Part 38 (2/2)
Hmm. That was well above the normal area of com problems in the castle.
And an unlikely coincidence. ”Put security on full alert.”
”Already done,” she said. Could it be Skywalker? Had he somehow gotten into the castle without being detected? Or was it someone else? ”Cancel my appointments. Go and fetch Princess Leia. Bring her to my strong room.”
Chewie led them up another eight or ten floors before they ran into another group of guards. The exchange of blaster fire was fast, the air full of crackling energy, yelling men, the smell of burned wall and ozone.
Dash was right about one thing: He could shoot. He nailed three guards with three shots-zap, zap, zap! - as fast as anybody Luke had ever seen.
Luke himself deflected or blocked the bolts that came his way, the ricochets adding to the general confusion. Chewie and Lando pounded away with their weapons. The guards were not bad, but they weren't desperate.
They were shooting for pay; Luke and his friends were shooting for their lives. The last guard standing turned and ran. Chewie spiked him and he did a belly flop onto the floor and skidded two meters before veering into a side wall and thumping to a halt.
”Go, go, go!”
Leia felt somebody approaching her room. Intuition, she guessed, but she trusted it. She grabbed one of the chairs and slid it next to the door.
Stood on the back of it, balanced carefully against the wall, the heavy bounty hunter's helmet clutched tightly in her hands.
The door opened, and Guri stepped into the room. She was fast, but Leia had already started moving. Before Guri could turn, Leia hammered the back of her head with the helmet. It was a powerful blow and would have knocked a human woman unconscious. As it was, the impact was enough to off-balance the droid, and she stumbled forward.
That was enough for Leia to leap from the chair and scoot out of the room into the hall. She slapped the door control-Guri recovered and was on the way back, when the door shut. Leia jammed the lock mechanism closed-The door shook from Guri's impact.
The next hit splintered the heavy plastic, spider-webbed it with tiny cracks. It wasn't going to hold her long, Leia knew. She turned and ran.
Chewie led them up a stairwell a dozen levels above where they'd entered the castle. ”Master Luke? We have successfully left the building.”
Threepio.
Luke pulled his comlink so he wouldn't have to yell at it. ”Where are you?”
”Somewhere in the sky, Master Luke, I-what? Oh, be quiet, I'm flying it correctly, it-ah! Ahh!”
”Threepio?”
There was a moment of silence. Then a crunching noise. ”I saw it, you blithering ash can! If you hadn't distracted me I would have turned in time.”
”Threepio, what is going on?”
Luke heard Artoo whistling frantically in the background. ”Shut up, you twit! It was not my fault!”
”Threepio?” The droid said, ”What? Where? Oh, no!” There came a sound like breaking gla.s.s.
”Threepio!”
”I'm sorry, Master Luke. Thanks to Artoo's woefully inadequate instructions, we've accidentally destroyed an advertising billboard and a broadcasting tower. No, I don't think we hit that hover van, we just brushed it. Yes, it was too your fault! If you hadn't been jabbering at me like an overheated teakettle, I would have-”
”Threepio, stop talking to Artoo and tell me what is going on.”
”We are flying somewhat low to the ground because Artoo said we should, but I do think we should climb a bit higher. No, I don't care how much astronavigation you know, I am flying the s.h.i.+p now. Just give me the directions.”
”All right. Listen. Bring the Falcon to the coordinates I told you.
Hurry. And gain enough alt.i.tude so you don't hit anything.”
”You see? I told you we were too low, but no, no one can tell you anything, you know it all-”
”Threepio!”
”Yes, Master Luke. We are on the way. No, I don't think we should go that way, that building is much too tall, we should go this way, oh, look out”
Luke had to break the connection then. There was a door just ahead of them, a heavy fireproof door, and it was locked.
Lando leveled his blaster at it, but Luke stopped him. ”Don't. It's magnetically s.h.i.+elded. That will bounce off and maybe hit one of us.”
”How are we supposed to get through it, then?”
”Stand back. Let's see if it will stop a lightsaber.”
He lit the blade.
The door would not stop a lightsaber.
They went through and continued to climb.
Guri burst into Xizor's strong room. He blinked at her. ”What?”
”She got away. She was waiting when I got there. She struck me from behind. I am undamaged but it gave her enough time to slip out.”
”Blast!” Xizor could not control his outburst. This” was not good. This was his castle, and things were getting out of control. Had he underestimated Skywalker? Apparently so. Time to correct that.
He moved to a desk, opened a sliding panel. Removed from the hidden compartment a sleek and highpowered blaster.
”All right. Let's go find her. And whoever is causing these problems.”
”Hold up a second,” Lando said.
”What? Why?”
Lando pointed at a junction box inset into the wall.”This is a security breaker.”
”So?”
”Move to that side.” Everybody did. Lando fired a blaster bolt into the simple lock mechanism, swung the thin plate open. ”The surveillance holocams and sensors are routed through these fiber-optic cables.” He waved his blasterat several finger-thick translucent white wires.
”How do you know that?”
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