"Like a complete idiot," Mara pointed out, standing behind him. "Suppose he'd taken a shot at you?"
Jinzler's lips compressed briefly. "I guess I didn't think about that, either."
Mara glowered a look over his head at Luke. Luke shrugged microscopically: he couldn't detect any lie either.
Which, unfortunately, wasn't conclusive proof one way or the other. "All right, so you heard someone," he said. "What did you see?"
Jinzler shook his head. "Nothing, I'm afraid. Whoever it was must have heard me coming, because there was no one in the generator room when I got there. I was looking around, trying to see if I could spot anything out of place, when all of you burst in on me."
Luke looked back at the lounge door, where the stormtrooper and the two Chiss were silently observing the interrogation. The Chiss, he noted, had made a point of standing as far away from the armored Imperial as they could without abandoning the doorway entirely. "Thank you all for your assistance," he told them. "Jedi Skywalker and I will handle it from here. You may return to your other duties."
"He was found in a restricted area," one of the Chiss said stiffly. "He must answer to General Drask."
"He's an ambassador from the New Republic government," Luke countered. "There are certain rights and privileges associated with that title. Furthermore, I don't remember General Drask or Aristocra Formbi saying anything about any part of the ship being restricted."
"What about him?" the other Chiss demanded, jabbing a contemptuous finger toward the stormtrooper. "He cannot claim ambassador's privileges."
"He was with me," Mara said. "Or were you planning to deny ambassador's privileges to me, as well?"
The Chiss looked at each other, and Luke held his breath. Technically, neither he nor Mara had any official standing here, apart from being Formbi's guests. He still didn't know what had gone wrong with the Chaf Envoy's lights and engines, but he suspected Drask would be perfectly justified in declaring a state of emergency and confining all non-Chiss to their quarters.
In which case, Mara's attempt to pull rank might be looked upon very suspiciously, reflecting not only on them but on Formbi as well. In the subtle pull-war going on between the two Chiss leaders, that might have long-reaching consequences.
But for now, at least, the crewers didn't seem inclined to make a challenge out of it. "We will wait in the corridor," the first Chiss said. "When you are finished here, we will escort you back to the public areas of the vessel."
He looked at the stormtrooper. "The faceless soldier is invited to return to his proper place right now," he added.
The stormtrooper stirred, as if choosing from among the various possible responses. "Go ahead," Mara said before he could pick one. "Please thank Commander Fel for your assistance."
"Acknowledged." Swiveling in a crisp military about-face, the stormtrooper disappeared out the door. The two Chiss gave short bows and followed.
Quietly, Luke let out the breath he'd been holding. One of the best things about stormtroopers, he reflected, was their willingness to instantly and unquestioningly obey orders. It was, of course, also one of the worst things about them. "All right, Jinzler," he said, pulling a chair up in front of the older man and sitting down facing him. "We've been very patient with you up to now. But game time is over. We want to know who you are and what you're doing here."
"I know you've been patient," Jinzler said, nodding. "And I very much appreciate it. I know you've both stuck your necks out for me—"
"Stalling time is over, too," Mara interrupted, coming around from behind the couch to face him, remaining on her feet as she leveled the full weight of her stare down at him. "Let's hear it."
Jinzler sighed, some of the stiffness going out of his shoulders as he dropped his gaze to the deck. "My name's Dean Jinzler, just as I told you," he said. "I work sort of on the edges of Talon Karrde's intelligence organization—"
"We know all that," Mara cut him off again. "What are you doing here?"
"A gentleman came to me a little over eight weeks ago," Jinzler said. "A rather old gentleman, flying a spacecraft of a type I'd never seen before."
"What was his name?" Luke asked.
Jinzler hesitated. "He said he didn't want me spreading it around... but I suppose you two would be all right. He said his name was Car'das."
Luke looked at Mara, feeling a ripple of shock from her that echoed his own surprise. That was a name he remembered quite well.
"Car'das?" Mara demanded. "Jorj Car'das?"
"That's the one," Jinzler said, nodding. "He said he'd once been an associate of Karrde's. Do you know him?"
"Never met the man," Mara said, her voice carefully neutral. "Though not from lack of trying. How do you know him?"
"I don't, really," Jinzler said. "I'd never seen him before that day. He came to me and suggested—strongly—that I put in for a transfer to the sector relay post at Comra. He said there would likely be a message coming through soon that would be of great personal interest to me."
"And you just went?" Luke asked. "Not even knowing who he was?"
"I know it sounds crazy," Jinzler admitted. "But frankly, I had nowhere else to be just then. Besides, there was something about him..." He trailed off.
"Okay, so you transferred to Comra," Mara said. "I take it this message he mentioned was the transmission addressed to Luke that you filched?"
Jinzler winced. "Yes," he admitted. "It showed up about, oh, I guess it was a little over a week ago now. I—" He looked up at Mara, his lip twitching in a slightly shamefaced smile. "—I filched it, grabbed one of our courier ships, and headed for the rendezvous point Formbi had specified."
"Only the ship didn't make it," Luke commented.
Jinzler blinked. "How did you know that?"
"We're Jedi," Luke reminded the other pointedly. "What happened?"
"The hyperdrive gave out in the Flacharia system," Jinzler said. "It would have taken me more than a week to repair it by myself, and I didn't have enough money to hire out the job. Fortunately, at that point Car'das showed up again and offered me a lift."
"Really," Mara said. "What an intriguing coincidence."
Jinzler lifted a hand, palm upward. "Maybe he was following me to make sure I got here okay. I never saw him on my sensors, but with a courier that doesn't mean a whole lot. He did say—" He broke off.
"He did say what?" Luke prompted.
"It didn't make any sense to me," Jinzler said. "All he said was that he was trying to fulfill a promise he'd been neglecting for a very long time."
"Did he say what that promise was?" Mara asked. "Or to whom it had been made?"
"Neither," Jinzler said. "Actually, the way he said it, I had the odd impression he wasn't talking to me so much as he was talking to himself."
"Okay," Luke said. "Go on."
"That's all there is, really," Jinzler said. "We came into the outer Crustai system and Car'das sent a message in. Formbi came out in the Chaf Envoy's glider and picked me up."
"What did he think of Car'das?" Mara asked. "Or had Car'das left by then?"
"Actually, the two of them had a long talk together while I was transferring across to the glider," Jinzler said. "I didn't understand the language, but it sounded a lot like the one the Geroons were speaking when they first arrived. They finished their conversation, I introduced myself as Ambassador Jinzler from Coruscant, and Formbi brought me back to the ship. And that was that."
Luke nodded. Straightforward enough, and they could presumably confirm some of the details with Formbi. Assuming Formbi was willing to talk about it, of course. "Okay, that's the how," he said. "Now let's hear the why."
"There was a Jedi aboard Outbound Flight," Jinzler said. "Well, actually there were several Jedi aboard. This particular one was named Lorana Jinzler."