Star Wars - The Clone Wars - Secret Missions #4 - Guardians of the Chiss Key

by Ryder Windham

  ‘It will be done,” Dooku said with a nod. ‘Ventress mentioned that the Clawdite was ‘babbling’ about Mandalorians and Black Sun. Although we expected Breakout Squad to eventually identify the Black Sun agents, we did not intend not them to identify the Mandalorian sniper on Vaced. Evidently, they did.”

  The edges of Sidious’s mouth twisted down. “That is unfortunate. It is too early for the Galactic Senate to learn of the existence of the Mandalorian Death Watch. Steps must be taken to make everyone, including Breakout Squad, believe the sniper was not a Mandalorian.”

  “The Death Watch should clean up their own mess. I will contact their leader immediately after I talk with Ventress.”

  “Do it,” Sidious said. “No one must suspect our maneuverings. And if anyone ever does, it will be far, far too late for them to do anything to stop us.” Sidious bared his teeth. “Ring-Sol Ambase will soon confront Nuru Kungurama on Coruscant. I can feel it. And after they meet, one will be a Jedi no more.”

  “But which one, my Master?”

  Sidious leered. “That would be telling.”

  Sidious’s hologram faded out. Wasting no time, Dooku keyed a transmission directly to Ventress’s Fanblade starfighter. A hologram of Ventress’s bead appeared before Dooku. Ventress said, “My Master.”

  “Contact the Clawdite. Tell him to kill Overseer Umbrag.”

  Betraying no surprise at the Dooku’s instruction, Ventress replied, “Yes, my Master.”

  Dooku brake the connection with Ventress, then keyed a transmission to a secret location on Concordia, one of the two moons in orbit of the planet Mandalore. Several seconds later, a hologram of a Mandalorian warrior wearing a dark T-visored helmet appeared before Dooku. The helmet was adorned with a trident symbol above the visor and concealed the head of the Death Watch’s leader.

  Facing the hologram, Dooku said, “It has come to my attention that Republic troops sighted a Mandalorian warrior on Vaced, despite the fact that I gave your sniper explicit instructions that secrecy was essential.”

  The Death Watch leader’s helmet tilted forward as he said, “I am aware of the situation. It has been rectified.”

  “Rectified? How?”

  “HoloNet News will report about a Corellian bounty hunter’s body being discovered with the remains of a stolen ship that crashed on Vaced. The report will dismiss any question of Mandalorian involvement.”

  “And this ‘Corellian bounty hunter’ was really…?”

  “An available corpse.”

  “Very well,” Dooku said. “But the next time I enlist your sniper, I insist he must exercise greater discretion.”

  The Death Watch leader nodded once. Dooku broke the connection, and the hologram flickered off. Dooku was already looking forward to his next conversation with the Mandalorian when he would inform him that the sniper had killed the wrong men and that Commissioner Sommilor and his pilots were still alive.

  Remembering what Darth Sidious had said about Ring-Sol Ambase confronting Nuru Kungurama on Coruscant, Dooku smiled. He did not question Sidious’s ability to foretell future events. He knew that the inevitable duel between Ambase and Kungurama would be glorious.

  It never occurred to Dooku that Darth Sidious might have overlooked any loose ends.

  “This place stinks,” Lalo Gunn said. “How much longer do we have to wait for the guy with the money to show up?”

  The Duros bounty hunter Cad Bane took a slow tip from his glass, then replied, “Not long.”

  They were seated in the tavern at Vaced Spaceport. Night had fallen, and the tavern was crowded with locals. Most were talking about a swoop gang that had been blown to pieces by an explosion at the edge of the woods near the spaceport earlier that day. From the sporadic cheers and laughter, it sounded as if the swoop gang would not be missed.

  Gunn raised her glass to her lips and emptied it. “Well, if you ask me, this transaction would have gone faster if you’d brought the credits.”

  “But I didn’t ask you.”

  Gunn pushed her glass back and forth across the bar’s crackled surface until the noise got the attention of the insectoid bartender, a male Vuvrian who had a broad head with twelve eyes and a pair of antennae that dangled down to his narrow shoulders. The bartender refilled Gunn’s glass without comment. Gunn glanced at Bane and said, “As long as we’re killing time, there’s something I’ve been wondering about. Maybe you could clear it up for me.”

