Cloak Of Deception

He opened the door and gestured everyone inside.

Flickering overhead fixtures illuminated a clamorous generator, along with scores of unopened shipping crates. The room reeked of lubricants and liquid fuel.

Havac's demeanor changed as soon as he shut the door behind him. He unwound the cloth scarf that concealed his face and threw it to the floor.

Cohl regarded him curiously. "What's gotten you so jumpy, Havac?" "You,"

Havac seethed. "You've nearly ruined everything!" Cohl swapped brief looks with his comrades, then said, "What are you babbling about?" Havac fought to compose himself. "The Jedi learned that you've been hiring assassins, and that you're pla

Havac ignored the remark and began to pace the floor. "I've been forced to modify the entire plan. If it wasn't for the help of our advisor — was "Take it easy, Havac," Cohl cut him off.

"You're going to give yourself a stroke." Havac came to a halt behind Rella and aimed his forefinger at Cohl. "I'm going to have to use the ones you delivered to fashion a diversion." Cohl's features warped into a mask of acrimony. "I can't allow that, Havac. I didn't deliver them here to be killed.

They trust me." "Content yourself that they'll die rich, Captain.

What's more, I don't care what you think you can and ca

"Stay where you are!" Havac made a sudden grab for Rella's blaster. She tried to turn away, but wasn't in time. Havac threw his left forearm around her neck and pressed the blaster to the side of her head.

Cohl stopped dead in his tracks and turned slowly toward him. Boiny was about as far from Havac as he was, but neither of them risked a move.

"You haven't got the stomach for this kind of work, Havac," Cohl said in a controlled voice.

"Put the blaster down and let her go." Havac only tightened his choke hold on Rella. She clamped her hands on his forearm.

"You said it yourself, Captain: anyone can be killed.

I'll do it if you try to leave. I swear, I'll do it." Cohl glanced at Boiny before replying. "Havac, think it through. You're the brains, remember?

You hired us to be the brawn." Havac's face was red with fury and panic; he was trembling from head to foot. "You underestimate me.

You always have." "All right," Cohl said. "Maybe I have. That still doesn't mean-was "I'm sorry it has to be this way," Havac interrupted. "But when it comes to safeguarding the interests of the Outer Rim, people like you and Rella and me are expendable. Our advisor prefers as few loose ends as possible, in any case." The door opened and two of Havac's confederates entered the room with blasters raised.

Cohl saw the sorrow in Rella's dark, beautiful eyes. "Oh, Cohl," she said in a sad, quiet voice.

Abruptly, Havac turned his blaster and fired.

The bolt whizzed past Rella's head, hitting Cohl in the chest.

A second bolt struck the wall behind Cohl and glanced off into the room.

Twisting to one side, Cohl threw himself at the two men by the door, dropping both with a body block.

At the same instant, Rella bent her right leg, raising her foot into Havac's groin. He stumbled backwards, gasping for breath, but managed to hold on to the blaster. Boiny hurled himself at Rella, intent on driving her to the floor, but Havac began to fire wildly, catching Rella in the neck and Boiny in the side of the head.

Wrestling with the two men he had knocked down, Cohl heard the blaster bolts and saw Rella collapse in a heap. Sudden rage rushed to his aid in ripping a blaster from one of the men and killing him with a shot to the face.

The other man rolled and came to his feet in a crouch, loosing a volley of bolts at Cohl.

Cohl felt intense heat sear his thigh, abdomen, and forehead. He flew back against the wall and slid slowly to the floor, the blaster slipping from his grip.

Across the room a groan escaped Boiny, and he turned over onto his back, blood oozing from his head.

Through half-closed eyes Cohl stared at Rella.

A single tear moved in fits and starts down her right cheek to her jawline. Cohl extended his right hand toward her, only to have it fall to his side, like dead weight.

"Havac," he said weakly, before his head fell to his chest.

His back pressed to the wall, a quaking Havac dropped Rella's blaster, as if he had just realized he was holding it. He gazed wide-eyed at his comrade.

"Is-is she dead?" Keeping his blaster ready, the human went first to Rella, then to Boiny, and finally to Cohl. "Yes — comand these two are well on the way. What should we do with them?" Havac swallowed audibly. "The authorities are hunting for Captain Cohl," he stammered.

"Perhaps we should let them find him." "And the others-the ones Cohl brought?" Havac considered it briefly. Then he retrieved the scarf he had thrown to the floor and began to wind it around his lower face.

"They know me only as Havac," he said, and moved for the door.

A uniformed detachment of Eriadu security guards escorted Qui-Gon, Obi- Wan, and Adi Gallia to the heavily guarded door of the Supreme Chancellor's temporary quarters in the majestic home of Lieutenant Governor Tarkin.

Sei Taria led them the rest of the way.

"I never got to thank you personally for your actions at the Senate,"

Valorum said to Qui-Gon.

"If it wasn't for you and Master Gallia, I might not be standing here today." Qui-Gon nodded in respect and acknowledgment.

"The Force was with you that day, Supreme Chancellor.

But we're not satisfied that the threat has been removed. There is reason to believe that the assault in the plaza was contrived to lure Republic law enforcement to the Senex sector, and thus distract us from a similar plan the Nebula Front hopes to execute on Eriadu." Valorum beetled his thick brows. "A strike against me here would undermine what little support the Nebula Front currently enjoys in the Outer Rim." "The Nebula Front has no more faith in the Republic than it does in the coalition of outlying worlds," Qui-Gon replied calmly but firmly.