Tales From The Empire

by Peter Schweighofer

  way he did to accentuate his resemblance to the late Grand Moff

  Tarkin.

  I served under Tarkin. Anyone who would think this Loor is at all

  similar to Tarkin should realize the similarity goes no deeper than the

  skin.

  "Something wrong with the springs on your chair, Agent Loor?"

  The liaison officer snarled. "I have saboteurs who de

  light in finding ways to annoy me, and adjusting the chair is their latest form of

  expression."

  He reached over and hit a button on his desktop datapad. "And yes,

  Colonel Veers, I studied the message you sent over, as requested.

  I can't comment on its accuracy beyond saying it is true that Zekka

  Thyne maintains a little fortress east of Coronet City."

  "I already know that, Loor."

  Loor's head came up. "You do? I wasn't aware that Thyne's

  headquarters would have been something you studied, Colonel Veers. I

  was unaware the Imperial Armed Forces had been given cause to consider

  Black Sun facilities potential targets."

  Veers' nostrils flared. The only thing he hated more than having to

  deal with arrogant intelligence agents was turning a blind eye to the

  activities of the Black Sun. He assumed the Emperor's tolerance for

  the criminal cartel was based on reason, but Veers thought that

  tolerance was truly a detriment to the Empire. Allowing any outlaws

  undermined the rule of authority. If people could see Black Sun as

  somehow more malevolent than the Rebellion, then they could justify

  joining the Rebellion all that more easily.

  "It is incumbent upon me, Agent Loor, to view any stronghold that is

  filled with armed individuals as a potential target. In this case I am

  told that Thyne is meeting with elements of the Rebel underground."

  "Yes, but I am uncomfortable with your source. Who is it?"

  "You saw the verification code. It is valid." Veers frowned

  heavily.

  "There is no reason to distrust the information.

  It is accurate and I plan to act on it."

  "So you mean you don't know who your source is?"

  "I don't need to know."

  With a superior smile slithering over his face, Loor eased himself back

  in his chair. Veers hoped it would overbalance and spill him to the

  floor. "If you believe in this intelligence source, why come to me?"

  Veers restrained himself from reaching out and slapping Loor. "I came

  to you, Agent Loor, because you are the Imperial Liaison Officer and

  you liaise with the Corel-lian Security Force in this administrative

  sector. I want to know if they have any operatives working in or

  around Thyne."

  "Are you looking to use their extraction as a pretense for your attack,

  or were you worried I would lodge a protest over collateral damage?"

  Veers narrowed his eyes. "There is no reason for good people to

  die."

  Loor shrugged lazily. "If they do die, they die heroes. If you get me

  Zekka Thyne, you can be a hero, too."

  "I believe, Agent Loor, I can find my own way to be a hero."

  Veers spun on his heel and stalked from the office. With Imperials

  like you, Loor, I often wonder why the Rebellion has not yet succeeded

  in overthrowing the Empire. If things are left in the hands of people

  like you, can the Empire possibly survive?"

  Corran took one look at the SoroSuub X-34 Landspeeder Kast was piloting

  and sighed. "Buy or borrow?"

  The bounty hunter looked up at him from behind the wheel. "Does it

  matter?"

  "If I'm going to get arrested for traveling in a stolen landspeeder I'd

  kind of been hoping it would be something newer and sportier, like an

  XP-38."

  "You can always walk, Corran."

  "Good point." With his left hand on the windscreen, Corran hopped up

  and into the passenger seat. "Punch it."

  Kast spun the landspeeder's wheel, fed power to the repulsorlift coils

  and eased the throttle forward. "How did the loading go?"

  "Loading? It went fine." Corran shifted around in the cramped seat.

  "They should be ready to make their rendezvous."

  "Good.", Corran heard the correct emphasis and inflection given to the

  word, but somehow he thought Kast was being something less than genuine

  in his response. Corran tried to put his finger on it but couldn't,

  and that bothered him. In the past he'd had an almost sixth sense

  about hardcases like Kast, but he didn't seem to be able to read the

  armored mercenary. The fact that my father has been captured by a man

  who will fillet him is destroying my concentration.

  Kast piloted the landspeeder in toward the center of town. The bright

  lights and raucous sounds of Coronet City and Treasure Ship Row all

  started to press in on Corran.

  As a member of CorSec he saw Dirtdock---CorSec slang for Treasure Ship

  Row--as a dangerous place.

  While the fringes might not be that bad--and plenty of respectful folks

  dabbled in minor transgressions at some of the flashier places--there

  were locations there where even Darth Vader would fear to tread. Most

  of those establishments were controlled by Black Sun.