  Bane tilted his head forward, lowering his hat’s wide brim over his red eyes. “What do you want to know.”

  “On Kynachi, you hired me to make nice with the Jedi kid and his clone troopers and to stick close to them. They became Breakout Squad, I stuck with them, and then you sent a transmission, saying you’d pay me more to bring them to Vaced.”

  “Get to the point.”

  “After you contacted me, I got another transmission — you won’t believe this — from Chancellor Palpatine and some high-ranking Jedi named Yoda. Imagine my surprise when they said they wanted Breakout Squad to rendezvous with a Kynachi diplomat here on Vaced. At first, I thought, “That’s convenient,” because I didn’t have to come up with an excuse to drop out of hyperspace to arrive in the Vaced system. But then I thought…”

  “Yes?” Bane said, keeping his expression neutral.

  “Well, you, Palpatine, and a senior Jedi, all wanting me to bring Breakout Squad to the same planet… seems like a mighty big coincidence.”

  Bane’s expression did not change, “Are you implying that I’m working with the Chancellor and the Jedi Council?”

  Gunn chuckled. “Don’t get me wrong, friend, but I think they like to play with their own toy soldiers. However, you’re a crafty one, you are. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if you were toying with them.”

  Gunn’s compliment did not have any apparent effect on Bane. He took another sip of his drink.

  “So what I was wondering,” Gunn continued, “did you know the Kynachi diplomat was traveling to Coruscant? And did you pull strings to make the Chancellor contact my ship so he would tell Breakout Squad to meet the diplomat on Vaced?”

  “If I did pull any strings,” Bane said, “that would be my business.”

  Gunn tilted her chair back but kept her hands on the bar, where Bane could see them. “Take it easy, friend. I was just asking.” Looking away from Bane, she surveyed the other customers. “I’m sure glad I’m not stuck on Kynachi anymore, but I am going to miss my ship. It’ll be tough to replace the Hasty Harpy.”

  Bane snickered. “Your ship was a rattletrap. With the money you’ve earned, you car buy a better rattletrap.”

  “My ship was running fine before the saboteur tampered with it.”

  “Saboteur? What saboteur?”

  Gunn looked at Bane. During their conversation, she had picked up on a few subtle changes in his facial muscles and also slight vocal inflections that indicated he was keeping information to himself. Although she suspected Bane was a good liar, there was still a chance that he was unaware of any saboteurs on the Hasty Harpy. She replied, “All I know is someone planted a tracking device on the Harpy, rigged her navicomputer to send us to an uncharted black hole sector, and also activated her hypercomm after I’d switched it off. If I ever find out who was responsible, I’ll blast him. Getting away from that black hole was no easy trick.”

  “Interesting,” Bane lifted a gloved hand to stroke his chin. “Your only passengers were the Jedi, the clone troopers, and the droid. Did you suspect any of them?”

  “One of the troopers seemed odd, and the droid was an odd one, but… oh, I don’t know. No point in dwelling on it. The job is done, and the Harpy’s gone.” She glanced at Bane and saw a small furrow form across his blue forehead. Perhaps he didn’t know anything about a saboteur, she thought, but she wasn’t about to take any chances.

  Bane looked to the doorway and frowned. Gunn followed Bane’s gaze and saw a short, amphibious alien, a Patrolian with mottled mauve scales, who carrie
d a small satchel as he stepped through the tavern’s entrance. Wide fins extended from either side of his head, and he wore a patch over his left eye. Gunn recognized him immediately.

  The Patrolian saw Cad Bane and approached the bar. But when the Patrolian saw the woman seated beside Bane, his bulbous right eye widened and his mouth gaped open.

  Gunn said, “So, you’re the guy with the money, huh? I remember you, too.” Turning to Bane, she continued, “Last time we met, he was with the crew of the Black Hole Pirates. Another big coincidence, huh?”

  Bane shrugged.

  Gunn returned her attention to the Patrolian and said, “I didn’t know you two worked together, mister… wait, don’t tell me.” She reached out and patted the Patrolian’s shoulder. “You’re the one Captain McGrrrr called Robonino, right?”

  Speaking in a wheezing croak, Robonino said, “McGrrrr is no longer my captain.”

