Part 6 (2/2)

”Lore knows this sector like the back of his hand,” Han pointed out. ”And I know he's not afraid to tangle with some Imperials-not if the price is right.”

Lore's ears perked up. ”And the price would be?”

”Twenty thousand,” Han lied. ”Split down the middle, seventy-thirty.”

”Last I checked, the middle's a little closer to fifty,” Lore said.

Han grinned. ”My job-my math.”

”Sixty-forty,” Lore proposed. ”And I might just know where you can get some Imperial docking codes. You're pulling one on the Empire, that could come in handy.”

Han glanced at Chewbacca. ”What do you think, buddy?”

Chewbacca made it clear he didn't think much of it-not the idea, not Avik Lore. But he'd come around. Han grasped Lore's hand, and they shook on it.

”Just like the good old days,” he said happily.

Lore winced and, once again, brushed his fingers against his old blaster scars. ”Let's hope not.”

The man in the gray, hooded robe slipped out of the gambling club, satisfied.

Han Solo would take the job. He would infiltrate the Imperial satellite station, and while there, he would find...

Well, that was the question, wasn't it?

The man returned to the alley behind the club. These days, he felt more comfortable in the shadows. ”I still don't like this,” he said, to the open air.

He paused for a moment, feeling rather silly, waiting for a response that might never come.

”We agreed on this course.” The figure s.h.i.+mmering before him was solid and not solid, there and not there, all at the same time. He glowed with an inner light, and yet the night remained dark, ”Search yourself, Ferus. You know this is right.”

”Perhaps. But it feels wrong.” Ferus Olin was decades away from his apprentices.h.i.+p at the Jedi Temple, a sanctuary that no longer existed. And yet, even from beyond the grave, Master Obi-f0 Wan Ken.o.bi still had the ability to make him feel like a rebellious Padawan. Not that Ferus had ever been been a rebellious Padawan. He'd done everything he was told, accepted every order without question, performed every task perfectly and without hesitation-until the day he'd made a fateful mistake, and someone had been killed. Not just someone. A friend. a rebellious Padawan. He'd done everything he was told, accepted every order without question, performed every task perfectly and without hesitation-until the day he'd made a fateful mistake, and someone had been killed. Not just someone. A friend.

And not just my mistake, he thought. Anakin's, too Anakin's, too.

Ferus had walked away from the Jedi Order. Forever, he thought. And yet here he was, decades later, learning at the feet of a Master all over again.

He had gotten a valuable lesson all those years ago, the day Thel-Tanis had died. Sometimes a wrong decision can get someone killed. Ferus had vowed never to make such a decision again.

Yet he'd made several.

”Whatever information is on that station, I can get it myself,” he said. ”There's no reason to risk Han's life.”

”The life is his to risk,” Obi-f0 Wan said. ”The decision was his to make.”

”But we're not giving giving him a decision!” Ferus countered. ”We're manipulating him.” him a decision!” Ferus countered. ”We're manipulating him.”

After nearly two decades undercover on Alderaan, looking out for Princess Leia's safety, Ferus had struck out on his own. Darth Vader was on the trail of the pilot who had blown up the Death Star, and he couldn't be allowed to discover the truth. If he found Luke-if he guessed the truth-all would be lost.

Ferus was on the trail of First Lieutenant Slej Hant, an Imperial officer whom Vader had a.s.signed to ferret out the information. But as he pa.s.sed through the Arkanis sector, one of Ferus's informants had tipped him off about another Imperial on the same mission. According to the informant, a high-ranking officer had parked himself on a satellite station in the Zoma system, a nearly forgotten outpost that would keep him far from Vader's prying eye. Ferus's spy claimed that the man was desperate to find the Death Star's destroyer before Vader did...and he was getting close.

But so was Slej Hant, and he was about to take off for the Subterrel sector, a far-flung corner of s.p.a.ce beyond the Outer Rim. An Imperial agent could have no possible business there.

Unless he was headed for Polis Ma.s.sa, the arid, remote planetoid where Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa had been born.

Ferus was torn. Worried as he was about this other Imperial, he couldn't allow Vader's minion to ferret out Luke and Leia's ident.i.ties. Obi-f0 Wan, as usual, had cut through the confusion, speaking with infuriating certainty, even from beyond the grave. ”Han Solo will infiltrate the station. He'll find the answers that he needs.”

”Solo?” Ferus had asked in confusion. ”The pilot?” They'd met briefly on Delaya, but Ferus had paid little attention. Because Delaya had also been the site of his first meeting with Luke Skywalker. Every moment they had spent together, Ferus had been wracked with doubts. Should he tell the boy the truth?

Or accede to Obi-f0 Wan's wishes, and let him chart his own course for just a little longer?

Amidst all the confusion, Han Solo had barely made an impression.

”The pilot.” Obi-f0 Wan's cryptic smile was just as infuriating in death as in life. ”He's on his own now, searching. He needs direction. And he will find it on the Zoma station.”

”That makes no sense,” Ferus had complained. Yet he had done as Obi-f0 Wan requested, opening himself up to the Force. Drawing in its strength and its wisdom as he groped for the way to move forward. And he felt it too. Obi-f0 Wan was right.

This was Han's mission. He would infiltrate the satellite station in the Zoma system and find the answers they all needed to save Luke and Leia.

If he survived.

CHAPTER NINE.

Luke hunched over the controls of his T-16 skyhopper, waiting for Fixer to set off the starter flare. He missed the familiar feel of his old skyhopper, which was long gone, destroyed along with the rest of the Lars moisture farm. But this one, which he'd borrowed from Windy, would get the job done.

Luke engaged the repulsorlifts, hovering a few meters above the ground. He gave the thrusters a gentle push, tipping the T-16 slightly to its side and then upright again, just to get a feel for it. It had been a long time since he'd flown one of these. The last time he'd raced, he'd been curled into the cramped seat of a Podracer, a rickety bucket tethered to roaring engines that, without warning, could flip you up and out. Compared to that, the skyhopper was like a kiddie ride. Its central airfoil offered significant stability, and its gyrostabilizers would allow Luke to make hairpin turns and wild spins without fear of spiraling out of control.

No, winning a skyhopper race wasn't a matter of balance. It was a matter of speed-whether you could push the ion engine past its 1,200 kilometer an hour capacity. It was a matter of agility-whether you could gauge the angles and hit your marks better than your compet.i.tion.

And, when it came to the Stone Needle, it was a matter of daring-whether you were willing to risk your life, just to win a race.

”Ready!” Fixer called, raising the signal flare over his head. ”Set!”

Luke glanced at Jaxson out of the corner of his eye, then turned back to his own controls, letting the rest of the world fall away as he focused on the course ahead of him.

For you, Biggs, he thought, ready to push the thrusters to their limits.

He would risk anything to win this race.

Fixer squeezed the trigger, and the sky flashed red with the signal blast.

” Go! Go! ” ”

Luke took off at the signal, his skyhopper shooting forward a split second before Jaxson's. Desert streamed past, blurring into a mud of browns and grays.

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