Hoole noticed. "I think it is time for Zak and Tash to sleep. And time for me to be on my way."
"Where are you going?" Tash asked. She was so sleepy that she"d forgotten Hoole"s usual secrecy about his work.
He reminded her instantly. "That is my affair. I will be back before morning. Excuse me."
Without another word, Hoole left.
"Don"t Shi"ido ever sleep?" Zak yawned. "He"s always running off somewhere."
"It"s not because he"s a Shi"ido," Tash replied. "It"s just that he"s Uncle Hoole, and there"s more to him than meets the eye." And, she added to herself, I"m going to find out what it is.
Tash and Zak shared a large room where two small but comfortable sleeping mats lay on the floor. Once they were alone, Tash turned to her brother.
"I can"t shake this feeling, Zak. Whatever I do, I feel like someone"s watching me." She told him about the coded Imperial file about D"vouran, and the trace alert. "Suppose the Imperials know something about this planet that we don"t?"
Zak had been nearly asleep. "Tash, I"m as mad at the Empire as you are. But what could they know about this planet that would be so bad?
Don"t you think you"re taking this Jedi thing a little too far? It"s like your looking for something to be wrong. This place is great!"
"You think having blasters pointed at you is great?"
"Yeah," he replied sleepily.
That"s because you don"t know any better, she wanted to say. But didn"t. "I wish I had your confidence," she said instead.
"Just ease up on your thrusters and relax," he yawned. "Now excuse me. I wanna go skimboarding tomorrow, and I need my sleep."
Tash stayed awake longer. But finally she, too, fell asleep.
A sound woke her in the middle of the night. At first she thought it was Zak snoring, but her brother was sleeping quietly across the room. She could just make out the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed softly.
She listened carefully.
Slurp-Slurp.
She listened more closely.
Slurp-Slurp.
"Zak?" she whispered. "Do you hear that?" No answer. Her brother was sound asleep.
Tash lay in bed, wondering what to do. The sound started, stopped, and started again several times. What could it be?
Finally she couldn"t stand it anymore. Tash got up and crept to the door to their room. The sound was coming from inside the house.
Stealthily she opened the door and tiptoed into the hallway.
Slurp-Slurp. Slurp-Slurp.
The common room. That"s where the sound came from. Tash crept forward, pressing flat against the wall. Her pulse raced, but something pushed her forward. Not curiosity, exactly. More like a terrible feeling that not knowing what it was would be more awful than finding out. Her heart pounded so loudly she was sure someone could hear it.
Slurp The sound stopped. She heard something shuffle through the darkness of the common room. Tash gathered herself, then carefully peeked around the corner. The room was empty.
"May I help you?"
Tash choked on the scream that tried to burst from her throat.
Chood was standing behind her. Even in the darkness, she could tell that he was still smiling.
"Um... I thought I heard something," she whispered.
"Stray animals, no doubt," the Enzeen explained. "We are near the edge of the forest here. I"m sure it was nothing. But would you like me to check?"
She paused. Was it her imagination, or was Chood staring at her in the darkness? In the shadows his smile looked more like an evil grin.
"Don"t trouble yourself," she replied.
"It"s no trouble. I was going out anyway." Tash couldn"t help but ask, "This late?"
She thought she saw Chood"s grin widen.
"I"m afraid so. An errand that will not wait."
"Okay. Well... thanks."
Chood bowed. "Our goal is to serve. Good night."
"Good night," she answered as she stumbled past him and headed back down the hall. She felt his eyes linger on her back. Then she heard a door close as he left the house.
"Relax," she told herself "You"d probably stare at someone, too, if you found them roaming around your house in the middle of the night."
Wild animals.
Well, it seemed as good an explanation as any.
You and your feelings are getting out of hand, Tash Arranda, she thought. Maybe Zak"s right. Maybe you are looking for problems. If you"re not careful, you"ll end up as crazy as Bebo.
By the time she reached the door to the guest room, Tash had resolved not to jump to conclusions. Maybe Zak was right. She was too obsessed with the Force. Tash pushed the bedroom door open.
Someone was leaning over Zak"s bed.
CHAPTER 8.
A hand closed over Tash"s mouth, stifling her shout. So she bit the hand.
"Arrggh!" someone howled in pain, dropping Tash. The cry woke her brother, who sat bolt upright in bed. "Wh-what"s going on?"
"Zak, look out!" Tash yelled. The shadowy figure was reaching down for him. Still half-asleep, Zak launched himself out of bed like an uncoiled spring, right past the shadowy figure.
