"No hurry," Jaina lied. "This is just revenge."
"Revenge for what what?"
"For waking me up three times in the dead of night during the last week for your spot checks."
"It"s my job job. I take no pleasure in it."
"Well, I"m taking pleasure in this." Jaina sent the speeder rightward into a narrow thoroughfare. She dived, dropping precipitously and illegally through three different traffic levels before joining the lane nearest the surface.
All around were the lights of pedestrian walkways. In this area, an aging, run-down region where residential edifices gradually gave way to old, poorly maintained government structures, there was little traffic and few pedestrians.
To his credit, Dab didn"t shriek or grab at his restraining straps. He just shook his head, resigned to the trip. "So you"re going to see Jagged Fel?"
Jaina"s eyes snapped wide. Having no idea of her true purpose for being here-supporting Jag, Tahiri, and Winter if they absolutely needed her-Dab thought it was a romantic liaison. And he obviously thought that Jaina must be absolutely desperate for it.
Infuriated, she tromped on the reverse thrusters, sending herself and Dab slamming forward into their restraints, as she made a sharp right-angle turn onto a side throughway.
Thrown back into his seat by normal acceleration, Dab rubbed his chest. "Ow."
"I am not not going to see Jag-and that"s Head of State Fel to you." going to see Jag-and that"s Head of State Fel to you."
"Fine!"
"There"s a little rooftop park up here I like."
"Of course. At this hour."
Jaina went into a steep climb, going completely vertical as she approached the wall of a particularly large residential block. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Dab"s features drawn back in a rictus brought on by acceleration.
Then she reached the top of the building. She rolled until she was level with the rooftop. She immediately set her speeder down on a broad bed of gra.s.s. It was indeed a park, with carefully arranged ponds, trees, and flower beds, fully occupying this rooftop and those of several surrounding buildings. Open-air, railed turbolifts provided access between the roofs.
Dab breathed a sigh of relief. "I get it."
"You do?"
He nodded. "You come to this run-down neighborhood in the middle of the night, dressed in anonymous brown clothes, and you walk around in the park, hoping someone will attack you so you can beat them up. That way you relieve stress and also get to take dangerous criminals in."
She stared at him. It was a brilliant excuse, and she was embarra.s.sed that she hadn"t come up with it. "You"re absolutely right."
"Well, it sounds like a good thing for Jedi to be doing."
"It does, doesn"t it?" She unstrapped herself and hopped out of the speeder. She gestured toward a spot where the trees were thickest. "I"m going to walk around on the path on the other side of those trees."
He unbuckled his own restraints. "I"ll come with you."
"No, I"m less likely to be attacked if there are two of us."
"And I"m more likely to be attacked if there"s only one of me. me."
"True." She pointed at a set of bushes away from her trees. "Hide there and wait for me." She raced off toward her trees.
This was not her favorite park, of course. It was the park atop the building where Winter had taken out quarters for the Darkmeld team. From here, she could hear the sirens of public safety vehicles far, far below as they arrived to deal with the crater that had appeared in the plaza minutes before.
Past the trees, she found the roof access to the turbolift and rode down to surface level.
Seff jumped through the hole he"d cut in the blast door and rolled to his feet in the tunnel beyond. There was the mound of debris his thermal detonator had created, and between him and it were six surprised-looking Alliance Security troopers.
Seff sighed. Of course course they"d opened their end of the tunnel to investigate. Of they"d opened their end of the tunnel to investigate. Of course course they"d found their way here. they"d found their way here.
Of course course the highest-ranking trooper shouted, "Halt! Hands in the air!" the highest-ranking trooper shouted, "Halt! Hands in the air!"
Seff raised his hands-the backs of his hands rather than his palms facing the troopers. He made a grasping gesture and yanked.
Debris, chunks of metal and permacrete, tore itself from the mound and hurtled toward him.
The troopers in the rear, hearing the noise, turned just in time to catch the sideways rain of punishing detritus in their faces and chests. The blocks of masonry and support durasteel knocked them down and kept on coming, catching the three troopers in front by surprise. One inadvertently fired as he was. .h.i.t, his blast pa.s.sing Seff a meter away.
