"Of course. And?"

The governor's lip trembled. "That was all."

Face looked steadily at him. There was something in the governor's manner, something that said obsequiousness was his nature but that he was actually simulating it now. That suggested he was holding something back.

Face turned to the side. "Ensign Ack-" He coughed. "Ackran, inform Gray Flight that they should blow a few things up before returning to us.

We'll be jumping out of system as soon as they return."

"No, wait!" The shrill desperation in the governor's voice seemed real.

"Sir, you have to realize, the warlord told me not to talk about the last part with anyone but him."

"Well, after you've convinced me, I will support your claim to the warlord that you told me nothing. Now, go ahead."

"The land is ready."

"Ah, good." Face waited.

The governor looked more confused. "That was all."

"No. Does the land conform to the warlord's specifications? Location, size, doc.u.mentation?"

"Of course it does!"

Face slammed his arm down on the armrest. "Of course it doesn't! It doesn't until I know it does! I don't see the file appearing on my datapad, Governor. Where are those specifications?"

"But-"

"But nothing. Unless you transmit me that information, I have no way of knowing whether you've given him exactly the location he wanted. And you've probably sliced back the dimensions of the property to save yourself a few credits-"

"No, sir!" The governor's voice was at full bellow, the yell of a new soldier inductee just learning to fear the noncommissioned officers. "I'm transmitting that information now, sir!"

Face glanced over at Jesmin, waited until she nodded to indicate that she'd received the file. "Lieutenant, does this data match what we're supposed to be getting?"

She shrugged, at a loss for how to answer. Out of the corner of his eye, Face saw Janson nodding. Jesmin said, "It does, sir."

"Good." Face turned back to the governor. He made his voice pleasant, soothing. "Watesk, I commend you. You are unusually cooperative and forthcoming for a planetary governor."

"I am?" The man sagged in relief and used his sleeve to blot at the perspiration sheening his forehead.

"You are. And the warlord will be pleased. We'll forward to him the information of your acceptance, and he will arrange for a formal doc.u.ment to be delivered that everyone can sign. Will that be satisfactory?"

"Oh, yes, Lieutenant."

"Good. I look forward to sampling some of your fungus. Narol out."

Jesmin cut the signal.

Face slumped and pulled off the hat and goggles. "I hate improvisation."

They gathered in the ship's conference room.

"What in the name of the Sith is Zsinj up to?" Wedge asked. "A trade of supplies for protection I understand. But land deals?"

"There's more," Jesmin said. "The records they sent us have the land transfer registered to a person named Cortle St.e.e.ze. I must a.s.sume that's an alias for Zsinj, but we should look for the name anyway. Whoever St.e.e.ze is, he has his choice of how the land is to be subdivided and zoned."

"How much of it is there?"

"A good-sized island. Fifty klicks long by about thirty wide."

"Interesting." Wedge glanced at Face. "Good work. By the way, you still have some of that paint on your face." Around the lines and spots of paint, the unscarred portion of Face's skin was red from scrubbing.

?????? held a hint of complaint. "It "I know." Face's voice won't come off."

Cubber snorted. "It's not supposed to. It's supposed to mark work sites.

Very reflective, and shows up very well under ultraviolet. You need the solvent to get it off."

"Solvent? Do you have some?"

There was malice in Cubber's smile. "Sorry. Used the last of it cleaning out my goggles."14 When they jumped into the Doldrums system, two ships were on station waiting for them: the transport Borleias and the Mon Cal MC80 Star Cruiser Home One.

Wedge, piloting Night Caller, whistled as he saw the smooth, almost organic lines of the cruiser. "Admiral Ackbar's command ship. Maybe our recent communications struck a nerve."

Ton Phanan, at the sensors station, snorted. "Let's hope we can off-load a whole lot of whining, mewling, boring prisoners and take on some decent food to replace the slop they stock their galleys with."

"Communication from Home One," Jesmin Ackbar said. "A request from the admiral to come aboard. He's sending a shuttle over."

"Acknowledge, with permission and greetings, of course. Starboard docking station, please."

Wedge's tour of Night Caller began and ended at the bridge. Admiral Ackbar looked off through the viewports at his own vessel in the distance and said, "Am I mistaken, or are your methods becoming even more unorthodox?"

