Amedda considered it. “Have you been able to learn anything?”
“Only that the entire family managed to slip out under our very noses, and that there has been no sign of them since.”
Amedda’s lethorns stirred. “What will you do without Galen?”
Krennic came to a sudden stop. His mouth was open, but no words emerged; then he managed to say: “He’s not the Empire’s only genius crystallographer.”
“That contradicts what you were telling me four years ago.”
“Erso didn’t tamper with any of the research data. Professor Sahali and Dr. Gubacher are confident that they can take up where he left off.”
“At least they are still with us,” Amedda said, fixing Krennic in his gaze.
“Trust me, Vizier.”
“We have, and perhaps beyond your abilities. There are some who think you should be here, in this building, supervising the renovations.”
Krennic didn’t believe it for a moment, and decided not to dignify the remark with a response.
“An overseer is certainly in order,” Amedda added.
Krennic snorted. “Is that why Tarkin has been assigned command of the Sentinel bases?”
Amedda spread his large hands. “He is merely there to safeguard against further setbacks. It pleases the Emperor to keep him close to you.”
“That’s Tarkin’s job—to monitor me?”
“Not entirely. But should the need arise.”
“It won’t.”
“Then the Emperor will be even more pleased.” Amedda paused, then said: “Finish what you started, Commander.”
Krennic marched from Amedda’s office with four stormtroopers falling into formation behind him. A shudder went through him as he passed teams of droids at work in the wide, colonnaded hallway.
He could hope that Amedda had been persuaded to accept that the Special Weapons Group was picking up the slack. The fact was that work on the superlaser was stalled, and Galen’s insights were needed more than ever. After all he had done for Galen! Fame would have come to him. Grandeur. Legacy. Without his science, Galen was a nonentity.
And Lyra…
Flushed with anger, he peeled his gloves off as he walked and threw them violently to the polished floor.
He would leave no stone unturned in the search for them.
***
Jyn stared out the front window of Saw Gerrera’s spaceship. There were too many lights to count. But she knew that some of them were balls of fire—stars—and that others had houses and buildings, inhabitants. Planets.
“Which one?”
“It’s too far away to see,” Saw said.
“But we can go there?”
“If your mom and dad want to.”
“Through hooperspace.”
He smiled at her. “Hyperspace.”
She corrected herself. “Hyperspace.”
“Should we go tell them what we found?”
“You can tell them.”
She unfastened the restraints and put her boots on the deck. When Saw stood up from his seat she reached out to take his hand, her small pink one in his big brown one, and they walked out of the cockpit together.