Seff charged forward, kicking two troopers who were still moving. They lay still. He s.n.a.t.c.hed up the blaster rifle from one and the pistol from another. He made sure both were set to stun.
His access hole was not covered by the debris, but the metal patch was back in place over it. Seff reached for it, then hesitated as a sense of unease pa.s.sed over him.
Again he gestured, this time lofting a big chunk of broken permacrete right into the patch. The impact tore the patch away, folding it around the debris, and there was a crack and sizzle of electricity. A length of electrical cable now dangled in the gap.
Seff smiled. He brushed the cable away with a gesture, then leapt through the hole.
He didn"t need to look around. As he straightened, he aimed the blaster rifle and fired, his stun bolt catching his target before he even registered what it looked like.
Another woman, also in close-fitting black garments, a hood concealing her features. She hit the floor with her eyes closed.
He took a moment to get his bearings. In the Force, he could feel the many life-forms out there in the tunnel and more closing from both sides. There were still more above, and those numbers were growing.
He darted for the shaft to the surface, hoping that it had not collapsed.
MIRAX H HORN, PILOTING A SPEEDER SHE HAD STOLEN MERE MINUTES BEFORE from the parking rails outside Kallad"s Dream Vacation Hostel, circled a kilometer out from Armand Isard Correctional Facility, catching occasional glimpses of the flashing lights of official vehicles at the scene, of the crater that dominated the little ground-level plaza in front of the prison. from the parking rails outside Kallad"s Dream Vacation Hostel, circled a kilometer out from Armand Isard Correctional Facility, catching occasional glimpses of the flashing lights of official vehicles at the scene, of the crater that dominated the little ground-level plaza in front of the prison.
Winter hadn"t told her much. It was imperative that she help the Jedi; check. It was related to her son"s condition; check. It was very important that she not be identified; not just a check, but a guideline she"d followed since she was a teenager. She needed to get near and stand by; check. All of this was second nature to her. Though she largely operated on the proper side of the law these days, she was a felon"s daughter, a smuggler and rebel herself. She knew how to acquire materiel when she needed it, how not to leave forensic or visual evidence. She was happy to do it, too, when she knew why why.
"Credcoin, this is Slicer. Do you read?"
Mirax"s new call-sign was Credcoin; she frowned at that, wondering if Winter thought she was all about money. The woman had practically raised the three Solo children-she must know how positively frantic Mirax was feeling about Valin, both his illness, if that"s what it was, and his horrific imprisonment.
And who was Slicer? The voice, possibly female, was distorted. Mirax raised her comlink. "Slicer, Credcoin. Go."
"Our target is probably coming out of a workers" access hole right in front of the prison. It is imperative, I say again imperative, that we grab him."
"Understood." Mirax angled over to line up on the throughway leading straight to the crater. From this direction, she"d have to come in over the prison, a distinctly illegal approach, and make a steep dive down to surface level. "How do I grab him?"
"No idea. Maybe just hara.s.s him. He"s armed and very, very dangerous."
"Oh, good. Who"s my backup?"
"All of us, when we get there."
"Who"s my backup right now right now?"
"No one."
Mirax shut up. She didn"t want to ask more questions that yielded bad answers.
An Alliance Security vehicle rose into her path, broadcasting on all channels for civilian traffic to turn away from this zone. Mirax dipped her speeder and flashed by under it so close that she instinctively ducked. She was pretty sure the pilot got a good look at her, which was another thing that would let him know something wasn"t right; she was wearing a sheet of transparisteel foil wrapped around her face, concealing everything but eyes and nose, visually distorting her features.
She was over the prison now. Spotlights, rising to illuminate her, almost blinded her. She could distinctly hear the alarms sounding within the structure. She put the speeder into a dive.
