"Master Kenobi, what is it?" Palpatine asked. He had moved his arm away quickly and was now adjusting the high collar on his cloak.
"An assassination plot against you, Supreme Chancellor," Obi-Wan said.
"Granta Omega is behind it. I am sure of it. Sano Sauro would be nominated by Bog Divinian as your successor."
Palpatine thought this over. A small smile crossed his thin, bloodless lips. "Of course. That would be the inevitable next step."
"You don't seem very concerned about your potential assassination,"
Anakin said.
Palpatine waved a hand. "My personal safety ceased to be an issue the moment I took on this position."
An odd thing to say, Obi-Wan thought, for a man who had developed his own security force, the Red Guard, whose masked members used force pikes as weapons.
"I'll order a lockdown," Palpatine said. "That means every door will open only with a retinal scan."
"Omega and Zan Arbor are probably already in the building," Obi-Wan said. "My guess is that Teda got them past security."
"I have monitors on the water system," Palpatine said. "There are no reports of sabotage."
"I advise you to shut down the entire system," Obi-Wan said. "We can't take a chance."
Palpatine hesitated. Then he got out his comlink, notified Mas Amedda, and gave the order.
"And now I will go to the assembly," he said.
"But Supreme Chancellor, you can't," Obi-Wan argued.
"But Master Kenobi, I must," Palpatine said softly. For the first time in his acquaintance with the Supreme Chancellor, Anakin sensed something underneath his composure — just a hint of anger, striking as fast as a serpent, and then gone.
A red light began to glow on Palpatine's comlink.
"The most serious alert," he murmured, and accessed it. He listened for a moment, then shut it down.
"It could be nothing. A valve in a water tunnel won't function. They wouldn't have noticed it, but when they shut down the water system, the valve came up as non-functioning."
"Where?"
Palpatine gave him the coordinates, and Obi-Wan turned to Anakin.
"Stay with the Chancellor."
"But Master — "
"Anakin, stay! Don't leave him!" Obi-Wan's order floated back to Anakin as his Master ran off.
Chapter Seventeen
Stay.
Obi-Wan was off to face Granta Omega, and Anakin was now just a bodyguard.
Palpatine's pale gaze studied him.
"You can go."
"I can't disobey my Master. I can't leave you alone." "If I call my Red Guard they can be here in three minutes. Less."
"It would not matter," Anakin said miserably. "Obi-Wan told me to stay."
"Well, let us walk, then. I am scheduled to preside over the vote on Senator Divinian's proposal."
"But my Master told you not to go."
"True. But unlike you, I do not have to obey an order of caution."
Caution. Obi-Wan's caution drove Anakin crazy.
"The work of the Senate goes on," Palpatine continued as they began to walk. "To keep going on, no matter what the obstacles — that is what a leader must do. I have learned, Anakin, over the course of my political career, one important thing: I cannot let anyone get in the way of my service. In the beginning, I doubted myself. Who am I, I asked myself, to decide fates, to make rulings? Then the answer came to me. I must do it because there is no one else who can do it better." Palpatine chuckled.
"Oh, I'm not saying I'm keeping the Republic together single-handedly. But fate has thrust me into this position — and I would be untrue to myself as well as the galaxy if I did not utilize everything I have and everything I am in order to succeed at it."
Palpatine's serenity was almost eerie. It was as though, Anakin thought suddenly, Palpatine was above this, looking down. As though criminals like Granta Omega were merely toys to be observed. Where did he get that confidence? Anakin was reaching out blindly, trying to probe the Supreme Chancellor, but his powers were not that developed. He kept meeting a wall.
"What I wish," Palpatine said, "is that you will realize this one day, too. That it is right to use every means at your disposal. I'm sure your Master would agree."
Anakin had his doubts. He saw Siri and Ferus pounding down the hallway.
"Ah," Palpatine said. "Reinforcements."
Siri halted in front of them. "Where is Obi-Wan?" "There was a security breach and he went to check it out," Anakin explained.
"Coordinates," Siri rapped out.
Anakin gave them to her, and she turned to Ferus. "Stay here with the Supreme Chancellor. I'll contact you if you're needed."
Ferus nodded. He did not seem to have the same conflict about the order that Anakin did. Siri raced down the hall.
"You go, too, Anakin," Palpatine urged him. "One Jedi is enough protection."
Anakin hesitated. He would be disobeying a direct order from Obi-Wan.
But Obi-Wan had given the order before Ferus had shown up. And even though Palpatine had dismissed the idea that the water valve malfunction could be a security breach, Anakin felt in his bones that it was Omega, just as Obi- Wan had.
"If it is Omega, he is too dangerous an opponent to allow to escape,"
Palpatine said. "The future of the Senate is at stake."
Ferus said nothing. His dark eyes moved from Palpatine to Anakin. He knew that whatever he said, Anakin would not take it into consideration.
Anakin made his decision. He turned to Ferus. "I have to go. Don't leave his side."
He didn't have time to wonder if Ferus was annoyed that he had given a fellow Padawan an order. He felt the urgency of his mission. Everything in him pointed the way to a showdown with Omega. And it was just as Palpatine had said: Only he knew what he was capable of. Only he knew the right thing to do.
Chapter Eighteen
Obi-Wan splashed through the water tunnel. There were only a few centimeters of water on the bottom, but the tunnel was sweating water, and it dripped steadily on his head and down his neck. He had examined the valve that caused the malfunction alarm, and he was almost certain it had been caused by a blow, probably from a tool. There was a deep, fresh scratch on the valve, and part of the edge of it was bashed in, lying flush against the tunnel itself, making it impossible to open it. Had Omega and Zan Arbor attempted to open the valve and failed? Was the damage a result of frustration, or miscalculation?
It didn't matter. What mattered was that they were here.
The sound of dripping water magnified in his ears until the soft plinks sounded like loud clangs. There were so many branches of the tunnel that he wasn't even sure where the main tunnel ran. He wasn't lost, exactly — not yet — but he wasn't terribly comfortable with his sense of direction at this point. Obi-Wan splashed down another quarter-kilometer. He had to go slowly, for fear of making too much noise, but at this rate, he'd never find them. The Senate complex was as large as a mid-sized city on some planets. If Omega and Zan Arbor decided to hide, it could take some time before he could find them.