Read Online Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore - Free Book Online

truth, he didn’t want even the trusted stooge Tinoktin to see his true, self-disfigured face, with its strange eye, a reflection of Nom Anor’s highest show of devotion on the day he was awarded the position of executor among the Yuuzhan Vong, and first advance scout for the Praetorite Vong invasion force.
    He had taken the eye out with the sharpened end of a burning stick. Of course, he had filled that hole in his face with yet another marvelous organic innovation, a plaeryin bol, a creature that looked much like a normal Yuuzhan Vong eyeball, but its pupil was really a mouth, and one that could spit a venomous glob accurately across ten meters at the command of its host, by a simple twitch of Nom Anor’s eyelid.
    “I am impressed with Mara Jade’s ability to resist the spores,” he admitted.
    “Everyone else you tested them on was dead or dying within a few weeks,” Shok Tinoktin replied. “Most within a few days.”
    Nom Anor nodded. His coomb-spore formula had indeed proven wonderfully effective, breaking down the victim’s molecular structure and causing horrible death in short order. If only he could find a way to make the not-so-subtle shift from simple poison to disease, where the spores could become self-propagating, spreading on their own from being to being and thus infecting large populations.
    Nom Anor sighed and scratched his head yet again. Thespores—coomb, brollup, tegnest, and a dozen other varieties-were but a hobby, one that he had been able to insert into his official duties in attempting to develop some method for easily killing the supercreatures, the Jedi Knights. Also, such alchemical work, if successful, could prove critical in Nom Anor’s ascension to the rank of high prefect. But in those endeavors and aspirations, to date at least, it appeared as if he had failed, for Mara Jade Skywalker had somehow defeated the spores, or at least had held them at bay.
    “Do you have the shlecho newt?” he asked.
    Shok Tinoktin nodded and reached into his pocket, producing a small brown-orange lizard.
    “Make certain that it gets near to Mara Jade’s mouth,” Nom Anor explained, and Shok Tinoktin, who had heard the explicit instructions several times already, nodded. The coomb spores Nom Anor had used in his lethal blend were the favored delicacy of the shlecho newt, and if there was any trace of them at all on Mara Jade’s breath, the little creature would surely detect it.
    “I shall escort them in,” Shok Tinoktin offered, and after a confirming nod from Nom Anor, the man turned on his heel and walked from the room.
    Nom Anor rested back in his chair, considering the upcoming meeting and the potential gains he might find. He thought it quite humorous that Rhommamool’s enemies on Osarian were so fearful of the meeting that they thought Leia’s recognition of Nom Anor in such a manner would strengthen his prestige and, therefore, power. For, in truth, Nom Anor hardly cared for any such gains in prestige at this time. In fact, his thinking went to quite the opposite. He carried all the emotional weight and influence he needed to control the weak people of Rhommamool, or of any other planets on which he planned to stir up trouble, but beyond that immediate sphere of influence, Nom Anor preferred anonymity.
    For now.
    No, Nom Anor was looking forward to this meeting simplyso that he could gauge the effect of his infection upon Mara Jade, and so that he might learn more of the Jedi in general, including Leia, a woman he knew would prove pivotal in the upcoming events, and Jaina, who might prove to be a weak link to get to Leia Solo, perhaps even to Luke Sky walker and Mara Jade. That was one of his missions here, to identify those most dangerous foes and to find some way to minimize their effectiveness. Occasions such as the Osarian-Rhommamool conflict, where Nom Anor could also further the effects of the internal squabbles among the humans and their allies, could
bruk tukken nom canbin-tu
,