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

doesn’t collapse under the weight of all the secrets it’s hiding
.
    He should be getting back to the Senate. He’d arranged to meet Padmé there before the evening’s scheduled preliminary vote regarding a trade dispute between Devaron and Kelada. The rival planets’ spat was threatening to disrupt the Corellian Trade Spine, and the Corellians were in turn threatening punitive action.
    Because of course what the Republic really needs right now is more fighting
.
    He and Padmé had agreed to share their research on the situation. She’d be waiting for him by now. Only…
    “If a question you have, Senator, then ask it you should,” said Yoda. Now he sounded faintly amused. “And answer it I will, if able I am.”
    Once, in idle conversation, Obi-Wan had called this ancient Jedi
the most intimidating person I’ve ever known
. He wasn’t wrong. And it wasn’t even deliberate. Yoda simply exuded the kind of innate authority that turned everyone around him into a subordinate. Partly it was the weight of his long life, but mostly it was because he’d accrued not just centuries, but centuries of wisdom. The Jedi Master hadn’t let a minute of his nine-hundred-odd years go to waste.
    And though I’m little more than a child compared to him, he seeks out my opinion and sometimes follows my advice
.
    Every so often, remembering that, Bail found it hard to breathe.
    “Yes, Master, I do have a question,” he said. “When do you intend to tell the Supreme Chancellor about the bioweapon and the mission to Lanteeb? When are you going to tell him that Obi-Wan and Anakin are in trouble?”
    Slowly, Yoda turned. “Your investigation into leaked classified information, Senator. Concluded, is it?”
    The Jedi Master knew perfectly well that it wasn’t. So far every discreetly pursued avenue of inquiry had run into a dead end. Weeks after beginning the investigation they were no closer to learning who was behind the worrying security breaches in divisions up to and including the Republic’s executive branch.
    It was but one of the things that kept him from sleeping well at night.
    “I appreciate the sensitivity of the situation, Master Yoda, but we can’t leave Palpatine in the dark much longer,” Bail said. “For one thing I’m answerable to him—and if he learns from another source what’s going on he’s going to want to know why I didn’t brief him.”
    “If told he is that I requested your silence, no action against you will the Supreme Chancellor take,” Yoda said firmly. “Understand he does that precedence the Jedi have in matters like this.”
    “Your support is always welcome, Master Yoda, I hope you know that—but in this case I’m not certain it would help. Palpatine has to believe he can trust me. The moment I lose his trust I’ll lose my position, and at the risk of sounding arrogant, I think it’s vital that I stay where I am, doing my job.”
    “Arrogant you are not, Senator,” said Yoda, with another rap of his gimer stick on the parquetry floor. “Without doubt you are needed.” Sighing heavily, he rubbed his chin. “When heard from Obi-Wan we have—and when told us Doctor Netzl has whether or not an antidote for Durd’s bioweapon he can create—then to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine we will go.”
    “And when he demands an explanation for why we didn’t tell him any of this sooner?”
    “Remind him we will that closely is he watched by our Republic’s enemies,” said Yoda, his eyes narrowed. “Sense hidden truths, they can, therefore silent we remained on this new threat.”
    As explanations went, it sounded plausible. Now if only he thought Palpatine would buy it.
    “Even if he does accept our reasoning, he’ll be furious. You do know that?”
    Yoda shrugged, supremely indifferent. “Care for his anger, should I, when countless lives we seek to save?”
    “No, Master. Of course not.”
    “Then care will I not, Senator.” The merest glimmer of a smile. “And neither