Darman took off his helmet. “Guta-Nay did a pretty good job of convincing Hokan we were targeting the villa. But we overplayed our hand by hinting that we had another squad.”

“Why?”

“It looks as if Hokan thinks one squad will be going after each target. So our chances of getting most of the droids in one location have taken a bit of a tumble.”

Etain raked her fingers through her hair and shut her eyes. “Time for a rethink, then.”

Darman replaced his helmet to watch the feed from the re­mote. Then the second cam came online. There was a shaky but clear view of the Neimoidian villa and its outbuildings, seen from the branches of a swaying tree. A wide path stretched away out of shot from the front of the house.

At least they could now see the size of the problem facing them. If Hokan tried to move Uthan, they had a high chance of spotting her.

But whichever remote view Darman switched to, there were an awful lot of droids.

“Okay,” Niner said. “Fi, you take the first watch on the re­motes. I’m going to see if we can get some backup. Majestic should be on station by now.”

“We were ordered to keep comm silence until we needed extraction,” Darman said, looking at Etain.

“Commander?” Niner said. “We’ve taken out the comm station. They can’t intercept our signal.”

Etain didn’t even pause. “Sergeant, you go right ahead and call up Majestic,” she said. “Ask for whatever help you think we need.”

Fi held up one hand. “Hey, we might have a break here. Check out the remote at the villa.”

Darman switched channels with a double blink. The dis­play in his HUD showed him a shot of a young boy in a scruffy smock walking around to a side door at the villa, a fruit-laden basket clutched in both arms. He knocked, and the door was opened by a droid. The youngster went in. There was something familiar about him, even though Dar­man had never seen him before.

He had a very characteristic walk.

“Tinnies wouldn’t have sent out for fruit, would they?” Fi said.

The kid’s gait reminded Darman of an old woman he’d re­cently slammed up against a barn wall.

“You’ve got to hand it to Jinart,” he said. “She’s certainly got guts.”

“Let’s hope she manages to get that fruit into the cellars.”

“Let’s hope she comes back out,” Etain said.

Dr. Uthan appeared to have forgotten that Hokan had hauled her across a desk by her collar, at least for the time being. She sat in one of the beige brocade chairs that really didn’t match her utilitarian office, listening to him with ap­parent patience.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity,” she said at last.

Hokan agreed completely. “I realize that you haven’t man­aged to create a delivery system for the nanovirus yet, but I think we might be able to help with that. Inhalation will work, yes? Could we introduce it into a sealed room?” He had ideas for ambush and entrapment. “Can that be done?”

“It’s one of several vectors,” she said. “And skin contact, too. But that isn’t quite what I had in mind.”

“Which was?”

“A live subject. I would like you to take one of the clones alive.”

“That wasn’t quite whatI had in mind. I tend to have prob­lems with the alive bit. Not my forte.”

“You can’t simply spray this agent around, Major. I told you we haven’t ironed out the genome specificity.”

“I have droid troops. While rust might be a health issue for them, I suspect that viruses aren’t.”

“Having a live test subject would almost certainly enable us to achieve weaponization faster.”

“If you allow me access to the nanovirus, I’ll do what I can to save one for you.”

Uthan shook her head. Her vivid red-and-black-streaked hair was scraped up in a tight bun on the top of her head, giving her an even more severe appearance. Not a wisp of hair escaped the topknot. “I can’t do that. While you might be an expert in combat, you’re not a microbiologist, nor used to handling hazardous substances. This is far too dangerous a pathogen for you to use at this stage of its development. I’m also not prepared to expend what limited samples we have on a risky counterassault.”

Hokan knew he could have taken it by force. But it would have been pointless. She was right; if the virus wasn’t in a state that could be weaponized, it was a long shot compared to the proven weapons he had at his disposal.

“Pity,” he said. “I’ll endeavor to learn more about this technology after we’ve dealt with the current difficulty.”

“So what happens now?”

“Sit tight. Stay in this suite of rooms with your staff until further notice.”

“What do we do if shooting starts?”

“The same.”

“What if they get through your defenses?”

“They won’t, but if it makes you feel safer, I’ll provide you with hand weapons for your personal protection.”

Uthan gave him a regal nod of the head and reached for a pile of notes. Then she went on reading, pausing occasion­ally to write something in the margins of the papers. Despite the brief showdown earlier, she didn’t seem afraid of him in the least: perhaps working with deadly organisms on a daily basis gave her a different perspective on threats.

“Something highly effective, please,” she said as he turned to leave.

“Commanding Officer Majestic,” the voice said. “That was fast. Position?”

Niner couldn’t get a video image on his HUD, but the sound was crystal clear. “That’s a negative on the extraction for the time being, Majestic. Requesting gunnery support.”

“Say again?”

“We’ll be needing gunnery support. It might get a bit hec­tic down here. A hundred droids.”

There was a second or two of silence. “Omega Squad, be aware that it might get busy up here, too. We have a Techno Union vessel standing off our port bow.”

“Is that a negative, Majestic?”

“No. If we cease firing, though, it may be because we’re repelling an attack ourselves.”

“Understood. Coordinates uploading now. On receipt of code Greenwood, direct cannon at this location. On receipt of code Boffin, this location. Enemy now has no comm apart from droid networks, repeat comm disabled. Knock your­selves out.”

“Received. My, you’ve been busy boys. Standing by, Omega.”

Niner shut his eyes and felt the relief flood through his stomach. He wasn’t exactly sure how they were going to de­ploy Majestic’s massive firepower, but at least they had it to fall back on.

“Are you making this up as you go along, Sarge?” Fi asked.

“You got a better idea?”

“I meant the code names.”

“Yes.”

“Classy.”

“And I meant it about the better idea.”

Fi drummed his fingers on the thigh plate of his armor. “I wish Skirata was around. What was it he always said? Turn the problem upside down. See it from the enemy perspec­tive.”

Etain glanced up, now a sure sign that Jinart was ap­proaching. They seemed to share a kind of radar. The Gurlanin slunk into the laying-up point and swung her head around. Darman and Fi gave her a mute round of applause and a show of thumbs up.

“Nice job, ma’am,” Darman said. “Amazing deception.”

“Thank you, gentlemen,” she said. “Uthan is definitely not in the villa. And your device is now sitting in Ankkit’s wine cellars, between a case of vintage Naboo tarul wine and a crate of thermal detonators. When you’re ready, you can give Qiilura its own asteroid belt.”

“That’ll make their eyes water,” Fi said.

“And ours if we’re too close,” Niner said.

“So what now?”

“Let’s do what Skirata taught us. Turn it upside down.”

The holochart plans of the facility once again hung in midair as the squad, Etain, and Jinart sat around it, seeking inspiration.

“Is this how you plan operations?” Etain asked.

“It’s not meant to be like this, no. You gather intel and then you plan and execute. This is what Skirata called a self– adjusting screwup. When the problem actually provides the solution to another problem. It’s there. All we have to do is work it out.” Niner didn’t mind admitting it was more guess­work than anyone should have indulged in. But then he’d been on two real missions now, and they’d both been the same. They hadn’t known what they were going into until it was too late. Intel. It was all about having reliable intelli­gence. “There’s three things you should never believe—weather forecasts, the canteen menu, and intel.”