There was the crater, looking much like an asteroid-impact site, surrounded by official vehicles. Men and women on the ground were now mostly looking up at her. There was no sign of- No, there he was, a tousle-haired man in a gray worker"s jumpsuit, a blaster rifle in his hands, climbing unnoticed from an access hole. Mirax nodded. Her target was in sight. Now how to get get him was the question. him was the question.
Best tactic for the moment: buzz him, force him to flee, keep him moving until her backups arrived. And she"d try not to get shot in the meantime.
Leveling off just above the surface, ignoring the new spotlights being trained on her from several Alliance Security vehicles, she aimed for her target-and then her head banged against the viewport to her left as she was sideswiped from that side. Startled, suddenly dizzy, she angled off to her right, straight toward a government office building, most of its viewports dark.
She vectored hard and found herself roaring along the face of the building at a right angle to the ground, her repulsors barely keeping her from sc.r.a.ping along the building front; their force blew several viewports completely in. Then she was angling away from the building face and leveling off once more, rubbing her temple.
She shook her head and sent the speeder into a tight loop, heading back toward her target. What had happened?
Running toward the security cordon around the prison, now packed with pedestrians and press, Jaina saw the whole event unfold. The big civilian speeder, a garish red so unlikely for a covert operations vehicle, roared toward Seff, who was now out of the access hole. But there was another vehicle, a small, speedy flatbed cargo hauler approaching from the red speeder"s port side. The pilot was visible through the front windscreen: Zilaash Kuh, the bounty hunter. Jaina swore to herself.
The cargo hauler sideswiped the speeder, knocking it off course. The hauler continued its sideslip so that it would pa.s.s over and to one side of Seff h.e.l.lin. The Quarren, Dhidal Nyz, leaned over the side of the hauler"s bed with his oversized weapon and fired at Seff.
Seff sprang to one side with the speed of an experienced Jedi, but the net expanded too wide for him. It wrapped around him as it had Jaina days before. As its connecting cable went taut, the Quarren was nearly pulled over the rail, but he was braced for the impact. Seff was yanked off his feet and hauled into the air behind the vehicle.
Jaina grimaced. Seff would be experiencing the same shocks she had. She decided she intensely disliked that Quarren.
But the cargo hauler came on straight toward her.
The red speeder was getting turned around. Jaina brought out her lightsaber and thumbed on her comlink. "Credcoin, Slicer here. Your package is in the net. Follow the package."
"Understood." Even distorted, Mirax"s voice sounded irritated.
As the cargo hauler pa.s.sed, not quite overhead, Jaina ignited her lightsaber and hurled it, giving it direction and velocity through the Force. Its brilliant blade intersected the metal cable, shearing through it. Jaina positioned herself underneath her plummeting weapon but transferred her telekinetic effort to Seff, slowing his descent.
Slowing his descent some some. She didn"t know how incapacitated he was by the net-weapon"s electrical charges. She let him hit the permacrete fairly hard, and could hear a loud grunt from him as he landed. The cargo hauler sped on, Dhidal Nyz staring down at the two of them in surprise; then the Quarren turned and began hammering on the back of the pilot"s compartment.
Jaina caught her lightsaber, switched it off, and raced to stand beside Seff, stepping on and crushing the net"s power pack as she did so.
Dazed, Seff looked up at her. "Oh, not you, too."
"Sorry." She hammered the side of his head with the lightsaber hilt, a crude, inelegant blow. But it had its intended effect. Seff slumped.
Mirax"s speeder settled beside her. Using the Force to augment her strength, Jaina lifted Seff and tossed him into the backseat, then leapt in beside him.
Less than a hundred meters away, official vehicles around the crater were lifting off, turning in their direction. Jaina looked at Mirax. "Is this thing fast?"
"I only steal the best."
"Go, go."
They accelerated away from the scene.
The security officer, standing beside her speeder, watched four of her fellows" vehicles take off in pursuit of the red speeder. But she must have felt some presentiment of danger. She turned, grabbing for her blaster pistol, just as Tahiri"s open-palm strike connected with her chin, bypa.s.sing her helmet entirely. The trooper slammed back into the side of her speeder, then slumped to the ground.
