Free Star Wars - Thrawn Trilogy - Dark Force Rising 02 by Timothy Zahn

suppose there's one way to find out."

    "Yeah." Luke touched the last tree in line. "Go to Jomark and ask him. I guess I'll have to."

    Leia's office was grouped with the other Inner Council suites just off the cross hallway that linked the Grand Corridor with the more intimate Inner Council meeting room. Luke and Winter entered the outer reception area, to find a familiar figure waiting there. "Hello, Threepio," Luke said.

    "Master Luke-how good to see you again," the gold-skinned droid gushed. "I trust you're well?"

    "I'm fine," Luke told him. "Artoo said to say hello when I saw you, by the way. They've got him over at the spaceport helping with some maintenance on my X-wing, but I'll be bringing him back later this evening. You can see him then."

    "Thank you, sir." Threepio tilted his head slightly, as if suddenly remembering that he was supposed to be acting as a receptionist here. "Princess Leia and the others are expecting you," he said, touching the inner chamber release. "Please go on in."

    "Thank you," Luke said, nodding gravely. No matter how ridiculous Threepio might look in any given situation, there was always a certain inherent dignity about him, a dignity that Luke usually tried to respond to in kind. "Let us know if anyone else comes."

    "Of course, sir," Threepio said.

    They went into the inner chamber to find Leia and Han holding a quiet conversation over a computer display on Leia's desk. Chewbacca, sitting alone near the door with his bowcaster across his knees, growled a greeting as they entered.

    "Ah-Luke," Leia said, looking up. "Thanks for coming." She shifted her attention to Winter. "That'll be all for now, Winter."

    "Yes, Your Highness," Winter nodded. With her usual grace, she glided from the room.

    Luke looked at Han. "I hear you dropped a double size thermal detonator on the Council yesterday."

    Han grimaced. "I tried. Not that anyone really believed me."

    "One of those instances where politics drifts off into the realm of wishful thinking," Leia said. "The last thing anyone wants to believe is that in our sweep we somehow missed one of the Emperor's Grand Admirals."

    "Sounds more like willful denial than wishful thinking to me," Luke said. "Or do they have another theory as to how we got edged so neatly into that Sluis Van trap?"

    Leia grimaced. "Some of them say that's where Ackbar's collusion comes in.

    "Ah," Luke murmured. So that was the thrust of Fey'lya's scheme." 

    "I hadn't heard any of the details yet."

    "So far, Fey'lya's been playing the sabacc cards close to the fur," Han growled. "He claims he's trying to be fair; I think he's just trying not to rock all the stabilizers at once.

    Luke frowned at him. There was something else in his friend's face and sense : "And maybe something more?" he prompted.

    Han and Leia exchanged glances. "Maybe," Han said. "You notice how quickly after the Sluis Van attack Fey'lya dropped the hammer on Ackbar. Either he's one of the great opportunists of all time-"

    "Which we already know he is," Leia put in.

    "-or else," Han continued grimly, "he knew in advance what was going to happen."

    Luke looked at Leia. At the strain in her face and sense : "You realize what you're saying," he said quietly. "You're accusing a member of the Council of being an Imperial agent."

    Leia's sense seemed to flinch. Han's didn't even flicker. "Yeah, I know," Han said. "Isn't that what he's accusing Ackbar of?"

    "The problem is timing, Han," Leia said, her tone one of strained patience. "As I've already tried to explain. If we accuse Fey'lya of anything now, it'll just look like we're trying to take the pressure off Ackbar by turning Fey'lya's charges back against him. Even if it were true-and I don't think it is-it would still come across as a cheap and rather mindless trick."

    "Maybe that's why he was so quick to finger Ackbar in the first place," Han countered. "So that we couldn't turn it back on him. That ever occur to you?"

    "Yes, it has," Leia