The Master of Disguise Read online

  down on a sleep couch and covered her with a thermal blanket. Soara slid

  behind the controls. Obi-Wan contacted the Temple and said they were on

  their way.

  They shot up into the upper atmosphere of Haariden. Obi-Wan looked

  down at the planet, glad to be leaving it. He wondered about the

  disturbance in the Force he had felt since he'd arrived. He had thought it

  was because of the dark side on this planet. There was so much death and

  bitterness. But what about his sense of foreboding? Could he have somehow

  picked up on the fact that Granta Omega was here as well?

  The fact that Omega had failed in his attempt to kill the Jedi didn't

  matter. If Darra had not been ill, if he hadn't pledged to get the

  scientists to safety, he would have stayed with his Padawan and hunted down

  his attacker. Omega had tried to kill Jedi twice. He should be brought to

  justice.

  But Obi-Wan had his duties, and he had to leave. He had made the same

  decision on Ragoon-6. Justice would have to be sought another time. Could

  it be that Omega only attacked when he knew the Jedi could not retaliate or

  pursue him? Did he count on a Jedi's sense of priorities to protect himself

  from reprisals?

  Obi-Wan turned away from the planet and looked ahead at the galaxy.

  The ship shot into hyperspace, and a rush of stars seemed to crowd the

  windscreen. This time, Obi-Wan vowed, he would get to the bottom of the

  mystery of Granta Omega.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Obi-Wan accessed the door to the Jedi Temple Archive Library and

  stopped in the doorway. Usually it was a pristine space with not a holofile

  out of place. Busts of great Jedi Masters lined one wall, and the soft glow

  of computer panels created a hushed atmosphere. Today it was in chaos.

  Holofiles hung in the air while datasheets littered the usually empty

  counters. Jedi archivist Madame Jocasta Nu stood in the center of the room,

  two laser pointers stuck haphazardly in her gray wispy bun. Her small,

  nimble fingers flicked through one holofile after another.

  She looked up at him, irritated. "In or out, young Jedi."

  It never failed. Madame Jocasta Nu could make him feel like a fifth-

  year student. She appeared frail but her authority was unquestionable.

  She pulled out a laser pointer and frowned at it, then used it to make

  a correction in a file. "Well?"

  Obi-Wan stepped inside. "Am I interrupting?"

  "Of course you are. Cleaning day. I have to organize once a month.

  Retire old files, organize, send others to deep storage. Not a good day. It

  always puts me in a bad mood."

  "Ah," Obi-Wan said, "well..."

  "Which doesn't mean I'm not available," she said crisply. "Just that

  you won't get the benefit of my usual good humor."

  "Ah," Obi-Wan said again. He had never enjoyed the benefit of Jocasta

  Nu's good humor. Perhaps he'd been at the other end of her private

  amusement at his failure to keep up with Senate subcommittee agendas. That

  was the only time he could remember her smiling at him. It hadn't been a

  very nice smile.

  Jocasta Nu shook her head. "Oh, for star's sake, Master Kenobi, stop

  repeating yourself. What do you need?"

  "Some time ago I asked you to research someone called Granta Omega.

  You assembled a file - " "I remember."

  "Which I need to review."

  She sighed. "Today, I suppose?"

  "I'm afraid so."

  Jocasta Nu crossed the room and began to access a holofile directory.

  She hummed a tuneless melody while she tapped one finger on the counter.

  "Here we go. I can do a fresh search as well, if you like."

  "That would be helpful."

  She flipped through the file. "Though as I remember, this subject's

  problem was decentralization."

  "What do you mean?" Obi-Wan asked.

  "Scattered." Her slender fingers wiggled. "Spread out. Diluted."

  "I understand what the word means, I just don't - "

  "Sorry. One of my own classification terms. Some subjects are solid.

  You can look them up, research, find out what you need. Some are diffuse.

  They are spread out so far they almost disappear." She hummed under her

  breath. "This Omega was like that. Enormously wealthy, but no particular

  home. Many companies within companies within companies... many

  acquaintances, no friends. His business interests are galaxy-wide." She

  sent the holofile spinning through the air toward Obi-Wan. "You have a file

  full of information that tells you nothing."

  Just like his physical appearance, Obi-Wan thought, stopping the file

  with a raised hand. The man hid behind a blank wall he created himself.

  He looked through the file again. Omega specialized in ferreting out

  rare minerals and buying the whole source, then raising the price. He was

  enormously wealthy yet kept his wealth diversified and hidden in any number

  of secret accounts. There was no information that either Obi-Wan or Jocasta

  Nu had been able to find on his beginnings. They did not know his home

  planet. He just suddenly appeared, a wealthy man.

