Part 14 (2/2)

”Tuck your teeth in,” the other growled, flipping his head to toss a short braid back over one shoulder. ”Nothing's gonna get chewed up. Cept maybe your skin if you give us any static.”

”Yeah-you and who else?” Luke fired back, heading past him up the ramp. ”You don't mind if I check for myself.”

”Just don't get in the way.”

There were two other pirates in the cargo hold, one just settling his box into place on his floater cart, the other already starting for the ramp with his load. Luke crossed to the side bulkhead, stretching out with the Force as he pretended to examine the restraint rings for damage. In the near distance, somewhere down one of the asteroid's corridors, he could sense two more of the pirates returning for their next load. He estimated the timing yes. He should just be able to make it.

The last of the two pirates was almost to the ramp now. Grunting with apparent satisfaction as to the safety of his equipment, Luke changed direction, crossing the hold toward the access door leading into the freighter's living section. The pirate maneuvered his cart down the ramp and turned around the side of the s.h.i.+p.

And for perhaps the next ten seconds, Luke was alone.

There was no time to waste, but he and Artoo had had plenty of time to practice on the flight here and had gotten the drill down to a science. Whistling softly, Luke stepped to the box the two of them had prepared, at the same time getting a Force grip on his ribene plate and sending it flying smoothly across the hold. Artoo had heard the whistled signal, opening the access door as the meal neared it. Luke took another moment to ease the plate as far into the living section as he could see, then set it down on the deck and pulled open the side panel on the box beside him.

Inside, well packaged against random b.u.mps, was Wesselman's fancy SB-20 security breach droid. It wasn't going to do the pirates any good now, not with most of its insides cut away, but the sh.e.l.l that was left would make an ideal hiding place for a quiet infiltration of their base. Curling himself up, Luke squeezed into the narrow s.p.a.ce and pulled the box's side panel closed again.

Just in time. Beneath him, the deck vibrated slightly as the returning pirates climbed up the ramp. Luke stretched out with the Force, sensing as he did so their sudden suspicion.

He ran through his sensory enhancement techniques&mdash ”Control, this is ”Grinner,” a murmured voice came to Luke's ears, as clear as if the pirate had been standing right beside him. ”You see our smuggler anywhere?”

”Last I saw, he was headed into the hold,” the faint voice of the pirate Luke had talked to earlier came in response. ”Said he was worried about his restraint rings.”

”Yeah, he was there when we left,” another voice agreed.

”Fine,” Grinner said. ”So where is he now?”

”Probably inside,” the second voice said. ”He was headed that direction when Fulkes and I were leaving, chomping down on a plate of ribenes.”

”Probably looking for something to wash down the tomospice with,” a new voice added. ”He told the service droid he had some good drinking stuff aboard.”

”Maybe,” Grinner grunted, the word almost covered over by the soft hiss of metal on steelhide as he drew his blaster. ”Or maybe he's trying something cute, like hiding in one of these boxes. You want to get a scanner crew down here, Control?”

”Steady, Grinner,” the unfamiliar voice advised him. ”Let me run a check first.”

For a long moment the hold was silent. Keeping his Force hold on the side of the box, Luke unsealed the flap of his tunic and got a grip on his lightsaber. If. they didn't buy this, he would have to take them out.

”You can all decompress,” Control's voice said. ”He's gone inside, all right. The plate he took out of the snack room is about five meters inside that door in front of you. There's no way he could have stashed it in there and gotten back out to the hold in the-let's see-in the nine seconds he was out of sight.”

There was a faint snort and the sound of Grinner's blasts being holstered again. ”Yeah, okay,” he said. ”There's just something about this guy I don't like.”

Luke took his hand off his lightsaber, letting his breath out slowly in a silent sigh of relief. His original idea, back when he'd first borrowed this s.h.i.+p, had been to simply take whatever food he'd scrounged into the box with him. But that plan had felt wrong, somehow, and he and Artoo had worked out this variation instead. He was very glad now that they had.