  Corran's grandfather had lamented the changes in the criminal class

  since the rise of the Empire. Rostek Horn had been in CorSec back in

  the days of Moff Fliry Vorru, back when flouting the law had been an

  art. In those days, Corran had been told, criminals only made war on

  criminals.

  The abduction of Hal and Trell never would have been tolerated back

  then-civilians would have to get involved with criminal activities a

  lot more deeply before they were considered fair game.

  Then Prince Xizor and his Black Sun organization had come to the

  fore.

  Xizor had betrayed Vorru to the Emperor, in one step eliminating Vorru

  and gaining favor with the Emperor. Xizor had used CoreIlia as

  training ground for some of his lieutenants. The most recent and most

  brutal of them was Zekka Thyne.

  Corran glanced out of the landspeeder as the Dewback storage facility

  flashed past. As he turned to look back in

  the direction they were traveling, he caught Kast watching him. "Something the matter?"

  "You seemed to find something interesting out there."

  "Yeah, I did." Think, Corran, think of something good. "It was the

  street art on the walls."

  "Art? You think the defacement of buildings is art?"

  Corran shrugged. "It's not the work of Venthan Chassu but it beats

  peeling Star Destroyer-white for holding my interest."

  Kast studied Corran for a second or two. "How does someone like you

  know the work of Venthan Chassu?"

  "I could lie to you and tell you that my mother used to take me to

  museums, but you'd see through that." Corran forced himself to stare

  straight forward as he abandoned the truth and started fashioning a lie

  from a wild tale a thief he'd once collared had started spinning for

  him. "I knew a guy who said he had a client who would buy anything in

  the fine arts from CoreIlia. He said he'd already lifted and sold a

  handful of paintings, some sculpture and a couple of holographic

  dioramas. The client seemed impressed, but wanted mor
e. He was

  spending credits like they were made of free-floating hydrogen atoms,

  so this guy said he wanted to plan a heist to hit the Coronet City

  Museum of Fine Art. He wanted me in on the crew, so I cased the

  place."

  Kast nodded slowly. "Who was the clienO" "Don't know. My man talked

  to a broker, then he got tractored by CorSec and caught a shuttle to

  Akrit'tar. He died there."

  "So what did you think of Chassu's work?"

  Corran frowned. Why would a bounty hunter care about art and care what

  I thought about art? "It was interesting. The Selonian nude studies

  were what I liked the best--but not because they were nudes.

  Selonians have fur, so can they ever really be nude? And if it were

  nude Selonians I wanted," Corran held his hands up above the

  wind-screen, "I could find plenty of them here in Treasure Ship Row."

  "Why did you like them?"

  "Chassu caught the two essential elements of Seloni-ans: their sensual,

  sinewy forms and, because their faces were always obscured, their

  desire for privacy." Corran shrugged. "Some of his other work was

  fine."

  "What did you think of Palpatine Triumphant?"

  "The throne being built of bones gave me nightmares."

  Corran shivered, knowing the nightmares had not come from the skulls

  and shattered bones, but the homicidally gleeful expression of joy on

  the Emperor's face. "As a final masterpiece it does the job, but I

  would have liked to see him return to Selonian studies."

  "His loss was a pity." Kast's helmet turned toward him.

  "There would appear to be more to you than meets the--" "Oh?"

  "Indeed. The last time Chassu's Selonian nudes were on display at the

  Fine Arts museum was ten years ago."

  Corran covered his surprise with a smile. "Not exactly.

  New Year's Day, two years ago, they were displayed for a private

  reception for Museum patrons. Four hours, ten thousand credits per

  person." Corran tapped Kast on the shoulder of his armor. "You would

  have loved it, but you'd have had to get a new paint job on the armor

  first."

  "And you were there."

  "I was." So was Hal. My mother had volunteered with the museum for so

  long that when it came to hiring additional security for the reception,

  the administration brought us on board. "I'll let you know when they

  throw another of those get-togethers, if you want."

  "Please. I'll have to see if I can obtain an invitation to it."

  Corran laughed. "If you can do that, perhaps you can get us an

  invitation to visit Zekka Thyne. How are you planning to get us in

  there?"

  Kast's voice echoed from within his helmet. "I thought I would appeal

  to Thyne's sense of justice."

  "You'd have an easier time finding the Katana fleet."

  Corran shook his head. "Zekka Thyne is a human-alien mongrel with big

  blue blots all over his pink-white flesh.

