Part 26 (1/2)

But then. Then she had seen Han Solo come back. And, somehow, she knew. Maybe it was that niggling little nubbin of Force potential she thought she might have. Maybe it was something in the way he seemed to look toward the villa where she was hiding. Maybe it was lack of sleep and she was hallucinating. But she was suddenly possessed of the absolute conviction that he knew that she was here, and that he had come back in order to make contact.

Her heart pounded with excitement as she watched him get out of the hover car, chat with the CDF guards, and shake a hand or two and say his thanks as he made his way into the house. Why else would he come back one more time? It had to be that he was here for her. It had to be.

Kalenda settled herself in for one final vigil, the one that would pay for all. She watched as the last of the CDF agents packed up their gear, got into their ground cars and hover cars, and headed off into the darkness. She watched, her eyes glued to the macrobinoculars, for five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, giving the CDF agents plenty of time to remember something they had left behind and come back for it.

At precisely the moment that she herself judged that enough time had pa.s.sed, that the coast was clear and they weren't coming back, a dot of ruby-red light appeared in an upper-story window of Solo's villa. It flashed three times long, then there was a pause, three more long flashes, another pause, and another three longs.

Mon Calamari blink code, carried by a very old-fas.h.i.+oned laser beam. Something utterly simple, incredibly crude. Something that every mids.h.i.+pman learned, something they bashed into your head at the NRI Academy. And something the CDF forces, with all their high-tech com gear and snooper systems, would be unlikely to detect at all, even if they did come back at exactly the wrong moment.

And more to the point, something they would be unlikely to be able to read.

BEET ME AT YR FRONT DR MUDNIGHZ, the sign read.

Okay, so he was a little out of practice. But the intent was clear.

And maybe her vigil had been worth it after all.

Kalenda saw him coming up the road, moving quietly, slowly, at just the pace of a fellow out for a late-evening stroll.

She saw him pause, just a moment, at the path leading to her door.

He looked around, making one last check for whoever else might have stayed behind to watch out there, and then he walked straight up the Path to her door. She pulled it open just as he reached the porch, and he came in without breaking stride. She shut the door behind him, and gestured for him to follow her into the bas.e.m.e.nt of the villa.

He nodded and followed without speaking. In the unlikely event that someone was still watching, it would be that much tougher for a sound snooper or a spy beam to penetrate into underground, and besides, they could risk a light once the door to the upstairs was shut. She ushered him down the darkened stairs, closed the door, and hit the wall switch.

A warm yellow light flooded the bas.e.m.e.nt storeroom, and Kalenda gasped in surprise. She hadn't dared use an artificial light for longer than she liked to think.

”I brought you stuff,” Han said without preamble, emptying a small carry bag out onto the old table that the owners of the house had abandoned to the cellar sometime in the years gone by. ”Some cash, a change or two of clothesLeia's jumpsuit-some fresh food and water rations in case you're sick of what you've got or you're running out. Glow rod, a pocket blaster-and a comlink.” Kalenda nodded, unable to speak at first.

Someone talking to her. Someone here she could trust, who trusted her.

Someone doing something for her. She felt a tear run down her face, but she forced herself to calmness, or at least to something close, and spoke. ”Thank, thank you,” she said.

She grabbed for one of the ration packs and tore it open.

Food had been getting tight, and anything, anythingven just another brand of s.h.i.+pboard survival rations-would taste better than another meal of the identical mealpacks she had been living on. She took a big bite and chewed vigorously.

”You've been watching the house the whole time,” Han said, and it was not a question. ”Just in case we were in trouble, just in case the locals tried anything. Hardly any sleep, nothing decent to eat.” She swallowed so she could answer. ”Yes-yes,” she said, and realized that her voice was creaky from lack of use. She hadn't had anyone to speak with for longer than she cared to think.

”I'm impressed,” Han said. ”I don't think I could have stuck it out.”

”What-what do you want me to do?” Kalenda asked.

”Rest,” Han said. ”Find some nice quiet hotel or dosshouse in Coronet City where you can pay cash and keep a low profile, and get some rest. Do whatever you like. Take in a show, go for a walk. Just keep that comlink on you, and answer when I call you. I want you watching over us still, but now we can call for help if we need it.”

”Call for what kind of help?” Kalenda asked.

Han shook his head. ”I won't know that until we know what kind of trouble we've got. But I've got a hunch that you might be a very handy hole card to have, just in case.

”What do you think is going to happen?” Kalenda asked.

”War,” Han said, making the word sound like the obscenity it was.

”Whose war against what, I don't know.

Maybe just a little one, not much more than an oversized riot. But a war all the same. Too many people around here are spoiling for a fight. Too many people are playing rough.

Kalenda nodded her agreement. ”I think you're right,” she said.

”But you be careful, more careful than you think you need to be. Someone has penetrated deep into the NRI somehow. I came in-system in a totally covert setup, topgrade cover story, the best the NRI could do-and they were waiting for me the second I came out of hypers.p.a.ce.

Shot me down. I barely got out of it alive. I don't know who it is, or how, but they know what we're doing.”

Han Solo frowned. ”That's worse than I thought,” he said. ”If they know all that, they know just how little we have in the way of troops and s.h.i.+ps just now.”

”What do you mean?” Kalenda asked.

”I mean,” said Han, ”that if I were a Corellian who wanted to break free of the Republic, and I had access to NRI information, then i think I'd figure that right now was the perfect moment to make my move.

' Han leaned back against the wall of the bas.e.m.e.nt and folded his arms. ”which leaves the question-what is their move going to he?”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

h.e.l.lo and Farewell Lando Cairissian stepped off the Lady Luck and had the very distinct impression that his luck was changing.

There she was, Tendra Risant. She was a hundred meters or so away, just outside the safety barrier, waiting for him to come down off the s.h.i.+p', and waving vigorously.

That had to mean something.

He paused a minute and breathed in the fresh, clean air of Sacorria. Not a bad place. Not a place at all, even if it was one of the Outlier worlds. The Outliers had a reputation for trouble, but Lando hadn't seen any such signs so far.

Lando turned to watch Luke come off the s.h.i.+p. ”Feel nervous about this one?” he asked.

Luke laughed and shook his head no. ”Not at all,” he said. ”I feel just fine.”

”Good, good,” Lando said as they walked along toward their hostess.

”She looks just fine, too, I might add,” he said as he cast an appraising eye over Tendra.

Tendra Risant was about thirty standard years, tall, strong, and healthy, and obviously well-off. Her complexion was rather fair, and her high cheekbones and slender face set her dark brown eyes off quite dramatically. She had a nice, if not spectacular, figure, though she was perhaps just a trifle heavier set than was fas.h.i.+onable. She was dressed in a pretty, sensible-looking high-collared blue dress of conservative cut, the hem modestly long without seeming prudish. Her hair was a somewhat nondescript brownish blond, and she wore it in a short, dignified cut. Everything about her seemed open, relaxed, friendly.

In short, she was not one little bit like the predatory sirens, the dangerous-looking s.e.x G.o.ddesses with everything cut high and low, the women with smoldering, provocative eyes and pasts full of dark secrets, that were more to Lando's usual taste.

And just at the moment, that suited Lando just fine.

”h.e.l.lo, Lando,” she said as soon as they were close enough, and the warmth in her voice and the smile in her face made Lando feel as if he had known her all his life, that they were old friends being reunited rather than strangers who had never met before. Lando had to hand it to Luke. There were definite advantages to long chats via holocom.