Part 16 (1/2)
”But you do know her,” Obi-Wan said.
”I do.”
”Then you know where she can be found.”
The bartender jerked a thumb.
”Upstairs. Room seven. She said you should go right up.”
Anakin and Obi-Wan traded confused glances.
”She's expecting us?” Obi-Wan said.
The bartender heaved his ma.s.sive shoulders in a shrug.
”She didn't say who she was expecting. Just that if anyone came looking for her, I should send them up.”
They canceled the drink order and walked to the foot of a long flight of stairs.
”Jedi mind trick?” Anakin asked.
”If it was, I wasn't aware of performing it.”
”Ten drinks will do that to you.”
”Yes, and maybe it was the Twi'lek izzy-mold. What seems infinitely more likely is that we're about to walk into a trap.”
”So we should be on guard.”
”Yes, Anakin, we should be on guard.”
Obi-Wan led the way up the stairs and rapped his hand on room seven's green plastoid door.
”Door's unlocked,” a voice said in Basic from within.
They made certain that their lightsabers were in easy reach, but left them affixed to their belts and concealed. Obi-Wan hit the door-release stud, then followed Anakin into the chill room.
Wearing trousers, boots, and an insulated jacket, Genne - - perhaps Fa'ale Leh - - was lounging on a narrow bed, her back and lekku against the headboard, long legs extended and crossed at the ankle. Beside her on a small table stood a half-full bottle of what Obi-Wan guessed was the local rocket-fuel homebrew.
Reaching for two clearly unwashed gla.s.ses, she said: ”Fix you a drink?”
”We're already at the legal limit,” Anakin said, vigilant.
The remark made her smile. ”Naos Three doesn't have a legal limit, kid.”
She took a healthy swallow from her own gla.s.s, eyeing them over the rim.
”I have to say, you're not what I expected.”
”Was that surprise or disappointment?” Anakin asked Obi-Wan.
”Who were you expecting?” Obi-Wan said.
”Your cla.s.sic rough-and-tumble types. Black Sun lackeys, bounty hunters.
You two... You look more like lost Jedi.” She paused, then said: ”Maybe that's exactly what you are. Jedi have been known to outpunish even the punishers.”
”Only when necessary,” Anakin said.
She shrugged absently.
”You want to do it here, or are you going to buy me a last meal?”
”Do what here?” Obi-Wan said.
”Kill me, of course.”
Anakin took a forward step.
”There's always that possibility.”
She glanced from him to Obi-Wan. ”Bad Jedi. Good Jedi.”
”We want to talk to you about a star courier you piloted for Sienar Advanced Projects.”
She nodded at Obi-Wan.
”Of course you do. A round of questions and answers, then a blaster - - no, a lightsaber to the side of the head.”
”Then you are Fa'ale Leh.”
”Who told you where to find me? Had to be Thal K'sar, am I right? He's the only one still alive. That betraying little Bith - - ”
”Tell us about the courier,” Anakin said, cutting her off.
She smiled in apparent recollection.
”An extraordinary s.h.i.+p - - a work of genius. But I knew going in, it was a job that would come back to haunt me. And so it has.”
Obi-Wan looked around the room.
”You've been in hiding here for more than ten years.”
”No, I came for the beaches.” She motioned in dismissal. ”You know, they killed the engineers, the mechanics, just about everyone who worked on that craft. But I knew. I made the delivery, grabbed what was due me, and I was away. Not far enough, though. They tracked me to Ryloth, Nar Shaddaa, half the starforsaken worlds in the Tingel Arm. I had my share of close calls. I could show you the scars.”
”No need,” Obi-Wan said as Fa'ale was bringing her left head-tail over her shoulder.
She threw back another drink.