Part 14 (1/2)

”What did she say?” Ula asked let.

”Something about a Sith. I didn't catch all of it. ”

Ula glanced at the Imperial envoy, who studiously avoided everyone's gaze.

Yeama waved for reinforcements. A line of Weequay moved in, followed by Potannin and his opposite number on the Imperial side. There was more confusion as all three columns tried to squeeze through s.p.a.ce for one. Ula lost sight of Larin, and craned for a better view.

”Why don't you go closer?” asked Jet.

”I, ah, don't think that would be safe. Do you?”

”I think it's all relative, right now. ”

Shamed, Ula headed toward the widening hole. Jet followed, leaving his droid to watch the entrance. Seeing Ula moving in, the Imperial envoy followed, not wanting to be left out. The tunnel through the rubble was crowded with people. What lay at the end of it was not clear through the smoke and dust. Blasterfire cast strange lights into the haze, and Ula distinctly heard the sound the Mandalorian's jetpack. On top of that sc.r.a.ped the volatile hum of lightsabers.

They pa.s.sed a twisted sheet of metal that might once have been the security air lock's outer door. The smell of ozone was overpowering.

”Down, sir!” cried Potannin on seeing him.

Ula let himself be dragged to a relatively sheltered position behind a wall of rubble. From there he still couldn't see the action, but he could see the back of Larin's helmet. She was crouched next to Yeama, sighting along her rifle. Her voice came clearly across the sound of battle.

”Still no alarms, eh?”

Ula didn't hear the Twi'lek's reply.

A ma.s.sive explosion brought down most of the ceiling, deafeningly loud. Ula put his back to the stone s.h.i.+eld and covered his ears with his hands. Ash and debris rained on him in thick waves. He closed his eyes tightly.

When he tentatively removed his hands, an uncanny silence had fallen. All he could see were people jostling for position, as pale as ghosts. Rubble continued to fall from the roof. Beside him, Jet slowly inched his head upward to view what was going on.

His expression changed to one of astonishment.

”What the brix is that?”

Before Ula could look for himself, a voice spoke, female and full of rage.

”We do not recognize your authority A chill went through him. He had heard that phrase before.

CHAPTER 15.

s.h.i.+gar stood at one corner of an equilateral triangle, with the young Sith and Dao Stryver occupying the others. The Mandalorian hesitated, clearly surprised to see them both.

”It's a small galaxy, ” reflected s.h.i.+gar.

”You know him, too?” The Sith's hostile facade cracked just for an instant.

”You should both have let it be, ” said the Mandalorian. ”This doesn't concern you. ”

”You were killing people on Coruscant, ” s.h.i.+gar said. ”Of course it was my concern. ”

”Stay out of this, ” the Sith snarled. ” He's mine!”

”I've beaten you once already, ” Stryver said. ”Being killed won't honor your mother's actions. ”

The young woman turned a shade of red brighter even than her hair.

The Mandalorian raised his left arm and blasted her with his flamethrower.

s.h.i.+gar ducked and rolled, wondering about the scene that had just played out. Fate had delivered all three of them to the same place at the same time. They were all after the same thing-whatever it was inside the vault-and they had a narrow window before the Hutts realized what was going on and brought the entire weight of the palace's security forces to bear on them. Stryver would want to move quickly and decisively. Yet he had stopped to chat to the Sith girl. Why?

It was clear that all the talk of her mother had been a ploy to distract her. Her rage was fully enflamed now, which would make her stronger, if she survived the next few seconds. s.h.i.+gar juggled several options. Retreating to the vault and leaving them to it was one, but there was only one exit from that position, meaning that he would have to face Stryver eventually. And the Mandalorian had bested him, too. Better to fight now, when there was at least a chance that the Sith might serve as a distraction.

Flames roared after the girl's cartwheeling silhouette. s.h.i.+gar came at Stryver from the opposite side, swinging his lightsaber to deliver a crippling blow to the shoulder. Stryver raised his arm to block, and s.h.i.+gars blade skated along the powerful Mandalorian armor, leaving a bubbling welt but not penetrating. A hatch in Stryver's pack opened and a collapsible shockstave fired into his hand. s.h.i.+gar came in for another strike, and the shockstave stabbed at his chest, blasting him from his feet.

On Stryver's other side, the Sith burst from the flames, lightsaber upraised and hatred blazing in her eyes. Her leap took her over the flamethrower's deadly jet and was timed to deliver a spearing thrust to the Mandalorian's domed helmet. He ducked with startling speed for one so big and thrust the shockstave up at her. She cut it in half, kicked him off-balance, and returned for another slash.

s.h.i.+gar was back on his feet, circling to take Stryver when an opportunity arose. Again the flamethrower burned, but the element of surprise was lost. The Sith girl easily batted aside the flames. Instead Stryver cast a razor net at her. She ducked its piercing barbs and attempted to shock him with lightning. His insulated suit took the charge and grounded it into the floor, blackening and buckling it. s.h.i.+gar took the chance to Force-push Stryver to his knees, but the Mandalorian was as solid as a mountain, and he had other weapons he hadn't revealed yet.

