"We need to find out." Reece said at last, voicing Luke's own worry; "If Palpatine already knows, then the best line of action would be to inform him of your knowledge too, without delay."
"Except that he'll want to know how I found out." Luke replied, "And I'm not admitting to Argot"
"He already knows you have an informant in the rebellion headquarters." Hallin reasoned.
Luke ran his fingers back through his unruly hair in consideration, clasping his hands at the nape of his neck. "We need to get the Rebellion to check the codes they have- if they've been disabled or nullified then I'll take this to the Emperor. For now, I think the best course is to sit back and watch. Now that Argot is in the loop, I'll be kept informed."
Reece frowned; "It seems strange that Argot only got this information now."
"Only Madine knew." Luke smiled ironically; "They think they have a spy in their midst. Tag Massa has been charged with keeping a close eye on Solo." He glanced over to Hallin as the medic straightened in realisation, "And yes; that is the other reason I keep letting him go."
.
.
.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
.
.
Luke sat crouched down against the wall on the wide balcony which ran the length of his apartments in the Palace, the humid heat of the balmy summer day still being leached from the pale stone even this late into the evening, warm against his bare feet. His shirt was undone at the collar and cuffs, the muggy breeze ruffling through the openings without cooling him, the hot, humid air twisting his dark hair into loose curls.
He heard a noise from the double-doors beside him and didn't need to turn to know that Hallin had walked out, pausing as he glanced about, then walking to lean companionably against the wall beside him in silence.
The heat rippling from the pale travertine tiles took Luke's mind unstoppably back to the baking deserts of his childhood, leaving him melancholy, as he often was on his return to the Imperial Palace. Strangely, he felt more completely alone here in the Palace, surrounded by people, than at any other time.
He'd been summoned to Court again, as he had been every evening since returning to Coruscant. Another massive room of nervous deference and empty lipservice, fear and fascination in every face. Everyone jostling for position to draw close to a man they didn't even know, lies on their lips and distrustful dread in their minds; they exuded it; like sweat. Terrified to be near someone they knew could kill with a thought, the only thing that could overcome their fear was their greed; their desire for power and position.
Didn't they know- couldn't they understand that he knew this of them, that they made him what they feared. He didn't see their faces anymore, only their lies, and he felt no guilt about using or removing them; they'd do the same to him, given the slightest chance.
And Palpatine, always so amused at Luke's distaste, always playing his own little power games among his own sea of nervous faces....
Were they so different anymore, he and his Master? The thought chilled him; set a tense knot of restless disquiet in his stomach, jaw tightening in revulsion. The heat soothed though; took him far away, and he followed it willingly.
"Do you ever wish you could go home, Hallin?" he asked quietly without looking up.
"Do you?" Hallin asked, sliding down to a crouch on the warm stone beside him.
"No..." Luke said without conviction.
They remained quiet, comfortable in each-others presence without needing to fill the silence, watching the sun slowly sink behind distant buildings, red sky settling out to velvet night.
"I guess... sometimes I wish I could go back to that person though."
"I think you're still more that person that you realise." Hallin assured mildly.
To the edge of Hallin's vison, Luke glanced down in silence, uncomfortable as ever with even this small concession. But then they were seldom made to him, Hallin knew- especially here.
"You grew up on... Tatooine?" he prompted, hoping to draw Luke out- but he politely avoided, as he always did.
"Yes. You?"
Hallin glanced out over the encroaching dusk of the City Planet. "Here- but in Osin Province, close to the equator." He smiled, picking at a pebble embedded in a crack of the pale travertine floor. "See, I like the heat too. I'm not at all taken with this whole winter thing that they have in the Capital- I think it's highly overrated."
Luke smiled, a gentle laugh in his voice, "Yeah, I stayed on some planet in the Hoth system for a while- wasn't impressed."
Hallin frowned, "Hoth System?"
"One viable planet- just. But it's ice, too far from its sun. The surface is feet deep in snow and glaciers. I think the whole time I was there the temperature never rose above minus thirty. The novelty of snow wares off just about the same time as you step off the end of the ship's ramp and realise just how cold minus thirty actually is."
"How long did you stay?" Hallin asked.
"I don't remember." He avoided, unwilling as ever to hand out details. "Too long."
They were silent for a while, but it was a comfortable silence on both parts, Hallin knew; he was privileged to be among the very few trusted even this far.
"Mara's on her way." Hallin said into the silence; the reason he'd come out.
He knew Luke liked a little time to himself before the mindgames of Court and would never normally intrude, but Luke seemed talkative tonight in an open, informal way. Which was why Hallin felt able to ask his next question- that and the fact that nobody else would.
"May I ask- do you trust her?" he turned to study The Heir as he spoke, though Luke's eyes remained on the horizon.
"No. And neither should you."
Hallin frowned, genuinely unsure, "Then why are you with her?"
Luke left just a single hearbeat too long; "With her?"
Nathan remained silent, neither pushing for acknowledgment nor moving the conversation along, giving Luke the time to decide whether to give a little on this one. He stared out in mute silence for so long that Hallin thought he had chosen to ignore the question.
Then he sighed, glancing down, "Because I made a mistake and now I can't back out. She's a liability which I have to..."
Hallin waited, but Luke didn't finish whatever he had begun to say, so he posed another question, "Do you... care for her?"
"I'd be a fool to do that." Luke said.
"Ah but you'd be a member of a very large club, whoever your companion was. I myself have an impressive string of bad decisions under my belt. I'm an honorary lifetime affiliate."
Luke smiled into the growing shadows without looking at him, "I know."
Hallin turned, but Luke didn't offer more, eyes still on the distance, so he sighed, throwing the tiny pebble he'd dug free out before him to skitter across the pale stone. "Are we talking about the present or the past?"
"Present. The past is past." Luke said genially.
"Maybe not completely..." Hallin ventured, keeping his voice light.
When Luke didn't answer, he sighed again, mind brought to his present indiscretion. "It seemed like such a good idea at the time..." He grinned wickedly, "Actually it didn't, but nature is a powerful persuader. It doesn't care who you are or where you are or what your plans. It has its own agenda."
Luke laughed lightly, "And a loud voice." he agreed readily and Nathan smiled, scuffing at the floor with the toe of his impeccably-polished boot.
"I never understand why people always meet in the glasshouse," Luke finally said of Hallin's imminent clandestine rendezvous in one of the massive enclosed glasshouses to the rear of the Monolith roof, more properly named the Winter Gardens. Though he often accompanied Luke, Hallin's presence in Court wasn't actually required, and he'd intended to slip away tonight for a little encounter of his own.
"Because there's a gap in the security grid if you must know." He defended lightly, surprised by Luke's specific knowledge but not minding the intrusion- because it was Luke.