  Obi-Wan looked through the list of his known homes. There were fifteen

  of them spread over the galaxy. Tracking him down would be extremely

  difficult and time-consuming.

  He closed the file and sent it back to Jocasta Nu. "I doubt you'll

  find anything, but if you could do a new search.."

  She nodded. "I'll get back to you."

  Just then Yoda appeared in the doorway. "Find you here, I am not

  surprised. It is still Omega you seek?"

  Obi-Wan walked out to join him in the hallway. "It seems he is almost

  impossible to find."

  "Impossible, nothing is. Difficult, many things are. To you the

  question must be, why search?"

  "I have a feeling," Obi-Wan said. "Maybe it is up to me to prevent

  something before it happens. I don't want to wait for disaster to overtake

  me."

  Yoda nodded, his gray-blue eyes revealing nothing. "But an immediate

  threat Omega is not."

  "The immediate threat is not always apparent."

  "Argue with you I will not," Yoda said. "Your decision, this is. But

  think I do that you need a better reason to spend time on this. Heard I

  have that your Padawan needs you. Events on Haariden marked him, they have.

  "

  "Yes," Obi-Wan said. "He feels responsible for Darra's injury. She'll

  be fine, but she lost her lightsaber. He feels terrible about that. And I

  was not happy with his actions during the battle."

  "Lightsaber skills, important they are," Yoda said. "How to use as

  well as how not to use. When to move as well as when not to move.

  Restraint, your young Padawan needs, as well as direction."

  "I've spoken to him," Obi-Wan said. "He listens. Yet I've come to see

  that Anakin really learns by doing. With every mission, he grows."

  "Yet sometimes one Knight is not enough to teach a Padawan," Yoda

  said. He paused. Obi-Wan knew he had more to say. They moved down the hall,

  Yoda's gimer stick tapping as he walked.

  Yoda spoke as they reached the lift tube. "Hear I have that Soara

  Antana will remain at the Temple until Darra is better."

&n
bsp; "Yes, she will not leave her."

  "Not much she has to do, I think," Yoda said. "Distraction, she needs.

  " The lift tube opened and he stepped in. He nodded at Obi-Wan as the doors

  slid closed.

  Obi-Wan smiled. He saw what Yoda was suggesting. "I think I know a way

  to keep her busy," he said to the closed doors.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Anakin sat in the map room. He had activated dozens of holographic

  worlds at once. They swirled around him in their varied systems while

  dozens of voices told him facts about their climate, geography, species,

  and culture. The voices blended into an indistinguishable babble.

  It was an exercise he had invented to calm his mind. He drew the Force

  around him to help him concentrate. Then he tried to find the thread of one

  voice and follow it. As soon as he had, he would add another. He thought of

  the voices as layers in his mind, and he tried to keep track of what each

  voice was telling him, all at the same time. It was difficult and took

  tremendous concentration. But all the voices together filled up the space

  in his head and drowned out his own voice, his own feelings. So he would

  not have to think, only concentrate.

  Concentration is different from thinking, his Master had told him.

  When you are concentrating hard enough, you shouldn't be thinking at all.

  It was here in the map room that he had first understood what Obi-Wan

  had meant.

  He was concentrating so intently on separating the voices that he

  didn't hear Obi-Wan come in. His Master could move without making the

  smallest sound, but Anakin wanted to reach the point where he always knew

  when Obi-Wan entered the room. He wasn't there yet.

  Obi-Wan sat down beside him and waited for him to turn.

  "A mission?" Anakin asked hopefully.

  "No, we are at the Temple for a while," Obi-Wan said. "I haven't told

  you something I discovered on Haariden, something I told the Council about.

  That patrol was paid to attack us by Granta Omega."

  Anakin felt the nerves inside his body tighten. He realized he had

  been waiting for this. He had wanted to pursue Omega after their experience

  on Ragoon-6.

  "Why didn't you tell me before?"

  "You had enough to think about."

  Anakin knew that his Master meant his concern for Darra. He had

  haunted the med clinic until he knew she would fully recover.

  "Are we going after him?" Anakin asked.

  "Jocasta Nu is helping me do some research," Obi-Wan said. Anakin

  realized this wasn't quite an answer. "In the meantime," Obi-Wan continued,

  "I have something for you to do."

  "I am ready, Master."

  "I have arranged a private lightsaber tutorial for you with Soara

  Antana."

  Anakin felt his heart fall. Shame filled him. "Because of what

  happened on Haariden."

  "Yes," Obi-Wan said. "There is no blame, Padawan. Yet there are things

  you need to learn. Things that I have not been able to teach you."

  "There is nothing you can't teach me, Master," Anakin argued. But the

  real reason for Anakin's disquiet was a secret fear that Obi-Wan planned to

  leave him behind while he went after Granta Omega. Obi-Wan would do the

  real work while he remained behind like a schoolboy, taking lessons.

