Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(35)

“There may be more elsewhere on Batuu, as well,” Thrawn said. “As to the thieves, they now know that the Separatists’ plan to eliminate us has failed, and that many of their comrades are dead. Given the circumstances, they may suspect the bartender of collusion.”

“I’m sure they will,” Anakin agreed, closing down his lightsaber. “Which adds up to you not being very popular right now, Janott. If I were you, I’d find someplace nice and quiet where I could stay out of sight for a while.”

“Yes,” Janott breathed. “Yes. I can do that.”

“You will do that,” Anakin said.

Janott’s eyes flicked to the dead smugglers. “I will do that,” he agreed.

“Then we’re done here,” Thrawn said. “Let us be on our way.”



* * *



—

There was no crowd gathering around the remnants of the street fight as Anakin and Thrawn left the shop. In fact, aside from a few curious looks being directed toward the Separatists slowly coming back to consciousness, the passersby seemed to be ignoring the carnage completely.

But then, death and destruction were probably daily events in Black Spire.

“Do you really think there are more Separatists around?” Anakin asked when they were once again in their landspeeder and heading toward the Larkrer. “Or were you just saying that to scare him?”

“There may be others, though no more than two or three,” Thrawn said. “You may have your droid examine the oxygen and food usage records during our voyage if you wish accurate numbers.”

“We’ll see,” Anakin said. Right now, exact numbers weren’t a high priority. “The question is whether there’ll be anyone functional enough to warn the Separatists at Mokivj before we get there.”

“There won’t be any warnings,” Thrawn said confidently. “They’ve taken great pains to conceal this base. Sending a warning through a private and presumably untested message service would threaten that secrecy.”

“Not just untested,” Anakin said, shaking his head. “Completely unreliable.”

“How do you reach that conclusion?”

“Because if Janott was telling the truth, Padmé was here long enough to send me a message,” Anakin said. “Probably more than one. But I never received anything. The question is whether they’ll be able to find another ship after we take theirs.” He looked sideways at Thrawn. “We are taking their ship, right?”

“I have no wish to arrive in mine,” Thrawn said. “Do you wish to arrive in yours?”

Anakin felt his lip twist. Showing up at a secret Separatist base in an Actis starfighter. Right. “Point taken.”

“As for their finding another ship, that won’t be a concern,” the Chiss continued. “As long as they’re at least a few hours behind us, they won’t be a problem.”

That assumed, of course, that he and Thrawn could track down Padmé that quickly. Anakin wasn’t at all sure about that part. “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe we should take an hour and disable everything in the landing area.”

“That would only gain a few more hours at the most,” Thrawn said. “Really, don’t concern yourself with them.”

Anakin pursed his lips. But the Chiss was probably right. Unless they could disable every ship on Batuu, they could hardly keep the surviving Separatists from coming after them. “Fine,” he growled. “By the way, how did you know that it was Mokivj?”

“The planetary data,” Thrawn said. “Only Mokivj’s listing included information that would be useful for inbound navigation.”

“The ten moons,” Anakin murmured. “Nice. But what if you were wrong?”

“The Separatists outside will soon recover,” Thrawn said. “If we’d failed to force a reaction with the thieves by naming Mokivj we could have tried a different system on them.”

“And you wanted a larger crowd than the Separatist you captured because you wanted to goad them into attacking us?”

“Correct,” Thrawn said. “They wouldn’t want us to leave with such vital information, but only with what they assumed would be overwhelming odds on their side would they dare to act.”

There was a moment of silence. Anakin watched the forest rush past on either side of them, trying not to worry about Padmé. Either she was all right, or she was in danger, and until he got to Mokivj there was nothing he could do about any of it.

“The duke that Oenti mentioned,” Thrawn said into his broodings. “Is he the leader of the Separatists?”

“No, that’s Count Dooku,” Anakin said. “The other real driving force of their military is General Grievous. No idea who this duke might be.”

“I’ve heard of Count Dooku,” Thrawn said. “A Jedi like you, is he not?”

“A fallen Jedi,” Anakin said, a bit more curtly than he’d intended. “Not like me. But don’t worry, we’ll get him. We’ve got Chancellor Palpatine on our side, and I’d put him up against Dooku and Grievous any day.”

Thrawn was silent for a moment. “Just remember that the goal in war is victory, not revenge.”

“Don’t worry. We all know that.”