  “You still traveling with Bossk?”

  Robonino looked at Bane and said, “She asks a lot of questions.”

  Bane said, “I’ve noticed.”

  “Well, pardon me,” Gunn said sourly. “I don’t have anything against bounty hunters in general, but I’m making an exception for Bossk. If he’s on Vaced, I want to know about it because then I’ll want to be leaving that much sooner.”

  Robonino laughed. “Stop worrying. Bossk is far from here.” He handed the satchel to Bane.

  Bane opened the satchel and removed a leather pouch that was filled with credit chips. He gave the pouch to Gunn and said, “Feel free to count it. It’s all there.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?” Gunn said as she opened the bag to inspect the money.

  “Stay put and have another drink,” Bane said. “On me.” He placed a small credit chip on the bar. “I’ll be right hack. I need a word with Robonino.”

  Bane and Robonino made their way through the crowded tavern and stepped outside into the moonlight. Looking around to make sure no one was listening, Bane said, “First of all, Doxun Feez was supposed to bring the money, not you. What happened to him?”

  “Feez joined the McGrrrr Gang and asked me to bring the money to you.”

  Bane made a mental note to kill Doxun Feez if he ever saw him again, then said, “Second, when I gave you the coordinates to the Black Hole sector so you could infiltrate the McGrrrr Gang and make sure no harm came to anyone on the Hasty Harpy, I told you to bring backup. Why did you bring that fool Bossk?’”

  “He was… available,” Robonino said meekly. His eye twitched nervously as he recalled that he hadn’t entirely protected the Hasty Harpy’s crew, especially after a droid named Cleaver had knocked him out cold. Robonino couldn’t think of any good reason to mention this detail to Bane, so he didn’t.

  Bane scowled. “You’re fortunate Bossk didn’t bungle the job, bubble brain. Next time you subcontract, check with me before you—” Bane’s words caught in his throat as he noticed a black metallic speck on Robonino’s left shoulder. Bane leaned closer to see the speck was actually a small transmitter, and he remembered how Lalo Gunn had parted the Patrolian. He raised one finger in front of his mouth, signaling Robonino to stay silent as he used his other hand to pluck the transmitter free. He held the transmitter out for Robonino’s inspection. Knowing that Gunn was probably still listening to them. Bane continued, “Did you hear a noise from behind that tree over there?”

  Robonino looked at a dark, scraggy tree that grew nearby and said, “No, I didn’t hear anything—”

  Bane gave Robonino a quiet whack on the back of the head, then bent down and placed the transmitter on the ground, Robonino realized Bane was trying to create a diversion and said, “Yes! Yes, I did hear something.”

  “You wait here while I check it out,” Bane said, but instead of walking toward the tree, he headed straight back to the tavern’s entrance. He strode fast through the doorway, keeping both hands close to his holstered guns as he moved through the crowd and back to the bar.

  Gunn was gone, her seat empty. The credit chip that Bane had left for her to buy another drink was right where he’d left it. He scanned the crowd and saw no one resembling Gunn. He looked back to the bar just in time to see the Vuvrian bartender reaching for the credit chip.

  With remarkable speed. Bane’s hand darted out, grabbed the bartender’s thin wrist, and slammed it against the bar. The bartender yelped and was about to protest that he thought the credit chip was his tip when he lifted several of his eyes to meet the gaze of his attacker. Instead, he stared down the barrel of the large blaster that had appeared in the Duros’s other hand.

  “The woman who was sitting with me,” Bane said. “Where’d she go?”

  “I don’t know!” the bartender cried. “I thought she left with you!”

  Bane could tell the Vuvrian wasn’t lying or pretending to be frightened out of his wits. The bounty hunter cursed under his breath as he released the bartender’s hand. He snatched up the credit chip, pocketed it, and headed back for the door. Stepping outside, he found Robonino standing beside the transmitter. Bane crushed the Transmitter under his boot, then said, “Did you see her come out?”

  Robonino shook his head. “She must have left through the kitchen. She couldn’t have gotten far.”

