Jedi Apprentice Special Edition 1: Deceptions

Chapter 8

"Qui-Gon was right," Tahl said to Qui-Gon and Clee Rhara. "Tarrence Chenati must have the backing of someone powerful in the Senate."

"In the Senate?" Clee asked, her eyes flashing. "A Senator is doing this?"

"Why not?" Qui-Gon asked mildly. "They are rarely no better and sometimes worse than most beings."

"The Senate uses its own spies," Tahl said. "They are called 'no-names.' A whole identity is created, with text docs and clearances. When the no-name dies, the identity is retired." She swept her hand toward the documents on Tarrence Chenati."This kind of identity. What if someone had access to those retired identities and stole one for the saboteur?"

"That makes sense," Qui-Gon said. "Who would have access?"

Tahl frowned: "Hard to say. It could be almost any senior level Senator with the right contacts and the right bribes. Tracing it would be close to impossible."

"If Chenati is just a hired saboteur, he won't have much loyalty," Qui-Gon guessed. "If we capture him, he might tell us what we want to know."

"Chenati's shift starts in fifteen minutes," Clee Rhara said. "I don't want him near those ships."

"Let us handle this," Qui-Gon advised her. "Go to the students. Keep everyone away from the hangar. And try to head off Haly Dura, too."

Clee Rhara nodded. She strode off toward the student quarters. Tahl and Qui-Gon turned to go, but a signal went off on the control panel of the security system.

"It's Chenati. He's early," Qui-Gon said tersely. Without another word, Tahl and Qui-Gon hurried to the hangar. The huge durasteel doors were already open, the starfighters lined up inside. Qui-Gon saw Chenati working on a control panel on the side of one of the starfighters.

"He's fifteen meters to the left, working on the right side of the starfighter," he said to Tahl.

"Let's flank him," she suggested. "But not until the last second. We don't want to scare him off."

Qui-Gon and Tahl strolled toward Chenati, who had caught sight of them and waved cheerfully. He reached down into his tool kit. Something alerted Qui-Gon even before Chenati began to rise again. He was too friendly.

"He knows," Qui-Gon said.

Chenati came back up with a blaster. The fire pinged by them, since Tahl and Qui-Gon had already jumped apart. Qui-Gon's lightsaber was activated in a flash, and he sprang to deflect the blaster fire from Tahl.

"Stop protecting me!" she shouted.

But how could he? Tahl's perceptions were extraordinarily acute, but even she could not deflect rapid blaster fire she could not see. Tahl began to move in an erratic zigzag motion toward Chenati. Chenati backed away, keeping up a steady burst of fire. Qui-Gon moved forward, keeping himself between Tahl and the blaster fire. He knew she was listening for the rustle of clothing, the stir of air to tell her which way Chenati was aiming. But there was too much other noise surrounding her.

Suddenly Chenati raced into the cockpit of the starfighter. The windshield began to close.

Tahl heard the noise and began to run. The starfighter began to move, straight toward her.

"Tahl! Straight ahead!" Qui-Gon yelled. He started toward her, but Tahl had already accessed the Force and gave a great leap to her left, placing her safely out of the starfighter's way. The distraction had cost Qui-Gon. He could not reach Chenati. He could only watch as the starship took off.

Tahl deactivated her lightsaber and tucked it into her belt in an angry motion. "Perhaps if you weren't so intent on protecting me, you could have captured him." Her voice was sharp and bitter. "Perhaps if I didn't need to be protected, things would be different."

"Tahl-"

"Qui-Gon! Tahl!" Clee came running up. "I saw Chenati take off." Clee stared at the sky, empty now.

"It was either kill him or let him go," Qui-Gon said.

"It's all right," Clee said. "At least we know the starfighters are safe now."

"You'll have to check these out," Tahl said. "He was here for a few minutes."

"Will do. Thank you, good friends," Clee Rhara said warmly to Qui-Gon and Tahl. She had always had a sunny nature, eager to look at the bright side of things. "We can continue the program now."

"But you don't know who your enemy is," Tahl told her.

"That worries me, it's true," Clee said. "But I'm glad to have my base back. All this suspicion was tiring."

"Yes, mistrust takes energy better spent on other things," Tahl remarked.

"Sir Tahl!" The singsong voice of Tahl's personal navigation droid, TooJay, echoed through the hangar. "You left without me this morning! Look at all the obstacles in this hangar. There is a fusion cutter by your left foot."

Tahl closed her eyes in exasperation. Usually, TooJay's fussing amused Qui-Gon. But he saw that Tahl was close to the edge now. She had had enough protection for one day.

"Tahl is fine, TooJay," he said quickly.

"Qui-Gon Jinn, hello," TooJay said. "I haven't seen you since I was reprogrammed. Lucky for me they left my memory cells intact."

Qui-Gon stopped. For a moment, he screened out his friends and the chattering droid. He was missing something. What was it that TooJay said to trigger it?

First Tahl and Clee talked of mistrust. Then TooJay had mentioned her reprogramming…

Xanatos had placed a surveillance device in TooJay. They had not known that the droid was busy transmitting their conversations to their enemy. They knew a spy was in the Temple, and Obi-Wan had suggested that Tahl could have been the one. But even though it made logical sense, Qui-Gon had never mistrusted her.

Xanatos had never been able to trust anyone. That was his downfall.

So why would he have trusted Bruck? He remembered the feel of Bruck's lightsaber hilt, the worn quality of the carving, the small nick he had felt in the handle. It had touched him at the time, remembering the boy who had spent long hours carving it.

Everything came together then, and he knew how he could turn the tide in Obi-Wan's favor.

He hated to leave Tahl with things unsettled between them. But his Padawan needed him now.