title: Pawn: A Chronicle of the Sibyl's War
author:  Timothy Zahn 
description: TIMOTHY ZAHN is the Hugo Award-winning author of more than thirty SF novels, including <i>Night Train to Rigel, The Third Lynx,</i> <i>Odd Girl Out, </i>and the Dragonback sextet<i>.</i> He has also written the all-time bestselling Star Wars spinoff novel, <i>Heir to the Empire, </i>and other Star Wars novels, including <i>Scoundrels</i>. He lives in coastal Oregon.
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  [Contents](0671877356_toc.htm)
  
  ![](0671877356.jpg)  
  
  # **Chapter One**
  
  Sibyl Johnson didn't own a rifle.
  
  She wouldn't have known how to shoot one, if she had. And Tony Bartlett had
  vanished, apparently right off the edge of the world.
  
  None of which stopped Sibyl from wanting to center his face in the sights of
  an honest-to-God, high-powered varmint gun. Sibyl had spent her formative
  years increasingly disgusted with small-town drunken quarrels that led to
  knifings and shootings on Saturday nights. But if she _ever_ saw Tony Bartlett
  again . . .
  
  She'd do a whole lot more than _wish_ for a gun.
  
  Sibyl banged a fist against the steering wheel. _How could I have been so . .
  . so . . . _
  
  Stupid?
  
  Blind?
  
  Naive?
  
  Any number of scathing put-downs would be appropriate.
  
  Another lightning strike jerked Sibyl back into the present reality of
  creaking VW Beetle and steaming Florida heat. She tightened sweaty hands
  around the cracked