Wedge smiled. "I think you're mistaken. It may just look that way because the new unorthodox methods are stacking on top of the old ones."

Ackbar's barbels twitched with amus.e.m.e.nt. "So. Well, I come with news in addition to congratulations." From a pocket he pulled a datapad; Wedge brought his own out in case Ackbar decided to transmit files.

"First," Ackbar said, "based on this training squadron's exemplary performance at Folor, Xobome, and Viamarr, I have the pleasure of declaring you fully commissioned and operational."

Wedge rocked back on his heels. "I'm... delighted to hear that. Thank you."

"You are also worried that it is premature?"

"No, sir. The Wraiths are a little rough around the edges, but they perform like a unit that has completed training. I'd just forgotten that we weren't officially operational."

"Ah. How antic.i.p.atory of you, General Antilles."

"How antic.i.p.atory of you. It's still Commander Antilles, sir."

"Of course. Second, we are in the process of alerting the armed forces about the small parasitic droids you described. We'd already had reports of rectangular apparatuses with melted parts aboard some ships; it appears the devices do have a self-destruct mechanism that fuses their interiors when they are forcibly detached from their host vehicles. But with your examination of the one you captured-and the device itself, if it is still intact-"

"I'll have Grinder deliver it to you, sir. And one or more of the Empion bombs."

"With a sample to examine, we should be able to capture more of the parasites 'alive' and begin releasing others with false data. Use them as a tool against Zsinj instead of simply suffering their effects. And with the Empion bombs, we may be able to equip our ships with shielding against the precise frequencies they emit, in order to reduce damage.

"Third, we have brought you some replacement equipment and supplies.

Including gear, suited to commandos, from Special Forces and Intelligence."

"I'm glad to hear it. Do we have a replacement X-wing, sir?"

"No, not yet. None to spare, but you're at the top of the replacement list. The Borleias will deliver to you one of the X-wing simulators and backups of all your astromechs' memories. We also have food, fuel, X-wing replacement parts, and a piloting and maintenance crew for this corvette so you can free up your own pilots. Have your supply officer transmit requisitions for further items."

Wedge nodded. "I know we've needed some vacuum-rated tools. I'll have Squeaky get on that."

"Not Squeaky the 3PO unit? Of the Runaway Droid Ride?"

Wedge nodded.

Ackbar shuddered, then returned to his list and continued. "Fourth, your plan for retaining Night Caller and continuing on with its orders-that has neither been approved nor disapproved. I must know, what end do you hope to serve?"

"After some additional thinking, sir, my plan is to let Night Caller go through her a.s.signed duties, but in those systems that are obviously in collusion with Zsinj, Wraith Squadron jumps in shortly afterward and makes strikes against the collaborators. Eventually Zsinj or Trigit should get the idea that somebody is following Night Caller around. My hope is that we can lure Zsinj out that way-have him arrange a trap for us and trap him in it instead."

"How appropriately vague." Ackbar considered. "For the time being, consider your plan approved. But how long do you think you can keep up this deception?"

"Quite a while, sir. The fact that Warlord Zsinj obviously had some special, unrecorded instructions for Captain Darillian is a problem; it may trip us up. But we're going to try to compensate with a trick or two of our own. For instance... Flight Officer Ackbar, is the demonstration ready?"

"Standing by, sir."

"Orient it toward us instead of the captain's chair and initiate."

Jesmin went through a series of control manipulations. Then the air hummed as a hologram appeared before Admiral Ackbar and Wedge.

The hologram showed a man in a control chair, his uniform black and nattily spotless, his manner energetic and haughty. He looked up as if startled and said, "Who in the h.e.l.ls of the Sith are you?"

Ackbar glanced at Wedge, who gave him no cue to go by. "I am Admiral Ackbar of the New Republic. Identify yourself."

"I am Captain Darillian, master of the private yacht Night Caller. I demand to know why you have interrupted me." The captain glared at the Mon Calamari officer; his anger was so palpable that if holograms had been able to project energy Ackbar would have been struck dead by lasers.

Ackbar turned back to the commander. "I thought you said he was dead."

Before Wedge could speak, Captain Darillian roared an interruption: "Dead! I'll show you dead! Ensign Antilles, kill this intruder."

Wedge barked a laugh. "Ensign Antilles, now? I'm all over the rank chart today. That'll be enough, Face."