”So get him unloaded and out of here,” Control said. ”You see any sign of that SB-20 droid he said he brought? I want that one next.”

”Uh . . . no. Only droid box I see is an R2 unit.”

”That's the one,” Control said. ”A SB-20 is an R2 sh.e.l.l with espionage gear and programming tucked away inside.”

Luke's box lurched as the pirate got his float cart underneath it. ”Never heard of it.”

”They're not exactly advertised at droid depots,” Control said acidly. ”The captain's been after Wesselman for one for years.”

Grinner grunted. ”And this one just happens to show up here today, huh? Convenient.”

”Give it a rest, Grinner,” the other pirate in the hold said. ”Okay, I've got the droid.

Where do you want it?”

”Electronics shop,” Control told him. ”The captain wants Pap and K'Cink to check it out.”

”Right.”

A moment later they were off, angling down the ramp and across the landing-bay floor. Luke braced himself against the droid sh.e.l.l, listening to the sounds around him and trying to ignore the violent shaking that was really only the small b.u.mps and vibrations of the float cart. He had a.s.sumed he would be taken to whatever storage place the rest of the cargo was bound for, which would presumably have given him a certain amount of privacy for his exit from the box. On the other hand, the electronics shop was probably closer to the command areas of the base, which was his ultimate goal. All in all, a fair trade-off.

They pa.s.sed through one of the pressure doors, and for a few minutes the only sounds were the hum of the float cart's repulsorlifts and the pirate's footsteps and raspy breathing.

Then, gradually, more sounds began to filter in: other voices and footsteps, mostly distant but occasionally pa.s.sing close by. Luke stretched out with the Force, sensing a variety of human and alien minds in the vicinity. There was an odd change of echo as they apparently left the corridor and entered a larger room; another change, this time in reverse, marked where they left the room and pa.s.sed into a corridor again. The float can turned around a corner, then another; entered another open s.p.a.ce filled with the dull rumble of muted voices&mdash ”Lanius?” Control's voice said.

”Yeah, you got me,” the pirate pus.h.i.+ng Luke's float cart said.

”Change of plans227Pap's got something torn apart in the shop and doesn't have room for your droid. Go park it in the Level Four storeroom.”

”Yeah, okay.” The float cart slowed and changed direction. ”Too much to ask for them to make up their minds?”

”Very funny,” Control growled. ”Just hustle it, okay?”

”I'm hustling, I'm hustling,” Lanius grumped under his breath.

The cart moved on; but even as it again changed corridors, Luke began to feel an odd sensation tingling at the back of his mind. Somewhere-somehow-something had suddenly gone wrong.

He stretched out with the Force again, trying to track down the sensation. Ahead, a door hissed open and the cart again entered a large room. It seemed to be taking a long time to get across it . .

And then, abruptly, the cart stopped. ”What the-” the pirate spat.

”Get out of the way, Lanius,” the voice of Control boomed over a loudspeaker. ”You've got yourself a rider.”

The pirate bit out a curse, and there was a scramble of feet as he darted away from the lift cart. ”All right, whoever you are,” Control continued. ”We know you're in there-we got a clear scan from the security corridor. Come on out.”

Luke grimaced. So that's what that tingling sensation had been: a premonition of the mess he was now in. A pity he hadn't paid more attention to it, though offhand he couldn't see what he could have done to change anything at that point.

And anyway, berating himself for errors in judgment would gain him nothing. Pulling out his comlink, he thumbed it on. ”Artoo?” he said softly.

There was no answer, just a quiet burst of static. ”Oh, and we've also jammed your transmissions,” Control added. ”I'm afraid the only one you're going to be able to talk to is me.”

So Luke was on his own. Tucking his lightsaber a little deeper into its hiding place, he sealed the tunic flap loosely across it. ”Okay,” he shouted. ”Hold your fire-I'm coming out.”

He released his Force grip on the side panel and let it swing open. Three pirates were visible, standing well back from the box, their blasters steady on him. Five others, he could sense, were spread out around the box outside his field of view.

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