Clone Wars Gambit: Siege by Karen Miller Read Free Book Online

punishment.”
    “Yes, well, we’d all like to think that,” he said drily. “But in these past months I’ve learned a
lot
of things, Tryn. Most of them unpleasant.”
    “Yeah, I’m getting that,” Tryn said, his dark red eyes somber. He looked around the magnificently equipped lab. “I mean, you and the Jedi? Brand-new best friends? Have to tell you, Bail, I didn’t see that coming.”
    “Neither did I,” he admitted. “Oh, and I was right, by the way. The Jedi aren’t always comfortable but you can trust them. And I promise you that without them our Republic would be in tatters by now. As it is, even
with
them—” Abruptly overwhelmed, Bail dragged a hand down his face. “Things are bad, Tryn. With no way of knowing where or when the Seps will strike, if we don’t have a reliable antidote to this bioweapon then they’ll win. And that means the end of the Republic. So I need you to make this happen.”
    “
No
, Bail!” Tryn protested. “I
told
you, I can’t promise you anything. I might despise Bant’ena Fhernan for a gutless coward but she’s still a genius. This—this
thing
she’s invented—this monstrosity of a weapon—”
    His friend’s abrupt distress was worrying. “Tryn, you can do this. You’re the best biochemist I know.”
    Tryn glowered at him. “You’re a
nidziga
, Organa. I’m the only biochemist you know.”
    Bail tried to smile but failed, abysmally. “Tryn. Seriously. Whatever you need, no matter what it costs. Tell me and I’ll get it for you. No questions asked.”
    “You’ve changed,” Tryn said after a taut silence. “I can see it now.”
    As if I didn’t know that
. “Not for the worse, I hope.”
    Tryn bit the end of his braid: another old, familiar habit. The one he turned to when he was particularly upset. “I hope so, too.”
    “I have to go,” Bail said, glancing at his wrist chrono. “There’s a late Senate session tonight that I need to prepare for.”
    “Look,” Tryn said, hunched inside his lucky blue lab coat. “I’ll do my best for you, Bail. If the work needs fresh blood, I’ll even open my own veins. But you need to tell the little green guy and whoever else you answer to—this might not happen. You have to understand that. You have to prepare.”
    For what? Annihilation?
Sickened, Bail nodded. “I will. But I believe in you, Tryn. I believe you can
make
it happen.”
    Tryn rapped his knuckles on the bench once, and got back to work.
    Chapter Three
    Despite the late hour and his continuing obligations, Bail didn’t leave the Temple for the Senate straightaway. Instead he made the long and convoluted journey from its lowest levels up to the giddy heights of the Jedi Council Chamber, where Yoda had arranged to meet with him.
    “I take it there’s still no word, Master?”
    Standing before the panoramic window, watching a distant, impressive Republic Cruiser heading for the GAR docks, Yoda shook his head. “Correct you are, Senator.”
    “And what does that mean?”
    Yoda glanced over his shoulder. “Delayed they have been. Dead they are not.”
    Not dead… not dead…
Bail swallowed. “You’re sure?”
    “Clouded is the Force with dark side menace, but know that much I do. Obi-Wan and Anakin live.”
    It was odd, how relief could be as sickening as fear. “And when you say delayed?”
    Supported by his spindly gimer stick, Yoda turned from the window and began an aimless wandering of his Council aerie. “The answers that you seek, Senator, give you I cannot.” The gimer stick rapped the Chamber’s beautifully parqueted floor once, with sharp emphasis. “Against Obi-Wan and Anakin going to Lanteeb I was. Spies and agents the Jedi are not. A task for your people this mission was.”
    He was being rebuked—and didn’t much care for it. “Then why did you approve their involvement?”
    “Know why you do,” said Yoda, ears low, eyes hooded.
    Because I asked a friend for help. And that friend asked you to let him help