Tales from the New Republic Read Online Free PDF Page A

you trust, and don’t tell him what it is you’re actually after.”
    “Of course not,” she said, standing up. “You’ll order me a courier ship?”
    “It’s already standing by,” Armand told her. “Good-bye, and good luck.”
    She favored him with a faint smile. “The Isards make their own luck,” she reminded him softly. “I’ll be in touch.”
    Part II
By Michael A. Stackpole
    Hal Horn sighed heavily as the Darkknell Defense Agency officer glanced at his identification card, travel permits, and the warrants he had brought with him. It seemed to Hal that every member of the Xakrean bureaucracy had studied those same datafiles with an intensity that suggested they were digitizing the data and loading it straight into their brains. He had come to Darkknell and specifically the city of Xakrea because the local officials’ legendary attention to detail and hatred for disorder made them natural allies in his search for Moranda Savich.
    Now I’m not so sure , he thought. He glanced down at the smaller, slighter man. “I think you’ll see, Colonel Nyroska, that all my files are in order. All I really want is for you to issue an alert that will have your people looking for my target if she tries to leave the planet.”
    Nyroska’s dark eyes narrowed. “You realize, of course, Inspector Horn, that you have absolutely no jurisdiction here.”
    “I do know that, but…”
    “And while we are willing to cooperate with fellow officers of the law, long gone are the days of Jedi vigilantes traveling hither and thither, chasing miscreants and rendering harsh verdicts right then and there. The days of lightsaber justice are no more.”
    “I understand, Colonel.” Hal turned partway to the side, so his height and bulk wouldn’t seem to be threatening to the Xakrean. “As per your regulations, I surrendered my blaster when I made planetfall and I have no weapons on me.”
    “Commendable, Inspector. And I think it good you remain in civilian clothes, so your presence cannot be misconstrued.” Nyroska hit a button on his datapad, ejecting the datacard that contained Hal’s documents. He toyed with it for a moment, then held it out to the Corellian. “Your quarry, this Savich, she is not a violent criminal? Nothing in her records indicates that she is.”
    “No, sir. She’s just good at liberating valuables from the unwary.”
    “A lifter, then?”
    “One of the best.”
    Nyroska stood abruptly, his oversized chair sliding back. The chair and the huge desk had helped dwarf Nyroska, but had not needed to work very hard to do so. He’s even smaller than Corran! Hal catalogued that fact to use the next time his son complained about being short. The Colonel waved his hand toward the door of the office.
    Hal blinked. “That’s it?”
    “We really have nothing else to discuss.”
    “But what about putting the spaceport inspectors on alert?”
    Nyroska gave him an oily smile as he came around from behind the desk and rested a hand on the small of Hal’s back. “My dear Inspector Horn, our spaceport inspectors are already on alert. We received a request from Imperial authorities to be on the lookout for Rebel operatives coming here. You witnessed our thoroughness—you fit the profile we were given. As you can imagine, this Imperial matter is consuming much of our time. I will append this Savich woman’s name to the detain list, but unless you can link her to the Rebels, she will be a secondary concern.”
    Hal closed his eyes for a moment and slowly exhaled. The galaxy had turned upside down in recent years, so much so he hardly recognized it. Imperial authorities had become obsessed with the Rebellion and, while folks with Rebel sympathies could be found all over the place, on Corellia very few Rebel agents had been discovered. He’d heard rumors that Garm Bel Iblis had been connected to the Rebellion, but he considered most of the rumors the normal fallout of politics. And with Bel Iblis dead, there’s no