The Hutt spread his arms wide. "You all know me here. I am only an ordinary businessperson trying, like the rest of you, to survive on a world where I was not born. Thanks to the warmth and openness of Ansion's people, I have prospered here. Think now: would I really do anything to jeopardize all that I have accomplished, everything that I have built?" Casting a kindly gaze in the direction of the barely controlled Padawan, he all but wept openly. "Is this the kind of understanding we can expect from envoys of the Senate if we consent to accept this concordance the Jedi bring before us?"
Oh, but he was clever! Barriss saw. The fat slug was an expert at twisting words to fit the situation. He might be lacking in minutiae like a conscience, or scruples, or legs, but words he had in abundance. She understood now why Master Luminara had warned her to keep silent. One of the first things a true Jedi must do, she remembered reluctantly, was learn to control her temper. At critical moments such as this meeting, personal feelings and individual emotions could not be allowed to intrude.
So she held in the fury she was feeling, did not try to employ the Force to wrench the smug, bloated Hutt's eyes out of his swollen head, and sat still as a sculpture chiseled in stone while delegates and Jedi discussed the terms of the proposed agreement between the city and town folk and the Alwari of the open plains.
She took some small satisfaction in Soergg's obvious tight- lipped displeasure when the final vote went nine to two in favor of adopting the concordance, with Kandah and an Ansionian from the southern communities voting against it. She also drew some edification from observing how effortlessly and smoothly Soergg subsequently lied, blandly conceding the fairness of the vote and vowing to uphold the terms of the treaty.
Taking her cue from her training, as well as from what she had just observed, she made her way unchallenged through the congratulatory postvote crowd to confront him directly. He loomed above her, massive but slow moving. Though she did not show it, it did her heart good to sense the first stirrings of fear within him.
"I hope to meet you again some day, Soergg." She smiled flatly. "Perhaps in surroundings and under circumstances where diplomacy is irrelevant." She nodded tersely to where Luminara and Obi-Wan were conversing with several of the other delegates. "And where the expression of my inner feelings is not subject to external constraints."
His response was a shrug that sent repulsive ripples through his lumbering body all the way down to his lump terminus of a posterior. "I bear you no ill will, little Padawan. Business is only business." But his tone, she noted, belied his words. In reality, he was furious and upset.
"Who hired you to try to stop us?" she couldn't keep from blurting. "I know who you paid, but who's paying you?"
He laughed, a deep and thoroughly unpleasant ho-ho-ho. "Ah, little one, you may know much of Jedi secrets, but nothing of business or politics. Paying me for what? I do whatever I do because it is good for my trade. Always the Jedi seek wheels within wheels, complications in matters simple."
"There's nothing simple about an entire world voting to join a movement that would see it seceding from the Republic."
"Secession? Why, that is a dead issue. Was it not just voted down, in your very presence?" he boomed softly.
"Then you'll abide by the new treaty between the city folk of the Unity and the people of the plains? You won't try to subvert it?" She glanced suggestively back in the direction of the entrance, toward the spot where the frantic, shouting intruder had been cut down by the very being she was talking to. "I don't suppose the individual you shot could have been carrying any incriminating evidence with him, could he?"
Soergg looked away, an action that was suggestive in itself. "An insidious notion, little Padawan. One unworthy of one as attractive as yourself." Emerging from between rubbery lips a fat, mollusklike tongue thrust briefly in her direction.
While the Hutt's tortuous reasoning was not sufficient to cause her to break off the confrontation, the repulsive gesture and attendant compliment were more than enough to drive her away. She rejoined her colleagues.
"It's time we were all of us on our way," Luminara observed. Turning, she waited while Obi-Wan thanked the representatives
for their consideration, and commended them on their wise decision to remain within the Republic.
Once outside, Barriss tried to put aside her anger as she si dled up next to her fellow Padawan. "How are you feeling, Anakin?"
He was studying the sky, clearly anxious to leave. "Much bet ter, now that our work here is done." Seeing that she was still staring at him, he added, "Is something the matter?"
"No. It's just that I think I may have misjudged you. I've come to know, and to understand, you a little better in the time we've been thrown together, Anakin. I realize now that you're searching for something. Searching harder than most of us, I think." Reaching out, she put a hand on his arm. "I just want to say that I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for."
He glanced over at her in surprise. "I'm looking to become a Jedi, Barriss. That's all."
"Is it?" she challenged him. When he chose not to respond, she added, "Well, if you ever feel the need to talk to someone besides Obi-Wan about it, you're welcome to confide in me. If nothing else, maybe I can provide a different perspective on certain things."
He hesitated, then replied gratefully, "I appreciate that, Barriss. I really do. I know it would be easier to talk to you about- certain things-than to Master Obi-Wan." He nodded in the direction of the two conversing Jedi.
She laughed softly. "Anyone is easier to talk to than a Jedi Master."
In agreement on that much, they began chatting in earnest, conversing for the first time with the straightforwardness and ease of old friends.
Luminara eyed them approvingly. It was important for Pa- dawans to get along, because one day they would have to get along as Jedi, sometimes under the most difficult circumstances. Like Anakin, she too took a moment to glance skyward. Beyond the pure blue sky of Ansion, the Republic was in ferment. To the ordinary citizen all would appear normal, but those who were privy to the larger picture knew that vast forces were stirring- and not all of them benign. There was evil afoot. It was the task of the Jedi to root it out and render it harmless. But how was that to be done, when not even the Jedi Council was sure of the source or positive of its intent?
Not for someone like her to decide, she knew. All I can do is my job.
No, there was something else she could do. For a little while, at least. Lengthening her stride, she moved to catch up with Obi-Wan Kenobi; to seek his opinion on certain matters of significance, to congratulate him one more time on a job well done, and last but hardly least, to delight in the pleasure of his company.
There were some small pleasures not even a galaxy full of contentious factions and rising conflict could take away.
The three had arrived at Bror Tower Three one at a time, so as not to attract attention. Turbolifts had carried them to the 166th floor. While not as secure as an aerial transport, neither were the rooms holding the exhibition of the work of several of Coruscant's most prominent luminos artists the place where one would expect a trio of the capital's elite to be planning sedition.