Part 21 (1/2)
”Why don't we test it on you?” Lando offered.
”I don't think that will be necessary,” she said. ”You were plenty.”
Lando's comlink bleeped. He pulled it from his belt. Leia looked at him.
”I've got an eye at the port,” he said. He lifted the comlink. ”Go ahead.”
”A s.h.i.+p has just arrived,” the tinny voice said. ”The Outrider, piloted by-”
”-Dash Rendar?” Leia finished. ”What is he doing here? He's supposed to be watching Luke!”
”Thanks,” Lando said into the comlink. He shut it off. To Leia he said, ”Maybe we better go find out.”
They met Dash halfway. He was in a pubtrans cab heading away from the port. Chewie swung their rental vehicle around, and they quickly caught up with the cab and waved it over.
When Dash got out, he looked terrible.
”Is Luke okay?” Leia said in a rush.
”Yeah, he's fine.”
”Why are you here? You're supposed to be guarding him.”
Dash stared at her. ”He's fine. He doesn't need my help.”
”You don't look so good,” Lando offered. ”Trouble?”
”Long story,” Dash said.
”Get into the speeder,” Leia said. ”You can tell it to us on the way back to the casino.”
He got into the speeder, and they started off.
When he was finished, Leia shook her head. Luke was okay, that was the important thing. And it appeared that Guri had told the truth, at least about the secret plans.
”Any idea what these plans are?” Lando asked.
”No. The Bothans have some kind of hot specialists on Kothlis who are going to pull them out of the computer.” His voice was almost a dead monotone.
Lando said, ”Hey, lighten up, Dash. Things get heavy in the middle of a battle. Anybody can miss-”
”Not me! I don't miss. I should have clipped that missile! Bothans died because I missed, you understand?”
Leia was silent. She didn't like Dash Rendar; he was a braggart and stuck on himself; but at least he had some feeling for others. Maybe it was more because his self-confidence had been shattered, but she could tell it had really rattled him. It must be terrible to think you are the sharpest thing in the skies and then to find out you have a dull spot on your edge.
n.o.body said anything for a while.
Well. As soon as this business with Black Sun was finished, they would go and find Luke. Somehow it would all get sorted out.
Luke left Artoo to watch the X-wing and made his way to the lounge where he was supposed to meet Koth Melan.
The Bothan was waiting.
”Any problems?” Melan asked.
”No. Now what?”
”We have a safe house here, a few kilometers away, on the outskirts of the city. The computer is already there and the team working on it. We'll go there and wait until they are done.”
”How long will it take?”
Melan shrugged. ”Who can say? Hours, perhaps, if we are fortunate; days if not. The team is very good and won't take any chances. After what we paid for it, it would be terrible to slip up and lose the informal tion.”
”Yeah, it would.”
”I have a speeder waiting outside.”
”Lead on,” Luke said.
Outside, the daytime air had a funny smell. It took Luke a moment to place it. The odor was of warm and moldy cheese. He smiled to himself. He knew he would get used to it pretty quick and tune it out. That was something they almost never mentioned in the travel ads, that every planet had its own smells and feel. The light was a little redder here than on Tatooine; it was a little cooler than Bothawui, and there was that smell. The thing about alien worlds-well, alien to somebody not born there-was that each one was unique.
Moldy cheese wasn't so bad. He'd smelled worse.
They walked to Melan's speeder and got in. Time to go find out what the Empire thought was so valuable.
21.
The safe house was a clever setup, Luke saw. What looked like a row of old storage units and run-down office s.p.a.ce in an industrial park turned out to be something else behind the facade. Past a security checkpoint with a trio of large armed guards was a modern complex of interconnected units, bright and gleaming with the latest computer and electronic gear, plus a bunch of technicians to operate it. Most of them were Bothans, but there were several other aliens at work.
It was a smart camouflage. From outside, you'd never expect to find all this.
”This way,” Melan said.
Luke followed the Bothan spymaster down a gleaming corridor to a room with yet another armed guard posted at the door. Melan showed an ID, and they were admitted.
Inside the room were half a dozen Bothan techs. One of them tended leads plugged into jacks in the computer Melan had collected; others sat at consoles tapping keyboards or using voxax controls. Information danced in the air as holographic images formed and re-formed.
”There's not much to see, I'm afraid,” Melan said. ”Unless you're an expert in this, the information looks to be pretty much a jumble of numbers and letters.”
Luke nodded. ”What do they mean?” He waved at one of the screens.
”Got me,” Melan said. ”I'm a spymaster. What I know about programming you could inscribe on a microdiode lead with a dull sword.”
Luke smiled. ”Hey, hey, hey!” one of the Bothan techs said. ”Look at this, boys! Scan sector Tarp-Hard-Xenon.” Luke heard the tap of keys, the commands of voxaxes.
”Wow!” said one of the other techs.