The smile was back, warm and comforting. "You, Kajin, are one of the most promising initiates of the Inquisitorius. Which is why the Jedi sought to capture you."

The Inquisitorius.

The ripple of iridescent robes. The flash of a crimson lightsaber.

"Sith," the boy said. "I'm a Sith."

His teacher's smile broadened. "Good. You do remember."

Chapter Twenty-Five.

The Inquisitor stepped out into the skyway that terminated in the plaza in front of the Imperial Security Bureau and strode with studied confidence along its length. The personnel who pa.s.sed him tilted their heads in deference to his apparent station and moved on. Not one of them raised their eyes to try to see his face within the obscuring cowl. Apparently even Imperial operatives were so awed by the Inquisitors that they averted their gaze.

This was a plus.

Jax's goal was twofold-to sec how well his disguise worked with no one else's life on the line, and to see if proximity allowed him to sense Kaj.

Laranth he'd had no trouble sensing, though the nature of her contact had been disturbing in the extreme. It had come in a burst of mingled defiance and pain and had left him shaken to the core. He suspected she had been provoked into the brief contact; her captor wanted him to know where she was.

She was there. In that obsidian monolith across the golden surface of the plaza. Jax could see his own reflection in the front of the building as he crossed the plaza- or rather he could see the reflection of a tall, slender Inquisitor moving with cloud-like grace; one among several pa.s.sing to and fro.

He watched as a pair of them, their robes coiling like sanguinary smoke about them, giving them the appearance of crimson ghosts, entered the broad doorway of the ISB. The bureau had become a home away from home for their order-the offices of the Inquisitorius were here, but the order itself was centered in a temple several kilometers away.

The two Inquisitors he watched entered the building without any sort of security check. Jax slowed his pace. Could it be that easy? He thought of Laranth-of that frantic burst of pain and desperation he had felt through the Force-and experienced the urgent desire to walk straight through those doors, find her, and take her out-now. The knowledge that she was in there and had been tortured with enough force to break that iron will, even for a moment, was agonizing.

He swept the place with tendrils of Force. He found Laranth amid the weird, dead echoes from the taozin wards worn by roughly a dozen Inquisitors. It was a tangled presence, its threads looped and knotted, but it was there. She was there.

Of Kaj Savaros, however, there was no sign.

Jax moved slowly along the front of the building to a lift on the far corner, scanning as he went. Nothing, nothing, and more nothing. Then, abruptly, his regard slipped past another signature of coiled strength. Dark strength-as black and hard and gleaming as this edifice.

Vader.

He withdrew his touch gently and took the lift down several levels before making his circuitous way back to the Whiplash.

"What does it mean?" Tuden Sal glanced at the others in the room-Jax, I-Five, Rhinann, Dejah, and Thi Xon Yimmon. His gaze lingered on Jax.

"It means we can't go through with the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt," Jax said. "If we a.s.sa.s.sinate the Emperor, we would lose any chance of ever getting Laranth and Kaj back alive."

"You're sure they're alive now?"

Jax fingered the hilt of his lightsaber and found it comforting. What would Laranth say about that? He hoped he'd get to find out. "I can sense Laranth, but not Kaj. Which means one of three things: Kaj is drugged, he's dead, or he's not in the ISB detention center."

Dejah put her hands to her mouth. "You don't think he's dead?"

Jax shook his head. "As I said before, I would have felt that. And it makes no sense for Vader to take him just to kill him. He's too much of an anomaly for that- too potentially useful to him. They'd want to turn him to the dark side. I also don't think he's still drugged. Vader's no fool; he knows that long-term deep sedation can wreak havoc with the Force in an adept."

"Then what are the alternatives?" asked Thi Xon Yimmon.

"I think they're keeping him somewhere else and that they've found some way to damp down his powers."

"Correct me if I'm wrong," said I-Five, "but this would seem to put paid to our idea of a rescue mission."

"Pretty much."

"I don't understand," said Dejah, frowning. "Why would that be?"

