The Master of Disguise
Page 4
down on a sleep couch and covered her with a thermal blanket. Soara slid
behind the controls. Obi-Wan contacted the Temple and said they were on
their way.
They shot up into the upper atmosphere of Haariden. Obi-Wan looked
down at the planet, glad to be leaving it. He wondered about the
disturbance in the Force he had felt since he'd arrived. He had thought it
was because of the dark side on this planet. There was so much death and
bitterness. But what about his sense of foreboding? Could he have somehow
picked up on the fact that Granta Omega was here as well?
The fact that Omega had failed in his attempt to kill the Jedi didn't
matter. If Darra had not been ill, if he hadn't pledged to get the
scientists to safety, he would have stayed with his Padawan and hunted down
his attacker. Omega had tried to kill Jedi twice. He should be brought to
justice.
But Obi-Wan had his duties, and he had to leave. He had made the same
decision on Ragoon-6. Justice would have to be sought another time. Could
it be that Omega only attacked when he knew the Jedi could not retaliate or
pursue him? Did he count on a Jedi's sense of priorities to protect himself
from reprisals?
Obi-Wan turned away from the planet and looked ahead at the galaxy.
The ship shot into hyperspace, and a rush of stars seemed to crowd the
windscreen. This time, Obi-Wan vowed, he would get to the bottom of the
mystery of Granta Omega.
CHAPTER SIX
Obi-Wan accessed the door to the Jedi Temple Archive Library and
stopped in the doorway. Usually it was a pristine space with not a holofile
out of place. Busts of great Jedi Masters lined one wall, and the soft glow
of computer panels created a hushed atmosphere. Today it was in chaos.
Holofiles hung in the air while datasheets littered the usually empty
counters. Jedi archivist Madame Jocasta Nu stood in the center of the room,
two laser pointers stuck haphazardly in her gray wispy bun. Her small,
nimble fingers flicked through one holofile after another.
She looked up at him, irritated. "In or out, young Jedi."
It never failed. Madame Jocasta Nu could make him feel like a fifth-
year student. She appeared frail but her authority was unquestionable.
She pulled out a laser pointer and frowned at it, then used it to make
a correction in a file. "Well?"
Obi-Wan stepped inside. "Am I interrupting?"
"Of course you are. Cleaning day. I have to organize once a month.
Retire old files, organize, send others to deep storage. Not a good day. It
always puts me in a bad mood."
"Ah," Obi-Wan said, "well..."
"Which doesn't mean I'm not available," she said crisply. "Just that
you won't get the benefit of my usual good humor."
"Ah," Obi-Wan said again. He had never enjoyed the benefit of Jocasta
Nu's good humor. Perhaps he'd been at the other end of her private
amusement at his failure to keep up with Senate subcommittee agendas. That
was the only time he could remember her smiling at him. It hadn't been a
very nice smile.
Jocasta Nu shook her head. "Oh, for star's sake, Master Kenobi, stop
repeating yourself. What do you need?"
"Some time ago I asked you to research someone called Granta Omega.
You assembled a file - " "I remember."
"Which I need to review."
She sighed. "Today, I suppose?"
"I'm afraid so."
Jocasta Nu crossed the room and began to access a holofile directory.
She hummed a tuneless melody while she tapped one finger on the counter.
"Here we go. I can do a fresh search as well, if you like."
"That would be helpful."
She flipped through the file. "Though as I remember, this subject's
problem was decentralization."
"What do you mean?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Scattered." Her slender fingers wiggled. "Spread out. Diluted."
"I understand what the word means, I just don't - "
"Sorry. One of my own classification terms. Some subjects are solid.
You can look them up, research, find out what you need. Some are diffuse.
They are spread out so far they almost disappear." She hummed under her
breath. "This Omega was like that. Enormously wealthy, but no particular
home. Many companies within companies within companies... many
acquaintances, no friends. His business interests are galaxy-wide." She
sent the holofile spinning through the air toward Obi-Wan. "You have a file
full of information that tells you nothing."
Just like his physical appearance, Obi-Wan thought, stopping the file
with a raised hand. The man hid behind a blank wall he created himself.
He looked through the file again. Omega specialized in ferreting out
rare minerals and buying the whole source, then raising the price. He was
enormously wealthy yet kept his wealth diversified and hidden in any number
of secret accounts. There was no information that either Obi-Wan or Jocasta
Nu had been able to find on his beginnings. They did not know his home
planet. He just suddenly appeared, a wealthy man.