From a thigh hatch, Stryver produced a stubby pistol. He pointed it at s.h.i.+gar and fired a single time. s.h.i.+gar dodged but not so quickly that the fringes of the shot missed him completely. He was tossed like a leaf into the wall and slid to the ground, temporarily stunned.

Stryver turned the weapon on Ax, who dodged more effectively than the slow-witted Jedi had. She had recognized the weapon instantly and knew how dangerous it was. Disruptors were outlawed in every civilized part of the galaxy. She wasn't surprised to see one on Hutta, in a Mandalorian's gloved hand.

Ax also knew that handheld disruptors were effective at short range only and could manage a bare handful of shots. If Stryver kept firing and missing, the weapon would soon be useless. So she kept moving around her enemy, practically running on the walls of the battle-blackened security air lock, goading him on by hurling broken gla.s.s at his joint seals. Twice, he narrowly missed her, and even the fringes of the beam sent powerful shock waves through her flesh. Only her rage kept her going. She used the pain to fuel the dark side.

The third time he fired in their little dance-the fifth shot overall-she barely felt its aftereffects. The weapon's charge was dying. Grinning with triumph, she turned her circling run into a headlong launch. Time to bring the fight back to him.

He met her attack with a vibroblade aimed at the throat. She screamed, trying to drive her blade through his armor with all the strength of her muscles and willpower combined. His buzzing blade was so close it brushed her skin, raising a fine spray of blood, but still she didn't let up. The Mandalorian was reeling back on his feet from her attack. This was the best shot she'd ever had.

His jetpack activated with a whine. Suddenly they were moving, jerking upward as though lifted by a giant puppeteer. Taken by surprise, Ax lost her grip and fell away. Stryver rose above her on twin jets of fiery exhaust. She rolled to avoid their intense heat and covered her eyes from the glare.

Stryver stopped when he reached the domed recess that had once held the tinkling chandelier, and hovered there, punching commands into his weapons systems. Ax had just enough time to realize that he now had the advantage of height before a strong hand gripped her wrist and dragged her aside.

A stream of missiles struck the ground, exactly where she'd been lying. The Jedi had saved her, and she wrenched herself from him, even as she felt a twinge of grat.i.tude. Surely he hadn't done it out of the vile goodness of his heart! No, she told herself. He knew he couldn't defeat Stryver on his own. It was either save her or be the next to die.

Concussion missiles blew her and the Jedi into the security air lock's inner door. They separated to avoid another round, which blasted the door back into the antechamber, exposing the four vault doors and the hole through which Ax had entered. She had a split instant to note that one of the vault doors was glowing bright red, then a rain of blasterfire came from an entirely different part of the room and she realized that someone else had joined the party. The Hutts, presumably, had noticed that their treasure was at risk.

Before she could take advantage of the s.h.i.+ft in the battlefield, the Jedi launched himself at Stryver, deflecting missiles away from him as he came. The missiles exploded into the ceiling, bringing down huge swaths of masonry on all three of them. A large chunk struck the Mandalorian, dropping him from his superior vantage point. Ax dodged a slab large enough to crush a bantha and sought her bearings in air suddenly thick with dust. Shadowy figures danced around her-ta.s.seled Weequay, officers in Imperial uniforms, Gamorreans, and more-but Stryver was nowhere to be seen among them. Either a stunned silence had fallen or her ears were overwhelmed by the most recent explosions.

Red light played across the battlefield, then died. Just light, no concussions. Ax blinked and turned to find the source, remembering as she did the glowing vault door. Not a random hit from the Mandalorian's weapons systems, as she'd initially a.s.sumed. It was clear now that the door had melted entirely away, releasing the vault's precious contents to all comers.

No one was breaking into the vault, however. That much was immediately apparent from the splatters of molten metal on the antechamber floor. It was, rather, the other way around.

s.h.i.+gar moved closer, weaving around the newcomers to the fight. They had provided an unexpected but very welcome distraction, yet he worried now about the danger they were putting themselves in. Stryver was down but not out, and the Mandalorian had wiped out an entire cell of the Black Sun syndicate on Coruscant single-handedly. s.h.i.+gar-his head still ringing from the near-miss with the disruptor-knew that Dao Stryver would stop at nothing less to achieve his goals on Hutta, if he had to.

For the moment, though, all eyes were on the vault. The Hutts' security measures had failed. Someone had melted the door and gained access to the inside. s.h.i.+gar wondered if they had come up the floor of the vault, much as the Sith had attempted. But if so, why not leave that way? Why go to the trouble of melting another exit?