"I think we should stop playing dangerous games." he said, quietly taking his saber back.
"I thought you liked playing dangerous games?" Mara murmured, eyes never leaving his, heart beating fast at her own audacity.
"Not here." he said simply, glancing pointedly at the surveillance lens in the ceiling as she released the hilt.
Was that a blanket dismissal or simply a deferral to a more secure venue? He was already walking away, effectively ending the conversation.
"You have another location in mind?" Mara baited to his back.
He laughed briefly without looking round as he reached the doors. When he spoke his voice was guarded, dry and amused in that calm, detached way he had, as if this had been a momentary distraction, nothing more. "Surprise me."
.
.
.
"What I want," Skywalker announced thoughtfully, arm rested on the table before him against the weight of the polymer braces and metal bars which held it together, "Is something on Mara Jade."
Reece shook his head decisively, "She's impeachable- you know that."
Luke glanced down, the long scar on his face wrinkling as he frowned in consideraton, "But is she? I don't think she'd ever go against a direct order, but I'm beginning to think maybe she'll skirt the edges of unspoken rules."
Reece took a breath, but Hallin asked before he could, "Wait- why do you want something on Mara Jade?"
Luke shook his head, the movement still stiff from too many injuries, his frustration at Jade clearly evident. "Because she's like my shadow at the moment. Everywhere I go she's right there behind me, too close for comfort. I want to know how much she's telling Palpatine- in what detail."
"Everything." Reece assured. "She speaks with him regularly and she submits a written report every two days- you know that."
"Is there any way to cross-reference her information with the information you supply? Get some feel for her reports?"
Again Reece shook his head, "No, I've tried that before, giving slightly inaccurate reports to see if I was picked up on it. I never have been." Despite his change in allegiance, Reece still carefully sustained his position as one of Palpatine's spies within Luke's household, passing on selected information, though now more in an effort to encourage specific responses than to give any real insight. Gaining his trust had been a major step forward for Luke, both in terms of his freedom within the Palace and his ability to pursue a greater plan, Reece's analytical mind and knowledge of the inner workings of the Palace and the Imperial military remained invaluable. "It doesn't help that I have no contact with Palpatine or any of his staff- my reports are made in isolation and sent by secure channel to Pestage- I have no feedback, none at all."
Luke fell silent, considering.
He, Reece and Hallin were in the drawing room of his private quarters, safe from the all-pervasive surveillance which was rife in the Palace. He didn't like meeting with them here like this, since although his Master's Internal Intelligence unit would have no idea what was said in the secure room, they would know that all three of them were there, which would perhaps be enough for them to consider pursuing it further. They'd gotten round this for the last few weeks by having Hallin visit early every evening on the pretext of carrying out a short medical check on his charge, Luke sometimes receiving his medic in his study or his library, both of which were bugged, but occasionally, if he had something to discuss, Luke made a point of being in his drawing room when he sensed Hallin nearing his apartments.
That Reece, as his primary Aide, was there was hopefully not something they would question, as he spent most of the day in Skywalker's company or at least very close by. Luke was playing on the fact that there had clearly always been a standing order by Palpatine that he was to be left alone as little as possible, always at least one of agent close by, and the fact that Reece was still considered to be a loyal agent, working for on Palpatine's behalf and sending covert reports to Pestage.
But at the end of the day if they cared to look carefully, someone may well begin to piece together the fact that the medic coincidentally seemed to visit his patient in one of the few rooms in the whole of the massive, sprawling Perlemian Apartments which weren't bugged at the same time as Mara Jade, Luke's other 'observer', always happened not to be present. So they wisely tried to keep these meetings short when they were in the Palace, aware that they were on borrowed time.
Now Luke considered, eyes in the middle distance, "I want to know where she draws the line - if she'll still pass on information that would get her personally into trouble; place her in an undesirable situation."
Reece raised his eyebrows in question, but Hallin spoke out again, "Why that?"
"Because she came into the Practice Hall this morning and..." he narrowed mismatched eyes in consideration, "I thought I could push her; make her back down but... she didn't."
He remained silent for long seconds, studying his memories of that morning then, as if realising his company, he shrugged, "Anyway, I have a feeling that I'm stuck here for some time and I need to start getting information in and out of the Palace or this chance will be wasted." Luke said of his opportunity to move against Mon Mothma. "Hallin, you said that Jade was reprimanded recently - that she told you she was now on parole. If she were to have to admit a failure in her duties - one which could be easily left unreported - would she do it?"
"How would you check?" Reece asked, logical as ever.
Luke considered; "That's where you come in. Let's try her with something small to begin with."
"When?"
"Tomorrow. I need to start moving around without being tailed anyway, so let's see what she makes of that."
"Why take the risk?" Hallin asked, ever the voice of caution.
"Firstly, it's the principle of the thing; I'm sick of being followed around. Secondly I need to test Jade; something's changed and I want to know why. Most importantly I need to regain access to Argot, and to do that I need to be in a secure situation; I'm not risking the identity of my only spy in the Rebellion. I also need to get information in and out which I'd normally attend to onboard the Peerless, and I need to speak to Karrde again - I have an assignment for his group and it's gonna take them a while to unearth all the names I need."
Luke had long used the relative freedom afforded by the Peerless' distance from Coruscant to hide his actions, customarily using the standard equipment within any of the numerous Comm Rooms onboard. The comm system would be locked down of course, but it was ridiculously easy to sit down in front of a system which was used by the same few people every day, simply rest his hands on the keys and know the operator's password; what toggles were routinely pressed in which order to release an open channel on a frequency assigned to one of the few comm officers who used that room. By this method, he could send out and download a few short, encrypted long-distance messages hidden within existing background comms which were reliably untraceable since he never used the same station or the same officer's access codes twice running.
The encryption systems he used were created for him by one of Karrde's slicers. Talon Karrde headed up Luke's favoured smuggling group, which he often relied on for the kind of intelligence information from underground sources which official operatives couldn't access. His Master often used Black Sun for the same pupose - which was exactly why Luke could not. Xizor was an arrogant, egotistical braggart who sold his soul to the highest bidder, but he wasn't so stupid as to cross the Emperor. Karrde, whose outfit Luke had come across when they almost successfully managed to cross his picket line twelve months earlier to deliver some clients cargo, had turned out to have at least some sense of moral obligation, and that same warped code of smuggler's integrity which reminded Luke so much of Han Solo.