Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry Read Free Book Online Page A

blood that fed his brain shut off, and he lost consciousness.
    Guri tightened the hold and held it, held it, held it …
    A long time passed. None of the other Vigos moved.
    When Green was no longer among the living, Guri released him, and he fell forward; his head thumped loudly upon the table.
    “I will accept nominations for a new Vigo now,” Xizor said.
    Nobody spoke for a moment, and Xizor kept his face bland. A pity about Green; he was one of the smartest of all the Vigos. But humans were quick to treachery and could hardly ever be trusted.
    He looked at his lieutenants again, waited for them to speak. Here was an object lesson they would certainly remember.
    To contend with Xizor is to lose.
    Never forget that.
    A fter the Vigos had gone and the body had been removed, Guri returned.
    “I thought that went well,” Xizor said.
    Guri nodded once, not speaking.
    “You have assembled all the information on Skywalker?”
    “Yes, my prince.”
    He stared into space. His organization was huge, the people working for him numbering in the tens of thousands, but some things he had to deal with personally. Especially something this … sensitive.
    “All of the material has been checked and rechecked?”
    “As you ordered.”
    “Very well. Let the bounty hunters know the price for Skywalker’s head. Black Sun’s hand must be invisible. There must be no mistakes.”
    “There will be none, my prince.”
    “Oh, I would like to speak to Jabba the Hutt.”
    “He will be online when you return from midday meal, my prince.”
    “No. Have him come here by the fastest ship; I would speak to him personally.”
    “As you wish.”
    Guri stood silently as Xizor considered his plan.
    Vader wanted Skywalker, wanted him alive to give to the Emperor. Xizor’s memory of that conversation he’d been privileged to overhear some months back was that the Emperor very much wanted the young man alive and in his control.
    Black Sun’s reach was long and wide, and what information there was on Vader’s quarry was now in Xizor’s personal computer system. The Dark Lord of the Sith had all but promised to deliver Skywalker not only alive but made pliable to the Emperor’s wishes.
    If Vader should fail in his promise, if it could be made to appear that he had never really intended to produce this young would-be Jedi for the Emperor, if it could be made to seem that he had killed the boy rather than risk facing him …
    Well. The Emperor put great stock in Vader’s abilities,probably trusted him as much as he trusted anyone. But the Emperor demanded total loyalty and total obedience. If he could be made to believe that Vader was disloyal or disobedient or had simply failed in his assigned task, things would not go well for Vader.
    The Emperor was capricious. He had been known to have whole cities destroyed because a local official defied him. He’d once had a wealthy and influential family banished from the core systems because one of the sons had plowed a ship into one of the Emperor’s favorite buildings, damaging it—and not incidentally killing the pilot responsible.
    If the Emperor thought that his trusted right hand, Darth Vader, his own creation, was any kind of threat, even the Dark Lord of the Sith would not be immune to Imperial anger.
    Yes, it was a good plan. A bit complicated, but all the possible sequels had been examined and considered and covered.
    In the end, he knew he had found the perfect weapon with which to finally defeat Darth Vader:
    The death of Luke Skywalker.

5
    D arth Vader sat naked inside his hyperbaric medical chamber. The interior lighting was turned off, and he was free of the armor that he had to wear to sustain himself in public. The Force was powerful; Vader thought the dark side even more so, but he had never been able to use it to heal his badly burned body to the extent that he wished. That he was alive at all was something of a miracle, but he had somehow failed to master the energies needed