Captain Darillian smiled. He reached to his right farther than the sensor on him could track and his hand disappeared. He must have manipulated something, for his image wavered... and became that of Face Loran. "Yub, yub, Commander." Then he disappeared.

Ackbar turned both eyes toward Wedge. "A holographic overlay of some sort."

Wedge nodded. "That's right. Captain Darillian was such a ma.s.sive egotist that he kept his ship's journal and personal journal in full holo. That gave Grinder Thri'ag a huge sample that he could encode. He compiled a computer model of Darillian's body from the waist up, and his voice into an overlay, both of which we can project over Face. We have near-instantaneous translation of sight and sound. As long as we don't have to let anyone meet Darillian in person, and as long as Face can bluff his way through situations where the enemy knows more than we do, we can keep fooling them."

"I see. Very encouraging." Ackbar consulted his datapad again. "Fifth...

Could you relieve Flight Officer Ackbar of duty for a few minutes, so that my niece and I might visit?"

"Consider it done, sir."

There weren't many places to go on the cramped Night Caller. Jesmin led her uncle first to the bow lounge and was lucky enough to find it unoccupied.

"You will understand my surprise," the admiral said, "when first I hear that Commander Antilles is a.s.sembling a squad of pilots who are chronic misfits... and shortly thereafter I see your name on the list of pilots a.s.signed to that squad. I am not displeased to see you serving with him... but I do not understand. Your record is spotless, exemplary."

Jesmin gave him the barbel-twitch of knowing amus.e.m.e.nt. "My record shows I am a complete failure, Uncle."

"No."

"Try to understand. I was first in my cla.s.s on graduation. Then, whatever unit I was a.s.signed to, whatever type of fighter or field of engagement, I ended up flying routine scouting missions... or desk a.s.signments."

"With your marks?"

"With my name, Uncle. My commanders were afraid of putting me in the line of fire, for fear that I'd be killed... and that you'd blame them."

The admiral rolled his eyes in different directions. "That is preposterous. General Cracken's son Pash has been in the path of danger since he joined the military. He even flew with Rogue Squadron, hardly the safest place in our armed forces."

"Perhaps there's still some Imperial-style overprotectiveness of females-or contempt for us-also at work, Uncle. But preposterous or not, I was a waste of training. I wasn't doing anything. I can't tell you how happy I was when Commander Antilles accepted me to the new squadron... and how much happier I was the first time I was put out in the line of fire.

Finally, I am a pilot instead of a waste of volume." She gave him a steady look. "If I do come to my death in this unit, I hope you will not hold it against Commander Antilles."

"Are you happy here?"

"I am."

"Then I will hold him blameless. But if you do everything he says and learn whatever he tries to teach you, you might not ever give me cause for such grief."

"I'll try, Uncle."

After the last of the prisoners had been transferred over to Home One, the next shuttle trip brought them their new crew for Night Caller. Wedge was introduced to a small, neat man with a weathered face, Captain Choday Hrakness of Agamar, the new ship's captain, and to a tall, elegant-looking brown-haired woman of Coruscant, Lieutenant Atril Tabanne, his second-in-command, as well as to a number of technicians and mechanics.

Together they all watched Borleias and Home One jump out of system, then they set about reorganizing Night Caller.

The expanded mechanics crew, under Cubber's direction, reinforced the brackets holding the X-wings in the bow hold, making them steadier and more durable.

Officers and crew were a.s.signed permanent quarters. Since many of the former crew of Night Caller had been stormtroopers and had not been replaced by New Republic ground troops, their departure left the ship comparatively empty. Every pilot received his own small stateroom, and Wedge, as commanding officer of a provisional group that now included the corvette, Wraith Squadron, and Rogue Squadron, was obliged to accept the huge and garishly over-decorated captain's cabin. He immediately sent the velvet drapes and antique furnishings collected from around the galaxy off to the hold and converted the captain's private audience chamber into a second conference room.

Meanwhile, the pilots settled into a new routine.

For Kell, it was less than a pleasant one. Night Caller was a much smaller environment than Folor Base, and consequently he could not avoid running into Wes Janson several times a day. Most were simply incidents of pa.s.sing one another in the hall, but even those brief and innocuous encounters brought cold fear to his belly and the lockup of all the muscles in his back.

After one such ordinary encounter, Runt told him, "You think he means you harm."