Behind Tahiri, Jag, with Winter over his shoulder, ducked so the speeder would help conceal him from the gaze of the other security officers, but they were all looking after the fleeing speeder. Over the sound of the alarm and sirens of arriving vehicles, none had heard Tahiri"s attack. "I"ll drive," Jag said.
"I"ll drive," Tahiri snapped, sliding into the pilot"s seat. "You"re about as maneuverable as a nerf in a child seat with all that on. I doubt you can handle the controls." drive," Tahiri snapped, sliding into the pilot"s seat. "You"re about as maneuverable as a nerf in a child seat with all that on. I doubt you can handle the controls."
"I"ve flown a starfighter in this." Jag opened the back hatch and carefully slid Winter in, then followed. "Go-"
She had the speeder off the ground before he finished his word, and turned on the lights and siren as she joined the chase. Jag managed to get his hatch shut.
Mirax glanced at Jaina. "You"re Slicer?"
"What else would the Sword of the Jedi do but slice?" Jaina gestured at the bounty hunters" vehicle, which had gotten turned around and was headed their way. "Don"t give them a clear line of fire at you. There"s no telling what the Quarren"s weapon can do."
"Right." Whether that was a confirmation or an indication of direction, Jaina didn"t know, but Mirax abruptly vectored rightward, down a narrow accessway normally used by waste haulers and maintenance workers. It was a surface-level tunnel, opening to the sky each time it came to a thoroughfare. The violence of the maneuver threw Jaina across Seff"s body and against the hatch on the left side. Seff remained unconscious.
Five security speeders and the bounty hunters" vehicle followed, the bounty hunters third in line.
"Running out of time." There was a shrill edge to Tahiri"s words. "As soon as they get more pursuit on Jaina, this becomes a chase we can"t win."
"Hoth is still out. And now we have to yank this vehicle"s recorder. Since you"re using real names."
"Right, sorry. If I can get you to the cargo hauler, can you disable it?"
Jag straightened up from looking at Winter. He stared over Tahiri"s shoulder. They were now halfway along the accessway and accelerating. Their speeder was last in line, and it did not appear that any of the security troopers in the pursuit had realized that the last security vehicle was occupied by hostiles. "I lost my blaster. I have some knockout grenades-no, wait. Get me within reach of the underside." That was an insane thing to expect of an ordinary pilot, but Jedi tended to be no more ordinary than Jag himself.
Tahiri nodded and accelerated. She pa.s.sed beneath the fourth security speeder so close to the surface that Jag could feel the repulsors pushing off from permacrete below; he could see debris at road level being kicked in all directions by their thrust wash. The next speeder forward was too low for such a maneuver, so Tahiri climbed, her vehicle"s aft grazing the nose of the speeder she"d just pa.s.sed. She went as high as the tunnel ceiling would allow, climbing over the speeder in front of her.
The unexpected repulsor wash kicked that speeder downward and to the left. Jag heard it sc.r.a.pe along the tunnel wall, and then it was behind them, rolling at surface level, sending out showers of sparks. He winced, hoping that the security troopers inside, innocent of wrongdoing in this mess, would be all right.
The bounty hunters" vehicle was directly ahead now, and the Quarren in the bed only had eyes for Mirax"s speeder. Tahiri dipped again, moving up directly beneath the hauler, rising as close to it as she could against its repulsor thrust.
Jag slapped down his helmet"s face shield, lowered the transpari-steel in his viewport, and reached up for the speeder"s underside. Repulsor thrust hammered at his arm, forcing it down. He could overcome that pressure, but still couldn"t reach the vehicle"s underside; it was centimeters out of his reach.
Cursing, he opened his hatch. Gripping the speeder"s roof with one crushgaunt, he half stood, his knees straining as the repulsor thrust from above shoved him down.
There was a sudden flash of light as they and the other vehicles of the caravan crossed a thoroughfare, exposing them momentarily to sky and lights from traffic. Then they were in the next tunnel.