How to Take an Empire

Chapter Seventy-Four: Choice

"Do you know exactly what?"

"I don't know. It depends."

Depended on exactly how privy to her secrets Ahsoka had allowed Bail to be. How much he'd been told by either his young daughter or his wife. How much he might have inadvertently observed for himself.

"How long ago did you get this information?" Vader demanded.

"A few hours ago."

"And have you warned the Rebellion?"

"I don't have Ahsoka's direct comm. Diya's not answering."

"I'll contact Ahsoka," Vader decided. "And I don't care how risky it is. Put a team together to get Organa out that prison."

Sabé nodded.

Vader cut the comm and once again ignored a second hailing from the Emperor, putting in the comm frequency that Ahsoka used for the Rebellion. She'd given it to him to contact her in the case of an emergency. This felt emergency enough.

After a few seconds, the comm lit up, and Ahsoka's head and upper torso came into view.

"Vader. What are—?"

"The Rebellion has to evacuate. Now."

Ahsoka frowned, her lips twitching some as though she was debating what to say. Finally, she said, "We already are."

"Have you been attacked already?"

"No," Ahsoka admitted. "Just... I just woke up a few hours ago with a feeling. We've been preparing ever since."

Vader hadn't been aware that Ahsoka was so in tune with the Force to sense an impending attack that could still be more than a few hours away.

"A feeling?" Vader asked.

"It doesn't matter." Before Vader could press, Ahsoka continued, "What intel do you have?"

"Sabé's found where the Empire has been holding Bail Organa and has been observing his status. He was suddenly marked for extermination. Sabé thinks it means they got something out of him. She's not exactly sure what, but it was enough that he'd outlived his usefulness and wasn't worth torturing for more information."

If Ahsoka was affected by that information, she didn't show it. She simply nodded and understood what Vader was asking.

"He didn't know anything about you. He knew I had a high ranking informant in the Empire, but not exactly who."

"Did you tell him any of the exact nature of the intel you got?" Vader asked.

"No. When I gave High Command reports, it was always mixed in with the rest of my intel. Nothing special or distinguishing."

Maybe not, but certainly there was some intel that Vader had given Ahsoka that she would have only known because she'd gotten it from him. Depending on what Organa knew, it wouldn't be much of a stretch for anyone looking at the data to put the pieces together. It certainly wouldn't be a stretch for the Emperor, a man powerful with the dark side of the Force, to put the pieces together and figure out his betrayal.

"The Emperor knows," Vader stated.

He expected her to tell him not to be too hasty or so paranoid, to stop and think and lay out all the pieces and the different possibilities.

Instead, Ahsoka frowned and looked down before saying, "I think he knows too."

"He's been hailing me for the last ten minutes. There's no telling what for. Whatever it is, I think it's a trap."