  "This is not your decision, Padawan." Obi-Wan's tone was sharp. "This

  is a great honor for you. Soara rarely takes individual students. She would

  not agree if she didn't think you had great potential."

  Anakin fought with his feelings. He did not want to confess to his

  Master that he was afraid Obi-Wan would leave him. "Yes, Master."

  The stern lines of Obi-Wan's face relaxed into a smile at Anakin's

  obedient tone. "You might have fun."

  Anakin looked at him with such disbelief that Obi-Wan's smile turned

  into a laugh.

  Later that afternoon, Anakin tucked the training lightsaber into his

  belt with distaste. He felt like a young student again. He found himself

  tugging at his tunic to straighten it before walking into the practice area

  to meet Soara. Quickly he rumpled it again. He wasn't a student any longer.

  He was a Padawan Learner.

  Soara didn't notice his rumpled tunic or his lack of enthusiasm. She

  nodded shortly at him. "Let's go."

  "Go?" Anakin was puzzled. Lightsaber training had always taken place

  in the practice room.

  She lifted a corner of her mouth in a small smile. "Do you expect

  there to be a practice room to fight in on missions?"

  Anakin grinned. "I guess not." Maybe he would enjoy this after all.

  Soara took him to the landing platform, where he jumped into an

  airspeeder next to her. Her piloting was as aggressive and graceful as her

  battle form. She took him to a part of Coruscant he'd never visited, a

  hundred levels or so below the Temple. Here, an entire quarter of the city

  was being knocked down in order to build new construction. Half-demolished

  buildings were surrounded by blocks of duracrete, bundles of durasteel

  cables, and towers of polished stone blocks.

  Soara parked the speeder and slid out. Anakin jumped out after her and

  looked around. The work had stopped for the day. The buildings threw deep

  jagged shadows over the walkways. There had once been an attempt to keep

  the walkways clean of debris, but the sweeping had been half completed and

  footing was treacherous. He waited to see what Soara would do.

  Soara did nothing. She picked her way over to a building and looked up

  at the frame being erected. "Housing," she said. "Coruscant always needs

  more housing. Amazing that people keep immigrating here. Do you know that

  building is the biggest industry on Coruscant?"

  Was he here for an economics lesson? "I didn't know."

  He tilted his head back to follow her gaze, following the durasteel

  frame of the building. Suddenly a shadow off to his left moved, and a

  figure leaped through the air toward him. Anakin saw a blaze of orange. A

  lightsaber!

  He just had time to jump back and fumble for his training lightsaber

  as he felt the sting of the blow against his forearm.

  "Got ya," Tru Veld said, grinning. His friend had come at him from the

  high steel doorway behind him. He bounced back on his flexible legs and

  saluted Anakin with a lightsaber flourish. He, too, was using a training

  lightsaber - able to defend, but not to harm.

  Confused, Anakin glanced at Soara, his lightsaber in his hand.

  "Do you expect your attacker to announce himself?" she asked.

  Tru came toward him again. Anakin somersaulted backward and then

  twisted to come at Tru from the left. He sliced the hem of Tru's tunic.

  "Missed me," Tru said, dancing backward. His silver eyes gleamed. He

  was having fun.

  Anakin reversed. His lightsaber hit Tru's. Smoke rose, and Anakin

  almost stumbled when Tru ducked and rushed at him, surprising him.

  Tru might be having fun, but he was serious.

  Anakin had barely missed being stung by Tru's blow. He emptied his

  mind of his surprise at Tru's appearance. He had to concentrate in order to

  gather in what he thought of as his battle mind. His attention expanded to

  i
nclude everything around him. And yet his focus was now entirely on Tru.

  Everything he knew about Tru clicked in and became information he could

  use.

  Tru was a Teevan, and thus his limbs were more flexible than Anakin's.

  Tru never played a game he wasn't certain he would win.

  Tru's left hand was stronger than his right.

  Tru liked to choose the rhythm of the battle.

  Anakin moved to confuse and unsettle his friend. He fought

  aggressively, then stepped back to lure Tru forward. He landed a blow on

  Tru's arm.

  Normally, a Jedi Master would announce points when blows were struck.

  The winning blow would be to the neck. Soara did not. He knew she was

  watching, but he tried not to think about it. Still, he felt her circling,

  watching them from every angle.

  Anakin used the ground. While he moved, he noticed everything - the

  cables, the blocks of stone, the tiniest pebble on the ground, the

  hydrospanner abandoned on the top of a block of duracrete. Someone's lunch

  bucket left on a grassy area by the walkway. He drove Tru steadily

  backward. Tru suddenly leaped high above and grabbed a pole with only his