Part 38 (1/2)
”Listen, pal, don't worry about how long I-”
”Shhh!” Luke said. He peered through the halffogged cover plate on the recycler's door again. True, there were six men only a few meters away; then again, four of them sat at a table, playing cards,.blast rifles stacked against the wall. Two others stood near the cardplayers, watching and apparently offering advice, but they had their weapons slung over their shoulders. Dash was right. If they moved fast, they could cover the guards before they had a chance to uns.h.i.+p their rifles; they could disarm them, tie them up, and be on their way with n.o.body the wiser. The trick was to do it before one of the guards got his comlink out to call for help.
Luke moved away from the cover plate and crouched in the mire with the others. ”Okay, here's the deal. Dash, you pop the hatch; I'll go first; Chewie is behind me, then Lando. You come last.”
”Whoa, why that order?” Dash whispered. ”And who put you in charge?”
”I can stop a bolt with my lightsaber if one of the guards is some kind of quick-draw expert. Chewie is pretty impressive with his bowcaster; they'll pay more attention to him than you or Lando. Plus he's a better shot if it comes to that.”
”Not a better shot than I am. And it'd be a lot easier just to jump out and mow 'em all down,” Dash said. ”We hit 'em fast and hard, they're history.”
”That's the difference between us and the Empire,” Luke said. ”They wouldn't hesitate to do it that way. We don't shoot unless we have to.”
”Fine. Get us all killed being a nice guy.”
Luke shook his head. A Jedi had to know how to be active if the situation required it, but a Jedi was also supposed to avoid violence whenever he could possibly do so. ”Warrior” and ”killer” did not mean the same thing.
”Okay. Ready?” Luke held the lightsaber down low so the glow wouldn't give them away and clicked it on. He took a couple of deep breaths.
”On three. One... two... threel”
Dash shoved the hatch open-Luke leaped out, brought his lightsaber up into aready stance-”n.o.body move!” he yelled-Chewie jumped out behind him- - the Wookiee's wet feet slid on the floor as if he were wearing ice skates, and he fell flat on his back-Lando tried to leap over Chewie but tripped on thefallen Wookiee and sprawled facedown-The startled guards leaped up and went for their weapons-Oh, man!
Leia was sitting on the bed, when all of a sudden she felt a hot jolt of fear. What-?
They might be stuck in a lousy a.s.signment, but the guards weren't slow.
The two standing unslung their blast rifles and swung them up, fired-Luke blocked the first bolt, s.h.i.+fted in the Force, blocked the second-Dash dived over Lando and Chewie, shoulder-rolled once, stretched out p.r.o.ne, fired once, twice, threetimes-The two standing guards went down, but anotherone spun away from the wall, blast rifle spewing-Chewie sat up, and the bowcaster spoke-The third guard went down, but the fourth one shotat them-Luke barely blocked a beam that vibrated his hands and arms hard, but the reflected bolt hit one of the overhead lamps and shattered it; the room went dimmer-Dash's blaster spat hard light again and again;Chewie's bowcaster thrummed-The guards were all down now, save one, but he didn't have a gun, he was yelling-Yelling into a comlink-Lando shot the last guard and he dropped; the comlink flew from his hand and rolled to a stop next to Luke's boots.
From the comlink came a tinny voice: ”Thix? What is going on down there?
Thix? Come in, sector oneone-three-eight, come in-”
Chewie came to his feet. The Wookiee shrugged and looked embarra.s.sed.
Luke shook his head. Stomped down on the squawking comlink with his boot heel and smashed it. ”So much for sneaking in quietly,” Lando said.
Xizor was paying the cultural minister his monthly bribe when Guri stepped into the room. The Dark Prince made polite noises and dismissed the minister.
When the man was gone, he said, ”What?”
”A problem in the sub-subbas.e.m.e.nt.”
”What kind of problem?”
She shrugged. ”We don't know. That area is still not wired for surveillance and the guards are not answering.”
”Another communication failure,” he said. That happened a lot down where the pipes and conduits and heavy durasteel beams were thick, some kind of com wave interference the engineers had not been able to resolve. Dead spots, they called them. ”It's either a com glitch-or Skywalker is faster and smarter than we thought. Have the drain sensors picked up any armies marching in under the building?”
”No.”
”Good. If it is Skywalker, he's probably alone, or perhaps the Wookiee is with him. Send a unit to check it out.”
”Two squads are already on the way,” she said.
”Good. Send in the Moff on your way out. There is nothing to worry about.
There really wasn't anything to be worried about, he told himself. One boy wasn't going to get past his security, no matter how lucky he was.
Luke and the others ran. So far, the floor plan they'd memorized was accurate, but it was too big to have learned it all, and there was a chance they might blunder into a dead end if they weren't careful. Still, speed was the most important thing now; the place was alerted. They'd have to risk it-they couldn't afford to take the guided tour.
Chewie knew where Leia was, and he was in the lead. The quartet came around a sharp corner in a wide corridor and nearly ran into four more guards.
Everybody who had a blaster started shooting.
From the comlink on Luke's belt, Threepio's strident and excited voice suddenly began calling: ”Master Luke, Master Luke!”
Luke blocked an incoming blaster beam. He yelled at the comlink but left it on his belt: ”We're busy here, Threepio!”
”But Master Luke, there are men coming toward the s.h.i.+p! Men with guns!”
Great. Just what he needed.
Luke deflected another beam, leaped forward, and found himself within reach of the man who'd shot at him. He whipped the lightsaber down, and the hand holding the blaster dropped to the floor. Luke spun and thrust a side kick at the guard, hit him squarely on the nose, and knocked him flat.
The other guards were all down as well. Luke pointed the way the guards had just come. ”That way - it ought to be clear!”
As they ran, he pulled his comlink from his belt. ”Threepio?”
”Oh, dear, oh, dear!”
”Threepio!”
”Master Luke. Oh, what shall we do?”
”Take the s.h.i.+p out of there, now! Just like we talked about. Artoo knows the systems; you can operate the controls. Call me back when you're in the air. Keep it suborbital and under the stratospheric security scanners, you got that?”
”Yes, Master Luke!”
”Go!”
Leia felt something in the air. A sense of impending... something she couldn't quite touch. Luke. Luke was here. She began to gather the parts of her disguise.
We've lost contact with the second unit of guards,” Guri told Xizor.
”Same area?”
”No. Four levels up.”