"They aren't together," Jax explained. "We could go in to get Laranth, but I'm pretty sure we won't find Kaj in the same place."

Dejah made a frustrated gesture. "But surely, even if we can only rescue Laranth, it's worth the risk?"

Jax threw the Zeltron a sideways glance. "I hadn't thought you cared all that much for Laranth."

"You've got it backward-she doesn't care much for me. I'm fine with her, although I find her a bit grim. But you ... you care for her. That's enough reason for me to want to get her back."

Jax shook his head, partly in negation of the words, partly in negation of the manipulative wash of pheromones that came with them. "We can't just barge in after her. She ..." He pressed his lips together, shoving the agony of her last touch away. "I think they're using her as a beacon. Trying to get us to go in after her. I can get into the building as an Inquisitor, but I'd never convince anyone I had the authority to remove the prisoner. If they were just stormtroopers guarding her, that'd be different. But they're Inquisitors."

I-Five said, "You're saying they're using her as bait. Not Kaj. Interesting."

"Bait," repeated Rhinann. "For the rest of us."

"Well, more specifically, for Jax and me." I-Five looked at the Jedi. "And perhaps of the two of us, Darth Vader would be most interested in me-if not for what I am, then most certainly for what he thinks I have. I think we should suggest a trade: me for Laranth and the boy."

There was dead silence in the room. Jax finally found his voice. "That's insane."

"I think not. Nor am I suggesting that we actually give me over to Vader. My thought is that with your disguise-which apparently works admirably-we might enter under false pretenses."

"Enter where?" asked Yimmon. "You can't be proposing to go into the ISB."

"If Vader wants me-and the bota, of course-we may have some control over the exchange point."

"Even so," Yimmon argued, "Vader can't be trusted to keep to a bargain. It would be a trap."

"Of course," I-Five acknowledged. "That's to be expected. We'd consider that in our plans."

Tuden Sal looked as if he had swallowed something particularly sour. "And may we include in those plans some way of getting the Emperor to the exchange point?"

Jax opened his mouth to say something terse about the new goal of their mission, but I-Five spoke first, his gaze on the Sakiyan.

"I fully expect that the lure of the bota will do that. Consider that, when it comes to that rare and mysterious substance, Palpatine and Vader may find themselves in compet.i.tion. I would think the Emperor would be adamant about being in on the exchange to be certain the bota falls into his hands, not his lieutenant's."

The Sakiyan snorted. "If, indeed, he even knows about it."

"I can make certain that he does," said Rhinann quietly.

"And can you get through to Vader and make our proposal?" Jax asked him.

The Elomin nodded. "Yes. It may be my complete undoing, but I'll manage it."

"Use the HoloNet system back at the studio. That way, if they trace you ..."

"I had that in mind."

Jax found himself wondering what else the Elomin might have in mind. He was, after all, a former a.s.sociate of Darth Vader's-his amanuensis and adjutant. Jax was not completely on board with the idea that their mole was Pol Haus. Haninum Tyk Rhinann was also a possible candidate.

It was with that unsettling possibility in mind that, once the group drew up the exchange proposal for Darth Vader and sent Rhinann off to deliver it, Jax took I-Five aside for a private strategy session.

In the end, the idea of the exchange was accepted and the conditions discussed. The very first condition was that the arrangements be finalized by Jax himself, via the HoloNet. Rhinann, saying he feared some sort of trickery on Vader's part, removed Ves Volettes floating HoloNet station from the gallery to an abandoned conapt in a neighboring sector. It was from that anonymous location that Jax now stood, face-to-holographic-mask, with the Dark Lord.

Even as a hologram Darth Vader managed to project an aura-a presence-of towering darkness. The effect was even more p.r.o.nounced when he spoke.

His words were brief and to the point. "Jax Pavan. You have what I want."

"The feeling-and the situation-is mutual," Jax replied. "Laranth Tarak . .."

