Part 17 (1/2)

”I'm telling the truth. ”

”I'll count to five. Then I'll start hacking up your friend here. And then it'll be your head, I promise. ”

The Sith approached the last surviving member of Ula's security detail. He backed nervously away.

”One. ”

The box containing the navicomp was in Ula's possession. All he had to do was surrender it to the Sith and Larin would be saved. And he would safely deliver the information to the Empire. It was a simple solution to all his problems.

”Two. ”

But Ula couldn't move. The Sith and the Empire weren't the same thing. Oh, to trillions they were inseparable-the Emperor himself was the Sith to whom all others deferred!-but to him they were very different. On the one hand, the Empire offered a society of rules and clearly defined justice that could, if allowed to do so, bring peace and prosperity to every planet in the galaxy. On the other, oppression and constant conflict. Could he in good conscience give any advantage to the followers of the latter? Would Larin want him to?

”Three. ”

If only he could deliver the navicomp to the Minister of Logistics. With it in her hand, she could surely find a way to turn it to their advantage. The Empire was so huge it wouldn't miss this world's resources, for all the squabbling over them now. All Ula wanted was the chance to prove the rightness of his principles. He didn't mind the existence of the Sith, but they shouldn't be allowed to run roughshod over everyone else.

”Four. ”

Yet there was no point dreaming. The Minister of Logistics might have been in another universe entirely. He could no more give her this vital piece in the puzzle than he could stand up to the Sith himself and survive. He was just a p.a.w.n in a game much larger than he could imagine. He was insignificant and disposable. How foolish to think that he could ever have changed the way this would turn out! The navicomp had been earmarked for the Sith the very moment she arrived.

”Five. ” The Sith moved in to start slas.h.i.+ng.

”Wait!” he called out.

All eyes turned to him. The Sith glared at him with hateful eyes. Jet looked as shocked as though Ula had sprouted wings and flown up to the ceiling. Larin's expression was hidden by her helmet, and that was the one he most wanted to see.

”Here, ” he told the Sith, holding up the navicomp. ”Take it. Just leave her alone. ”

The girl's expression became hungry, triumphant. Ula didn't want to get any closer to that blade than he had to. He hefted the box and tossed it to her.

At the height of its arc, a gleaming web reached in and s.n.a.t.c.hed the box clean out of the air ”What-?” Ula spun around.

The Mandalorian caught the box neatly in one hand and tossed something back to Ula in return. He caught it automatically. It was a heavy metal sphere with a blinking red light.

”No!” screamed the Sith, robbed of her prize.

Stryver was already moving, rising up on his jetpack and heading for the exit.

”Chuck it!” yelled Jet to Ula. ”That's a thermal detonator!”

Ula hurled the sphere away from him as hard as he could. It went up, and kept going up as s.h.i.+gar, the Jedi, used the Force to sweep it away. The tactic wasn't entirely defensive. The detonator exploded high in the creaking scaffolding that had once been the security air lock's roof, directly above Stryver's escape route. The statue of Ta.s.saa Bareesh toppled and fell. Yet another avalanche came cras.h.i.+ng down after it, burying the Mandalorian and a herd of palace guards that had come to quell the disturbance.

The floor gave way, and kept giving way as Stryver fired downward, riding the tide of collapse into the palace's deeper levels.

Snarling, the Sith girl went after him, determined not to lose her prize. She vanished into the roil of stone and ferrocrete, and didn't reappear.

Ula took one step toward Larin, but s.h.i.+gar beat him to it.

”Are you all right?” the Jedi asked her.

She was leaning against the outside of the vault with her crippled left hand compressed under her armpit. With her right hand, she tugged off her helmet. Her face was white and pinched.

”I'll live, ” she said. ”Meanwhile, it's not over. Stryver will head for his s.h.i.+p first chance he gets. You have to cut him off and get the navicomp back, any way you can. Do you think you can do that without me?”

s.h.i.+gar nodded, tight-lipped, and loped off across the shattered floor to the hole in the wall, leaping gracefully from girder to girder.

Larin held her grin until s.h.i.+gar was out of sight. Then she slumped in pain.

Ula's pain was different but no less real. It was clear that Larin had a close connection with s.h.i.+gar. The Jedi even had tattoos similar to hers. It was some kind of cultural thing, surely. Perhaps they were married. The thought made his chest ache.

He knew it was ridiculous to feel this way. He knew it was based on nothing at all. He knew he had built it all up in his own head, and that made him an idiot of the highest order. He had more important things to worry about than this.

The battle for the navicomp was over. Ta.s.saa Bareesh's palace security forces would be converging on the site to clean up and make accusations. He didn't want to be there when that happened. His loyalties were so compromised, he wasn't sure he could convince anyone that he wasn't guilty of everything.

”Stryver will be going for his s.h.i.+p, like she said, ” he told Jet, ”but he's going the wrong way around. I'll head him off and see if I can salvage something. Tell her-tell the others I'll meet them at the shuttle. ”

The smuggler studied him closely, and then simply said, ”All right, mate. I might need a lift myself. ”

”Isn't your s.h.i.+p-?”

”Impounded and crewless. ” He shrugged. ”And what's a freight captain without his s.h.i.+p? Guess I'd better start thinking about a normal job. ”

Ula patted him on the shoulder with what he hoped was appropriate bonhomie, because it was utterly genuine. A normal job. Those three words had struck him with the force of one of Stryver's thermal detonators.

He hurried off, following with infinitely greater clumsiness s.h.i.+gar's route across the shattered floor. He ignored the shouts and screams coming from the levels below. He ignored the shaking of his hands. He kept his mind firmly on its goal.

There was an Imperial s.h.i.+p in the palace's dock. That was where he was headed. If he could get there before it left, he could reveal his true ident.i.ty and claim amnesty. He could escape with the Sith and the navicomp when she returned from hunting Stryver, and he could finally report to his superior.

He could relax the disguise, and speak freely, without lies or deceptions.

He could be himself. And then...

A normal job?

Nothing at that moment appealed to him more.

PART THREE.

THE CHASE.

CHAPTER 19.

Ax felt like she was being swallowed whole by a s.p.a.ce slug. Even through the Force barrier she threw around herself as protection from the tumbling surf of rock, every sharp edge and crus.h.i.+ng pressure squeezed the breath utterly from her. Almost instantly she gave up trying to guide her descent.