Thrawn Ascendancy Book 3: Lesser Evil
- Автор: Зан Тимоти
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: Random House
- ISBN: 9781473596580
- Жанр: Боевая фантастика
Электронная книга - «Thrawn Ascendancy Book 3: Lesser Evil». Краткое содержание книги:
“I’d have thought you’d have had enough of solitude.”
“And that I would thus welcome conversation?” Yiv asked. “With you?” The jaw snapped shut, the tendrils on his shoulders giving a slightly magnified twitch. “For someone who has made the arduous trek to my final resting place, you are curiously ignorant of my situation.”
“How so?”
“I have had many conversations over these last months,” Yiv said. “All have been long. None has been pleasant. Solitude is my companion, not my enemy. Do you think you have found a new topic that would change that balance?”
“Not a new topic, no,” Ar’alani said. “But perhaps I have a new angle on an old topic you probably thought you’d grown weary of.”
“And what would that topic be?”
“Betrayal.”
Yiv gave a booming laugh that seemed to echo oppressively from the stone walls of his private prison. “You are indeed a lost child,” he said scornfully. “So many have pressed me in vain to betray my generals or my people. Do you truly think you can succeed where they have failed?”
“Your generals no longer exist,” Ar’alani told him. “They squandered the empire you left them in vain attempts to take power. Your conquered nations are once again free, and the remnants of your people are scattered and lost.”
“So others have told me,” Yiv said calmly. “I believe it no more from you than I did from them. Why else would you keep me alive, save to bargain me to the might of the Nikardun Destiny when it brings you to your knees?”
“We keep you alive because we don’t slaughter defeated enemies,” Ar’alani said. “And because you may still have useful information.”
“I will tell you nothing.”
“Though up to now your journals and records have mostly given us everything we need,” Ar’alani continued. “Tell me, which of your allies encouraged the construction of listening posts KR20 and KR21?”
“We have no allies,” Yiv said scornfully. “We need none. We are mighty conquerors who stand on our own.”
“Of course,” Ar’alani said, mentally crossing her fingers. If her bluff didn’t work, she would have made this trip for nothing. “Still, after all that’s happened—including your disappearance—I imagine Jixtus pretends he wasn’t your ally, either.”
The tendrils hanging from Yiv’s shoulders gave a subtle twitch, as if they’d detected something bad in the air. “What nonsense are you babbling now?” he demanded.
“Didn’t they tell you?” Ar’alani asked, feigning surprise. “Your friend Jixtus has a new set of allies now. Or maybe tools would be the better word. Allies, tools—they seem to be the same with him. At any rate, they’re busy converting the two listening posts he suggested to you into minor shipyards.”
“That he suggested to me?” Yiv asked, his tone changing. “What are you talking about?”
“I told you, General,” Ar’alani said. “I’m talking about betrayal. Jixtus persuaded you to build those listening posts because he needed a pair of structures in those particular spots and figured he’d let you do all the work. Unfortunately, the plan wouldn’t work with their original Nikardun crews, so after they were up and running he made a precise attack on both bases, killed everyone aboard, then set about rebuilding them to his own specifications.”
“You lie,” Yiv said flatly.
Ar’alani shrugged as she pulled the remote from her pocket and keyed it on. The cell’s wall display lit up with one of the vids the Vigilant had taken on its last check of the ruined base. “See for yourself,” she invited.
Yiv watched in silence until the vid ran to the end. “More,” he said.
Ar’alani keyed the next one. Yiv again watched to the end, again without comment. Without waiting for another order, Ar’alani keyed in the next vid, then the next, switching from outside views to the ones her survey team had taken of the base’s interior. That one finished and she started to key up the fifth vid—
“No more,” Yiv said softly.
“I’m sorry,” Ar’alani said, a bit surprised to realize she actually meant it. “It’s hard to watch your people being betrayed by an ally.”
“How would you know?” Yiv countered acidly. “You Chiss have no allies.”
“Perhaps not,” Ar’alani conceded. So no denials, no complaints, no accusations. Did that mean her guess was correct, that Jixtus really was the one behind Yiv’s campaign against the Ascendancy? “That doesn’t mean we don’t have a great deal of experience with betrayal on a personal level.”
“For a commander it is always personal, is it not?” Yiv smiled, his symbionts again twitching. “Oh, yes, I know who you are, Admiral Ar’alani of the Expansionary Defense Fleet. Tell me why you are here.”
“To show you the evidence of Jixtus’s betrayal.”
“No,” Yiv said. “Gloating is beneath you. Why are you here?”
“For information about Jixtus,” Ar’alani said. “We know he’s working with the Kilji Illumine”—now for the second bluff—“and the Agbui. Does he have other allies we don’t yet know about?”
“The Agbui,” Yiv said contemptuously. “Creatures of loud arrogance and silent uselessness, able to persuade a target merely into doing what he already wanted to do.”
“They do have a high opinion of themselves,” Ar’alani agreed, a shiver running up her back. Yiv could be as scornful as he liked, but Agbui uselessness had nearly pushed the Ascendancy into civil war. “Are there others?”
“There are other names.”
“Allies?”
“Perhaps,” Yiv said. “Perhaps simply names of those Jixtus encountered or had heard of. But even those names may yield useful results under careful analysis.”
“Ah,” Ar’alani said, eyeing him closely. “And what will these names cost us?”
Yiv regarded her thoughtfully, the tips of his symbiont tendrils tracing out small patterns across his chest. “You want more than simply names or species,” he said. “You want times and locations of meetings and conversations. You want bits of information that were too vague or unrelated to Nikardun triumphs for me to bother adding to my records.”
The tendrils gave a final twitch, then settled back to their earlier slow undulation. “You want everything there is to know about Jixtus and the Grysks.”
Ar’alani felt her back stiffen. That was a species name she hadn’t heard before. “Jixtus’s people are known as the Grysks?”
“Yes.” The cleft jaw cracked into a smile. “That name was offered at no cost. The rest will have a price.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to be free of this place,” Yiv said without hesitation. “I want to see the sun and the stars again. I want to feel the wind in my face and at my back, and to walk for more than twenty paces before encountering a barrier. I want life again.”
“You know we can’t do that, General,” Ar’alani murmured, her heart sinking. So close, and yet so far.
“Because you need me in custody to trade to the Nikardun Destiny when it threatens to overwhelm you?” Yiv turned to look at the wall display, where the last frozen image from Ar’alani’s vid remained. “The Destiny is no more. I know that.”
He looked back at Ar’alani. “I have no fleet, no soldiers, no power. I’m not a threat to the Chiss. There is no reason you can’t send me away.”
“I’m sorry,” Ar’alani said. “Even if we just moved you to a cell on the surface—”