"Exiled," Karrde murmured. "Yes. And I take it whatever Thrawn's true mission was, Parck stayed behind to complete it?"

"Basically," Luke conceded. So much for the clever little cover story Palpatine had created to explain Thrawn's departure from the Empire. But then, Karrde had always been good at reading between the lines. "I wish I could be more specific."

"That's all right." Karrde smiled. "I suppose the New Republic has to have some secrets."

"Not that they have very many from you anymore," Mara said. "So what's the story on this Dean Jinzler?"

Karrde shrugged. "He's a middle-age man, somewhere in his sixties. Quite intelligent, though he's apparently never made much of a name for himself in any profession or system. He traveled around quite a bit during the Clone Wars, though the details of his activities are sketchy. He joined the organization about a year ago with certificates in comm tech, droid maintenance, and hyperdrive tech."

"Impressive credentials," Mara commented. "Doesn't sound like the sort of person you'd stick in an Outer Rim Dead Zone station."

"Well, that's where it gets interesting," Karrde said heavily. "When I pulled up his file, I discovered that about eight weeks ago he himself asked for a transfer to that particular post."

Luke and Mara exchanged looks. "Now, that is interesting," Mara said. "Eight weeks, you say?"

"Yes," Karrde said. "I don't know if it means anything, but that was just about the time my researchers finished pulling together the material I'd asked for on Nirauan, Thrawn, and associated topics."

"Sounds like our boy Jinzler may have a certificate in creative eavesdropping, too," Mara said. "I presume we have someone digging up everything we can on him?"

"We do," Karrde said. "Unfortunately, it's going to take time. In the meantime, Admiral Parck has apparently sent you a message important enough for Jinzler to consider worth stealing. The question is what exactly we do about it."

"I don't see that we have any choice," Luke said. "Until we know what the message says, we can't even begin to guess what Jinzler might want with it." He shrugged. "So I guess we're off to Nirauan."

Beside him, Mara stirred in her chair, and he sensed her sudden tension. But she remained silent. "I was afraid you'd say that," Karrde said heavily. "Given all I don't know about your last trip there, I do know that you were chased out of the system. True?"

"Not exactly chased out," Luke said. "On the other hand, I'll admit I've never felt we'd be especially welcome if we went back. But the situation's changed. If Parck has a message for us, I assume he'll at least wait until he's delivered it before he tries to shoot us out of the sky."

"Not funny," Mara muttered.

"Sorry," Luke apologized. "I'm open to other suggestions."

"Why can't you just signal him from here?" Karrde asked. "Between the Venture and the HoloNet, we should be able to boost a signal that far."

Luke shook his head. "No. He sent the signal through your station, not the regular HoloNet. And he addressed it to me, not the Senate or anyone else on Coruscant. That implies it's something he doesn't want leaking out."

"A little late for that," Karrde murmured.

"Even so, we can't risk running any of this through regular communications channels," Luke said. "And under the circumstances, we'd better not trust your network with it, either. Jinzler may have left friends behind in case of follow-up messages."

"I suppose that makes sense," Karrde said reluctantly. "Mara? Thoughts or comments?"

"Only that if we're going, we'd better do it," she said, her voice under careful control. "Thanks for the heads-up."

"Under the circumstances, it seemed the least I could do," Karrde said. "It also occurred to me that if you went, you might prefer to use that alien ship you brought back from there. I've sent Shada and Wild Karrde to go pick it up."

"A nice thought," Luke said. "But I don't think we've got time to wait for it."

"Definitely not," Mara agreed. "Thanks anyway. How many people have you told about that ship, by the way?"

"Just Shada," Karrde said. "No one else."

"Good," Mara said. "I'd like to keep it a secret a little longer, if we can."

"No problem," Karrde assured her. "If and when we dig out information on Jinzler, shall I send a courier to Nirauan to meet you?"

"Don't bother," Luke said. "Chances are we'll be heading straight back to Coruscant within a couple of days anyway."

"And never mind Jinzler's history," Mara added. "You just concentrate on tracking down the man himself. The last time secret information slipped through our fingers, we nearly ended up with a civil war."

Karrde winced. "Yes; the Caamas Document," he said. "Don't worry, we'll find him."

"Good," Luke said. "We'll talk to you when we get back to civilization."

"Right," Karrde said. "Good luck."

"And happy hunting to you," Luke said.

He touched the comm switch, and Karrde's face vanished. "Well, like you said, the trip was starting to get routine," he commented.

Mara didn't answer. "I take it you're not happy about all this?" Luke suggested as he punched for the nav computer.

"You mean about going to Nirauan?" Mara asked, her voice thick with sarcasm. "Nirauan, where I single-handedly destroyed their whole docking bay deck for them? I'm sure Parck's just dying to see me again."

"Oh, come on," Luke soothed. "I'm sure he's gotten over that by now. Anyway, it's really Baron Fel you should be worried about. He was probably the one in charge of the fighters you wrecked."

She turned a high-voltage glare on him. "You're just dripping with cheer and good humor today, aren't you?"

"Somebody has to be," Luke said, giving her a totally innocent look.

Mara held the glare another moment. Then her face softened. "You're as worried as I am, aren't you?" she asked quietly.

Luke sighed. "I can think of only one reason Parck would suddenly want to talk to us," he admitted. "Probably the same reason that's already occurred to you."

Mara nodded. "The unidentified enemy he told me was coming this direction," she said. "The one that had both him and Fel seriously concerned."

"Unless they were lying about that," Luke suggested. "They were trying to talk you into joining them, remember."

Mara turned to look out at the canopy. "No," she said. "No, they were convinced. They might have been wrong, but they were sincerely wrong."

"You're probably right," Luke agreed. "I wish now we'd brought Artoo with us. He came in pretty handy the last time we were there."

"We're not going down to the planet itself," Mara said firmly. "Besides, I know Leia is a lot more comfortable having him aboard during this stage of Jaina's flight training."

Behind Luke, the computer beeped completion of its task. "Here we go," he said, feeding the course setting into the helm.

"It's almost funny, you know," Mara commented thoughtfully. "You actually called it, not fifteen minutes ago. Remember?"

Luke grimaced. Especially since I made it clear to Leia at the start that we weren't supposed to be disturbed unless it was a flat-out invasion. "The Force is strong in my family," he murmured.

"So I've heard," Mara said. "Let's just hope that was you talking and not the Force. Come on; let's get this over with."

Two days later, they reached the Nirauan system.

"Looks quiet enough," Luke said as they flew through space toward the battle-scarred planet itself. "No fighter patrols or anything else I can pick up."

Mara was silent a moment, and Luke could sense her reaching out with the Force. "I'm not getting anything, either," she said. "I get the bad feeling Parck wasn't expecting us."