Obi-Wan looked through the list of his known homes. There were fifteen
of them spread over the galaxy. Tracking him down would be extremely
difficult and time-consuming.
He closed the file and sent it back to Jocasta Nu. "I doubt you'll
find anything, but if you could do a new search.."
She nodded. "I'll get back to you."
Just then Yoda appeared in the doorway. "Find you here, I am not
surprised. It is still Omega you seek?"
Obi-Wan walked out to join him in the hallway. "It seems he is almost
impossible to find."
"Impossible, nothing is. Difficult, many things are. To you the
question must be, why search?"
"I have a feeling," Obi-Wan said. "Maybe it is up to me to prevent
something before it happens. I don't want to wait for disaster to overtake
me."
Yoda nodded, his gray-blue eyes revealing nothing. "But an immediate
threat Omega is not."
"The immediate threat is not always apparent."
"Argue with you I will not," Yoda said. "Your decision, this is. But
think I do that you need a better reason to spend time on this. Heard I
have that your Padawan needs you. Events on Haariden marked him, they have.
"
"Yes," Obi-Wan said. "He feels responsible for Darra's injury. She'll
be fine, but she lost her lightsaber. He feels terrible about that. And I
was not happy with his actions during the battle."
"Lightsaber skills, important they are," Yoda said. "How to use as
well as how not to use. When to move as well as when not to move.
Restraint, your young Padawan needs, as well as direction."
"I've spoken to him," Obi-Wan said. "He listens. Yet I've come to see
that Anakin really learns by doing. With every mission, he grows."
"Yet sometimes one Knight is not enough to teach a Padawan," Yoda
said. He paused. Obi-Wan knew he had more to say. They moved down the hall,
Yoda's gimer stick tapping as he walked.
Yoda spoke as they reached the lift tube. "Hear I have that Soara
Antana will remain at the Temple until Darra is better."
&n
bsp; "Yes, she will not leave her."
"Not much she has to do, I think," Yoda said. "Distraction, she needs.
" The lift tube opened and he stepped in. He nodded at Obi-Wan as the doors
slid closed.
Obi-Wan smiled. He saw what Yoda was suggesting. "I think I know a way
to keep her busy," he said to the closed doors.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Anakin sat in the map room. He had activated dozens of holographic
worlds at once. They swirled around him in their varied systems while
dozens of voices told him facts about their climate, geography, species,
and culture. The voices blended into an indistinguishable babble.
It was an exercise he had invented to calm his mind. He drew the Force
around him to help him concentrate. Then he tried to find the thread of one
voice and follow it. As soon as he had, he would add another. He thought of
the voices as layers in his mind, and he tried to keep track of what each
voice was telling him, all at the same time. It was difficult and took
tremendous concentration. But all the voices together filled up the space
in his head and drowned out his own voice, his own feelings. So he would
not have to think, only concentrate.
Concentration is different from thinking, his Master had told him.
When you are concentrating hard enough, you shouldn't be thinking at all.
It was here in the map room that he had first understood what Obi-Wan
had meant.
He was concentrating so intently on separating the voices that he
didn't hear Obi-Wan come in. His Master could move without making the
smallest sound, but Anakin wanted to reach the point where he always knew
when Obi-Wan entered the room. He wasn't there yet.
Obi-Wan sat down beside him and waited for him to turn.
"A mission?" Anakin asked hopefully.
"No, we are at the Temple for a while," Obi-Wan said. "I haven't told
you something I discovered on Haariden, something I told the Council about.
That patrol was paid to attack us by Granta Omega."
Anakin felt the nerves inside his body tighten. He realized he had
been waiting for this. He had wanted to pursue Omega after their experience
on Ragoon-6.
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
"You had enough to think about."
Anakin knew that his Master meant his concern for Darra. He had
haunted the med clinic until he knew she would fully recover.
"Are we going after him?" Anakin asked.
"Jocasta Nu is helping me do some research," Obi-Wan said. Anakin
realized this wasn't quite an answer. "In the meantime," Obi-Wan continued,
"I have something for you to do."
"I am ready, Master."
"I have arranged a private lightsaber tutorial for you with Soara
Antana."
Anakin felt his heart fall. Shame filled him. "Because of what
happened on Haariden."
"Yes," Obi-Wan said. "There is no blame, Padawan. Yet there are things
you need to learn. Things that I have not been able to teach you."
"There is nothing you can't teach me, Master," Anakin argued. But the
real reason for Anakin's disquiet was a secret fear that Obi-Wan planned to
leave him behind while he went after Granta Omega. Obi-Wan would do the
real work while he remained behind like a schoolboy, taking lessons.
