Tales from the New Republic by Peter Schweighofer Read Free Book Online Page A

“But you are loyal to the Empire, are you not?”
    “I serve CorSec to maintain order, so, yes, I’m loyal to the Empire.”
    She let her expression soften and her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. “There are members of Darkknell Special Security who are not, which is why my search is running into trouble. I have to rely on someone from outside my own service—you—to make some headway. I know this is unorthodox, but surely you’ve resorted to unusual methods to push cases forward before.”
    “Some, but I don’t see that this is any concern of mine, really.” Hal shook his head. “My purpose for being here is lying in a heap over there.”
    “So it might seem, but the Rebel we’re after was involved in the assassination of Senator Garm Bel Iblis and his family.” The woman’s voice became very solemn. “The speech he was to give that night was one in which he was going to denounce the Rebellion. They murdered him so that wouldn’t happen. I thought that you, a Corellian, might want to help us find his killer.”
    Hal shivered and felt his flesh puckering. As much as he couldn’t believe the casual way Trabler had shot Moranda—nothing in her file warranted death as a punishment—the idea of a bomber who killed hundreds of people just to get one man filled him with revulsion. If Bel Iblis’s assassin is here, he must be found and brought to justice. Bel Iblis was from Corellia. I owe it to him to help find his killer .
    The CorSec inspector nodded. “Okay, I’m in.” He leveled a finger at Trabler. “Just no shooting first, okay? If your suspect murdered Bel Iblis, we want him to talk and lead us back to the others involved in the Rebellion, right?”
    Glasc nodded, then opened the landspeeder’s rear door. “After you, Inspector Horn. With your help, our quarry won’t get away.”
    As the landspeeder sped off, Bel Iblis stumbled from the shop and ran across the street. He’d seen the woman’s senseless murder and though he would not have questioned the truth of someone reporting Ysanne Isard had ordered such a thing, to see it unfold before him was another thing entirely. Reaching the alley mouth he saw blood and, just for a moment, he expected to follow the trail and find his wife at the end of it.
    No, she’s gone. Poor Arrianya, you died for a cause you didn’t even believe in . Bel Iblis choked back the lump rising in his throat, then looked deeper into the dim alley and saw the woman slumped against a wall. Her right arm hung limply at her side, the sleeve of her coat soaked in blood. A cigarra hung from the corner of her mouth, and she kept trying to strike a lighter with her blood-slicked left hand.
    The woman looked over at him and grinned. “Got a spark, pal?” Then her eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed.
    The senator ran to her and knelt at her side. The only virtue of being shot with a Penetrator is that the tiny beam makes a neat hole . Bel Iblis saw a nasty entry wound and a smaller exit on the front side of her shoulder. He stripped off his own coat and wrapped it around the wounds, then lifted her in his arms and started back toward Arkos’s store.
    It occurred to him that the last woman he had carried in his arms like this had been his wife, on an anniversary getaway several years earlier. It had been a wonderful time, an escape from the pressures of his office and her duties, and they had both told each other that they would do it again, soon. Very soon .
    Bel Iblis’s expression hardened. I lost her to the Empire; I’m not losing anyone else . He knew, given the course the Rebellion would likely take, that resolution would never hold. Well, at least I won’t lose this woman. It’s not saving the galaxy, but it’s saving the part of it I can, and that works for now .
    He looked up as Arkos held the shop’s door open. “We need to get her some medical help—now. That woman was Ysanne Isard, late of Imperial Center and employed by Imperial