"Is here." Vader stepped to one side with a sweep of his robed arm. A light went on behind him, and the holoprojection expanded to show the Twi'lek huddled in a small, doorless holding cell, her hands bound in electromagnetic force shackles. Her lekku, Jax saw, were encircled with some sort of flexible metal bands along which tiny ribbons of light raced. He'd never seen anything like them before, but he could guess their purpose. He fought a tide of nausea and schooled his face and his racing heart to calm.

There is no emotion . ..

Laranth almost undid him when she looked up at his holographic image, her eyes dull and unfocused. He clenched his fists, fingernails biting into his palms. The pain was good. Centering.

There is no emotion . . .

"If you've harmed her ..."

"Spare me your empty threats, Pavan. She is merely restrained by the fruits of the Imperial research program. Twi'leks, it seems, make use of their lekku for a number of Force-related activities. When the bands come off she will be as she was."

Jax tore his gaze from laranth and straightened his shoulders. "Your conditions?"

Vader didn't waste time. "The droid will wear a restraining bolt."

Jax feigned reluctance. "Why? What can you possibly fear from-?"

"I fear nothing. The droid will wear a restraining bolt. He, like your young adept-or should I say your Padawan?-is both unknown and unexpected."

Jax projected barely restrained anger and bowed his head. "Agreed." There wasn't a restraining bolt made that could control I-Five, but Vader couldn't know that. "Where is Kaj?"

"I'm sure you understand that we had to handle him differently. He is safe and well cared for. I am somewhat reluctant to give him up."

Jax said nothing. He folded his arms and waited.

"This will be only a temporary- truce, Pavan. Once I have what I want from the droid, our gaime will recommence. You'd do well to simply surrender to me now."

"Sorry, Vader. I'm not part of the deal. I'm willing to sacrifice the droid, not myself."

Vader c.o.c.ked his helmet slightly, the movement conveying a sense of amus.e.m.e.nt. "An odd att.i.tude for a Jedi."

"Ultimately, he's just a mechanical device."

Vader's laughter seemed to roll directly from his chest plate. "You believe that no more than I do." He made a broad gesture of dismissal. "Enough of this. Let us conclude our arrangements."

Jax barely heard him; his gaze had been drawn again to Laranth. She had squeezed herself into a corner and nirned her head away from him, pressing her face into the wall of her cell.

Vader noticed his concern. "Such devotion. Does she distract you? That is easily remedied." He made a subtle gesture with his hand, and the cell and its pathetic inmate dissolved into darkness.

"Is that better?" Vader asked, his voice mockingly sympathetic.

It wasn't better. Seeing her like that was horrific, but not seeing her was far worse. With an effort...

There is no emotion ...

He drew a cloak of detachment around himself and went on with the negotiations.

"You surely don't mean to return the boy to them," Tesla said as soon as the holoprojection of Jax Pavan had disappeared.

Darth Vader turned his helmeted head to look at his acolyte. "Is he here, as I requested?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Bring him."

Tesla did as required, going to where he had left the young adept studying a holocron of the early Sith Masters, and escorting him into the Dark Lord's presence. Tesla had explained to the boy who Darth Vader was, of course, and as he expected, the youth was suitably awed in his master's presence.

Even awed, he dared to speak first. "You're ... you're the one who rescued me from the Jedi, aren't you?" he asked.

Vader inclined his head in agreement. "I could not allow such a thing to happen to you, Kajin. We were greatly disturbed by your kidnapping. I have brought you here so that you can see one of the rebels who tried to take you from us." He turned and, with a wave of his hand, lit the alcove where Laranth Tarak lay in her fetal curl.

The boy glanced from Tesla to Darth Vader-then, with surprising boldness, approached the cell. "This is one of the Jedi?" Then, "Yes . . . yes, I remember her now. In that tunnel. She was ..."

The Twi'lek, hearing the boy's voice, turned her head to look at him. Her eyes clcarcd slightly, and her lips formed his name. Kaj stiffened, his back going ramrod-straight. He held his ground, though. Tesla noted, and the woman's gaze as well. His face screwed into a mask of fury as the boy spit out a single word: "Jedi."

Tesla met his lord's veiled gaze and smiled.

Chapter Twenty-Six.