Crisis of Faith by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online Page A

persuade…,” he began weakly.
     
    “Pictures of these,” Nuso Esva said, waving a hand toward the walls of the gathering area. Even with his alien face and voice it was impossible for Trevik to miss his deep and malicious satisfaction. “Artwork carefully selected to lead our oh-so-clever Grand Admiral to exactly the wrong conclusions about my strategy.”
     
    Trevik could feel his breath coming in short, painful gasps. Jirvin had also said that about Thrawn, that in artwork he could read the hidden hearts of people. Trevik had accepted his brother’s word, but he had never truly believed it.
     
    Now, as he felt Nuso Esva’s triumph wash over him, he knew that it was indeed true.
     
    “You don’t believe it, of course,” Nuso Esva continued. “No one does.  But rest assured, Thrawn is able to perform such magic. The Queen’s own confidant and ally stayed aboard the star caravan long enough to confirm it.” This time, his eyes definitely glittered. “Before he pulled all of your Stromma allies out of the battle.”
     
    “Which he would still have done without this Midli’s betrayal,” the Queen said.
     
    “Calm yourself, O Queen,” Nuso Esva said again. “Let us watch and savor the defeat of our enemy without these petty distractions. There will be plenty of time later to execute this Midli and his friends if you so choose.” He turned back to the monitors. “Besides, I daresay Thrawn will have another trick or two waiting behind his back. Watch—and see how I
    anticipate and destroy each of them.”
     
    The sixth of the nine juggernauts had passed beneath the edge of the umbrella shields, and the stormtrooper force was nearly halfway to its target flank, when the order finally came. “Commander Fel, you may initiate your attack pattern,” Thrawn said. “Let us see what exactly we have facing us.”
     
    “Acknowledged, Admiral,” Fel said, turning his fighter into a smooth arc back toward the western part of the city. Thrawn’s assumption had been that Nuso Esva would close off the entire umbrella shield array except in the western areas of the city. But even 90-percent-sure assumptions needed to be checked out, and Fel’s TIEs were the logical ones to do it. Especially when they had nothing better to do anyway.
     
    As usual, Thrawn had been right. Gray Squadron’s sweep had confirmed that the rest of the city was completely covered, with gaps not even big enough to drop an MSE droid through. Only in the western sector, where Nuso Esva had set his traps, was there anything Fel could use.
     
    With the juggernauts and stormtroopers now in harm’s way, it was time for the TIEs to persuade Nuso Esva to start springing those traps.
     
    As it turned out, the onetime warlord didn’t need any persuading. Fel was passing over the lead juggernaut and starting to make his turn when the city below him erupted with laser cannon fire.
     
    “Evasive!” Fel snapped, twisting his fighter around as a bolt came through one of the shield gaps and burned past his portside wing. Not that his pilots really needed the warning. “Target those lasers and destroy.”
     
    He was cutting dangerously low across the forest of umbrella shields when he spotted the swarm of Quesoth Soldiers appearing from concealment in the ring of Workers’ houses directly behind Lieutenant Sanjin’s stormtroopers.
     
     
    The first warning was a burst of Soldier Speak from a concealed loudspeaker a few blocks away. /“Soldiers in concealment,”/ Lhagva called out in translation. /“Rise and attack the white-armored invaders.”/
     
    “Vec six!” one of the other stormtroopers snapped, pointing his E-11 back toward the edge of the umbrella shield zone. “Looks like—must be a hundred Soldiers, coming out of the Workers’ houses.”
     
    Lhagva felt his mouth go dry. A hundred Soldiers, against thirty-six stormtroopers. Not good.
     
    “Got another hundred fifty at vec three,” someone else put in tautly. “I