  His eyes are blood red except for black diamond pupils that are

  outlined in gold. He's got sharp ears, sharper teeth and the sharpest

  sense of retribution you've ever run into this side of a Wookiee

  bearing a grudge. I heard he shot a spice courier because the courier

  told Thyne she'd borrowed credits from a payoff, but had already repaid

  the momentary loan, with interest.".

  "What would Thyne have done had the woman not told him?"

  "Killed her more slowly. He's a real artist with a vibroblade."

  Corran frowned heavily. "What Patches lacks in brains he makes up for

  in feral viciousness. What would you charge to kill him?"

  Kast's head came up just a centimeter or two. "Are you asking me to

  murder him?"

  Corran hesitated for a second. "No, I guess I'm not. I was just

  wondering. I thought maybe if I did it I could consider the amount

  you'd get paid as some sort of charitable deduction on my taxes. If I

  paid any, that is."

  "I would not be averse to seeing Thyne eliminated, but that is outside

  the purview of my immediate task." Kast looked over at him.

  "I believe, however, I can get us in to see him. I think the

  diplomatic approach would be best."

  "I agree. I prefer diplomacy." Corran tapped the blaster holstered

  beneath his left armpit. "I'm also ready in case we have to be

  undiplomatic."

  "which means?"

  "which means I go low, you go high." .

  Kast nodded solemnly. "That shall be our backup plan, then."

  The bounty hunter piloted the landspeeder with ease through the

  darkened hills outside Coronet City. Thyne's estate had once belonged

  to a shipping magnate who was arrested and sent to Kessel for smuggling

  spice. Thyne had obtained the deed at auction, after which rumors

  started through the Corellian underworld suggesting

  Thyne had provided the evidence that got the magnate convicted. Corran always suspected

  that bit of subterfuge had actually been planned and executed by Prince

  Xizor, since Thyne had not since shown himself to be that clever.

  As they crested the last hill and came down into the broad valley in

  which the estate had been built, Corran pointed at the main building.

  "It doesn't look like much, but those rolling hills serve as great

  revetments and channel an assault force in toward areas where he has

  mines in place. Up in the towers he's supposed to have E-webs capable

  of sweeping any soldiers off the grounds. Thyne is even supposed to

  have a bolthole ready to let him get safely away if trouble starts,

  which isn't likely. Double-thick walls, double-paned transparisteel

  windows, complete electronic sensoring systems and forty to fifty

  blaster-boys make this a pretty tough nut to crack. I've heard CorSec

  has an open warrant to search the place, but without the Imp garrison

  to back them up, no one is stupid enough to try to deliver it."

  "You weren't joking about the sensors." Kast directed the landspeeder

  toward two men coming out of a side entrance, catching them in the glow

  of the ridelamps, then turned the speeder to the left and let it settle

  to the ground. "I'll go speak with them. You be ready in case things

  go badly."

  "You'll give me a sign?" Corran watched the bounty hunter unfold

  himself from the driver seat and mentally catalogued the weapons he

  could see. "Dumb question. If they fall I'll come running."

  He watched Kast approach the two men. The bounty hunter held his hands

  open and out away from his sides, but not up in any sign that could be

  taken as surrender. He wants them to know he doesn't intend to kill

  them, but that he's capable of doing just that given sufficient

  provocation. The trio met and Corran could hear the buzz of voices,

  but could make out no words. One of Thyne's men spoke

  into a comlink, then Kast raised his left hand and beckoned Corran forward with a

  casual flutter of fingers.

  Corran left the landspeeder and approached the three men, aping Kast's

  open-handed posture while doing so.

  One of Thyne's men came toward him, clearly intent on taking his

  blaster, but Corran frowned at him. What, you think I'm stupid enough

  to try to shoot my way in and out of her
e?

  The blaster-boy hesitated, then sunk his hands into his pockets.

  The other Black Sun hireling pointed at Corran. "Go ahead, take his

  blaster."

  "You think he's stupid enough to try to shoot his way in and out of

  here?" The first gunman shook his head.

  "Let's take them to the boss. We don't want to keep him waiting."

  "True. Follow us."

  Their guides conducted them to the main entrance and into a foyer that

  Corran thought might have once rivaled that of the Coronet City Museum

  of Fine Art for splendor. Rose granite and black marble had been inset

  into the floor in a complex and chaotic pattern. A stone staircase

  spiraled up to the second and third floors, and drew the eyes upward to

  the holographic representation of the night sky above them.

  Small alcoves in the walls housed statuary and huge goldenrod wall

  panels provided ample space for the display of a vast array of

  paintings and original holographic works of art.

  It's amazing how something that could have been so beautiful can so

  easily be made so . . . vulgar. It seemed as ifThyne's definition of