Part 27 (1/2)
”Well, can you fix it?”
”I'm trying to fix it! Pa.s.s me that jumper bypa.s.s.”
Luke picked up the JB, which looked like a bar with two sharp fingers making the V sign on one end. He had to lie on his belly to reach Lando.
Lando submitted, in a colorful fas.h.i.+on, that Han's ancestry was in question and that his personal habits left much to be desired.
Despite the danger of their situation, Luke grinned.
”Get Artoo to peek over the edge; maybe he knows what this blue wire is supposed to do.”
Artoo heard. He rolled to the lip of the service well, ”leaned” forward, and peered down into it. Whistled and chirred for a moment.
”Yeeowch!” Lando yelled.
”Probably you'd better not touch that one.”
”Now you tell me. What about this yellow one?”
Artoo whistled.
It looked as if they were going to be there a while, Luke figured.
They had managed to find the remains of a small moon or maybe a large asteroid in a big parabolic orbit around the planet and had nestled the Falcon in among the larger rocks and matched their velocity. From a distance, with most of its power shut down, the s.h.i.+p should be just another one of the cl.u.s.ter of big boul-ders. Not enough gravity here to clump them back together; they'd be a known hazard for s.h.i.+ps and probably avoided. Even a Super-cla.s.s Star Destroyer didn't want a bunch of building-size rocks smacking into its s.h.i.+elds at speed; that would be a lot of kinetic energy to have to bleed off all at once.
At least that was what Luke and Lando hoped.
”Pa.s.s me those needle-head pliers,” Lando said.
Luke complied. ”You need me down there to help? I'm pretty good with tools.”
”I used to own this s.h.i.+p,” Lando said. ”I'll figure out a way around what Han has done to her. The man ought to be ashamed of himself.”
”I'll mention that to him when we get him out of the carbonite,” Luke said. ”So will I. High, loud, and repeatedly.”
The bullet car slowed. The bands of yellow blinked around them at longer intervals. When the car came to a stop, it was inside a vast chamber, as big as a state ballroom. The platform at which it stopped had six large guards on it, each dressed in gray armor and armed with a blast rifle.
Baldy stepped out and grinned his s.h.i.+ny black smile. ”This way,” he said.
Two of the guards broke away from the others and moved behind Chewie and Leia. ”Take the helmet off,” Baldy said. ”You won't be needing it anymore.”
Baldy led them to a door as thick as that of a bank vault. He pressed his hand against a reader, and the door clicked and swung open. He led them inside a tall, arched corridor wide enough for a dozen men to walk through side by side. The ma.s.sive door swung shut behind them. It was very cold here, cold enough for their breathing to show as vapor.
A short distance ahead was another door, another six guards in armor in front of it. Not as heavy as the door behind them, it was still thick enough and run by a print-reader, and when they'd gotten through it, there were yet more guards.
It seemed as if whoever ran this place didn't want unexpected company.
They came to a bank of four turbolifts. Baldy punched a code into a keypad, and the door to the lift on the left opened. The three of them stepped in, leaving the two guards behind.
As the lift rose, Leia said, ”Learned to trust us already?” She nodded at the guards they'd dropped off. Baldy smiled. The lift stopped, and another pair of guards stood there. Well. Perhaps Baldy hadn't learned to trust them after all.
A series of corridors branched away from the turbolifts, and Baldy led them down one that linked to a maze of other hallways. Leia tried to keep track of all the twists and turns-she had a pretty good memory for such things-but halfway through an intricate chain of left and right tacks, the lights went out. ”Just keep walking,” Baldy said. ”I'll tell you when to turn. ”
They walked in darkness for five minutes, Baldy calling out now and then.
”Turn left.”
”Turn right.”
”Veer forty-five to the left for five steps, then veer right.”
When the lights went back on-how could he have seen to lead them? - Leia was thoroughly lost.
Whatever fat spider crouched in the center of this web, he truly did not want anybody just dropping by unannounced.
Eventually Baldy led them into a hallway. At the end of the hall were two tall, carved wooden doors and, standing to the sides, two more guards.
These didn't wear armor, had no rifles but wore blasters on lowslung belts. They were big men who looked as if they knew how to use their hands. One of them reached for the doork.n.o.bs and opened the doors as they approached.
Baldy said, ”In there.” With that, he turned and walked away.
Leia looked at Chewie. Realized her pulse was rac-ing and her stomach was fluttery. She took a deep breath and let part of it out.
She stepped into the room, Chewie behind her.
A tall man-no, not a man but an exotic-looking alien-rose from behind a large desk and smiled at her. ”Ah,” he said, ”Princess Leia Organa and Chewbacca. Welcome. I am Xizor.”
It was the voice she'd heard over the hotel's comm.
Leia's pulse speeded up yet more. She felt a sudden giddiness, as if her brain had fogged over. So here she was at last, facing the person in charge of the galaxy's largest criminal organization. That was strange enough all by itself, but to make it even more so, he was absolutely...
gorgeousl
26.
”How is it going down there?” Luke said.
”Don't ask,” Lando said.
”I'm going to see what I can whip up in the galley, you want something?”
”Yeah, how about a beaker full of battery acid and bug poison.” Luke shook his head, stood, and headed for the galley. Stopped suddenly as if he'd been touched by a cold hand.
”Master Luke? Are you all right?”
Luke ignored Threepio. There was a disturbance in the Force, a dark blot on its perfection. It felt familiar somehow...