief of state under the Provisional government, then as President of the New Republic. Even under her comparatively open administration, that placed him in select company.

The private door was open to Han, of course. And Mon Mothma, who had chosen to distance herself from the Palace since her close call with an assassin led to her giving up the office. Nanaod Engh, who had not quite become a friend, but whose duties made him an everyday visitor. Behn-kihl-nahm, though he was too well-mannered not to observe the protocols of high office. Tarrick and Alole. And Ackbar.

Or so it had been before the Yevethan matter had escalated to a crisis. But Ackbar had been jarred by the discovery that he was locked out of the President’s residence, his key disabled, his status as a member of the family suddenly withdrawn. So he had chosen to approach the President’s suite on level fifteen through the front door, and tried to prepare himself for another rebuff.

But the security guards outside the suite made no move to stop Ackbar, and though the staff inside showed some slight surprise at seeing him there, no one moved to bar him from the back rooms.

“Good morning, Admiral,” Alole said, looking up from her greatdesk with a smile. “Go right on in—she’s in her conference room, reviewing last week’s Senate debate.”

When he reached the doorway from the office to the conference room, Ackbar hesitated. Leia was standing at the end of the room with her back to him, hugging herself as she looked up at her holoviewer. The image on the screen was of Senator Tuomi. His tone was earnestly reasonable, his words subtly inflammatory.

“Is this door still open to me?” Ackbar’s voice boomed in the confined space.

Leia turned away from Tuomi only long enough to steal a look back over her shoulder. “If you didn’t have to shoot your way past Tarrick, then the door’s still open.”

“I shall try to remember to take a cue from the presence of weapons in the reception area.”

Pausing the playback of the recording, Leia turned toward Ackbar. “Did you really think you might not be welcome here?”

“We have not had a chance to talk since you returned, and we only spoke once while you were away—a short and businesslike conversation, as I recall,” Ackbar said. “Before that—well, I am not sure that I would have been included in the meeting the night of the pirate broadcast if it had been convenient to exclude me.

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