Part 24 (2/2)

Under his mask, Vader smiled.

Luke took several cleansing breaths, as he had been taught, and tried to release his thoughts at the same time. Ben-Obi-Wan-could plant suggestions in a stormtrooper's mind without apparent effort. It was not so easy for Luke. A couple of times he had managed it, but it required a lot of concentration to summon enough of the Force. You couldn't be worried about whether or not it was going to work, or what would happen if it failed halfway through. You pretty much couldn't have anything else on your mind-well, at least Luke couldn't-and that made it tricky, given that if it didn't work or if it quit before he was done, he might wind up dead.

No. Put those thoughts away. Remember that the Force is with you. You can do this.

He took another breath, let half of it out, and allowed the Force to connect him to the mind of the guard in the hall.

The sensation was strange, as it always was. It was not as if he were really in two places at once, but more as if there were a part of his own mind that was somehow not quite connected, not quite accessible. A kind of muzzy feeling.

Luke became aware that the guard's feet hurt, that he needed to visit a refresher, that he was tired of standing here holding a blast rifle, watching a meadleblasted door when there was no way anybody could get through it, no way-”Open the door.”

”Huh? Who's there-?”

”You must open the door.”

”I... must open the door.”

”You must put down your rifle and open the door now.”

”I must... put down my rifle. Open the door now.” Luke watched the guard through the barred window. Watched him put his rifle down.

Got him. Luke grinned. A mistake.

”What-?”

Lost him. Concentrate, Luke!

”Open the door.”

Luke put the thoughts of victory and loss out of his mind. The only thing that mattered was the guard. ”Open the door.”

”Yes. Open... the... door...” The guard's keycard slipped into the slot.

The lock clicked. One of the sweetest sounds Luke had ever heard. He didn't dwell on it. ”You're very tired. You need to come in and lie on the cot and take a nice nap.”

”Cot. Take a nap...”

The guard moved into the cell, walked past Luke. Luke took the keycard from the guard's hand. He glanced out into the corridor. n.o.body else around. He stepped out of the cell, shut the door carefully, dropped the keycard on the floor, and picked up the blast rifle. He looked back. The guard snored on the cot.

Now. This was more like it.

He started down the corridor. He felt pretty confident. This guard had been easier than the one at the carnival where he had practiced walking on the tightrope. He ought to be able to take care of any others he ran into, either with the Force or the rifle. He also ought to head straight for the nearest exit and leave. With any luck it would be hours before anybody even knew he was gone.

But he wanted to see if he could find his lightsaber first. He'd spent a lot of time building it, and since the escape had been so easy, he was pretty sure he could retrieve his Jedi weapon and leave just as easily.

The Force was with him. He could do it.

He was sure of it.

As Leia and Chewie made their way down a dark and twisted pa.s.sage into the heart of the Southern Underground, she shook her head. The casino complex on Rodia made Mos Eisley look good. But it seemed that no matter how awful a place was, there was always another spot that was worse.

The Southern Underground made the casino complex look like a vacation paradise.

Beggars were everywhere, dressed in rags, gaunt and demanding. Whatever had driven them underground must be terrible if this was their only option.

All manner of illicit offerings were made as she and Chewie moved farther into the maze of underground tunnels. Corridor dwellers would sell them whatever they wanted, and the particulars made Leia's stomach roil.

Yes, there had always been such people, but the Empire had caused their numbers to rise tremendously. That which had been a small stain on the joy of the Republic was a blight on the bloated body of the Empire.

Chewie growled at a partially clad woman who smiled as she approached them. The woman hastily backed off.

The corridor in which they walked was ill lit, splotched with graffiti in half a dozen common languages and pictographies, the walls themselves beaded with liquid as if they had sweated.

A planet whose surface was completely built over must have a big foundation. In places, the vast complex of tunnels and artificial caverns was a kilometer deep and continuing to go deeper. Here were locales where the sun's rays never came, where blue-gray mold sometimes grew ten centimeters thick on walls and ceiling, where the dank and fecund air stank permanently of fungal rot-and worse.

A black-hooded and robed figure moved out from the darkness under a shattered glowstick, a green fourfingered hand extended for alms.

Chewie said something, and the figure moved away. A wave of the unwashed creature's body odor joined the other smells.

Chewie wrinkled his nose.

The stench was worse than the garbage compactor in which she and Han and Chewie and Luke had found themselves at first meeting.

Fortunately for her, her bounty hunter's disguise filtered out the worst of the odors. Poor Chewie. She hoped where they were going had a good filtration system for its air, ozone generators or air fresheners, at least.

Ahead, a glowstick sputtered, painting the dim corridor with flashes of faltering light before it blinked out.

Somewhere in the corridor behind them, somebody - or something-screamed.

The cry dwindled into a liquidy gargle at the end.

Leia kept her hand on her blaster.

How long until we leave hypers.p.a.ce?” Vader asked. ”A few hours, my lord,”

his captain said. ”I will be in my chambers. Send someone to tell mewhen we arrive at the system.”

”Yes, my lord.”

I will be there soon, my son.

This was almost too easy, Luke thought as he picked his lightsaber up from the table. The little storage room was empty; no one seemed to be awake or about, and there was his comlink right there on the table. He would call Artoo, have him warm up the X-wing and send Luke a homing signal. Once he got into his s.h.i.+p, these cloobs would never catch him again.

Luke put the blaster rifle on the table and reached for his comlink.

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