"Run!" Tash yelled.
Even in the gloom, Tash recognized the two huge, square-shaped intruders: Ganks. The one she had bitten was still nursing his wounded hand. For good measure she stomped on his foot, then jumped through the doorway, with Zak close behind her.
"Help! Help!" she called. But there was no one to hear her. Uncle Hoole had gone to perform his mysterious work. Chood had gone on his errand. They were alone in the house.
"We"ve got to get out of here!" she told Zak, who was just barely awake. He followed her as she threw open the front door and ran outside.
The night air of D"vouran woke Zak up quickly. "What"s back there?"
he huffed as he ran to catch up with his sister.
"Smada! His thugs!" was all she could get out between gasps as she ran toward the center of town.
That was all Zak needed to know. His legs churned as he caught up to his sister. He didn"t bother to look back.
Tash did, but she knew what she would see. The two Ganks were after them. For big, heavy brutes they ran quickly. Although Zak and Tash had already reached the main street of the small village, the two Ganks were gaining on them.
"Help! Help!" she shouted. But it was late at night, and the streets were deserted. A few lights went on in some of the houses, but Tash was afraid to stop. She could hear the heavy footsteps of the Ganks closing in.
She tried to lose them by veering sharply to the right, down a side street. Zak followed her.
Right to a dead end.
The Don"t Go Inn loomed up before them. No time to look back now.
Without missing a beat, Tash raced up to the door and slapped the Open b.u.t.ton.
It was locked.
"Open up!" she yelled, pounding on the door.
"Open up! Help!" Zak added.
Behind them, Tash heard two sudden howls. It sent shivers down her spine. The Ganks must be furious! They would tear her apart once they caught up. The cries were cut off sharply, but Tash was pounding the door so hard that she didn"t notice.
"Open up! Please!" she begged. She expected any moment to feel the Gank"s heavy hand on her throat, or feel the bite of a blaster bolt in her back. "Help!"
Finally the door flew open. A few startled settlers stumbled out, bleary- eyed and in bedclothes. "What"s going on here?" one of them demanded.
"They"re after us! Help!" Tash pleaded.
"Who"s after you?" the settlers demanded.
"Them!" Tash said, pointing back down the street.
But no one was there.
CHAPTER 9.
Zak and Tash sat in the common room of Chood"s home, where they had been sitting for almost an hour. It was still late at night, and Zak was nodding off in his seat. Even Tash yawned-the adrenaline that had pumped through her was long gone.
Hoole had returned-from where? Tash wondered-to find the village in an uproar. The whole town had been awakened by Tash and Zak"s cries, only to find the story they heard as believable as one of Bebo"s delusions.
Uncle Hoole had just finished apologizing to most of the settlers in the village, and to all of the Enzeen. Finally he sat down in front of Zak and Tash. His Shi"ido face was wrinkled into a tired frown.
"You two have managed to make us the most unpopular people in the village."
Tash, of course, had told him her story. There were Ganks. They had been chased. She had run up to the Don"t Go Inn and pounded on the door.
The next thing she knew, the Ganks had vanished.
"There were no Ganks," Hoole said. "You were having a dream."
"They were there!" Tash insisted. "They must have stopped chasing us when we yelled."
Hoole shook his head. "I checked. There weren"t even any footprints. It was a dead-end street. Where would they have gone?"
"I don"t know!"
"Tash." Hoole studied her closely. "The settlers at the Don"t Go Inn said they saw only you and Zak screaming as though the entire planet was coming apart. No one else saw these Ganks."
"Zak did, didn"t you, Zak?" She looked to her brother for support.
"Urn... yeah. I guess."
"You guess?" Uncle Hoole interrogated.
Zak looked down. He wanted to help his sister, but... "Well, I was kind of asleep. I heard Tash yell "Run!" so I ran. I mean, I think I saw something. I saw shadows. It was dark. I was sleeping. But there was probably something there."
Hoole shook his head. "Probably? Zak, look at it this way. Let"s say Tash"s story is the hyperdrive engine on a starship. And let"s say what you saw is the motivator circuit. Now, if the engine is good, you connect the circuit and go to lightspeed. But if it"s bad, the minute you plug in your circuit, the whole ship explodes. So you have to be sure."
Hoole asked again. "Now, are you going to plug into that circuit?"
Zak hesitated, but only because he felt guilty. He struggled for something to say. "I"m sorry, Tash. I just... I was too sleepy. I didn"t actually see anything."
"Zak!" Tash was almost in tears.