Star Wars
Shadows of the Empire
by Steve Perry
upload: 10.IV.2006
source: IRC
FOR DIANNE; and for Tom "Mississippi" Dupree, who put me in the rotation
and thus let me get a chance to bat
Acknowledgments
I could not have written a book set in such a wonderfully rich and
complex universe as this all by myself. I had help, lots of it, and I owe
thanks to many people. You should know who they are. My apologies to any I
might have missed, and the usual caveat applies: If I screwed up their input,
it is my fault and not theirs. If you are a fan of the books, comics, games,
or movies, you'll probably recognize some of these names.
My gratitude goes to: Tom Dupree; Howard Roffman, Lucy Wilson, Sue
Rostoni, and Allan Kausch; Jon Knoles, Steve Dauterman, and Larry Holland;
Bill Slavicsek; Bill Smith; Mike Richardson, Ryder Windham, Kilian Plunkett,
and John Wagner; Timothy Zahn, Kevin J. Anderson, and Rebecca Moesta; Jean
Naggar; Dianne, Danelle, and Dal Perry; Cady Jo Ivy and Roxanne de Bergerac.
I'd also like to thank the fans in the Star Wars Forum on America Online-I got
some great ideas as I lurked and listened there. And last but certainly not
least, thanks to the man who dreamed up, then built this absolutely terrific
toy in the first place: George Lucas.
Appreciate it, gang. Really.
"Face it, if crime did not pay, there would be very few criminals."
laughton lewis burdock
Prologue
He looks like a walking corpse, Xizor thought. Like a mummified body dead
a thousand years. Amazing he is still alive, much less the most powerful man
in the galaxy. He isn't even that old; it is more as if something is slowly
eating him.
Xizor stood four meters away from the Emperor, watching as the man who
had long ago been Senator Palpatine moved to stand in the holocam field. He
imagined he could smell the decay in the Emperor's worn body. Likely that was
just some trick of the recycled air, run through dozens of filters to ensure
that there was no chance of any poison gas being introduced into it. Filtered
the life out of it, perhaps, giving it that dead smell.