"This is not your decision, Padawan." Obi-Wan's tone was sharp. "This
is a great honor for you. Soara rarely takes individual students. She would
not agree if she didn't think you had great potential."
Anakin fought with his feelings. He did not want to confess to his
Master that he was afraid Obi-Wan would leave him. "Yes, Master."
The stern lines of Obi-Wan's face relaxed into a smile at Anakin's
obedient tone. "You might have fun."
Anakin looked at him with such disbelief that Obi-Wan's smile turned
into a laugh.
Later that afternoon, Anakin tucked the training lightsaber into his
belt with distaste. He felt like a young student again. He found himself
tugging at his tunic to straighten it before walking into the practice area
to meet Soara. Quickly he rumpled it again. He wasn't a student any longer.
He was a Padawan Learner.
Soara didn't notice his rumpled tunic or his lack of enthusiasm. She
nodded shortly at him. "Let's go."
"Go?" Anakin was puzzled. Lightsaber training had always taken place
in the practice room.
She lifted a corner of her mouth in a small smile. "Do you expect
there to be a practice room to fight in on missions?"
Anakin grinned. "I guess not." Maybe he would enjoy this after all.
Soara took him to the landing platform, where he jumped into an
airspeeder next to her. Her piloting was as aggressive and graceful as her
battle form. She took him to a part of Coruscant he'd never visited, a
hundred levels or so below the Temple. Here, an entire quarter of the city
was being knocked down in order to build new construction. Half-demolished
buildings were surrounded by blocks of duracrete, bundles of durasteel
cables, and towers of polished stone blocks.
Soara parked the speeder and slid out. Anakin jumped out after her and
looked around. The work had stopped for the day. The buildings threw deep
jagged shadows over the walkways. There had once been an attempt to keep
the walkways clean of debris, but the sweeping had been half completed and
footing was treacherous. He waited to see what Soara would do.
Soara did nothing. She picked her way over to a building and looked up
at the frame being erected. "Housing," she said. "Coruscant always needs
more housing. Amazing that people keep immigrating here. Do you know that
building is the biggest industry on Coruscant?"
Was he here for an economics lesson? "I didn't know."
He tilted his head back to follow her gaze, following the durasteel
frame of the building. Suddenly a shadow off to his left moved, and a
figure leaped through the air toward him. Anakin saw a blaze of orange. A
lightsaber!
He just had time to jump back and fumble for his training lightsaber
as he felt the sting of the blow against his forearm.
"Got ya," Tru Veld said, grinning. His friend had come at him from the
high steel doorway behind him. He bounced back on his flexible legs and
saluted Anakin with a lightsaber flourish. He, too, was using a training
lightsaber - able to defend, but not to harm.
Confused, Anakin glanced at Soara, his lightsaber in his hand.
"Do you expect your attacker to announce himself?" she asked.
Tru came toward him again. Anakin somersaulted backward and then
twisted to come at Tru from the left. He sliced the hem of Tru's tunic.
"Missed me," Tru said, dancing backward. His silver eyes gleamed. He
was having fun.
Anakin reversed. His lightsaber hit Tru's. Smoke rose, and Anakin
almost stumbled when Tru ducked and rushed at him, surprising him.
Tru might be having fun, but he was serious.
Anakin had barely missed being stung by Tru's blow. He emptied his
mind of his surprise at Tru's appearance. He had to concentrate in order to
gather in what he thought of as his battle mind. His attention expanded to
i
nclude everything around him. And yet his focus was now entirely on Tru.
Everything he knew about Tru clicked in and became information he could
use.
Tru was a Teevan, and thus his limbs were more flexible than Anakin's.
Tru never played a game he wasn't certain he would win.
Tru's left hand was stronger than his right.
Tru liked to choose the rhythm of the battle.
Anakin moved to confuse and unsettle his friend. He fought
aggressively, then stepped back to lure Tru forward. He landed a blow on
Tru's arm.
Normally, a Jedi Master would announce points when blows were struck.
The winning blow would be to the neck. Soara did not. He knew she was
watching, but he tried not to think about it. Still, he felt her circling,
watching them from every angle.
Anakin used the ground. While he moved, he noticed everything - the
cables, the blocks of stone, the tiniest pebble on the ground, the
hydrospanner abandoned on the top of a block of duracrete. Someone's lunch
bucket left on a grassy area by the walkway. He drove Tru steadily
backward. Tru suddenly leaped high above and grabbed a pole with only his