Midnight in the Garden

Chapter 27: The Crucible

"Mistress Padmé," said See Threepio, gold chrome arms waving, "Jedi Master Mace Windu is just outside with a complement of troops! They are ordering that the premises be searched! Oh, my!"

"Calm down, Threepio, I'm sure it's all right," said Padmé, and went to the door.

"Master Windu, good evening," she said, with a small genuflection of her head.

"My lady," said Windu with a hasty bow. "I doubt you've heard this, because the Council and the Chancellor have demanded the utmost secrecy. But we are once again on the trail of Darth Sidious. A hyperwave transceiver was located in the Senate Office Building earlier today, and we're ordering a scan of all those who work in that vicinity -- premises and personal effects. As a security measure, of course."

"This is highly irregular -- not to mention inconvenient," Padmé said. "I've only just gotten in from a day out."

"It is necessary, my lady," said Windu. "Everyone who works in that area is being searched."

Padmé frowned. "Well, considering who we're looking for, it seems reasonable," she said, and started to let him through.

Then she held up her hand. "Wait!" she said.

Windu stopped.

"Before any of you cross the threshold, you must scan yourselves first. Yourselves, and all of your equipment."

***

Anakin piloted a small speeder aimlessly through the air traffic lanes around the Capitol. Finis Valorum sat stiffly at his right. Anakin would have preferred a larger speeder so that the former Chancellor might busy himself in the back, but events had rushed forward in a tumult and he had been forced to grab the first speeder he could get.

He glanced aside, trying to fill the uncomfortable silence. "So ... who was coming over to Padmé's on such short notice?" he said.

"Some Senate business," said Finis vaguely. Anakin, who had always read him well, felt an uneasy stir at that -- plus, since when did Finis Valorum, who did nothing these days but monitor the news and study historical and political texts, not know precisely what was going on?

"You know more than that," said Anakin.

"I'm sure that Padmé will tell us more about it," said Finis, "when we get back." An answer that failed to satisfy Anakin; but before he could press further, Finis said, "I notice my wife has suddenly seen fit to dye her hair. You haven't ... observed any further improprieties, by any chance?"

Anakin swallowed back a rush of bile. "I expect no better from Palpatine. But why do the two of you insist on repeatedly putting me in this position?"

Valorum said nothing. Anakin glanced over to find him staring stonily ahead at Republic Plaza.

"I see," he said at last, with a little nod.

Silence grew between them; Anakin began to feel very sorry for him, watching the man's face.

"Do you think you'll end up getting a divorce?" he said finally.

"I don't know. Most likely." Finis looked down to make some needless adjustment to his sleeve. "If Padmé suddenly became obsessed with him, could you stay with her?"

Anakin held back a smile at the unlikely mental picture. "I don't think that's correct, exactly," he said.

"You don't. Kissing him like a lover, changing her hair ... it's as if she's trying to turn the clock back twenty years. I don't care what weapons you bring her to wear about her neck. I'm surprised she hasn't engineered the fall of the Republic already."