  Bane assumed Gunn had heard everything about him sending Robonino to the Black Hole sector to monitor Breakout Squad. At least she remained ignorant of the identity of his client, who’d supplied him with the Black Hole’s coordinates and information about the McGrrrr Gang. Not even Robonino knew about Bane’s client. Bane said, “She doesn’t know anything damaging. But when people spy on me, I take it personally. We’ll search the—”

  Bane was interrupted by his chirping holocomm. He removed the holocomm from his belt, glanced at Robonino, and said, “I need to take this call. Stay put and watch for Gunn.”

  Bane walked away from the tavern and entered a dark alley, where he activated the holocomm. A hologram of a hooded man appeared in the air. The hooded man had previously hired Bane to capture Ring-Sol Ambase on Kynachi.

  Darth Sidious rasped, “You are still on Vaced, bounty hunter?”

  “I am.”

  “I have an assignment for you. It requires that you leave Vaced immediately.”

  Because Bane was more interested in a job that paid money than revenge against Lalo Gunn, he said, “I’m listening.”

  “The Jedi Ring-Sol Ambase and the clone trooper that you delivered to Bogg 5… they have recovered, and they’re on the loose. They are traveling in a Kuat Corona-class freighter, on their way to Coruscant as we speak. Ambase is under the impression that he cannot trust his fellow Jedi. I anticipate he will attempt to break into the Jedi Archives.”

  Bane was surprised to be offered another assignment that involved Ring-Sol Ambase, but he knew that his client’s money was good. He said, “You want me to kill Ambase this time?”

  “On the contrary,” Sidious said. “I want you to help him.”

  Lalo Gunn knew it would have been a mistake to try running from the Duros bounty hunter, which was why she had taken the precaution of paying the tavern’s assistant bartender a generous fee in exchange for concealing her in the tavern’s storeroom. Hunkered down behind two large crates filled with nonperishable food, Gunn aimed her blaster at the room’s only door.

  Although the storeroom’s lights were off, she could see a sliver of light along the door’s left side. The assistant bartender, a Xexto, was supposed to rap four times on the door after the bounty hunter left, then he would enter the storeroom to show he was alone. If the Xexto thought Gunn was in danger, he would knock only three limes as a warning,

  If the Xexto tried to double-cross her and sent the bounty hunter into the storeroom, she would do her best to make them both regret it.

  Almost thirty minutes passed before Gunn heard four raps against the other side of the door. Her finger tensed slightly against her blaster’s trigger as the door slid open to reveal the Xexto’s spindly silhouette, illuminated
by the light from the hallway behind him. A four-armed alien with a small head that bobbed at the top of a long, thin neck, the Xexto cautiously stepped into the room and was reaching for a switch on the wall when Gunn said, “Don’t touch the lights — and hands where I can see them.”

  The Xexto lifted all four hands. “The Duros is gone,” he said, “along with his fishy friend.”

  Gunn didn’t budge from her position as she said, “How long?”

  “About ten minutes. They both left in a freighter. I watched them board. Saw the freighter lift off.”

  “Turn on the lights and step back through the door.”

  The Xexto chuckled as he lowered his hands and tapped the light switch, then walked back through the doorway to stand in the outer hallway. Gunn lowered her blaster but kept it in her grip as she eased herself out from behind the crates. With her free hand, she tossed a credit chip through the doorway to the Xexto. The Xexto caught the chip with his upper left hand and said, “You keep throwing money at me, and I’ll keep helping you. Something else you need?”

  “An introduction,” Gunn said. “I want to meet your local starship dealer. I’m in a buying mood for a rattletrap.”

  Nuru Kungurama stepped through a narrow doorway and entered a wide, dark room. Although Nuru couldn’t see a light source and the undecorated walls and high ceiling were without windows, long shadows slithered like serpents across the bare floor. At first, Nuru thought he was the only person in the room, but then he saw a lone robed figure standing against the far wall. The figure was a tall man with silver hair.

  A chill traveled up Nuru’s spine as he recognized Ring-Sol Ambase.

  “You never should have left the Jedi Temple, young one,” Ambase said. “You never should have followed me.” Ambase appeared to glide slowly away from the wall, moving toward Nuru as if his feet were not in direct contact with the floor.

  Nuru took a cautious step backward as he moved his hand toward his belt. His hand stopped short as he felt the intensity of Ambase’s gaze kicking onto the second lightsaber that dangled from his belt.