Han lifted his head, exasperated, "I didn't know where the venue change actually was 'till an hour before!"
She shrugged, "He thinks I told you."
Han pursed his lips, annoyed; it was one thing to have Madine on his back; he could handle it and really didn't give a damn what the man thought about him at the end of the day. But it was something else to have him go after Leia; try to involve her in all this somehow.
"I've met nicer Hutts than that guy." He intoned darkly, making Leia smile as she reached out to squeeze his arm.
"Well, Tag brushed it off; she told him in no uncertain terms that if you were the spy they wouldn't exactly be drawing everyone's attention to the fact, now would they?"
"What'd he say to that?"
Leia shrugged, suddenly bone tired, "You know Madine." she said in dismissal.
"Yeah, I know Madine." Han stated dryly, "If it was up to the General, knowing Luke would be a capital offence. "You can take the guy outta' the Empire but you can't take the Empire outta' the guy."
Despite everything, in some strange sort of way, Leia knew Han still wanted to trust Luke. He didn't speak about it with her anymore - not like he had when it all first came out - but deep down, he still wanted to believe. But then it was hard for Han; he hadn't been here when the truth came out, when they found the evidence - solid evidence - that Luke was a spy. He hadn't been here when people had to make those connections and deal with the mounting facts, so he'd never laid it to rest as Leia had. And he didn't have Leia's responsibility; in her position she couldn't afford to trust, even had she wanted to. She had to look at the bigger picture, take the safer route.
Han had always adamantly claimed that in all the time he'd been held captive on Coruscant nobody ever asked him anything. Why keep him there if not for information, he'd reasoned. He hadn't exactly helped his cause by arguing with Madine on several occasions that if Luke was a double-agent then he would surely have made the effort to drag something from Han in that time, especially if he had no intention of returning to the Alliance under his pseudonym.
But then he had gotten information from Han. He'd simply managed to manipulate Han into volunteering it rather than drag it from him. Maybe it amused him... one last game for old time's sake. The end result was the same any way you looked at it; he'd managed to close down the last reliable base they'd had on Coruscant. That was what Madine saw.
Three in the Core Systems, if you counted the two which had been closed down within hours of Leia and Chewie passing through on their own 'escape'.
And he'd consistently used Han to instil suspicion in the Alliance ever since. Used him to hide the fact that the Empire had a spy here- to confuse and distract. Everyone kept looking to Han because Luke always made him the scapegoat... and Han still defended him!
No, no matter what Han thought, they'd all been led a flawless dance by whoever the hell he was- because he wasn't Luke Skywalker; or if he was, he wasn't the Luke Skywalker he'd claimed to be when he was here.
The turning point, at which Han had finally stopped speaking out, hadn't so much been the debacle at Bothawuii as the end result. In fact, for a brief time in those first few days when Han alone had had escaped the Fury, when she had thanked every lucky star she'd ever wished on that he was back and safe, when Han had told her that it was Luke who'd caught him, Luke who'd let him free... for just a few days, she'd begun to wonder again; begun to hope.
And then the news had gone out over the HoloNet and Leia had chided herself for letting Skywalker get to her one more time. For wanting to hope.
Because now there was nothing left to argue, even for Han. Mon Mothma was dead, Luke's complicity in the action undeniable. It had been, from beginning to end, his campaign. He had reeled her in using knowledge he'd clearly gained whilst he was with the Alliance, had used typically covert, calculating methods to capture her then taken her to Coruscant to give her to his Emperor like a gift. Had watched her dragged through some sham of a trial - barely even that at a paltry five days long - and had, sources said, attended her execution.
Mon was dead because of Luke. No-one else; no room for misinterpretation. No blurring of allegiance or commitment.
Even Han had no answer to that; even he had fallen to uneasy silence.
The crackling ship's comm sounded a tone, marking the shift change, and Han rose, grabbing his cup
"I gotta go fill this again or I'll never stay awake for the briefing, let alone the flight." he said apologetically, pushing his chair back. "I'll be at your meeting- I'll make it a point."
Leia smiled at his promise, knowing he wouldn't let her down. He winked, turning about and disappearing into the crowd as all the blue-suited pilots in the mess hall slowly made their way to the doors in various states of exhaustion.
She swore sometimes this whole outfit was held together by caffeine and duct tape.
Leia watched him go as the mess emptied to near-silence, then sighed and stood herself. She hadn't told him the rest; hadn't told him that Madine had specifically asked that if Han attended the meeting it was to be entered into his Intel file.
Didn't tell him that she privately wondered if Skywalker was doing this on purpose It had after all instigated a major split in the Alliance's hierarchy; made them seem unstable, both amongst themselves and to the galaxy at large. Leia had been voted in as the new Commander in Chief of the Alliance just days after Mon's execution, and one of the first things she had to sign was a veto allowing a file to be opened by Alliance Intelligence on Han.
Tag Massa had been her usual gracious self, assuring Leia that this was just routine; standard operating procedure stated that she had to open the file if she had more than three requests to do so from officers on active duty, and although she would open one, she saw no reason to waste her staff's time in pursuing it.
The file would be opened, nothing more.
But it got out- these things always did; not into the general populace but certainly into the various Intelligence communities who plied their trade in the shady ground between the Empire and the Alliance. There it was well known that the leader of the Alliance was in direct contention with one of her own senior officers over the fact that she was protecting a possible spy. Hardly the bright new prospect she'd been hoping to bring to her role.
Tag had reassured Leia, as usual, that these things blew over in time, and pointed out that despite his military genius Madine was in many ways a straightforward man who dealt with this kind of problem in a straightforward way, believing that sometimes, in the absence of any other evidence, one must act in support of what appears to exist.
What had been made to appear, Leia knew- and she knew who by. This wasn't the kind of convoluted game Vader played; it was closer to Palpatine's form, but that didn't feel right either. No- she knew exactly who was playing these games, setting these traps, muddying the water.
Tag had maintained, when Skywalker first began rounding up the Bothans, that as far as The Heir was concerned, his relationship with the Alliance had long been a case of 'You don't bother me and I won't bother you'. Not surprisingly, with the assassination attempt he believed they'd crossed the line. As far as he was concerned, the Alliance had made a declaration of war and now it was open season.
And Leia couldn't help but think - remember Tag's warning from long ago;
"If they do decide to make an assassination attempt, then I will do my level best to make sure it's flawlessly executed and hope with all my heart that it will be successful- because Force help us all if it's not."