Part 9 (1/2)

Zahara folded the note and slipped it into the breast pocket of her uniform next to the vial of anti-virus. She slipped the keycard from the guard's uniform and turned toward the sign marked solitary. Then she stopped. Where was Waste? She'd given the 2-1B ample time to get down here, and usually he was so prompt- Something happened to him.

It was that voice again, the one inside her head, the one that was never wrong. She wondered if she should go, if she even should have come down here to begin with.

You came this far.

With real reluctance she bent down and picked up one of the blasters from a dead guard's hands. It was cold and felt heavier than she remembered. Zahara had received the requisite weapons training before signing on and was able to locate the safety mechanism and switch the blaster over to stun.

There were three separate cells.

Each had a solid metal door, dull gray and coffin-sized, with a control pad and a slot for the keycard mounted up and to the right.

Zahara stepped up to the first door. She realized she'd stopped breathing. Her body felt weightless, as if her legs had simply vanished beneath her. Faintly she could smell the hot coppery scent of her own fear coming off her body, an unpleasant, unnecessary reminder of how little she really wanted to be doing any of this.

You don't have to.

Yes, I do, she thought, and brought the keycard to the slot. Her hand was shaking, and it took a moment to line it up properly and push it in.

The door began to slide open.

She jerked the blaster up, pointing it into the semidarkness. Light from the outside cast her silhouette into the cell like an outline cut crisply from black fabric with very sharp scissors. Squinting in, she could make out an empty bench, a table-but the silent two-by-two cube was otherwise absolutely empty.

There was no one here.

She stepped back and turned to the second cell, slotted the card, and- The noise from inside the cell sounded like a snarl of surprise and rage. Zahara lurched backward, the blaster suddenly loose and clumsy in her hand, somehow unable to find the trigger as the cell's occupant charged toward her. The thing was huge, big enough that it had to duck and twist its shoulders to fit through the cell doorway, with sharp white teeth and eyes that shot back splintered gleams of intelligence.

Stumbling backward, Zahara tried to say Hold it, but the words got clogged up in her throat. It was like trying to cry out in a dream, struggling to push words through strengthless, suffocated lungs.

The thing stopped directly in front of her and lifted its s.h.a.ggy head, perhaps seeing the blaster. It was a Wookiee, she realized, and at the same time she was aware of a pounding noise from the last remaining cell, a m.u.f.fled shouting on the other side of the wall.

”Hold it,” she said again, more clearly this time. She aimed the blaster upward. ”Don't move.”

The Wookiee moaned. Zahara raised the keycard and wondered how she was supposed to hold both convicts at bay with one blaster. But it was too late now.

The last cell door rattled open to reveal the figure standing immediately inside. Zahara flicked her eyes back at the Wookiee, but he hadn't moved from his spot. Glancing back at the other convict, she realized she was looking at a dark-haired man probably in his late twenties, dressed in an ill-fitting prison uniform. He was staring at her with dark and questioning eyes.

”What's going on down here?”

”I'm Dr. Cody,” she said, ”chief medical officer. There's been...”

”So you didn't bring us dinner?”

”What? No.” She'd expected hostility, confusion, or disdain, but the inmate's cavalier att.i.tude already had her fl.u.s.tered. ”I'm afraid there's been an incident.” She raised the blaster, and the Wookiee threw back its head and let out a restless, deep-chested bray that seemed to shake the air around her.

”Okay, okay,” the man said, ”put the blaster down, huh? You're making Chewie nervous.”

”Chewie?”

”Chewbacca, my copilot,” the dark-haired man said, coming forward so she could see his face more clearly, the half smile quirked across his face. ”I'm Han Solo.”

Chapter 19.

Pod By the time they found the escape pod, Trig was sure they were being followed.

He could hear breathing noises behind them, the occasional thumping footstep of something tracking them gracelessly through the central hallway of the admin wing, no longer bothering with stealth. Sometimes it made little scratching noises. Other times he could only hear it breathing.

He didn't even need to say anything about it to Kale. Kale knew it, too. Rather than bringing him comfort, the unspoken awareness between them had the paradoxical effect of accelerating the near panic building up in Trig's nervous system; it was as if he were dealing not only with his own apprehension, but Kale's as well.

Finally they saw the escape pod', just up ahead on the outer wall.

”There it is.” Kale didn't bother hiding the relief in his voice as he lifted the hatch of the pod. ”Go ahead, get in there.”

Trig climbed in. ”Not much room.”

”Enough for us.” Kale got in behind him and looked at the array of controls. ”Now we just have to figure out how to get out of here.”

”Can you work it?”

”Sure.”

”You don't know what you're doing, do you?”

”Will you give me a second to think?” Kale made a fist and bit his knuckle, gazing at the instrumentation array. ”I thought these things were automated, but...”

A voice behind them said: ”What have we here?”

It was Sartoris.

He was standing there with blasters in both hands, looking just as unhappy to see them as Trig felt staring back at him. Intuitively, just from his posture, Trig understood that there was something between them and the man, something Sartoris knew about them or their father, although Trig didn't know what it was. But he felt it nonetheless, some deeply personal schism of unease, emerging across the guard's face and then vanis.h.i.+ng again almost as quickly, like an exhaled breath across a pane of gla.s.s.

”Get out,” Sartoris said flatly.

Kale frowned, shook his head. ”What?”

”You heard me. Get moving.” Sartoris twitched the barrel of one blaster rifle at Trig. ”You, too.”

”There's plenty of room for all three of us.”

”Sure.” Sartoris grinned without a trace of humor; it did nothing to improve the surliness of his expression. ”And I'm sure we'd be very cozy together. But that's not the plan. Now get out of here.” He was still aiming the blasters at them. ”What are you waiting for?”

”You're just going to let us die here?” Kale asked.

”Boy, you can go running naked through the mess hall for all I care. The only reason I haven't already shot you is I'd have to drag your carca.s.ses out of the escape pod. So why don't you save me the trouble?”